Episode 4886: Phase One Of Unmasking The Never Trumpers; Are We Prepared For A Massive Conflict


Posted originally on Rumble on Bannon War Room on: October 29, 2025

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy Vows to Organize and Lead the Trump Resistance Movement in Senate


Posted originally on the CTH on December 1, 2024 | Sundance

When asked if Democrat Senator Chris Murphy knows how he will vote on Kash Patel, if nominated, Senator Murphy says not only is he a “no,” but he will also organize and lead the upper chamber effort against President Trump’s nominees.  WATCH:

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Can Congress Really put Trump on Trial to Impeach him?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jan 24, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: You said the impeachment may be illegal because Trump is no longer the president. Do you think it will still go on?

DK

ANSWER: We are in the twilight zone. An impeachment trial is limited to the removal from office. It is not a criminal proceeding. The Democrats are going after Trump on so many levels demanding his tax returns on a fishing expedition. The Chief Justice is supposed to preside over the impeachment of a president. Here is the real question. Will he attend? It would seem that Trump would be able to appeal to the Supreme Court on many grounds. I am not sure that Chief Justice Roberts would even attend since Trump is not the president and therefore it would seem to be unconstitutional on its face.

If they go ahead with such a trial yet Chief Justice Roberts does NOT attend, it is without any authority of law whatsoever. If I were Trump, I would appeal to the Supreme Court, and then what kind of a constitutional mess have the Democrats created when Trump would never be convicted in a court of law under the Brandenberg test of a high crime or misdemeanor?

This entire exercise seems to be a staged event for the sole purpose of convicting Trump and then banning him from ever running again. Even if he were found guilty in a criminal setting and was in prison, he could still run for president, even though that would be highly unusual. From a legal perspective, a criminal conviction is not a bar from political office.

Trump’s Impeachment Trial set for February 8th


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jan 23, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

I always find it very interesting how our model picks up key targets in time in advance and then the fundamentals unfold to fit the computer forecasts. Schumer has just set the date for the trial of Trump to start February 8th. Our model had forecast that the week of the 4th would be more important than the week of the 18th and the inauguration. That proved to be correct. Now the turning point into the week before the trial and then the Panic Cycle the week of the 15th after the trial are very curious. I am fascinated by how the fundamentals unfold to fit the model all the time. This trial may do far more damage to the country than the Democrats realize.

The Democrats are deliberately trying to divide the country and they believe that they can utterly destroy Donald Trump and somehow that will put an end to the Republican Party and all resistance. I have repeatedly warned that this anti-establishment movement pre-existed Trump. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time. By putting Trump on trial, there were many Republicans who did not like Trump. However, the Democrats run the risk of now making Trump a martyr securing that he will have influence over the party going forward. Is this intentional or just stupidity?

This entire process is flawed constitutionally. The impeachment process is limited to removal from office and he is already not the President so their power states clearly he must be in office. There is some precedent that holds he could be tried if he resigned from the office. But he did not. Additional constitutional flaws exist whereby the vote in the House all members were not present and their vote was simply cast in a proxy. Then he is to be impeached for high crimes or misdemeanors which he did not commit under the First Amendment free speech test set forth in Brandenburg vOhio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). Then it is a fundamental law that neither the president nor any member of Congress can be prosecuted for anything they say while in that office.

Furthermore, it is now clearly supported by the evidence that the siege of the Capitol was set in motion and pre-planned before Trump took the stage. They already breached the Capitol while Trump was still speaking. Under this test, then Pelosi and Schumer should be impeached for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement where there were skids of bricks pre-delivered for the purpose of looting businesses which is a crime. This is a politically staged event for the sole purpose of dividing the country but they are playing with fire. We have even AOC telling CNN that she does not “feel save” simply because there are Republican members of Congress because a Republican Congressman has a concealed weapon he was carrying. Nixon resigned and could have been put on trial in the Senate yet everyone agreed, it would not serve the interests of the nation.

