Senator Chuck Grassley Confronts FBI and Justice Department – Asks Full Senate To Review Criminal Referral For Christopher Steele…


Wow. Massive amounts of confirmation for the ongoing strategy we outlined was underway. [Remember the batting order: Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte, Horowitz] As expected Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, steps to the plate following Devin Nunes.

We previously outlined how Senator Chuck Grassley was directly calling the bluff of the FBI when he sent a criminal referral to the justice department for Christopher Steele. Much of the referral itself was redacted and withheld from public view because it was classified.

Today, in a move with strong parallels to Chairman Nunes (House Intel Committee Memo), Senator Grassley is asking all of his senate colleagues to review the referral, and all the attached classified documents he and Senator Graham submitted to the Justice Department. Senator Grassley then went on the floor of the Senate to deliver remarks. WATCH:

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[Notes and Transcript from Grassley] I wanted to come to the floor today to talk about the Judiciary Committee’s important oversight and investigations work over the past year. There are a lot of issues that need more sunlight and scrutiny.

One of my key concerns is the loss of faith in the ability of the Justice Department and the FBI to do their jobs free from partisan political bias. The American people are rightly skeptical because of how the Department and the FBI have handled the following subjects:

1. Hillary Clinton and
2. Donald Trump and his associates.

Hiding from tough questions about these controversial cases is no way to reassure the public. If the Department is afraid of independent oversight, that just reinforces people’s suspicions and skepticism. The only real way to reassure people is to let the sun shine in and let the chips fall where they may.

In each of these cases, the government should obviously find out what happened and hold people accountable if there was any wrongdoing. But, it also has to play by the rules, and be held accountable for its actions, too. We need to shine the light of day on all of it.

As part of our investigation we have requested documents and other information from the Department of Justice and FBI. Much of that information is classified. The Department has provided very limited access to those classified materials. It has limited the Judiciary Committee’s review to the Chair and Ranking of the full committee and the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. The government has also tried to severely limit the number of appropriately cleared staff who can review documents and take notes.

We have reviewed some information related to whether the FBI used the so-called Trump dossier and the extent of its relationship with its author, Christopher Steele. As we know now, Mr. Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to research Mr. Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. His work was funded by the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Remember, it took a subpoena and a court battle with the House Intelligence committee to force that fact out into the open.

Lawyers for the DNC and Clinton Campaign officials denied it to the press for months. They lied. The founder of Fusion GPS denied that his firm was “Democrat-linked.” That was untrue. When the news finally broke, New York Times reporters actually complained that people who knew better had flat out lied to them about who funded Mr. Steele’s dossier.

But, back before the 2016 election, it is unclear who knew that Steele was gathering dirt on Trump for the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Many of his sources for claims about the Trump campaign are Russian government officials. So, Steele, who was working for Fusion GPS, who was working for the DNC and the Clinton campaign, was working with the Russians. So, who was actually colluding with Russians? It’s becoming more clear.

Mr. Steele shared his, at least partially, Russian-based allegations far and wide. He shared them with the FBI. He shared them with the media. And, according to public reports, he shared them with high ranking officials in the Justice Department and the State Department.

Well, in the course of our review, Senator Graham and I came across some information that just does not add up. We saw Mr. Steele swearing one thing in a public libel suit against him in London. Then we saw contradictory things in documents that I am not going to talk about in an open setting. And from everything we’ve learned so far, we believe these discrepancies are significant. So, we sent a referral of Christopher Steele to the Justice Department and the FBI for potential violations of 18 USC 1001.

Now, I guess people are going to say whatever they want to say about it, no matter what the facts are. But it doesn’t contribute anything meaningful to the public debate to ignore those facts or to speculate—wrongly—about Senator Graham’s motivations, or mine.

First, despite all the hubbub, this is not all that unusual. Anyone can ask for a criminal investigation. I have done it in the past when I’ve come across potential crimes in the course of my oversight work. And I have done so publicly. This situation is no different.
Second, as the Special Counsel has reminded us all recently, lying to a federal official is a crime. It doesn’t matter who is doing the lying. Politics should have nothing to do with it.

