Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Deep ZOG Shall Try to Mount a Coup Against the God-Emperor

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Watergate prosecutor: Mueller should 'promptly' file a report on Trump

    Watergate prosecutor: Mueller should 'promptly' file a report on Trump

    Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
    July 6, 2018



    https://www.yahoo.com/news/watergate...111754598.html
    http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8348#post18348
    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8348#post18348


    WASHINGTON — A former top Watergate prosecutor, expressing impatience with the pace of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, says the Justice Department special counsel should move “promptly” to file a report on President Trump’s conduct and stop “letting this thing drag on.”

    “I think it’s in the national interest to move promptly to bring this matter to a head,” said Philip Lacovara, who served as senior counsel to Watergate special prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski, in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.”

    “I think the public deserves to know — to put a riff on President Nixon’s comments — whether their president is a crook,” Lacovara said. “And that certainly applies to President Trump. And my view is that there should be enough evidence available to Mr. Mueller and his team to move now, or I say by the end of the summer, which is another two or so months, to make that call or do whatever he’s going to do and submit his report.”

    Lacovora’s comments echo those of Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who in a hearing last week asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to direct Mueller to wrap up his investigation and present his findings.

    “If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury,” Gowdy told Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller probe, during a hearing last week. “If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the American people. Whatever you got, finish it the hell up.”

    But Lacovara has a darker view of Trump’s conduct than Gowdy and his House GOP colleagues have. As Lacovara sees it, there’s already enough evidence to charge the president with obstructing justice, and Mueller should stop wasting his time trying to negotiate an interview with Trump.

    “So, the question is, should the special counsel bring these matters to a head — at least with respect to President Trump — and do so without waiting for this never-ending saga of ‘maybe he will and maybe he won’t’ to continue playing out,” Lacovara said.

    Download or subscribe on iTunes: “Skullduggery” by Yahoo News

    “My basic point is that Trump’s testimony is not necessary to either of those things — for the simple reason that whatever he says is not likely to be believable,” he added. “The president’s statements simply are irrelevant to the truth. Or putting it more pointedly, the truth is simply irrelevant to the president’s statements, and therefore one cannot rely on the president either to exonerate the innocent – the allegedly innocent – or to convict the allegedly guilty.”

    Lacovara argued that Trump’s public comments last year about the firing of FBI Director James Comey — telling NBC’s Lester Holt that he did so because of “this Russia thing” — provided sufficient grounds to trigger the obstruction statute.

    “I don’t think there is much more that Mueller needed,” Lacovara said. “Now, that’s all over a year ago. I can’t even imagine any plausible basis for stretching out the analysis of obstruction or no obstruction.”




    ____________________________
    I am The Librarian
    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
    http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

    Comment


    • #17
      Trump says he believes Putin that Russia didn't interfere in election

      Trump says he believes Putin that Russia didn't interfere in election

      Dylan Stableford, Senior Editor, Yahoo News
      July 16, 2018


      https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-say...165339955.html
      http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8373#post18373
      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8373#post18373


      President Trump emerged from his historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday saying he doesn’t believe that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

      “I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Putin following their discussions. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

      But Putin himself acknowledged that he preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton in the election. “Yes, I did,” he said. “Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.”

      Trump said the pair “spent a great deal of time” in their discussions on Moscow’s alleged meddling.

      Putin told reporters that Trump raised the issue of so-called election interference in their one-on-one talks.

      “The Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs, including election process,” Putin said through a translator. “Any specific material, if such things arise, we are willing to analyze together.”

      Putin’s denial, and Trump’s seeming acceptance of it, flies in the face of the conclusion of six top U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. In early January 2017, the office of the director of national intelligence released a report concluding with “high confidence” that Putin “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.” Putin’s goals, the report said, were to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” — and to boost Trump’s election chances.

      Trump said that while he has “great confidence” in U.S. intelligence agencies, he wants to know what happened to the emails missing from Hillary Clinton’s private email server, the Democratic National Committee server and those of a DNC staffer.

      “Where is the server?” Trump asked. “What is the serving saying?”

      “What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC?” Trump continued. “Where are those servers?”

      Trump was referring to a conspiracy theory he and conservative media outlets have pushed that congressional technology staffer Imran Awan was a Pakistani operative who worked with House Democrats to steal government secrets. Earlier this month federal prosecutors charged Awan with making a false claim on a loan application but cleared him of violating any law related to the House computer systems.

      “Where are Hillary Clinton’s emails — 33,000 emails gone, just gone,” Trump said. “I think in Russia they wouldn’t be gone so easily. I think it’s a disgrace we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 emails.”

      After the press conference, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats issued an unusual public statement undercutting Trump’s comments.

      “The role of the intelligence community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the president and policymakers,” Coats said. “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”

      On Friday, 12 Russian intelligence officials were indicted by a grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s computer server and subsequent leaking of emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. During the summit, Putin said he would “look into” the charges and offered to help U.S. investigators. Trump called it “an incredible offer.”

      On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had arrested and charged Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian woman living in Washington, D.C., with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian government.

      During their meeting, Putin said he also suggested that the United States and Russia form a “joint working group on cybersecurity” — something he and Trump discussed on the sidelines of a G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, last year. At that time, Trump appeared to backtrack on the idea.

      “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen,” Trump tweeted on July 9, 2017. “It can’t.”

      This time, though, Trump called it “an interesting idea.”

      Earlier Monday, Trump and Putin met for a private discussion — with each accompanied only by translators — that lasted nearly two hours. The pair then met for an expanded hourlong working lunch with top aides.

