QUESTION: In regard to counterparty risk when purchasing exchange traded funds or notes: With European banks being under capitalised due to the excessive risk undertaken due to the EU regulations regarding bailouts, how can we measure the threat of each counterparty which has backed each ETF. Would it be safer to consider only ETFs with US counterparties, or is just another risk we have to take on board. Do we avoid these types of instruments in favour of choice companies.
JB
ANSWER: If you wish to use ETF’s, as they are extremely cheap and liquid, the large US names such as Vanguard, State Street etc. are available. We often write to hold the physical share certificate as the same as holding tangible assets but realize it is very difficult to take delivery.
The flow of capital to the US will obviously support US names at the expense of European. However, because of the size of the issue and Europe being the second largest economy on the planet, no-region will be without risk. CDS for the USA traded from 6 cents to 52 cents during the financial crisis, not because of potential default, simply because it was re-priced against every other sovereign! Simply holding US Dollars or considering a basket of currencies is another way of limiting risk from your core currency.
Please be aware that Armstrong Economics cannot provide personal guidance and all investment decisions should be undertaken using of an independent financial advisor.
Ever since the transcript of Fusion-GPS Co-Founder Glenn Simpson’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was released by Senator Dianne Feinstein, several inquisitive media outlets have begun questioning the relationship between the FBI investigators, Glenn Simpson and dossier author Christopher Steele.
What we have discovered not only highlights the answer to that question, but it also answers a host of other questions, including: Did the FBI pay Christopher Steele? Yes, but now how media thinks. Was the FBI connected to the creation of the Steele Dossier? Yes, but not in the way the media is currently outlining.
The story of how surveillance on the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump took place is simple. However, to understand the truth behind how they did it – the story it becomes more complex. Some key background understanding is necessary.
♦First, to understand what took place in 2016 we must first travel back to 2015 when Office of Inspector General (OIG) Michael Horowitz asked for approval to conduct oversight over the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.
In 2015 Inspector General Michael Horowitz was blocked by the Department of Justice from having oversight over the DOJ-NSD. In a lengthy response to the IG’s office [Full 58 page pdf HERE] Sally Yates essentially said ‘all DOJ is subject to oversight, except the National Security Division.
♦Second, to understand how FISA is used it is CRITICAL to understand that any National Security Agency, such as the DOJ National Security Division or the FBI Counterintelligence Division, may use the NSA database -and FISA enabled inquires- with more leeway and less restrictions on access and use. In short, FISA “queries” from any national security agency within government are allowed without seeking court approval.
During a recent testimonial exchange between current FBI Director Christopher Wray and House Judiciary Chairman, Bob Goodlatte, the context is outlined. WATCH:
Understanding the scale and scope of what took place in 2016 is contingent upon understanding how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was being used. More specifically how *critical* exceptions for FISA-702 “search queries”, without judicial warrants or FISA court approvals, were permitted.
FISA-702 Queries from legislatively authorized national security entities did NOT require FISA court approvals.
Remember this important fact as you continue reading.
WE BEGIN: The recent stories about the 2016 DOJ and FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign center around how the Christopher Steele ‘Russian Dossier’ was used by the DOJ/FBI in obtaining FISA approvals for surveillance of Trump campaign officials.
Within the “Russian Dossier” back-story everyone is now familiar with the relationship between Fusion-GPS, the founder of the company, Glenn Simpson, and the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele. Additionally, the relationship between the Clinton campaign and Fusion GPS is now well known.
In/around April of 2016 the Clinton campaign entered into a financial relationship with Fusion-GPS. Team Clinton paid Fusion-GPS for information on candidate Donald Trump. That agreement led to Fusion-GPS hiring sub-contractor Christopher Steele, which eventually led to the creation of the ‘Steele Dossier’.
Yesterday, it was reported that the ‘Steele Dossier’ was used as the underlying foundation for the DOJ and FBI to seek FISA Court Approvals to monitor the communications of the Trump campaign.
In essence, as of yesterday, the FBI used contracted Clinton opposition research -via Fusion GPS- on candidate Donald Trump to generate surveillance authority over her political opponent.
That sounds bad, but what we have discovered is even worse.
Dates are critical because they build the circumstantial case amid a story clouded in obfuscation and convenient FISA secrecy.
We know NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers became aware of an issue with unauthorized FISA-702(17) “About Queries” early in 2016. Due to a FISA court ruling that was declassified in May of 2017 we were able to piece that specific timeline together.
After discovering the FISA-702(17) “About Query” concerns, NSA Director Rogers initiated a full FISA-702 compliance review. [Full Backstory] Watch Admiral Rogers Explain The Timeline:
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During the exact same time-frame that Christopher Steele was assembling his dossier information (May-October 2016), the NSA compliance officer was conducting the internal FISA-702 review as initiated by NSA Director Mike Rogers.
The NSA compliance officer briefed Admiral Mike Rogers on October 20th 2016.
On October 26th 2016, Admiral Rogers informed the FISA Court of numerous unauthorized FISA-702(17) “About Query” violations.
Subsequent to that FISC notification Mike Rogers stopped all FISA-702(17) “About Queries” permanently. They are no longer permitted.
The full FISC Court Ruling on the notifications from the NSA is below. And to continue the story we are pulling out a specific section CRITICAL to understanding what was going on:
Please pay close attention to this section [Note the date April 18th]:
Notice how it was an FBI “private contractor” that was conducting the unauthorized FISA-702 Queries.
