President Trump will not be attending the White House Media Awards event again this year. According to Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, who has feuded with several media personalities and organizations, will not attend the White House Correspondents’ Association annual black-tie dinner for the second straight year, the president of the group said on Friday.
[…] “The White House has informed us that the president does not plan to participate in this year’s dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment,” Margaret Talev, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said. (link)
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Jeff Sessions today notified all U.S. Attorney’s Offices along the Southwest Border of a new “zero-tolerance policy” for offenses under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), which prohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien. The implementation of the Attorney General’s zero-tolerance policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security reported a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018, and a 37 percent increase from February 2018 to March 2018—the largest month-to-month increase since 2011.
“The situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable. Congress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest—that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border. As a result, a crisis has erupted at our Southwest Border that necessitates an escalated effort to prosecute those who choose to illegally cross our border,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“To those who wish to challenge the Trump Administration’s commitment to public safety, national security, and the rule of law, I warn you: illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice. To the Department’s prosecutors, I urge you: promoting and enforcing the rule of law is vital to protecting a nation, its borders, and its citizens. You play a critical part in fulfilling these goals, and I thank you for your continued efforts in seeing to it that our laws—and as a result, our nation—are respected.” (read more)
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on Bloomberg News to discuss U.S-China trade confrontations, the use of tariffs, and the potential for negotiations between the two nations:
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Obviously – with the ongoing issues surrounding NAFTA, and China’s exploitation of the fatal flaw therein, in combination with President Trump confronting the dragon behind the false Panda mask, the fight for MAGAnomic America-First policy execution is entering a new phase….
The multinational interests who benefited from the prior U.S. global trade approach are increasingly desperate. There are trillions at stake.
Most of the ‘vast-Russian-conspiracy‘ media presentations seem to start with a discussion of intelligence gathering beginning in July of 2016. The GOP convention to nominate Donald Trump was July 18-21st of 2016.
Adding to the July 2016 origination narrative FBI Director James Comey stated the counterintelligence operation against candidate Trump began in July 2016. However, not a single MSM entity has looked at the FISA-702(16)(17) abuses by the FBI and DOJ-NSD outlined by the FISA court and NSA well before July 2016.
It is a matter of unclassified public record the FBI and DOJ-NSD were allowing “contractors” to conduct searches of the FBI and NSA databases, and extract raw intelligence, throughout 2015 until April 28th 2016 when NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers shut down all access and initiated a compliance review.
Any objective review of that time period indicates (strongest likelihood) the search activity was political ‘opposition research’ for the 2016 presidential election. With hindsight of the FBI and DOJ’s political intents, ‘opposition research’ was almost certainly the motive.
Surrounding the nomination that stunned the geo-political world almost every foreign government was trying to figure out who and what Donald J Trump was all about; and more specifically: how would his run for the presidency impact their specific interests.
2017- WASHINGTON NYT — American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.
[Paragraph #5] The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the F.B.I., which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is continuing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election. (link)
The New York Times should win a Pulitzer for undermining their own ‘Russian Conspiracy’ headline narrative within the fifth paragraph. [It’s a trend] I digress.
Obviously, attempting to understand the policies of outsider Donald Trump, Russia would be asking these same questions along with China, France, England, the larger EU and every nation in every continent. It would be silly to claim otherwise.
However, the international interest did necessarily initiate a bunch of foreign officials making contact with anyone and everyone who would be associated with Trump-world regardless of concentric circle distance from the epicenter. That intellectually honest understanding highlights how much of the post convention (July 2016) raw intelligence gathering began so easily.
The CIA simply monitoring chatter amid foreign diplomats, their customary job, turns into raw data provided to the FBI which in turn becomes the subject matter of frequent FISA searches/warrants to explore the U.S. contacts on the other side of that chatter.
The FISA searches/warrants turn into intelligence reports and that begins the entire process now known as “unmasking” etc. Nothing within this process so far is even in question. However, this is also the backdrop for intelligence reports to be weaponized for political purposes. In May 2017, CIA Director John Brennan testified to this exact process before congress.
What was not reported by any media outline is John Brennan, understanding actions taken by the Obama administration in 2016 created his own exit from the controversy.
Former CIA Director John Brennan gave very specific testimony to congress where he noted he provided the raw intelligence to FBI Director Comey – FULLSTOP. Where “fullstop” directly and immediately indicates Brennan’s throwing the responsibility for all that came next upon FBI Director James Comey.
John Brennan structured his self-defense with great specificity: (@13:35)
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“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”… (link)
Shorter version: don’t try pinning this unsubstantiated Russia investigation to no-where, and the illegal leaks, on me; I just provided the raw intelligence.
It is important to emphasize here the possibly illegal “unmasking“, and the certainly illegal “leaking“, were all based on intelligence reports generated from raw intelligence, and not the raw intelligence itself.
It was the FBI (Comey) and ODNI (Clapper) generating the intel reports, including the Presidents’ Daily Briefing (PDB).
The CIA provided raw intel, and the NSA generated the raw monitoring intelligence from the characters identified by the CIA and approved by FBI FISA warrant submissions.
The FBI were running the counter-intelligence operation and generating the actual reports that were eventually shared with the White House, Susan Rice and the Dept of Justice. After the November election, those reports, or interpretations of the report content, were eventually leaked to the media in a coordinated effort to undermine the incoming administration.
During the time James Comey’s FBI was generating the intelligence reports, Comey admitted he intentionally never informed congressional oversight: “because of the sensitivity of the matter“.
In his may 2017 testimony John Brennan tried to take himself out of the picture from the perspective of the illegal acts within the entire process. ODNI James Clapper, while rubbing his face and scratching his head, had taken the same route earlier. That left the majority of scrutiny for the anti-Trump intelligence operation upon James Comey.
This explained why Comey changed his mind on testifying to congress until he had the opportunity to talk to newly appointed special counsel Robert Mueller.
Former FBI Director James Comey is not stupid. He is, however, intensely political.
James Comey completely understood the legal risks he was facing within the faux “Russian conspiracy story” and the “subsequent leaking” of his political FBI reports.
Fox News Catherine Herridge reports today, per her FBI investigative sources, it was an investigative interview with FBI Attorney Lisa Page, in July 2017, that contradicted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and ultimately led to his firing.
That revelation is exactly what we anticipated was the origin to Inspector General Michael Horowitz gaining the text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. The issue is actually more stunning than presented. However, first here’s the report from Herridge (emphasis mine):
Fox News – Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired last month for committing three violations of the bureau’s ethics code, an investigative source told Fox News on Thursday.
The violations initially were uncovered by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General and confirmed by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility. They included lack of candor under oath, lack of candor when not under oath, and the improper disclosure of non-public information to the media about the FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The violations stemmed from McCabe’s response to an October 2016 Wall Street Journal report about sizeable campaign donations from Democrats to McCabe’s wife, Jill, during her campaign for the Virginia State Senate. The investigation found that McCabe instructed FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI public affairs chief Michael Kortan to work with the Journal’s reporter to set the record straight.
The source said Page’s statements to investigators were “critical” because they directly contradicted her boss, McCabe.
According to the source, McCabe’s lack of candor about the contact with the Journal reporter led to his firing. The source added that Page’s testimony about the matter contradicted McCabe’s. Then-FBI Director James Comey claimed he never authorized the leak to the Journal. (read more)
A picture was initially clear in March once we had the full timeline of the interviews with Andrew McCabe that led to his firing. This Fox News report only confirms the obvious; however, it’s important to review the events to fully understand the scope of McCabe’s lying and also understand the reason for Lisa Page to be so angry.
Remember, Lisa Page was a DOJ attorney assigned to the office of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe specifically to provide legal guidance. Imagine how pissed off she was when she discovered (July 2017) the Deputy FBI Director who told her to leak a story -on his behalf- to the Wall Street Journal, denied ever telling her to leak the story.
