House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his review of Inspector General Horowitz report on the background for Andrew McCabe’s firing.
With direct and specific oversight responsibility over the U.S. Department of Justice, Chairman Goodlatte is one of the key congressional leaders looking into the myriad of issues with the former DOJ and FBI officials running the agencies.
Last night Chairman Devin Nunes appeared on Fox News to discuss the release of the OIG report and investigation into fired Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Additionally Chairman Nunes discusses his request for the immediate release of five memos written by former FBI Director James Comey.
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A flood of DOJ/FBI moves, leaks and details this week highlight the desperation of an aligned group of Obama officials and ideologues which began with the FBI raid on the offices and home of Michael Cohen. All of the subsequent activity is connected.
This week began with a dramatic early-morning raid on the home, office and hotel room of a sitting U.S. president’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The week ended in equally dramatic fashion, in a packed courtroom, following numerous media leaks from New York U.S. Attorneys and FBI investigators about the content of their Cohen raid. In the big picture all of this week’s activity appears related to a coordinated propaganda strategy.
Looking up from the granules, we can see a clear and comprehensive plan to flood the zone with propaganda narratives to distract, dilute and obfuscate.
If we look at the big picture the stylistic content of the James Comey book; the timing of the release; the timing of the raid on Cohen; the leaks of scraped material from the raid to the media; all of this falls into a pattern. A strategy that was originally outlined by James Comey’s friend back in October of 2016. SEE HERE. We knew the DOJ/FBI raid on Cohen was likely a larger strategy to gather opposition research.
With the OIG reports coming rapidly to a conclusion, and with the IG reports being so detailed in their fact-outline, the “small group” is at an inflection point where their risk is growing. A larger awakening is taking place.
Knowing the connection between the FBI, DOJ-NSD, Fusion-GPS, Clinton Campaign and Christopher Steele political activity in 2016, we also pondered if the larger motive behind the raid might be connected to the use of DOJ and FBI databases to conduct searches on political opposition, and the need to hide therein.
The intelligence mistake of Michael Cohen traveling to Prague, is a direct-line thread connecting the FBI/DOJ FISA(702)(17) searches to Fusion-GPS and the Steele dossier. As such there would be a very strong motive for similarly aligned political entities within the U.S. intelligence apparatus to take strong action to cloud the connection. In short they need to lower the risk.
This week we also discovered the origin of the 2016 FBI Counterintelligence Operation against candidate Trump began as an outcome of a CIA referral connected to Australia and the U.K. In essence, fellow ideologues within GCHQ (U.K), and their Australian counterparts, worked collaboratively with the U.S. intelligence apparatus to oppose Donald Trump; and create a false narrative that would undermine the 2016 presidential election.
After Donald Trump won the election, all of the aligned intelligence entities -including Obama officials therein- were now at risk. The issues extend beyond the activity of the DOJ and FBI, and one of the trails of their collective activity ended up inside the Steele Dossier with the false fact surrounding Michael Cohen. The intelligence apparatus needs to create something, anything, that removes that connection.
As if on cue…. late the afternoon one of the leaks from the Mueller Team specifically targets this threat:
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election. (read more)
This is where it becomes critical to remind yourself of how far this group has already gone to manipulate the outcomes of the election. Do not sell these Machiavellian-mind people short. Remember, one of the key benefits of the raid on Michael Cohen was to create the architecture underneath media narratives (stories) created out of loin cloth. The actual content of evidence captured in the FBI raid is irrelevant, they only need the basic element of truth -that the raid took place- as the foundation for the downstream propaganda.
The U.K., Australia and the U.S. intelligence apparatus, foreign (cia) and domestic (fbi/doj-nsd) collaborated to influence the 2016 U.S. election outcome. As such, those same entities have a vested interest in now creating a false series of facts that remove the threat within the false Michael Cohen Prague visit.
The “small group” of Mueller activists within the DOJ and FBI need to create any alternate appearance in order to cover for the very real likelihood the intelligence apparatus used Christopher Steele to launder search outcomes from the abuse of the U.S. FISA database (NSA, FBI and DOJ-NSD). This crew needs to create a plausible way the specific Cohen event could have made it into the Steele Dossier without using U.S. intelligence databases.