We have been tipped off that the contractor in question was, unbelievably, Fusion-GPS.
It is almost certain this early ’16 series of FISA-702 compliance violations was the origin of NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers concern. His discovery becomes the impetus for Director Rogers requesting the 2016 full compliance audit. It appears Fusion-GPS was the sub-contracted user identified in the final FISA ruling.
Note the dates from the FISC opinion (above) – As soon as the FBI discovered Mike Rogers was now looking at the searches, the FBI discontinued allowing their sub-contracted agent access to the raw FISA information effective April 18th, 2016.
[Fusion-GPS was working on behalf of the FBI? Fusion-GPS was a subcontractor for the FBI? Fusion-GPS was being paid by the FBI?]
On April 19th, 2016, the day after the FBI stopped allowing access to the FISA database, the wife of Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson, Mary B Jacoby, went to the White House.
After months of prior opposition research, including what appears to be their access to FISA-702 “Search Queries“as a sub contractor for the FBI, the wife of Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS), Mary B. Jacoby, with years of Russia-angled reporting –including Donald Trump– visits the White House.
This is April 19th 2016, the day after the FBI, taking action as a result of Mike Rogers discovery, stopped allowing Fusion-GPS sub-contracted access the NSA FISA-702 database… and immediately thereafter the Clinton campaign hire Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump, surrounding Russia?
[The Tablet] … Simpson and Jacoby had ID’d Manafort as a world-class sleazeball and they were right. A slick Georgetown Law grad running in GOP circles since the Reagan campaign, Manafort used his talents and connections to get paid by some very bad people. I would only add here that, in my personal experience, journalists are not in the habit of forgetting major stories they’ve written, especially stories with a character like Manafort at the center.
So when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort as its campaign convention manager on March 28, 2016, you can bet that Simpson and Jacoby’s eyes lit up. And as it happened, at the exact same time that Trump hired Manafort, Fusion GPS was in negotiations with Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to see if there was interest in the firm continuing the opposition research on the Trump campaign they had started for the Washington Free Beacon. (more)
This timeline is entirely too obvious.
What plan came from that April 19th White House meeting? What plan did Mary Jacoby and Glenn Simpson present to use all the information they had assembled? How and who would they feed their information to, and how do they best use that ‘valuable’ information?
That appears to be where Fusion-GPS contracting with Christopher Steele comes in.
What happens next? Glenn Simpson and Mary Jacoby, Fusion-GPS hires Nellie Ohr:
Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year.
The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr’s duties – including whether she worked on the dossier – remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016. (link)
DOJ Deputy Both Bruce and his wife Nellie Ohr had a prior collaborative working relationship with Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Together they worked on a collaborative CIA Open Source group project surrounding International Organized Crime. (pdf here) Page #30 Screen Shot Below.
Keep in mind, AFTER April 18th, Fusion-GPS knows the NSA compliance division is now reviewing all of the prior FISA search “query”; activity conducted while contracted by the FBI.
The Clinton campaign hires Fusion GPS (April 2016), who then sub-contract retired British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write the opposition research report “The Trump Russia Dossier”, and they hire Nellie Ohr.
Nellie Ohr is a subject matter expert on Russia, speaks Russian, and also is well versed on CIA operations. Nelli Ohr’s skills would include how to build or create counterintelligence frameworks to give the appearance of a series of events that may be entirely fabricated.
Knowing the NSA was reviewing FISA “Queries”; and intellectually accepting the resulting information from those queries was likely part of the framework put together by Glenn Simpson and Mary Jacoby; the discovery that GPS employee Nellie Ohr applied for a HAM radio license [May 23rd 2016] (screen grab below).
Now this begins to take on additional context.
Open traceable, or monitor-able, communication would be a risk. The same FISA-702 surveillance activity used to assemble information on the Trump campaign could just as easily be used to discover information about the people now assembling that information into a fraudulent basis for continued spy operations over the Trump campaign.
The last thing Glenn Simpson, Mary Jacoby, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Steele, or the FBI would want – would be traceable communication networks. Each of these people or entities would know exactly what the monitoring capability of government is.
Accepting the FBI was utilizing Fusion-GPS as a sub-contractor, there is now an inherent clarity in the relationship between the FBI (Counterintelligence Unit), agents like Peter Strzok, Fusion-GPS Glenn Simpson, and ‘Russian Dossier’ author Christopher Steele.
The information that Glenn Simpson put together from his advanced work on the ‘Trump Project’, was, in essence, built upon the foundation of the relationship he had with the FBI.
Simpson, Jacoby and Ohr then passed on that information to Christopher Steele who adds his own ingredients to the mix, turns around, and gives the end product back to the FBI. Now that end product is “The Russian Dossier”.
The FBI then turn around and use that “dossier” as the underlying documentary and investigative evidence for continued operations against the target of the entire enterprise, candidate Donald Trump. As Peter Strzok would say in August 2016: this is their “insurance policy” per se’.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
In October 2016, immediately after the DOJ lawyers formatted the FBI information (Steele Dossier etc.) for a FISA application, the head of the NSD, Asst. Attorney General John P Carlin, left his job. His exit came as the NSD and Admiral Rogers informed the FISC that frequent unauthorized FISA-702 searches had been conducted. Read Here.
