March 13, 2019
Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on late-night-interuptus to discuss his Senate Judiciary investigation into allegations of FISA abuse, etc.
Tag Archives: Bruce Ohr
Sarah Sanders Discusses Pelosi Impeachment Shift…
March 12, 2019
Against the backdrop of Speaker Pelosi tamping down expectations of a House impeachment, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News to discuss the current state of DC politics.
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Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, Chairman Cummings and Chairman Nadler would not likely drop their deep investments in an impeachment narrative unless they held confidence something more valuable was on the horizon.
Representative Doug Collins Releases Transcript of Lisa Page Congressional Testimony…
March 12, 2019
Well, well, well; he did it again. Representative Doug Collins has released the transcript of testimony from former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page. [SEE HERE] The transcript is from two days of congressional testimony July 13th and July 16th, 2018. Each day is a separate transcript: Day One Transcript
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Day Two Transcript (below)
Rep. Doug Collins✔@RepDougCollins
Today, the link https://dougcollins.house.gov/page will be placed in the record so the American people can read the transcripts of Lisa Page’s interviews before the Judiciary Committee.
Sunday Talks: Andrew McCabe Shocked Over Manafort Prison Sentence…
March 10, 2019
The primary ‘spygate” architect appears on CBS with Margaret Brennan to share his reaction to the sentence of Paul Manafort for tax fraud. Andrew McCabe said he was ‘shocked’, ‘s.h.o.c.k.e.d‘, that Manafort was not given a life sentence.
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[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back with former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He is the author of a new book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. Good to have you here.
ANDREW MCCABE (Former Acting FBI Director/The Threat): Thanks so much for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to start you off on some of the news of the week.
ANDREW MCCABE: Okay.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced this week. He will also face sentencing in a DC court in the days to come. He was given forty-seven months, far less than what is the sentencing guideline of up to–
ANDREW MCCABE: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –twenty-plus years? Is the length of time he will serve matching the crimes he’s being accused of?
ANDREW MCCABE: Well, I was really surprised by the sentence he was given. I think it’s an incredibly lenient sentence in light not just of the– of the offenses he was convicted for but the additional offenses that he has pled guilty to in DC and the offenses he’s acknowledged, essentially, in the sentencing process in Virginia, that he is res– responsible for. So like most people I was shocked by how lenient the sentence was.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So it sounds like you’re predicting that the DC court may add to those forty-seven months?
ANDREW MCCABE: Well, there’s no question he’s going to get additional time from DC. I don’t think it’s probably the– the job of the DC courts to rectify a mistake or– or something that was done in another jurisdiction. I’m sure that Judge Jackson will approach her sentence with just keeping our eye on the facts of that case but there’s no doubt he’ll get additional time from that process.
MARGARET BRENNAN: In your book The Threat you write about some of the President’s public comments about Paul Manafort in particular and you frame it in one passage as possible witness tampering. You say you fear a judge will be influenced by some of the po– the President’s comments. Did you have any sense that that’s what happened here with Judge Ellis?
ANDREW MCCABE: I don’t. I don’t. But the point that I try to make in the book is that it’s to try to highlight how incredibly irresponsible and, indeed, corrosive statements like that from the chief executive are on the process and on the public’s perception of the fairness and the effectiveness of the process. When the President engages in messaging like people can’t help but step back and ask themselves that question that you just asked, did that have an impact on the process or on the result in this case. We don’t know the answer to that but it introduces a level of doubt and insecurity into a system that we all need to depend on– depend upon to being fair and– and free.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The charges that Paul Manafort faced were in regard to financial crimes. Do you believe that he was a Russian asset?
ANDREW MCCABE: I don’t know the answer to that. I think that Mister Manafort’s extensive involvement with Ukrainian and Russian actors is highly suspicious. I think that that’s something that we’ll wait to see what the Mueller team opines on with their– with their final conclusion.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because the President seized on a comment made by Judge Ellis who seemed to be just pointing out that the Russian potential links were not actually part of the trial–
ANDREW MCCABE: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –that we have seen underway here. So you’re saying there the President’s comments were not actually accurate.
