U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr appears for an interview by Laura Ingraham about COVID-19, and what the Justice Department is doing. The second part of this interview will be broadcast tonight.
Everything anyone needed to know about the motives and intents of fired Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson is evidenced by his releasing a political statement tonight protesting his termination.
Atkinson doesn’t write a “letter”, his diatribe is not addressed to anyone, it is just a political “statement” designed to be exploited by the same people, for the same intents, as his prior ICIG work product. This transparently political effort is ridiculous.
…The recent IG report outlining Atkinson’s gross incompetence in the FISA scandal, vis-a-vis the 42 DOJ-NSD Accuracy Reviews, is the atomic shield against the political narrative….
President Trump has sent a letter to congress giving them 30-days advance notice and informing them of the removal of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson:
The necessary, albeit politically controversial, move comes about two months after President Trump assigned Ric Grenell to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Grenell is ultimately the acting boss of the overall intelligence community. It is likely DNI Grenell provided some key insight into the sketchy background activity in/around Atkinson’s office, and the overall intelligence apparatus writ large.
Additionally, former congressman Mark Meadows is now President Trump’s Chief-of-Staff; and Meadows has been a critic of those within the intelligence apparatus who attempted a soft-coup twice: Once by special counsel (Russia investigation) Robert Mueller; and once by impeachment (Ukraine investigation) using CIA operative Eric Ciaramella and NSC operative Alexander Vindman.
Also, in the recent FISA review by the OIG the DOJ inspector general specifically identified issues with the “accuracy reviews” conducted by DOJ-NSD chief legal counsel. Who was that former DOJ-NSD chief legal counsel? That would be current ICIG Michael Atkinson…
Things are getting interesting, potential ramifications are growing, as the FISA Court responds to the latest information from the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG).
After a review of 29 FISA applications, from eight FBI field offices, the OIG informed the FBI and DOJ that none of the surveillance applications were compliant with the Woods procedures. Meaning zero applications had FBI evidence to support the validity of the claims within the FISA warrants. That’s a very big problem if those FISA warrants were used to gather evidence used to prosecute the 29 targets of the applications.
In a FISC order released today [pdf here] presiding Judge James Boasberg is ordering the FBI to identify who those targets were; and asking the DOJ to explain what they did with the evidence gathered as a result of the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants. Big.
[pdf here]
If evidence obtained by execution of a fraudulently obtained warrant was used in the prosecution of any of those targets; there’s a possibility those cases will be reopened.
Considering the twenty nine applications from the OIG go back to 2015, there’s a lot of potential for some downstream consequences not only for those 29 applications, but also for all FBI FISA applications with a similar level of neglect.
I’m not exactly sure what the federal violation is considering the man was selling the face masks; but the FBI determined he was ‘hoarding’ his supply, and arrested him for price gouging. The FBI confiscated 80,000 face masks from his “stash” of supplies.
New York – Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statements to the feds on Sunday outside his Borough Park home where he allegedly peddled and stored massive amounts of N95 respirator masks, federal officials said.
Feldheim is also accused of price-gouging. On March 18, he’s suspected of selling a New Jersey doctor about 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a markup of roughly 700 percent, authorities said.
After the DOJ Offfice of Inspector General (OIG), Michael Horowitz, presented his December 2019 findings of the FISA application used against U.S person Carter Page, the gross deficiencies and intentional fraud were so extensive the IG said he was going to review a sample of FISA applications to identify if the fraud and abuse was widespread.
The OIG began reviewing FISA applications from eight field offices (the proverbial “rank and file”). The OIG selected 29 FISA applications from those field offices over the period of October 2014 to September 2019. Additionally, every field office and the DOJ-NSD generate internal “Accuracy Reviews”, or self-checks on FISA applications; so the OIG inspected 42 of the accuracy review FISA files to determine if they were compliant.
The results were so bad the IG produced an interim memorandum to the DOJ and FBI [pdf link here]. Within the 17-page-memo the IG notifies Attorney General Bill Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray that all of the claimed FISA processes, in every field office, are grossly deficient, and in most cases there is zero compliance with FISA standards. The IG memorandum is presented before the IG even looks at the specifics of the non-compliance.
Below is the report/memorandum. Additionally I am summarizing the stunning top-lines identified by the IG memo:
To understand the purpose and specific need of the latest Executive Order CTH can share a familiar analogy to help better conceptualize the issues.
There are several supply chains that are being affected by the coronavirus mitigation effort; two specific sectors involve healthcare products and food distribution. Today’s executive order targets both.
As a network of U.S. manufacturing continues to increase the production of healthcare products, masks, shields, ventilators and medicines; any hoarding or pricing opportunism around those items is obviously a matter of great interest for overall public health.
The White House COVID-19 task force will be holding an update to deliver information to the public and answer questions from the media. Anticipated start time 5:30pm ET
U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is expected to join this briefing and there may be a myriad of new consequences outlined, raised and discussed as the coronavirus mitigation effort begins to enter the third month. The ripple effects are almost beyond comprehension.
Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – PBS Livestream Link
The Deep State is playing COVID-19 perfectly. With the intention to create/instill extra fears amid center-right Americans; and timed to emphasize the center-left narrative of authoritarian Trump; U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr steps in to execute his role.
U.S. AG Bill Barr asks legislators to empower him with more legal authority to take actions within the justice department amid the crisis known as the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.
(Via Politico) The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.
Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted.
As an outcome of short-sighted coronavirus issues, the Philadelphia police department has announced they will no longer be arresting suspects for retail theft, auto theft, burglary, narcotics or other “non violent” offenses. Instead they will write tickets, release the suspects and address the criminality later on. Now watch what happens.
CTH saw the instructions earlier today (see below) but we did not want to immediately distribute the information. It should be remembered the current Philadelphia police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw (pictured left), is a social justice activist from Portland, Oregon.
Unfortunately, there is a predictive element to this. Perhaps some are familiar with the post Hurricane Andrew experience in Homestead and Miami-Dade.
The only thing standing between law-abiding citizens and those who would take their possessions is an ability to defend your own property. This is now the Philadelphia reality.
PHILADELPHIA – In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Philadelphia police officers have been instructed to stop making arrests for certain non-violent crimes.
The department said individuals who would normally be arrested and processed at a detective division, will be temporarily detained to confirm identification and complete necessary paperwork. The individual will then be a arrested at a later date on an arrest warrant. (read more)
Beware, the law of unintended consequences.