The Democrats wanted to put on a huge show with the National Guard to create the image that Trump’s supporters were all wild people dressed as cavemen who turned out to be the NY son of a Democrat judge and his buddy waving a Confederate flag. But many National Guard turned their back to Biden pulling what the Democrats did to Trump – He’s Not My President! Facebook said this was false and they were ordered to turn their backs. That is debatable since the video does not show all troops turned their back. When the Japanese troops did that to the US occupation forces when the high command drove through the streets of Tokyo. All the citizens turned their backs on the convoys because there they were never allowed to look upon the Emperor. When the Democrats realized that Trump had 70% support among the military rank and file, they ordered the National Guard to vacate the Capital complex where they were sleeping and told them to sleep in a parking garage.

This is what people call a real “shit-show” and it is only further dividing the nation. The Democrats actually hope that putting Trump on trial will lead to civil unrest (reliable sources) and they will order to shoot to kill when they told police to stand-down with the Black Lives Movement/Antifa riots. They really are trying to destroy the Republican Party and take over the country once and for all. This is the insane determination of the left which always emerges for their solution can never accept opposition – they must force everyone to comply with their ideas.

This is clearly fulfilling the forecast of our computer that the end is coming for the United States. It is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. You cannot have a free nation when you subjugate 50% and force indoctrination upon them of their left philosophy as was the case with the Communist Revolution. I wish we could just split the country and all those who voted for Biden move to one side. But the problem is their philosophy will not tolerate even a separate nation that does not comply with their demands.

This is why we have this international movement of BUILD BACK BETTER which was instigated by Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum. This has all been well-orchestrated globally from DAVOS.

Beijing Bribery – Bartiromo Releases Exclusive Segment With President Trump: “Deep Seated Corruption” and DC “People are Protected”


Posted originally on The conservative tree House on October 25, 2020 by sundance

During an interview segment with Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson discussing the Chinese pay-offs to the Biden family, Ms. Bartiromo plays an audio soundbite from President Trump outlining the motive for DC to blame Russia not China.

As noted by President Trump the DC system cannot use China as the foil for their political attack narratives because Beijing has used financial schemes as an intelligence operation to compromise most of the more influential politicians.   The Chinese payments to Joe Biden and family are only one example; there are likely dozens of high-powered DC politicians who have taken bribes from the Chinese Communist Party; thus DC has willfully created a corrupt system of mutually assured destruction… ergo they must ignore.

Once you realize that Beijing has paid-off top level DC politicians for influence operations, you are well positioned to think about how much the Chinese Communist Party has paid to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Donohue inc etc.  Once that light-bulb goes off you start to rethink the background motives for the number one lobbyist in Washington DC… and then suddenly a lot of things make a lot more sense.

(Source – Open Secrets)

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Once you start to realize is that “lobbying” is merely the mechanism, then you can see how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the bag-man.

♦ Hunter Biden was the bag-man for the Biden family gathering up payments from foreign entities, laundering them through false businesses, and then redistributing the payments to the family members.

♦ Tom Donohue is the bag-man for the Chamber of Commerce gathering up payments from foreign entities, laundering them through the chamber, and then redistributing them to the DC politicians from K-Street.

It’s the exact same process.

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(2018 – Open Secrets)

And remember, it’s the lobbyists who actually write the legislation.

The Plot Against the President


Armstrong Economics Blog/Conspiracy Re-Posted Oct 17, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

The Mysterious October 20th DOJ Targeting Memo Finally, Quietly, Released – Weissmann Made Rosenstein Take Ownership of Michael Flynn Targeting…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on October 16, 2020 by sundance

On June 3, 2020, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss his role in how Main Justice was operating while Andrew Weissmann’s special counsel was in charge.   What he said in that hearing never quite made sense until yesterday.

Those who closely followed the arc of the Weissmann/Mueller investigation; and those who joined us in following that investigation; already knew the SCO was in complete control from May 2017 to April 2019.  Everything taking place inside the DOJ in the two years of the Mueller/Weissmann probe was completely and unequivocally controlled by the Weissmann team.  Few journalists have ever grasped the ramifications of that control.