It’s no wonder why Ms. Page told FBI Agent Peter Strzok to “never text her again”, and she quit working for the Mueller team several weeks before IG Horowitz informed Mueller about the conspiracy issues (which led to Strzok’s removal).
Here’s the timeline from an assembly of media reporting and investigative releases to congress.
Andrew McCabe was first interviewed about the media leaks in May 2017. He denied. “A couple of months later” he was interviewed by Inspector General Horowitz, and he again denied. On July 20th of 2017 Inspector General Horowitz gained the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages.
•May 2017 McCabe denies leaking for WSJ story to FBI investigators (link).
•July 2017 McCabe denies again; to Inspector General Horowitz.
•July 2017 Lisa Page admits to Horowitz she was told to construct the Wall Street Journal story (Devlin Barrett, journalist). This conflicts with McCabes repeated denials. (link)
•July 20th 2017 Horowitz gets Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages (link). Proving McCabe constructed the WSJ story.
•August 2017: After Horowitz gets the proof McCabe was lying – McCabe follows up on the two denials saying “he may have allowed FBI officials to speak with the newspaper”. (link)
•August 2017: FBI re-interviews McCabe based on new admissions.
•November 29th 2017: One day before SC Mueller indicts Michael Flynn, IG Horowitz interviews McCabe again. Apparently this time McCabe admitted to constructing the leak. (link)
In May, June and July 2017, while FBI Deputy Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe was lying to FBI investigators and the Inspector General, Lisa Page was working for McCabe as his legal counsel.
Therein lies the heart and origin of the motive for Lisa Page to flip against the conspiracy group when she discovered Andrew McCabe lying to investigators about his instructions to her. IG Horowitz then interviews Page in July and she tells the truth, thereby contradicting McCabe.
As CTH has continued to remind, on the issue of confronting China’s trade practices, President Trump will not back down:
WHITE HOUSE – Following a thorough investigation under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) determined that China has repeatedly engaged in practices to unfairly obtain Americas intellectual property. The practices detailed in the USTRs investigation have caused concern around the world. Chinas illicit trade practices ignored for years by Washington have destroyed thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs. On April 3, 2018, the USTR announced approximately $50 billion in proposed tariffs on imports from China as an initial means to obtain the elimination of policies and practices identified in the investigation.
Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers. In light of Chinas unfair retaliation, I have instructed the USTRto consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs. I have also instructed the Secretary of Agriculture, with the support of other members of my Cabinet, to use his broad authority to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests.
Notwithstanding these actions, the United States is still prepared to have discussions in further support of our commitment to achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade and to protect the technology and intellectual property of American companies and American people. Trade barriers must be taken down to enhance economic growth in America and around the world. I am committed to enabling American companies and workers to compete on a level playing field around the world, and I will never allow unfair trade practices to undermine American interests. (read more)
President Trump will not back down from his position; the U.S. holds all of the leverage and the issue must be addressed. President Trump has waiting three decades for this moment. This President and his team are entirely prepared for this.
We are finally confronting the geopolitical Red Dragon, China!
The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace and war. The symbol in any figure’s right hand has more significance than one in its left hand. Also important is the direction faced by the symbols central figure. The emphasis on the eagles stare signifies the preferred disposition. An eagle holding an arrow also symbolizes the war for freedom, and its use is commonly referred to the liberation fight of righteous people from abusive influence. The eagle on the original seal created for the Office of the President showed the gaze upon the arrows.
The Eagle and the Arrow – An Aesop’s Fable
An Eagle was soaring through the air. Suddenly it heard the whizz of an Arrow, and felt the dart pierce its breast. Slowly it fluttered down to earth. Its lifeblood pouring out. Looking at the Arrow with which it had been shot, the Eagle realized that the deadly shaft had been feathered with one of its own plumes.
