Fraud Upon the FISA Court Confirmed

[Swordsmyth]

The noose appears to be tightening further around the law-less behaviors of the Obama administration in their frantic efforts to protect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from lawsuits seeking information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

As Fox News reports, the transparency group Judicial Watch initially sued the State Department in 2014, seeking information about the response to the Benghazi attack after the government didn't respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Other parallel lawsuits by Judicial Watch are probing issues like Clinton's server, whose existence was revealed during the course of the litigation.
The State Department had immediately moved to dismiss Judicial Watch's first lawsuit, but U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth (who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan) denied the request to dismiss the lawsuit at the time, and on Friday, he said he was happy he did, charging that State Department officials had intentionally misled him because other key documents, including those on Clinton's email server, had not in fact been produced.

"It was clear to me that at the time that I ruled initially, that false statements were made to me by career State Department officials, and it became more clear through discovery that the information that I was provided was clearly false regarding the adequacy of the search and this – what we now know turned out to be the Secretary’s email system."
"I don’t know the details of what kind of IG inquiry there was into why these career officials at the State Department would have filed false affidavits with me. I don’t know the details of why the Justice Department lawyers did not know false affidavits were being filed with me, but I was very relieved that I did not accept them and that I allowed limited discovery into what had happened."

In a somewhat stunningly frank exchange with Justice Department lawyer Robert Prince, the judge pressed the issue, accusing Prince of using "doublespeak" and "playing the same word games [Clinton] played."

That "was not true," the judge said, referring to the State Department's assurances in a sworn declaration that it had searched all relevant documents.
"It was a lie."

Additionally, Fox notes that Judge Lamberth said he was "shocked" and "dumbfounded" when he learned that FBI had granted immunity to former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills during its investigation into the use of Clinton's server, according to a court transcript of his remarks.

"I had myself found that Cheryl Mills had committed perjury and lied under oath in a published opinion I had issued in a Judicial Watch case where I found her unworthy of belief, and I was quite shocked to find out she had been given immunity in — by the Justice Department in the Hillary Clinton email case."

On Friday, Lamberth said he did not know Mills had been granted immunity until he "read the IG report and learned that and that she had accompanied [Clinton] to her interview."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...y-email-server

[Swordsmyth]

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Thursday called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to resign "immediately."
“I think at this particular point, Rod Rosenstein’s priorities are misplaced. His unwillingness to come before Congress and allow us to conduct proper congressional oversight, along with the other information that we’ve learned over the last week or so, would indicate that Rosenstein has not displayed the candor of which would support one’s theory of actually believing that he has been open and honest in all regards," Meadows told reporters.
"So with that, I think that it’s time that Rod Rosenstein steps down. He should do so immediately and in doing that, I think it would serve the country well, it would serve this president well," he added.
The comments marked Meadows's most explicit call yet for Rosenstein's resignation. House Freedom Caucus members had previously said Rosenstein should either testify before Congress or resign from his post.

More at: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...gn-immediately

[Swordsmyth]

The Department of Justice admitted in a Friday court filing that the FBI used more than one "Confidential Human Source," (also known as informants, or spies) to infiltrate the Trump campaign through former adviser Carter Page, reports the Daily Caller.
“The FBI has protected information that would identify the identities of other confidential sources who provided information or intelligence to the FBI” as well as “information provided by those sources,” wrote David M. Hardy, the head of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), in court papers submitted Friday.

Hardy and Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys submitted the filings in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the FBI’s four applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page. The DOJ released heavily redacted copies of the four FISA warrant applications on June 20, but USA Today reporter Brad Heath has sued for full copies of the documents. -Daily Caller

Included in Hardy's declaration is an acknowledgement that the FBI's spies were in addition to the UK's Christopher Steele - a former MI6 operative who assembled the controversial and largely unproven "Steel Dossier" which the DOJ/FBI used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Page.

The DOJ says it redacted information in order to protect the identity of their confidential sources, which "includes nonpublic information about and provided by Christopher Steele," reads the filing, "as well as information about and provided by other confidential sources, all of whom were provided express assurances of confidentiality."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...trump-campaign

[Swordsmyth]

A Washington federal judge on Thursday ordered special counsel Robert Mueller's team to clarify election meddling claims lodged against a Russian company operated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Bloomberg.
Concord Management and Consulting, LLC. - one of three businesses indicted by Mueller in February along with 13 individuals for election meddling, surprised the special counsel in April when they actually showed up in court to fight the charges. Mueller's team tried to delay Concord from entering the case, arguing that thee Russian company not been properly served, however Judge Dabney Friedrich denied the request - effectively telling prosecutors 'well, they're here.'

Concord was accused in the indictment of supporting the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian 'troll farm' accused of trying to influence the 2016 US election.
On Thursday, Judge Freidrich asked Mueller's prosecutors if she should assume they aren't accusing Concord of violating US laws applicable to election expenditures and failure to register as a foreign agent.
Concord has asked Dabney to throw out the charges - claiming that Mueller's office fabricated a crime, and that there is no law against interfering in elections.

According to the judge’s request for clarification, the Justice Department has argued that it doesn’t have to show that Concord had a legal duty to report its expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. Rather, the allegation is that the company knowingly engaged in deceptive acts that precluded the FEC, or the Justice Department, from ascertaining whether they had broken the law. -Bloomberg

On Monday, Friedrich raised questions over whether the special counsel's office could prove a key element of their case - saying that it was "hard to see" how allegations of Russian influence were intended to interfere with US government operations vs. simply "confusing voters," reports law.com.

During a 90-minute hearing, Friedrich questioned prosecutor Jonathan Kravis about how the government would be able to show the Russian defendants were aware of the Justice Department and FEC’s functions and then deliberately sought to skirt them.
“You still have to show knowledge of the agencies and what they do. How do you do that?” Friedrich asked.
Kravis, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, argued that the government needed only to show that Concord Management and the other defendants were generally aware that the U.S. government “regulates and monitors” foreign participation in American politics. That awareness, Kravis said, could be inferred from the Russians’ alleged creation of fake social media accounts that appeared to be run by U.S. citizens and “computer infrastructure” intended to mask the Russian origin of the influence operation.
“That is deception that is directed at a higher level,” Kravis said. Kravis appeared in court with Michael Dreeben, a top Justice Department appellate lawyer on detail to the special counsel’s office. -law.com

Concord pleaded not guilty in May. Their attorney, Eric Dubelier - a partner at Reed Smith, has described the election meddling charges as "make believe," arguing on Monday that Mueller's indictment against Concord "doesn't charge a crime."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ddled-election

[Swordsmyth]

The top lawmakers on the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees plan to interview Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein next week about reports that he once suggested wearing a "wire" to secretly record President Trump and discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., announced late Thursday that they and the top Democrats on both committees would interview Rosenstein on Oct. 24. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus will be left out of the meeting.
Goodlatte and Gowdy added that the interview will be held in a secure room and that a transcript will be released after the intelligence community reviews it for classified information.
Goodlatte said last month that "there are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article. We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims."

More at: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hou...t-wire-comment

[Swordsmyth]

While applying for a FISA warrant on Trump Campaign aide Carter Page, the FBI failed to include the fact that George Papadopoulos - another adviser, vehemently denied that the Trump Campaign was involved in the hacking and release of Hillary Clinton's emails, reports The Hill's John Solomon.
While being pumped for information by FBI spy and Cambridge Professor Stefan Halper, Papadopoulos said that colluding with Russia would be "treason," and that he had nothing to do with it.

“He was there to probe me on the behest of somebody else,” Papadopoulos told me in an interview this week, recalling the Halper meeting. “He said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, it’s great that Russia is helping you and your campaign, right George?’”
Papadopoulos said Halper also suggested the Trump campaign was involved in the hacking and release of Hillary Clinton’s emails that summer. “I think I told him something along the lines of, ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. What you are talking about is treason. And I have nothing to do with that, so stop bothering me about it,’” Papadopoulos recalled. -The Hill

Papadopoulos will testify this week behind closed doors in front of two House panels.
According to Solomon's sources who have seen the FISA warrant and its three renewals, the FBI failed to mention Papadopoulos's denial, which Solomon describes as "an omission of exculpatory evidence that GOP critics in Congress are likely to cite as having misled the court."
Another source, meanwhile, tells Solomon that the FBI has at least one transcript which calls the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia into question - specifically citing information pertaining to Papadopoulos.

Mifsud seed[ed] the information, Downer says Papadopoulos admitted it in a drunken state, and then undercover spy Stefan Halper pumped him for information about it - all in an attempt by the Obama administration and others to dig up (or fabricate) dirt on the Trump campaign.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...undercover-spy

[Swordsmyth]

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos said Friday he’s considering withdrawing his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller after learning “certain information” during an interview with House Republicans on Thursday.
“Given certain information that I learned just yesterday – that I can't publicly disclose right now – I'm actually even considering withdrawing my agreement I have come to with the government,” Papadopoulos told “Fox and Friends” Friday morning.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/papadopoul...151005419.html

[Swordsmyth]

Special counsel Robert Mueller is churning in uncharted legal waters as he tries to nail a Russian firm for bankrolling Moscow’s deceptive social media invasion into the 2016 election.
It is not only Concord Management and Consulting LLC’s attorney saying this. Defense attorney Eric Dubelier said in court that Mr. Mueller created a “make-believe crime” and that the “real Justice Department” would never have brought such an indictment.
U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich also is expressing doubts about Mr. Mueller’s unique prosecutorial adventure, though she is not saying she will dismiss the charges, as Mr. Dubelier has requested.
A review of the transcript of an Oct. 15 hearing shows the judge’s reservations. She said of Mr. Mueller’s team, “They’ve got a heavy burden at trial to prove that knowledge.” She was referring to awareness that Concord knowingly defrauded the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department and the State Department.
“I will give you, Mr. Dubelier, this is an unprecedented case, for sure,” the judge said.
The attorney had argued that there is no specific federal law against interfering in a U.S. election. He said there are no previous prosecutions on defrauding the FEC by using fake social media personas.
“And I agree, at trial, if this case survives, they’re going to have to show that Concord and others conspired and had the specific intent to defraud,” Judge Friedrich said.
When prosecutor Jonathan I. Kravis argued that Concord is aware that the U.S. enforces election regulations, Judge Friedrich said, “It’s hard to see how not revealing identities at political rallies and not revealing identities on social media, how that is evidence of intent to interfere with a U.S. government function as opposed to confuse voters.”