ANDREW MCCABE: Well, that– that shouldn’t be a surprise. I think that Judge Ellis was very careful to indicate that he was sentencing Mister Manafort for the conduct that was before him. And he– Mister Manafort was not charged in that case with being an agent for the government of Russia. So I think– I think Judge Ellis’s efforts to be careful and tailor his words are far from an exoneration of Mister Manafort on any other potential charges.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you as well about Michael Cohen, the President’s longtime attorney and we played in the open some of the– the tapes showing the changing stories here in regard to–
ANDREW MCCABE: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –whether there was discussion or not of a presidential pardon. Now it appears according to the President that it was discussed. As an investigator, what do you make of that?
ANDREW MCCABE: Very, very hard to sort through a basically he said– he said argument between two people who have very challenged credibility. At the end of the day, the strength of Michael Cohen’s testimony– potential testimony is derived not from what he’s telling us now but rather from whatever facts and corroborative evidence the prosecutors were able to glean from that treasure trove of documents and recordings and other things that we’ve heard so much about.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re saying, don’t take him at his word, take him by the evidence he presents.
ANDREW MCCABE: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I– I want to ask you as well because, of course, the President constantly mentions the credibility that you have–
ANDREW MCCABE: Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –and calls that into question, specifically, on the texts between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, which is something the President often comments on. You were asked about this on CNN by Anderson Cooper and you said you had no recollection of the meeting that was referred to in one of the text exchange between those two individuals which mentioned an insurance policy in case Trump got elected. Do you know why you were personally mentioned in those texts?
ANDREW MCCABE: I don’t. Lisa Page, Pete Strzok, and I and many other members of that investigative team met in my office, in conference rooms around FBI headquarters all the time. Right? So it was a– it was a ve– intensive investigation that required a lot of attention and a lot of involvement. So I can’t sit here and tell you years later the circumstances of exactly that instance that they seem to be referring to in that text. I also wasn’t a participant in that text, so I can’t add too much more to your understanding of it. I know that Peter has described in his own congressional testimony what he was referring to and I take him at his word for that description.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because the– the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, has been on this program, specifically, referred to those texts and said that it is proof that you along with Strzok and Page showed political bias and a political agenda. And that’s why he wants to call you before the committee to ask– to answer some questions. So one of the other texts there was a quote that said, “We need to open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy is acting.” You, while you were acting FBI director. Do you know what case this is? Why would it matter that you were in that acting role?
ANDREW MCCABE: Well, again, I– I can’t tell you what Lisa and Pete were referring to in their private texts. I think I’ve been very clear publicly about how the investigators felt about the work that we needed to do–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
ANDREW MCCABE: –in May of 2017. After Director Comey was fired, they made a recommendation to me that we open cases. I acted on that recommendation. I was feeling– I felt very strongly at that time that I needed to make those decisions quickly–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
ANDREW MCCABE: –because I anticipated I would not be in the acting role for very long and I didn’t know who would be coming in behind me or how they would handle the ongoing investigation that we thought was important to conclude.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you very much–
ANDREW MCCABE: Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –Mister McCabe.
We’ll be back in a moment for some Republican reaction.
Andrew McCabe…
March 10, 2019
Senator John Kennedy (R-GOPe/Tom Donohue’s candidate) responds to Andrew McCabe and the politicization of the FBI under the tenure of James Comey and Deputy McCabe.
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[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy who is in New Orleans this morning. Senator, I want to give you a chance to respond to Andy McCabe.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY (R-Louisiana/@SenJohnKennedy): Let me– let me say first, Margaret, I’m– I’m still in a bit of a stupor at Mayor Hickenlooper’s shame at having once been a capitalist. I can’t. I’ve seen it all now. But I’ll save that for another day. Mister McCabe. Mister McCabe is one of the people responsible for politicizing the premiere law enforcement agency in the history of– of– of the world, the FBI. He’s not the only one. But it’s clear that he and others in 2016, some were for Trump, some were for Clinton. But– but they acted on their political beliefs and they hurt the FBI badly for that. All of them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We got to–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Not just Mister McCabe but all of them. We should hang their head in shame and hang their head– put their head in the bag.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, this needs more conversation. We’re going to take a quick break. I want to talk to you more about this in just a moment.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION. We continue our conversation now with Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy.
Senator, before we took this break you were responding to Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director who has described himself as a lifelong Republican, but laid out here–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Mm-Hm.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –his deep concern about the President and his actions.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Well, let me– let me say it again. There were and perhaps still are some people at the FBI, one of whom was Mister McCabe, who helped politicize the agency. When– when an FBI agent knocks at your door, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican and whether that makes a difference. And– and Mister McCabe has helped politicize that agency and– and that’s wrong. He– he really– he should be ashamed and he should hide his head in– in a bag. And we– we have got to–
MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you mean politicize?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –clean house over there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Clean house? What do you mean by that?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Well, he has– Mister Mc– Mister McCabe– well let me back up and say this, Margaret. I’m talking about people over there who were both for Trump and for Clinton. Now they are entitled to have a personal opinion but they’re not entitled to act on it or leave the– the impression that they acted on it. And– and I think McCabe did that. I think he’s part of a group over there that think they were– they– they think they’re smarter and more virtuous than the American people. And– and I think it hurt the FBI badly. Mister McCabe is also in– at the present time, playing the role of huckster. He’s trying to– to sell a book. And he was fired for lying to his– his fellow FBI agents.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well that–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Now if you and I lied to the FBI we go to jail. If you– if an FBI agent–
MARGARET BRENNAN: I think– I think Mister McCabe was–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –like him lies to the FBI–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –dismissed–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –you get fired.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –just– just short of his ability to actually get his pension. Some would say it was a politically motivated firing of him.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: He’s lucky– he’s lucky he wasn’t prosecuted, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For what?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: And I’m not saying this because McCabe–
MARGARET BRENNAN: For what?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –is, obviously, pro-Trump. I think there were–
MARGARET BRENNAN: What would he have been prosecuted for?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –people for pro-Clinton. For perjury. For lying to an FBI agent. He did it repeatedly. Now if you and I do that we go to jail.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you calling–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: And he– he just got fired. He was lucky.
MARGARET BRENNAN: “And– and so I guess this is a preview of the questioning that we will hear of him before the Senate Judiciary Committee if he is called to testify,” Senator Graham has said. But I want to ask you about, since you sit on that committee–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Mm-Hm.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –as well. The sentencing we saw this week of a Trump campaign chairman– former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He was charged with an array of felonies, financial crimes. Federal sentencing guidelines would have had him serving upwards of twenty years. He got forty-seven months. Does the punishment fit the array of crimes?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: All right. Before I answer your question, let me be clear about Mister McCabe. I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. If you’re at the FBI you’re not supposed to act on it. Mister McCabe did and I believe he’s one bent two by four. Now number two, Mister Manafort–
MARGARET BRENNAN: What. Sorry. Can I just–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Three points. Number one–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can I just clarify there you in the past have said, I thought, that you supported the Mueller probe? McCabe had helped to set up some of the special counsel there, specifically, to look at the question of whether the President was–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: I do– I do support–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –a Russian asset.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: I do support the Mueller probe. I do support the Mueller probe but that doesn’t preclude Mister McCabe from being what he is, a bent two by four. And he hurt the FBI badly and all the people over there who tried to help Clinton or who tried to help Trump, every one of them should have his head in the bag. They hurt the premiere law enforcement agency in all of human history and we’re going to have to spend a lot of time rehabilitating it. The American people don’t trust it as much as I used to. And that’s wrong.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you say you still support the Mueller probe–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: And your politics shouldn’t matter–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –itself. Can you–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –answer the question though on– on Paul Manafort–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Manafort? Three points.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –because he was charged with an array of felonies–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Manafort. Number–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –because of the Special Counsel’s case.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Number one– number one, I was surprised at his sentence, I thought it would be longer. Number two, as I said in the past, Mister Manafort is a grifter. He used to be a partner with– with Roger Stone. He’s– I’m sorry, Margaret. He’s just a sleazoid. I mean he’s always played at the margins. Number three, you know rather than just be opinionated I’d rather be informed. Judge– Judge Ellis has been on the bench thirty years. I haven’t read the sentencing memos.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: He, obviously, believed four years was enough. I might disagree with him but I’d have to read the sentencing memos first–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does it trouble you–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: –because there’s a lot of stuff in there that you and I don’t see.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lastly, does it trouble you that the President admitted that he had discussed a presidential pardon with Michael Cohen? Should he have been discussing that in an investigation–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: It–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –he’s involved in?