Moral:We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
Yesterday U.S. Trade Represenative Robert Lighthizer and Mexico’s Minister Ildefonso Guajardo met in Washington DC for a bilateral discussion. Likely one of the key avenues for Lighthizer to explore surrounded the upcoming election of a hardline Marxist in Mexico and how Guajardo views the impact to Mexican policy therein.
At this point it’s virtually guaranteed that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will win the election – I would VERY strongly bet on that outcome (likelihood 85%). That puts a Hugo Chavez type ideologue, and the attached economic policies, at our southern border. [Pro-Tip: prepare your business affairs accordingly now, and avoid the chaos later]
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland arrived in Washington DC today to join Lighthizer and Guajardo and expand the informal discussion toward a trilateral trade discussion.
Thankfully Lighthizer is on his home turf because he’s now surrounded by left-wing globalist advocates from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce via Tom Donohue.
There was some media talk, and a hint from Trump’s NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow yesterday, about the U.S. strongly wanting to have an agreement on principle utilizing the cornerstone of the Auto-Sector as a building block.
However, I cannot caution strongly enough that NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow is in love with NAFTA and POTUS Trump is not. So filter Kudlow’s optimistic glee against his trade worship with NAFTA.
Larry Kudlow and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue are BFF’s on NAFTA, and will extort maximum pressure on President Trump from congressional allies in that regard.
Do not be surprised to see Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the entire Decepticon wing of the GOPe go nuclear against Trump in the near future; while Kudlow works quietly to assist the objective. Tom Donohue has hundreds of “billions” to pass out in golden annuity parachutes for any congressperson who will destroy themselves during a suicidal charge against the Trump administration.
If they stick to their historic approach (and there’s no reason to see them changing it) U.S. CoC President Donohue will coordinate the attacks, but stay behind the curtain. This is an issue where the Republican apparatus will willingly give up massive seats in House and Senate mid-term races to retain their access to the U.S. CoC checkbook.
Within Washington DC nothing is more important than money and several hundred million for a congressional reps family makes it easy to walk away.
The only voices on the other side of this confrontation are President Trump, Wilbur Ross, Steven Mnuchin and Peter Navarro. Everyone else inside and outside the administration, along with Wall Street, the swamp (writ large), CONservative media, Fox News and K-Street, is essentially against them and supporting open-ended global trade with China and fully exploitative NAFTA.
From the timing of the meeting yesterday it was likely U.S.T.R. Lighthizer was testing to see if he could leverage the predictable Mexican election outcome into a renewed sense of urgency amid more reasonable business voices in Mexico…. no-one knows the outcome, but I doubt his success.
Globalists and multinational interests would rather have a Marxist in office in Mexico than run the risk of trade markets outside their control. There are trillions at stake.
It was noted –and reported– yesterday, that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes sent a letter (full pdf below) to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein demanding un-redacted FBI origination documents surrounding the beginning of the July 2016 counterintelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump, and the FISA application stemming from that investigation.
The issues surrounding the declassification of the FISA application and subsequent FISA warrant against Carter Page are not new. The new aspect within the Nunes demand relates to a request for the intelligence community “electronic communication” (EC) that kicked off the initial FBI counterintelligence op. Within that new line of inquiry the subject of interest is ultimately former CIA Director John Brennan.
However, there are issues here; serious issues, and likely only those who are deep in the weeds of this entire dynamic are going to understand. There are VERY valid reasons why the FBI (Wray) and DOJ (Rosenstein) would push back against HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes. It’s complicated, and we’ll try to unpack.
Begin by noting on page two of the Nunes request, Paragraph #3, something that all media writing about the Nunes demand seem to overlook. Screengrab below:
Chariman Nunes takes exception to the origination documents being redacted for his committee review while noting that “multiple members of other committees have been the beneficiaries of such access”, this is a key aspect that outlines the motive for the FBI and DOJ to proceed cautiously with the HPSCI.
From earlier research and congressional letters we know House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, holding direct statutory oversight over the DOJ, is working closely with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. It almost a certainty the committee Nunes is referring to that has been allowed access is Goodlatte’s Judiciary Committee. However, the DOJ/FBI are reluctant to share the same information with Nunes HPSCI committee.