I’ve said repeatedly that I support Mr. Mueller’s work and that I respect his role. I still do. Nothing has changed. Let me say it again in case anyone missed it.

The Special Counsel should be free to complete his work, and to follow the facts wherever they lead.

But that doesn’t mean I can ignore what look like false statements. If an individual sees what might be evidence of a crime, he or she should report that to law enforcement so it can be fully investigated. That is exactly what Senator Graham and I did.

That does not mean we have made up our minds about what happened. It is possible Mr. Steele told the truth and the other, contradictory statements that we saw were wrong. But, just like any court would do, we start by assuming that government documents are true until we see evidence to the contrary. If those documents are not true, and there are serious discrepancies that are no fault of Mr. Steele, then we have another problem—an arguably more serious one.

Of course, even aside from these inconsistencies, public reports about the way the FBI may have used the dossier should give everyone in this chamber pause. Director Comey testified in 2017 that it was “salacious and unverified.” If it was unverified in 2017, then it had to be unverified in 2016, too.

So, it was a collection of unverified opposition research funded by a political opponent in an election year. Would it be proper for the Obama administration—or any administration—to use something like that to authorize further investigation that intrudes on the privacy of people associated with its political opponents?

That should bother civil libertarians of any political stripe.

Now, I wish I could talk more openly about the basis for our referral and other concerns, but right now that information is largely classified. It is controlled by the Justice Department. As I said, the Department has permitted only the Chair and Ranking of the full Committee and the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, and limited numbers of their cleared staff, to see the underlying documents.

I have been pushing for the Department to provide the same access to other Judiciary Committee Members and their appropriately cleared staffs. But the Department refuses to provide that access or even to brief the other Members on the underlying information.

Fortunately, the Department has agreed that it has no business objecting to our Members reviewing our own work. So I have encouraged our Committee members and their appropriately cleared staff to do that. Look at the memo that Senator Graham and I sent to the Deputy Attorney General and the FBI Director. Members can then make up their own minds about it. I have also encouraged them to review the Committee’s transcripts and other unclassified materials that have been available to them and their staffs for many months. Finally, I’ve encouraged them to let me know if they believe that any of that information should be made public. I believe in transparency. We may agree that certain information should be released at the appropriate time with care to preserve classified information and the integrity of the investigation.

I have already been pushing the Department to review the classified referral memorandum to confirm the memo’s classification markings so that we can release the unclassified portions as soon as possible. But now the Department has deferred to the FBI, and the FBI is falsely claiming that three of our unclassified paragraphs each contain the same, single classified fact.

Now, that surprised me, because those particular paragraphs are based on non-government sources and do not claim to repeat or confirm any information from any government document. Even if those portions of our referral did reference the allegedly classified fact at issue, it is hard to understand why that fact should be classified.

First, the Deputy Attorney General has discussed the fact at issue with me more than once in unsecure space and on an unsecure phone line. Second, the FBI is not acting as if this information would harm national security if released. FBI never notified the entities copied on the memo’s transmittal, for example, including the Inspector General and the Intelligence Committees, to ensure that fact was protected as classified.

If FBI really believed this fact was classified, then the FBI and the Department should take better care to act consistent with that belief. Unfortunately, I suspect something else is really going on here. It sure looks like a bureaucratic game of hide the ball, rather than a genuine concern about national security. I am pressing this issue with Director Wray, and I hope that we can provide this information to the public as soon as possible.

I also believe that the Department should carefully review the entire memorandum and begin an orderly process to declassify as much of that information as possible. The Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives recently voted to allow all House Members to review a short memo summarizing what it has learned. Senators are not allowed to see it. However, House Members who have seen it have been calling for a vote to release the memo.

Here in the Senate, the Judiciary Committee has access to the same information that the House Intelligence Committee saw before drafting its summary memo. Our committee does not have the same authority to release classified information. We have to rely on the agency to review and potentially declassify our memo.

Based on what I know, I agree that as much of this information should made be public as soon as possible, through the appropriate process. And, I don’t just mean the summary memos. The government should release the underlying documents referenced in those memos, after deleting any national security information that truly needs to be protected. But most of this story can be told, and should be told. The American people deserve the truth.