The New York Times never wrote about the admission by the Obama DOJ to the FISA court. The court itself only declassified their opinion of the DOJ and FBI conduct, in May of 2017, and that’s the way the public discovered the 2016 admissions by the DOJ, FBI and ultimately the compliance department of the NSA.
Yes, ultimately and specifically the FBI was working with Christopher Steele through their sub-contractor Fusion-GPS. Yes, the FBI and Clinton Team were, in essence, both paying Christopher Steele for his efforts. The FBI paid via their sub-contractor Fusion-GPS.
Lastly, when the DOJ/FBI used the Steele Dossier to make its own prior surveillance activity legal, they are essentially using the outcome of a process they created themselves in collaboration with both Fusion GPS and the Clinton campaign.
All research indicates the information the DOJ and FBI collected via their FISA-702(16)(17) queries; and the stuff Fusion GPS created in use of their own unauthorized access to FISA-702(17) “about queries”; was key to Christopher Steele creating “The Russian Dossier”, which was used post-election to create the “Russian Narrative”.
♦Ultimately, the people within all of these unlawful intercepts of information is what Devin Nunes discovered when he looked at the “unmasking requests” which were a result of those FISA 702(17) collections on Team Trump. That’s why Devin Nunes was so stunned at what he saw in February and March 2017.
The ENTIRE SYSTEM of FISA-702 surveillance and data collection was weaponized against a political campaign. They DOJ and FBI used the FISA Court to both gain access and hide their collection of private data monitoring the Trump campaign and conducting surveillance on the officials therein.
♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.
♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.
♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.
♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.
It can be difficult to see through the wording to understand the accurate story. Sara Carter and Fox News are both confirming the DOJ and FBI used the Steele Dossier to get FISA-702 Data Surveillance Authority allowing them to spy on Trump campaign officials.
In the latest developments, as reported by Sara Carter and Fox News, the DOJ and FBI used the sketchy ‘Steele Dossier’ as the foundation for their FISA application. WATCH:
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Both Carter and Hannity use the term “FISA Warrants”, however in the interest of understanding, and accurately portraying what took place, it was not technically a “warrant” as we traditionally think about it.
A warrant implies advanced judicial approval to begin surveillance and collecting emails and phone calls etc. Like a traditional Title III DOJ / law enforcement search warrant. But that’s not how FISA-702 works.
The FISA database, run by the NSA hub, already holds all the information, all the emails, texts, phone calls etc. The information already exists in a database. There are two steps to access the database of information:
♦Step One is to “Query” the database for your subject. That search needs a factual legal reason to take place; like an ongoing investigation. That search then returns an outcome, a set of information based on the “query” parameters. If the user gets a positive response to the “query” then Yes, the database holds information related to what they are looking for. Remember, there has to be a preexisting investigation to do the query.
♦Step Two is to “Open” the data set. That’s the step that needs a “search warrant” to be legal. That second step, the ‘looking at the information’ is where an approval from the FISA court is needed. The investigator must fill out a FISA application and go to the FISA Court for approval. In order to get a FISA Court approval the investigator must show a valid reason for the search.
As reported by Sara Carter and Fox News, the DOJ and FBI used the sketchy ‘Steele Dossier’ as the foundation for their FISA application.
Example (not real):
•Step One: The DOJ/FBI official puts “Jared Kushner” into the search query. This generates a number of responses. Perhaps his emails, phone call logs, actual intercepted recordings of his calls, or text messages, etc. (everything the NSA hub captures “about” Jared Kushner). There has to be a valid investigative reason in this step. An investigation of Jared Kushner must be underway.
•Step Two: The DOJ/FBI official then quarantines the returned information and applies to the FISA Court for permission to review it. The FBI/DOJ official has to tell the court why they want to look, ie. the FISA application. The FISA court grants the application and gives the FBI/DOJ official the approval. The application must have a legal basis as presented to the court – similar to that needed for a search warrant.
In 2016 NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers noted there were numerous FISA-702(17) unauthorized “About Queries” being conducted by the intelligence community. These are queries that did not have an underlying investigation to support their taking place.
In essence, government officials were searching the system for information “About” U.S. principals not under any legal investigation. On October 26th 2016 Admiral Rogers reported those unauthorized searches to the FISA court and shut down the “About Query” process permanently. (Full Backstory)
SARA CARTER – The unverified dossier alleging connections between President Trump’s campaign and the Russians was used as evidence by the FBI to gain approval from a secret court to monitor members of Trump’s team, this reporter has learned.
A large portion of the evidence presented in the salacious 35-page dossier put together by former British spy Christopher Steele, has either been proven wrong or remains unsubstantiated. However, the FBI gained approval nevertheless to surveil members of Trump’s campaign and “it’s outrageous and clearly should be thoroughly investigated,” said a senior law enforcement source, with knowledge of the process.
Multiple sources told this reporter that the dossier was used along with other evidence to obtain the warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as FISC. The sources also stressed that there will be more information in the coming week regarding systemic “FISA abuse.”
“(The dossier) certainly played a role in obtaining the warrant,” added another senior U.S. official, with knowledge of the dossier. “Congress needs to look at the FBI officials who were handling this case and see what, if anything, was verified in the dossier. I think an important question is whether the FBI payed anything to the source for the dossier.” (read more)
President Obama’s political operatives within the DOJ-NSD were using FISA 702(17) surveillance “about inquiries” that would deliver electronic mail and phone communication for U.S. people (Trump campaign). The NSD unit (John Carlin) was working in coordination with the FBI Counterintelligence Unit (Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok etc.) to look at Trump campaign activity. DOJ Attorney Lisa Page was the intermediary between the DOJ National Security Division and he FBI Counterintelligence Division.
