Yesterday the White House physicians released a statement outlining that President Trump is no longer a threat to shed the coronavirus and his recovery is excellent.
President Trump called-in to Maria Bartiromo earlier this morning to discuss his health, plans to restart rallies, the 2020 campaign and other issues in/around Washington DC.
I do not blame a single voter for tuning out this type of political messaging… At this point the people defined as “patriots” sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher echoing in a forest. There is a simple issue that everyone, including Ric Grenell, avoid because they worry about their own financial interests and ongoing image.
That issue is an admission that *CURRENT* cabinet members, *CURRENT* officials, *Current* republicans in congress, and *CURRENT* inspectors’ general, are participants in the attempted overthrow of the United States office of the presidency.
Unless and until that reality is admitted, all these words are barking at trees.
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The office of the president is trapped on the roof. The firefighters set the blaze. The firefighters are the arsonists. The municipal fire hydrants are filled with gasoline.
There are no “honorable rank-and-file” in/around Washington DC. There are no DC interests, including conservatives within the DC media apparatus, willing to participate in the disassembly of the institutional DC system of politics. That system is their livelihood.
Dear Mr. President and White House counsel:
Understanding the ordinary process of declassifying documents is a request and authorization to the executive officers and stakeholders of classified information; and understanding the current authorization is is not ordinary because the intelligence community stakeholders are adverse to the interests of the office of the president; here is a process to cut through the chaff and countermeasures.
The background here is that any unilateral declassification request, demand or authorization by President Trump puts him opposition to a variety of corrupt interests.
As a direct result the executive office of the president will be facing legal action, likely from unified democrats and republicans in the legislative branch. With that accepted, here is the most strategic approach.
President Trump informs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, that he wishes to have a full intelligence briefing on the following documents (more may be added), all documents are to be presented without a single redaction:
While it might seem frustrating to see republicans and conservatives demanding that President Trump stop talking about the greatest act of sedition and usurpation, within our Constitutional Republic in the history of our nation, this espousal by Andrew McCarthy is factually a very wide-spread opinion within the DC beltway:
Take the intents in their best possible light, and the basic premise is that no-one cares about the abuses of power that took place. National Review article by Rich Lowry is here.
I have shared by own thoughts on this matter several times; and despite knowing this issue may not/will not drive the 2020 election; in my own contemplation I keep coming back to this central question: How can this be ignored?…
… How does the office of a U.S. president; and more importantly the republic itself; survive a coordinated coup effort involving all three branches of government; while simultaneously those in charge of exposing the corruption fear the scale is too damaging for them to reveal?
What are your thoughts?
First, let me set the stage for new readers. No-one is more cynical of DC operations and manipulations than me. I do not sell nor promote ‘hope porn’, and I am not confident that anything is close to being revealed. Indeed, given the scale and scope of what took place in the last eight years, yes eight years; I have expressed doubts that anyone in government would ever actually expose it.
That said, in addition to my own cynicism I have been deep in this “spygate” or “Russiagate” rabbit hole; factually and physically inside the DC network; long enough to see the map of an investigative trail bringing up the rear.
During one great conversation a lawyer said to me: “All of this you know; all of this you have evidence for; but we don’t have the badges”. Thus began my 2020 effort, ultimately a successful effort, to drag the badges into the hole. That’s the background for an update with new information:
A very important article was written yesterday in the New Yorker [SEE HERE]. While the topic of the article spotlights the ridiculous conspiracy theory surrounding Alfa bank, and the insufferable nonsense about Trump Tower servers having contact -electronic touch signals- with servers from the Russian banking organization, there are aspects to the story that show where the Durham probe has been forced to travel.
Within the article –which everyone should read– some names are very important. The article is framed around defending the New Yorker’s previous reporting on the Alfa Bank conspiracy theory, so the intent of the article is defensive. However, the events being described in the article, and more importantly the people being outlined in the article, are accurate. Especially Daniel Jones and his lawyer William Taylor; and the connection of both to Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson.
According to the article there are two parallel efforts underway to untangle the background of how the false Alfa Bank story was originated. One effort is a set of civil lawsuits by the owners of Alfa bank against those who created the fraudulent story that flowed through Fusion GPS, into Chris Steele’s dossier, into the FBI, and ultimately into the Buzzfeed reporting therein. The owners of the bank are taking all of these entities into court and demanding discovery of sources who framed/created the false impression.
Fred Fleitz is the President and CEO, Center for Security Policy; a former NSC Chief of Staff, CIA analyst and House Intel Com staff member. Tonight he appeared with Lou Dobbs to discuss the ongoing issues with the intelligence apparatus and the requests by President Trump to release all documents without redaction.
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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released the following statement today:
Missouri U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen has provided additional information to the Flynn defense team highlighting a January 25th meeting between officials in the DOJ-NSD and FBI the day after Michael Flynn (code-named Razor) was interviewed in the White House.
The DOJ officials attending the meeting included: Mary McCord (NSD head), George Toscas (NSD principal deputy), Stu Evans, Tashina Guahar, and “Matt A” (possibly Matthew Axelrod (lawyer for the Deputy Attorney General). Additionally, from the FBI there was: James Baker (chief legal counsel), Bill Priestap (CoIntel head) and a redacted name. It is clear from the meeting notes the group was trying to find something to target Michael Flynn and brainstorming on what approach to take.
As noted they discussed the “Logan Act” yet found there was no reasonable way to use it and Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, during the transition, was normal.
FBI Legal Counsel James Baker asked how could you prosecute Flynn for a 1001 violation (lying to FBI officials) when you couldn’t prosecute any underlying crime because the contact with Kislyak was normal.
The “truth of something being falsely stated to the public” surrounds the January 15, 2017, CBS interview with Vice-President Mike Pence who conflated a question about contact with Russians during the election; with Flynn’s contact with Kislyak in the transition period.
John Dickerson: Just to button up one question, did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?
MIKE PENCE: Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy. (link)
The DOJ/FBI team was going to hang their hat on this conflation as a conflict between Pence and Flynn. That’s the beginning of the Russian “blackmail” narrative.
Counsel to General Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, comments on new unredacted information regarding the presidential transition scandal known commonly as ‘Russiagate,’ and the roles that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may have played in the events in question. The interview is with Newsmax TV’s John Bachman
An interesting letter from the DOJ provided to the Flynn defense team portends a release of handwritten notes, from the day after the January 24, 2017, Flynn interview, likely authored by Kevin Clinesmith as the FBI discussed next steps.
If the notes are from Kevin Clinesmith, he is the former FBI lawyer from the office of general counsel who was charged by the DOJ for manipulating evidence, and potentially cooperating as part of his plea agreement. [Background] Remember, the DOJ only presented a Criminal Information status against Clinesmith with no grand jury, which suggests counsel for defendant approached DOJ to structure an agreement. The plea agreement likely also included an agreement for method of public release. [LINK HERE]
During an interview last night, Sidney Powell said more truth-bombs are likely forthcoming. If Clinesmith is “cooperating”; or if Clinesmith is merely informing the DOJ of activity that took place during the Flynn targeting, which is helping them locate evidence of the background events; this could be very helpful to the defense team. We await specifics…
UPDATE: Clinesmith (?) notes released (see below)
President Donald Trump has transmitted an epic tweet-storm seemingly targeted toward all officials within the executive branch; and the intelligence apparatus writ large:
One important note of caution: there is a big difference between “authorized” and “ordered”. On May 23rd, 2019, President Trump authorized AG Bill Barr to declassify all documents and despite much optimism nothing happened {Go DEEP}. However, President Trump references that lack of inaction in the next series of tweets:
Presumably “people” who “acted very slowly” would pertain to AG Bill Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, State Dept Secretary Mike Pompeo and former ODNI Dan Coats. President Trump asks those agencies now to “Act!!!”