The raid on Michael Cohen creates the basis for the false claims. The use of friendly foreign intelligence to potentially substantiate false claims is the plausible deniability they need. Everything is essentially propaganda.
They knew they would lose the fact battle, so they chose to fight a propaganda war.
…that’s the essential argument made by James Comey’s friend Benjamin Wittes in his plan of action written in October 2016 when he described the “insurance policy” – in his outline of what to do in the unlikely event Trump wins. You might remember that Wittes was the friend FBI Director James Comey used to leak his memos to the New York Times.
In a letter from Michael Horowitz to Senator Chuck Grassley (full pdf below) the DOJ Inspector General informs congress of multiple investigations, and multiple releases. The primary OIG investigation into the FBI and DOJ politicization will be released in May:
In the ¹footnote Horowitz outlines the Andrew McCabe report was a secondary investigative outcome of the initial investigation, and the supplemental FISA investigation will result in an additional release unattached to the primary.
Here’s the full letter:
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The OIG report on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is devastating to the “small group” and not just for what it outlines, but also for what it doesn’t provide.
There are bound to be multiple reports and discussions which will flow from an outcome of the content therein. However, here’s some of the ‘big picture’ takeaways for those who have followed the very granular details.
One of the more pertinent issues – it is now demonstrably proven that Andrew McCabe lied to FBI investigators, on several occasions, and also that he lied to the Inspector General. Note the criminally important factor here is: “lied to FBI investigators”.
On page #29, there’s some very specific and interesting details that deserve to be highlighted (emphasis mine).
We concluded that McCabe lacked candor during his OIG audio-recorded interview under oath on July 28, 2017, when he falsely stated that: (a) he was not aware of Special Counsel being authorized to speak to reporters around October 30 and (b) he did not know, because he was out of town, “where [Special Counsel] was or what she was doing” during the relevant time period. (pdf link)
It is not just the next few paragraphs that outline the scope of the attempted duplicity and fraud by McCabe, but also the footnotes.
Remember, we know specifically from congressional evidence, provided by the FBI investigative unit, the FBI took custody of the initial batch of text message between DOJ-FBI Special Counsel Lisa Page and Peter Strzok on July 22nd, 2017. It is clear those text messages were provided by Lisa Page to clear up the contradiction between her truthful statements and the lies told earlier by Andrew McCabe.
The first IG interview with McCabe takes place on July 28th, after McCabe speaks to FBI investigators and before the IG has an opportunity to understand the evidence provided by Lisa Page proving the false statements. The footnotes here are important (emphasis mine):
[Footnote #14 – Page 20] In response to review a draft of this report, counsel for McCabe argued that, in asking McCabe about the October 27-30 texts between Special Counsel and DAD regarding the WSJ article, the OIG engaged in improper and unethical conduct, and violated an allegedly explicit agreement with McCabe that when he was interviewed by the OIG on July 28 he would not be questioned outside the presence of counsel with respect to matters for which he was being investigated.
McCabe provides no evidence in support of his claim, and based on the OIG’s review of the available evidence, including the transcript of McCabe’s recorded OIG interview on July 28 and the OIG’s contemporaneous notes, as described below, McCabe’s claim is contradicted by the investigative record.
As an initial matter, at the time of the July 28 interview, McCabe was not a subject of an OIG investigation of disclosures in the October 30 WSJ article, nor did the OIG suspect him of having been the source of an unauthorized disclosure of non-public information related to that article.
The OIG did not open its investigation of McCabe concerning the WSJ article until August 31, after being informed by INSD that McCabe had provided INSD agents with information on August 18, 2017, that contradicted the information that he had provided to INSD agents on May 9.
Second, the OIG has no record that McCabe stated in advance of the July 28 interview that he was represented by counsel. Moreover, the recording of the July 28 interview shows that at no time did McCabe give any indication that he was represented by counsel. The transcript of the interview shows that the OIG informed McCabe, who has a law degree, that the interview was about “issues raised by the text messages” between Special Counsel and DAD, and that the OIG would not be asking McCabe questions about “other issues related to your recusal in the McAulliffe investigation . . . or any issues related to that.” McCabe responded “Okay” and did not articulate or request any further limitations on the questions he would answer.
