Responding to criticisms made by Hillary Clinton, President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani discusses the political landscape after the Weissmann/Mueller report; including the sketchy Ukrainian connections to the origin of the fiasco.

Perhaps the weaponization of the NSA database was the biggest research project we ever took on.  That said, CTH prudence requires a lack of commentary.  For a background on this story see the [“SIDE NOTE“] previously presented HERE.  “The candle is not worth the flame.”

(WASHINGTON DC) The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages, saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.

The recommendation against seeking the renewal of the once-secret spying program amounts to an about-face by the agency, which had long argued in public and to congressional overseers that the program was vital to the task of finding and disrupting terrorism plots against the U.S.

…”It is up to the White House, not the NSA, to decide whether to push for legislation to renew the phone-records program. The White House hasn’t yet reached a policy decision about the surveillance program, according to the people familiar with the matter.

The White House National Security Council and the NSA declined to comment.”…

[…] In remarks over the past month, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the NSA and chief of U.S. Cyber Command, has declined to offer specifics about the status of conversations about the metadata program, but he has acknowledged officials are reviewing whether it is necessary.

“It’s a collaborative process, and the administration will make the decision,” Mr. Nakasone said this month at a Marshall Forum event in Washington. “We are taking a look at it, what is the value of it, what are we able to get from it…I think the question becomes, is this a tool that we continue to need to have for our nation’s security?” (link)

May God continue to bless Admiral Mike Rogers…

Do not go about your day without contemplating the scale of this decision; and more importantly the ideological shift on the freedom continuum.  97% of our nation will have no comprehension of the importance of this story.

One of the hurdles in revealing the scale of the story behind the abused FISA process are the current interests of the intelligence community.  Those who benefited from the abuse of the system have used “national security interests” as a shield to avoid revealing the history of Obama-era political surveillance and spying.

However, if the intelligence apparatus says they no longer want/need the surveillance system; that is, the specific aspect used for prior abuse; well, the shield is removed;… and, as a consequence, the history of how the NSA database was abused for political spy operation can then be revealed.

Love to all.

Wolverines !!

[U.S. DOJ] […] Candace Marie Claiborne, a former employee of the U.S. Department of State, pleaded guilty today to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States, by lying to law enforcement and background investigators, and hiding her extensive contacts with, and gifts from, agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in exchange for providing them with internal documents from the U.S. State Department.

[…] According to the plea documents, Claiborne, 63, began working as an Office Management Specialist for the Department of State in 1999. She served overseas at a number of posts, including embassies and consulates in Baghdad, Iraq, Khartoum, Sudan, and Beijing and Shanghai, China. As a condition of her employment, Claiborne maintained a TOP SECRET security clearance. Claiborne also was required to report any contacts with persons suspected of affiliation with a foreign intelligence agency as well as any gifts she received from foreign sources over a certain amount.

Despite such a requirement, Claiborne failed to report repeated contacts with two agents of the People’s Republic of China Intelligence Service, even though these agents provided tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and benefits to Claiborne and her family over five years.

The gifts and benefits included cash wired to Claiborne’s USAA account, Chinese New Year’s gifts, international travel and vacations, tuition at a Chinese fashion school, a fully furnished apartment, a monthly stipend and numerous cash payments. Some of these gifts and benefits were provided directly to Claiborne, while others were provided to a close family member of Claiborne’s.

In exchange for these gifts and benefits, as stated in the plea documents, Claiborne provided copies of internal documents from the State Department on topics ranging from U.S. economic strategies to visits by dignitaries between the two countries.

Claiborne noted in her journal that she could “Generate 20k in 1 year” working with one of the PRC agents. That same agent at one point tasked her with providing internal U.S. Government analyses on a U.S.-Sino Strategic Economic Dialogue that had just concluded.

Claiborne, who confided to a co-conspirator that the PRC agents were “spies,” willfully misled State Department background investigators and FBI investigators about her contacts with those agents, the plea documents state. After the State Department and FBI investigators contacted her, Claiborne also instructed her co-conspirators to delete evidence connecting her to the PRC agents. She was arrested on March 28, 2017, following a law enforcement investigation.

Judge Moss scheduled sentencing for July 9, 2019. Claiborne, of Washington, D.C., was ordered detained pending sentencing, but will self-surrender for said detention on June 5, 2019. (DOJ Link)

Link to Plea Agreement.

Original Criminal Complaint Below:

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