Andrew McCabe Ordered FBI To Investigate Jeff Sessions



posted March 21, 2018 06:31 PM
https://www.zerohedge.com/news...tigate-jeff-sessions

It's barely been a week since former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was unceremoniously fired (he was due to retire with full pension two days later), and already leaks about McCabe's efforts to discredit his political opponents in the Department of Justice are beginning to surface...

To wit, ABC News reported Wednesday that McCabe authorized an FBI investigation of his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, over what Democrats have described as the AG's "lack of candor" during his confirmation hearing and his subsequent public testimony.

The federal criminal investigation was authorized "nearly a year" ago. McCabe's previously unreported decision took an extremely unusual step: Placing the AG in the crosshairs of the FBI, an agency Sessions is supposed to supervise.

Sessions was reportedly unaware of the investigation - and remained unaware when he fired McCabe on Friday. According to ABC's sources, only McCabe, Mueller, Rod Rosenstein - the deputy AG who appointed Robert Mueller to be special counsel - and a handful of top Democrats and Republicans were aware of the investigation. McCabe authorized the probe after receiving a letter from Democratic Senators Al Franken and Jim Leahy urging the DOJ to examine whether Sessions made false statements to lawmakers.

The probe ended shortly after Sessions met with Mueller in the fall. No charges were filed.

During his confirmation hearing early last year, Sessions said he hadn't met with any Russians and was unaware of any contacts between Russians and members of the Trump campaign. It was later reported that Sessions had met Russian ambassador Sergei Lavrov during a campaign event at Trump Tower. Much later, Mueller revealed that campaign advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to misleading investigators about contacts he had with Russian emissaries, with whom he was trying to orchestrate a meeting between Trump and Putin. Papadopoulos told Mueller that he informed Trump and Sessions about his efforts at a March meeting, which Sessions later said he did not recall.

"The Special Counsel's office has informed me that after interviewing the attorney general and conducting additional investigation, the attorney general is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress," attorney Chuck Cooper told ABC News on Wednesday.

It's unclear how actively federal authorities pursued the matter in the months before Sessions' interview with Mueller’s investigators. It's also unclear whether the special counsel may still be pursuing other matters related to Sessions and statements he has made to Congress – or others – since his confirmation.

McCabe was fired after the DOJ's inspector general concluded that McCabe misled investigators about authorizing two agents to speak with reporters back in October 2016 about the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton to try and rebut reports that it had gone easy on Trump's rival.

When he was questioned later about that decision, McCabe "lacked candor – including under oath – on multiple occasions," Sessions said in a statement announcing McCabe's firing.

Of course, McCabe has denied this.

"The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability," Sessions said. "As the [FBI's ethics office] stated, 'all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand.'"

McCabe vehemently denies misleading investigators, saying in his own statement that he is "being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."

The report is notable in that it's the first time that a senior Trump official still serving in his administration has been confirmed to be the target of a criminal investigation into perjury. Mueller has already proven more than willing to pursue perjury charges, and has secured guilty pleas for perjury from both former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Papdopoulos.

It begs the question: What other senior administration officials have been targeted by Mueller? And are any of those investigations still on going? Earlier, it was reported that Mueller was investigating the Trump camp's relationship with Cambridge Analytica, the designated pariah du jour...

________________________________________________

So.......when is Rosenstein going to be fired?

What an absolute bunch of traitorous scumbags. Did they investigate Holder? Lynch? So the dems make a request and the FBI jumps? What about the republican requests into Hillary, etc?

There needs to be a special council NOW. Hillary, Obama, Lynch, all of them. If this does not get cleared up, with people going to jail, it will only get worse. Much worse.

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v...1001/?#sp=show-clips

Paul Ryan should join call for second special counsel: Rep. DeSantis

Mar. 20, 2018 - 8:28 - Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) on the importance of hiring a second special counsel to investigate Obama-era FISA surveillance abuses and why House Speaker Paul Ryan needs to join the effort.

quote:

McCabe authorized the probe after receiving a letter from Democratic Senators Al Franken and Jim Leahy urging the DOJ to examine whether Sessions made false statements to lawmakers.