Stale, recycled media spin from journalists and pundits who do not have all the facts is not enough. The country is filled with frenzy and speculation, but hungry for facts. However, I cannot release this information on my own, and neither should anyone else. Classified information is controlled by the Executive Branch. We should work together to achieve the greater transparency while still protecting legitimately sensitive national security information.  (END TRANSCRIPT)

Here’s the Reposted Back Story on The Referral [January 4th, 2018]:

Yup, the walls are closing in.

In a brilliant move of strategery, Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley, and Senate Judiciary member, Lindsey Graham, send a criminal referral of Christopher Steele to the DOJ for investigation.   But things are not what they seem…

Today Senators Grassley and Graham sent a letter of criminal referral to the Department of Justice, based on information -provided by the FBI- their investigation has uncovered.

However, the actual motive for the criminal referral is not exactly what it appears.

Highlighting two pertinent passages (emphasis mine) from the New York Times article will explain what’s really going on:

[…] Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate. The committee is running one of three congressional investigations into Russian election meddling, and its inquiry has come to focus, in part, on Mr. Steele’s explosive dossier that purported to detail Russia’s interference and the Trump campaign’s complicity.

[…] The criminal referral appears to make no assessment of the veracity of the dossier’s contents, much of which remains unsubstantiated nearly a year after it became public.

[…]  Mr. Grassley’s decision to recommend criminal charges appeared likely to be based on reports of Mr. Steele’s meetings with the F.B.I., which were provided to the committee by the Justice Department in recent weeks.

It was not clear why, if a crime is apparent in the F.B.I. reports that were reviewed by the Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department had not moved to charge Mr. Steele already.

The circumstances under which Mr. Steele is alleged to have lied were unclear, as much of the referral was classified.  (full article)

Can you see what is really going on here?

The criminal referral is based on FBI reports of meetings the FBI has given to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI meetings with Christopher Steele.

Within those FBI reports (presented to the committee) are conflicting statements and accounts that do not align with known evidence.

The FBI is attributing claims to the meetings with Christopher Steele that do not match known evidence about the Steele Dossier and use therein.

Remember what Senator Graham said recently about his review of the evidence surrounding the Steele Dossier and how it was used, by the FBI in gaining the FISA warrant?  –Refresh Memory Here

What Grassley and Graham are now doing is forcing the DOJ to reconcile the conflicts between the FBI presentations to the judiciary committee -about the origin of, and their use of, the Steele Dossier-  against known evidence.

Someone is lying.

Graham and Grassley know the motive to lie about the Steele Dossier does not necessarily belong to Christopher Steele.  The motive is within the corrupt FBI.

In order to accurately prove ownership of the the falsehoods Grassley and Graham are saying: ‘If what the FBI says is true then Chris Steele is lying, because the evidence doesn’t support what the FBI previously said to us, and attributed to Christopher Steele’…

Grassley and Graham are calling the bluff of the FBI.

“Based on the information contained therein, we are respectfully referring Mr. Steele to you for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, for statements the Committee has reason to believe Mr. Steele made regarding his distribution of information contained.”  (link)

The “information contained therein” is the FBI presentation of statements and evidence the FBI is attributing to Christopher Steele.

By referring a criminal complaint to the DOJ the Senators are, in essence, forcing the DOJ to outline that material presentations by the FBI, to the committee, were false…. OR, that Christopher Steele is lying.  The former is likely, the latter not-so-much.

Additionally, by asking Rod Rosenstein (DOJ) and Christopher Wray (FBI) to investigate the conflicting evidence and FBI statements Grassley and Graham are also providing political cover for Rosenstein and Wray to showcase the corruption within both the DOJ and the FBI.

Strategery.

The walls are closing in.

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) referred the author of the “Trump Dossier,” Christopher Steele, to the Justice Department for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for false statements investigators have reason to believe Steele made about the distribution of claims contained in the dossier.