The OIG added that “This is a voluntary interview. What that means is that if you don’t want to answer a question, that’s fully within your rights.” That “will not be held against you . . . .” The recording of McCabe’s interview further demonstrates that the OIG was entirely solicitous of McCabe’s requests not to respond to certain questions.
Towards the end of the interview, before beginning an area of questioning unrelated to Special Counsel/DAD texts or the WSJ article, the OIG prefaced his question to McCabe by stating “if you feel this is connected to the things that are making you uncomfortable, will you let me know?” McCabe responded, “Yes. Yeah, you can ask, I’ll let you . . . If I don’t feel comfortable going forward, I’ll let you know.”
At a later point in the interview, after answering a number of questions unrelated to Special Counsel/DAD texts, McCabe expressed a preference for not answering further questions, and the OIG did not ask further questions on the topic.
Third, McCabe’s submission mischaracterizes an October 4, 2017, email exchange with the OIG as evidencing that at the time of McCabe’s July 28 OIG interview, McCabe was the subject of an OIG leak investigation. As noted above, the OIG did not know about McCabe’s involvement in the disclosure to the WSJ at the time of the July 28 interview, and only opened an investigation into his actions related to that disclosure on August 31, 2017, after the lack of candor referral to the OIG by INSD.
Lastly, despite having been questioned at length by the OIG on November 29, 2017, about the reasons for his false statements to the OIG on July 28, McCabe never once raised any of these issues. Moreover, the same counsel who submitted on behalf of McCabe these accusations of impropriety by the OIG was present for the entire OIG interview on November 29 yet never once raised any of these issues.
McCabe had every incentive to raise these issues as early as possible, and surely on November 29, when he was represented by counsel and was asked pointed questions by the OIG about his July 28 testimony denying that Special Counsel had been authorized to speak to reporters during that time period. McCabe did not do so until nearly 7 months after the July 28 interview and nearly 3 months after the November 29 interview.
That’s a long footnote that essentially outlines the timeline of events; and effectively eliminates any affirmative defense that McCabe might attempt.
However, more importantly, note the fact the interview was recorded and transcribed…. because that leads to the more glaring point missing from the actual IG report. There is no accompanying addendum containing the transcript or the recording. Why not?
Answer: Because the transcript and recording of the interview(s) with McCabe are now evidence for a criminal prosecution.
If Horowitz’s federal prosecutor, John Huber, was not going to criminally charge Andrew McCabe for lying we would have seen the transcript. The absence of the transcript, and the intentional notation of the recordings by the OIG, indicate McCabe will almost certainly be charged. The evidence is overwhelming.
Lastly, the release of this IG report is affirming our prior expectations. There will be several releases of individual components within the larger OIG investigation. This is only the first release, and only covers one specific issue of Andrew McCabe directing leaks to the media and then lying about it to FBI investigators.
Each of these aspects is an investigation unto itself, and will likely result in a stand-alone report:
åUnlawful and coordinated media leaks РPart I (McCabe);
åFalse statements to investigators about unauthorized media leaks РPart I;
•Clinton email, manipulated investigations with predetermined outcomes;
•False testimony to FBI, congress and under oath to IG (Comey/McCabe);
•Manipulated FBI 302 reports, and/or false presentation of documents;
•Willful political corruption by Asst. Director Andrew McCabe; Director Comey etc.
•Unlawful use of FBI and NSD databases;
•Political issues within Main Justice DOJ-NSD (Carlin, McCord, Ohr, Yates);
•Issues with the FISA court; •false presentations; •source material (Steele Dossier);
•State Department involvement. •unmasking. •origination of counterintelligence op.
The issues being investigated by the OIG are massive and complex. That’s why it would be beneficial to carve-out the FISA court aspects, declassify the content, and allow those inquiries to proceed independent of the IG and federal prosecutor John Huber.
As previously stated, the FBI raid was directed by ideologues working with special counsel Robert Mueller. The intent of the FBI home and office raid upon Michael Cohen was to assemble political opposition research. The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI confiscated files, devices, and electronic data from attorney Cohen.