All research indicates the information the DOJ and FBI collected via their FISA-702(16)(17) queries, and the stuff Fusion GPS was creating via Christopher Steele (The “Russian Dossier), was used to create the Russian Narrative, “The Insurance Policy“.
♦Ultimately, the people within all of these unlawful intercepts of information is what Devin Nunes discovered when he looked at the “unmasking requests” which were a result of those FISA 702(17) collections on Team Trump. That’s why Devin Nunes was so stunned at what he saw in February and March 2017.
The ENTIRE SYSTEM of surveillance and data collection was weaponized against a political campaign. They used the FISA Court to gain access to private data in order to monitor the Trump campaign and conduct surveillance on the officials therein.
♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.
♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.
♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.
♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.
The British government is also going completely nuts with criminal charges for nonsense. British prosecutors charged a woman for calling a man a “pussy”. Then there is the case of a businessman who was charged with a hate crime for saying to a transgender man presenting himself as a woman – “all right geezer.” He alleged he simply said that to him/her when they passed in the street. Vernon Mussington was found guilty but appealed and finally had his conviction overturned.
When the governments collapse, we simply MUST take away the power to prosecute from government completely. Part of the cycle that signals the decline and fall is in motion, is none other than the abuse of the power to prosecute. Edward Gibbon wrote in the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire:
“[A] distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse”
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I read you Maya Report and found it fascinating how volcanic eruptions in the ocean are polarized to where the North Pole is at that time. Now we have people trying to claim that the heat from global warming is being hidden stored deep in the oceans. It seems once more these people ignore the fact that there are underwater volcanoes erupting more so now than before. Is that a true statement?
HEJ
ANSWER: Oh yes, that is correct. There have been attempts to measure the heat generated from underwater volcanic eruptions. They attempted that off the East Pacific Rise, which is a point in the ocean floor where continents move apart. This is where magma contained in the Earth’s core to rise to the surface and spew from underwater volcanoes. This data was part of what was supplied to me to run through our model to determine the cyclical nature of how the poles flip. The volcanic activity underwater is rising and no doubt has an impact on the temperature. There have been attempts to linked volcanism to tiny shifts in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, as well, that occur every 100,000 years. These shifts may trigger ice ages and warm periods, both of which affect global sea levels. That, in turn, would increase or suppress volcanic activity it is believed.
Nevertheless, the Global Warming crowd claims the oceans are getting warmer down deep and that must be from mankind. Once more, they take the results and fit it to a predetermined conclusion.
Another dormant volcano has suddenly awakened erupting in a rather spectacular fashion, spewing lava for the first time in known history, It sent an ash cloud 2.1 kilometers into the sky. This ancient volcano on Kadovar Island, which is northeast of Papua New Guinea, has been dormant throughout hu8man history until January 5th, 2018. It began to erupt at around noon, local time. The volcanic island is about 24 kilometers from the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea. Our model is also showing that there will be a rise in volcanic activity as we move into 2024. We previously warned: “If we see a series of volcanic eruptions in the VEI 6 category or greater within 2018, expect to see a very sharp turn down in temperature and Global Cooling will take on rapid change going into 2024.” It is truly fascinating how this correlates to the change in the energy output of the sun
This outline is intended to clear up some confusion and answer common questions about the 2016 DOJ and FBI Counterintelligence Operation against candidate Trump. ie. “The Trump Operation”.
Today Byron York attempts to clear up some details about what congressional intelligence committee members have seen regarding the DOJ/FBI FISA-702 surveillance of Donald Trump. However, the FISA information is commonly, and inaccurately, conflated with “Wiretap Warrants”.
As we have explained there were no Title III wiretap warrants against the Trump campaign. Title III warrants are the historic reference to the DOJ or FBI wiretapping a suspect to gather information. Former DNI James Clapper has denied there were any Title III wiretap warrants issued. James Clapper is correct.
♦Here’s where the verbiage used by media doesn’t match with what was occurring. The DOJ and FBI didn’t use Title III wiretaps, because the current system of NSA intercepting and collecting all electronic data is already one big global wiretap.
The DOJ National Security Division and FBI Counterintelligence Division worked around the need for Title III wiretap warrants by using FISA-702 “Queries” to identify their targeted intercepts. FISA-702(16)(17) “Queries” work around the need for domestic Title III wiretap warrants by looking at the intersection of “foreign” contacts with U.S. individuals. Some refer to this approach as “reverse targeting”.
When the investigator at DOJ or FBI, the system ‘user’, interfaces with the NSA data-hub, they use the process of FISA “Queries” to identify their target. If they are picking up a U.S. citizen the 702 part comes in. FISA-702 is ‘incidental collection’ of U.S. individuals.
FISA Example: Where is foreign person “Natalia Veselnitskya‘s” cell phone? (input phone number)…
Oh, she’s in Trump Tower,… OK, great.
FISA-702 Query “all ip addresses and cell phone communication within Trump Tower”.