Remember, at the instruction and authority of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor John Huber are investigating the DOJ (National Security Division) and FBI (counterintelligence unit: Priestap/Strzok) in their conduct toward the FISA court; and the potential for unlawful abuse of the process therein. As such, the FISA material is now much more than a controversial political matter, it is in the purview of an ongoing criminal investigation (Huber).
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly – yet more challenging to understand, the origination documents [“electronic communication” (EC)] surround another important aspect that directly relates to CIA Director John Brennan and his earlier testimony to congress about the origination of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Operation against Trump.
Most media and pundits discussing this issue have likely forgotten how John Brennan explained his role on May 23rd, 2017. THIS IS CRITICAL.
On March 20th, 2017, FBI Director James Comey stated he did not inform congressional oversight about the FBI counterintelligence operation against Trump, that began in July 2016, at the recommendation of his counterintelligence division head Bill Priestap, and due to “the sensitivity of the matter”. {GO DEEP}
Two months later, May 23rd, 2017, former CIA Director John Brennan testified in his opening statement to congress that, in addition to providing intelligence to the FBI, he personally informed the “Congressional Gang of Eight” of the underlying raw intelligence.
Pay very close attention to the segment at 13:35 of this video of Brennan’s testimony:
Brennan: [13:35] “Third, through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept congress apprised of these issues as we identified them.”
“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”…
In essence John Brennan told congress he informed: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr of the same intelligence information he delivered to FBI Director James Comey and ODNI James Clapper. According to his testimony those briefings were between the 11th of August and 6th of September 2016.
So Devin Nunes is asking for the “electronic communication” (EC) documents that initiated the July 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation, while seemingly having been briefed by CIA Director John Brennan on the substance of the material in Aug/Sept 2016?
And the FBI/DOJ are reluctant to share with the HPSCI (Nunes) the same information they are willing to share with the House Judiciary (Goodlatte).
Why would that be?
Simple answer, the HPSCI is compromised.
Remember, ranking member Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell are also targets of ongoing FBI leak investigations; and notably (with that self-interest in mind) they have been working to undermine -and politicize- the outcomes of the Inspector General Horowitz investigation.
Additionally, the HPSCI is where the Awan Brothers scandal (investigation and indictments) comes into play and the Democrats on the HPSCI committee who waived the background checks for their use as IT support staff.
There are very good reasons for the FBI and DOJ to keep potentially devastating criminal evidence away from the HPSCI until Huber is prepared to use it. The HPSCI membership is inherently tied up in multiple facets of the soft-coup plot and supportive ideology within the conspiracy against candidate Trump, and later President-elect and President Donald Trump.
Lastly, and importantly, remember the Chief Legal Counsel for the FBI is now Dana Boente. If you stand back and remind yourself where within the FBI and DOJ the small group was operating, you go directly to the DOJ National Security Division.
We know from the recent text messages of Strzok/Page and from the critical last days of the Obama administration’s action they viewed Dana Boente as a threat with President-elect Trump taking office. After the top-tier of the corrupt DOJ-NSD officials were removed, Dana Boente became the head of the DOJ-NSD and subsequently IG Horowitz was granted full oversight authority (previously denied by Sally Yates).
So Dana Boente, a perceived risk from the Obama “small group” perspective, goes into the DOJ-NSD as the rats run out… Boente grants IG oversight access… and then remains inside the division for a year prior to exit and going into the FBI as Chief Legal Counsel (replacing corrupt James Baker). There’s no better authority with inside information into the heart of the conspiracy group effort than the current chief legal counsel of the FBI, Dana Boente.
That’s why the investigative White Hats are going to keep the HPSCI at a distance.
Today President Trump is traveling to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to deliver remarks at a tax reform meeting and roundtable. The President is anticipated to deliver remarks to the audience at approximately 2:25pm EST:
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
President Trump will not be attending the White House Media Awards event again this year. According to Reuters:
