Tag: ROD ROSENSTEIN

GOP Congressman Releasing Transcripts From Closed-Door Testimonies Of Russia Probe Investigators

By ASHE SCHOW

U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) speaks during a House Rules Committee meeting at the U.S. Capitol February 25, 2019 in Washington, DC.

For the past two weeks, one GOP congressman has been on a mission to release transcripts of government officials who testified to Congress behind closed doors regarding the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, began releasing transcripts into the congressional record on March 8, starting with the closed-door testimony of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr. Collins took to the House floor to explain his decision to release the transcripts, asking, is “the only ‘collusion’ among agency personnel who hated the president and started this investigation?”

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Collins said that the transcripts were “pertinent to a congressional investigation,” but the investigation was ended after Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives. Collins said further that the committee had given the DOJ time to review and redact information related to national security, but received little response from the department, so they made minor redactions and released the transcripts.

The 268-page transcript from Ohr’s testimony revealed that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and ex-British Spy Christopher Steele used Ohr to get their salacious claims about Russia collusion into the federal government. Ohr also revealed that, contrary to what House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff has said, the FBI had received reports from Steele as early as July 2016, not September 2016, as Schiff claimed.

Further, Ohr testified that Steele continued to feed him information after the ex-spy was no longer a credible source for the FBI. The FBI would interview Ohr as a backdoor to Steele’s intel.

Four days after releasing Ohr’s testimony, Collins returned to the House floor to publicly release former FBI lawyer Lisa Page’s testimony.

“The American people deserve to know what transpired in the highest echelons of the FBI during that tumultuous time for the bureau,” Collins said at the time.

The Page testimony was explosive, as she had not been publicly interviewed by the committee or anyone else after her text messages with then-fellow FBI agent Peter Strzok, with whom she was having an affair, were revealed.

In her testimony, Page revealed that the FBI’s Russia investigation really was an “insurance policy” in the unlikely event that Donald Trump was elected president, and that investigators had only a “paucity” of evidence in the beginning, which they still used to launch investigations into the president. Page also suggested that it was President Barack Obama’s Justice Department that essentially told the FBI not to find Hillary Clinton responsible for “gross negligence” in regard to classified information being sent over her unsecured, private email server.

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Two days after releasing Page’s testimony, Collins released Strzok’s. In his testimony, Strzok revealed that he deleted communications between himself and his mistress, Page, prior to being removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but did so for “personal” reasons. He claimed to have deleted personal communications regarding his affair, but some of those messages showed anti-Trump sentiments and discussed the “insurance policy” of investigating “collusion” if Trump won the election.

On Sunday, Collins told Fox News host Maria Baritomo that he was planning to release more transcripts. Baritomo asked if Jim Baker, the former FBI lawyer who is now under criminal investigation for leaking to the media, was on the list for future transcript releases.

“There will be more transcripts released. Baker will be one that we’re looking at releasing,” Collins responded.

 

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Feds Raided Trump Fundraiser’s Office Seeking Documents Related to Trump Admin Associates

by Cristina Laila March 18, 2019

CAP

Feds raided GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy’s Los Angeles office last July looking for documents related to “Trump administration associates” and his dealings with foreign officials, according to a new report.

Elliott Broidy, a California businessman, was the deputy finance chair of the RNC and previously served as finance vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and inauguration committee.

The Washington Post reported in August that the feds were investigating Elliott Broidy, but the search warrant revealed details of his potential crimes (aside from being Donald Trump’s fundraiser which is apparently a crime these days).

ProPublica reported that the sealed search warrant, which was filed in July of 2018, cited three potential crimes including conspiracy, money laundering and violations of the law barring covert lobbying on behalf of foreign officials.

Federal agents were actually authorized to use Broidy’s hands and face to unlock his devices that required fingerprint or facial scans!

Via ProPublica:

The warrant, filed in July 2018, targeted Broidy’s office in Los Angeles. The scope of what authorities were seeking was broad. They planned to seize any evidence related to a list of dozens of people, countries and corporate entities, according to the warrant. Among the names on the list are Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign official who has pleaded guilty in the Mueller probe; Colfax Law Office, the firm founded by Robin Rosenzweig, Broidy’s wife; and several foreign countries.

Broidy, an investor based in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in 2009 to charges connected to his role in a major New York state public corruption and bribery case. But after backing Trump for president, he saw his star rise again. After the inauguration, he played a central role in filling administration vacancies, according to reports by ProPublica and others.

However, he once again quickly became mired in controversy, amid allegations of influence peddling and his dealings with the former Playboy model.

The search warrant shows that federal authorities are interested in Broidy’s alleged work for the Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is at the center of a sprawling international scandal known as 1MDB. In November, the Justice Department unveiled a bribery and money laundering case against Low.

In a separate filing in November, the Justice Department alleged that Broidy was paid by Low to lobby Trump administration officials to ease off on U.S. investigations into Low. Broidy is not identified by name in the filings, but he is widely reported to be the person referred to as “Individual No. 1.” Broidy has not been charged with a crime, and it’s unclear what the status of the investigation is.

Strangely, Hillary Clinton and the Podestas never get raided by the feds for doing the exact same thing.

Hillary Clinton actually struck a deal with the DOJ and FBI NOT to investigate Clinton Foundation emails found on her private server.

This is a clear example of the two-tiered justice system that is infecting this country — Hillary Clinton’s attorneys were allowed to “negotiate” with the feds to make sure they didn’t find her Clinton Foundation emails which would show she was peddling influence and power in a pay-to-play scheme while she was the head of the Department of State.

In contrast, the FBI, guns drawn, breaks down the doors of Trump associates in pre-dawn raids and violates attorney client privilege without fear of reprisal.

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‘Master spy’ Christopher Steele admits he used unverified internet post to create Trump dossier

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President Donald Trump has once again lashed out at his political opponents after the ex-spy responsible for the infamous ‘Steele dossier’ admitted that he used an unverified internet post as a source while compiling the dubious document.

Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy who fueled Russiagate hysteria with his DNC-commissioned opposition research on Donald Trump, admitted during a lawsuit deposition that he relied on unverified information contained in a report publishedby CNN iReport – a now-defunct “user-generated” news site. Stories featured on iReport were submitted by citizen journalists and were not edited, fact-checked, or screened before being published.

Steele acknowledged under questioning that he had used a July 28, 2009 report published on iReport to substantiate claims he made about internet hosting company Webzilla and its alleged Kremlin ties. However, the former British intel officer insisted that he thought iReport boasted the same thorough journalistic standards as CNN.

When asked if he understood that content on the site was not generated by CNN reporters, he said, “I do not.” He was then asked: “Do you understand that they have no connection to any CNN reporters?” Steele replied, “I do not.”

He was pressed further: “Do you understand that CNN iReports are or were nothing more than any random individuals’ assertions on the Internet?” Steele replied: “No, I, obviously, presume that if it is on a CNN site that it has some kind of CNN status. Albeit that it may be an independent person posting on the site.”

CAP

Webzilla is among the list of plaintiffs suing Buzzfeed for defamation, after the media outlet published Steele’s findings in full in January 2017, with a disclaimer that they hadn’t verified it.

The president, who has long denied the salacious allegations contained in Steele’s report, mocked the former MI6 spy and his Democratic sponsors in a tweet.
“Report: Christopher Steele backed up his Democrat & Crooked Hillary paid for Fake & Unverified Dossier with information he got from ‘send in watchers’ of low ratings CNN. This is the info that got us the Witch Hunt!” Trump wrote.

CAP

While devout Russiagate disciples insist that the revelation changes nothing, many on social media expressed disbelief that anything in Steele’s dossier could still be taken seriously.

“Turns out Master Spy Christopher Steele was every bit as careful, conscientious, and meticulous as we thought he was,”Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, joked.

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Steele’s admission comes amid growing skepticism over the dossier’s key allegations. In December, Michael Isikoff, one of the first journalists to report on the document, conceded that Steele’s central claims were “likely false.”

Coincidentally, Isikoff’s explosive report on alleged Trump-Russia links was cited extensively by the FBI to secure a warrant to spy on Trump adviser Carter Page.

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DOCUMENTS: Investigators Were Told DOJ ‘Not Willing to Charge’ Clinton in Email Probe

Justice was never going to be served in the Clinton email scandal.

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Fox News obtained documents late Wednesday showing that the Department of Justice told investigators in the Clinton email scandal that they were “not willing to charge” the twice-failed presidential candidate, despite obvious violations of the law.

“An internal chart prepared by federal investigators working on the so-called “Midyear Exam” probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails, exclusively reviewed by Fox News, contained the words ‘NOTE: DOJ not willing to charge this’ next to a key statute on the mishandling of classified information,” the Fox report said. “The notation appeared to contradict former FBI Director James Comey’s repeated claims that his team made its decision that Clinton should not face criminal charges independently.”

What exactly was the DOJ “not willing to charge” Clinton with?

Three particular statutes were mentioned in the Fox report – crimes related to willfully retaining national defense information that could harm the United States, crimes related to gross negligence in handling classified material, and crimes related to “retaining classified materials at an ‘unauthorized location.’”

Trending: Lisa Page Testimony Reveals The Strzok Plot To Trap Trump’s Political Amateur Son-In-Law Jared Kushner

The document was called “Espionage Act Charges – Retention/Mishandling,” according to the report.

Wednesday, it was widely reported that disgraced former FBI lawyer Lisa Page revealed to the House Judiciary Committee that the Obama DOJ told the FBI not to charge Clinton in the email scandal in 2018 closed-door testimony.

BLP reported:

Disgraced former FBI agent Lisa Page sang like a canary when questioned under oath last summer, according to the the social media account of one of the members of the House Judiciary Committee who took part in her hearing before Congress.

“Lisa Page confirmed to me under oath that the FBI was ordered by the Obama DOJ not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified information,” said Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) on Twitter, attaching a transcript of the hearing.

“So let me if I can, I know I’m testing your memory,” the transcript said. “But when you say advice you got from the Department, you’re making it sound like it was the Department that told you: You’re not going to charge gross negligence because we’re the prosecutors and we’re telling you we’re not going to —”

Page interrupted him and said “That is correct.”

Selective justice is a hallmark of any authoritarian state.

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Lisa Page Testimony Reveals The Strzok Plot To Trap Trump’s Political Amateur Son-In-Law Jared Kushner

By

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The Lisa Page testimony to Freedom Caucus investigators — who got her to sing like a canary — provides new details about the well-documented “Crossfire Hurricane” plot to trap Jared Kushner, President Trump’s inexperienced son-in-law who inexplicably runs point on policy in the Trump White House.

As the plot falls apart, it’s important for President Trump to know that Jared Kushner was the target of all this nonsense, which prolonged the plot against all of Trump’s people. That plot actually threatens to put a real American patriot — Trump’s longest adviser Roger Stone — in prison for invented process crimes.

A well-entrenched insider in the nation’s capital sends a dispatch to Big League Politics: “The Rosenstein scope memo from August 2, 2017 is now clear due to the Lisa Page Congressional Testimony.  The scope memo references Manafort and to this date a second individual that is redacted.  There has been speculation that it was someone close to Trump and even that it was Jared Kushner.  The Page congressional testimony released today and her text to Strzok on May 9th 2017 makes it clear that they didn’t have anything of great value but needed to lock Kushner into a statement that could be nitpicked against to create a crime that would help get Trump through his son-in-law.  How the public could ever trust the FBI/DOJ if no one ever goes to jail for the only coup attempt in U.S. History?”

Here are the texts clearly referring to Kushner.

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Strzok “We need to open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy is acting.”

Page “We need to lock in *******.  In a formal chargeable way. Soon.”

“Soon after the May 9th text, someone from the FBI leaks to the Washington Post that Kushner is a person of interest in the Russia investigation,” our source said.

Unbelievable.

Thanks, Jared.

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Richard Blumenthal: Democrats May Subpoena Full Mueller Report If It’s Not Released

By Josh Hammer

On Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) confirmed that congressional Democrats may seek to subpoena the impending full report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in the event newly confirmed Attorney General William Barr chooses to redact or otherwise only partially release the much-anticipated document.

Bloomberg reports:

“The public will feel rightly that there is a coverup” if details are withheld, [Blumenthal] told CNN Thursday.

Blumenthal, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he hopes the Republican-led panel would be among the congressional committees that seek to compel the release of any details that aren’t forthcoming. The subpoenas could seek the full report or even Mueller himself. “A Senate or House committee can subpoena anyone,” he said.

As Bloomberg notes, Mueller is expected to submit his report’s final prosecutorial decisions to Barr as early as next week. Barr, as Attorney General, then retains ultimate discretion as to how to act (or not) upon the report’s conclusions and recommendations.

As Roll Call notes, Barr has been noncommittal as to whether he would permit Mueller to testify before Congress, as well as whether he would resist a hypothetical subpoena for Mueller’s report.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, echoed Barr’s comments last month. As CNN reported, at the time, Nadler told Anderson Cooper at the time: “If necessary, our committee will subpoena the report. If necessary, we’ll get Mueller to testify. The American people need the information here.”

As The Daily Wire reported earlier today, CNN appears to be actively attempting to lower its viewers’ expectations as to what to expect from the Mueller report’s impending release:

Asked by “New Day” host Alisyn Camerota Wednesday if he believed the Mueller investigation would find “enough” to take down Trump, former National Intelligence Director and rabid anti-Trump CNN analyst James Clapper attempted to temper the audience’s expectations.

“That’s the big question,” Clapper said. …”I think the hope is that the Mueller investigation will clear the air on this issue once and for all. I’m really not sure it will, and the investigation, when completed, could turn out to be quite anti-climactic and not draw a conclusion about that.”

The Mueller investigation has been dominating news cycles for much of the past week, due in no small part to the firestorm caused by fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s remarkable “60 Minutes” interview with Scott Pelley, in which McCabe claims that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had openly discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment after President Trump’s firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. Last week, The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported:

The New York Times reports that McCabe claims “top Justice Department officials were so alarmed by President Trump’s decision in May 2017 to fire James B. Comey, the bureau’s director,” that they reached out to individual Cabinet members to judge their receptiveness to triggering the removal clause of the 25th Amendment, which allows the Cabinet to “vote out” a president who is incapacitated or otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of his job.

McCabe also claims that Comey’s firing “prompted Mr. McCabe to order the bureau’s team investigating Russia’s election interference to expand their scope to also investigate whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice.”

 

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