“I don’t take lightly making a referral for criminal investigation. But, as I would with any credible evidence of a crime unearthed in the course of our investigations, I feel obliged to pass that information along to the Justice Department for appropriate review,” Grassley said. “Everyone needs to follow the law and be truthful in their interactions with the FBI. If the same actions have different outcomes, and those differences seem to correspond to partisan political interests, then the public will naturally suspect that law enforcement decisions are not on the up-and-up. Maybe there is some innocent explanation for the inconsistencies we have seen, but it seems unlikely. In any event, it’s up to the Justice Department to figure that out.”

“After reviewing how Mr. Steele conducted himself in distributing information contained in the dossier and how many stop signs the DOJ ignored in its use of the dossier, I believe that a special counsel needs to review this matter. The rule of Law depends on the government and all who work on its behalf playing by the rules themselves. I hope the Department of Justice will carefully review our letter and take appropriate action,” Graham said.

Yesterday evening, Grassley and Graham delivered to Senate Security a letter and classified memorandum for delivery to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray containing information that forms the basis of the referral.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, individuals are prohibited from making false statements to the federal authorities of the United States. Grassley and Graham are referring Steele for making potentially false statements about the distribution of claims from the dossier. (LINK)

Andrew McCarthy Discusses Why Clinton Email Scandal Was Protected By President Obama Communication…


Andrew McCarthy has a worthwhile article today discussing his long-held belief that Secretary Hillary Clinton could never have been prosecuted by the DOJ due to her non-secure email communications with former President Obama, and the need for the prior administration to protect the president.

Additionally, McCarthy appeared on Fox News to discuss the same:

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At the epicenter of what Andrew McCarthy outlines is the physical action of FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap in 2016.  CTH has been pointing out this shadowy figure for almost a year.  Priestap’s appearance this week in text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page explains why.

W.H. “Bill” Priestap is the FBI Head of Counterintelligence. Priestap was one of the first FBI officials who caught our attention (spring of 2017) because FBI Director James Comey mysteriously pointed a finger upon him during testimony to congress on March 20th, 2017 [Although Comey didn’t use Bill Priestap’s name, only his position].

James Comey said last year the reason the FBI did not inform congress of the ongoing eight month counterintelligence investigation (required by congressional intelligence oversight), which began in July 2016 into candidate Donald Trump, was because Bill Priestap specifically told Director Comey not to inform congress or intelligence oversight.

That March 20th, 2017, Comey testimony -and the exponential ramifications therein- largely remained under the radar until late last year when Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes and the Office of Inspector General began presenting information that painted a very disturbing picture of the DOJ/FBI motive to keep their suspicious activity hidden.

As a result of growing concern surrounding the political endeavors of the Dept. of Justice, Devin Nunes included FBI Asst. Director Bill Priestap in his witness demand to the DOJ. According to the response letter provided by Asst. AG Rod Rosenstein, Priestap will be presented to the House Intelligence Committee soon for questioning.

Yesterday, a key aspect of Bill Priestap surfaced, in a semi-related matter, surrounding the Clinton email investigation.

In a letter from Senator Ron Johnson (Committee overseeing Homeland Security) to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Bill Priestap surfaces. [full pdf here]

On page #2, Johnson points out that prior information from the FBI showed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton communicated via email with President Obama:

(Page #2 Link)

Obviously President Obama could be at risk within the unlawful Secretary Clinton use of unauthorized and non-secure email controls. President Obama previously stated he had no knowledge of Secretary Clinton using non-governmental email.

Transparently, the fact that President Obama and Hillary Clinton were emailing each other, indicates President Obama did in fact know of Clinton’s email account structure. The electronic communication between Clinton and Obama now becomes a risk.

Enter FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap to clean up a messy issue.

From the text messaging between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Lawyer Lisa Page, we see that Bill Priestap helped create the carefully worded manuscript FBI Director James Comey delivered in July 2016 to extricate Clinton from her illegal action. However, Bill Priestap’s editorial focus was very specific:

(Page #3 Link)

It was Asst. FBI Director W.H. “Bill” Priestap, in his role within the DOJ/FBI “small group”, who removed the connection of President Obama to the email account of Secretary Clinton:

That removal is one of the more consequential changes that appears to have taken place in changing Comey’s transcript. That change held massive potential ramifications.

This is yet another indication that Bill Priestap is a key and central figure inside this conspiracy. Bill Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s direct boss.

Also, as head of FBI counterintelligence, Priestap would have to sign off on the use of Fusion-GPS (aka: Bean LLC, aka, Glenn Simpson), Crowdstrike, and/or any FBI contractor who was allowed access to, or received information from, the FBI database.

What Asst. AG John P Carlin (DOJ – National Security Division), is to the DOJ FISA-702 side of the entire operation, so too is Asst. FBI Director Bill Priestap on the FBI side of the FISA-702 operation – and much more.

Hopefully you can see a little better how each of these officials are lining up on our graphic:

The Problem Isn’t Just Corruption at the FBI and Main Justice, It’s Also The Media…


Over the past year we have learned that a significant number of people within the DOJ and FBI have been the source of leaks to the media.  Almost all of those leaks built on lies.

Reports have confirmed that FBI Director James Comey, his chief legal counsel, James Baker as well as his chief-of-staff James Rybicki have all be leaking to media outlets.

In addition, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page have been identified as leaking stories to Politico, the Washington Post and New York Times.  Adding to that mix, Asst. AG Sally Yates, Asst. AG John Carlin and a host of Main Justice officials were also participating in leaks; all leaks based on self-interest.

DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr were both in close contact with Glenn Simpson and Fusion-GPS, and that entity has admitted openly to shopping -and selling- stories to the media, under the auspices of ‘anonymous sources’.  Those financially distributed Fusion-GPS stories went to a host of friendly and ideological media outlets.

In total, hundreds of leaks from the Obama White House via, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice and the larger intelligence community staff, add up to thousands of media reports which were then re-reported by dozens more media outlets filing their reports under citations of “according to a report in (fill-in-blank)“.

Think about the scale of the reporting, and reporting on reporting, of anonymous leaks, false leaks, lies from “people with knowledge of the matter”, “government officials involved in the matter”, “people familiar with the matter”, “government sources” etc. all going in one unified and semi-coordinated direction – against the aggregate Trump administration.

We’re talking about thousands of hours of media TV pundits, thousands more columns written, and almost every scintilla of it based on originating intelligence sources -from the larger intelligence system- that are now being exposed as duplicitous and conspiratorial in the scale of their malicious intent.

This larger story-line has traveled in one direction.  The narrative has only traveled in one direction.  Each thread converging on codependent trails for collective stories all going in one direction. One big engineered narrative endlessly pushed.  Think about how far the collective media have traveled with this story over the past eighteen months.

Now, in a period of a few weeks, it has become increasingly obvious the collective journey, using all that expended effort, was going in the wrong direction.

Think about this carefully.

Do we really think, with that much exhaustive energy spent in one unified direction, that this massive monolith of media are capable of questioning their destination?

Think about it.

For context, think about how the U.S. Media writ large responded to their absolute guaranteed election outcome of November 8th 2016?

After almost two years of one-way traveling and convincing themselves of one predetermined outcome/desination, what was their response to Clinton’s loss and their getting the entire arc of the election wrong?

Did a single media outlet reset their baseline?  Did any corporate media executive demand a comprehensive reassessment of their coverage to see how they could have possibly been so comprehensively wrong?

Was there any autopsy of their own inherent institutional echo-chamber to reevaluate anything? Anything?

Were any personnel changed?  Were any executive adjustments made in the wake of their seismically wrong assumptions?  Was there a single comprehensive editorial review?

No.

Nothing.

They.Did.Nothing.

After a brief period of grief counseling amid their peer group they went right back to the exact same flawed system; used the exact same ideological perspectives; controlled by the exact same disconnected executives; and began engineering/reporting the exact same flawed and ideological broadcasts and narrative scripts from the past two years.

Not a single thing changed.

So….

What exactly do you think the American institutional media will do with a Justice department reality, within the real DOJ and FBI story, that factually ends up in a direction 180° divergent from their current year-long travel?