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: It– well, as I understand it, at least part of the story, Margaret, is that Cohen and/or his lawyers approached the President and asked for a pardon.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The President said it happened–
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Now Mister Cohen–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –directly in a direct conversation. That’s what the President said.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY: Well, that– that– okay. That– Mister Cohen once again in front of Congress lied then. He said that never happened. And I think with Mister Cohen, given his checkered past, if he’s– if he’s breathing he’s lying. But, yeah, I mean I guess I don’t blame Cohen for asking. It was inappropriate but he shouldn’t have lied to Congress about it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, good to talk to you today.
REMINDER IG report on McCabe
Tom Fitton Discusses Judicial Watch FOIA Discovery and Bruce Ohr Transcript…
March 10, 2019
On Thursday of last week Judicial Watch received a 300+ page release of Bruce and Nellie Ohr communication with government officials as the result of their 2017 FOIA submission. The following day, Friday, representative Doug Collins released the transcript of Bruce Ohr testifying about his activity and contacts with DOJ and FBI officials.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the revelations within both the testimony and FOIA release, saying Bruce Ohr’s testimony confirms how closely the Department of Justice and FBI were working with Clinton operative, Christopher Steele.
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Sunday Talks: Decepticon Barrasso Discusses National Emergency Border Declaration…
March 10, 2019
Beware of the Decepticons. Senator John Barrasso is one of Mitch McConnell’s key small council members, which includes: McConnell, Cornyn, Barrasso, Earnst, Young, Thune, Lee, Crapo and Gardner. All the Decepticons make moves based on ulterior motives. The Decepticons are the UniParty constants in an ever changing universe.
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Where’s the USMCA vote Mitch?…
Sketchy Notation About Doug Collins Releasing Full Unredacted Bruce Ohr Transcript….
March 10, 2019
NBC News penned an article about the unorthodox release of DOJ official Bruce Ohr’s transcript. Within the article NBC notes current DOJ officials responded to the congressional request for release by sending them an approved “redacted version”:
(NBC) […] The transcripts of interviews with Ohr and other witnesses before the joint committee investigation were sent to the Justice Department last December to be vetted for public release at the request of the outgoing GOP chairmen, Bob Goodlatte from the Judiciary Committee and Trey Gowdy from the Oversight Committee.
The Justice Department returned the Ohr transcript to the committee this week with redactions. But Collins said he was releasing a copy without those edits because the changes sought by the department did not relate to classified information or sensitive personal data. By releasing the transcript on the House floor, Collins would be protected under what is known as the Speech and Debate Clause from any reprimand. (read more)
Having read the Ohr transcript (also provided below), there didn’t appear to be any national security interests, sources or methods, beyond investigative embarrassment for DOJ and FBI, simply because of the sham of it all.
What parts did the current DOJ redact, and what would have been their justification? What did the current DOJ attempt to hide? …Maybe Representative Doug Collins could provide the redacted version, so we can find out. Curiouser, and curiouser…
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Rep. Doug Collins✔@RepDougCollins
This morning, I requested the link https://dougcollins.house.gov/ohr be placed in the record so the American people can review the transcript of Bruce Ohr’s interview.
Jim Jordan Discusses Pelosi and Schiff’s Manipulation of Michael Cohen…
March 9, 2019
Two backstory aspects frame this discussion.
♦First, Nancy Pelosi specifically set up the House committee rules to: (1) drop any committee notification for the minority; (2) drop any need for committee participation by the minority. What this first point highlights is the scale of pre-planning from 2018 (last year), for this impeachment scheme.
♦Second, the planning of Cohen as the first step in an impeachment process was entirely predictable. [SEE HERE] On a positive note, Jim Jordan appears to know the scheme.
FOIA Discovery Reveals AG Jeff Sessions Initiation Letter To U.S. Attorney John Huber…
March 9, 2019
We discovered last year that Jeff Sessions had authorized U.S. Attorney John Huber to work with the Inspector General’s office, but we did not know exact dates and scope of the original Huber investigation. Thanks to a FOIA request, some details now fill in.
