My headline is what happened, the New York Times headline is massive spin: “Apple Is Said to Have Turned Over Data on Trump’s White House Counsel in 2018”.
Notice what the New York Times is doing here. Everything about their article is written to hide, obfuscate and ignore the reality of what their article actually is revealing. Look closely:
“tactics by the Trump Justice Department“? This is far beyond spin, it is an intentional effort at cognitive dissonance. Perhaps this article is written now because the Durham investigation is going to reveal how Mueller and Weissmann conducted investigative surveillance over the Trump White House… Likely, but rather than supposition let’s just go to the reality of the details.
The headline positions Apple as the center, but the real nub of the revelation is that Weissmann and Mueller used the Special Counsel and FBI to conduct surveillance on the White House legal counsel, and his family, while President Donald Trump was in office. Think about that for a moment. Think about it carefully.
Imagine if Donald Trump allies in the DOJ and FBI were conducting surveillance on Joe Biden’s White House legal counsel? The media would go absolutely bonkers… rightfully so; yet, that is exactly what happened when Trump was in office. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized to conduct political surveillance of President Trump, through the White House legal counsel, while he was in office.
THIS IS A MASSIVE issue. Yet the media are downplaying what took place because, well, the stunning abuse of DOJ power is in alignment with their political objectives.
From the article (emphasis mine):
WASHINGTON — Apple told Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel to former President Donald J. Trump, last month that the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about an account that belonged to him in February 2018, and that the government barred the company from telling him at the time, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Mr. McGahn’s wife received a similar notice from Apple, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
It is not clear what F.B.I. agents were scrutinizing, nor whether Mr. McGahn was their specific focus. In investigations, agents sometimes compile a large list of phone numbers and email addresses that were in contact with a subject, and seek to identify all those people by using subpoenas to communications companies for any account information like names, computer addresses and credit card numbers associated with them.
Still, the disclosure that agents secretly collected data of a sitting White House counsel is striking as it comes amid a political backlash to revelations about Trump-era seizures of data of reporters and Democrats in Congress for leak investigations. The president’s top lawyer is also a chief point of contact between the White House and the Justice Department.
Notice what the NYT is doing here? They are attempting to blame Trump for a subpoena against his own White House counsel. Crazy level of spin to cloud the real story of what was going on.
Apple told Mr. McGahn that it complied with the subpoena in a timely fashion but declined to tell him what it provided the government, according to a person briefed on the matter. Under Justice Department policy, gag orders for subpoenas may be renewed for up to a year at a time, suggesting that prosecutors went to court several times to prevent Apple from notifying the McGahns earlier.
[…] Apple told the McGahns that it received the subpoena on Feb. 23, 2018, according to a person briefed on the matter. The other person familiar with the matter said the subpoena had been issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.
It is not clear why prosecutors obtained the subpoena. But several notable events were occurring around that time. (read more)
February 2018 was at the time when the Weissmann/Mueller special counsel was at its apex. In early February the corrupt special counsel found out about the FBI leak investigation into the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) that surrounded James Wolfe and Senator Mark Warner.
The leak investigation was run out of the Washington Field Office by Brian Dugan. The special counsel was unaware until the case against Wolfe was complete.
What the special counsel was doing in February 2018 was: (1) covering the tracks of the Obama-era political surveillance; (2) trying to retain their own investigative credibility by hiding prior abuses by the DOJ and FBI during that surveillance; (3) continue surveillance of the Trump administration under the auspices of a “Trump-Russia Collusion/Conspiracy” investigation; and (3) build a fraudulent obstruction case against President Trump in order to remove him from office.
As Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein noted in his April 2020 testimony to congress, Rosenstein was facilitating all the requests made by the special counsel. Rosenstein did not question any of the expanded scope requests from Weissmann/Mueller, and Rosenstein did not deny an requests for investigative tools or techniques that required his signature. In short, Rosenstein gave the special counsel every authority they requested without any pushback. When Rosenstein was questioned about this he said he didn’t feel it was appropriate to challenge the special counsel as it could be perceived as him interfering with their “investigative techniques” and “authorities.”
So what this New York Times article is really highlighting is how the Weissmann/Mueller special counsel went after the personal records of White House Attorney Don McGhan and his family. DOJ Attorney Andrew Weissmann was digging for information that could be used against the Trump White House. THAT is where the subpoenas came from.
