^^^^^What we are seeing here, is the FBI making themselves into a modern day version of the Praetorian Guard.

quote:

Originally posted by SapperSteel:
What we are seeing here, is the FBI making themselves into a modern day version of the Praetorian Guard.

Perfect analogy: “We’ll serve and protect you—as long as you make us happy; stop making us happy, and we will bring you down.”

I’ll say it again.
“It’s not power which corrupts, but immunity.”
No organization like the FBI should have immunity for its actions, but that’s been too often true.

WSJ Editorial Board

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a...r-the-fbi-1517617641

A Reckoning for the FBI

Now we know why the FBI tried so hard to block release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. And why Democrats and the media want to change the subject to Republican motivations. The four-page memo released Friday reports disturbing facts about how the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath.

The White House declassified the memo Friday, and you don’t have to be a civil libertarian to be shocked by the details. The memo confirms that the FBI and Justice Department on Oct. 21, 2016 obtained a FISA order to surveil Carter Page, an American citizen who was a relatively minor volunteer adviser to the Trump presidential campaign.

The memo says an “essential” part of the FISA application was the “dossier” assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and the research firm Fusion GPS that was hired by a law firm attached to the Clinton campaign. The memo adds that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told the committee in December 2017 that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” without the dossier.

This is troubling enough, but the memo also discloses that the FBI failed to inform the FISA court that the Clinton campaign had funded the dossier. The memo says the FBI supported its FISA application by “extensively” citing a September 2016 article in Yahoo News that contained allegations against Mr. Page. But the FBI failed to tell the court that Mr. Steele and Fusion were the main sources for that Yahoo article. In essence the FBI was citing Mr. Steele to corroborate Mr. Steele.

Unlike a normal court, FISA doesn’t have competing pleaders. The FBI and Justice appear ex parte as applicants, and thus the judges depend on candor from both. Yet the FBI never informed the court that Mr. Steele was in effect working for the Clinton campaign. The FBI retained Mr. Steele as a source, and in October 2016 he talked to Mother Jones magazine without authorization about the FBI investigation and his dossier alleging collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The FBI then fired Mr. Steele, but it never told the FISA judges about that either. Nor did it tell the court any of this as it sought three subsequent renewals of the order on Mr. Page.

We don’t know the political motives of the FBI and Justice officials, but the facts are damaging enough. The FBI in essence let itself and the FISA court be used to promote a major theme of the Clinton campaign. Mr. Steele and Fusion then leaked the fact of the investigation to friendly reporters to try to defeat Mr. Trump before the election. And afterward they continued to leak all this to the press to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s victory.

No matter its motives, the FBI became a tool of anti-Trump political actors. This is unacceptable in a democracy and ought to alarm anyone who wants the FBI to be a nonpartisan enforcer of the law.

We also know the FBI wasn’t straight with Congress, as it hid most of these facts from investigators in a briefing on the dossier in January 2017. The FBI did not tell Congress about Mr. Steele’s connection to the Clinton campaign, and the House had to issue subpoenas for Fusion bank records to discover the truth. Nor did the FBI tell investigators that it continued receiving information from Mr. Steele and Fusion even after it had terminated him. The memo says the bureau’s intermediary was Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, whose wife, incredibly, worked for Fusion.

Democrats are howling that the memo, produced by Republican staff, is misleading and leaves out essential details. They are producing their own summary of the evidence, and by all means let’s see that too. President Trump should declassify it promptly, along with Senator Chuck Grassley’s referral for criminal investigation of Mr. Steele. But note that Democrats aren’t challenging the core facts that the FBI used the dossier to gain a FISA order or the bureau’s lack of disclosure to the FISA judges.

The details of Friday’s memo also rebut most of the criticisms of its release. The details betray no intelligence sources and methods. As to the claim that the release tarnishes the FBI and FISA court, exposing abuses is the essence of accountability in a democracy.

Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes is doing a service by forcing these facts into the public domain where the American people can examine them, hold people accountable, and then Congress can determine how to prevent them in the future. The U.S. has weathered institutional crises before—Iran-Contra, the 9/11 intelligence failure, even Senator Dianne Feinstein’s campaign against the CIA and enhanced interrogation.

The other political misdirection is that the memo is designed to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Trump collusion with Russia. We doubt Mr. Mueller will be deterred by any of this. The question of FISA abuse is independent of Mr. Mueller’s work, and one that Congress takes up amid a larger debate about surveillance and national security. Mr. Trump would do well to knock off the tweets lambasting the Mueller probe, and let House and Senate Republicans focus public attention on these FISA abuses.

***
If all of this is damaging to the reputation of the FBI and Justice Department, then that damage is self-inflicted. We recognize the need for the FBI to sometimes spy on Americans to keep the country safe, but this is a power that should never be abused. Its apparent misuse during the presidential campaign needs to be fully investigated.

Toward that end, the public should see more of the documents that are behind the competing intelligence memos to judge who is telling the truth. Mr. Trump and the White House should consider the remedy of radical transparency.

