Tag: FISA abuse

Nunes: Democrats, Journalists Will Be ‘Frightened’ By Declassified Trump-Russia Documents

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by Chuck Ross   House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said this week that Democrats and the media are likely to be “frightened” by the information contained in Trump-Russia documents that Republicans are asking President Donald Trump to declassify. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Security Policy on Thursday, Nunes said that Trump is close to declassifying portions of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant granted against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. On July 21, the Justice Department released heavily redacted versions of four FISA warrants granted against Page from Oct. 2016 through June 2017. The unredacted portions showed that the FBI relied heavily on the infamous Steele dossier to obtain the warrants. Republicans have accused the FBI of abusing the FISA process by citing the dossier even though it was unverified and financed by Democrats as part of an opposition research project. Before that release, Nunes and other Republicans on the House Intelligence panel sent a letter to Trump calling on him to declassify and release 21 pages of the fourth and final FISA warrant. “In the course of the Committee’s investigation, we have uncovered irregularities with the process by which DOJ and FBI obtained information…

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New Text Messages Show FBI Officials Discussed ‘Media Leak Strategy’ Ahead Of Major Trump-Russia Revelation

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McCabe Page and Strzock

by Chuck Ross   Newly released text messages show that disgraced FBI official Peter Strzok asked to speak to former FBI lawyer Lisa Page about a “media leak strategy” during a crucial period of the Trump-Russia investigation last year. The text messages were revealed on Monday by North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, a member of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. “Our review of these new documents raises grave concerns regarding an apparent systemic culture of media leaking by high-ranking officials at the FBI and DOJ related to ongoing investigations,” Meadows wrote to Rosenstein in the letter, which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation and first reported by Sara Carter. Meadows pointed to text messages that Strzok sent to Page on April 10, 2017 and April 12, 2017. In the first message, Strzok, who then served as deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, wrote to Page that: “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.” Strzok was at that time the lead investigator on the FBI’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. He joined…

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New Text Messages Show FBI Officials Discussed ‘Media Leak Strategy’ Ahead Of Major Trump-Russia Revelation

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McCabe Page and Strzock

by Chuck Ross   Newly released text messages show that disgraced FBI official Peter Strzok asked to speak to former FBI lawyer Lisa Page about a “media leak strategy” during a crucial period of the Trump-Russia investigation last year. The text messages were revealed on Monday by North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, a member of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. “Our review of these new documents raises grave concerns regarding an apparent systemic culture of media leaking by high-ranking officials at the FBI and DOJ related to ongoing investigations,” Meadows wrote to Rosenstein in the letter, which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation and first reported by Sara Carter. Meadows pointed to text messages that Strzok sent to Page on April 10, 2017 and April 12, 2017. In the first message, Strzok, who then served as deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, wrote to Page that: “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.” Strzok was at that time the lead investigator on the FBI’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. He joined…

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Maria Butina Worried Russian Email Hacks Would Hurt Attempts To ‘Befriend Politicians’

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Maria Butina

by Chuck Ross   Maria Butina, a Russian national accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, expressed concern in July 2016 that her efforts to establish relationships with American politicians would be disrupted by Russian hacks of Democrats’ emails. “Right now I’m sitting here very quietly after the scandal about our FSB hacking into [Political Party 2’s] emails. My all too blunt attempts to befriend politicians right now will probably be misinterpreted, as you yourself can understand,” Butina wrote in an email to a Russian government official believed to be Alexander Torshin, the deputy chief of Russia’s central bank. The message was revealed in court documents submitted Friday night. Federal prosecutors have charged the 29-year-old Butina with conspiracy and with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia. She allegedly acted under the direction of Torshin to infiltrate conservative political groups, including the National Rifle Association. [ RELATED: Russian National Linked To NRA Is Charged With Conspiracy ] Around the time of Butina’s message, Wikileaks published emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee. Special counsel Robert Mueller has since charged intelligence officials with Russia’s military intelligence bureau, the GRU. The FSB mentioned by Butina is a reference to Russia’s domestic spy service. Butina’s…

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Papadopoulos Verdict: 14 Days in Jail, 200 Hours of Community Service, and a $9,500 Fine