It is possible the New York Times is trying to get out in front of the issue with this article. Keep in mind the primary PR firm of the FBI is the New York Times. When the FBI needs cover, they shape their side of events to the New York Times via “people familiar with the matter” etc.
Perhaps Durham is close to reporting on the motives and operations of the Special Counsel, who knows? But there’s a reason why the New York Times is trying to cloud the background of what this surveillance of the Trump White House counsel is all about.
Maybe we should encourage the NYT to make the Bee story a reality….
https://babylonbee.com/news/new-york-times-relocates-offices-to-beijing-so-reporters-wont-have-to-be-triggered-by-american-flags
Beautiful!
Now just change the nickname from “The Old Gray Lady” to “The Old Red Lady” . . . or something.
I just found this through a Google search:
Why is The New York Times called the Old Gray Lady?
The “lady” is a newspaper — the New York Times — regarded by many in the world at large (and all within its own world) as the world’s greatest. And newsmen generally hail it as “old” and “gray” by way of acknowledging its traditional special marks: starch conservatism and circumspection.
Today, that definition no longer applies to the New York Times. Rather, it is now another propaganda arm of the deep state establishment.
Having gone through grade school and high school during the fifties, that definition DID NOT apply then either.
“starch conservatism and circumspection” at the NYT?
Thanks for the good belly laugh this morning!
I’m in my 60’s and I don’t remember the Times as being “conservative”.
I never read the sports section; maybe that’s where they hid it?
The closest thing to “circumspection” was when Jill Abramson found out she was getting paid less than the men? As I recall; Barrie Weiss had a taste of that “circumspection” as well?
“The Old Red Lady” would be appropriate for an old Presstitute
Old Grey (Dying) Mare, rather.
Don’t we just have to read the name of the person asking for the subpoena?
This is a huge story…History has shown that “they” get out in front of something if there is something to fear.
BTW…Who is Durham?
He’s that dude who invented fat cigarettes.
First name Bull???
I thought that was Blunt.
Only if it has a tobacco leaf wrapper?
He’s the dude under the rug sweeping things under the rug that’s under the rug.
Don’t forget he’s ensuring no stone goes unturned as he sweeps them under the rug that is under the rug.
What needs to happen to Mr. Weismann is to put the story out there he has dirt on the Clinton’s and is going to roll. Problem will be solved.
Yep, another suicide !
Arkancide, the Clinton’s way.
Weissmann/Mueller should be offered a blindfold and cigarette.
When nothing happens, FELONS just keep committing MORE FELONIES !!!!!
By their actions; you would think that they actually want more felonies?
“The intelligence apparatus was weaponized to conduct political surveillance of President Trump, through the White House legal counsel, while he was in office.”
When the plumbers were directed to spy on McGovern’s campaign, the press was indignant; when the IC snoops on the President, the press twists itself into a pretzel to justify it.
Four legs good; two legs bad.
President Donald J Trump had the misfortune to be born orange. Any and all means will be rationalized to attack him and his supporters.
Some amazing law breakers who are in charge of the federal government! CannCon has Dr. Shiva on his channel right now, along with NH patriots who are working to get a true forensic audit. Interesting how Dr. Shiva has found how the government is persecuting people who expose the truth!
https://youtu.be/aS5hJquGtZs
It appears as of this post time the Youtube video has disappeared, removed by uploader….
I took a guess based on post content and here’s a video in the last day from CannCon on the NH audits…
https://www.bitchute.com/video/yXWeZ3UKJ9Mk/
Progressives have lost all pretense – they abuse their power as a matter of course and justify it by calling US the bad guys.
That ol’ phrase, ‘by any means necessary’ justifies things they haven’t even thought of yet.
Durham? Isn’t that the place investigations go to die?
A Durham is a vapor so thin as to be invisible, having no observable properties, like mythical beasts, ghosts, and dark matter and energy. Neither living nor dead, Durham is a mere rumor of an intuition–a hiccup-like berp on the wind.
This just leaves me speechless!!!
Alinsky tactic…accuse your opponent of doing what you are doing.
“The most effective means are whatever will achieve the desired results.” ~ Saul Alinsky
To believe anything NYT prints or even take it seriously is just a waste of time. We expect nothing less than outright treachery from these guys. Second, don’t count on Durham to deliver anything. He’s gone cold turkey and it seems he was retained just to quiet the critics of the ‘do nothing’ DoJ. I would be very surprised if Durham report is even made public in its unredacted form.
according to two people briefed on the matter…said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter… according to a second person briefed on the matter…and the other person familiar with the matter…who spoke to a source close to the investigation…who based the information on a sub-source also familiar with the matter….
The stuff on which Pulitzer Prizes are made…
Durham and other diversions like Undercover Huber, James Wolfe indictment. Kevin Clinesmith indictment, “Hide What’s Happening” IG Horowitz. etc. were all designed to prevent any justice and convince normal, non-criminal minded Americans that the Wheels of Justice were turning, slowly, but turning, when in actuality the wheels were frozen with layers of rust for years.
Unfortunately, too many people make no effort to become informed – and too many of those that are, are already hopelessly brainwashed by their ‘educations’.
Heaven help us.
There is still a Durham report coming?? It’s been so long I forgot about it..and that’s exactly what the rest of America has done. There will be no impact at all now..he might as well publish it as a novel..everyone else has written one.
He has a room of monkeys hammering it out on typewriters.
Well, it may also explain why McGhan was trying to convince Trump to begin with transition and do not challenge the outcome of an obviously fraudulent election…
D.C. runs on blackmail.
McGahn was gone….but you are correct, the White House counsel, as well as Cippiolone were telling him to give it up
Someone replied to SD’s tweet on this with a quote from the article that the unnamed source said it wasn’t one of Mueller’s team who asked for the subpoena. What’s the rebuttal to that?
You can rebut that person is lying. There is no mention in the NYT article about it “not being one of Mueller’s team”.
FTA:
…”The subpoena was issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, the other person familiar with the matter said. It is not clear why prosecutors obtained the subpoena. But several notable developments were unfolding around that time.”…
The EDVA was the operation center of the Mueller use of grand juries. It was the Mueller team.
Additionally, Weissmann/Mueller held all investigative authority over anything to do with “Trump/Russia” and any elements within it. There was no other investigation that would have touched on McGhan except for something connected to Trump/Russia or Obstruction.
Mueller was the only investigative vehicle to get to McGahn.
Weissmann is denying
https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1404210094913605638
That’s not a denial. A denial is “the special counsel did not subpoena Mr. and Mrs. McGahn’s apple accounts.”
See the difference?
When you neither confirm nor deny, you convolute.
Weissman says no grand juries in Virginia?
Oh, really?
**********
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller has tapped multiple grand juries, including juries in Washington and Virginia, in an effort to gather evidence in the ongoing federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.”
Source:
https://www-nbcnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna789646?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQHKAFQArABIA%3D%3D#aoh=16236447053733&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fus-news%2Fmueller-using-grand-juries-va-d-c-trump-russia-probe-n789646
Remember, that no federal or state law enforcement agency can obtain subscriber emails from Apple with a grand jury subpoena. It can only be done with a search warrant signed by a federal judge upon a sworn affidavit by the agent laying out in detail the justification. In cases involving an attorney or high ranking elected official the search warrant must be approved by the highest levels in the Department of Justice! A grand jury subpoena in this instant is totally worthless especially dealing with Apple Computer!!!
Excellent catch. If I recall correctly, Manafort was tried in a Virginia District court.
Ahh after unnecessarily going thru the annoying process of opening a NYT account just to see their article I see what’s going on. The quote isn’t in the NYT article at all, but was indeed in the CNN story that Painter tweeted. It is also from a “person familiar”.
I assume the “person familiar” is lying? CNN can get away with that?
When will we make actual PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA, the anchors, the producers, the CEOS, pay?
Who will at least call on us to picket them and follow them with those pickets everywhere they go?
It is a great mystery as to who watches these shlubs. All those having two or more brain cells have already moved on.
I wonder where the SEC fits into this picture? Aren’t they the bureaucrats/Communist progressives that decide policy decisions in most departments. Who are these people?
Are we back to believing there is a Durham investigation? Good grief. Give it up. Durham was always a sham.
Thank you Sundance. Your coverage of this issue is always outstanding. Our corrupt Federal agencies are obviously trying to spin something damaging they think is coming out. It will be interesting in the coming days and weeks to see exactly what it is.
