Jeffrey Lord appears on NewsMax TV to discuss the Rod Rosenstein announcement yesterday, and also the larger discussion of how the Mueller investigation disproves a negative political claim.
Earlier today President Trump responded via twitter to the indictment announcement by DAG Rod Rosenstein. President Trump directed attention to a New York Post article and also to the earlier statements by Rob Goldman VP of Facebook Ads.
(Tweet Link – Rob Goldman FB Link)
Additionally President Trump directed attention to a New York Post article written by Michael Goodwin:
Sometimes people who assemble information make wrong assertions; this is one such time. Unfortunately, Byron York’s assertion needs a quick deconstruction.
In a twitter reply today Mr. York makes a mistake in spreading false information that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is not investigating the DOJ/FBI corruption surrounding the “Trump/Russia Case”.
The fact is – the origination statement from the Office of Inspector General specifically says the review of DOJ/FBI politicization of their investigative authority is not restrained from following “other issues that may arise.” There’s a years-worth of evidence that IG Horowitz is running an investigation on two-tracks, here’s how:
WHITE HOUSE – Earlier today, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, which began in 2014 before the President declared his candidacy. President Donald J. Trump has been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.
President Trump says, “it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.” (read more)
There is a particular transparency in timing as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘Russian Interference in U.S. Election‘ investigation on the same day as the FBI is forced to admit they made massive mistakes from reports against the Parkland Florida school shooter.
The thirteen indictments are based on very weak structure. Here’s the DOJ Announcement; and here is Rod Rosenstein’s press conference. Specific wording is used tactically to generate maximum value; however, when you peel back the onion skin and look at the actual indictment itself (full pdf below) there’s not much ‘there’ there:
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The indictment itself is full of fluff and clearly presents itself as political posturing. The Mueller investigation had to find something, anything; and what they came up with reflects how little substance exists. This is one of those examples where it pays to read the actual indictment; and contrast the facts laid out against the method of salesmanship and parseltongue. It is not a difficult read – even Boris and Natasha could do it.
Example: “unwitting Trump campaign official” is really – A single New York volunteer campaign worker agreed to give some signs to a pro-Trump rally.
Moments ago FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer responded to the requests from the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. (full pdf’s below – #1 and #2)
There are nuances in each response specific to the statutory roles of each Chairman and the specific requests made by each committee. Reflected in Judge Collyer’s responses is a need for careful consideration of each unique request.
♦House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes holds primary oversight authority over the aggregate Intelligence Community (IC). Chairman Nunes has requested the transcripts from the FISA Court during the DOJ/FBI Title-1 surveillance application over their target, U.S. person Carter Page.
♦House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte holds primary oversight authority over the Department of Justice -including the FISA court- and has requested the actual FISA Title-1 application as submitted by the DOJ/FBI for surveillance of Carter Page.
Judge Collyer responds to both legislative branch chairmen from the position of “never previously receiving such requests.” There are separation of power challenges, but also an understanding inherent in the response to Chairman Goodlatte of the unique statutory oversight his committee holds.
For those following the increasingly curious case against General Mike Flynn, events took another unusual turn yesterday as Special Counsel Robert Mueller -with agreement from all parties- filed a motion for a protective order to seal documents. These are documents compelled on behalf of the defense, by Judge Emmet Sullivan, prior to sentencing.
On November 30th, 2017, Mike Flynn signed a guilty plea; ostensibly admitting lying to investigators. The plea was accepted by Judge Rudolph Contreras; who is also a FISA court judge. Six days later, December 7th, 2017, Judge Contreras “was recused” from the case without explanation. The case was reassigned to DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
The Contreras recusal always seemed sketchy. If the conflict existed on December 7th, wouldn’t that same conflict have existed on November 30th, 2017?
On December 12th, 2017, Judge Sullivan gave out a rather unusual set of instructions to Robert Mueller. The instructions included Sullivan telling Mueller to turn over to the Flynn defense anything that could be considered exculpatory:
[…] if the government has identified any information which is favorable to the defendant but which the government believes is not material, the government shall submit the material to the Court for in camera review. (link)
On January 31st, 2018, Robert Mueller requested a delay of sentencing pushing the sentencing phase into May of this year. And then yesterday, February 14th, 2018, Mueller asks for the information he is turning over to be sealed.
On a Monday night (February 12th, 2018) episode of Tucker Carlson a Democrat member of the House Intelligence committee said something interesting that almost everyone missed. Appearing on the show to joust with Tucker, HPSCI member Eric Swalwell stated: “the House Intel Committee has not interviewed a single witness in over a month”. [Video Here, quote @03:47] This statement is rather enlightening.
A month earlier, January 4th, 2018, an agreement was finally made between House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and DOJ Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for complete disclosure of all unredacted documents AND a list of witnesses who Nunes wanted the HPSCI to question.
Included in those names was: FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during an affair and previously worked on the special counsel’s Russia probe; FBI general counsel James Baker, who was reassigned; FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, whom ex-FBI boss James Comey testified made the decision not to brief Congress about the Russia case during last year’s election; and Bruce Ohr, a DOJ official reassigned after concealing meetings with figures involved in the dossier.
The January 4th agreement between Devin Nunes and Rod Rosenstein was made after a great deal of back-and-forth. Chairman Nunes then documented the agreement in a letter.
On January 8th, Bruce Ohr was demoted for the second time. [AND DOJ officials scheduled Bruce Ohr to be available to Devin Nunes on January 17th]
On January 9th, the DOJ provided the unredacted DOJ/FBI documents requested to Chairman Nunes; the documents the DOJ produced surrounded the Clinton-Steele Dossier and the FISA Title-1 application. The documents were assigned to a SCIF in the basement of the House. Those documents become the basis for Chairman Nunes to outline his memo; essentially a declassification request to the White House written by Trey Gowdy.
According to ranking member Adam Schiff his declassification request was critically important, immediately necessary,… vital to the larger understanding,… intensely important to get released… etc. Well, where is it?
UPDATE: Schiff now says he doesn’t want it released.
Last Friday FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ AAG Rod Rosenstein, informed the White House chief legal counsel of declassification adjustments needed for release. The White House subsequently informed congress and requested Adam Schiff (House Intelligence Committee) to work with the FBI and DOJ therein for quick release.
It’s doubtful you can find a more succinct example of TDS than a seemingly inebriated Democrat Senator asking the aggregate intelligence apparatus, during a public session of congress, to give specific details of U.S. covert intelligence efforts to thwart Russian, Chinese and North Korean cyber-warfare. [Watch around 06:30] As Democrat Senator Joe Manchin professionally restrained himself from laughing, even Democrat Senator Kamala Harris couldn’t avoid the eye-roll. ‘Muh Russia’ is real.
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of armed services committee, began his mid-day sluration with a ‘resist-we-much‘ effort to continue the vast White House Russian conspiracy narrative, and slowly morphed into a weirdly-sounding intoxicated demand for the NSA, CIA and intelligence officers to give him specific examples of their efforts to combat quantum cyber-intelligence operations. Eventually ODNI Dan Coats grabbed the wheel and stopped Senator Reed from going full Chappaquiddick… WATCH: