Two days ago the FBI, DHS and a joint anti-terrorism command force raided a home in Dearborn Michigan.  At the request of the FBI the media was intentionally ambiguous as to the nature of the raid leading to some speculative reporting.

Media Report:

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In the aftermath of the raid some details have emerged. The house raided was occupied by  Samer ElDebek, a Lebanese American truck driver with ties to New York.

According to Arab-American News ElDebek lived in New York and left for Lebanon approximately 8 years ago. He returned to the U.S., and after a time back in New York he relocated to Dearborn about 10 months ago.

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President Trump has requested the Supreme Court grant an expedited review of lower court rulings that have blocked the temporary travel restrictions and visa bans.

The Supreme Court justices have now asked challengers to the Trump Executive Order to file their responses to the petition for review (the requests for stays of the lower courts’ rulings).  Those responses are due on or before 3 p.m. Monday, June 12.

(Via SCOTUS BLOG) […] Arguing that lower courts “openly second-guessed” President Donald Trump’s determination that national security concerns require a freeze on new visas for travelers from six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), last night the federal government asked the Supreme Court to step into the legal dispute over the constitutionality of the executive order that the president signed on March 6.

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Reuters/Washington Post Puts a Slice of Kushner Cheese on Russian Nothingburger and simultaneously prove the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump campaign.

The extent of the U.S. media’s straw-grasping is boundless, but this one is going to backfire. HOPEFULLY.  For the most recent example consider the Washington Post and Reuters claiming President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner participating in a proposal to set up a back-channel with Russia for communication after the November 8th election.

Firstly, Reuters and The Washington Post are idiots in their claimed “exclusive” bombast, etc.  UPI reported on the nothingburger back-channel Russian construct on April 3rd.  This “breaking” news is old news, and old nothingburger news at that.

Of course President-elect Trump’s staff would consider a back-channel set up for communications with Russian government officials in November and December 2016, just about everyone with a tinge of common sense was saying that exact construct was needed.

Why?

Well, you must remember the atmosphere after the November 8th election during the time period being discussed.  President Obama, in close coordination with his U.S. media allies, was filling the airwaves with toxic anti-Russian narratives in an explicit attempt to make any structural positive relationship between the pending Trump administration and Russia impossible.

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A newly released court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) found the Obama NSA routinely violated American privacy protections as his administration and officials scoured through overseas intercepts and targeted U.S. citizens.

The Obama administration failed to disclose the extent of the unlawful activity until just before the election in 2016. The FISA court ruling states the illegal searches conducted by the NSA under Obama were “widespread” and created a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue.”   Video explanation via Judicial Watch:

A pdf of the ruling is below.

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It is not coincidental the origin of all ‘vast-Russian-conspiracy‘ stories seem to start with a discussion of intelligence gathering beginning in July of 2016.   The GOP convention to nominate Donald Trump was July 18-21st of 2016.

Surrounding the nomination that stunned the geo-political world almost every foreign government was trying to figure out who and what Donald J Trump was all about; and more specifically: how would his run for the presidency impact their specific interests.

WASHINGTON NYT — American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.

[Paragraph #5] The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the F.B.I., which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is continuing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election. (link)

The New York Times should win a Pulitzer for undermining their own ‘Russian Conspiracy’ headline narrative within the fifth paragraph.  [It’s a current trend] I digress.

Obviously Russia would be asking these questions along with China, France, England, the larger EU and every nation in every continent.  It would be silly to claim otherwise.

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BUSTED !!

Today former CIA Director John Brennan testified to congress on the Russian counter-intelligence operation which began in July 2016.  Today, John Brennan completely contradicted the March 20th, 2017, testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.

We have previously drawn attention to a particular part of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to congress from March 20th.  The issue is when was congressional leadership, specifically the congressional intelligence oversight group called the “Gang-of-Eight”, notified of the Russian investigation (a counter-intelligence operation).

Pay close attention.  On March 20th FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about this notification (first three minutes of the video):

Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?