      Prior to their one-on-one sitdown, Trump expressed optimism that the talks would lead to “an extraordinary relationship” between Washington and Moscow.

      “I think we have great opportunities together as two countries that, frankly, have not been getting along very well for the last number of years,” Trump said.

      In the run-up to Monday’s meeting, Trump blamed the tensions between the two countries in part on Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

      “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now the Rigged Witch Hunt!” he tweeted.

      The Russian foreign ministry promptly retweeted Trump’s tweet along with the message: “We agree.”

      During his flight home from Finland aboard Air Force One, Trump attempted to clarify his remarks amid the growing bipartisan backlash below.

      “As I said today and many times before, ‘I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people,’” Trump tweeted. “However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past — as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!”

      Additional reporting by Christopher Wilson.




      ____________________________
      I am The Librarian
      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
      http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

      Comment


      • #18
        Trump says he told Putin 'we can't have meddling' in US vote

        Trump says he told Putin 'we can't have meddling' in US vote

        Jerome CARTILLIER,
        July 18, 2018


        https://www.yahoo.com/news/back-wash...150202135.html
        http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8379#post18379
        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8379#post18379



        Washington (AFP) - Under fire by lying Democrats & neo-khan jewboys as siding with the Kremlin, President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that he told Russian leader Vladimir Putin firmly during their summit in Helsinki that the United States would not tolerate meddling in its elections.

        "Crooked Hillary got $120 million for the Clinton Foundation for selling uranium to you Russkis, but all I got was some "Red Sparrow Pissing Prostitutes" in the GAIDS-ridden mattress in which the Gay Mulattto went ass-to-mouth with Muslim butt-boys. You really could have done better for the "Leader of the F[r]ee Whirrrrld, Bad Vlad. Where was my Natasha GudPussinov?""

        "I let him know we can't have this, we're not going to have it, and that's the way it's going to be," Trump said in an interview with CBS.

        Asked if he held Putin personally responsible for interference in the November 2016 presidential vote, Trump replied: "Well, I would, because he's in charge of the country, just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country as long as its good shit, like the Stock Market going up and up. If shit turns bad I blame my flunkies and demand that they take the fall.

        "jewff !!! jewff !!! Where is that little possum at who can't protect me against that crooked incompetent FiBbIe Boob Muller? Boob and Comey Pyle belong in jail, instead of being Deep-Swamp Piglicemamzers
        ."

        Trump said he had been "very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that."

        Trump has been under bipartisan fire in Washington for failing to publicly confront Putin over the election interference at the press conference that followed their Helsinki talks so that Bad Vlad can tell the God-Emperor to eat shit. The God-Emperor is under the impression that he cannot fire these crooked Deep State fuktards and tell the Dom[on]ocrats to eat shit if they don't like it..

        "I had a lot more power when I ran this cheezy reality talmudvision shoah called "The Apprentice." I'd tell the coontestants to suck muh dick and lick out my ass-crack and to make sure that they gently eased in pulling out and eating the dingleberries. Now as "leader" of the Free Turd-Whirrrrrld and [s]elected President I can't even get that lil' possum jewff Sessions to take muh phone calls."


        Trump has also appeared on several occasions to question the largely incompetent and corrupt US intelligence findings that Russia interfered to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton who cannot admit that she was a really really stupid evil bitch who no one other than lesbian cat ladies and most of the she-boons voted for with the silverback males sitting the 2016 [s]election out. Putin denies any Russian interference and since our perverted and stupid Armed Farces can't win any wars they fight then that will just have to do at least for now.

        Trump did this in Helsinki, too, and executed a convoluted walkback of those remarks on Tuesday, saying he misspoke in Finland.

        "Bad Vlad was so close, very close, and he told me that he would make me bark like a bitch if I coontradickted him. Now that I am back in the District of Corruption I'll say another thing or two entirely."

        Again on Wednesday, he told CBS he agreed with those US findings.

        "Yeah and I've said that before," he said. "I have said that numerous times before, and I would say that is true, yeah. Itz time to cuck out."

        Asked then if he thinks Putin is lying to him, Trump said: "I don't want to get into whether or not he's lying. Bad Vlad speaks softly but has a bigger dick."

        Earlier Wednesday, Trump claimed that no US president has been as "tough" as him on Russia.

        "We're doing very well, probably as well as anybody has ever done with Russia," Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House. "Look at what we've done. Look at sanctions.

        "And I think President Putin knows that better than anybody," Trump said. "He understands it, and he's not happy about it. I've been tougher than a queef in a pussyhouse fartstorm."

        "And he shouldn't be happy about it because there's never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been. All Obongo ever did was to offer up its gay Muslim mangina and force Bad Vlad to say that after the 2012 [s]election against that Mormon Mattoid Mittens that there would be a "reset", cum-cum, cum-cum" !!!"

        But when asked if Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump appeared to reply "no" -- an assertion that would contradict the assessment of US intelligence chief Dan Coats, who said Monday that Russia was involved in "ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy by spending tens of hundreds of ZOGbux on theys' Russia Today" propaganda outlet saying that Crooked Hillary was . . . well, you know, crooked.."

        That forced a tortured clarification of his remarks for the second day in a row as the ZOG Emperor didn't have the sense to stop talking to us sorry lying jewsmedia, the enema of the Amurrikwan PissPul.

        White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, in the face of repeated questioning from reporters, insisted that Trump was saying "no" to further questions from reporters and not replying to the query about Russia. Sarah is higher-T than the Dog-Humperor, who wasted his cum-cum, cum-cum on sundry skanks who he ended up paying off, and they still won't cum-cum, cum-cum quiet.

        She said the threat to the US electoral system "still exists, which is why we are taking steps to prevent it by telling the Russkis to have me call Crooked Hillary Crooked Hillary.
        "
        ."

        FBI director Christopher Wray insisted Wednesday evening that the US intelligence community view has not changed.

        "We were in a coonspiracy with the Obongo [Mal]Administration and the Clinto Foundation to throw the 2016 [S]Election to Crooked Hillary but when the crooked feckless bitch lost, we needed to cover up our tracks. Hence this neverending Russian Investigation using made-up shit."

        That position, Wray said at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado, is that "Russia never attempted to interfere with the last election and that it continues to engage in malign influence operations in letting us run amok to this day."

        - Subpoena the interpreter? -

        Democrats and some really cucked-out Fuktarded members of Trump's own Republican Party have criticized him for accepting at face value Putin's denial that Russia interfered in the vote.

        Democratic lawmakers meanwhile pushed for Congress to subpoena Trump's summit interpreter to find out what transpired during his private meeting with Putin. Wish in one hand then shit in the other and then precisely measure which hand has the most shit in it.

        Democratic lawmakers meanwhile idiotically and fecklessly pushed for Congress to subpoena Trump's summit interpreter to find out what transpired during his private meeting with Putin.

        The two leaders held two hours of closed-door talks with no one else present but the interpreters. Meetings to which none of the 535 Congressional ass-clowns were privy to.

        Democrats say the woman who translated for Trump -- and the notes she likely took -- could provide critical information about the meeting. And if she was of placid disposition and mercenary attitude she could give them a hummer, cum-cum, cum-cum!!!

        "We want the interpreter to come before the committee. We want to see the notes," Senator Boob Menendez, no stranger to corruption and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC.

        "We're going to have a massive effort to try to get to what happened. If that includes whipping Rachael MadSow the kikess lesboskank athwhack the side of its kikess noggin, then we will strongly coonsider this shit."

        Senator Boob Corker, a Republican who the God-Emperor is turfing out of itz Senate seat chairs the committee, said he understands the request and was "looking into precedent hidden in the sacred mummified assholes of past sacrificed goats to Satan" to see if it was viable.

        The White House is likely to block the move, arguing that the president is not required to reveal private conversations and that an aide, such as a translator, should not be compelled to do so. Duh.

        Asked if a recording of the meeting existed, Sanders said: "I'm not aware of one. But if there was one, you could lick muh front crack to try to get it."

        - 'Double negative' -

        Faced with outrage at home from lying shitheads, Trump pussed out and said Tuesday that he accepted like a hemorroid the idiotic ntelligence community's assessment that Russia had meddled in the election.

        He also offered a twisted explanation of his assertion in Helsinki that he could not see "any reason" why Russia would interfere, claiming he misspoke.

        "In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'," Trump said. "I should have instead used the clinch-word "whatever" when dealing with you lying retards."

        "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia.' Sort of a double negative," he added. "Sort of like when in the opener of Season 7 of the Walking Dead when Abraham told Negan to "Lick Muh Nutz, cum-cum, cum-cum."

        Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign has increasingly put pressure on the White House because they stupidly take the lying bastard seriously.

        The president has dubbed it a "witch hunt," and repeatedly denied any collusion, for what good it will do him.

        But the investigation is progressing, as evidenced by the worthless indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence agents on Friday -- timing that was embarrassing ahead of the summit.

        .

        ____________________________
        I am The Librarian
        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
        http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

        Comment


        • #19
          FBI Agent Peter Strzok Fired Over Anti-Trump Text Messages

          FBI Agent Peter Strzok Fired Over Anti-Trump Text Messages


          https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-agent...152916287.html
          https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0ae32af9a1941
          http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8474#post18474
          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8474#post18474



          Satannic mamzer shithead Strzok smirks like a half-growed possum eating shit.
          .

          WASHINGTON ― FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, who was taken off special counsel Robert Mueller’s team after Justice Department investigators discovered his texts disparaging President Donald Trump, has been fired from the bureau despite the recommendations of a career FBI official.

          Aitan Goelman, Strzok’s attorney, said in a statement that Strzok was fired late Friday afternoon on the orders of FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, despite an FBI career official’s recommendation that Strzok face a 60-day suspension and a demotion.

          Goelman called the decision “a departure from typical Bureau practice” and said it contradicted FBI Director Chris Wray’s earlier guarantee that the bureau would follow its regular process, despite Trump’s disdain for the now-former FBI official.

          “This decision should be deeply troubling to all Americans. A lengthy investigation and multiple rounds of Congressional testimony failed to produce a shred of evidence that Special Agent Strzok’s personal views ever affected his work,” Goelman said. “In fact, in his decades of service, Special Agent Strzok has proved himself to be one of the country’s top counterintelligence officers, leading to only one conclusion ― the decision to terminate was taken in response to political pressure, and to punish Special Agent Strzok for political speech protected by the First Amendment, not on a fair and independent examination of the facts. It is a decision that produces only one winner ― those who seek to harm our country and weaken our democracy.”

          Strzok exchanged texts with former FBI official Lisa Page that disparaged Trump as well as other politicians, including various Democrats. He testified last month after the release of an inspector general report on the handling of the FBI’s Hillary Clinton probe that described anti-Trump texts exchanged by bureau officials.

          Strzok, a 21-year veteran of the FBI, played a prominent role in both of the investigations surrounding the Clinton and Trump campaigns during the 2016 election. He was involved in the Clinton investigation, which was highly public, as well as the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election, which the bureau never publicly acknowledged until months into Trump’s presidency. Strzok subsequently joined the Mueller team, but left the team as soon as Mueller became aware of his anti-Trump texts.

          The precise justification for Bowdich’s decision to fire Strzok despite the recommendation of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility is unclear. But DOJ’s inspector general was “deeply troubled” by texts Strzok sent that “potentially indicated or created the appearance that the investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” and particularly focused on one anti-Trump text that implied a willingness “to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.” The inspector general report also criticized Strzok for his use of personal email to conduct FBI business.

          It’s possible that the former FBI counterintelligence official’s extramarital relationship with Page also played a role in the FBI’s decision. Wray said at at a press conference in June that the bureau wouldn’t “hesitate to hold people accountable for their actions” after the disciplinary process.

          Trump celebrated Strzok’s firing on Twitter, writing Monday that the investigation into his campaign “should be dropped” and that the investigation into Clinton “should be properly redone.”

          This story has been updated throughout.

          Ryan Reilly is HuffPost’s senior justice reporter covering the Justice Department, federal law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs. Have a tip? Reach him at ryan.reilly@huffpost.com or on Signal at 202-527-9261.

          This article originally appeared on HuffPost.


          ____________________________
          I am The Librarian
          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
          http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

          Comment


          • #20
            Trump yanks ex-CIA chief's clearance, hitting vocal critic

            Trump yanks ex-CIA chief's clearance, hitting vocal critic

            August 15, 2018



            https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-mak...-politics.html
            http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8485#post18485
            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8485#post18485


            WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump abruptly revoked the security clearance of ex-CIA Director John Brennan on Wednesday, an unprecedented act of retribution against a vocally critical former top U.S. official.

            Later, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump drew a direct connection between the Russia investigation and his decision, citing Brennan as among those he held responsible for the investigation.

            "I call it the rigged witch hunt, (it) is a sham," Mr. Trump told the Journal, which posted its story on its website Wednesday night. "And these people led it!"

            He added: "So I think it's something that had to be done."

            That connection was not in a statement issued earlier Wednesday in which Trump denounced Brennan's criticism of him and spoke anxiously of "the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior." The president said he was fulfilling his "constitutional responsibility to protect the nation's classified information."

            Trump also threatened to yank the clearances of a handful of individuals, including former top intelligence and law enforcement officials, as well as a current member of the Justice Department. All are critics of the president or are people whom Trump appears to believe are against him.

            Trump's action against Brennan, critics and nonpartisan experts said, marked an unprecedented politicization of the federal government's security clearance process. It also was a clear escalation in Trump's battle with members of the U.S. intelligence community as the investigation into Russia election meddling and possible collusion and obstruction of justice continues.

            And it came in the middle of the president's latest controversy — accusations of racism by former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman and his bitter reaction to them. Trump's statement, distributed to reporters, was dated July 26, 2018, suggesting it could have been held and then released when needed to change a damaging subject. The White House later released a new version without the date.

            Democratic members of Congress, reacting to Trump's initial announcement, said his action smacked of an "enemies list" among fellow Americans and the behavior of leaders in "dictatorships, not democracies." Brennan, in a phone interview with MSNBC, called the move an "abuse of power by Mr. Trump."

            "I do believe that Mr. Trump decided to take this action, as he's done with others, to try to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him or his administration," he said, adding that he would not be deterred from speaking out.

            Trump, his statement read by his press secretary, accused Brennan of having "leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television about this administration."

            "Mr. Brennan's lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nations' most closely held secrets," Trump said.

            In the Journal interview, Trump said he was prepared to yank Brennan's clearance last week but that it was too "hectic." The president was on an extended working vacation at his New Jersey golf club last week.

            Brennan has indeed been deeply critical of Trump's conduct, calling his performance at a press conference last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland "nothing short of treasonous."

            Brennan continued that criticism on Wednesday. "I've seen this type of behavior and actions on the part of foreign tyrants and despots and autocrats for many, many years during my CIA and national security career. I never, ever thought that I would see it here in the United States," he said.

            Brennan said he had not heard from the CIA or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that his security clearance was being revoked, but learned it when the White House announced it. There is no requirement that a president has to notify top intelligence officials of his plan to revoke a security clearance. "The president has the ultimate authority to decide who holds a security clearance," the ODNI said in a statement.

            Former CIA directors and other top national security officials are typically allowed to keep their clearances, at least for some period, so they can be in a position to advise their successors and to hold certain jobs.

            Trump's statement said the Brennan issue raises larger questions about the practice of allowing former officials to maintain their security clearances, and said that others officials' were under review.

            They include former FBI Director James Comey; James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence; former CIA Director Michael Hayden; former national security adviser Susan Rice; and Andrew McCabe, who served as Trump's deputy FBI director until he was fired in March.

            Also on the list: fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from the Russia investigation over anti-Trump text messages; former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok exchanged messages; and senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, whom Trump recently accused on Twitter of "helping disgraced Christopher Steele 'find dirt on Trump.'"

            Ohr was friends with Steele, the former British intelligence officer commissioned by an American political research firm to explore Trump's alleged ties with the Russian government. He is the only current government employee on the list.

            At least two of the former officials, Comey and McCabe, do not currently have security clearances, and none of the eight receive intelligence briefings. Trump's concern apparently is that their former status gives special weight to their statements, both to Americans and foreign foes.

            Former intelligence officials are also wondering how far Trump will go, according to a former senior intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private conversations he's had with people who have worked in the field.

            They said Trump has moved from threatening to revoke security clearances of former intelligence officials who have not been involved in the Russia investigation to former officials who did work on the probe. And they wonder if he will next choose to target those who currently work on the investigation, which Trump has called a "witch hunt."

            The CIA referred questions to the White House.

            Clapper, reacting on CNN, called Trump's actions "unprecedented," but said he didn't plan to stop speaking out. Asked what linked those threatened by the White House, Clapper said he and the others have been outspoken about the Trump administration, have "directly run afoul of it" or have taken actions the president dislikes.

            "So I guess that's what we all have in common," Clapper said.

            Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump's press secretary, insisted the White House wasn't targeting only Trump critics. But Trump did not order a review of the clearance held by former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who was fired from the White House for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian officials and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

            Democrats, and even some Republicans, lined up to denounce the president's move, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., slamming it as a "stunning abuse of power." Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, warned that a "dangerous precedent" was being set by "politicizing the way we guard our national secrets just to punish the president's critics."

            And California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, tweeted, "An enemies list is ugly, undemocratic and un-American."

            Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen tweeted, "Trump is now categorizing dissent and free speech as 'erratic behavior.'" He added, "Leaders behave like this in dictatorships, not democracies."

            Several Republicans also weighed in, with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., saying, "Unless there's something tangible that I'm unaware of, it just, as I've said before, feels like a banana republic kind of thing."

            House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had previously dismissed Trump's threat as nothing more than presidential "trolling."

            .


            ____________________________
            I am The Librarian
            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
            http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

            Comment


            • #21
              Trump doubles down on security clearances, former officials slam move

              Trump doubles down on security clearances, former officials slam move

              By Jeff Mason and Jonathan Landay, Reuters
              August 17, 2018


              https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sec...150229454.html
              http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8495#post18495
              http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8495#post18495


              WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump faced an unprecedented outcry from former intelligence officials on Friday after stripping the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, but Trump defended his move and said he planned another one soon.

              The bipartisan group, which included Robert Gates, George Tenet, David Petraeus, James Clapper and Leon Panetta, lashed out at the president in a scathing letter released late on Thursday. By Friday evening, a separate group of 60 former intelligence officers added their voices in their own letter.

              Brennan, a former official in the Obama administration and sharp critic of Trump, has said he will not be deterred by the removal of his security clearance. Brennan described Trump's actions at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month as treasonous.

              Trump defended his decision, announced on Wednesday, saying it had elevated the former CIA chief rather than hampered his freedom of speech.

              The president also told reporters he was likely to revoke the clearance of Bruce Ohr, a Department of Justice official who is linked to a dossier on Trump's campaign and Russia compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

              Trump lashed out again at Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading an investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 campaign and Moscow. Without citing evidence or offering proof, he said Mueller had conflicts of interest.

              In the statement released late on Thursday, officials who served under Republican and Democratic officials said they did not necessarily agree with Brennan's harsh criticism of the president but that security authorizations should be based on national security, not politics.

              "We all agree that the president's action regarding John Brennan and the threats of similar action against other former officials has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances - and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech," the former CIA directors, deputy directors and directors of national intelligence said.

              "We have never before seen the approval or removal of security clearances used as a political tool," they wrote.

              Petraeus, one of the signers, was once considered by Trump as a candidate for secretary of state.

              Like the signatories of the first letter, the 60 former CIA officers said that while they do not necessarily agree with Brennan's opinions, "It is our firm belief that the country will be weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before seasoned experts are allowed to share their views."

              The second group included Henry Crumpton, who also served as the State Department's top counter-terrorism official and Letitia Long, a former head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which oversees the military satellites used for intelligence collection, navigation and communication.

              In another pushback against the president, retired Navy Admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, praised Brennan and asked Trump to revoke his security clearance as well, writing in a Washington Post opinion piece that he would "consider it an honor."

              MORE TO COME

              Trump challenged the suggestion that he was trying to silence critics by taking away security clearances.

              "There's no silence. If anything, I'm giving them a bigger voice," Trump said.

              "Many people don't even know who (Brennan) is, and now he has a bigger voice. And that's OK with me, because I like taking on voices like that. I've never respected him."

              The White House said it was studying a list of other individuals for security clearance review, and Trump suggested Ohr was at the top of that list.

              "I think Bruce Ohr is a disgrace," he said. "I suspect I'll be taking it away very quickly."

              Ohr works in the Justice Department's criminal division, and was in contact with former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of allegations of possible collusion between Trump's camp and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

              Russia denies having meddled in the 2016 election, but three U.S. intelligence agencies reported in January 2017 that Moscow had intervened and tried to help Trump beat Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

              Putin told reporters in Helsinki, while standing next to Trump, that he had wanted the former New York businessman to win the White House.

              (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; editing by Jonathan Oatis and James Dalgleish)




              ____________________________
              I am The Librarian
              http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
              http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

              Comment


              • #22
                James Clapper: Brennan’s anti-Trump rhetoric is ‘an issue in and of itself’

                James Clapper: Brennan’s anti-Trump rhetoric is ‘an issue in and of itself’


                https://www.yahoo.com/news/james-cla...175136744.html
                http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8509#post18509
                http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8509#post18509



                Yapper says Deranged Hibernigger Brennan is Over the Top with itz Slop
                .

                James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence, said that former CIA Director John Brennan has the subtlety of “a freight train” and that his rhetoric has become “an issue in and of itself.”

                After Trump’s summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month, Brennan leveled some incendiary accusations against the White House. He called Trump’s actions “nothing short of treasonous.”

                Jake Tapper, the host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” asked Clapper on Sunday morning whether he thinks Brennan’s “hyperbole” is cause for concern.

                “Well, I think it is. I think John is subtle like a freight train, and he’s going to say what’s on his mind,” Clapper said.

                Clapper added that the intelligence professionals speaking out share a genuine concern for U.S. institutions and values but may express themselves in different ways. He suggested that inflammatory language can distract from the important issues at hand.

                “John and his rhetoric have become, I think, an issue in and of itself,” he said.

                Brennan has been particularly outspoken in his criticisms of Trump, after the president cast doubt on the intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow launched a multifaceted campaign to disrupt American democracy and meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

                Trump revoked Brennan’s top-secret security clearance last week in reaction to what he called “unfounded and outrageous allegations.” Former top intelligence officials, including several who served under Republican administrations, condemned Trump’s actions. They agreed that security clearances should be based on concerns of national security — not political ideology.

                In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, Brennan doubled down on the accusation that Trump’s behavior has been treasonous.

                “I called his behavior treasonous. I stand very much by that claim,” Brennan said. “These are abnormal times. … I have seen the signs blinking red on what Mr. Trump has done and is doing.”

                .


                ____________________________
                I am The Librarian
                http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                Comment


                • #23
                  Former Trump campaign chairman Manafort found guilty on eight counts

                  Former Trump campaign chairman Manafort found guilty on eight counts

                  Reuters
                  August 21, 2018


                  https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-tr...1--sector.html
                  http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8516#post18516
                  http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8516#post18516


                  ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on Tuesday of eight of the 18 charges he faced in a case of bank and tax fraud.

                  The judge in the case declared a mistrial on the 10 other counts. Earlier in the day, the jury had indicated it was unable to reach consensus on all of the counts.

                  (Reporting by Nathan Layne; Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Eric Beech)



                  ____________________________
                  I am The Librarian
                  http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                  http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Michael Cohen has information ‘of interest’ to Robert Mueller, would not accept Trump pardon, lawyer says

                    Michael Cohen has information ‘of interest’ to Robert Mueller, would not accept Trump pardon, lawyer says

                    LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN Good Morning America
                    August 22, 2018


                    https://www.yahoo.com/gma/michael-co...opstories.html
                    http://christian-identity.net/forum/...8526#post18526
                    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...8526#post18526


                    Michael Cohen has information ‘of interest’ to Robert Mueller, would not accept Trump pardon, lawyer says originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

                    A lawyer representing Michael Cohen, the former longtime fixer and personal attorney for Donald Trump, says his client has information that would be “of interest” to special counsel Robert Mueller and that he would not accept any pardon from the president.

                    “I can tell you it's my observation that what he knows, that he witnessed, will be of interest to the special counsel,” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”

                    Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts that included campaign finance violations spawned from hush money agreements with two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who claim to have had affairs with Trump, which he has denied. Speaking to a packed federal courthouse in Manhattan, Cohen said he made those payments "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," referring to then-candidate Donald Trump.

                    (MORE: Trump’s former lawyer pleads guilty to payments at 'direction' of a 'candidate')

                    .


                    Trump's jewboy lawyer Mike 'the kike' Cohen has another jewboy lawyer representing it.
                    .

                    On “Good Morning America,” Davis accused Trump of committing “a criminal act that corrupted our democracy” in directing Cohen to make those payments and said Cohen would not accept a pardon from President Trump, if offered one.

                    “Michael Cohen was directed … to do a criminal act,” Davis said on “Good Morning America,” adding, “It was not done by Donald Trump because he had affairs with two women, he did not want the news of those affairs to come out in the last two weeks of the campaign. That is a crime.”

                    In addition to the campaign finance violations, Cohen pleaded guilty to a slew of bank fraud and tax evasion charges related to his personal business dealings.

                    (MORE: Michael Cohen hints at possible cooperation with investigators)

                    Shortly after Cohen's guilty plea, the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, maintained that Trump is not at fault, adding, "There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen."

                    "It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time,” Giuliani said.

                    On "Good Morning America," Davis said Cohen “will tell the truth to everybody who asks him about Mr. Trump,” though it was unclear whether Cohen has agreed to meet with federal investigators.

                    Cohen's stunning admission marked the end of a monthslong investigation into his personal business practices, the genesis of which can be tied back to Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign. Mueller referred the case to New York's Southern District to investigate.

                    (MORE EXCLUSIVE: Michael Cohen says family and country, not President Trump, are his 'first loyalty')

                    Cohen served as Trump's fixer and trusted confidant for years, solving the real estate tycoon's legal troubles and once famously boasting that he would "take a bullet" for the president. A gratified patron, Trump praised his personal attorney as a "fine person with a wonderful family."

                    But as Cohen's legal exposure developed, their relationship soured and arrived at a breaking point last month when Cohen told ABC News that he was prepared to "put family and country first," a suggestion that rocked the White House as speculation of Cohen's flipping on the president reached a fever pitch.

                    At a campaign rally in West Virginia on Tuesday night, the president made no mention of Cohen's guilty plea.

                    Cohen, who now faces the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence and substantial monetary forfeiture, is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 12.

                    .



                    ____________________________
                    I am The Librarian
                    http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                    http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Andrew C. McCarthy: Why Trump is likely to be indicted by Manhattan US Attorney

                      Andrew C. McCarthy: Why Trump is likely to be indicted by Manhattan US Attorney

                      By Andrew McCarthy | Fox News
                      9 Dec. 2018



                      https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andr...an-us-attorney
                      http://christian -identity.net/forum...9013#post19013
                      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...9013#post19013


                      The major takeaway from the 40-page sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors Friday for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is this: The president is very likely to be indicted on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws.