That control included every release and non-release of information during their two year tenure.  However, Rosenstein’s tone when questioned about the scope memos he authorized during the special counsel time-frame was very odd in that June hearing.

Rosenstein had a very guilty conscience and it was on full display as he attempted to justify his action.  You see, there was always a missing scope memo from October 20, 2017, that no-one in the DOJ ever discussed.  The nature of the scope memo was mentioned by Weissmann and Mueller in part of their Russia report; but until yesterday it was hidden.

Here is the only mention of the October 20, 2017, scope memo prior to yesterday:

As you can see above the special counsel’s office used that October 20th scope memo to expand their investigative authorities.  Specifically the second redacted name is very important because this specific memo authorized Andrew Weissmann to target Michael Flynn Jr as pressure to coerce a guilty plea from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn a month later.

During his apologetic senate testimony Rosenstein told congress he never questioned the authority of the special counsel team and never once questioned their “investigative process“, those are his words.  Additionally, Rosenstein testified he signed all the scope memos because he felt it was his “responsibility” to facilitate the SCO needs regardless of what they requested; and every request was considered an “investigative process” by him.

Yesterday the mysteriously avoided October 20, 2017, scope memo was finally released to Catherine Herridge from the Senate Homeland Security Committee (Chairman Ron Johnson).  Within the scope memo we can now see exactly what reference point Rosenstein was carrying during his June testimony.

The scope memo was written by the special counsel’s office and the last page shows the motive and intent of Weissmann’s crew.  Notice the tone and direction of the memo as that aspect also conveys a message; and do not overlook the specific phrase “jointly undertaken activity.”  That approach was used by the SCO to target Flynn Jr.:

Notice Andrew Weissmann gave Rod Rosenstein the option, literally the physical option line, to approve or deny the widely expanded scope of the special counsel authority.

In essence this approach forces Rosenstein, in material and documentary form, to take ownership of the outcomes of the special counsel…. OR create a written documentary form that could be used against Rosenstein (via media allies) if he did not agree to expand the scope and authority of the special counsel.

Yes folks, Weissmann created “an authorized get out of jail free card“.  WATCH:

Considering the amount of praise AG Bill Barr heaped upon Rosenstein; which explains why the DOJ kept this scope memo buried; and considering the implications of this expanded SCO authority that was granted by Rosenstein; this explains the tone during the June hearing.

Senate Intel Committee Releases FBI Interview Notes of Bruce Ohr – Nellie Ohr Thumb Drive Likely Connected to Circular Verification of Dossier…


Posted originally on The Conservative tree House on October 14, 2020 by sundance

I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this release, because the Ohr 302’s were previously released, except to point out some interesting aspects.

First, the timing, content and sequence of the specific documents being released are interesting.  Almost like someone is paying attention.  The original release of the Bruce Ohr 302 interview notes was in August 2019 to Judicial Watch. The release today is of the same information in a better quality.

Secondly, in both sets of released documents the name Dan Jones has been redacted.  It appears the redaction is made under the auspices of “sources and methods”; however, Jones was a former SSCI lead staffer, so the redaction appears to be one of institutional concern and self-preservation.

The last interview of Bruce Ohr (May 15th, 2017) took place two days prior to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Throughout the interviews Bruce was acting as the go-between from his both his wife Nellie at Fusion-GPS and Fusion’s contract agent Christopher Steele.

Third, The content of the December 2016 thumb-drive given to Bruce by Nellie is discussed within the interview notes but not released. 