James Comey: …”good question.  Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said.  Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…

Watch the first 3 minutes of that video.  Notice the discomfort etc.  We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE–  Comey is discussing the recent notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier.  Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.

Now, watch the opening statement from former CIA Director John Brennan today:

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Darnit, shuddup Dersh, you’re giving away the play.  Lefty Alan Dershowitz rightly points out the appointment of a “special counsel” is tantamount to putting cheese on a nothingburger.   There is no legal risk to President Trump within any of the moonbat declarations currently gripped like political life-preservers by his opposition.

However, Dershowitz also recognizes the danger to his like-minded colleagues in political office.  The only criminal acts factually evidenced so far are the intelligence leaks. Robert Mueller has all the power he needs to investigate the illegal leaking of classified information.

This entire ‘muh Russia’ fiasco could have, and in my estimation ‘will have‘, the absolute opposite result the loony left is looking for.

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Donald Trump has a history of this exact strategy.  He creates such angst amid his opponents they drive themselves to the furthest extreme in opposition.  Once they are in their crazy-space the Donald just laughs; their rabid thrashing and over-the-top displays of condescending anger create such friction they self-immolate.

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein briefed congress earlier today and firmly stood by the recommendation he wrote that outlined James Comey’s ineptitude and inability to be an effective FBI Director.

Deputy Rosenstein’s recommendation was part of the portfolio President Trump cited in reference to his decision to fire FBI Director Comey.

Here’s the text of the opening statement made to congress earlier today:

Good afternoon. I welcome the opportunity to discuss my role in the removal of FBI Director James Comey, although I know you understand that I will not discuss the special counsel’s ongoing investigation. Most importantly, I want to emphasize my unshakeable commitment to protecting the integrity of every federal criminal investigation. There never has been, and never will be, any political interference in any matter under my supervision in the United States Department of Justice.

Before I discuss the events of the past two weeks, I want to provide some background about my previous relationship with former Director Comey. I have known Jim Comey since approximately 2002. In 2005, when Mr. Comey was Deputy Attorney General, he participated in selecting me to serve as a U.S. Attorney. As a federal prosecutor, he was a role model. His speeches about leadership and public service inspired me.

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Long time CTH readers will note we extended well over a year of benefit-of-the-doubt to the motives of former FBI Director James Comey with regard to the severity of his politicized nature and disposition.  Throughout the entire Clinton investigation we remained ambivalent to Comey’s motives.

Indeed it wasn’t until after the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack when Comey obtusely noted the FBI had been contacted (prior to the attack) about the sketchy behavior of Omar Mateen by a ‘random concerned citizen’ -and our finding that the actual ‘citizen’ was the far more substantive St Lucie county sheriff Ken Mascara– that we recognized how far Comey was willing to go to save his political face.

Yesterday, a friend of James Comey by the name of Benjamin Wittes, editor and writer for lawfare blog, now steps out and admits he was one of the primary sources for the New York Times Comey Memo article (Michael Schmidt); and in so doing outlines the severity of the political nature of the former FBI Director:

[…]  I called Schmidt Friday morning after reading his earlier story, which ran the previous evening, about Comey’s dinner with President Trump and the President’s demands at that dinner for a vow of loyalty.

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President Donald Trump held an informal luncheon with news reporters and TV anchors today in advance of the upcoming international visit.  Brett Baier reports President Trump was relaxed, warm and comfortable and showing no change in disposition from all prior encounters. Most of the discussion was off the record, however the president did release the following response to a question from one of the participants at the meeting:

Reporter Question: “You made a point about the special counselor and and you believe it hurts this country” —

President Trump: “I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country. And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear… all of the things that we discussed today. And I think this shows a very divided country.

It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way. That’s all this is. I think it shows division, and it shows that we’re not together as a country. And I think it’s a very, very negative thing. And hopefully, this can go quickly, because we have to show unity if we’re going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world.” 

~ President Donald J Trump