Fackers Rosenstien, Sessions duty to disclose these facts? Maybe not criminal but disbarred, pensions and gov jobs adios.
What do I see? The Special Counsel was running electronic surveillance on the President and the White House Counsel, the official lawyer for the President of the United States.
This should be a “nuclear bomb” against the DOJ and the Deep State. Instead, the Deep State and the dirty actors can do ANYTHING THEY WANT.
Good Luck with that.
They would have to start with the Division Commanders, and go up the Chain of Command.
Our government is corrupt to the core. No redeeming quality. Off with their heads.
The perps have nothing to fear. The Department of Just Us won’t do anything about it.
OK, first of all this isn’t going to get a rise out of anyone… While WE know it’s wrong and corrupt and absolutely validates how EVIL the left is, it isn’t something we don’t already know… It furthers our sense of helplessness… Because our side won’t do diddly about it…. As for the left, they welcome those tactics, support them and are glad THEIR side will do anything to destroy our leaders and later, us… What should happen, is McGahn and his wife should sue EVERYBODY, the DOJ, FBI, APPLE and anyone remotely involved… Then he should sue both Mueller and Weissman personally… I might sue Tim Cook also… Look for one of our NGOs to fund all these lawsuits and set up a relationship with a strong Conservative Public Relations firm to get this out there… I might even sue the NYTimes for good measure… This process will allow for depositions of all parties and if you have an aggressive law firm, it will pay off… The bottom line is we are way past thinking that this level of corruption will get a rise out of anyone on the left, again, the Clintons and Anointed One have embedded this behavior deep into our Governments Depts and through the body politic in general… We need to destroy them using Civil Courts, it’s the only way they can’t cover it up…
Oh my, is this the beginning of the setup to impeach Donald Trump for a 3rd time? Nah, they keep losing those.
Or will ‘Joebama’s justice’ department just try PT for treason against his own administration?
Or maybe they’ll seize all his properties and businesses and hand them to BLM for ‘reparations’?
Just how ridiculously corrupt does all this have to get before We The People finally get out of bed and put our shoes on?
until the smith mundt act of 1947 is re-instated to make domestic propaganda ILLEGAL we are never going to be free of the useless propaganda of the US govt agencies.
If you are familiar with Ed Snowden’s revelations, you know your contractors (such as Apple, Verizon, etc.) will sell you out as quickly as any corrupt hack like Mueller or Weismann.
I am curious if any member of the Deep Cesspool has any perspective. The perspective to see a once great and free country fall inexorably into oblivion at the hands of apparatchiks dancing to the tune of dirty, corrupt money.
Actually this makes sense to me.
There was plenty of stories from the DNC media that they felt McGahn was holding back admitting that Trump committed obstruction of justice. But they needed him to admit it – or be coerced into stating it.
They just *knew* Trump was inches from an indictment for Obstruction of Justice.
“Trump Justice Department” – ha ha ha ha ha.
He never had a Justice Department, they were always against him. How’s that Durham report?
its hard for me to get upset when McGahn doesn’t seem to care. That’s what so hard about all this stuff. We seem to be more outraged than the people who got surveilled and illegally investigated.
We are not free people.
Thank you, Sundance, for all your fine work and analysis over the years. It would drive me nuts.
Perhaps this article is written now because the Durham investigation is going to reveal how Mueller and Weissmann”
Are you serious? Durham is a prosecutor, there is NO Durham report and there never was going to be. Get off the drugs, they’re turning your mind into mush.
Here is Weissman’s continued deflection. SD nailed this one. Weissman is as scummy as John Brennan and Adam Schiff
A federal judge signed the surveillance warrant on Don McGhan so who signed it?
Is it another FISA judge badly pretending that they did not have any hand in the coup against President Trump?
So Apple was subpoenaed by DOJ to turn over metadata in 2018. WH attorney McGahn and his wife’s data was part of the reveal. Neither Jeff Session, Rosenstein or Barr has recollection of Apple subpoena.
My question to the Federal legal types: Would not Mueller’s Special Council Office receive some kind of notification if this was a rouge 3rd party member of DOJ that requested this info during the Russian Hoax faux investigation. If not why not?
I cannot see how it would be anyone other that Team Mueller.