Review data, fill out FISA query authorization form explaining the reason for the FISA second query. Easy peasy, legal. That query then becomes a valid “FISA warrant”, but “Warrant” is really a misnomer based on traditional lingo.
The second search is actually a legally approved FISA-702 “query”, not really a “warrant”; the FISA-702 (U.S. individual or entity) search query (form required) is a result of a valid search query upon a foreign actor (no form required). The 702 authorization form is what people mistakenly refer to as the “warrant”.
See how that works?
[Also remember all FISA-702 approvals can be given retroactively. The operator doesn’t necessarily need to request approval in advance to search; only to make the search results legal, and then proceed to “unmasking”.]
The DATA already exists. The DOJ/FBI user is only seeking to find legal ways to explore the existing data using foreign entities to locate what they really want; which is domestic surveillance of a U.S. individual or group, perhaps only loosely connected to the foreign subject or entity.
In the example above, Trump Tower ip addresses are now authorized for further and future exploration by the existence of the legally authorized FISA-702 search “Query”. Ms. Veselnitskya leaves the building, but the FISA search query remains upon the U.S. ip addresses and U.S. cell phone numbers present while she was there. Now the DOJ and FBI investigator is just reviewing any additional and ongoing uses of the technology attached to the ip and phone communications. The surveillance has begun.
That’s an example of using FISA-702 to conduct surveillance upon Trump transition officials via their computers and cell phones. That’s appears to be what was happening.
♦SECOND QUESTION. Why would the Trump Transition Team leaving Trump Tower to Bedminister New Jersey stop the FISA-702 surveillance?
Now that you understand how the FISA-702 was conducted, you can see you only need to break the chain of contact. The Bedminister NJ ip addresses and cell towers are not authorized under the previous FISA-702 “Query”. That’s why moving everything to NJ creates new ip addresses, new cell towers, etc. Moving breaks the surveillance chain.
♦THIRD QUESTION. Why was judge Contreras recused from the Flynn case?
Two reasons – each likely. First, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras is a FISA judge. He might have approved one of the FISA-702 search “Queries”, not wiretaps, the results of which might later have been used as evidence against Mike Flynn.
Second, simply because he is a FISC judge Contreras was on the court when NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers informed the full FISA Court of the unlawful 2016 FISA-702(16)(17) queries; and by extension Contreras has no way of knowing if the person in his court is there as an outcome of one of those unlawful queries.
Earlier today President Trump held the first cabinet meeting of 2018. [The cabinet met four times in December.]
[Transcript] 12:00 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Welcome back to the studio. Nice to have you. (Laughter.) Good morning, and welcome to our first Cabinet meeting of the New Year. 2017 was a year of tremendous achievement — monumental achievement, actually. I don’t think any administration has ever done — has done what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished in its first year, which isn’t quite finished yet. You never know what’s going to happen over the next few days. And the achievements for our country, our people, and for our standing in the world have been very monumental.
We confirmed an incredible new Supreme Court justice and more circuit court judges in our first year than any administration in the history of our country, and we have many more coming.
We’ve set a new record on reducing regulation and all forms of stopping growth and stopping jobs that were crippling America’s economy. Again, the records that we’ve set — 22 to 1 — nobody has ever come close. And the amount of regulations that we’ve cut is a record also in our country’s history, as reported by many newspapers, in particular The Wall Street Journal did a big story on it.
And before Christmas, we passed the largest tax cut and reform in American history, including ANWR and including the fact that the individual mandate was terminated, which was a tremendously important thing and a very popular thing, I must tell you. People are supposed to pay for the privilege of not having healthcare; that was not good. Unfortunately, the courts didn’t cut it, but we cut it.
So, in addition to the largest tax cut and reform in history, we have one of the great oil sites that’s now been approved. They’ve been trying to approve ANWR — I don’t know if people know this — for over 40 years. Ronald Reagan tried to get it approved for exploration and for drilling. And for 40 years, they’ve been trying to get it approved. That was in the bill — an individual mandate in the bill.
Since that tax cut was enacted, more than 1 million workers have already received a tax cut bonus — something that, frankly, nobody even thought about. We didn’t think about it. Nobody thought about it. We just knew a lot of good things were going to happen.
And I must say, AT&T was the first one and they did it — $1,000 per employee; they have hundreds of thousands of employees. And many companies followed immediately thereafter, and now they’re following — I guess, the employees are saying, “What about us?” And millions of employees in this country are getting a thousand dollars and more, in some cases, tax bonuses because of the tax cuts.
Hardworking American families will receive tremendous tax relief. We lowered our tax rates, nearly doubled the standard deduction, and doubled the child tax credit, which Ivanka Trump was pushing very, very hard, I will tell you that, and so was Marco Rubio.
And I will tell you that the Republican Senate — we had no Democrat support. Zero. They didn’t want tax cuts. They want tax increases. They want to raise your taxes; they don’t want to cut your taxes. But the child tax credit has become very important to the American family, and they’re very happy about it.
Our historic reductions to the business tax will raise annual household income by an average of $4,000. That’s a tremendous number. The amount of money that’s going to be brought in — we think it’s going to be close to $4 trillion because of our tax reform — will be a number that this country has never seen pour into our country. And that’s going to create more jobs and more investment.
The stock market is shattering one record after another. Unemployment is at a 17-year low. And I’m very proud of this: African American unemployment reached its lowest level in history. Think of that. And on the campaign trail, remember I said, and would constantly say, “What do you have to lose?” Meaning, what do you have to lose if you vote for Trump? And now, it was just reported, African American unemployment is at its lowest level in history. I’m very proud of that.
We’re also making America safe again. Yesterday, we had a bipartisan meeting with House members and senators on immigration reform — something they’ve been talking about for many, many years. But we brought them together in this room, and it was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance — you know, some of them called it a performance — I consider it work.
But it got great reviews by everybody other than two networks, who were phenomenal for about two hours. Then, after that, they were called by their bosses for saying, “Oh, wait a minute.” And, unfortunately, a lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed. And they were great. For about two hours, they were phenomenal. And then they went a little bit south on us, but not that bad. It was fine.
They probably wish they didn’t send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I’m sure their ratings were fantastic; they always are — which is why I think the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because they’re going to say, if Trump doesn’t win in three years, they’re all out of business. (Laughter.) You guys will be out of business. But the boom holders are still going to be there, so that’s good. (Laughter.) Those are the people I like.
We agreed to pursue four major areas yesterday of reform: securing our border, including, of course, the wall — which has always been included, it never changed; ending chain migration; canceling the visa lottery; and addressing the status of the DACA population. We want to see something happen with DACA. It’s been spoken of for years. And children are now adults, in many cases. The numbers are very different, very varying. A lot of people say 800,000; some people said — yesterday, first time I heard 650 [thousand]. I also heard 3 million. The fact is, our country was such a mess, nobody even knows what the numbers are. But we’ll know what the numbers are.
But above all else, any bill we passed must improve jobs, wages, and security for American citizens. The people who elected us, all of us — the people that elected us, we have to take care of them. We have to have a strong military. We can’t play games with our military. Whether we’re Democrat or whether we’re Republican, we have to have a strong — that’s not a point of negotiation. We can’t say, oh, we’re going to give you money for your military but you have to give us money for something that, frankly, is much less important than security.
And we have to keep our country strong. And our military was badly depleted over the last long period of time, beyond President Obama, I will say — beyond President Obama. Our military was very, very badly depleted.
I just spoke to President Moon. He’s very thankful for what we’ve done. They’re having talks with North Korea. We’ll see how that happens. He felt that the original — that the initial talk was extremely good. Had a lot of good comment. Rex was on the phone, and Nikki has been totally briefed.
But we had a very, very good conversation, and we’ll see where it goes. He’s very thankful for what we’ve done. It was so reported today that we were the ones — without our attitude, that would have never happened. Who knows where it leads. Hopefully, it will lead to success for the world — not just for our country, but for the world. And we’ll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens.
On a separate front, we are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts. If somebody says something that’s totally false and knowingly false, that the person that has been abused, defamed, libeled will have meaningful recourse.
Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we’re going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You can’t say things that are false — knowingly false — and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that. And I think what the American people want to see is fairness.
Finally, as we begin the new year, I want to thank my Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. Every single day, every hour, I’m on the phone with almost all of them all the time. And we have a lot of exciting things to go.
I’m just looking at Alex Acosta. What a job you’ve done with our healthcare. He’s Secretary of Labor, but he’s very much involved in healthcare, and I think those rules and regulations will be out around February 1st, Alex, as I understand it. And this is healthcare through association and associations. And I think that millions and millions and millions of people will be signing up. It will be highly competitive. He has been able to totally get rid of state lines so there will be tremendous competition. And that will be a phase of healthcare that people don’t talk about.
But I think, ultimately, you’ll have more people than you actually had even in Obamacare, and it’s just a segment of what we’re doing. So I just want to tell you, I read a lot of those papers last night, and it is really great work, brilliant work. I think it is something that people don’t talk about, but it’s something that’s going to be very exciting and very great. It will be great healthcare at a very competitive price. There will be tremendous competition, and it will cost the United States absolutely zero. So we’re very proud of that. Thank you, Alex.
And with that, I just — we’ll start our Cabinet meeting. And we appreciate your being here, and you’ve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
There is a lot of news amid national headlines but there is only one story. Unfortunately, that story is a complex multidimensional matrix of politics, law enforcement corruption, the DC swamp, and vested interests attempting to hide and manipulate facts, ie. The Russian Election/Collusion Story.
What I am going to introduce today is how the 2016 FISA-702(16)(17) data and surveillance activity issues; and the 2016 FISA Court applications for surveillance and search warrants; and the Christopher Steele (Fusion GPS) Russian Dossier; and the individual actions by DOJ, FBI and IC officials; all connect within the targeted political weaponization of government.
As many of you are aware we have been chasing and researching the fact-trail of this story for over a year. In my opinion this is the biggest story in our lifetime as it relates to government officials, specifically DOJ and FBI leadership, weaponizing their offices to retain political power for their ideological allies. Taken in totality it is a very troubling story. Nonetheless THAT STORY exists regardless of our discomfort.
Additionally, in the downstream aftermath, there are two political forces facing off amid the aggregate “Russian Election/Collusion Story”. One side is trying to find out the details behind the origin therein; the other side is trying to hide the origin therein. When we look at the reason for hiding the origin of the Russian narrative, we enter the rabbit hole of previous intelligence community activity and their weaponization of government.
Yesterday President Trump signed an executive memorandum for the Director of National Intelligence that forces the DNI to develop a responsive plan for any inquiry from a non-public entity about their information being swept up in intelligence gathering operations. Also yesterday, Representative Ron DeSantis wrote a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan requesting Ryan declassify all documents surrounding the Steele Dossier and its use therein.
Both of yesterdays actions appear connected to the larger battle within the back-story.
If you have not followed the prior research about how NSA Director Admiral Rogers responded to his discoveries in 2016 you might be lost in this discussion. –SEE HERE–
This outline builds on that prior research and exposes specific individuals who participated in the scheme.
IMPORTANT – We are no longer taking it for granted a FISA warrant was ever given to the DOJ because NO-ONE can prove a FISA warrant exists. Heck, no-one can even point to anything that directly claims a FISA warrant was even requested. There are inferences, suspicions, media reports based on anonymous leaks, but no direct or reasonable evidence beyond innuendo. We are eighteen months past the reported origination dates, and there’s not a single official who will state a 2016 FISA warrant was applied for or granted. Therefore we must begin to question that basic assumption.
That said, the inability to prove the existence of a FISA warrant does not prove a FISA warrant doesn’t exist. Additionally, the cloud-of-uncertainty conveniently, perhaps purposely, makes it challenging to outline the liars within the intelligence community.
When it comes to questions around the 2016 DOJ/FBI FISA warrant – A key approach to finding the truth is to apply the scientific method during the research; question our underlying assumptions and reverse the hypothesis.
Example: Can we prove the non-existence of the FISA warrant?
Well, there is direct and attributable, evidence no FISA warrant existed.
And there is no direct, and attributable, evidence a FISA warrant did exist.
However, the absence of evidence is not evidence of its absence. Just because we cannot prove a FISA Warrant exists doesn’t prove the non-existence of the FISA Warrant; which, as you will see, is a critical piece of this puzzle.
It is important, heck, critical, to underscore that all of the currently available evidence indicates that TWO intelligence units participated in the majority of the illegal activity surrounding the 2016 Trump Operation: ♦The Department of Justice National Security Division (DOJ-NSD), and the ♦FBI Counterintelligence Division.
If you have read the prior explanation about compartmented intelligence, and how the process was used to hide illegal intelligence activity, you will more easily connect-the-dots on who/how this was strategically used.
On March 20th 2017 FBI Director James Comey testified to congress. During that congressional testimony James Comey was asked why the FBI Director did not inform congressional oversight, senior leadership, about the counterintelligence operation that began in July 2016.
FBI Director Comey said he did not tell congressional oversight he was investigating presidential candidate Donald Trump because the Director of Counterintelligence, W.H. “Bill” Priestap suggested he not do so. *Very important detail.*
FBI Director James Comey is stating on the record that the FBI Counterintelligence Operation was happening without oversight, and that lack of oversight was intentional. *Important Detail*
However, for the sake of this review pay attention to his remarks about the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI.
WATCH the first three minutes:
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Notice how Director Comey avoids mentioning the 2016 DNI James Clapper. Clapper was DNI throughout President Obama’s tenure and was DNI during the 2016 counterintelligence operation that James Comey and Bill Priestap intentionally kept hidden from congress.
The obfuscation about James Clapper might not seem like a big deal, and almost everyone missed it at the time, however in hindsight it is another critical part of the evidence against James Comey.
IF THERE WAS a FISA Warrant issued against the Trump Campaign, or Trump Officials, by the FBI (Counterintelligence Unit), or DOJ (National Security Division), James Clapper would have to be notified of it.
Now, let’s look at what happens when James Clapper is questioned about the FISA Warrant, as he explains on NBC March 5th 2017. This is TWO WEEKS BEFORE the James Comey testimony to congress on March 20th.
Pay close attention to the exact wording Clapper uses, and the thought he puts into explaining himself.
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Watch it Again. Closely.
There’s no ambiguity in James Clapper in that March 5th 2017 interview. He can specifically deny any FISA Warrant for Trump Tower, Campaign Officials, or Trump Campaign HQ.
That interview is so critical to Clapper personally – when questioned about FISA Warrants and Wiretaps six months later, September 24th 2017, he refers the questioning back to his NBC answer on March 5th, 2017.
Again, Watch Closely:
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Do ya think that earlier answer and conversation was parsed carefully between March 5th and September 24th?
Title III requires Federal, state and, other government officials to obtain judicial authorization for intercepting “wire, oral, and electronic” communications such as telephone conversations and e-mails. It also regulates the use and disclosure of information obtained through authorized wiretapping. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2516-18.
An exception to the requirement that government obtain a warrant before intercepting covered communications is provided where:
“any investigative or law enforcement officer, specially designated by the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, or by the principal prosecuting attorney of any State or subdivision thereof acting pursuant to a statute of that State…
reasonably determines that an emergency situation exists that involves
immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person,
conspiratorial activities threatening the national security interest, or
conspiratorial activities characteristic of organized crime
that requires a wire, oral, or electronic communication to be intercepted before an order authorizing such interception can, with due diligence, be obtained, and
there are grounds upon which an order could be entered under this chapter to authorize such interception.”
In such an emergency situation, the Federal government may begin intercepting communications, provided “an application for an order approving the interception is made in accordance with this section within forty-eight hours after the interception has occurred, or begins to occur.” In this situation, if the warrant is ultimately denied, the intercepted communications are treated as having been obtained in violation of Title III. 18 U.S.C. § 2518(7). (LINK)
Within this entire enterprise of spying on the Trump Campaign there is no “wiretapping” per se’ because EVERYTHING is being collected by NSA. The issue is: can you legally “look at” what is already being collected?