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Robert Mueller, George Papadopoulous, Donald Trump

by Chuck Ross   Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days jail in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday. District Judge Randolph D. Moss also ordered a year of supervision, 200 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine for the 30-year-old former Trump aide. Special counsel Robert Mueller had requested a sentence of between zero and six months for Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, 2017 to lying to the FBI. Papadopoulos becomes the first Trump associate sentenced in cases involving the special counsel’s office. Alex van der Zwaan, an attorney who worked with Paul Manafort, was sentenced to 30 days in jail on April 3 after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his pre-election work with the former Trump campaign chairman. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI in a Jan. 27, 2017 interview about the timing and extent of his contacts with a European professor named Joseph Mifsud. Papadopoulos falsely told the FBI that his contact with Mifsud occurred before he joined the Trump team in March 2016. While Papadopoulos lied about the timing of his interactions with Mifsud, he told FBI agents that he…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller Used Hillary Clinton’s ‘Enemies List’ Disguised As an Intelligence Document

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Robert Mueller

By Robert Romano   When you get right down to it, almost every person being targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller or targeted by the Justice Department in 2016 and 2017 via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court was named in the Christopher Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. It was Hillary Clinton’s enemies list, dressed up as an intelligence document, that attempted to make the case that then-candidate Donald Trump and his campaign were Russian agents. It was then used to obtain FISA warrants against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. George Papadopoulos was also named and stands out as somebody who was not explicitly named by Steele, at least in the version of the dossier that was published by Buzzfeed (we have yet to see the rest of Steele’s work product). But let’s look at who did appear in the Steele dossier. Donald Trump. Michael Cohen. Carter Page. Paul Manafort. Michael Flynn. All are now targets of the Justice Department and the special counsel. But none have been accused by the Department of assisting Russia with hacking the DNC and John Podesta emails and putting them on Wikileaks — Steele’s central…

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FBI Fires Anti-Trump Agent Peter Strzock

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Peter Strzok

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has fired agent Peter Strzok, who had become the target of Republican anger over his text messages disparaging President Donald Trump, Strzok’s lawyer said Monday. Strzok was a key figure in the early stages of the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, until his anti-Trump text messages to his lover, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, were discovered. In one of them, Strzok vowed to keep Trump from winning the election, though there was no evidence he and Page imposed their political views on the investigation. Earlier, Strzok helped investigate Trump’s Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server while she was the U.S. secretary of state. Trump praised the firing, saying in a Twitter comment, “Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI – finally.” Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI – finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction – I just fight back! — Donald J. Trump…

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President Of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton Trashes DOJ And FBI For Abusing ‘Awesome Powers’ Without Accountability

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Tom Fitton

by Nick Givas   Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton trashed the FBI and Department of Justice for abuse of power on “Fox & Friends First” Tuesday and said they are not being held accountable for their actions. Fitton’s group sued under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain surveillance warrant documents related to President Donald Trump’s former adviser Carter Page, but the information was heavily redacted. “[Trump has] to intervene,” Fitton said. “Rod Rosenstein signed that [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)] renewal. So he’s being asked to release information that may reflect poorly on him. He’d have to take himself out of the decision-making as to whether that material’s released. The president should step in like he did last time, that resulted in the release of this partial disclosure. And there’s more information to be gotten.” Fitton said Judicial Watch plans to file a motion Tuesday to get access to transcripts of the FISA hearings from the Page case and demanded better transparency from the federal government. “We plan to file a motion today with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get access to any hearing transcripts of any hearings that took place about the Carter Page warrant applications,” he continued. “We ask the Justice…

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Commentary: The ‘Self Licking Ice Cream Cone’ of Mueller’s Russia Probe

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James Brennan

by George Rasley   Senator Rand Paul met with President Donald Trump Monday and asked him to consider revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Our friend Sara Carter reports the Kentucky Senator later took to Twitter and wrote, “Just got out of WH meeting with @RealDonald Trump. I restated to him what I have said in public: John Brennan and others [sic] partisans should have their security clearances revoked.” Prior to his meeting with the President, Carter reports Rand Paul questioned on Twitter if Brennan was “monetizing” his clearance by divulging secrets to the “mainstream media.” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said during today’s press briefing that President Trump is seriously considering revoking Brennan’s privilege, along with other senior top intelligence officials from the Obama and Bush administration. “Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of (former FBI Director James) Comey, (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper, (former CIA Director Michael) Hayden, (former National Security Advisor Susan) Rice and (former FBI Deputy Director Andrew) McCabe,” Sanders told reporters. Senator Paul is on to something with his charge that Brennan and others have “monetized” their clearances by…

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President Trump Says DOJ and FBI ‘Misled’ Surveillance Court to Wiretap a Former Aide

