Published on Apr 29, 2019
Biden says Obama White House was ‘scandal-free’… Here’re some of the BIGGER ones he drew a blank on
The White House had “not one whisper of scandal” under President Barack Obama – that’s what former VP Joe Biden would have one believe as a selling point for his presidential run. Wait, is that the sound of fact-checkers typing?
“The thing I’m proudest of,” Biden said on Friday of his time at Obama’s right hand, “Not one single whisper of scandal…not one, and that’s because of Barack.”
Biden was speaking on ‘The View,’ a day after announcing his campaign for the presidency in 2020. The studio audience cheered and host Joy Behar chimed in, calling Barack Obama “amazing.” Of course, Biden is hardly going to besmirch his former partner on live television, and the view of presidents past tends to soften once they’ve left office.
But one has to wonder if the busy liberal fact-checkers would want to correct the Democrats’ favorite candidate, as his administration racked up its fair share of scandals during Obama’s eight years at the helm. Here’re three of the biggest:
Attack of the drones
The escalation of drone warfare and the targeted killings of American citizens are some of the biggest and blackest marks on the Obama administration. Although Obama was not the first US president to deploy drones on the battlefield, he was a drone enthusiast from the outset, describing the killer robots as “effective,” “indispensable,” and “the only game in town,”and personally authorizing more strikes in his first year than George W. Bush did in his entire eight years in office.
The whole world became a battlefield. Drone strikes targeted enemies and innocents alike in Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Of these strike zones, only Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria were active battlefields. At least four American citizens were killed, including a 16-year-old boy in Yemen, struck two weeks after his father.
A grand total of 563 strikes killed between 384 and 807 civilians in non-battlefield countries, according to figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Technically, it was all legal, of course – after the law in question was written by executive branch lawyers and hidden from Congress and the public.
Fast and Furious
This Fast and Furious had nothing to do with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Instead, it was a ‘gunwalking’ scandal that Obama and then-Attorney General Eric Holder desperately tried to keep a lid on. In 2009, the Department of Justice came up with the amazingly bright idea of letting firearms – including .50 caliber rifles powerful enough to rip apart an engine block – fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, supposedly as a means of tracking them.
The plan backfired. Federal agents lost track of most of the 2,000 guns, which wound up being used in murders on both sides of the border, including the slaying of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010.
ALSO ON RT.COM’Fast & Furious’ cartel hitman who killed Border Patrol agent arrested in MexicoBut the Obama administration was non-apologetic. Instead, when the Republican-controlled House kicked up a stink, Holder sought to withhold documents relating to the scandal under subpoena, and Obama later withheld them under executive privilege when Holder was cited for contempt of Congress.
Years later, Mexican authorities are still finding ‘Fast and Furious’ guns at cartel crime scenes. One of the 19 weapons found at the hideout of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman in 2016 was a gun knowingly allowed into Mexico by the Justice Department.
Spy games – allied edition
As a Senator, Barack Obama condemned the Bush-era Patriot Act for violating the rights of American citizens. Once in office, he renewed the act, allowing intelligence agencies to carry out ‘roving wiretaps’ on American citizens and collect billions of phone call and text message records every year.
Much has been written about Obama’s expansion of the surveillance state, and his administration’s scattergun use of the 1917 Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers like NSA contractor Edward Snowden, but perhaps most personally embarrassing was the revelation – via WikiLeaks – that the US government spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls.
In an angry exchange with Obama, Merkel compared the US National Security Agency (NSA) to the dreaded East German Stasi. Suitably chastised, did Obama move to disarm the US’ surveillance apparatus before leaving office?
Nope. Days after Obama’s January 2017 farewell speech, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed an order giving the NSA additional powers to share intercepted communications with the US’s 16 other intelligence agencies. These communications include internet traffic intercepted through the NSA’s dragnet ‘PRISM’ program, and phone, email, and satellite transmissions gathered abroad.
