House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has created a circus atmosphere ahead of a scheduled appearance by Attorney General William Barr tomorrow.
After today’s hearing devolved into a hot mess; and after Nadler changed processes to block committee representatives from questioning the AG; it appears Attorney General William Barr has cancelled his scheduled appearance.
WASHINGTON DC – U.S. Attorney General William Barr will not testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, a committee aide tells NBC News. The hearing is set to proceed as scheduled, starting at 9 a.m. EST. (link)
Here’s a brief example of the hot mess earlier today:
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, follows up on his letter to AG William Barr questioning whether the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election should have looked into whether Fusion-GPS and the Ohr/Steele dossier was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Additionally, Grassley asked about the “culture of DOJ and FBI leaking to media” as outlined in the previous inspector general report (June 2018); in answering that question AG William Barr says “we have multiple criminal leak investigations underway”.
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Keep in mind… Recently Buzzfeed opened a can-of-worms, which is currently being ignored by MSM, when Buzzfeed openly published accounts of the Mueller team giving their reporters copies of FBI notes during the investigation. [Details Here] (more…)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Mueller/Weissmann/Rosenstein report. The hearing begins at 10:00am EDT. UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED (Two Segments – Morning Session and Afternoon Session) Morning Session:
This is something many anticipated in 2017; particularly with the Mid-East visit by President Trump; but it never happened. However, according to the New York Times, President Trump has a renewed push toward designating The Muslim Brotherhood as an official terrorist group. The Brotherhood is the political umbrella organization for a variety of extreme Islamist organizations; and was the primary driver of regional uprising during the Islamist Spring (Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen etc). Former President Obama looked warmly upon the Brotherhood and worked earnestly with them to fulfill their ideological goals.
The most visible effort of the political Brotherhood was in Egypt with the election of Mohammed Morsi; which led to widespread violence/chaos and the eventual call by the Egyptian people for General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to step-in.
The Brotherhood leadership was exiled from Egypt, and after a short time in Qatar -and confrontation by the Gulf Cooperation Council- they were given safe harbor in Turkey by Recep Erdogan. They likely remain in Turkey today. (more…)
Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing discuss the latest ebbs and flows amid the fraudulent Weissmann/Rosenstein report, the testimony of AG Bill Barr, and the potential to expose the weaponization of the intelligence apparatus for political surveillance and spying.
The entire leftist political apparatus is not going to give on their strategy. They have been planning this exploitation since November of 2018. This is what they do; this is all they do.
In a strategic set of rolled-out narratives today democrats, together with their leak sources inside the Mueller/Rosenstein group; and in close coordination with their media allies and Lawfare community; timed a series of events to target AG Bill Barr ahead of his senate testimony tomorrow. The timing of all this stuff is transparent.
It began with a letter from Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), to the inspector general demanding an immediate investigation of AG Barr for not agreeing to the carefully constructed narrative by Weissman, Mueller and Rosenstein. [Details Here] A group of 12 democrats demand the DOJ-OIG start investigating Attorney General Barr.
Hours later, the Washington Post and New York Times, simultaneously release dual timed articles, outlining their reception of a March 27th letter; leaked from inside the Weissmann/Mueller/Rosenstein operation; showing special counsel group were unhappy with Barr’s four-page summary of the Weissmann/Mueller report because it diluted the intended efforts of Weissmann, Mueller and Rosenstein.
(WaPo) […] “The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
Well, it looks like the outcome of a horsetrading deal is starting to assemble. President Trump meeting with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer et al, to discuss a $2 trillion infrastructure deal. Despite their schemes and plots this is worth watching:
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Democrats don’t want the baggage of a tax increase heading into 2020… so Schumer punts the financing of the $2 trillion to President Trump; forcing the White House to deal with the dirty part (likelihood a gas tax increase), while Schumer/Pelosi keep clean hands on the high-brow aspect of beautiful infrastructure. That part is politically predictable.
That said, CTH can see the outline a deal where Democrats exchange votes for President Trump’s trade deals (specifically USMCA); to offset the Wall Street Republicans that will vote against the trade agreements; in return for provisions of an infrastructure deal that will benefit Pelosi/Schumer. (more…)
Rule #1, the Club activity is predictable; they follow a well worn guide. Rule #2, when it appears they are changing strategies, refer back to Rule #1.
The Joe Biden/Stacey Abrams club ticket was visible months ago; discussed in March. Standing between the club’s pre-planned designs and the visibility therein is a great deal of smoke and mirrors. Everything is done purposefully. Planning and strategy is all they do.
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The media; and more importantly the manipulated polling to feed the media narrative; have been pushing the Biden ticket hard. Very hard. The club spends major cash; this is where the mega-donors and the Corinthian wing-back chairs of the professional consultants, political brokers, come in. Political polling is a business. (more…)
Former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, Ben Rhodes, says any investigation of prior administration “will find nothing” that shows former President Obama or White House staff had any “involvement” in the origins of the surveillance of Trump campaign and Russia collusion investigation.
Prior to March 9th, 2016, the Obama-era political surveillance and spy operations consisted of using the FBI and NSA database to track/monitor their opposition. However, once the NSA compliance officer began initiating an internal review of who was accessing the system, the CIA and FBI moved to create ex post facto justification for their endeavors. [Full Backstory] Everything after March 9, 2016, became a cover-story.
Looking at White House engagement in the last half of 2016, The War Economy has done some excellent research on this period to contrast the reference of Ben Rhodes:
[Via TWE] […] On July 31, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ran by Director James Comey, opened an investigation into the Trump campaign titled “Crossfire Hurricane”, named after the Rolling Stones documentary of the same name. It focused on the actions of four members of the Trump campaign:
The professional financial punditry can’t explain it. Flummoxed academics run around bumping into walls amid economic numbers that continue to defy expectations. All caused by a simple return to common sense ‘America First’ MAGAnomics. Low unemployment (3.8%); wages growing (+3.2%); inflation stable (1.6%). These measures all have a cumulative impact on paycheck-to-paycheck Americans. Prices for durable goods are stable and wage growth is exceeding inflation. That means more disposable income in the middle-class…DUH. Which, when combined with the increased pay from lower middle-class tax rates, is exactly the intended outcome of MAGAnomics.
Today the BEA is out with consumer spending results for the first quarter that defy expectations. Consumer spending on goods increases 1.7%. Overall spending +.09 in March, reaches highest gain in ten years. The deplorables are spending their higher wages. Go figure. Meanwhile core inflation drops to 1.6%. The pundits are shocked.
(Reuters Headline) “U.S. consumer spending roars back, but inflation tame” – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in more than 9-1/2 years in March as households stepped up purchases of motor vehicles, but price pressures remained muted, with a key inflation measure posting its smallest annual gain in 14 months.