Senator Rand Paul reported earlier this evening that he met with President Trump in the White House to discuss the pending FISA reauthorization.  According to Senator Paul President Trump will not support reauthorization without “significant FISA reform”.
Senator Paul appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest developments.  The position being put forth by Rand Paul is exactly correct.  Change the law so that FISA can only be used against foreign actors, and force the DOJ or intelligence apparatus to go to a normal Title-3 court for a search/surveillance warrant against any American. WATCH:

.

(more…)

Completely agree with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton here. During a discussion of congress trying to pass a clean FISA reauthorization or a reform version, Tom Fitton says the only way to really reform the process is to arrest, prosecute & jail those who abused it.
Fitton’s point is similar to the CTH argument surrounding SSCI leaker James Wolfe.  If the DOJ had prosecuted Wolfe for the criminal leaks of classified intelligence, the landscape of an adversarial intelligence apparatus over the past two years would be completely different.   The same general perspective applies to the FISA abuse issue.

(more…)

In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020.
AG Bill Barr is requesting a clean FISA renewal with no reforms or revisions. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham support the AG request.  The American people want it scrapped, or, at a minimum strongly revised. Congress is trying to hide the FISA renewal within the Coronavirus appropriations bill.

According to media reporting, Rand Paul said he talked to President Trump yesterday, and President Trump does not support a “clean renewal” of the FISA authorities that were used against him and his campaign:

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told Sen. Rand Paul that he does not support a clean extension of expiring surveillance authorities, throwing the future of the program into doubt ahead of a fast-approaching March 15 deadline to re-up key features of the Patriot Act.
The Kentucky Republican told reporters that Trump made the comments to him on Wednesday, just a day after Attorney General William Barr told GOP senators that Congress should extend the expiring provisions regarding roving wire taps, lone wolf actors and the most controversial provision: call data collection.

(more…)

Lawyers representing Michael Flynn presented a strong argument today (pdf below) in reply to the governments’ continued efforts to refute prosecutorial wrongdoing.
Within the reply motion Sidney Powell highlights the conduct of prosecutor Brandon Van Grack and hypocrisy within the government arguments: “Mr. Van Grack’s contention that he satisfied the government’s obligations by providing this information before Mr. Flynn’s sentencing now proves the point that he suppressed it when it was most important to Mr. Flynn: before his guilty plea on December 1, 2017, and before what was scheduled to be his sentencing on December 18, 2018.”

Prosecutor Van Grack suppressed evidence to protect… “the prosecutors, his team, and the cadre of malfeasant FBI agents from the discovery of their negligence, crimes, and wrongs.”

The tone of the reply motion reads like the Flynn defense is chomping at the bit to take this case to trial. Perhaps that is a strategy to add weight to their dismissal argument; or perhaps that is a reflection of defense confidence they can highlight all of the abuses at trial.
(more…)

When the FISA Court responded to the DOJ Inspector General report in December and January 2020 they requested an action plan from the DOJ and FBI to respond to the issues raised about misrepresentations to the court.
The DOJ/FBI replied to the FISA Court admitting the last two FISA renewals (April, June ’17) used against Carter Page were insufficiency predicated while withholding opinion on the original application (Oct ’16) and first renewal (Jan ’17).
To address the consequences of fraudulently obtained FISA warrants the DOJ and FBI informed the court they would begin a process to “sequester” all collected evidence from all four FISA warrants. [FISA COURT LINK]
Sequestering the evidence is essentially a search for what investigative material the FISA warrants were used to obtain; ie. the search for the fruit of the poisoned tree; and then a review of all DOJ/FBI cases that may have utilized that investigative material.
In late January the DOJ contacted the FISA court and asked for an extension to the deadline.  The FISA court granted an extension until February 5th [LINK]  The response from the DOJ has not yet been declassified or released by the FISC for public review.
However, with recent media reporting of AG Barr using “outside prosecutors” to review current, former and ongoing cases, it simply makes sense this ‘outsider’ effort is part of the DOJ/FBI sequestration review.
(more…)