Why? Possibility/Probability:

(A) The Nellie research will align almost identically with the content of the Dossier; and (B) the Nellie research was used as verification of the dossier itself. See the recent release of verification documents. [SEE HERE]  In essence the source information for the Dossier was used to validate the dossier conclusions…

….It’s the same damn material. That’s why Nellie Ohr took the Fusion-GPS header off the top of the material she provided.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=thelastrefuge2&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1316438074931507201&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2F2020%2F10%2F14%2Fsenate-intel-committee-releases-fbi-interview-notes-of-bruce-ohr-nellie-ohr-thumb-drive-likely-connected-to-circular-verification-of-dossier%2F&siteScreenName=thelastrefuge2&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

Here’s the SSCI Release Today:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/480057685/content?start_page=1&view_mode&access_key=key-oxxrjZQJKtx1Qf47KbwcView this document on Scribd

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Remember, the New York Times even tried to lie about Nellie Ohr working on the dossier.

(article link)

Unexpectedly for the journalists who participated in the scheme, Bruce Ohr told congress the truth about his wife’s work history. Yes, Nellie Ohr worked on the Dossier:

Kim Strassell – […] Congressional sources tell me that Mr. Ohr revealed Tuesday that he verbally warned the FBI that its source had a credibility problem, alerting the bureau to Mr. Steele’s leanings and motives. He also informed the bureau that Mrs. Ohr was working for Fusion and contributing to the dossier project.

This is a key point {GO DEEP} and one that highlights the severity of how far the media is willing to go in their effort to protect the deep state enterprise and engagements in 2015 and 2016.  Mrs. Nellie Ohr was not only a Fusion GPS contracted employee, she was also part of the CIA’s Open Source Works, in Washington DC (link)

Both Mr. and Mrs Ohr worked on a collaborative CIA group project surrounding International Organized Crime. (pdf here) Page #30 Screen Shot Below

When you overlay the timeline with the demonstrable activity, it becomes transparently easy to see exactly what was taking place.

Dan Jones was working with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS.  Fusion-GPS contracted with Nellie Ohr in “late 2015”.  This is the exact same time when thousands of unauthorized “contractor searches” were taking place within the NSA/FBI database.  This is where the Ham radio comes in handy to receive information from database extraction.

Nellie Ohr then sends research outcomes to Chris Steele for the dossier assembly; and the dossier is then laundered back to Bruce Ohr and FBI for use in their operation against the Trump campaign.   Meanwhile Simpson and Jones are leaking to the media who are writing articles…. Nellie then captures those articles to validate material in the dossier; puts the citations on a thumb-drive and gives it to Bruce… Again, it’s the same damn origin.

All of this originates back in late 2015 when the FBI was allowing contractors, many of whom were likely in contact with journalists -via Dan Jones and Glenn Simpson- to have access to the databases within the NSA.  This is not conspiracy theory, this is a factual conspiracy.

The Laundry Operation – Bruce Ohr Left DOJ Shortly Before Being Terminated: Likely in July…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on October 14, 2020 by sundance

An interesting note from Catherine Herridge today outlines that DOJ official Bruce Ohr resigned from the FBI shortly before being terminated as a result of the IG report on his activity:

As TechnoFog notes, this resignation is likely tied to this Office of Professional Regulation announcement on July 24th of this year:

OPR received a referral from another Department entity regarding allegations that a senior Department attorney failed to apprise his supervisor of his interactions with a law enforcement agency and a source concerning the subject matter of an ongoing high-profile investigation.

Although the attorney eventually recognized the need to inform his supervisor, who was overseeing the investigation, of his involvement and provided some information about the general topic, the senior Department attorney failed to provide a complete disclosure of his role as a conduit of information between the source and the law enforcement agency. As a result, the supervisor was unaware of the attorney’s activities related to the investigation until learning of them through other means.

OPR opened an inquiry, which it converted into an investigation, focusing on the attorney’s incomplete disclosures to his supervisor about his ongoing activities related to the source and the law enforcement agency. Following its investigation, OPR concluded that the attorney committed reckless professional misconduct by providing materially incomplete information to his supervisor, which constituted a misrepresentation.  (LINK)

Bruce Ohr was part of the laundry operation for Fusion-GPS and Chris Steele’s dossier.

Bruce’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was working for Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS feeding information to Steele for the Dossier assembly.  Steele then transmitted the same information back to Bruce who then received and provided it to FBI investigators giving the patina of an official intelligence product.

The FBI wrote interview notes with Bruce Ohr from a series of 15 interviews.  Those “302’s” were later released as part of the information showing how the operation was being handled.  Despite receiving a $28,000 bonus for his efforts, Bruce Ohr was demoted twice and then seemingly remained employed in some unknown capacity within the DOJ as the months and years progressed.

Note, analysis of the Bruce Ohr 302 documents is complex because the investigative notes need to be reviewed as simply one overlay in a series of timelines and documents.

That means taking the Ohr 302’s (the content as a timeline) then comparing/overlaying them to: (1) the Bruce Ohr emails with Chris Steele; (2) the text messages with Peter Strzok and Lisa Page on the same dates as the Ohr interviews; (3) the text messages from SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and Steele’s lawyer Adam Waldman; (4) the content of the Comey memos; and (5) what was going on -inside the DC investigation- at the time these interviews were taking place.

It’s a layered onion with markers that align at specific points and tell a much bigger story. Example below.

As Bruce Ohr is discussing the possibility of the “SIC” (Senate Intelligence Committee) traveling to the U.K. to interview Steele, you cross reference the committee Vice-Chair Mark Warner text messages (w/ Steele’s lawyer Adam Waldman) and the Ohr interview substance gives you the bigger picture of the conspiracy:

Now overlay Democrat Senator Mark Warner (SIC) attempting to organize a meeting with Christopher Steele without “a paper trail”, during the height of the effort to organize the ‘soft-coup’ impeachment evidence.

Keep in mind as you review, SSCI Mark Warner attempting covert contact, for the expressed political purpose of conducting a ‘soft coup’….. the Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mark Warner, is also a member of a very specific group known as the oversight “Gang-of-Eight”; and has contact with the most sensitive and secret covert government operations.

This is why the Weissmann/Mueller team needed to water-down the explosive connection between the activity of Warner and the SSCI to the overall operation.  This is why Weissmann/Mueller released those text messages on Feb 9, 2018, to coordinate a cover-story for the back-channel communication.

In those March 2017 text message you can see Senator Warner attempting to set up covert “no paper trail” communication with dossier author Christopher Steele. Adam Waldman represented Chris Steele and Steele’s employer, Oleg Deripaska.

Less than a month later you can see within the text messages that Christopher Steele is in direct contact with Dan Jones. “[Chris] said Dan Jones is coming to see you” etc.

(Text Messages Between Feinstein’s replacement, Mark Warner, and Chris Steele’s lawyer/lobbyist, Adam Waldman, noting the importance of Dan Jones)

Dan Jones talking to Christopher Steele in 2017 is critical to understanding what was going on after Trump won the election.

Jones raised $50 million from those who were behind the 2016 stop Trump effort, and the purpose was now the 2017 impeachment effort [SEE LINK]. Jones having left the SSCI (now outside govt.) then paid Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS to keep up their efforts. As you can see from the texts, Jones was now talking in person (“coming to see you”) to SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner in April 2017.

[Side-Bar: The role of Fusion-GPS in 2017 shifted, and was now weighted toward feeding a specific media narrative that would aid impeachment (through the FBI, Weissmann and Mueller obstruction angle). Fusion-GPS was now the conduit for arms-length media leaks from the usurping small group still inside the DOJ and FBI. Dan Jones was paying Fusion on behalf of those with larger interests. Fusion was feeding the media.]

So you can clearly see the SSCI was heavily involved in the impeachment effort after the election.

Documentation of the connection between the DOJ, FBI, Fusion, Glenn Simpson and Dan Jones shows up in the FBI investigative 302 notes of Bruce Ohr, released by Judicial Watch. [Pay attention to the May 8th, 2017, interview – pg 18, 19 of pdf]

The highlighted bottom portion of page 18 (May 8, 2017, interview) shows a heavily redacted text, but holds enough material to overlay with other research.