Mr. Dubelier’s argument: There is no evidence in the indictment of willful intent; that is, that Concord knew the functions of the FEC and violated them. Proving willful intent is required under federal conspiracy to defraud law, or Section 371.
“There is no law or regulation requiring that any such speech be accurate or truthful or that any U.S. or foreign person truthfully or accurately identify herself or himself when engaging in such speech,” he said. “When it comes to political speech, one is free to pretend to be whomever he or she wants to be and to say whatever he or she wants to say.”
He said that what Mr. Mueller wants the judge to do, in effect, is regulate the internet. This would mean that any American who conceals his or her identity and puts out disputed information could face federal criminal charges.
“If this goes to ‘You have to tell the truth on the internet in a political campaign,’ every politician in the United States would be in prison,” Mr. Dubelier said.
The FEC law bans foreign contributions to U.S. federal campaigns, and it restricts the roles that foreigners can play for candidates. But it does not forbid foreigners from engaging in political debates.
The indictment alleges that fraud occurred when Concord bought computer server space in the U.S. to hide the trolls’ home base in Russia.
“So what?” Mr. Dubelier said. “People do that every day. That’s not illegal. It’s not illegal. There’s no law that says you can’t do that. … They want to be able to regulate what people say on the internet.”


Mr. Dubelier blasted Mr. Mueller for veering away from Justice Department standards to find a way to bring charges.
“That’s why in this case this special counsel made up a crime to fit the facts that they have,” he said. “And that’s the fundamental danger with the entire special counsel concept, that they operate outside the parameters of the Department of Justice in a way that is absolutely inconsistent with the consistent behavior of the Department of Justice in these cases for the past 30 years.”
Mr. Kravis is a white-collar crime specialist who works for the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and was brought onto the Mueller team to handle the Concord case.

He defended the indictment by telling the judge that to prove a conspiracy to defraud the U.S., there doesn’t need to be an underlying law.

More at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ult-prosecute/

He defended the indictment by telling the judge that to prove a conspiracy to defraud the U.S., there doesn’t need to be an underlying law.

LOL

[Swordsmyth]

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/sta...04187255062528

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/csthetruth/statu...79554385350656

[enhanced_deficit]

If this system is prone to such serious abuses, why MAGA supports it?

House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/u...ess-trump.html
Jan 11, 2018 - President Trump tweeted in support of an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, on Thursday. It was the latest ...

Trump Says He Supports Reauthorizing Patriot Act
Republican presidential candidate and billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump said that he supports reauthorizing the USA PATRIOT Act and bulk cell ...

[Swordsmyth]

At least seven messages on former FBI Director James Comey’s private Gmail account were so sensitive that the Department of Justice declined to release them. The New York Post exclusively obtained 156 of 1,200 pages of messages in which the former FBI director and his chief of staff James Rybicki discussed government business. DOJ refused to hand over seven of the messages because they “disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions.” Another 363 pages were withheld because they contained privileged FBI communications or out of personal privacy concerns.
The messages–which span from 2013 to 2017, with many highly redacted–were obtained by the Post after conservative watchdog, Cause of Action Institute, filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking Comey’s work-related emails from his private account.
The emails–according to the Post–show that the former FBI director used his personal email throughout the Clinton email investigation.

“Using private email to conduct official government business endangers transparency and accountability, and that is why we sued the Department of Justice,” Cause of Action Institute’s CEO John Vecchione told the Post.
He continued, “We’re deeply concerned that the FBI withheld numerous emails citing FOIA’s law enforcement exemption. This runs counter to Comey’s statements that his use of email was incidental and never involved any sensitive matters.”

More at: https://bongino.com/comey-sensitive-...nt/#gs.iAFH5Mk

[Swordsmyth]

The GOP-led House Judiciary committee will issue subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and former Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch, according to Bloomberg and CNN's Manu Raju.

The subpoenas will reportedly be issued on November 29 and December 5, while the GOP says they would prefer them to meet in private but are open to public testimony.

New: GOP-led House Judiciary, in its final days in power, is planning to issue subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch - on Nov. 29 and Dec. 5. GOP wants them in private setting, though they’ve said they would publicly
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2018

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...enas-house-gop

[goldenequity]

[Swordsmyth]

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., revealed the existence of a "fourth bucket" of information related to potential misconduct by the FBI that he wants declassified.
On his way out as chairman, as Democrats will take control of the House next year, Nunes said his panel's investigation into the Justice Department and FBI is largely complete. Still, he said the public release of these "buckets" would help give his efforts a sense of "finality."
Speaking with anchor Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures," Nunes said the first of three "buckets" were the Russia-related documents President Trump walked back from declassifying earlier this year.