Predictably, we asserted, those corrupt law enforcement officials would scrape the files for any material that would damage their political opposition. They would then leak that material to the media. This is exactly what is happening. Here’s another example today:
(Twitter Link) – (WSJ Story Link)
We are now living in a post-constitutional era where the full weight of the federal law enforcement apparatus (FBI and DOJ) has been weaponized for political purposes. The United States Government is now, essentially, a Nicaragua model.
The DOJ Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, has released the investigative report of Asst. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that led to his firing. (full pdf below)
Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred McCabe’s false OIG testimony, made under oath, to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). [Full Backstory]
After a review of the IG investigation, and after discussion with Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (and counsel), the OPR recommended to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, that Andrew McCabe be terminated from employment.
This is the Inspector General report:
A picture was initially clear in March once we had the full timeline of the interviews with Andrew McCabe that led to his firing. This Fox News report only confirms the obvious; however, it’s important to review the events to fully understand the scope of McCabe’s lying and also understand the reason for Lisa Page to be so angry.
Remember, Lisa Page was a DOJ attorney assigned to the office of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe specifically to provide legal guidance. Imagine how pissed off she was when she discovered (July 2017) the Deputy FBI Director who told her to leak a story -on his behalf- to the Wall Street Journal, denied ever telling her to leak the story.
It’s no wonder why Ms. Page told FBI Agent Peter Strzok to “never text her again”, and she quit working for the Mueller team several weeks before IG Horowitz informed Mueller about the conspiracy issues (which led to Strzok’s removal).
Here’s the timeline from an assembly of media reporting and investigative releases to congress.
Andrew McCabe was first interviewed about the media leaks in May 2017. He denied. “A couple of months later” he was interviewed by Inspector General Horowitz, and he again denied. On July 20th of 2017 Inspector General Horowitz gained the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages.
•May 2017 McCabe denies leaking for WSJ story to FBI investigators (link).
•July 2017 McCabe denies again; to Inspector General Horowitz.
•July 2017 Lisa Page admits to Horowitz she was told to construct the Wall Street Journal story (Devlin Barrett, journalist). This conflicts with McCabes repeated denials. (link)
•July 20th 2017 Horowitz gets Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages (link). Proving McCabe constructed the WSJ story.
(Full back-story to text message discovery)
•August 2017: After Horowitz gets the proof McCabe was lying – McCabe follows up on the two denials saying “he may have allowed FBI officials to speak with the newspaper”. (link)
•August 2017: FBI re-interviews McCabe based on new admissions.
•November 29th 2017: One day before SC Mueller indicts Michael Flynn, IG Horowitz interviews McCabe again. Apparently this time McCabe admitted to constructing the leak. (link)
In May, June and July 2017, while FBI Deputy Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe was lying to FBI investigators and the Inspector General, Lisa Page was working for McCabe as his legal counsel.
Therein lies the heart and origin of the motive for Lisa Page to flip against the conspiracy group when she discovered Andrew McCabe lying to investigators about his instructions to her. IG Horowitz then interviews Page in July and she tells the truth, thereby contradicting McCabe. However, Ms. Page had evidence to back-up her version of the events, the text messages she delivered July 20th, 2017.
What is very clear is that the philosophy adopted by the US military post-World War II seriously threatens world peace and it diminishes the dignity of the United States. In the Cycle of War report, I provided the evidence that every single war we have engaged in has been a lie not just the invasion of Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction when it was all about oil and making money for Dick Cheney’s friends. Sadly, George Bush Jr will go down in history for being the aggressor when it would be a miracle if he even knew where Iraq was, to begin with. Then there was the fake news that Vietnam attacked the USA. Even Lyndon Johnson lied to the nation on TV and privately said the Americans were probably shooting at whales that night not a Vietnamese attack.
Even the sinking of the Lusitania was a deliberate act by the USA to justify getting involved in the war because Americans were isolationists. The Germans even took out an advertisement warning that the Lusitania would be sunk because it was using passengers as cover to move weapons to Britain. Our military sacrificed its own citizens to justify war.
Then there was Operation Northwoods where the documents have come out showing that the CIA wanted to kill Americans and blame it on Cuba to start a war. Every single war has been started with fake news all so some in the Military get to play with their toys no matter how many boys die for their games.
The critical problem we face is truly monumental. It is a vast problem that has consumed foreign policy discussions for decades. The underlying Syria issue brings to the surface the core problem. Besides the fact that it was the US invasion of Iraq that has unleashed the war in Syria since Sadam prevented the religious fanatics to ever gain a foothold. There was no civil war in Syria before removing Sadam. Mercenaries have come from all over to fight in Syria. It is not even purely a civil war.
The issue at hand is a very serious set of questions. (1) What is America’s role in the world? (2) What are America’s obligations to the world? (3) What happens if America ignores these beliefs of its role to police the world? These questions encapsulate the threat of World War III so the military gets to play with their toys one more time. They presume the USA has a divine right to police the entire world when its people were always isolationists who fled here to get away from the chaos of Europe. True, as that first generation died out, the subsequent generations forgot why their ancestors fled Europe, to begin with. Far too many just assume the USA is the policeman of the world and never question that assumption.
The military establishment looks in the mirror and sees only that they wear a white hat. They have destroyed the American dream and do not even know it.They have sacrificed the American standard of living to fund their wars. True, they defended the people against Hitler. But have they merely replaced Hitler from a power grabbing viewpoint perceiving themselves as rulers of an empire! There is no threat of an invasion by Russia or China. War has changed. The idea of conquest and occupation have faded into memory. If Russia were to take France, the French would look to them to pay their pensions. The world has changed very much.
The US military argues that America is the champion of democracy and human rights which justify its unique role in the world, or so they keep saying. They see themselves as the world’s policeman which justifies using force at will because everyone else is inherently a potential criminal. Who gave them these special powers and obligations to rule the world? Have the American people ever sanctioned such a military role over the world or agreed to reduce their standard of living to defend the entire world?
During the 1960s Presidential Debate, John F. Kennedy caused the first postwar Gold Panic. He publicly stated the truth. The Bretton Woods Monetary System was collapsing not because of a trade deficit – it was the military establishment opening bases around the world and the dollars that poured out to build these facilities and maintain them. America was squandering its wealth on the whims of the military. It was not consumers living high on foreign goods. As the Democrats raised taxes to insane levels of 94% for World War II in 1945 and back to 91% for the Korean War, with each tax hike to fund the military, more and more companies began to leave sending manufacture overseas. The military sucked the lifeblood of the nation from its veins and now interest expenditures alone for all this accumulated war debt will exceed military spending by 2019.
This very idea that America has a divine role to police the world has always been controversial. This is a highly dangerous notion for these people who always desire war see themselves as better than everyone else and that justifies the lies and manipulation of the truth to accomplish their objectives. This delusional view of American power grew with victories in both world wars. They see themselves as the savior of the world and that role must continue even when there are no aggressors threatening our future directly with invasion.
So how does a chemical weapon attack inside Syria justify US involvement? It does not. The definition of an aggressor is a use of force against another sovereign nation. Not an internal civil war. There is no absolute proof that the Syrian government even used chemical weapons. The mercenaries know the game. Like Operation Northwoods, if they kill their own people and blame Syria, then the USA will rush in and support the Islamic terrorists. We are played for fools as always.
The US military views any crisis in the world as America’s responsibility to end. They argue that the failure to do so would mean giving up some of its moral power, and that will result in America appearing weaker. But EVERY nation has a right to defend itself from civil war. Spain has abused the people of Catalonia yet Brussels and the USA remain silent. Since there are mercenaries who are not even Syrian fighting in this war, it is highly debatable if it is truly a civil war or an Islamic faction invasion of a religious war. Clearly, there is another goal here and it is really just a proxy war with Russia. It is all about a pipeline that would compete with Russia in selling gas to Europe. That is the bottom line.
Both Napoleon, Hitler, as well as Japan, all lost in war because they waged conflicts on too many fronts. When you piss off the world, you end up with too many enemies and the old saying that two enemies will unite whenever they have a common enemy. The lesson of the fall of the Athenian Empire is a blueprint of what is to come. There were internal battles politically between the oligarchy and Democracy the same as we have today between the Democrats (Oligarchy) and the Republicans (Democrats of old). They too brought charges against the leader of the Athenian Democrats, Perikles, showing that Athens was divided for their empire was too big and tempting for corruption. This is why Mueller is desperate to take down Trump. The pattern from history is uncanny.
Delian League was found in 478BC to unite against another possible Persian invasion led by Athens. But Persia, like Russia today, became too weak to ever invade and by 431 BC, Athens’ heavy-handed control of the Delian League and demand for taxes to support a military that would not be used prompted the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The League was dissolved winning its freedom upon the war’s conclusion in 404 BC under the direction of Lysander, the Spartan commander. The rise and fall of the Athenian Empire followed the same Pi frequency – 8.6-years.
It is a HUGE mistake to allow the military to dominate government and instigate this war over chemical weapons being used internally within Syria for it is just a proxy war with Russia. By the UN’s definition, it is the USA who is the aggressor, not Syria, Russia, or China. The USA has few friends and to engage in war will only lead to the same conclusion that Athens suffered. The United States cannot defeat everyone if they too ban together – your enemy is my enemy. Many outside the USA will see this a freedom from American aggression. Banning together will leave the USA in shambles and defeated. History stands as a blueprint upon which the future is determined.
Oh, heck yes. This is exactly what we have been talking about. In an interview with Neil Cavuto, Senator Rand Paul shares his opinion that President Trump should respond to the coordinated political attacks by FBI and DOJ operatives by declassifying the information underneath all their shenanigans.
Good advice. Without interfering with the IG Horowitz and parallel Proseuctor John Huber approach, President Trump should immediately begin declassifying the documents surrounding the FISA abuse scandal.
Start by declassifying the 99-page opinion of FISA Court Presiding Judge, Rosemary Collyer. Remove all the redactions and let us see who the FBI/DOJ officials were allowing to have access to the NSA database to conduct searches. Then declassify the full FISA Title-1 surveillance application used by the FBI and DOJ against U.S. person Carter Page.
If these releases of information create a need for prosecution of the people, entities and former officials behind the documents, then so be it. These documents are unrelated to the issues of the FBI conduct review of IG Horowitz, and extend outside the DOJ. WATCH:
H.R. 1865, the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017,” which makes it a Federal crime to own, manage, or operate a website with the intent to promote or facilitate prostitution. [Summary Details]
[Transcript] 11:08 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much for being with us today as we sign this crucial legislation to combat online sex trafficking and bring criminals to justice.
And the people behind me have been working on this long and hard. That’s political, as well as some of our great citizens. And we appreciate it.
I want to thank House Majority Leader McCarthy. Kevin, thank you very much. Senator Portman. Senator Portman? Thank you very much, Senator. I know you two have really been working along with Congresswoman Wagner, Congresswoman Walters — thank you very much; great job — and all of the members from both parties who worked tirelessly to pass the Fight of the Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. So we have an official name: Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: FOSTA.
THE PRESIDENT: Sounds good, right?
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: FOSTA. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You, did you work hard. (Laughter.) I also want to thank Governor Kenneth Mapp of Michigan [the U.S. Virgin Islands]. And we have — where’s Kenneth? Kenneth.
GOVERNOR MAPP: Right here.
THE PRESIDENT: Hi, Kenneth.
GOVERNOR MAPP: How are you doing, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: We got you all straightened out on that beautiful island, right? (Laughter.)
GOVERNOR MAPP: Yes, thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Governor Kenneth Mapp and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has been so great in so many ways. And good luck with your race.
SCHUETTE: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: And I think Dick Blumenthal is here. I saw Dick. So thank you very much for coming. I appreciate it very much.
SENATOR BLUMENTHAL: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: And the rest of the people are much more important because they’re not politicians. Right? (Laughter.) And, Bill — Bill Schuette, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
Most importantly, I want to thank the survivors and families who join us today. I’m signing this bill in your honor. And we are all together — politicians, both Republican and Democrat — signing this and representing this to you in your honor. So thank you all very much. We very much appreciate it. You’re very brave. (Applause.)
