“Please stay” is a cry from the SMALL GROUP plotters to remind their internal allies, running shield and defense, that Lawfare needs them to continue the resistance. The key person they need to keep on their team is DOJ Inspector General ¹Michael Horowitz.
The remarkable thing about this, inferring a certain amount of narrative desperation, is that James Comey would send such a ²message so publicly. The small group is really, really, counting on the latest development, where President Obama is getting pulled closer into their plot, to save themselves from potential legal trouble.
¹Officials within the FBI previously defended Director Wray by saying he provided all of the latest breaking documentary evidence to OIG Horowitz. If that’s factually true (very big question) then Horowitz is in the spotlight internally. That’s a hot mess to navigate.
²If there is to be a Big Ugly, today would be a really good day to monitor internal DOJ and FBI communications. Just sayin’..
While meeting with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in the oval office President Trump reacted to the breaking news about the DOJ decision to drop the case against Michael Flynn.
President Trump notes Lt. Gen Flynn was “targeted by the Obama administration”, adding “a thing like this has never happened before in the history of our country”. President Trump remarked “I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price, because they are dishonest people; they’re scum.” … “they are human scum.” “The Obama administration justice department was a disgrace, and they got caught, they got caught, they are dishonest people. But much more than dishonest, it’s treason.”
President Trump continued: “I’m very happy for General Flynn he was a great warrior, and he still is a great warrior, now in my book he’s an even greater warrior. What happened to him should never happen again; and what happened to this presidency, to go through all of that and still do more than any president has ever done in the first three years is pretty amazing when you think of it.” [WATCH]
Fantasic news. Hours after prosecutor Brandon Van Grack withdrew from involvement in the case (and all other cases), the United States Dept. of Justice has filed a 20-page motion with the court [pdf here] to drop the case against Michael Flynn.
The DOJ says in their filing there was no legitimate legal reason to interview Lt. Gen Michael Flynn; and there is no evidence that Lt. Gen Flynn lied to the FBI during their interview on January 24, 2017.
Attorney Sidney Powell was victorious on behalf of her client. Congratulations. The full filing is also embedded below.
Andrew McCarthy discusses the reason why former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had to deliver a second scope memo in August 2017 because there was no underlying crime outlined when Mueller was initiated in May 2017.
Rosenstein authorized Robert Mueller to go searching for any criminal activity.
Sweet baby Jesus, Senator Lindsey Graham must be thinking about his reelection again because he’s back to making sense mode. In this interview Senator Graham discusses the second scope memo (August 2, 2017) and actually uses a timeline to outline how the Mueller investigation itself was based on a fraud. [OUTLINED HERE]
Graham then says today’s declassified scope memo was given to him for release by AG Bill Barr… and… and… you ain’t gonna believe this, but Graham actually, finally, notes the FBI letter to the FISA court on July 12th, 2018, was based on a lie. [OUTLINED HERE]
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Last month – Amid a series of documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee [SEE HERE] there is a rather alarming letter from the DOJ to the FISA Court in July 2018 that points toward an institutional cover-up. [Link to Letter]
Keep in mind that prior to this release only the FISA court had seen this letter from the DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD). As we walk through the alarming content of this letter I think you’ll identify the motive behind the FISC order to release it.
First, the letter in question was sent by the DOJ-NSD to the FISA Court on July 12, 2018. It is critical to keep the date of the letter in mind as we review the content.
Aside from the date the important part of the first page is the motive for sending it.
The DOJ and FBI are telling the FISA court in July 2018: based on what they know the FISA application still contains “sufficient predication for the Court to have found probable cause” to approve the application.
The DOJ is defending the Carter Page FISA application as still valid in July 2018.
However, it is within the justification of the application that alarm bells are found. On page six the letter identifies the primary participants behind the FISA redactions:
As you can see: Christopher Steele is noted as “Source #1”. Glenn Simpson of Fusion-GPS is noted as “identified U.S. person” or “business associate”; and Perkins Coie is the “U.S-based law firm.”