The last tranche of documents, he said, pertains to emails showing knowledge about withholding information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.
"The new fourth bucket that we're asking to be declassified now is — for months we have been reviewing emails between FBI, and DOJ, and others that clearly show that they knew about information that should have been presented to the FISA court," he said.
Nunes added that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has been pressing the Justice Department to hand over emails and make as many public as possible. As has been a point of frustration in the past, Nunes complained that the DOJ has redacted some information, even in classified settings.

More at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...rom-fisa-court

[Swordsmyth]

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that House Republicans plan to hear testimony on Dec. 5 from the prosecutor appointed by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to probe alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation.
Meadows, who is chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that it’s time to “circle back” to U.S. Attorney General John Huber’s investigation with the Justice Department into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged any improper activities.
“Mr. [John] Huber with the Department of Justice and the FBI has been having an investigation – at least part of his task was to look at the Clinton Foundation and what may or may not have happened as it relates to improper activity with that charitable foundation, so we’ve set a hearing date for December the 5th,” he told Hill.TV during an interview on Wednesday.
Meadow’s said the committee plans to delve into a number of Republicans concerns surrounding the foundation, including whether any tax-exempt proceeds for personal gain and whether the Foundation complied with IRS laws.
Sessions appointed Huber last year to work in tandem with the Justice Department to look into conservative claims of misconduct at the FBI and review several issues surrounding the Clintons. This includes Hillary Clinton’s ties to a Russian nuclear agency and concerns about the Clinton Foundation.
Huber’s work has remained shrouded in mystery. The White House has released little information about Huber’s assignment other than Session’s address to Congress saying his appointed should address concerns raised by Republicans.
But Meadows said the committee thinks it’s time Huber gives an update to Congress about his findings, and expects him to be one of the witnesses at the hearing.
Meadows also added that his committee is also trying to secure testimonies from whistleblowers who could have more information about potential improprieties surrounding the Clinton Foundation.
“We’re just now starting to work with a couple of whistleblowers that would indicate that there is a great probability, a significant improper activity that’s happening in and around the Clinton Foundation,” he said.

More at: https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/41...ton-foundation

[Swordsmyth]

It turns out that Christopher Steele, the former MI6 spy tasked with creating an opposition research dossier on then-candidate Donald Trump using "Kremlin sources," actually had terrible intelligence on Russian matters, reports The Hill's John Solomon.

In a business matter unrelated to the dossier, Steele boasted in a Feb. 8, 2016 email to a potential private-sector client that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be losing his grip on power.

"I also don’t believe any Russian client or associate will admit to a Western business contact that PUTIN has been weakened or is on the way out, as the intel suggests, out of fear of being branded an oppositionist," Steele cautioned the recipient. "We shall see but I hope you find them informative/useful anyway." -The Hill

Steele was very hush-hush to the prospective client of his firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, writing "All are sensitive source, of course, and need handling accordingly with anyone Russian or Ukrainian."
Not only was Steele's information dead wrong, it flew in the face of CIA intelligence indicating that Putin was in fact gaining power.

...more than two-and-a-half years later, Steele’s intelligence seems debunked in retrospect.
Putin is firmly entrenched in power and, in the summer and fall of 2016, he pulled off one of his most daring feats against the Western world with his meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
Yet, even more alarming at the time was the fact that Steele’s reporting in February 2016 flew in the face of the CIA’s own assessment of Moscow, ironically given that exact same month to Congress in the agency’s annual global threats assessment. -The Hill

On Feb. 9, 2016 - just one day after Steele sent the email, the CIA declared that Putin was pursuing a "more assertive foreign policy approach," as well as a Western disinformation campaign since his popularity at home was soaring.
"President Vladimir Putin has sustained his popular approval at or near record highs for nearly two years after illegally annexing Crimea," the CIA reported, suggesting that protests in 2016 over the weakening Russian economy could be tamped down using "repressive tactics."
In other words, Steele's Russian intel was crap.
Washington, Moscow, what's the difference?
When it came to the wildly salacious and unproven "Trump-Russia dossier," meanwhile, the icing on this particular cow-pie has to be that Steele's "Kremlin" sources - described in Vanity Fair as "a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure" and "a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin - was instead a former intelligence figure in Washington D.C.
In notes between Steele's former employer, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, and the former #4 official at the Justice Department, Bruce Ohr, Ohr writes "Much of the collection about the Trump campaign ties to Russia comes from a former Russian intelligence officer (? not entirely clear) who lives in the US," quoting Simpson.

In other words, Steele’s intelligence was hearsay collected a continent away from Moscow. -The Hill

What makes this particularly troubling is that the FBI relied on Steele's Trump-Russia dossier, which they struggled to verify, in order to justify surveiling the Trump campaign.

Steele’s correspondence with the business associate is the latest piece of evidence suggesting the former British spy may not have been as well-versed or -sourced in Russian intelligence as he was portrayed when the FBI used his now-infamous anti-Trump dossier to support a request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Both the DOJ’s inspector general and multiple committees in Congress are investigating whether the FBI properly handled the Trump-Russia collusion case or whether it fell prey to political pressure and shoddy investigative work, as congressional Republicans and President Trump himself claim.
The FBI has an obligation to submit only verified information to support a FISA warrant. -The Hill

No wonder Steele is afraid to come to the United States and testify in front of lawmakers!



https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-fbi-struggled

[Swordsmyth]

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) confirmed in a Friday statement that he has issued subpoenas for former FBI Director James Comey and former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, in one of his last acts in power, issued subpoenas for James Comey and Loretta Lynch to come for private depositions on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, respectively. pic.twitter.com/q6zqeUYIwM
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 22, 2018

The subpoenas came early, as they were previously expected on November 29 and December 5, as reported by CNN's Manu Raju.