The media have fully invested themselves in eighteen months of narrative distribution in only one direction.  Not a single MSM entity has questioned their travel as a result of false leaks and false sources in the totality of time they have covered the DOJ and FBI story.

Nothing within their collective need to will-an-outcome, will change the media’s proximity to facts when the truthful story behind the DOJ and FBI corruption is finally exposed.  The media are so far away from the place where this story ends, they have no inherent capability to even begin to travel in the opposite direction, toward the truth.

The only way they could align with the truth is to admit that virtually every scintilla of their reportage over the past 18 months was inherently false.   There’s not a single media outlet capable of doing that.

If the media had only gone half as far in their flawed journey, perhaps an argument could be made that their return was possible.  However, they have gone so far beyond the horizon they are no longer even capable of seeing the origination point; and even if they did turn around now, it would take so long to return they would be strangers upon arrival.

Think about a New York Times, CNN or Washington Post journalist now having to accept that every column inch they have written in the past eighteen months was built upon a foundation of lies.  Do we really think such a catastrophic level of flawed ideology could ever reconstitute into genuine reporting of fact-based information?

Unlikely.  Heck, impossible.

Think about this as we read media reporting over the next few weeks.  Keep all of this in mind. I would anticipate the media’s only reasonable option is to double down on trying to convince themselves there’s another reason, some other reason, for their disconnect.

Introspection of the level needed to admit their prior gullibility and attempt recovery would be akin to Al Gore admitting to the foundational lies of man-made global warming.

These next few weeks will be very interesting.

Very interesting.

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Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte Discusses Justice Department Issues…


Cleaning up the corruption in the entire Justice Department is the legacy objective of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte who will not be running for reelection.

Chairman Goodlatte appeared on No-Points-Allowed tonight for an interview with Laura Interruptus.  Mrs. Hannity did another exceptional job using Words-In-Edgewise to chase all the pesky points away from the interview.

Adam Schiff and Dianne Feinstein Demand Twitter Investigate #ReleaseTheMemo…


The desperation of democrats has crossed into ludicrous world.  Rep. Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein have written a letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding an immediate investigation into the strong support of the #ReleaseTheMemo campaign.

If you thought CNN was absurd last year when they spent eight months investigating the 2016 election results and determined a conspiracy behind the mobile ap ‘Pokemon-Go’ was a factor in causing Hillary Clinton to lose, well, Shiff-for-brains and DiFi apparently have one-upped that conspiracy.

(Source)

 

Nice to know this is the type of insufferable stupidity Democrats in congress are focused on. Apparently, Mr. Shiff and Mrs. Feinstein cannot fathom an engaged American electorate that would be seeking transparency in government; therefore the scale of the social-media support must mean, Russians !

Echo-chambered moonbat logic thy name is…

Keep in mind these Democrats are the ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee (Schiff), and Senate Judiciary Committee (Feinstein).  Think about that.

Unfortunately for those who cling to left-wing conspiracy theories, according to early analysis from Twitter it turns out normal people just want to know what their government is doing.  The campaign is exclusive to America and U.S. accounts:

(Via Daily Beast) […] a knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo. There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.

In short, according to this source, who would not speak to The Daily Beast for attribution, the retweets are coming from inside the country.  (read more)

 

Here’s the full letter:

Russians, gottabe !!

 

Deep State, Via Washington Post, Fights Back and Defends Andrew “Andy” McCabe…


By now everyone should be fully aware that the Washington Post is the media PR firm selling the position of the intelligence apparatus.  Tonight the WaPo rises in defense of Asst. FBI Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe by pushing a ridiculous -and anonymously sourced- story about President Trump asking McCabe who he voted for in 2016.

(WaPo) Shortly after President Trump fired his FBI director in May, he summoned to the Oval Office the bureau’s acting director for a get-to-know-you meeting.

The two men exchanged pleasantries, but before long, Trump, according to several current and former U.S. officials, asked Andrew McCabe a pointed question: Whom did he vote for in the 2016 election?

McCabe said he didn’t vote, according to the officials, who like others interviewed for this article requested anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive matter.