*****************

"radical transparency" sounds good

There is a certain amount of interest in this Page character as an advisor to the Trump Campaign. Same with Papadopoulos.

As far as I can learn, both were included in a committee that met a few times, maybe once for dinner, and did nothing to very little else.

What advice did either give? What actual role did they play? Any papers? Advice?

I still haven’t finished reading the transcript of the HPSCI interview. My impression thus far is that he would be among the last I would want as a spy, or an advisor, and maybe not on my touch football team.

Is he merely a plausible nominee placeholder to bootstrap some surveillance activity?

I posted in the "FISA Memo" thread what the Russians thought of him in 2013

The FBI tapped the Russians talking about him. They weren't impressed.

Page said he was in several meetings that Donald Trump attended, but he never actually met Donald Trump.

Seriously, can you imagine a conversation between Donald Trump and Carter Page ?

Page left the campaign in Sep 2016 when the Iiskoff Yahoo story came out that Page was dealing with the Russians. Isikoff's story was straight from Steele dossier.

Here's a little essay from Canada re: someone's bunker festering in the swamp....


http://canadafreepress.com/art...festers-in-the-swamp

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
Here's a little essay from Canada re: someone's bunker festering in the swamp....


http://canadafreepress.com/art...festers-in-the-swamp

I found it both enlightening and encouraging.

flashguy

Joe Digenova on WMAL 2/5/18

In all the hubbub about FBI surveillance of political operatives, let’s not forget about the unmasking situation.

Who did it, to whom, when?

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
In all the hubbub about FBI surveillance of political operatives, let’s not forget about the unmasking situation.

Who did it, to whom, when?

Excellent question. Why did Samantha Powers (UN Ambassador) unmask so many people??

Sadly, I think that's a dead issue, but I am looking forward to the FBI IG report. I'm sure the Dems are already planning how they can spin that.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
In all the hubbub about FBI surveillance of political operatives, let’s not forget about the unmasking situation.

Who did it, to whom, when?

Excellent question. Why did Samantha Powers (UN Ambassador) unmask so many people??

Sadly, I think that's a dead issue, but I am looking forward to the FBI IG report. I'm sure the Dems are already planning how they can spin that.

Catherine Herridge just reported that there is a second memo planned on activities of State Department, and the unmasking. Power made a request averaging more than one per day in 2016, continuing into the transition, that she did not make them and does not how others made the requests using her name.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...teele-memo-says.html

Clinton associates were "feeding" allegations to former British spy Christopher Steele at the same time he was compiling the controversial anti-Trump dossier paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign, according to an unclassified memo from senior Senate Republicans who recently made a criminal referral.

Those Republicans, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had asked the Justice Department in January to investigate Steele based on evidence they say suggests he lied to the FBI about his contacts with the media (a violation of 18 USC 1001) -- or the FBI misrepresented Steele’s statements.

The lawmakers are now asking the FBI for an emergency review of their criminal referral so it can be made public, with limited redactions.

Steele already is under scrutiny over the unverified Trump dossier, which a House Intelligence Committee document released last Friday alleged was at the heart of the FBI and DOJ’s request for a surveillance warrant for a Trump associate.

The memo from Grassley and Graham, which is now public for the first time, provides new insight into Steele’s circle of contacts during that time. While heavily redacted, the memo states Steele said he received information that came from "a foreign sub-source who 'is in touch with (redacted), a contact of (redacted), a friend of the Clintons, who passed it to (redacted).”

"It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele's work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility," the senators wrote to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia probe, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

"...there is substantial evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele materially misled the FBI about a key aspect of his dossier efforts, one which bears on his credibility,” the senators wrote.

Entire sections of the memorandum were redacted by the FBI on the basis that it contained classified information, though a review of the document shows the FBI redacted references to media reporting, including a Washington Post story available on the Internet.

The senators are asking for a declassification review because much of the information was declassified by the president when the House Intelligence Committee memo was released Friday. The memo found the dossier was used to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign aide Carter Page -- and neither the FBI nor Justice Department told the national security court that it was financed by the DNC and Clinton campaign, and bureau contact with Steele was terminated over his contact with the media.

While the FBI fought the release of that memo, the senators also say the FBI’s claims “mischaracterize and misstate” the amount of classified information in the Steele referral. The senators are asking that the FBI and Justice Department “immediately review the classified referral in light of [Friday’s] declassification and provide the Committee with the declassified version by no later than February 6, 2018.”

In a heavily redacted Jan. 19 letter, Gregory A. Brower, assistant director for FBI congressional affairs, said the FBI "respects" the committee's commitment to transparency but the bureau "cannot and will not weaken its commitment" to protecting classified information because it is in the public domain.

Public reporting about (redacted) does not affect the FBI's policy with respect to classification (redacted) nor does it diminish our obligations (redacted),” he wrote.