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Donald Trump

President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that newly released documents about the origins of an investigation of a former adviser’s links to Russia help vindicate his claim that U.S. government investigators were spying on his 2016 election campaign. He contended in Twitter remarks that “as usual,” the documents “are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of ‘Justice’ and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!” Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2018 It was not immediately clear how Trump felt the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was misled in the government’s four applications in 2016, and last year after Trump took office, to wiretap Carter Page, his one-time aide. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a 2016 opponent of Trump’s, told CNN that he did not think the Federal Bureau of Investigation “did anything wrong” in surveilling Page. The FBI said in the first application in October 2016 that it “believes Page has been…

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Commentary: Paul Manafort Is a Political Prisoner

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Paul Manafort

By Printus LeBlanc   Paul Manafort is in a fight for his life, literally. He is currently facing up to 305 years in prison if he is convicted of all the crimes he is alleged to have committed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort is currently in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day now as terrorists at GITMO are live better than he does. For what? Did this man murder, rape, or commit an act of violence? No. Surely, he is a mastermind behind a criminal organization spanning the globe? No. Paul Manafort is in jail for one reason and one reason only, he worked for President Trump during his election campaign. The trial of Paul Manafort makes participation in the political process illegal. The Mueller investigation has been tainted from the beginning. Robert Mueller staffed the investigation with over a dozen partisan lawyers and investigators. Many of the investigators also have disturbing conflicts of interests while others have horrendous records at the DOJ. It is easy to call the investigation phony because Mueller’s team hasn’t investigated anything to do with Russia collusion. The team has not taken control of the DNC server to prove Russia hacked the server. The Russian lawyer…

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FBI Official Peter Strzok Testifies About Anti-Trump Text Messages

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Peter Strzok

by Masood Farivar   A top FBI official at the center of controversy over alleged political bias at the bureau said on Thursday that his private views about President Donald Trump did not influence his actions as the lead investigator on the Hillary Clinton email investigation team. Testifying publicly for the first time during a tense Congressional hearing, Peter Strzok, a deputy assistant FBI director, said a series of anti-Trump and pro-Clinton emails he exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page during the 2016 presidential election had no impact on his actions as an investigator for the FBI. “Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath: not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took,” Strzok told a joint hearing by the house judiciary and government oversight committees. Strzok later worked on Special Council Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and allegations of collusion with Russiauntil last year, when he was removed after the text messages came to light. Strzok said he was removed not because of his anti-Trump “bias” but because of Mueller was concerned about the “appearance of bias” the text messages cast over the Russia…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will NOT Present ‘Collusion’ Evidence at Manafort Trial

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Paul Manafort

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing Friday that his prosecutors will not present evidence regarding Trump campaign collusion with Russia at an upcoming trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument concerning collusion with the Russian government,” reads a filing submitted by Mueller’s team in federal court in Virginia on Friday. The filing sheds light on one of the largest questions looming over the Manafort case. Mueller’s prosecutors have indicted Manafort in federal court in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on a slew of charges related to his consulting work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort ended the work in 2014, and it has been unclear whether Mueller’s team planned to reveal evidence about Trump or the campaign. Manafort is accused in the unverified Steele dossier of directing the Trump campaign’s efforts to coordinate with the Kremlin to help Trump in the 2016 election. The dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC, claims that Manafort worked with former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on the effort. Both Page and Manafort have said they have never met each other. Manafort has…

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The Two Justice Systems in America

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Lady Justice

By Printus LeBlanc   This week the American people learned there are two justice systems in the United States. There is a system for the politically connected and illegal immigrants, and then there is the system for the regular Americans. Can you guess who the system is toughest on? The much-anticipated Department of Justice Inspector General’s report was released last Thursday. As Congress and the press had the weekend to digest the voluminous report (500+ pages) and prepare for Inspector General Horowitz’s testimony before the Senate and House on Monday and Tuesday, it became increasingly clear the Clinton email investigation was handled unlike any normal investigation. The tactics used by the DOJ and FBI during the Clinton investigation could not be more different than the actions taken against the President and members of his campaign. The IG report reported, during the Clinton email investigation, an FBI agent and FBI employee exchanged text messages discussing how a witness in the Clinton investigation lied to the FBI. On page 147 of the report, the agent texted, “Awesome. Lied his ass off. Went from never inside the scif [sensitive compartmented information facility] at res, to looked in when it was being constructed, to…

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DOJ IG: McCabe Used Strzok’s Mistress To Bypass Chain Of Command To Monitor Clinton Probe

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McCabe Page and Strzock

by Luke Rosiak    – Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe used Peter Strzok’s mistress, Lisa Page, to get information on the FBI probe into investigation of Clinton’s private servery  – McCabe used Page to “circumvented the official chain of command”  – Other bureau officials took issue with the decision Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe tasked the mistress of lead agent Peter Strzok to stay appraised of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private server — a decision that other bureau officials took issue with at the time, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s bombshell report. McCabe was supposed to be insulated from the probe by two levels of management: Strzok worked for counterintelligence head Bill Priestap, who worked for national security head Michael Steinbach, who reported up to McCabe. However, Strzok communicated about the probe with his mistress, Lisa Page, who worked directly for McCabe and acted as a liaison for the Clinton investigation for the deputy director. The report says: Lisa Page, who was Special Counsel to McCabe, became involved in the Midyear investigation after McCabe became the Deputy Director in February 2016. Page told the OIG that part of her function was to serve as a liaison between the Midyear team and…

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‘We’re Getting Close:’ Nunes Says Impeachment Is On The Table For Rod Rosenstein

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Devin Nunes, Rod Rosenstein

by Chuck Ross   House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday that “there will be hell to pay” — including impeachment for top Justice Department officials — if the agency fails this week to give Congress documents about an FBI informant used to spy on the Trump campaign. “We can’t force the resignation, but we can hold in contempt, we can pass resolutions, we can impeach. I think we’re getting close to there,” Nunes said of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” Nunes has battled Rosenstein for months over other documents related to the Russia investigation. The Justice Department and FBI stalled for months to provide information about the Steele dossier as well as about a secret surveillance warrant taken out against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The most recent standoff concerns Nunes’ request for documents related to a longtime FBI and CIA source who the bureau tasked to meet with three Trump campaign advisers, including Page. Nunes and other members of the so-called Gang of Eight met with Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday to discuss Intelligence Committee’s requests for documents about the informant,…

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White House Official Feels ‘Duped’ By FBI Informant Who Sought Ambassadorship

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Navarro

by Chuck Ross   White House trade czar Peter Navarro said he feels “duped” by Stefan Halper, the FBI informant who sought out members of President Donald Trump’s campaign and applied for an ambassadorship in Trump’s administration. “I feel duped, yeah, pretty much,” Peter Navarro told Fox Radio’s Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday. “It’s baffling,” Navarro added. Halper, a former Cambridge professor with deep ties to the CIA and MI6, approached Navarro in 2017, seeking a nomination to an ambassadorship to an unidentified Asian country, Axios reported on May 21. At the time he submitted his application for the ambassadorship, Halper was working as an informant for the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. As part of that under cover operation, Halper met with three Trump campaign associates — Carter Page, Sam Clovis and George Papadopoulos. [ RELATED: Stefan Halper Pitched Himself For Trump Administration Ambassadorship ] Halper maintained contact with Page from July 2016 through Sept. 2017, as The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported. He met Clovis once, on Sept. 1, 2016. And Halper paid Papadopoulos $3,000 to write a policy paper that appears to have been cover to arrange a series of meetings in London. Papadopoulos has told associates Halper…

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Commentary: Time For Democrats and The Media To Admit the Russia Investigation Was Illegitimate from the Start

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by George Rasley   In the last week, as revelation upon revelation hit that Obama administration officials and career employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) spied on the Donald Trump campaign in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Margot Cleveland writing for The Federalist, observed that the mainstream media, the Left, and Never Trump Republicans have fallen back on three ready responses: A solid plurality of this contingent continue to avert their eyes from the facts and dismiss the claims of misconduct as peddled by tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists. There is not much you can say to this faction, because they refuse to consider the proof. A second – and more extreme group – believes Trump conspired with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. There is not much you can say to this bunch either, because they are tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists. But the final group sees things differently. While they don’t necessarily believe Trump was treasonous, they argue that the FBI and other intelligence-gathering agencies rightly targeted the Trump campaign. With Russian-leaning Paul Manafort and Carter Page involved in the campaign, and Trump trolling Hillary with praise for Vladimir…

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Commentary: Time to Fire Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein

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by CHQ Staff   We’ve said many times that we think Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired, but his latest round of tone deaf pronouncements ought to be the final straw for the President and Attorney General. After President Trump rightly complained about the latest revelations about the Obama administration spying on his campaign, Rosenstein snarked back at his ultimate Boss during a presser discussing the Justice Department’s approach to corporate crime. Rosenstein said current policy discourages “piling on” penalties. He paused to prepare his New York audience for the punchline. “The dictionary defines piling on as joining with other people in criticizing someone, usually in an unfair manner,” Rosenstein said. “I also have experience with that.” This snide complaint about “piling on” came as the Daily Caller and Breitbart are reporting that FBI agents out in the field are begging to be subpoenaed to blow the whistle on Obama administration skullduggery. “There are [FBI] agents all over this country who love the bureau and are sickened by [James] Comey’s behavior and [Andrew] McCabe and [Eric] Holder and [Loretta] Lynch and the thugs like [John] Brennan–who despise the fact that the bureau was used as a tool of political intelligence…

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President Trump Says He’ll Order DOJ Probe of Alleged Campaign Surveillance

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by Steve Herman U.S. President Donald Trump says he will order an investigation Monday about a secret source of the country’s top law enforcement agency he claims infiltrated his 2016 election campaign – setting up a potential showdown with his Department of Justice, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump tweeted Sunday from the White House, “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2018 Within minutes, members of the Obama administration and others reacted with alarm, perceiving the Trump threat as potentially the most serious intervention into the American judicial system since the president last year fired FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating Trump’s campaign. Trump’s…

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Trump’s Attorney Says Special Counsel Has Narrowed Questions

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President Donald Trump’s attorney said Friday the special counsel in the Russia probe has narrowed the scope of potential questions for the president, even as Trump advanced an unverified theory that the Justice Department planted a spy in his 2016 campaign and is now “out to frame him.” Rudy Giuliani said Friday on CNN that special counsel Robert Mueller has narrowed his question subject areas from five to two, as negotiations continue over whether the president will sit down for an interview. Giuliani said they don’t expect to be asked about the president’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who faces a separate criminal investigation in New York. But Giuliani did not provide many additional details, saying that some of it is “subject to negotiation.” His comments came after Trump sent out an early morning tweet that seemed intended to undercut the ongoing Russia investigation, which he has repeatedly called a “witch hunt.” Promoting a theory that is circulating in conservative circles, Trump quoted Fox Business anchor David Asman and tweeted: “Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he…

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Mueller Says He Won’t Indict Trump. Here’s Three Things You NEED To Know

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FBI Mueller and President Trump

by Kevin Daley   Rudy Giuliani told CNN Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller informed President Donald Trump’s legal team that his office concluded a sitting chief executive cannot be indicted. Here are three things you need to know about this revelation. 1. The special counsel could still recommend action against Trump As most news accounts noted, Mueller still has other options with respect to Trump. Should he find compelling evidence of criminal behavior on the president’s part, he can make an impeachment referral to the House of Representatives. Congress has always been the most appropriate venue for a criminal complaint against Trump, and that alternative (dramatic though it may be) remains available. Should Democrats assume control of the lower chamber in the November elections, such a referral would provide the perfect pretext for an impeachment vote many progressives have agitated for since Mueller’s appointment. 2. Trump might still be named as an unindicted co-conspirator On occasion, prosecutors name individuals involved in a criminal conspiracy as unindicted co-conspirators, though these individuals are never subject to criminal charges. There aren’t categorical rules in this area. Individuals are most often made to accept such designations in exchange for immunity. The U.S. attorney’s manual advises…

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Ron DeSantis Says He May Know Who Was Spying On The Trump Campaign: ‘There Needs To Be Follow Up’

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DeSantis Spy Insite

by Nick Givas   Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis of Florida thinks he may know who was spying on President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, but said further investigation is needed to get to the truth. Rumors of an FBI mole planted within the campaign have surfaced and DeSantis, a Florida gubernatorial candidate, believes the accusations have merit. “I know that we’re actively trying to get the underlying documents that would tell us — did they spy on the Trump campaign or not?” DeSantis said on “Fox & Friends” Monday. “The reason why a lot of us were suspicious was because Glen Simpson at one point, the head of Fusion GPS, testified that there was a human source inside the Trump campaign, based on his conversations with Christopher Steele. So it suggests that Steele as a British agent, may have been working with somebody who the FBI was also working with.” DeSantis said he may know the identity of the mole but believes it’s more important for Congress to confirm that the federal government was spying on the Trump campaign. “I think I may know the person just based on what I’ve learned, not even classified. But we don’t even need to know the name. We just…

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Grassley Flags ‘Apparent Contradictions’ In Comey’s Testimony About Michael Flynn