                      It has been obvious for some time that President Trump is the principal subject of the investigation still being conducted by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

                      Cohen earlier pleaded guilty to multiple counts of business and tax fraud, violating campaign finance law, and making false statements to Congress regarding unsuccessful efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

                      Yes, Cohen has stated he did the hands-on work in orchestrating hush-money payments to two women who claim to have had sexual liaisons with Trump many years ago (liaisons Trump denies).

                      But when Cohen pleaded guilty in August, prosecutors induced him to make an extraordinary statement in open court: the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of” the candidate for federal office – Donald Trump.

                      Prosecutors would not have done this if the president was not on their radar screen. Indeed, if the president was not implicated, I suspect they would not have prosecuted Cohen for campaign finance violations at all. Those charges had a negligible impact on the jail time Cohen faces, which is driven by the more serious offenses of tax and financial institution fraud, involving millions of dollars.

                      Moreover, campaign finance infractions are often settled by payment of an administrative fine, not turned into felony prosecutions. To be sure, federal prosecutors in New York City have charged them as felonies before – most notably in 2014 against Dinesh D’Souza, whom Trump later pardoned.

                      In marked contrast, though, when it was discovered that Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was guilty of violations involving nearly $2 million – an amount that dwarfs the $280,000 in Cohen’s case – the Obama Justice Department decided not to prosecute. Instead, the matter was quietly disposed of by a $375,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission.

                      Nevertheless, the sentencing memo in Cohen’s case reads like an ode to campaign finance laws. Unlike other types of pleadings, which can be dry and legalistic, sentencing memoranda are meant to persuade the sentencing judge, and they often read like dramatic jury arguments.

                      This one is no exception, urging that campaign finance laws are vital to election integrity – “painstakingly” designed by Congress “to promote transparency and prevent wealthy individuals” from fueling the “public cynicism” that “the political process belongs to the rich and powerful.”

                      In the four corners of this case, these words apply to Cohen. But President Trump cannot feel too comfortable upon reading them.

                      Nor can the Trump legal team take solace when the campaign finance charges to which Cohen pleaded guilty are scrutinized. Thus far, the team has been dismissive, noting that campaign finance law has different standards for a candidate than for other donors.

                      Contributors such as Cohen made were limited in 2016 to a $2,700 donation, but there is no limit on a candidate’s spending. Thus, the argument goes, even if the hush-money payments vastly exceeded Cohen’s legal ceiling, Trump himself could have made them legally.

                      There are flaws in this theory.

                      To begin with, the campaign finance laws do not just prescribe limits on spending; they mandate disclosure. This is a leitmotif of the sentencing memo: Congress demanded transparency. A candidate may spend unlimited amounts on the campaign, but the amounts spent must be reported to the Federal Election Commission.

                      The sentencing memo for Cohen argues that the hush money payments were not merely unreported. It states that Cohen and the Trump organization – the president’s company – went to great lengths to conceal them by fraudulent bookkeeping.

                      Equally significantly, Cohen was not charged with merely making illegal donations. He was charged in the first campaign finance count with causing a company to make illegal donations.

                      This was the offense centering on Playboy model Karen McDougal. It involves David Pecker, a longtime friend of the president and of Cohen. Pecker runs American Media, Inc., which controls the National Enquirer.

                      According to prosecutors, Pecker arranged with Cohen that the Enquirer would buy McDougal’s story for $150,000 and bury it. Although it was contemplated that Cohen would reimburse Pecker (and then be reimbursed by Trump), the reimbursement did not happen.

                      Cohen, therefore, pleaded guilty not to making his own excessive contribution but to causing a third party to make an illegal contribution.

                      Cohen says he was operating at Trump’s direction. Logically, then, if this is true and Cohen caused the third-party illegal contribution, so did the president.

                      Notably: prosecutors have given Pecker and another American Media executive, Dylan Howard, immunity from prosecution. Do you think prosecutors did that to tighten up the case against Cohen? I don’t.

                      As for the second campaign finance charge, that involves an illegal payment by Cohen – the $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford (who goes by the stage name “Stormy Daniels”). There are two things to bear in mind about it.

                      First, as we’ve just seen, it is a felony to cause another person to make an illegal contribution. Since, under the claim by prosecutors Trump was directing Cohen, Trump could be accused of having caused Cohen to make an illegal payment.

                      The fact that Trump could have made the payment himself without violating the law does not excuse allegedly causing Cohen to violate the law.

                      Trump’s point that he had no personal limit on spending is also undermined by the facts that (a) the payment was not reported, and (b) the purpose of the transaction was to distance him from the payment (which is why the non-disclosure agreement employs pseudonyms rather than referring to Trump and Clifford by name).

                      Second, the violation to which Cohen pleaded guilty is not merely making illegal expenditures; it also includes making such expenditures “in cooperation, consultation, or concert, with or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate.” (Section 30116(a)(7)(A) of the election laws).

                      Again, this is why Cohen was pushed at his guilty plea proceeding to state that he acted “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump. It is an assertion the prosecutors emphasize in the sentencing memo. The thrust of their allegation is that Cohen and Trump are confederates in an illegal contribution that Cohen made only because Trump directed him to do so.

                      This is not to suggest that the president is without cards to play. Campaign finance violations have a high proof threshold for intent. President Trump could argue that because there was no spending limit on his contributions, he did not think about the campaign-finance implications, much less willfully violate them.