Trump, the officials said, also vented his anger at McCabe over the several hundred thousand dollars in donations his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton.

McCabe, 49, who had been FBI deputy director for a little more than a year when James B. Comey was fired, is at the center of much of the political jockeying surrounding the investigation into potential coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin. He has for a number of months been the subject of Trump’s ire, prompting angrytweets suggesting that the Russia probe is politically motivated by Democrats sore about losing the election.  (read more)

 

The transparency of motive here is hilarious.  The Washington Post is desperate to try and get some kind of push back established while many of the current, and all of the former, FBI and DOJ leaders are coming under investigation.

The Washington Post has staked their journalistic reputation on the Russia Collusion story.  There’s no possibility of any successful exit from two years of completely false reporting through the use of corrupt anonymous sources; some of those FBI sources we now know were Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey and Andy McCabe.

Senator Ron Johnson Claims FBI “Informant” Has Information About Secret DOJ/FBI Meetings…


Senator Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has been investigating FBI activity surrounding the Clinton email investigation.

Tonight during an appearance on Fox News, Senator Johnson claimed to have an FBI informant who has information about secret ‘off-site’ meetings between high-level FBI and DOJ officials. WATCH:

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Earlier today Senator Johnson released copies of text messages (full pdf below) between DOJ/FBI attorney Lisa Page and FBI Lead Investigator Peter Strzok which indicated the FBI agent saw no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and was reluctant to join the Special Counsel Robert Mueller team because “there’s no big there there.”

(Via Chuck Ross) […] In an interview with WISN-Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber, Johnson read aloud a May 19, 2017 text that Strzok sent to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress.

Strzok wrote: “You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern that there’s no big there there.”

“In other words, Peter Strzok, who was the FBI deputy assistant director of the counterintelligence division, the man who had a plan to do something because he just couldn’t abide Donald Trump being president, is saying that his gut sense is that there’s no big there there when it comes to the Mueller special counsel investigation,” he said.

The text message was included in 400 pages of text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page. Lawmakers have started reviewing the trove of documents for evidence of anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias. (link)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/369815742/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-QkCQyo4Tg0mzTH2nm7sm

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FBI “Small Group” Key Figure, James Rybicki, Quits – Here Comes The Lois Lerner Manuever…


James Rybicki [Hi, Jim] was former FBI Director James Comey’s chief-of-staff and retained that position under current FBI Director Christopher Wray (more on that later).

Rybicki was the key figure in circulating and coordinating the “Clinton Exoneration Statement” read by Director Comey.  For Clinton endeavor Rybicki was the hub collecting and dispatching communication as the ‘talking points’ were constructed, edited, refined and ultimately finalized.

Additionally, Rybicki was the communication hub surrounding the Clinton-Lynch ‘Tarmac Meeting’ discussion points that led to public statements therein by the FBI and ultimately Loretta Lynch’s public statements about distancing herself from the investigation.

Also, James Rybicki was listed as one of the key witnesses requested by Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes as outlined in the letter of agreement between Nunes and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.   James Rybicki was/is being questioned by Nunes et al.

So today, James Rybicki quits.

WASHINGTON DC – FBI Director Chris Wray announced Tuesday that his chief of staff, James Rybicki, is leaving the bureau.

Rybicki, who served in the same position under former FBI Director James Comey, had come under scrutiny from Republicans in recent months about his role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Rybicki was not fired. His departure, they said, has “been in the works for awhile.”

“Jim Rybicki notified me last month that he will be leaving the FBI to accept an opportunity in the corporate sector,” Wray said in a statement. “While this is an exciting move for the whole Rybicki family, Jim will be dearly missed by the FBI family – and by me personally.”

Wray added: “His many years of dedication to the bureau and DOJ, his level-headed judgement and earnest professionalism, and his steady good cheer have been an asset to us all and have contributed greatly to the safety and security of our nation.”

The FBI director said he tapped attorney Zachary Harmon to replace Rybicki.  (read more)

Some people are needlessly defrosted over the way Christopher Wray presented the exit of Rybicki, looking to cast aspersions against Director Wray for not kicking Rybicki in the teeth now, or prior.  Don’t buy into that nonsense. THINK.