While Comey revealed his subpoena in a Thanksgiving tweet - stating he plans to resist a "closed door" testimony (during which confidential information could be discussed), Goodlatte's confirmation is the first we have learned of Lynch's order to appear.

Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.
— James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018

Comey was ordered to appear on December 3 at 10:00 a.m., and Lynch on December 4 at 10:00 a.m. as well.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ed-appear-well

[Swordsmyth]

And in his latest informal chat with the New York Post from behind the Resolute Desk, the president threatened once again to retaliate against Democrats if they try to "play tough" by investigating him - this time by declassifying a wide swath of "devastating" documents related to the Mueller probe, which he had initially planned to do in September before changing his mind.

"If they want to play tough, I will do it," Trump told the Post in an interview Wednesday. "They will see how devastating those pages are."

According to the Post, Trump would hold on to the documents and release them when it's time for a "counterpunch".

"It’s much more powerful if I do it then," Trump said, "because if we had done it already, it would already be yesterday’s news."

Democrats have threatened to investigate his business dealing, relationship with Russia and his tax returns, among other alleged transgressions - something Trump characterized as "presidential harassment."

"If they want to go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would (be) the best thing that could happen to me because I’m a counter puncher and I will hit them so hard, they’ve never been hit like that," Trump said. "You know what? I think that will help my campaign. That will be the beginning of my campaign as president."

Trump said he hesitated to release the documents because his lawyer, Emmet Flood, had advised him not to - instead recommending that he wait for a more politically advantageous opportunity.

"He didn’t want me to do it yet, because I can save it," Trump said.
The president also pushed back on the notion that all the Justice Department documents should eventually be released for the sake of transparency.
"Some things maybe the public shouldn’t see because they are so bad," Trump said, making clear it wasn’t damaging to him, but to others. "Maybe it’s better that the public not see what’s been going on with this country."

Speaking during what ended up being a contentious press conference on the day after the midterms, President Trump threatened to assume a "war posture" should Democrats try to investigate him, warning "two can play at that game," before claiming that the American public was already suffering from "investigation fatigue."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...nvestigate-him

[PAF]

The president also pushed back on the notion that all the Justice Department documents should eventually be released for the sake of transparency.
"Some things maybe the public shouldn’t see because they are so bad," Trump said, making clear it wasn’t damaging to him, but to others. [b"Maybe it’s better that the public not see what’s been going on with this country."[/b]

Let’s have it. You are there to serve me, after all the dough I’ve been dishing out. Let’s have that “Fire Side Chat”.

[Swordsmyth]

Journalist Jerome Corsi has retained legal counsel Larry Klayman, the founder of Freedom Watch and Judicial Watch and will seek criminal charges against Rober Mueller.
The announcement came late Wednesday on CrowdSource the Truth.
Klayman called Mueller’s Special Counsel’s office a criminal operation.

This story is developing.

https://truepundit.com/corsi-takes-o...ess-tampering/

[goldenequity]

Guy Elster‏@guyelster · 6 min.
#BREAKING #Trump says his former lawyer Cohen is lying about Moscow project to get reduced sentence

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1068171515454210049

[Swordsmyth]

It appears that special counsel Robert Mueller withheld key information in its plea deal with Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, which would exonerate Trump and undermine the entire purpose of the special counsel, according to Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations.

Cohen pleaded guilty last week to lying to the Senate intelligence committee in 2017 about the Trump Organization's plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow - telling them under oath that negotiations he was conducting ended five months sooner than they actually did.
Mueller, however, in his nine-page charging document filed with the court seen by Capitol Hill sources, failed to include the fact that Cohen had no direct contacts at the Kremlin - which undercuts any notion that the Trump campaign had a "backchannel" to Putin.

On page 7 of the statement of criminal information filed against Cohen, which is separate from but related to the plea agreement, Mueller mentions that Cohen tried to email Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office on Jan. 14, 2016, and again on Jan. 16, 2016. But Mueller, who personally signed the document, omitted the fact that Cohen did not have any direct points of contact at the Kremlin, and had resorted to sending the emails to a general press mailbox. Sources who have seen these additional emails point out that this omitted information undercuts the idea of a “back channel” and thus the special counsel's collusion case. -RCI

Page 2 of the same charging document offers further evidence that there was no connection between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin; an August 2017 letter from Cohn to the Senate intelligence committee states that Trump "was never in contact with anyone about this [Moscow Project] proposal other than me," an assertion which Mueller does not contest as false - which means that "prosecutors have tested its veracity through corroborating sources" and found it to be truthful, according to Sperry's sources. Also unchallenged by Mueller is Cohen's statement that he "ultimately determined that the proposal was not feasible and never agreed to make a trip to Russia."