You’ve endured what no person on Earth should ever have to endure, and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that traffickers are brought to a swift and firm justice. And I’ve heard statistics where trafficking in the world is more now than it ever has been ever in the history of the world. And you wouldn’t believe that with, you know, modern-day everything. But they use modern-day better than law enforcement can use modern-day, whether it’s the Internet or anything else. And you wouldn’t believe that. But trafficking, it’s probably worse today than at any time in history.
So I want to thank you for your courage, and thank you for helping survivors across our country. And you are not alone. You are not alone. And this is a very important day. If we work together, we can get the criminal traffickers off our streets and off of the Internet. We can bring safety and hope to every community across the country, and we can create a culture that respects the dignity of every child of God.
So I just want to thank everybody for being here. And I think what we’ll do is I’d love to have a few of you make statements. Kevin, maybe we start with you.
MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: Well, first I want to thank you. And I want to thank all the survivors. We would not be here today if it wasn’t for your courage. And the difference that this is already making — we’ve tried for 10 years to get this bill through. You just achieved something we haven’t been able to do because, of the hundreds of thousands of children who are trafficked, 70 percent of them are online. And because of what you’re doing today, that’s already shut down. Eighty-seven percent of that is already shut down.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s fantastic.
MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: You are saving lives.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Kevin. That’s so nice. And I have to give credit to Ivanka Trump. She’s here someplace. (Applause.) She’s been a great representative, I will say.
MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: At the very beginning of your administration, she put a meeting together of all of us over there — the start of making this happen.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. Thank you, Ivanka, very much.
Rob, would you like to say something?
SENATOR PORTMAN: Mr. President, you’re correct about Ivanka. (Laughter.) Early on, she sent some personal tweets out which were very helpful to us, at a time when, to be frank, many people thought we couldn’t get here. There were people who believed that this was not the appropriate way to go, and we instead persevered, with the help of all these survivors with us today.
They kept saying, “You know, it’s unbelievable” — as you just said — “that trafficking could be increasing in this country, in this century.” And yet, it has been. And all the experts say it’s because of the Internet. So we had to deal with this issue.
And there was a federal law, unbelievably, that actually gave these websites immunity, that shielded them from prosecution or from these victims and survivors you see here being able to have their day in court. And so, they persevered.
And by signing this today, Mr. President, you will make a huge difference in the lives of so many women, girls, boys going forward. And I want to thank you for that and, again, thank the survivors who are here because they’re the ones who led this fight.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. That’s so true.
Dick?
SENATOR BLUMENTHAL: I want to thank my partner, Rob Portman. It was really a partnership in the Senate, and the bipartisanship on this issue really can provide a model for the country of how we can work together and do anything if we are together.
And I just want to add my thanks to the survivors. I’ve been working on this issue for more than a decade. And they said it literally couldn’t be done because we couldn’t overcome the power and the wealth of the folks who had a vested interest in that statute that was protecting the online traffickers. But with your help, your courage, your strength, we did it. Thank you.
MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: Mr. President, it was Ann and Mimi who put this bill together to make it get to your desk, too.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, say something. (Laughter.)
REPRESENTATIVE WALTERS: First of all, thank you to all the survivors. You have a lot of courage. It’s difficult to come forward, and we couldn’t have done this without you.
I come from Orange County, California, and last year there was a sex trafficking ring that was uncovered. As you said, didn’t know it could happen in my backyard, and it is everywhere. And I became much more involved once I found out what had happened. So I am so honored to be here today. I’m so glad that we’re now going to hold those accountable who are hurting people.
THE PRESIDENT: Really great work. We appreciate it.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: H.R. 1865, Mr. President, FOSTA.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: We are so excited. And this is landmark legislation that is truly, as the Leader said, going to save lives, and it already is. I received a text message from the Manhattan DA last night that said we have already shut down 87 percent — 87 percent — of the online sex trafficking ads out there. And we’re after the remaining 13 percent.
It’s amazing what this is going to do to give prosecutors, the Department of Justice, state and local district attorneys the ability to go after and shut down these websites and put people behind bars, give victims the justice they deserve, and to actually go to the heart of the Communications Decency Act and make sure that the courts know, that the public knows, that survivors know that it was never Congress’s intention, through CDA, to make a red-light district out of the Internet. If it’s a crime offline, it’s a crime online. And we are grateful to your leadership, Mr. President, and to Ivanka who has really led the charge in helping us bring this together.
THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much. And I didn’t know you were going to be here. You have to say — you have been so good to us. (Laughter.) I didn’t know she was going to be here. Now I’m happy.
REPRESENTATIVE FOX: Well, I just want to say, Mr. President, that we have the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the jurisdiction of the Education Workforce Committee, and we want to highlight that too. Just as Congresswoman Wagner has talked about what’s been happening, there is a resource there of the federal government, and we want people to go to that and to pay attention to it and use the center when necessary.
But hopefully, of course, we’d like to see that be able to go away because we wouldn’t have exploited children.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. That would be nice.
REPRESENTATIVE FOX: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
MAZZIO: So, Mr. President, we have a survivor. This is M.A. She was the first person to sue Backpage in 2010 and she elbowed me and would like to say something.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: From Ferguson, Missouri.
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.
M.A.: I am not a survivor. I am M.A. It’s about damn time. (Laughter and applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Bill, say something?
SCHUETTE: The credit goes to the survivors, Mr. President. Because of the leadership in Congress, and your signature, as Attorney General of Michigan, it will give me and others attorneys general and county prosecutors the ability to shut down these bad actors, the Craigslist, the Backpage. And so this is a monumental day. Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Bill. Thank you.
SCHUETTE: My pleasure. You bet.
THE PRESIDENT: I’d love to have you say something.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: Yvonne, please. She lost her daughter, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: I know that, and I heard, and it’s very special. And we’d love to have to you say a few words.
AMBROSE: I don’t want to cry in front of you, Mr. President. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
AMBROSE: This is so important to all of us, and I thank you, Mr. President, so much for signing this bill into law. It means so much to our family. To lose your child who has been trafficked, which is modern-day slavery in our country, and to get that call on Christmas Eve that your one daughter, your oldest child has been brutally murdered because she said, “no”, because she did not want to be a part of this, is the worst thing.
Unfortunately, my daughter was not the first person whom this has happened to. And thanks to you and everyone here, hopefully there won’t be many more after her that have to endure this pain. The pain that has brought on my family is unimaginable.
So I thank you, Mr. President. I thank you all to the survivors and my husband for everything that you guys have done.
THE PRESIDENT: How old was your daughter?
AMBROSE: She was 16.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, boy. We’re with you 1000 percent, okay?
AMBROSE: Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Very brave to be here.
AMBROSE: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Would anybody want to say anything? Anybody else? Anybody? Please.
SVENGARDE: Mr. President, I’d just like to thank you on behalf of my family as well. My daughter was trafficked at the age of 15. And by signing this, like Yvonne said, hopefully there won’t be too many more.
And I would like to thank all the representatives in the bipartisan leadership that it took to get this across the finish line and onto your desk.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. They really worked hard. Thank you. This was a tough one, but it was something that we got done. And it shouldn’t have been tough.
REPRESENTATIVE WAGNER: Right. That’s right.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s even tough politically, if you can believe that. But we got it done. Right, Kevin?
MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: So this is in honor of your daughter, okay? This is very important. I think we may have to give you the pen. (Laughter.)
AMBROSE: Thank you, Mr. President.
(The bill is signed.)
AMBROSE: Thank you. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank everybody. This is my great honor. I will say, the political people around the desk, every one of them — Democrat and Republican — have worked very hard. And it was surprisingly difficult. You would think it would be easy, but it was much more difficult than any of us would have assumed because people have reasons. But I personally don’t understand those reasons. This should not have been as hard and it shouldn’t have taken as long. It’s been many years in the making.
So on behalf of everybody, and just in honor of your daughter and all of the folks behind me, I want to thank you and I want to really congratulate you. This is a great piece of legislation. It’s going to make a tremendous difference.
AMBROSE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
AMBROSE: Thank you so much, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: And we have some extra pens, all right? (Laughter and applause.) Thank you all very much everybody.
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