Think strategically.

Chris Wray is an expert in prosecuting ‘white collar’ crime.  He is a ‘Machiavelli Tracker‘, a pro wolf hunter.  A very smart man.  Hence, his nomination and his role.

Director Chris Wray knows the key to capturing the fish is to keep them within the distance of the casting net.  Keeping the “small group” participants within government, yet under full control, is a part of the strategy.  [ See James Baker for example ]

Each of the co-conspirators is much easier to handle, control, monitor etc. if they are within ‘the system’.  It is much harder to plead the fifth when you are required by your official duty to be accountable to government investigation(s).

Director Wray knows it’s easier to monitor the entire network if the actors within the network are retained within the organization while the investigation continues to gather evidence against them.

Do not assign illicit motives to Director Wray or buy into media narratives that are intended to create confusion and chaos amid the team of White Hats.  Remember, corporate media have a vested interest in hiding the overall scheme; they helped to create it….

President Trump and USTR Lighthizer Levy Tariffs on China (Solar Cells) and South Korea (Samsung Washing Machines)…


President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer followed through on the trade commission study from last year showing evidence of dumping in the U.S. market.  Samsung anticipated this final outcome and is almost finished with their plans to manufacture washing machines in South Carolina.

Washington, DC – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today that President Trump has approved recommendations to impose safeguard tariffs on imported large residential washing machines and imported solar cells and modules.

USTR made the recommendations to the President based on consultations with the interagency Trade Policy Committee (TPC) in response to findings by the independent, bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that increased foreign imports of washers and solar cells and modules are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers.

“These cases were filed by American businesses and thoroughly litigated at the International Trade Commission over a period of several months,” said Ambassador Lighthizer. “The ITC found that U.S. producers had been seriously injured by imports and made several recommendations to the President. Upon receiving these recommendations, my staff and I conducted an exhaustive process which included opportunities to brief in person and through public comments, public hearings, and meetings with senior representatives.

Based on this information, the Trade Policy Committee developed recommendations, which the President has accepted. The President’s action makes clear again that the Trump Administration will always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses in this regard.”

For imports of large residential washers, the President approved applying a safeguard tariff-rate quota for three years with the following terms (read more)

Suniva, SolarWorld and Whirlpool were helped by a 1974 trade law that lets companies seek trade protection if they can show damage from a rise in imports.  Prior administrations’ stopped using the law in the mid 1990’s, President Trump reconstituted the process in 2017 as part of his overall overall trade-plan.

Up to certain levels, imports of solar cells will be exempt from the tariff, while the first 1.2 million imported large washing machines will get a lower tariff, peaking at 20 percent.

Congress has no authority to change or veto Trump’s decision. Countries affected by the decision can appeal to the World Trade Organization.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their purchased DC politicians are apoplectic:

Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Republicans need to understand that tariffs are a tax on consumers. “Moms and dads shopping on a budget for a new washing machine will pay for this — not big companies,” Sasse said in a statement.

Rep. Trey Gowdy and Rep. John Ratcliffe Discuss Missing FBI Text Messages…


Representative Trey Gowdy (U-DC), and Representative John Ratcliff (R-TX) appeared on Fox News with Martha MacCallum to discuss the five months of missing FBI text messages between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page.

[05:12] “It makes it harder and harder for Chairman Gowdy and I to explain away one strange coincidence after another”.

Hmmm?  Now, why would Roosterhead want to “explain away“?  LOLOL. These UniParty knuckleheads are so transparent.  THIS is why they are not part of the current team.

Moving on…  Timing of missing Strzok-Page texts:

♦Start date: 12/14/16: same date WaPo cites unnamed intel officials stating… wait for it… Russians tried to hack election for Trump.
♦End date: 5/17/17: same date Mueller is named Special Counsel. (Timeline)

Also, the mention of a DOJ “Secret Society” reminds me of: …”One small group calls itself “Dumbledore’s Army,” according to two of the people who were familiar with their discussions. The name is a reference to a secret resistance force in the “Harry Potter” books.”… from the CFPB crew.