“Though Cohen may have lied to Congress about the dates,” one Hill investigator said, “it's clear from personal messages he sent in 2015 and 2016 that the Trump Organization did not have formal lines of communication set up with Putin’s office or the Kremlin during the campaign. There was no secret ‘back channel.’”
“So as far as collusion goes,” the source added, "the project is actually more exculpatory than incriminating for Trump and his campaign.” -RCI

The Trump Tower Moscow meeting - spearheaded by New York real estate developer and longtime FBI and CIA asset, Felix Sater, bears a passing resemblance to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between members of the Trump campaign and a Russian attorney (who hated Trump), and which was set up by a British concert promotor tied to Fusion GPS - the firm Hillary Clinton's campaign paid to write the salacious and unverified "Trump-Russia Dossier."

“Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the president and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier" -Washington Post

In both the Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations, it is clear that nobody in the Trump campaign had any sort of special access to the Kremlin, while Cohen's emails and text messages reveal that he failed to establish contact with Putin's spokesman. He did, however, reach a desk secretary in the spokesman's office.
What's more, it was Sater - a Russian immigrant with a dubious past who was representing the Bayrock Group (and not the Trump Organization), who cooked up the Moscow Trump Tower project in 2015 - suggesting that Trump would license his name to the project and share in the profits, but not actually commit capital or build the project.


Sater went from a "Wall Street wunderkind" working at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, to getting barred from the securities industry over a barroom brawl which led to a year in prison, to facilitating a $40 million pump-and-dump stock scheme for the New York mafia, to working telecom deals in Russia - where the FBI and CIA tapped him as an undercover intelligence asset who was told by his handler "I want you to understand: If you’re caught, the USA is going to disavow you and, at best, you get a bullet in the head."
The Moscow project, meanwhile, fizzled because Sater didn't have the pull within the Russian government he said he had. At best, Sater had a third-hand connection to Putin which never panned out.

Sources say Sater, whom Cohen described as a “salesman," testified to the House intelligence panel in late 2017 that his communications with Cohen about putting Trump and Putin on a stage for a "ribbon-cutting" for a Trump Tower in Moscow were “mere puffery” to try to promote the project and get it off the ground.
Also according to his still-undisclosed testimony, Sater swore none of those communications involved taking any action to influence the 2016 presidential election. None of the emails and texts between Sater and Cohen mention Russian plans or efforts to hack Democrats’ campaign emails or influence the election. -RCI

As Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch noted of Mueller's strategy: ""Mueller seems desperate to confuse Americans by conflating the cancelled and legitimate Russia business venture with the Russia collusion theory he was actually hired to investigate," said Fitton. "This is a transparent attempt to try to embarrass the president."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...p-tower-moscow

[Swordsmyth]

Writer Jerome Corsi filed a criminal complaint against special counsel Robert Mueller, demanding that acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker at the Department of Justice investigate Mueller’s “gross prosecutorial misconduct.”

Jerome Corsi’s criminal complaint against Mueller can be READ HERE.
Here is a statement released by Corsi’s legal team:
Today, Larry Klayman, the founder of both Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, and a former prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, acting in his private legal capacity, announced the filing of criminal and ethics complaints against Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutorial and media staff on behalf of his client, Dr. Jerome Corsi. A copy of the complaint can be found at www.corsination.com and www.larryklayman.com.


The Complaint was filed with the Acting Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Bar Disciplinary Counsel of the District of Columbia Bar. It alleges violations of various criminal statutes and the
District of Columbia Bar Rules of Professional Responsibility.
The allegations show a pattern and practice of coercing and extorting Dr. Corsi to either lie in his testimony before the “Mueller Grand Jury” and at any eventual trials of other subjects and targets of the Special Counsel’s so-called “Russian Collusion Investigation,” or be indicted himself.
The Special Counsel and his conflicted prosecutorial staff, having offered what they termed a “sweetheart” plea deal if Dr. Corsi would falsely “rat out” targets such as Roger Stone and President Donald J. Trump, were flat out rejected by Dr. Corsi for their criminal, illegal and unethical plea deal.
Klayman had this to say upon filing the Complaint on behalf of Dr. Corsi:
“In filing this Complaint, my client is not only standing up for his own legal and constitutional rights, but also those of the American people. This rogue government tyranny perpetrated by a Special Counsel and his prosecutorial staff, which is designed to effectively overthrow a duly elected president by coercing and extorting false testimony from Dr. Corsi and others, cannot be
permitted in a civilized society.
Dr. Corsi is an American hero, not a felon as depicted falsely by Special Counsel Mueller and his prosecutorial staff. To the contrary, it is Mueller and his comrades who must now be held to account under the rule of law and professional ethics.”
The Complaint prays that Robert Mueller be disciplined and removed as Special Counsel, along with his partisan staff, and that these serious allegations be referred to appropriate state and local authorities for criminal prosecution. It also demands that Mueller and his prosecutorial staff be disbarred from the practice of law.