A left-leaning watchdog group, American Oversight, filed a FOIA request in 2017 looking for any communication that might show former AG Jeff Sessions giving instructions to DOJ officials to target Hillary Clinton for investigations.
Ironically, and perhaps serendipitously, the American Oversight FOIA request was submitted on November 22nd, 2017, the exact date Sessions’ chief-of-staff Matt Whitaker was sending a letter to Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber. Had they waited a day, what AO were looking for would have surfaced. However, with the Sessions-Huber communication falling outside the FOIA request window, the DOJ response was delayed until yesterday.
The Sessions letter was an attachment to a email sent by Whitaker to Huber at 5:21pm on November 22nd, 2017. The AG letter to Huber requests Huber to review issues raised by the House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and return with advice. Here’s the letter:
CONTEXT – in 2017 House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte was conducting oversight and receiving testimony from witnesses concerning a possibility the DOJ and FBI had intentionally manipulated their investigations to protect Hillary Clinton. Goodlatte wrote to AG Sessions about his concerns.
At the request of AG Jeff Sessions, Asst. AG Stephen Boyd sent a responsive letter back to belay Goodlatte’s concerns explaining what ongoing review processes were in place:
The November 13th, 2017, response letter to Goodlatte was also copied to John Huber as an outline to specify the review parameters of what AG Jeff Sessions was requesting from Utah’s U.S. Attorney.
Within the November 22nd, 2017, letter to Huber, Attorney General Jeff Sessions requested: a review Chairman Goodlatte’s concerns; take note of the Boyd response letter; initiate the requested review; and recommend further appropriate action, if any, Huber might deem necessary.
Interestingly the letter states:
“Your review need not include matters that you determine are within the scope of the investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.”
So we can reasonably infer that John Huber saw the unredacted Rosenstein ‘scope memo‘ defining the parameters of what Mueller was supposed to investigate.
In broad terms Jeff Sessions was asking John Huber if the U.S. Attorney saw any reason to initiate a new or deeper investigation, and/or if any “matters would merit the appointment of a Special Counsel.”
It has been sixteen months since that letter, so we can assume Huber did not identify a need for another ‘special counsel’; and/or it would have been just an absolute mess to have two special counsels investigating both ends of the same corrupt enterprise.
Four months after this November 2017 instruction to John Huber, in March 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions faced even stronger congressional demands from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy and again House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Now people were getting frustrated.
By March 2018 most of the “spygate” corruption was visible; Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages were in the public domain; numerous Senior FBI and DOJ officials were fired, quit, demoted and outed within a bigger conspiracy afoot. The existence of DOJ-IG Michael Horowitz’s internal investigations was now widely known; congress was demanding a special counsel, and the public was looking for answers from the Attorney General…. The basic theme: what the f**k are you doing?
On March 29th, 2018, Jeff Sessions wrote to Senator Grassley, Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte telling them of the November 2017 review he initiated, and publicly informing them for the first time of U.S. Attorney John Huber working with IG Horowitz.
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Within that letter from Sessions, a very defensive Attorney General notes the prior November 2017 response to congress and his request for Huber to review all issues. Read the full letter below. (Note: this is the letter TTP is dependent upon):
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Summary: We know when John Huber was assigned to the corruption review (November 22, 2017); and we know the first scope of that review was Clinton issues (working with Horowitz); and we know the outcome the Horowitz/Huber review (on Clinton issues and FBI misconduct) resulted in a disappointing IG report, no criminal referrals [McCabe referral only related to media leaks and lying], and no special counsel.
We also know the IG/Huber review later expanded (March 2018) to cover FISA abuse.
However, we do not know what aspects of the FISA abuse the IG has investigated, if anything, or what accountability outcomes there may be, if any.
It still appears the Mueller probe is the impediment to the public releases of declassified documents and evidence; and we do not know what Huber and Horowitz have been doing for a year on the FISA abuse issues.
However, if Rod Rosenstein is actually leaving the DOJ in the middle of this month; and if he actually does leave; perhaps that indicates Mueller’s investigative roadblock is about to end… timed with the ides of March.
You decide.
Centinel2012 