This is where Bruce Ohr is talking about Dan Jones efforts as they were currently aligned with Fusion GPS: “and had been on the staff of the [Senate Intelligence Committee]”…. “At the time of the interview [Jones] was working with the [Vice Chairman of the Committee Mark Warner]”… etc.

This part is heavily redacted because the corrupt agents within the current DOJ and FBI once again don’t want people to piece together what was happening.

This is not sources and methods being redacted. This is not national security being redacted. This is the trail of the connective tissue in/around the small group plotting that is being hidden.

At the top of page 19, the investigative notes of Ohr’s discussion continues.

Bruce Ohr is telling the FBI investigator about Glenn Simpson and Dan Jones visiting Christopher Steele sometime after May 8, 2017, and they were in the process of “lawyering up”.

Now before going deeper in the SSCI weeds, let me pause and explain the specifics behind why the FBI was interviewing Bruce Ohr about Chris Steele; by overlaying what was going on in/around early 2017.

Chris Steele wasn’t alone in creating the “dossier”. Heck, the purpose of Fusion-GPS contracting Steele; and the purpose of the FBI engaging with Steele; was the laundry value of having a known intelligence officer validate political opposition research which the FBI could use against Donald Trump. The reality is: most of the raw material and research inside the dossier was from Dan Jones, Glenn Simpson and Nellie Ohr at Fusion GPS.

The ‘small group’ inside the DOJ and FBI always knew the provenance of the material; the plan and intent was to utilize Fusion-GPS for their political purposes.

Everyone carrying out this operation, all of the corrupt entities within it, knew the material from Chris Steele was essentially political opposition research. Many of those same people later weaponized the research into the FISA application to give it higher import and value.

That set’s up early 2017 – where the FBI was evaluating the extent to which Chris Steele was willing to remain on public record to support a false framework about the dossier itself. This is the same time-frame where Fusion is being paid by Dan Jones to facilitate the calls for a special counsel. Fusion drives that narrative with structured leaks to media.

Steele’s support was a key issue because the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials were about to hand-off the dossier to Special Counsel Robert Mueller (figurehead only) as the basis for the ‘small group’ and him to launch the special counsel aspect of an ongoing operation.

If Chris Steele suddenly walked away from the dossier, and/or admitted publicly the dossier was political opposition research primarily from Glenn Simpson and Nellie Ohr, the FBI would have a shit-storm on it’s hands…. and they needed to evaluate the position of Steele. Steele could be a risk if he was not supporting the team playbook. That’s the driving purpose behind all of this “re-engagement” with Steele through Bruce Ohr.

The small group in the DOJ and FBI planned to continue, pass-off and modify the Trump investigation by shifting it to a special counsel. The centerpiece of that investigation would be using the dossier as justification for a need to investigate Trump as a Russian risk. The DOJ/FBI small group needed Glenn Simpson and Chris Steele to stand by the false narrative all of the players had assembled over the prior year.

The wildcard to retain the false story was Chris Steele… Steele was an outside participant, albeit aligned with the ideology and the purpose. Evaluating Steele’s willful participation in keeping the narrative as assembled was the reason for their urgent talks; however, the “small group” couldn’t run the risk of direct talks in the same way that Mark Warner couldn’t risk of a paper trail.

Adam Waldman and Dan Jones were facilitating a plausibly deniable information pipeline from Chris Steele to Senator Mark Warner. Bruce Ohr was facilitating a plausibly deniable information pipeline from Chris Steele to the FBI/DOJ small group. The purposes were the same, everyone needed assurances Steele wasn’t going to back-out.

That corrupt planning activity is what the current DOJ officials have always been hiding behind the Bruce Ohr 302 redactions.