Lou Dobbs doesn’t suffer fools easily; he prefers to cut through the filibuster and get to the heart of the matter.  That approach is one reason his show is highly successful.
Within a similar outlook… Where we are now is the direct result of bad decisions where we came from. Going forward on the same corrupt path only takes us further in the wrong direction. This natural truism is the current dilemma for AG Bill Barr.
During his show tonight Lou Dobbs takes the audience back to a very specific decision by the DOJ; a fork-in-the-road decision that put the department on path traveling further and further away from justice. The specific moment outlined was the DOJ decision to bury the intelligence leak by SSCI Security Director James Wolfe.

[BACKSTORY HERE]

However, amid all the chaff and countermeasures there is good news. When you realize that continuing forward on a path initiated by corrupt decisions only takes you further and further from the truth; you realize there are signs showing the DOJ is indeed reversing course back to the moment when the wrong path was selected.
(more…)

Foolishness and betrayal of our country have served to reveal dangers within our present condition. Misplaced corrective action, regardless of intent, is neither safe nor wise. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized against our candidate by those who controlled the levers of government. This is what AG Bill Barr needs to explain to the nation.

The position of Bill Barr today is a direct result of decisions made by the DOJ in the Fall of 2017 & Summer of 2018. The events surrounding the leaking of the FISA warrant used against U.S. person Carter Page, and the 2018 DOJ decision not to prosecute SSCI Security Director James Wolfe for those leaks, was the fork in the road moment for the DOJ.
Attorney General Jeff Session was recused, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein was in charge and the Mueller investigation was ongoing. That was when the DOJ made a decision not to prosecute Wolfe for leaking classified information. DC U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu signed-off on a plea deal where Wolfe plead guilty to only a single count of lying to the FBI.
If the DOJ had pursued the case against Wolfe for leaking the FISA application, everything would have been different.  The American electorate would have seen evidence of what was taking place in the background effort to remove President Trump. We would be in an entirely different place today if that prosecution or trial had taken place.
(more…)

Former congressman Trey Gowdy appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the issues surrounding the non-indictment of Andrew McCabe for lying to DOJ-OIG investigators about his leaks to the media.
Gowdy breaks out the narrow issue surrounding the internal McCabe investigation as compared to potential criminal conduct that may exist outside that narrow window.

.
Additionally, Gowdy notes John Durham is looking at specific issues related to former CIA Director John Brennan and activity within the intelligence community that took place prior to the official opening of Crossfire Hurricane on July 31st, 2016.
Included in that Durham review are documents that show CIA activity….
(more…)

Ever since the DNC Club road-map showed Bloomberg as the likely nominee to move into the Democrat race & assemble all of the ‘Never Bernie’ coalitions under one establishment tent, there has been speculation of a possible alternate motive: to bring Hillary Clinton back into the 2020 race.
Today, Matt Drudge takes that speculation to new levels as he claims exclusive sources to highlight Michael Bloomberg is considering doing exactly what people speculated.

[LINK]

Such a strategy is rather Machiavellian; unfortunately, that type of scheme is exactly what Club leadership would do.  However, that said, this is more likely a test to see just how people would react publicly; and it is drawing apoplectic reaction from the AOC/Bernie wing of Democrat activists.
(more…)

The corruption and rot that remains inside the DOJ is specifically because AG Bill Barr refuses to deal with it.  A result was the Roger Stone sentencing recommendation fiasco.
AG Bill Barr cannot admit rogue anti-Trump prosecutors defied his leadership because that would embarassingly highlight his own weakness and inability; so he blames President Trump.
Matt Whitaker notes how Michael Flynn and Andrew McCabe were charged with exactly the same issue, lying to FBI investigators.  Andrew McCabe is told he will not be prosecuted, Michael Flynn has had his life destroyed.  This is a big problem.

(more…)