That’s where Admiral Mike Rogers comes in because he discovered political operatives were LOOKING AT IT. Hence, his report to the FISC about FISA-702(17) violations.
Again, all research indicates the DOJ National Security Division (John P Carlin) and FBI Counterintelligence Division (W.H. “Bill” Priestap) were the two DOJ organizations operating in concert with Fusion-GPS and Christopher Steele while simultaneously carrying out the prior known surveillance activity. Any FISA Warrant stemming from these two entities would have to pass the desk of ODNI James Clapper.
If a FISA Wiretap warrant is factually discovered, against the backdrop of James Clapper stating EMPHATICALLY no Title III FISA Wiretap warrant existed, how would that conflict be resolved?
Additionally, the internal issues with FISA-702(16)(17) unauthorized “About Query” searches being conducted and discovered in 2016 by NSA Director Admiral Rogers, would lend even greater weight to the DOJ-NSD and FBI CoIntel as the origin. SEE HERE.
We know the FBI Counterintelligence Operation against the Trump Campaign was operating without congressional notification or oversight.
We also know the DOJ-NSD Operation was also operating without oversight:
In 2015 Asst. Attorney General Sally Yates blocked any inspector general oversight of the DOJ National Security Division (SEE Pdf HERE). The Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, requested oversight over the DOJ National Security Division and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58-page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
It is important to note here that President-elect Trump nominated Senator Dan Coats as ODNI on January 5th, 2017 – however, Democrats held up that nomination until March 16th, 2017. It is not coincidental that immediately following DNI Dan Coat’s ability to provide information, Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes first reported his concerns.
After Devin Nunes review the Eisenhower SCIF information March 22nd 2017, two days after James Comey’s testimony, Chairman Nunes stated the intelligence product he reviewed was: “not related to Russia, or the FBI Russian counter-intelligence investigation”.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Devin Nunes, then held a brief press conference and stated he has been provided intelligence reports brought to him by unnamed sources that include ‘significant information’ about President-Elect Trump and his transition team.
WATCH:
1.) …”On numerous occasions the [Obama] intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.”
2.) “Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming administration; details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.”
3.) “Third, I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition members were unmasked.”
4.) “Fourth and finally, I want to be clear; none of this surveillance was related to Russia, or the investigation of Russian activities.
“The House Intelligence Committee will thoroughly investigate surveillance and its subsequent dissemination, to determine a few things here that I want to read off:”
•“Who was aware of it?”
•“Why it was not disclosed to congress?”
•“Who requested and authorized the additional unmasking?”
•“Whether anyone directed the intelligence community to focus on Trump associates?”
•“And whether any laws, regulations or procedures were violated?”
“I have asked the Directors of the FBI, NSA and CIA to expeditiously comply with my March 15th (2017) letter -that you all received a couple of weeks ago- and to provide a full account of these surveillance activities.”
President Obama’s political operatives within the DOJ-NSD were using FISA 702(17) surveillance “about inquiries” that would deliver electronic mail and phone communication for U.S. people (Trump campaign). The NSD unit (John Carlin) was working in coordination with the FBI Counterintelligence Unit (Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok etc.) to look at this campaign activity. DOJ Attorney Lisa Page was the intermediary between the DOJ National Security Division and he FBI Counterintelligence Division.
In an effort to stop the FISA 702(17) activity NSA Director Mike Rogers initiated a full 702 compliance review. However, before the review was complete the DOJ-NSD had enough information for their Russian narrative; which was built upon FISA-702(17) that began in July ’16 per James Comey. Mike Rogers stopped the FISA702(17) process on October 26th 2016. As a result of his identifying the activity, Rogers became a risk; DNI James Clapper demanded he be fired.
♦Ten days after the presidential election, November 17th 2016, Admiral Rogers travels to Trump Tower without telling ODNI James Clapper. Rogers likely informs President-elect Trump of the prior activity by the FBI and DOJ, including the probability that all of Trump Tower’s email and phone communication was being collected and reviewed by political operatives within the DOJ-NSD and FBI.
♦ On November 17th, 2016, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers went to see President-Elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower, New York. –SEE HERE– Director Rogers never told his boss DNI, James Clapper.
♦ On November 18th, 2016, the Trump Transition Team announced they were moving all transition activity to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. –SEE HERE– Where they interviewed and discussed the most sensitive positions to fill. Defense, State, CIA, ODNI.
The transition team was set up in Trump Tower. The very next day, November 18th 2016, Trump moves the entire transition team to Bedminister New Jersey?
Does this make more sense now?
All research indicates the information the DOJ and FBI collected via their FISA-702(16)(17) queries, and the stuff Fusion GPS was creating via Christopher Steele (The “Russian Dossier), was used to create the Russian Narrative, “The Insurance Policy“.
♦Ultimately, the people within all of these unlawful intercepts of information is what Devin Nunes discovered when he looked at the “unmasking requests” which were a result of those FISA 702(17) collections on Team Trump. That’s why Devin Nunes was so stunned at what he saw in February and March 2017.
The ENTIRE SYSTEM of surveillance and data collection was weaponized against a political campaign. There were no authorizing or accompanying FISA warrants.
♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.
♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.
♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.
♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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