When it comes to totting up the scandals of the Obama years, honorable mention goes to the Benghazi attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens, Hillary Clinton’s email server scandal, arming jihadist rebels in Syria, and if Republicans are to be believed, authorizing an FBI spying operation on the Trump campaign in 2016.
But Joe Biden would have the voters believe that it is Donald Trump who “will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.”
ALSO ON RT.COMGrope & change: Would America become one nation under Joe Biden?
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‘Blink twice if you’re ok!’ Twitter watches Rod Rosenstein’s eyes for proof of collusion
Eagle-eyed Russiagaters landed on potential new evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia on Thursday: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wasn’t blinking enough during his boss’s press conference on the Mueller report.
Twitter lit up during Attorney General William Barr’s press conference in advance of the release of a partly-redacted version of the report, with many speculating that Rosenstein’s facial movements — or lack thereof — were providing clues about the contents of the full report.
Some found Rosenstein’s face and insufficient number of blinks “disturbing.”
“Blink twice if you are ok Rod Rosenstein,” wrote former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, whose calls were echoed by a former Hillary Clinton aide urging him to “please blink twice if Barr is mischaracterizing the report.”
Rosenstein “does not look like man at peace,” NBC reporter Ken Dilanian chimed in, perhaps hoping to do his bit to keep the conspiracy alive.
Rep. Nadler ‘Deeply Troubled’ White House Briefed On Mueller Report Before Release. Here’s What He Said About Starr Report In 1998.
By Ashe Schow
Politicians wouldn’t be politicians without a healthy dose of hypocrisy.
Daily Wire TV
The latest example comes from Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who tweeted Wednesday afternoon that he was “deeply troubled” that the White House was able to get a briefing on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report before it was released.
“I’m deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now, DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon — AFTER Barr’s press conference. This is wrong,” Nadler tweeted.
So, the White House was briefed before everyone else. Maybe some people see this as a problem, but Nadler’s dismay is simply not believable because of how he responded to the release of an investigation report when the president was a Democrat. Specifically, when that Democrat was President Bill Clinton.
Way back in 1998, America was waiting for Ken Starr’s report on Clinton’s sex scandals to be released. On September 11, 1998, Nadler took to the House floor to decry the fact that Clinton was not able to see the report before it was publicly released “se he can prepare a response.”
“What is at issue here this morning is not his conduct but the fairness of the resolution before us, which is manifestly and grossly unfair,” Nadler said at the time. “It is manifestly unfair because it denies the President the privilege we have given to every other person accused, as the gentleman from Michigan stated, the ability to see the accusation before it is released publicly so he can prepare a response.”
So, Trump getting briefed on the report before its release is “deeply trouble[ing]” but allowing Clinton to see a report before it was released was the height of fairness? Got it.
The hypocrisy was pointed out on Twitter by Jay Caruso, the deputy editor of the Washington Examiner’s magazine.
“Oh, now you’re troubled? In 1998 you said it was ‘manifestly and grossly unfair’ that President Clinton didn’t get to see the Starr report before it was ‘released publicly so he can prepare a response,’” Caruso tweeted.
This is the same congressman who said in early March that he planned to investigate Trump for “obstruction” if and when Mueller found no collusion, which he didn’t.
“Tomorrow, we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jr., Allen Weisselberg, to begin the investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,” Nadler said on ABC at the time.
Mueller recommended no further indictments, and Attorney General William Barr said there was insufficient evidence to make the case for obstruction. As a side note, the claim is that Trump “obstructed” an investigation into a crime that never happened.
HAPPENING: OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL INDICTED FOR LYING TO MUELLER TEAM
First of many indictments to come in wake of now-completed FBI probe into Russia-Trump collusion
APRIL 11, 2019
An attorney for the White House under President Barack Obama has been indicted by the Trump Justice Department for allegedly lying about his lobbying work for a former Ukrainian president.
On Thursday DOJ charged former White House Counsel Greg Craig with two counts of making false statements regarding his connections to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
In a twist of irony, Craig’s alleged dealings were brought to light by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, making him the first Democrat to be indicted as a result of the now-completed probe.
“The Washington-based lawyer was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly falsifying and concealing “material facts” and making false statements to the DOJ National Security Division’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit, which is responsible for enforcing foreign lobbying laws,” reports Fox News.
“Craig allegedly made false statements to investigators looking into whether he appropriately registered foreign agent under FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.”
In the indictment [see below], Craig is quoted as asking a partner in a February 12 email: “I don’t want to register as a foreign agent under FARA. I think we don’t have to with this assignment, yes?”
Craig allegedly lobbied for Yanukovych in 2012 while he served as a partner at the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm, helping the ousted president write a report defending his government’s decision to prosecute the country’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.
“Craig’s former law firm… reached a settlement with the Justice Department in January to resolve an investigation into the firm’s role in working on the Tymoshenko report and the subsequent public relations rollout,” reports Buzzfeed News. “The firm didn’t face criminal charges, but agreed to retroactively register as an agent for a foreign government and pay the US Treasury $4.6 million, representing the money the firm earned for its work.”
The settlement, Buzzfeed notes, cleared the firm as an entity, notably excluding individual partners who could later be charged.
The indictment charges Craig purposely avoided registering as a foreign agent for various purposes and benefits.
“The purpose of the scheme was for Craig to avoid registration as an agent of Ukraine,” the indictment reads. “Registration would require disclosure of the fact that Private Ukrainian had paid Craig and the Law Firm more than $4 million … [and] undermine the Report and Craig’s perceived independence; and impair the ability of Craig and others at the Law Firm to later return to government positions.”
According to Fox News,
Craig faces a total of up to 10 years in prison — up to five years and a possible $250,000 fine for allegedly willfully falsifying and concealing material facts from the FARA Unit, and another five years and $10,000 fine for making false and misleading statements to the FARA Unit.
“Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” Craig’s lawyers argued in a statement.
Each charge against Craig carries a maximum punishment of up to five years in prison.
Craig served as White House lawyer under President Barack Obama from 2009-2010 and previously served as assistant to the Bill Clinton White House, where he defended Clinton against impeachment.
Read the full indictment below:
‘Liberal’ Media, Top Dems Celebrate Julian Assange’s Persecution
Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Apr. 11, 2019
The so-called “liberal” media is ecstatic over the arrest and potential extradition of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange.
Here’s MSNBC‘s resident deep state agent Malcolm Nance:
The security state agents for NBC/MSNBC cheering the Trump administration for arresting Assange because they're aut… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
NBC News made the decision to hire a team of former military & intelligence officials to "report" & "analyze" the n… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes:
Breaking: Rep. Doug Collins Releases Nellie Ohr Testimony Transcript Before House Judiciary Committee — Contributing ‘Author’ of Phony Dossier
March 28, 2019
In December 2017 the head of opposition research firm Fusion GPS admitted in a court filing that his firm paid Nellie Ohr, the wife of senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, to help dig up damaging information on then-candidate Donald Trump.
The connections between Nellie Ohr and the ‘Spygate’ scandal were hidden at a distance for months.
As noted previously at TGP, Nellie Ohr is a Communist sympathizer connected to Russia as well as a corrupt Never-Trumper.
Author Diana West at the American Spectator posted an article on Nellie Ohr last year. Nellie Ohr is “the “dossier” spying scandal’s woman in the middle.”
To one side of Ohr, there is the Fusion GPS team, including fellow contractor Christopher Steele. To the other, there is husband Bruce Ohr, who, until his “dossier”-related demotion, was No. 4 man at the Department of Justice, and a key contact there for Steele.
What’s more revealing about Nellie Ohr is the men in her life are protecting her involvement in the Russia scandal:
Notably, the “dossier” men in her life have tried to shield Ohr from public scrutiny, even at professional risk. Her husband, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, failed to disclose his wife’s employment with Fusion GPS and seek the appropriate conflict-of-interest waiver, which may have been an important factor in his demotion from associate deputy attorney general late last year.