Now things get very interesting.
On page #8 when discussing Christopher Steele’s sub-source, the DOJ notes the FBI found him to be truthful and cooperative.
This is an incredibly misleading statement to the FISA court because what the letter doesn’t say is that 18-months earlier the sub-source, also known in the IG report as the “primary sub-source”, informed the FBI that the material attributed to him in the dossier was essentially junk.
Let’s look at how the IG report frames the primary sub-source, and specifically notice the FBI contact and questioning took place in January 2017 (we now know that date to be January 12, 2017):
Those interviews with Steele’s primary sub-source took place in January, March and May of 2017; and clearly the sub-source debunked the content of the dossier itself.
Those interviews were 18-months, 16-months and 14-months ahead of the July 2018DOJ letter to the FISC. The DOJ-NSD says the sub-source was “truthful and cooperative” but the DOJ doesn’t tell the court the content of the truthfulness and cooperation. Why?
Keep in mind this letter to the court was written by AAG John Demers in July 2018. Jeff Sessions was Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein was Deputy AG; Christopher Wray was FBI Director, David Bowditch is Deputy, and Dana Boente is FBI chief-legal-counsel.
Why would the DOJ-NSD not be forthcoming with the FISA court about the primary sub-source? This level of disingenuous withholding of information speaks to an institutional motive.
By July 2018 the DOJ clearly knew the dossier was full of fabrications, yet they withheld that information from the court and said the predicate was still valid. Why?
It doesn’t take a deep-weeds-walker to identify the DOJ motive.
In July 2018 Robert Mueller’s investigation was at its apex.
This letter justifying the application and claiming the current information would still be a valid predicate therein, speaks to the 2018 DOJ needing to retain the validity of the FISA warrant…. My research suspicion is that the DOJ needed to protect evidence Mueller had already extracted from the fraudulent FISA authority. That’s the motive.
In July 2018 if the DOJ-NSD had admitted the FISA application and all renewals were fatally flawed Robert Mueller would have needed to withdraw any evidence gathered as a result of its exploitation. The DOJ in 2018 was protecting Mueller’s poisoned fruit.
If the DOJ had been honest with the court, there’s a strong possibility some, perhaps much, of Mueller evidence gathering would have been invalidated… and cases were pending. The solution: mislead the court and claim the predication was still valid.
This is not simply a hunch, because that motive also speaks to why the FISC would order the current DOJ to release the letter.
Remember, in December the FISC received the IG Horowitz report; and they would have immediately noted the disparity between what IG Horowitz outlined about the FBI investigating Steele’s sub-source, as contrast against what the DOJ told them in July 2018.
The DOJ letter is a transparent misrepresentation when compared to the information in the Horowitz report. Hence, the court orders the DOJ to release the July letter so that everyone, including congressional oversight and the public can see the misrepresentation.
The court was misled; now everyone can see it.
The content of that DOJ-NSD letter, and the subsequent disparity, points to an institutional cover-up; and as a consequence the FISC also ordered the DOJ to begin an immediate sequestration effort to find all the evidence from the fraudulent FISA application. The proverbial fruit from the poisonous tree…. And yes, that is ongoing.
Moving on…
Two more big misstatements within the July letter appear on page #9. The first is the DOJ claiming that only after the application was filed did they become aware of Christopher Steele working for Fusion-GPS and knowing his intent was to create opposition research for the Hillary Clinton campaign. See the top of the page.
According to the DOJ-NSD claim the number four ranking official in the DOJ, Bruce Ohr, never told them he was acting as a conduit for Christopher Steele to the FBI. While that claim is hard to believe, in essence what the DOJ-NSD is saying in that paragraph is that the FBI hoodwinked the DOJ-NSD by not telling them where the information for the FISA application was coming from. The DOJ, via John Demers, is blaming the FBI.