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by Chuck Ross   The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is trying to get to the bottom of “apparent contradictions” in former FBI Director James Comey’s claims about former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey told a Senate Judiciary panel in a March 15, 2017 interview that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe he intentionally lied about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016, according to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Comey also “led us to believe” that the Justice Department “was unlikely to prosecute [Flynn] for false statements” made during his Jan. 24, 2017 interview with FBI agents, Grassley wrote Friday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Comey’s remarks conflict with what he has claimed in recent interviews for his book tour, said Grassley. To get to the bottom of the matter, the Republican is asking Wray and Rosenstein to provide FBI notes taken during both the Comey and Flynn interviews. Comey denied, in an April 26 interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, telling lawmakers that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe that Flynn was intentionally lying. “Did you tell lawmakers that FBI agents didn’t believe former…

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Democrats Ignore Dossier In Russia Report, In Stark Contrast To Their Early Rhetoric

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by Chuck Ross   What a difference a year makes. At a House Intelligence Committee hearing just over a year ago, Democrats on the panel focused heavily on the infamous Steele dossier, the salacious and unverified report alleging that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, made numerous references to Steele’s claims during an opening statement for the hearing, which was held on March 20, 2017. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro pressed then-FBI Director James Comey about specific allegations made about Trump associates in the dossier, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele. Indiana Rep. Andre Carson and California Rep. Jackie Speier, two other committee Democrats, also hyped the dossier. Democrats seemingly had high hopes for the dossier back then. The report, published two months earlier by BuzzFeed News, included damning allegations that if true would likely lead to Trump’s impeachment. “According to Steele, it was Manafort who chose Page to serve as a go-between for the Trump campaign and Russian interests,” Schiff said in the hearing, referring to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Steele’s dossier alleged…

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DOJ Gives Congress Missing Strzok-Page Text Messages

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by Chuck Ross   The Justice Department on Thursday gave Congress five months worth of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — two FBI officials involved in the investigations into Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump’s campaign. The messages, exchanged between Dec. 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017, were initially thought to be missing due to a technical glitch on FBI-issued cell phones. But the texts were recovered by the Justice Department’s office of the inspector general, which is investigating the FBI’s handling of both the Clinton and Trump campaign investigations. Approximately 300 messages were given to Congress, a Justice Department official told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia team in July 2017 after the discovery of the text messages. They showed Strzok and Page expressed deep hostility to Trump during the 2016 campaign. Strzok oversaw the FBI’s Russia investigation when it began on July 31, 2016. He was also a top investigator on the Clinton email probe. He helped conduct the interviews of Clinton and several of her top aides. The congressional committees that received the text messages are likely…

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Commentary: Deputy AG Rosenstein Memo to Special Counsel Mueller Proves Probe into Former Trump Aide Manafort is Beyond Scope of AG Sessions Recusal

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Tennessee Star

by Robert Romano   On March 2, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself “from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.” Arguably, as far as recusals go, it was too broad and did not narrowly list what specific part of the campaign that Sessions would have an appearance of impropriety. But there it is. This led eventually to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 17, 2017 to investigate, mainly, “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump…” Since then, Mueller has produced several indictments, including some that appear far outside the scope of Sessions’ original recusal. For example, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was indicted for supposedly lying to investigators about a conversation he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisylak in Dec. 2016, which was after the election. The interview with FBI agents happened in Jan. 2017. If Sessions was only recused from “matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States,” then how could have Mueller delivered an indictment for actions after the campaign was…

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Five Facts About the Prosecutor Probing FBI, Justice Department Actions

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by Fred Lucas   While Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided to hold off on naming a second special counsel, he reached well outside Washington for a federal prosecutor to investigate possible wrongdoing by the FBI and Justice Department. “The [Justice] Department is not above criticism and it can never be that the department conceals errors when they occur,” AG Jeff Sessions says. Sessions announced Thursday in a letter to members of Congress that, rather than name another special counsel, he has tapped Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber to work with the Justice Department’s inspector general to review multiple issues of Justice Department and FBI conduct. The conduct under scrutiny occurred during the Obama administration as FBI and Justice officials investigated matters connected with 2016 presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution.  Find out more >> “We understand that the [Justice] Department is not above criticism and it can never be that the department conceals errors when they occur,” Sessions said in the letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey…

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Devin Nunes Wants ‘Ridiculous’ Democratic Memo Released

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Rep. Devin Nunes wants the public to see the Democrats’ “ridiculous” rebuttal memo on possible FBI misconduct in the Russia probe. In an interview on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Mr. Nunes, California Republican and House intelligence committee chairman, accused the Democrats of playing political games by trying to make an issue of President Trump’s demanding redactions for national-security purposes.

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