The House Intelligence Committee has long struggled with the FBI and Justice Department over access to Trump dossier and surveillance records. After August subpoenas were ignore, the committee threatened to hold Wray and Rosenstein in contempt of Congress before a deal was reached.

The memo detailing alleged surveillance abuse by the FBI and Justice Department was fully declassified after the committee followed a long-standing congressional rule which asks the president whether he objects to the record's release. In this case, the president exercised his powers as commander-in-chief to immediately declassify the document.

*************

let's see if those Clinton associates are Sid Blumenthal, Cody Shearer, or Strobe Talbott

http://www.washingtonexaminer....ment/article/2648099

Dossier author Steele wrote another anti-Trump memo; was fed info by Clinton-connected contact, Obama State Department

A newly released document from the Senate Judiciary Committee says Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier, wrote an additional memo on the subject of Donald Trump and Russia that was not among those published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.

The newly released document is an unclassified and heavily redacted version of the criminal referral targeting Steele filed on Jan. 4 by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It appears to confirm some level of coordination between the extended Clinton circle and the Obama administration in the effort to seek damaging information about then-candidate Trump.

According to the referral, Steele wrote the additional memo based on anti-Trump information that originated with a foreign source. In a convoluted scheme outlined in the referral, the foreign source gave the information to an unnamed associate of Hillary and Bill Clinton, who then gave the information to an unnamed official in the Obama State Department, who then gave the information to Steele. Steele wrote a report based on the information, but the redacted version of the referral does not say what Steele did with the report after that.

Published accounts in the Guardian and the Washington Post have indicated that Clinton associate Cody Shearer was in contact with Steele about anti-Trump research, and Obama State Department official Jonathan Winer was a connection between Steele and the State Department during the 2016 campaign.

When Grassley and Graham filed the referral with the Justice Department on Jan. 4, the document was classified (although the two senators released an unclassified cover letter announcing the referral). What followed was a month of haggling with the Justice Department over what material in the referral could be made public. The result is the version of the referral released this morning. It has whole paragraphs and keywords blacked out, making it hard to discern its full meaning.

For example, a press release accompanying the referral said the referral "contains verbatim quotes from the [Carter Page surveillance] application that are not included in the [House Intelligence Committee] memo. Specifically, the referral quotes the application's descriptions of Steele's statements to the FBI about his contacts with the media." Lest anyone get too excited, the press release went on to say that the quotes "remain redacted" in the version of the referral released Monday.

Also redacted is information related to the key allegation of the Grassley-Graham referral: that Steele was untruthful with the FBI and Justice Department over the issue of his many contacts with the press. If Steele was acting as a trusted source for the FBI on the highly confidential Trump-Russia investigation, it would have been improper for him to share his information with the press at the same time.

Some of the redacted passages also relate to the question of statements about Steele's press contacts that the FBI made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in applying for the Page surveillance warrant that was the subject of the House Intelligence Committee memo released Friday.

It's a lot to digest. But further details will have to wait until the rest of the referral is declassified. Senate sources say they hope that will be soon.

ROGER STONE: Gen. Michael Flynn to File Motion for Dismissal of ALL CHARGES Against Him

According to legendary political operative and InfoWars correspondent, Roger Stone, lawyers for Gen. Michael Flynn are preparing legal action to have all charges against him dropped.

STONE: “Lawyers for General Mike Flynn will shortly file a motion to dismiss all the charges filed against him, based on reports now confirmed by The Hill, Circa News and Infowars, that Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe told a teleconference of law enforcement officials, “first we f*ck Flynn, then we f*ck Trump.”

Independent journalist and author Jack Posobiec helped spread the news for Stone on Twitter, who was banned from platform last year.

Stone’s report comes amid news that Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested the postponement of Flynn’s sentencing.

“Due to the status of the Special Counsel’s investigation, the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time,” the special counsel asked the court last week.


Mueller's office and lawyers for Michael Flynn want more time, per new filing:

"Due to the status of the Special Counsel's investigation, the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time." https://assets.documentcloud.o...nn-Status-Report.pdf …

The court filing states a date to sentence Flynn could not be determined by the special counsel at this time and that 90-day extension is be required.

Last year, The Gateway Pundit asked: Was President Trump’s National Security Advisor tricked into meeting with the FBI without a lawyer?

Fox News host Sean Hannity and reporter Sara Carter have suggested Flynn may have been tricked into having the interview with disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok without a lawyer.

Michael Flynn, former National Security Adviser to President Trump, pleaded guilty last year for making false statements to the FBI about contacting Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.co...arges-dropped-video/

And in other news, John McCain is still living up to the back stabbing POS label many here have bestowed upon him.

Bipartisan immigration bill surfaces, Trump knocks it down

Short summary of the bill....

1 - Give 'Dreamers' legal status and a path to citizenship.
2 - No border wall.
3 - No changes to 'chain migration'.
4 - No changes to the 'VISA Lottery'.

McCain really is a dog fucker isn't he