The second statement, equally as incredulous, is at the bottom of page nine where the DOJ claims they had no idea Bruce Ohr was talking to the FBI throughout the entire time any of the FISA applications were being submitted. October 2016 through June 2017.
In essence the claim there is that Bruce Ohr was working with the FBI and never told anyone in the DOJ throughout 2016 and all the way past June 29th of 2017. That denial seems rather unlikely; however, once again the DOJ-NSD is putting the FBI in the crosshairs and claiming they knew nothing about the information pipeline.
Bruce Ohr, whose wife was working for Fusion-GPS and assisting Christopher Steele with information, was interviewed by the FBI over a dozen times as he communicated with Steele and fed his information to the FBI. Yet the DOJ claims they knew nothing about it.
Again, just keep in mind this claim by the DOJ-NSD is being made in July 2018, six months after Bruce Ohr was demoted twice (December 2017 and January 2018). If what the DOJ is saying is true, well, the FBI was completely off-the-rails and rogue.
Neither option speaks well about the integrity of either institution; and quite frankly I don’t buy the DOJ-NSD spin. Why? The reason is simple, the DOJ is claiming in the letter the predication was still valid… if the DOJ-NSD genuinely didn’t know about the FBI manipulation, they would be informing the court in 2018 the DOJ no longer supported the FISA application due to new information. They did not do that. Instead, in July 2018, they specifically told the court the predicate was valid, yet the DOJ-NSD knew it was not.
The last point about the July 2018 letter is perhaps the most jarring. Again, keep in mind when it was written Chris Wray is FBI Director, David Bowditch is Deputy and Dana Boente is FBI chief legal counsel.
Their own FBI reports, by three different INSD and IG investigations; had turned up seriously alarming evidence going back to the early 2017 time-frame; the results of which ultimately led to the DC FBI office losing all of their top officials; and knowing the letter itself was full of misleading and false information about FBI knowledge in/around Christopher Steele; this particular sentence is alarming:
“The FBI has reviewed this letter and confirmed its factual accuracy?”
Really?
As we have just shared, the July 2018 letter itself is filled with factual inaccuracies, misstatements and intentional omissions. So who exactly did the “reviewing”?
This declassification release raises more questions than any other in recent memory. Perhaps AG Bill Barr will now start asking some rather hard questions to FBI Director Christopher Wray…. and DAG Rod Rosenstein.
The DOJ has finally released a less redacted version of the second special counsel scope memo, written August 2, 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The second scope memo (full pdf here) authorized Robert Mueller to target Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and an unknown entity (Richard Gates, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn Jr. likely possibilities).
The DOJ has been hiding the second scope memo behind redactions for almost three years. A heavily redacted version was released April 2018. They are finally releasing a less redaction version today (see below). Don’t forget, the DOJ has never released or discussed the third (super secret) scope memo written on October 20, 2017.
The scope memos are important because when contrast against known evidence of investigative corruption the scope memos show how targets were selected by the Mueller team and approved by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. Additionally, the scope memos show what actions Mueller’s corrupt investigative authorities were looking into.
On a personal note CTH has been like a dog with a bone on these scope memos for almost three years because it was clear the FBI investigative unit was fully aware the Russian involvement was total nonsense in early 2017. So all of these expanded scopes were based on a false premise. DAG Rosenstein was authorizing the special counsel to target people with clear knowledge the primary basis for the targeting was false. These were investigations in search of a crime.
When the 2nd scope was previously released (April 2nd 2018), page two was almost entirely redacted. Everyone knew Carter Page was primary, and now we can officially see who three additional targets were, and based on what claims: (page 2)
The strongest possibility for the remaining redaction is Richard Gates (Manafort’s partner who was never charged). However, it could be Michael Cohen, President Trump’s attorney; or it could be Michael G Flynn Jr (Mike Flynn Jr) who was also never charged.
The fifth redaction will likely be claimed as justified by the DOJ, because the person outlined was not charged with a crime. Hence the possibility of Mike G Flynn or Richard “Rick” Gates…. [It could also be Jeff Sessions]
However, with public trust in the DOJ/FBI at nil, I will not trust that traditional justification….