Trump’s Tweet Didn’t Declassify Anything, White House Says


President Donald Trump boards Air Force One prior to departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Oct. 12, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One prior to departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Oct. 12, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

Re-Posted from The Epoch Times BY IVAN PENTCHOUKOV October 14, 2020 Updated: October 14, 2020Print

The White House told the Department of Justice (DOJ) that President Donald Trump’s tweets about declassifying “any & all documents” related to the Russia probe and the Clinton-email investigation did not actually declassify anything.

The Justice Department disclosed the message from the White House in a filing before a federal court on Oct. 13. The DOJ was responding to a motion in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking the release of the interview summaries from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit asked the court whether Trump’s declassification should be taken to mean that the records sought are now declassified.

“The president’s recent statements on Twitter referencing the ‘declassification’ of information were not an order to the Department of Justice to declassify the materials in this case,” the Justice Department told the court. “The Twitter statements do not constitute a self-executing declassification order.”

The FBI finished processing and redacting over 4,000 pages of typewritten interview summaries from the Mueller investigation on Oct. 1, according to the filing. On Oct. 6, Trump sent a pair of tweets suggesting that he has ordered the declassification of all Russia-probe and Clinton-email records with “no redactions.”

“I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!” the president wrote.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ivanpentchoukov&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1313640512025513984&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Ftrumps-tweet-didnt-declassify-anything-white-house-says_3538683.html&siteScreenName=EpochTimes&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

“All Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago. Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!”

Despite the president’s statements, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in subsequent days released several heavily redacted documents related to the Russia probe.

Two days after the tweets, the plaintiffs in the FOIA lawsuit—Buzzfeed and CNN—filed an emergency motion arguing that the president’s statements entitled them to the information they sought. The court ordered the government to explain if this is the case and to “confer with the White House in order to advise the court as to the White House’s official position regarding the declassification and release to the public of information related to the Russia investigation.”

The White House told the Justice Department that the president’s tweets “were not self-executing declassification orders and do not require the declassification of any particular documents,” according to a declaration filed with the government’s response.

Epoch Times Photo
Special counsel Robert Mueller speaks on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington on May 29, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“The department was further informed that the president’s statements on Twitter do no require altering any redactions on any record at issue in this case,” the declaration states.

Trump has for years lambasted the FBI’s investigation of his campaign, which evolved into the Mueller inquiry. As part of the investigation, the FBI sent spies to target members of the campaign and obtained an intrusive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on a former campaign adviser. The FISA applications were riddled with errors and omissions implicating the entire chain of command at the bureau, according to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. In obtaining the warrants, the bureau used an unverified dossier compiled by a British ex-spy who was ultimately paid by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

The FBI investigation was also clouded by an anti-Trump bias among key FBI officials involved, including Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, who texted about stopping Trump from becoming president and an “insurance policy” in the unlikely event he won the election.

Despite a myriad of malfeasance, many of the underlying records remain either partly classified or have not yet been released, making it impossible for the public to judge the full context of what occurred. The redactions and selective declassifications have also fueled criticism from the president’s opponents. Former CIA Director John Brennan on Oct. 6 accused the Trump administration of selectively declassifying agency records for political gain.

“It is appalling his selective declassification of information that clearly is designed to advance the political interests of Donald Trump and Republicans who are aligned with him,” Brennan told CNN.

Obama and Brennan
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) nominates chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director at an event in the White House on Jan. 7, 2013. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, at the direction of the president, on Oct. 6 released two pages of heavily redacted handwritten notes (pdf) taken by Brennan on a briefing he provided to President Barack Obama in late July 2016.

Brennan’s notes describe an intercept of Russian intelligence claiming that Hillary Clinton approved a plan to stir up a scandal about then-candidate Donald Trump by linking the Trump campaign and the alleged Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee.

Alongside the notes, the DNI released a heavily redacted three-page memo (pdf) dated Sept. 7, 2016 from the CIA to the FBI which stated that Clinton’s plan was meant to distract the public from the Clinton-email scandal.

The vast majority of both documents was blacked out prior to release, blocking any efforts to ascertain the full context of the portions released to the public.Follow Ivan on Twitter: @ivanpentchoukov