Under Senate and House questioning, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson consistently failed to disclose Nellie Ohr’s existence as one of his firm’s paid Russian experts, let alone that he hired her for the red-hot DNC/Clinton campaign Trump-Russia project.
Even Christopher Steele may have tried to keep Nellie Ohr “under cover.” Steele, put forth as the “dossier” author ever since its January 2017 publication in BuzzFeed, does not appear to have let on to his many media and political contacts that he had “dossier”-assistance from at least two fellow Fusion GPS Russian experts, Nellie Ohr and Edward Baumgartner. Baumgartner, interestingly, was a Russian history major at Vassar in the 1990s when Nellie Ohr taught Russian history there.
It appears that the men in Nellie’s life did all they could to prevent Nellie Ohr from being outed for being involved in the dossier because she also has links to the CIA and therefore to John Brennan.
Now this…
New evidence suggests Nellie Ohr was working for the CIA and Fusion GPS when she passed on the junk Trump-Russia dossier and information on the Trump Children to the DOJ-FBI.
Via The Last Refuge – Conservative Treehouse:
1) Having thread the @JudicialWatch docs, one thing is flippin’ certain, Nellie Ohr was always working for the U.S.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 08, 2019
The latest FOIA requests indicate Nellie Ohr was working for the DOJ in 2015-2016.
This means Nellie Ohr was working for Fusion GPS AND the DOJ at the same time.
On Wednesday night during his interview with Sean Hannity – President Trump called Nellie Ohr the author of the phony dossier.
Nellie Ohr has deep involvement with the creation of this fraudulent document.
On Thursday Rep. Doug Collins released the Nellie Ohr testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Exclusive: Devin Nunes Sending Criminal Referral to DOJ over Spygate ‘now go on offense and track down all these dirty cops and bad players’
By Kristina Wong
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) is planning to send a criminal referral next week to the Justice Department that will detail “multiple referrals on a number of different crimes,” including leaking classified information, as part of his investigation into misconduct at the Justice Department and the FBI.
“As of now, it’ll be one criminal referral but with multiple referrals on a number of different crimes,” he told Breitbart News on Wednesday in an exclusive interview. “We will have some leakers in there for sure.”
“We knew this was a joke from the beginning, and I’ve said as much for a long time. Basically from the time our report came out, which has been a year. But now, the real work begins. It’s good to not have that sitting out there. But we have to now go on offense and track down all these dirty cops and bad players,” he said.
In addition, Nunes plans to interview about 50 people—some who have never been called before Congress—who were involved or know about the pushing of the “pee dossier” within various U.S. government agencies, and its use to get a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Nunes—who took a beating from mainstream news outlets for challenging the Russian collusion narrative—wants to get to the bottom of how it all began, which he said was long before the FBI claims they officially began their investigation of the Trump campaign in late July 2016.
“It all stems from the fact that we know that this investigation started long before the end of July,” he said. “We are quite confident that this investigation started long before they told us that it did.”
He said it reaches all the way to the Obama White House, though it is not yet clear how involved former President Barack Obama was.
“Look, there’s big problems — big problems that the public needs to know about. Maximum transparency is the best thing here,” he said.
Nunes said he believes Barr will have to act on his criminal referral. “There’ll be things in there that cannot be ignored. There will be crimes … so they have to be dealt with,” he told Breitbart News.
He told Fox News on Tuesday he would target “people who lied to Congress, perjury, [and] criminal conspiracy.”
As far as his Democrat colleagues who have not given up on the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, he said, referring to the mythical beast, “These guys are chasing Chupacabra.”
“That really is what they’re looking for … unicorns, the Lochness monster—they’re interchangeable,” he said.
Nunes said the question of whether his Democrat colleague, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), should resign as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, should be directed to Democrat leadership.
“I’ll let our leadership speak to that. My job is to work with whoever is there. At the end of the day, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi makes the decision. But I’ll just say that I think more real journalists need to ask real questions to Team Chupacabra,” he said.
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