There is a possibility the Fifth name is redacted because it would be damaging or embarrassing to the DOJ and/or would highlight the corrupt intents of the Mueller investigation. My gut tells me this is the reason.
♦Regarding Papadopoulos: Notice how the Mueller team were claiming the possibility of “lobbying for the Israeli government”. Another FARA violation. It was non-existent because Papadopoulos wasn’t lobbying, however, it now makes more sense why the corrupt Mueller team tried to set-up Papadopouos with the $10,000 sting operation.
Papadopoulos was lured to Israel under the pretense of a contract for consultation on energy development. That’s where CIA operative George Tawil gave Papadopoulos $10,000 in cash under sketchy circumstances. The FBI was waiting for Papadopoulos at Dulles airport upon his return, and they searched for the cash without a warrant using the authority of customs, duties and a legal airport search. [More Here]
#1) Papadopoulos was lured to Israel and paid in Israel to give the outline of a FARA premise (ie. Papadopoulos is an agent of Israel). #2) Bringing $10,000 (or more) in cash into the U.S., without reporting, is a violation of U.S. treasury laws. Add into that aspect the FARA violation and the money can be compounded into #3) laundering charges.
[A “laundering” charge applies if the money is illegally obtained. The FARA violation would be the *illegal* aspect making the treasury charges heavier. Note: the use of the airport baggage-check avoids the need for a search warrant (the agents didn’t have one).]
Andrew Weissmann and Brandon Van Grack (special counsel 951/FARA expert) were conducting an entrapment scheme that would have ended up with three violations of law: (1) Treasury violation; (2) FARA violation; (3) Money laundering…. All they needed was Papadopoulos to carry the undeclared cash into the U.S.
The key aspect is the FARA violation. As we have seen in the EDVA case against Flynn’s partner Bijan Rafiekian, the DOJ-NSD bizarre interpretation of FARA laws create a violation from any unregistered purposeful business contact with a foreign entity.
What Weissmann wanted for Papadopoulos was to create the same FARA scenario that previously trapped Manafort, Flynn and Rafiekian. They intercepted Papadopoulos in Washington DC because it was the customs port of entry. Papadopoulos was ticketed to Chicago with a transfer flight at Dulles.
However, because Papadopoulos suspected something, and left the money in Greece with his lawyers, upon arrival at the DC airport the sting operation collapsed in reverse.
No money means no treasury violation, no laundering and no evidence of the consultancy agreement; which would have been repurposed in the DOJ filing to mean lobbying for Israel via Mr. Tawil (FARA 951 violation) and Tawil would have become a confidential informant and witness (though Tawil would likely never be used to testilie because the special counsel would force a plea).
That operational collapse is why the FBI agents were “scrambling” at the airport and why they had no pre-existing criminal complaint. The DOJ couldn’t get a warrant because they couldn’t tell a judge their suspect was traveling with $10k from Israel because the judge would ask how they knew that.
The entrapment’s success was contingent upon the cash as a pre-existing condition; and arriving at a Federal airport means they didn’t need a search warrant.
Note how even if Papadopoulos didn’t have the full $10k, the DOJ-NSD would only have lost the treasury violation…. they could still have used any substantial amount of money to charge the FARA part of the business arrangement by questioning Papadopoulos about where he gained the cash from. [Full Backstory Here]
♦Regarding Michael Flynn – Notice the first ridiculous point: “Committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian government officials during the period of the Trump transition.” That’s Rod Rosenstein authorizing the Mueller special counsel to investigate a Logan Act violation…. authorizing that IN AUGUST 2017? Total nonsense.
The fourth bullet point on Flynn was the claim they used against Mike G Flynn Jr. to get Lt. General Flynn to plea. This argument was later made in court against Flynn’s business partner Bijan Rafiekian (Flynn Intel Group), only to have the case totally thrown out of court by a Virginia judge; in a blistering and extremely rare judicial move.