Franken and Leahy, eh? Well that's bloody rich.

Trump cutting Obama-era refugee admissions 77%

https://www.washingtonexaminer...efugee-admissions-77

The Trump administration, which has proposed a massive 60 percent reduction in refugee admissions from the Obama-era high of 110,000, is expected to cut that number even deeper. according to preliminary estimates.

“The national quota was lowered drastically by the Trump administration from 2018. His quota is, like, 45,000. Likely by the end of the year the number will be substantially less than even that,” according to Don Barnett, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and widely published on refugee resettlement and asylum issues.

At a Tuesday conference, he added that Trump could “zero out” refugees, because it is up to the president to set levels.

Based on current refugee statistics, he said that the administration will likely allow in far less than the proposed ceiling of 45,000. “I personally think it will come in at half that. I think it will come in at 25,000 or so,” said Barnett. “It’s not going to come anywhere near 45,000,” he added.

Obama averaged 75,000 refugee admissions every year, he said.

Refugees have become controversial around the nation as more have poured in. State and local communities have balked at the costs, about $3,000 each, and the right they have to welfare and medical help.

In Minnesota, it’s become an election issue. At the Tuesday conference hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, Jeff Johnson, a St. Cloud, Minn., city councilman said local taxpayers are outraged at the number of refugees pouring in.

“This could be the number one issue” in the state and local elections this year, he said.

Some senate REPs are trying to negotiate to change the 30 hours of post-cloture time when considering nominees.

“Thirty hours is just too much. You have cloture motion filed on a nominee and the nominee gets 98 votes and then you wait 30 hours for nothing else but to slow the process down,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)

Republican leaders want to negotiate an agreement with Democrats to limit how much time must elapse on the Senate floor after lawmakers vote to proceed on a nominee.

They want to implement the bipartisan agreement that was in place during 2013 and 2014, which limited debate time for executive nominees below the level of the Cabinet to eight hours and for district court nominees to two hours. Nominees to the Supreme Court, appellate courts and Cabinet-level positions would still require 30 hours of post-cloture debate.

“Same exact thing that was in 2013,” he said of the proposal the GOP favors.

http://thehill.com/homenews/se...nate-rules-for-trump

If you ever had a doubt about the left being driven completely insane by Donald Trump:

quote:

‘Elected to lead, not to proofread’: Typos, spelling mistakes are commonplace in Trump’s White House

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/...i=BBmkt5R&ocid=ientp

“WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's lead lawyer in the special counsel's Russia investigation has resigned amid a shake-up of the president's legal team.

Attorney John Dowd confirmed his decision in an email Thursday to The Associated Press, saying, "I love the President and wish him well."

Dowd's departure comes three days after the Trump legal team added a new lawyer, former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova, who has alleged on television that FBI officials were involved in a "brazen plot" to exonerate Hillary Clinton in the email investigation and "frame" Trump for nonexistent crimes.

It already was a delicate time in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as Trump's attorneys have been negotiating with Mueller over the scope and terms of an interview of the president. Trump has told reporters that he was eager to speak with Mueller, but Dowd has been far more apprehensive, and the lawyers have not publicly committed to making the president available for questioning.

Over the weekend, Dowd issued a statement calling for an end to special counsel's investigation. The White House and later Dowd had to clarify the statement, saying the president's legal team wasn't calling for Mueller to be fired.

Another Trump lawyers, Jay Sekulow, also confirmed Dowd's resignation."John Dowd is a friend and has been a valuable member of our legal team. We will continue our ongoing representation of the President and our cooperation with the Office of Special Counsel," Sekulow said. …”

Another article:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...sia-probe-QUITS.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...on-russia-probe.html

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted Thursday to release the Republican version of the committee’s report on its Russia investigation, which found “no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”

The report will be released to the public, pending a classification review by the Intelligence Community.

