House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes sat down for an interview with Sharyl Attkisson for Full Measure News.  They discussed the HPSCI Russia probe, the FISA Court abuse and the ongoing investigative reviews of corruption within the DOJ and FBI.  [The VIDEO is Here]  The transcript is below.

Much of what Chairman Nunes outlines is a recap of current position; however, his response to the discussion of former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power is quite a shift. Mr. Nunes doesn’t see how it is possible -within the actual framework of the compartmented intelligence system- for anyone else to be using Power’s name for unmasking requests…..  {{{suspicious cat alert}}}

[Transcript] There are numerous investigations going on, but one of them, at least, is coming to a close. That is the House Intelligence Committee investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion. As of today, that Republican-led investigation hasn’t turned up any improper ties to Russia, but has revealed something perhaps larger and even more serious. We asked to sit down with both the top Democrat and Republican on the committee, only the Republican chairman Devin Nunes agreed.

Sharyl: What is the investigation that the House intelligence committee is covering?

Rep. Devin Nunes: Well we have a Russian Investigation going on whether or not there was collusion between any campaign and the Russians. That’s coming to a close. We’ve never had any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Sharyl: So you’re comfortable with saying at this point, you don’t see anything there?

Rep. Devin Nunes: No, There’s nothing there.

Sharyl: What else?

Rep. Devin Nunes: So in that investigation, we’ve unearthed things that are very concerning. We know that there are un-maskings that occurred and probably were leaked to the media. So this is, so these were, this is an intelligence products that were put together. The names or the names of the Americans were masked.

Sharyl: Because it’s so sensitive, Americans aren’t supposed to be spied on by our intelligence agencies. So when they are captured, their names are-

Rep. Devin Nunes: Are masked-

Sharyl: Right, Masked, inside the government.

Rep. Devin Nunes: And what we found was happening is, in the last administration, they were unmasking hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of American’s names. They were unmasking people for what I would say, for lack of a better definition, were for political purposes.

Sharyl: How could they use that information?

Rep. Devin Nunes: We have no evidence, that they leaked this information, okay. We only know that we only know this. That names were unmasked. And those names ended up in the newspaper.

Sharyl: In a derogatory sense, in terms of political enemies of the Obama Administration.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Right, it’s like political dirt to create a narrative and a spin with the mainstream media.

Sharyl: You reported what you learned early on, on the unmaskings to President Trump and were criticized by a Democrat counterpart of the committee, Adam Schiff. Who said you quote, Made a midnight run to the White House, where you misrepresented where you received the information. There was an ethics investigation into that, and you were cleared. But how would you answer Adam Schiff’s criticism that you behaved improperly?

Rep. Devin Nunes: Well most of the time I ignore political nonsense in this town. What I will say is that all of those stories were totally fake from the beginning. When I got that information okay, which was not at midnight. I didn’t jump out of any cars. That was totally fake. It was all made up nonsense. I went out and held a press availability, where I told the press, Look, I’ve, I found this information. It has nothing to do with Russia. I’m going to go explain this to the President of the United States. Because I’m the only one that really can do it. And then I went and did that. Briefed the President. Afterwards, I went and talked to the press at the White House. So my reward for transparency, total transparency with the with the media and everybody involved was to be brought up under a false ethics accusation. That has since everyone’s learned was total nonsense and it’s been dismissed.

Sharyl: On the unmaskings, one very tangible bit of evidence that to me looks like a crime. Is the fact that the US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. It looked like she had made a masking request on a near-daily basis. Which is amazing in 2016. It’s pretty incredible. Yet she reportedly told Congress, most of those were not really her.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah.

Sharyl: Wouldn’t that mean somebody committed a serious National Security Crime if they used her name to request unmaskings of US Citizens?

Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah, so we don’t know what the truth is there. I think it would be, I think it’s highly unlikely that she was not the one who was giving permission to make those unmasking requests.

Sharyl: So you don’t believe her?

Rep. Devin Nunes: I just don’t know how that’s possible.

Sharyl: There appears to be a serious conflict of interest that the intelligence community, FBI, who are in charge of the investigation some of these things, are implicated in some of these alleged misdeeds. How do you get around that? How can this be investigated fairly, when the only prosecutorial authority really rests with the people accused of wrongdoing?

Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah and I think what you’re, and now what you’re getting into is the FISA abuse. So I want to, I think we want to make sure we make that change, the difference there. So there was unmaskings that we unearthed, then there are the FISA abuse that we’ve discovered.

Sharyl: That’s the secret court. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, where intelligence officials can go to try to get wiretaps on US citizens or foreign actors.

Rep. Devin Nunes: That’s right. And so this is where the FBI and the Justice Department because they’re involved in this FISA Abuse. Because they’re the ones who make, to go before the secret court to get the warrants, they’re all involved, they’re all implicated in this.

Sharyl: But the most you can do about it to be clear, is to just raise the issue. Congress can’t prosecute or refer cases for prosecution.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Congress can, right. Congress can make criminal referrals. Congress can

Sharyl: To the people accused of wrongdoing in this case.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Right, right. So there’s really nowhere for it to go. And that’s I think a lot of people. We are a separate equal branch of government, but we don’t have the ability to prosecute people. And that’s the challenge.

Sharyl: Why is the Carter Page wiretap interview so important? Carter Page is the former Trump volunteer, advisor, who was wiretapped apparently, at least four times. Three times by the way, apparently after President Trump was elected. Why is that wiretap so important?

Rep. Devin Nunes: It really boils down to this. You had a campaign. The Hillary Campaign and the Democratic Party went out and paid for dirt. They got it from Russians by the way. Then they used that dirt and funneled it into the FBI. The FBI then used that dirt to get a warrant on a US citizen who was part of the other campaign. A limited role, yes. But still, to do that, it’s wrong.

Sharyl: We asked your Democrat counterpart Adam Schiff for an interview, but he wouldn’t do it. He said that the memo that you put out was misleading and omitted material facts.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Because we didn’t want to disclose any sources and methods. We tried to reduce the memo down to what we believed the American people needed to know. What was most important? So we put in the memo, the things that were used before the FISA court in order to justify the warrant. Was there other information? Sure. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t important in terms of the justification of the warrant.

Sharyl: Congressman Adam Schiff says, your goal is to put the FBI on trial, and to put special council Bob Mueller’s investigation on trial.

Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah, well FISA abuse has nothing to do with, with the Mueller investigation. As it relates to Department of Justice and the FBI, if they need to be put on trial, we will put them on trial. The reason that Congress exists is to oversee these agencies that we created. DOJ and FBI are not above the law. Congress created them, we oversee them, and we fund them. And if they’re committing abuse for a secret court, getting warrants on American citizens, you’re darn right that we’re going to put them on trial.

Sharyl: What would you say is the takeaway?

Rep. Devin Nunes: And I think people are just starting to learn now what really happened. Because as we peel more and more of this back, I think more and more Americans get educated. And I think that they’re gonna demand that changes are made. [Link to Transcript and Video]

The polished guardian of all things swamp sits down for the annual discussion of current terms with the self-appointed emissary of full-throated conservative thought.  You can decide which is which.

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.”

– Machiavelli

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo interviews former Special Counsel Ken Starr surrounding the Mueller Trump/Russia investigation and the 36-page indictment surrounding Russian election interference. Ken Starr directs attention toward the OIG investigation by Michael Horowitz and the evidence of FISA court corruption.

This outline is mostly a repost because it hits on the central framework of an obvious dynamic being missed by almost everyone within the larger discussion.

On December 2nd, 2017 (not accidentally ONE DAY after Mike Flynn’s guilty plea was announced), part of the intelligence community –sources inside the investigative unit– outlined specific examples of DOJ/FBI political corruption. The revelations surrounded FBI Agent Peter Strzok, FBI lawyer Lisa Page and DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr.

The month of December 2017 brought to light everything within the larger storyline of a corrupt domestic intelligence apparatus filing for a fraudulent FISA ‘Title-1’ surveillance application, and outlined the process of the DOJ and FBI spying on the Trump campaign. This entire enterprise was/is white-hats fighting back against corrupt black-hats.

In the aftermath, the FBI responded to media inquiry; and the DOJ responded to the revelations (December 3rd release) by specifically pointing attention to the Office of the Inspector General and Michael Horowitz (emphasis mine):

The January 2017 statement issued by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announcing its review of allegations regarding various actions of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in advance of the 2016 election stated that the OIG review would, among other things, consider whether certain underlying investigative decisions were based on improper considerations and that we also would include issues that might arise during the course of the review.

The OIG has been reviewing allegations involving communications between certain individuals, and will report its findings regarding those allegations promptly upon completion of the review of them.”

~ Justice Department Office of the Inspector General (link)

Just to emphasize the Black Hat -vs- White Hat dynamic for a moment; we must all remember:

♦The Friday December 1st, 2017, announcement of the Flynn plea was the Friday media narrative maneuver by Mueller’s hate-scheme (small group of black-hat bastards).

Team White-Hat was pissed. They responded immediately.

♦The Saturday December 2nd, 2017, announcement of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and the bold outline of the conspiracy was an immediate Saturday morning response by the white-hats.

♦Sunday December 3rd, 2017, a full-court-press against the evildoers included the white-hats referring back to the OIG investigation. No-one, repeat *NO-ONE*, was talking about that year-long OIG investigation until December 2nd, and 3rd, when the good guys decided enough was enough…. and they began to lay down the atomic sledgehammer against Mueller’s corrupt team with daily stories, congressional notes and massive ammunition for Chairman Nunes (House Intel), Chairman Grassley (Senate Judiciary), and Chairman Goodlatte (House Judiciary).

Notice none of the investigative ammunition was ever given to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (chairman) and Mark Warner (vice-chair), because Team White Hat knew the Senate Intelligence Committee was corrupt, complicit and willfully blind.

The larger public audience didn’t know the scope of the Senate Intel Committee corruption until recently – when Senator Warner’s secret collusion with Christopher Steele was outed and the entire Senate committee was shown to have been hiding their knowledge therein.

Yeah, there’s a fight going on inside the intelligence apparatus and that fight has been waged for years. However, throughout 2017 the good-guys had been laying low, gathering intel, conducting an investigation and playing their cards close to the vest.

No-one in media knew a thing about what Horowitz and his team were doing until Horowitz and his team decided to let them know. No-one was talking about the IG investigation until immediately AFTER Flynn took a plea deal -under false pretense- and the good-guys came forward with a continuous stream of day-in and day-out information.

Bringing us to where we are today… and there’s still so much more to come.

Ignore misinformation from people who have not been paying VERY CLOSE granular attention to the nuance and detail. There is zero sunlight between the politicization investigation (the origin), and the weaponization investigation (the parallel investigative outcome); both investigative tracks are in synergy.

As soon as IG Horowitz discovered unlawful activity within the DOJ and FBI, he had an ethical and legal responsibility to take action. He was obligated to inform his DOJ boss.

We all know when that moment was reached, but we can only see it in hindsight.

In June/July 2017 when Horowitz informed Special Counsel Robert Mueller of the Page-Strzok text messages, that was the moment when the IG investigation shifted from looking at internal wrongful conduct to discovering an unlawful conspiracy.

From that moment of unlawful discovery, the IG had a responsibility to report the illegal activity he and his team discovered. From that very moment DOJ leadership then initiated a parallel legal and prosecutorial authority to work hand-in-glove with Horowitz.

It is NOT ACCIDENTAL at that very specific time back in 2017, Attorney Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats held a press conference initiating a new joint task-force inside the DOJ and FBI to look at these issues. However, at the time we didn’t know what that joint-task force was specifically about.

We can see it now.

It wasn’t until December, January and February when a full review of all historic activity could be possible; and a timeline review is clear. That timeline includes Asst Attorney General Rod Rosenstein telling Chris Wallace (August 2017) he was assembling the team as instructed by AG Sessions and DNI Coats.

Again, the IG discovery of specific illegal activity is what has transparently initiated a prosecutor within the DOJ to parallel track with Horowitz, which we see visibly with cooperation by: Bill Priestap (FBI), Bruce Ohr (DOJ), Peter Strzok (FBI), Lisa Page (DOJ) and James Baker (FBI Legal Counsel). Each of these individuals remains inside their respective unit, yet each of these individual has been completely removed from their authority. In essence, they are holding down empty chairs:

“They are sat down, told to not do anything, say anything or discuss anything UNTIL they get an attorney. At which time, the attorney is handed a letter from the investigating unit. That letter says in essence, this is how screwed you are. If you want to be less screwed you will sign this letter of cooperation and assist us. When we don’t need you, you sit there. When we do we will call you and you will provide what we need. Any deviation from this agreement lands you in jail for the full term.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions sat down with Maria Bartiromo for an extensive discussion on ongoing issues.  Topics include immigration reform, FISA court abuses, the DOJ and FBI corruption investigation(s), and more.  WATCH:

President Donald Trump, accompanied by First-Lady Melania Trump, traveled to Broward Health North Hospital in Pompano Beach, Florida, to visit some of the shooting victims from Marjory Stoneman High School and thank the doctors, medical staff and first responders.

President Trump delivered brief remarks to the traveling press pool while colluding with Dr. Igor Nichiporenko and discussing the hospital’s efforts.

The specificity here is pretty damning.  The FBI released a stunning admission today admitting they received prior a specific warning about Broward County Nikolas Cruz and his threats to carry out a school shooting.  The FBI took no action.

WASHINGTON DC FBI – On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.

We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said:

“We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”  (link)

The backdrop of this admission is especially troublesome as the FBI previously also admitted they were forewarned about the Tsarnaev brothers in the Boston Marathon Bombing 2013 and did nothing; and perhaps even more disturbing was the prior warning about the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooter Omar Mateen.

[…] Mateen’s background, however, was checked again by G4S in 2013 after the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office requested he be removed from the St. Lucie County Courthouse patrol after he allegedly made derogatory comments to a deputy.

A deputy at the courthouse mentioned the Middle East to Mateen, who reacted by threatening the deputy, said Sheriff Ken Mascara, who attended the Wednesday night meeting at the community’s Island Club.

“Omar became very agitated and made a comment that he could have al-Qaida kill my employee and his family,” Mascara said Wednesday. “If that wasn’t bad enough, he followed it up with very disturbing comments about women and followed it up with very disturbing comments about Jews and then went on to say that the Fort Hood shooter was justified in his actions.”

The FBI launched an investigation into Mateen after Sheriff’s Office officials reported the incident to the agency. As part of its investigation, the FBI examined Mateen’s travel history, phone records, acquaintances and even planted a confidential informant in the courthouse to “lure Omar into some kind of act and Omar did not bite,” Mascara said. The FBI concluded Mateen was not a threat after that, Mascara said.  (read more)

Obviously the apparatus of the bureaucracy within the FBI needs a top-down review and re-focus.

WHITE HOUSE – Earlier today, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, which began in 2014 before the President declared his candidacy. President Donald J. Trump has been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.

President Trump says, “it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.” (read more)

There is a particular transparency in timing as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘Russian Interference in U.S. Election‘ investigation on the same day as the FBI is forced to admit they made massive mistakes from reports against the Parkland Florida school shooter.

The thirteen indictments are based on very weak structure. Here’s the DOJ Announcement; and here is Rod Rosenstein’s press conference. Specific wording is used tactically to generate maximum value; however, when you peel back the onion skin and look at the actual indictment itself (full pdf below) there’s not much ‘there’ there:

.

The indictment itself is full of fluff and clearly presents itself as political posturing.  The Mueller investigation had to find something, anything; and what they came up with reflects how little substance exists.  This is one of those examples where it pays to read the actual indictment; and contrast the facts laid out against the method of salesmanship and parseltongue. It is not a difficult read – even Boris and Natasha could do it.

Example: “unwitting Trump campaign official” is really  – A single New York volunteer campaign worker agreed to give some signs to a pro-Trump rally.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/371682469/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-V5DvZrJBotkjuts8SlvA

.