All four points against Flynn were fabrications; but seeing them written down as to justify the fraudulent investigations is blood-boiling.
But wait… The release of the second scope memo is not good enough…
We know there is a third scope memo dated October 20, 2017, because it was outlined in the Mueller report:
This third scope memo is perhaps the most damaging of all because it was written so long after the DOJ and FBI knew the underlying claims of the Trump-Russia investigation were totally and completely untrue. Yet DAG Rosenstein authorized another expanded scope.
The October 20, 2017, scope memo will be guaranteed to show Robert Mueller asking Rod Rosenstein to authorize the targeting of Mike G Flynn and at least one other person.
If anyone from the DOJ, FBI or ODNI is reading this, please don’t think we will be satisfied with only one expanded scope memo….
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs interviews HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes about the pending release of witness transcripts from the congressional investigation in 2018.
As Nunes notes, even with the release the media have a vested interest in not covering the content of the transcripts as released; because the media along with Adam Schiff lied about what was happening during the depositions at the time.
The back-and-forth between shifty Adam Schiff and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence continues today as acting DNI Ric Grenell sends Shifty a letter saying if he doesn’t release the requested transcripts to congress, then Grenell can/will do it.
After taking control of the House Adam Schiff did not want to see the 2018 investigative transcripts released from HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes tenure as head of the committee. Becoming HPSCI chairman, Schiff told then DNI Dan Coats the transcripts were property of the House Intel Committee and must not be released. When Ric Grenell took over as acting DNI he fast-tracked the declassification review of the transcripts and prepared them for release…. Shifty went bananas.
This week Jim Jordan is again asking for the release of the transcripts, and that’s where Grenell come back into the picture willing to release them. Chairman Schiff now says his committee will re-re-review the declassification, to make sure Grenell didn’t reveal too much damaging information about the plot to take down President Trump.
As acting DNI Richard “Ric” Grenell continues to be a thorn in the side of those within the intelligence community who are trying to keep information hidden from public release. It is no surprise the Senate Intel Committee moved to hold a confirmation hearing for John Ratcliffe.
Washington DC uses the classified intelligence designation to hide everything and anything they deem adverse to their interests. If Ric Grenell keeps exposing the documents hidden within the intelligence maze, there’s a lot of sketchy deep state interests exposed by the sunlight.
The almost funny aspect to this is how Grenell genuinely doesn’t give a damn about these DC politicians and their schemes. Every time they try to operate their back-room conversations, Grenell just makes them public… and that drives the Deep State into fits of apoplexy because they are used to being in control over everything.
The intelligence apparatus and the media have been trying to controversialize DNI Grenell because they cannot control him. However, Grenell is like a modern political version of Andrew Breitbart and he uses their own Alinsky methods against them… ie. “make your opposition live up to the standards of transparency they proclaim to support”.
Ric Grenell’s approach is splendid.
Here’s the list of transcripts previously requested.
I see Democrat Senator Warner is already attacking Ambassador @RichardGrenell at Congressman Ratcliffe’s DNI confirmation hearing. A sign Grenell is doing a good job.
An interesting article from Fox News asks the question of whether Mueller’s special counsel attorney Brandon Van Grack misled Judge Sullivan in the Flynn case by not being forthcoming about the background documents under the DOJ Brady obligation.
Additionally, as a consequence of the Flynn evidence discoveries people are now asking why the FBI and DOJ did not produce these documents earlier. Representative Jim Jordan is specifically asking these questions of current FBI Director Chris Wray.
In response to the Fox News article the FBI has released a statement which itself is very interesting. Apparently the FBI Director is trying to dig himself and his institution out of a hole; but it is only getting worse. First, here’s the follow-up from the FBI.
[FOX NEWS] – After this article was published, the FBI provided a statement to Fox News saying that under Wray’s leadership, the bureau had turned over relevant Flynn materials to the U.S. attorney probing possible FBI criminal misconduct during the Trump probe, John Durham — but the FBI didn’t say when exactly the handoff happened.