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/jerome...ce-him-to-lie/

[Swordsmyth]

Bill Priestap, a 20-year veteran of the FBI, will exit the agency at the end of the year, according to a new report.
Priestap, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterintelligence division, has decided to retire from the bureau, the Wall Street Journal reported.
He was involved with the investigation regarding the unauthorized email server of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that she used while she was secretary of state and the investigation examining Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

With officials like former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe no longer at the FBI, Priestap is currently the last high-ranking official at the FBI who originally worked on both investigations.

More at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...robes-retiring

[Swordsmyth]

Chairman Chuck Grassley is accusing Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson of giving “extremely misleading” statements during August 2017 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee — and in doing so is comparing it to the false testimony that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen also gave to Congress at the same time.
In a Monday letter to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Grassley accuses Simpson — the co-founder of political research firm Fusion GPS — of giving “extremely misleading if not outright false testimony” when he gave a closed-door deposition on Aug. 22, 2017.
“So you didn’t do any work on the Trump matter after the election date, that was the end of your work?” Simpson was asked in his August 2017 deposition by a Republican committee staffer.

“I had no client after the election,” said Simpson.
“As we now know, that was extremely misleading, if not an outright lie,” Grassley said in his letter to Blumenthal.


In his letter, Grassley noted that former Senate staffer Daniel Jones told the FBI in March 2017 that he hired Fusion GPS and Steele after the 2016 election to continue an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
Jones, who once worked for the committee’s top Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, told the FBI that he “had secured the services Steele, his associate [redacted], and Fusion GPS to continue exposing Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.”
Jones told the FBI that the group leading the research “was being funded by 7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California, who provided approximately $50 million.”
The end goal was to pass information to lawmakers, the FBI and the press, Jones told the FBI.
“Contrary to Mr. Simpson’s denial in the staff interview, according to the FBI and others, Fusion actually did continue Trump dossier work for a new client after the election,” wrote Grassley to Blumenthal. “So, despite the fact Mr. Simpson said he had no client after the election, he in fact did, and that client revealed himself to the FBI.”
The letter comes in response to Blumenthal’s letter accusing Donald Trump Jr. of lying about his statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017. Blumenthal wrote a letter to Grassley on Monday regarding the accusations after Cohen pleaded guilty last week to lying to congressional investigators as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
Grassley reminded Blumenthal that he had already told another of the committee’s Democratic members about Simpson’s inconsistent testimony — Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware in May — and that he would be rejecting his calls to interview Trump Jr. again.

More at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...mony-to-senate

[Swordsmyth]

Former and current members of President Trump’s legal team have compiled research to make the case that former FBI Director James B. Comey misled Congress in his testimony and is not a reliable witness for special counsel Robert Mueller.
The lawyers last year tried to persuade Mr. Mueller to investigate Mr. Comey, his former colleague, to no avail.


“The Cohen plea of lying to Congress by the special counsel raises the very serious question as to why the special counsel has refused to investigate and prosecute the false statements and testimony of James Comey, the main accuser of the president, before the Senate Judiciary and intel committees,” former Trump attorney John Dowd told The Washington Times.
Mr. Dowd and his colleagues filed a complaint with the Justice Department and Mr. Mueller last year. It says, in part, that Mr. Comey was dishonest in May 2017 when he said he never took steps for FBI surrogates to leak stories about Mr. Trump to the news media.


