Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to the media at the conclusion of his second day of testimony before a joint House committee conducting DOJ and FBI oversight.
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By prior agreement the transcript of the hearing will be made public within 24 hours. So we should be able to read the testimony sometime tomorrow. (more…)
Michael Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow by Judge Emmet Sullivan. Former constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz discusses his opinion on the possibility that Judge Sullivan could throw out the case.
Mr. Dershowitz has an opinion piece today at THE HILL going over this issue – SEE HERE –
The media is asking the wrong question about the Michael Flynn case. They are asking whether Flynn lied or the FBI acted improperly, as if the answers to those two questions are mutually exclusive. The possibility that both are true, in that Flynn did not tell the truth and that the FBI acted improperly, is not considered in our hyper partisan world where everyone, including the media, chooses a side and refuses to consider the chance that their side is not perfectly right and the other side not perfectly evil. Read More
It was curious to see Michael Cohen walk out of his sentencing hearing last week without having to report to jail/prison for the punishment therein. Generally speaking when the final adjudication is presented the accused begins to serve his/her punishment. However, not in this case; and not with the construct of this pleading, this quid-pro-quo.
In the prosecutorial agreement within the Cohen case, there obviously remains the fulfillment of terms. Michael Cohen doesn’t report to prison until March 6th, 2019. Why the exceptional judicial delay and generosity?…. The incoming Chairman for the House Government and Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, explains:
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There it is; transparently obvious for any political observer who has a modicum of intellectual honesty. House committees will use testimony from Michael Cohen as the cornerstone for their well-structured political strategy to eliminate the existential threat to their ongoing DC livelihood, President Trump.
There should be no doubt this plan was conceived well before Special Counsel Robert Mueller passed the investigative torch to his compatriots in the Southern District of New York. This impeachment/removal approach is a synergy between multiple benefactors, and is entirely by design. (more…)
House Permanent Sub Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Devin Nunes appears on with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the current state of issues with Michael Flynn.
Chairman Nunes draws attention to the latest documents (released Friday). One of the documents is written by Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe who noted that Flynn was aware the FBI had the content of a phone call between himself and Russian Ambassador Kislyak, prior to the FBI interview. Therefore it is highly unlikely Flynn would lie about the content of that Kislyak phone call.
Most people forget the background of how the Mueller probe was constructed. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI chief legal counsel James Baker selected most of the special counsel investigators; those two then recommended to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein that he hire Robert Mueller as special counsel lead.
Comey was fired. The remaining ‘at-risk’ corrupt FBI leadership (McCabe and Baker), positioning to defend their own interests, selected the “small group”; then Mueller was selected and brought on his additional team members. The entire purpose of the special counsel operation was to cover-up the DOJ/FBI activity. (more…)
Congressman Darryl Issa appears for an interview with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the sketchy Mueller case against Michael Flynn; the likelihood that someone in the administration is going to have to talk to the FISA court about likely DOJ abuse; and the second round of questions for James Comey scheduled for tomorrow.
It is hard to believe this was written a year ago; time flies. However, we are repeating a FISA-702 explanation thread below because as the year has evolved; and understanding FISA-702 process abuse is now the specific focus of Inspector General Michael Horowitz; there is an aspect to the FISA-gate story that must be expanded.
The United States intelligence community, writ large, will likely never allow the structural abuse of the FISA-702 system by the Obama administration to surface. Consider it a third rail of unspoken agreement. A similar motive for the DIA to keep the Flynn file under wraps. However, before going into the complexities of the FISA conundrum, which would also envelop any Horowitz report, it is important to revisit the basics.
We’ll break down the term: “ FISA-702(16)(17) ” into the elements that will help make sense of this story in the future.
FISA – Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
702 – An American caught up in the process of Foreign Surveillance
(16) – A search query based on “TO” and/or “FROM”
(17) – A search query based on “ABOUT” (now removed)
Again, to repeat, there are differing FISA rules for use of the NSA or FBI database depending on the originating intelligence compartment. (more…)
Well, well, well. This is likely to be quickly brushed under the proverbial rug. If you have followed the case against SSCI Security Director James Wolfe you will note the original indictment against him outlined, obliquely, how Wolfe took custody of the Carter Page FISA application and then leaked it to his concubine at Buzzfeed Ms. Ali Watkins.
The leak of the FISA application was a rather explosive issue not readily identified when Wolfe’s indictment was first presented (June ’18). It was only possible to connect the dots after the FISA application was released (July ’18) and a comparison on specific dates, times, contacts and chain-of-custody, was possible.
In response to his indictment, Wolfe’s lawyers said they would force Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) members to participate and testify in any trial. This was a rather stunning approach. A few months passed and a plea bargain was struck. Wolfe would plead guilty only to one count of lying to FBI investigators. The charges of the leaking “top secret and classified” intelligence were dropped.
Wolfe was not ultimately charged with leaking the FISA application. We sniffed a quid-pro-quo. We suspected Wolfe was instructed by at least one senator, likely SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, to leak the information. This would explain Wolfe’s extraordinary defense position – and the DOJ response therein.
Think about it. A gang-of-eight member (Warner), who happened -as a consequence of the jaw dropping implications- to be one of only TWO SSCI members who was notified by the FBI that Wolfe was compromised. The ramifications cannot be overstated. (more…)
Forget the unmentioned brutally obvious political motives and intents behind the operation against Donald Trump for a moment; and focus on the collective Obama activity as if they actually believed the claims they have since presented…
The counterintelligence investigation into candidate, president-elect, and president Donald Trump was predicated on the Obama’s intelligence community believing that campaign officials were colluding, conspiring and otherwise coordinating to take over the office of the presidency, with help from a foreign government. So why wouldn’t the intelligence services of the United States government conduct wiretaps and full blown surveillance upon that incoming administration?
The John Brennan CIA presented a classified electronic communication, “ec”, origination memo (we are not allowed to see) to ODNI (Clapper) and FBI (Comey); who then opened a full-blown counterintelligence operation against officials within the Trump campaign.
We know this operation was political, but again, ignore that aspect and just look at the issues, details and activity while accepting -at face value- their demonstrably dubious claims.
Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn provided the opening for operational surveillance of the Trump team. We can argue about how they were framed in that regard; however, it is factual that FISA-Title-One surveillance is all encompassing.
The target is validated and defined by the FBI as “an agent of a foreign government”. This legal distinction permits full surveillance: electronic, physical, the works. Everything is on the table, no limits or boundaries. (more…)