“Under Director Wray’s leadership, the FBI has fully cooperated and been transparent with the review being conducted by U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, just as it has been with U.S. Attorney John Durham and was with Inspector General Michael Horowitz,” the statement read.
The FBI continued: “With regard to certain documents in the Michael Flynn matter from the 2016-2017 time period that are now the subject of reporting by the press, the FBI previously produced those materials to the Inspector General and U.S. Attorney Durham. The Flynn investigation was initiated and conducted during this time period, under prior FBI leadership.
Since taking office, Director Wray has stressed the importance of strictly abiding by established processes, without exception. Director Wray remains firmly committed to addressing the failures under prior FBI leadership while maintaining the foundational principles of rigor, objectivity, accountability, and ownership in fulfilling the Bureau’s mission to protect the American people and defend the Constitution.” (link)
The FBI statement is factually flawed on many levels and substantively false on the specifics.
“With regard to certain documents in the Michael Flynn matter from the 2016-2017 time period that are now the subject of reporting by the press, the FBI previously produced those materials to the Inspector General and U.S. Attorney Durham.
Notice how this part of the statement does not say the exculpatory documents were turned over to the Special Counsel (they were). Also notice how Wray is attempting to deflect the timing by saying they were produced to the IG and Durham.
U.S. Attorney John Durham didn’t enter the picture until May 2019, as instructed by newly confirmed AG Bill Barr. So what was the FBI doing with those documents prior to Durham in 2017 and 2018?
The prosecution of Flynn started mid-2017; and Chris Wray knew of the specific misconduct within the FBI at the same time. Remember, Wray removed James Baker from official duty as FBI legal counsel in December 2017 [LINK] approximately three weeks after the corrupt and coerced Flynn guilty plea on November 30th.
FBI Director Wray allowed James Baker remained in the FBI, in some unknown capacity, through May 4, 2018, when Baker officially resigned [LINK] By late December 2017 Wray clearly knew several FBI officials were participants in a multitude of corrupt schemes, including the prosecution of Michael Flynn.
The sheer volume of removals from the FBI outlines the extent of Chris Wray’s knowledge. Think about it….
FBI Agent Peter Strzok was removed; FBI lawyer Lisa Page was removed; FBI counsel James Baker was removed; FBI public relations officer Michael Kortan was removed; and eventually FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was removed. All of these removals surrounded discovery of their corrupt and political activity in 2016, 2017 and early 2018….
…But the evidence was not provided to the Flynn defense until April 2020?
Let’s not forget in July 2018, a full year after FBI Director Chris Wray took over leadership, the FBI lied to the FISA court about the Carter Page FISA application; and the DOJ/FBI made the ridiculous claim the FISA application was still adequately predicated.
So it seems more than a little ridiculous for FBI Director Chris Wray to justify the hidden documents by saying the FBI did turn them over to John Durham (2019) and/or AUSO Jeff Jensen in 2020; when he held back the evidence in 2017, 2018, while the underlying activity was being discovered.
Also don’t forget the original purpose of U.S. Attorney John Lausch (Chicago), yeah, remember him? In 2018 John Lausch’s entire function was to produce documents.
Additionally, if the FBI did factually turn over all of these documents to Inspector General Michael Horowitz while three distinct IG investigations were ongoing, then how did the IG claim they could find “no evidence of political bias”, when the explosive documents – specifically the Bill Priestap notes – show direct evidence of biased intent? What does that say about the fidelity of the Inspector General?
Lastly, again the construct of the Mueller investigation being used as a shield surfaces. Not only did the corrupt Mueller probe control various elements within the DOJ and FBI, but the Mueller probe as an “ongoing investigation”, shielded those documents from sunlight and discovery.
Again, Chris Wray pointing out how his institution turned over documents and evidence to Durham (2019/2020) and Horowitz doesn’t reconcile with how his FBI participated in the corrupt Mueller investigation; and it does not seem accidental in today’s defense Director Wray mysteriously omits outlining prior FBI document production to the special counsel team.