The committee’s vote Thursday morning to release the report comes just one week after the Republicans announced the end of their Russia probe and the fact that they found “no evidence of collusion,” and that they disagreed with the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “supposed preference” for then-candidate Donald Trump.

The report states that Russia conducted cyberattacks on U.S. political institutions in 2015 and 2016, and that Russian state actors were “responsible for the dissemination of documents and communications stolen from U.S. political organizations.”

Further, the report goes on to state that the FBI’s notification of Russian hacking victims was “largely inadequate,” that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security’s statements attributing election interference to Russia was “ineffective,” the Executive Branch’s “post-election response was insufficient.”

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an enterprise counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign after receiving information related to Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos,” the report read. “As part of the enterprise counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an individual counterintelligence investigation into Carter Page.”

Executive Branch officials, at the time, members of the Obama administration, according to the report, did not notify the Trump campaign that members of the campaign were assessed to be potential counterintelligence concerns.

The report notes that the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele “formed an essential part of an application” to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain electronic surveillance on Carter Page. The dossier was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign as opposition research against Trump.

The committee also noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on several charges, but “none of which relate to allegations of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.”

The report references the Republican Party platform during the 2016 election—specifically the change regarding Ukraine, which “resulted in a stronger position against Russia, not a weaker one,” and noted that there was no evidence that Manafort was involved in that change.

The report outlined that “none of the interviewed witnesses” provided evidence of collusion, and noted that the Committee “found no evidence that President Trump’s pre-campaign business dealings formed the basis for collusion during the campaign.”

The committee’s findings state that there is “no evidence” that Trump associates were involved in the theft or publication of Clinton campaign-related emails, “although Trump associates had numerous ill-advised contacts with WikiLeaks.”

“The Committee found no evidence that meetings between Trump associates –including Jeff Sessions—and official representatives of the Russian government—including Ambassador Kislyak—reflected collusion, coordination, or conspiracy with the Russian government,” the report read.

The report also notes leaks of classified information from the intelligence community, and suggests it “damaged national security and potentially endangered lives.”

“Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN national-security analyst, provided inconsistent testimony to the Committee about his contacts with the media, including CNN,” the report read.

summary of findings:

https://intelligence.house.gov..._recommendations.pdf

Some levity - I heard Biden has been saying he'd beat Trump up, like he used to do to kids in highschool...




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xblxEVSjE

John Bolton to replace McMaster?

yep

Donald Trump:

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

6:26 PM - Mar 22, 2018


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/2...-citing-sources.html

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
yep

Donald Trump:

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

6:26 PM - Mar 22, 2018


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/2...-citing-sources.html

This is good news. I've been hoping Bolton would find his way into this administration. He's a pro Trumper and a brawler like Trump.

Not surprised at all, though there was some pundit I recall who was saying before Trump had put his cabinet together that there was absolutely no way Trump would appoint Bolton, because of his moustache. Gave me a chuckle, at least.

Shamelessly stolen from another site:

Want a really good laugh? Flip it to MSNBC and watch the head exploding over Bolton! It's like watching Scanners when Michael Ironside made that guys head exploded!

I am pleased to see Bolton move into that position. Trump is surrounding himself with hardasses for Korea and Iran. I can see a 4th star in McMaster's future.

[ QUOTE]Originally posted by Tommydogg:
Want a really good laugh? Flip it to MSNBC and watch the head exploding over Bolton! It's like watching Scanners when Michael Ironside made that guys head exploded![/QUOTE]

Chris Mathews is about to have a stroke over Bolton’s appointment.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:

...I can see a 4th star in McMaster's future.

Apparently not.

In a statement released by the White House, McMaster said he would be requesting retirement from the U.S. Army effective this summer, adding that afterward he “will leave public service.”

Complete article:

https://www.armytimes.com/news...lton-as-replacement/