Oh dear, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, is asking President Trump to question U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May:
The White House provided a background presser for information about President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s upcoming state visit to Japan. [Transcript below] There are some interesting aspects to the itinerary as outlined; however, first, it’s important to emphasize the context.
As CTH shared earlier: At the highest levels of finance and business; in a process within both private industry and the geopolitical realm of government; a key aspect to every long-term strategic reset is the formation of an alliance. Every successful titan of industry who has structurally changed history has influenced an alliance toward the effort.
I strongly suspect, in anticipation of the China confrontation; and considering the scale of the consequences therein; President Trump selected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the center of an Indo-Pacific alliance (several years ago). With the knowledge of USTR Lighthizer heading to Japan with an advance trade team…. now consider:
Via Teleconference – 2:31 P.M. EDT – PRESS OFFICER: Good afternoon, everybody. I’m happy you all could join. We have with us today [senior administration official]. He’ll be providing some brief remarks about the President’s upcoming trip to Japan and a few Q&A afterwards. This will be on background and you can attribute what he says to a senior administration official.
President Trump was scheduled to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for a discussion over an infrastructure spending bill. However, after partisan remarks by Nancy Pelosi accusing President Trump of a cover-up, any hope of negotiating an infrastructure bill collapsed. President Trump is angered:
Journalist John Solomon reports the first batch of documents to be declassified in the next seven to eight days will surround “bucket five“:
Bucket Five – Intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all exculpatory intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court.
Presumably this would include the recently revealed State Dept Kavalac email; and the FBI transcripts from wiretaps of George Papadopoulos (also listed in Carter Page FISA).
In a clear signal toward the trade conflict with the United States, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping is preparing his nation for a protracted trade conflict. Chinese state-run media have been deploying propaganda to shift public opinion toward the U.S. as a direct threat, and the latest developments by Xi showcase that agenda.
(South China Post) Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the nation to embark on a new Long March and “start all over again”, in the most dramatic sign to date that Beijing has given up hope of reaching a trade deal with the United States in the near term.
Xi is in Jiangxi province for his first domestic tour since the escalation of the trade war two weeks ago. Jiangxi is where China’s defeated Red Army started its fabled Long March in 1934, and Xi’s choice of destination is being viewed as an effort to invoke a spirit of endurance and to rally public spirit amid rising tensions with Washington.
In a May 2nd interview with Fox News Catherine Herridge, President Trump was questioned about the pending declassification of documents.
The president replied: “I’m going to be allowing declassification pretty soon, I’m going to be doing it very soon, far more than you would have even thought.” Herridge asked: “May, June, July?” to which the president responded: “No, soon. I mean whenever they need it. Whenever they need it I’ll be doing it. But I will be declassifying it. Everything.”
Considering “whenever they need it”…. Many of the most consequential releases centering around ‘Spygate’ have happened when the President is outside of Washington DC.
In the next few days President Trump and First Lady Melania will be traveling to Japan for a state visit (May 25 – 28th); and then on to the U.K (June 3rd – 5th) for another state visit, finishing the trip in Shannon Ireland June 5th. [Memorial Day is May 27th.]
Devin Nunes outlines his request to intelligence agencies to prove Joseph Mifsud is a Russian intelligence operative. Apparently the current FBI is avoiding a response.
Steve Bannon appears on Fox Business news to discuss his new label as global “demon” to Beijing for Bannon’s strategic opposition to the rise of Chinese dragonomics.
I hope everyone is ready to do some reading….
Moments ago Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins released the transcripts of nine key figures from the House investigation into DOJ and FBI political activity.
The transcript release includes testimony from:
This could be overwhelming. So we will post two transcripts per day for full review starting below with the transcript of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe:
(more…)
The Christopher Steele dossier was called “Crown Material” by FBI agents within the small group during their 2016 political surveillance operation. The “Crown” description reflects the unofficial British intelligence aspect to the dossier as provided by Steele.
Recently, former House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy stated there are emails from former FBI Director James Comey that outline instructions from CIA Director John Brennan to include the “Crown Material” within the highly political Intelligence Community Assessment.
Specifically -as outlined by Gowdy- the wording of the Comey email is reported to say:
…”Brennan is insisting the Crown Material be included in the intel assessment.”
However, on May 23rd, 2017, in testimony -under oath- to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) John Brennan stated [@01:54:28]:
GOWDY: Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?
BRENNAN: I don’t.
GOWDY: Do you know if the bureau [FBI] ever relied on the Steele dossier as part of any court filing, applications?
BRENNAN: I have no awareness.
GOWDY: Did the CIA rely on it?
BRENNAN: No.
GOWDY: Why not?
BRENNAN: Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done. Uh … it was not.