An interesting dynamic unfolds tomorrow as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) will be holding the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee, John Ratcliffe. As a result of earlier political moves the SSCI is between a rock and a hard place.
The SSCI is the drain-plug in the swamp. They use their corrupt oversight power and confirmation authority to control the intelligence apparatus (swamp guards) and ensure that no executive branch officer can disrupt or disclose their corrupt Senate schemes.
President Trump nominated Representative John Ratcliffe, an intelligence community reformer, for the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The SSCI previously rejected Ratcliffe because his existence is adverse to their interests. However, in response Trump installed honey badger Richard “Ric” Grenell as the acting DNI.
The SSCI hates Grennel with the ferocity of a thousand supernovas because Grenell doesn’t give a f**k about their swamp life. Better yet, Grenell smacks them around publicly on Twitter whenever the SSCI dispatch the orcs from the deep swamp intelligence apparatus. Every time orcs poke their heads out of the DC labyrinth, Grenell smacks them with a billion mega-watt sunlight hammer. They shriek and retreat to the dungeon.
The good news for the SSCI is that Grenell can only stay in the ‘acting’ role until September of this year. However, the bad news is if the SSCI rejects John Ratcliffe then Ric Grenell gets another year to antagonize the corrupt senators, swing the sunlight hammer & expose the darkest secrets of their beloved swamp. {{Grumble – Grumble}}
As a result President Trump has pinned the SSCI into the corner of their cave. If the SSCI rejects Ratcliffe, they are stuck with Grenell; and Ric really is a guy who doesn’t give a f**k about the SSCI’s indulgent self-interest and thirst for power.
As Senator Angus King said: “If we vote down Ratcliffe, we’re stuck with Grenell.”
[Insert Angus sad face here]
Too darned funny.
New York Times -President Trump first picked Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas to be the nation’s intelligence chief last summer, but resistance in the Republican Senate was so firm that Mr. Ratcliffe’s name was withdrawn before his nomination ever became official.
Eight months later, Mr. Ratcliffe is back. On Tuesday, he will step before many of those same lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee for a confirmation hearing to be the director of national intelligence — this time as a full-fledged nominee whose prospects have vastly improved as Republican opposition has softened.
[…] The reversal in fortune has been remarkable, even by the standards of Trump-era Washington. It arguably has as much to do with Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, as it does with Mr. Ratcliffe, officials involved in the confirmation process said.
Key Republican senators including Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence Committee chairman, are uneasy about Mr. Grenell, an aggressive defender of the president who has moved to reshape the office while making liberal use of his Twitter account to spar with the news media and Democrats. (Mr. Grenell also continues to serve as the ambassador to Germany.)
[…] Mr. Ratcliffe will say that depoliticizing the intelligence agencies would be one of his top priorities as director — a promise that could alarm Democrats who see such comments as a euphemism for pulling the agencies closer to Mr. Trump’s views.
[…] Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said he would give Mr. Ratcliffe a respectful hearing but made clear he viewed him as part of a broader attempt by Mr. Trump to politicize the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
[…] The White House has made clear the only alternative to Mr. Ratcliffe is Mr. Grenell, the acting director, who can continue in the role through September, although his term would be extended further if the Senate rejects Mr. Ratcliffe.
Even on an interim basis, Mr. Grenell has declared that he is “not a seat warmer” and set about remaking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, beginning a review aimed at shrinking the office, replacing the leader of the National Counterterrorism Center and studying whether to reduce intelligence sharing with countries that criminalize homosexuality.
Senators acknowledge that the vote could come down to their preference between the two men.
“The fellow that is the acting is just as partisan, if not more so than Congressman Ratcliffe,” Mr. King said. “If we vote down the congressman, we are still left with a partisan in the position. In effect, we are choosing between Grenell and Ratcliffe.” (read more)
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