Trump supporters say that if Mr. Mueller can target Mr. Cohen for lying, then why doesn’t the Justice Department go after others? They mention not only Mr. Comey but also James R. Clapper, former head of national intelligence; Democratic attorney Michael Avenatti; dossier creator Christopher Steele; and his handler, Fusion GPS founder Glenn R. Simpson.
Of the four in addition to Mr. Comey, three involve public charges from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican. They are:
⦁ Mr. Clapper. The Barack Obama appointee testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2013 that the National Security Agency doesn’t “wittingly” spy on Americans in the United States.
The testimony was “clearly erroneous,” as he admitted later in a letter. The NSA collects bulk domestic phone records and some internet communications.
In retirement, Mr. Clapper is a prime Trump critic.
“I really question his ability to — his fitness to be — in this office,” he said on CNN. “I worry about, frankly, access to the nuclear codes.”
⦁ Mr. Avenatti. A fierce Trump critic, the lawyer presented sworn statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of Julie Swetnick, who made a series of sensational gang rape charges against then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. She later retracted some of the charges.
Mr. Grassley sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department accusing Mr. Avenatti of a conspiracy to submit false statements.
Mr. Avenatti, who also represents porn actress Stormy Daniels in her claim of having had an affair with Mr. Trump, dismissed Mr. Grassley as “incompetent” and welcomed an investigation.
⦁ Mr. Steele. The former British spy was paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to dig up dirt on Mr. Trump. He relied on a number of Kremlin sources to level charges for a dossier in his effort to destroy the Trump campaign.
Mr. Grassley sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department, saying Mr. Steele lied to the FBI during the election campaign by telling agents he had not spoken to the news media when in fact he had. Based on his word, the FBI relied on a Yahoo news story to bolster a wiretap warrant only to learn later that Mr. Steele was its source.
⦁ Mr. Simpson. Mr. Grassley sent a letter to a Democratic senator saying Mr. Simpson’s committee testimony conflicted with an FBI report. Mr. Simpson testified that he had no anti-Trump clients after the November 2016 election.
But former Senate Democratic aide Daniel Jones, who, like Mr. Simpson, is an opposition research specialist, told the FBI last year that he had raised $50 million from donors to investigate Mr. Trump and hired Mr. Simpson’s firm.
Trump supporters save their most intense wrath for Mr. Comey, who has emerged as a chief Trump accuser in a memoir and in testimony since the president fired him in May 2017.
As FBI director, Mr. Comey testified that he had never leaked information to the press or arranged for surrogates to leak.
After his firing, he orchestrated an elaborate leak of his memos for the record to The New York Times, using a middleman. They represented his same-day notes of his one-on-one meetings with the president. Among the charges, he accused Mr. Trump of trying to stifle an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Mr. Comey said he leaked the memos to force the appointment of a special counsel, which happened days later. Mr. Comey then became a witness against Mr. Trump for Mr. Mueller, his predecessor as FBI director. As deputy attorney general, Mr. Comey worked closely with Mr. Mueller during the George W. Bush administration.
In June 2017, Marc E. Kasowitz of New York, then a Trump attorney, sent a hand-delivered, 15-page letter to Mr. Mueller listing a number of complaints against Mr. Comey and asking for an investigation. The letter’s purpose was to disparage Mr. Comey as a credible witness.
One letter topic was “Comey’s Pattern of Inaccurate and Incomplete Testimony.”
“Mr. Comey has exhibited a pattern of exaggerated, embellished and materially incomplete and self-serving testimony that cripples the credibility of his accounts on matters large and small,” Mr. Kasowitz wrote.
‘Unlawful conduct’
Mr. Kasowitz said Mr. Comey recounted his Trump meetings with “surrogates” at the FBI in March 2017. Two days after he was fired, surrogates “as he and they have previously planned to do” leaked details to The New York Times about a private dinner Mr. Comey had with the president the previous January, Mr. Kasowitz said. The story matched Mr. Comey’s later description in congressional testimony.
As to Mr. Comey’s May 2017 Senate testimony that he never facilitated Trump leaks while director, Mr. Kasowitz wrote: “While Mr. Comey’s testimony might have been technically correct, it was plainly incomplete and misleading to not have disclosed that he had, in fact, leaked this information to surrogates for the obvious purpose of leaking it in the future in the event he were removed as FBI director.”
Mr. Kasowitz surmised that Mr. Comey’s surrogates must have leaked details of the Trump Tower meeting with the president-elect since the only participants were Mr. Comey and Mr. Trump.
Mr. Dowd told The Washington Times that Mr. Mueller informed him in August 2017 that there would be no investigation of Mr. Comey.
Mr. Dowd then sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mr. Mueller. The letter’s subject line was “Request for Federal Grand Jury Investigation of Former Director James B. Comey.”
“It is particularly troubling that it was Mr. Comey’s plainly deliberate, unlawful conduct and false congressional testimony which precipitated your appointment of Special Counsel Mueller,” Mr. Dowd wrote. “Indeed, Mr. Comey publicly bragged about it.”
Mr. Rosenstein replied via an aide that the Justice Department doesn’t confirm or deny investigations.
‘Error in judgment’
It is not only Mr. Trump’s legal team complaining about Mr. Comey’s conduct.
Corey R. Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager, tweeted Friday: “U.S. judge delays ruling on ex-FBI director’s request to quash Republican subpoena. Why doesn’t Lyon’ Jim want to testify? He has lied repeatedly to Congress. When will he be prosecuted?”

More at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-supporters-s/

[Swordsmyth]

Q
!!mG7VJxZNCI
ID: 44a34b
No.4158232
Dec 4 2018 23:42:55 (EST) NEW
Dc43CR5WAAAy400.jpg-large.jpg


https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1070140182907756544

[Dec 4, 2018]

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/statu...38096916799488

"NBC News: There appears, although the redacted documents do not make it completely clear, that there is a [[[+++separate criminal investigation going on outside of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's purview+++]]] for which Flynn has been providing significant assistance."
Markers are important.
[Dec 4, 2017] > [Dec 4, 2018]
Think No Name.
Did Mueller have a choice in making the recommendation?
Who does Mueller 'now' report to?
Does WHITAKER also oversee HUBER + OIG?
What case(s) is HUBER + OIG + team of 470 currently working on?
Who has the server(s)?
Who has access to NSA UT Term1-12?
Does FISA grant access to NSA umbrella collection?
You are witnessing something [firsthand] that many cannot possibly comprehend or accept as reality [Sci-Fi or precision M_planning?]
Coincidences > > > reveal w/o violating NAT SEC
Coincidences > > > mathematically impossible to be 'FALSE'
Coincidences > > > bypass 'installed' restrictions to prevent future legal attachments
Comms understood? 5:5?
SENATE WAS THE TARGET.

Q

[Swordsmyth]

Dated today.
ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2014cv1242-54
FITTON:MASSIVE Breaking: Fed court excoriates State and DOJ on Clinton email, orders discovery plan in 10 days as to whether Hillary Clinton email system an intentional attempt to evade FOIA. “One of the gravest modern offenses to gov’t transparency…”


More at: http://www.investmentwatchblog.com/j...on-state-dept/