                      There is, furthermore, a significant legal question about whether the hush-money payments here qualify as “in-kind” campaign contributions. There is nothing illegal per se in making a non-disclosure agreement; they are quite common. The criminal law comes into play only if the non-disclosure payment is deemed a donation for purposes of influencing a political campaign.

                      Arguably, the payment is not a donation if it was made for an expense that was independent of the campaign – that is, money that would have had to be paid even if there were no campaign.

                      Cohen chose to plead guilty and forfeited the right to contest this point. That concession is not binding on Trump. If the president is charged, I expect he would vigorously argue that the payment was not a campaign contribution.

                      There are other salient issues to consider. Justice Department guidance holds that a sitting president may not be indicted. If prosecutors in the Southern District of New York believe they have a case against the president, must they hold off until after he is out of office?

                      If President Trump were to win re-election, he would not be out of office until 2024, when the five-year statute of limitations on a 2016 offense would have lapsed.

                      More importantly, do campaign finance violations qualify as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which is the constitutional standard for impeachment? It is hard to imagine an infraction that the Justice Department often elects not to prosecute is sufficiently egregious to rise to that level, but the debate on this point between partisans would be intense.

                      Those are all questions for another day. The point for this day is that the Cohen case in New York City is not about Cohen. The president is in peril of being charged.

                      Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review. @andrewcmccarthy

                      .

                      ____________________________
                      I am The Librarian
                      http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                      http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Democrats lose interest in server conspiracy claims linking Trump to Russia's Alfa Bank

                        Democrats lose interest in server conspiracy claims linking Trump to Russia's Alfa Bank

                        By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times
                        Sunday, March 10, 2019



                        https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...acy-interest-/
                        http://christian -identity.net/forum...9426#post19426
                        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...9426#post19426


                        Amid all the Trump-Russia conspiracy stories — such as prostitutes in Moscow, a secret trip to Prague and hush money to computer hackers — Democrats seem to have lost interest in at least one of them.

                        The past two weeks of Michael Cohen’s public testimony and the House Judiciary Committee’s demands for documents contained no inquires about the elusive Trump computer server. The machine supposedly linked Trump Tower directly to Russia’s largest commercial bank, Alfa, and its oligarch partners.

                        When it initially surfaced during the campaign, the tale added up to Trump-Moscow election collusion.

                        The theory was pushed by liberal Twitter users based on some IP address numbers and a Trump domain name. Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson, the orchestrator of the Christopher Steele dossier, tried to sell the server conspiracy to then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr in December 2016, according to Mr. Ohr’s notes. An agent working on behalf of Hillary Clinton presented it to the FBI high command in September 2016.

                        The New York Times knocked down the story on Oct. 31, 2016, but the liberal Slate news website promulgated the tale that same day.

                        It has refused to die on other liberal sites. The New Yorker in October published a long piece quoting a cybersecurity specialist identified as “Max” arguing that such a server existed. The New Yorker story triggered a new spat of Alfa Bank allegations at The Atlantic, HuffPost, MSNBC and other liberal outlets.

                        On March 4, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, released 81 letters to Trump-connected people and entities demanding any documents on pardon offers, foreign emoluments, the Russian hotel project and the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer.

                        A Washington Times examination found that no letter mentions Alfa Bank or a server even though letters went to the Justice Department, the FBI and Trump Tower employees — sources who would have the details if such a server ever existed.

                        Mr. Nadler also sent document-request letters to Mr. Trump’s inner sanctum at Trump Tower: His sons Donald Jr. and Eric, who run the Trump Organization; Executive Vice President Ronald C. Lieberman; bodyguard Matthew Calamari; and personal secretary Rhona Graff.

                        Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney who has turned against his ex-boss and called him a con man, testified Feb. 27 before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Democrats asked him a number of questions about various Russia conspiracy stories — but not about Alfa Bank.

                        Said a Republican Capitol Hill source: “They probably figure that the Alfa Bank story has been definitely debunked by now, with multiple forensics experts finding nothing suspicious, plus evidence that Glenn Simpson was pushing this story. So they just move on to the next conspiracy theory.”

                        When Slate posted the story about an Alfa Bank server on Oct. 31, 2016, a week before the presidential election, Mrs. Clinton immediately struck on Twitter, accusing Mr. Trump of being in bed with Russia.

                        Cybersecurity specialist Robert Graham analyzed the various codes and addresses and concluded that the Trump-related IP address and server were controlled by a marketing firm, not the Trump Organization.

                        ‘This is nonsense,” Mr. Graham blogged. “The evidence available on the Internet is that Trump neither (directly) controls the domain ‘trump-email.com,’ nor has access to the server. Instead, the domain was setup and controlled by Cendyn, a company that does marketing/promotions for hotels, including many of Trump’s hotels. Cendyn outsources the email portions of its campaigns to a company called Listrak, which actually owns/operates the physical server in a data center in Philadelphia.

                        “In other words, trump-email.com is not intended as a normal email server you and I are familiar with, but as a server used for marketing/promotional campaigns,” he wrote.

                        Cohen has told Congress that he has no knowledge of a Trump Tower-Alfa Bank server.

                        In a 2017 interview with The Washington Times, Cohen referred to it as a “third-party server.” He said Alfa Bank employees apparently stayed at Trump hotels and that their names were added to a mass email list used by the spam server.

                        Democrats also are shying away from Mr. Steele’s dossier, which became the fodder of liberal Trump accusers when it hit public consciousness on BuzzFeed’s website in January 2017.

                        Mr. Steele wrote that Cohen secretly traveled to Prague in August 2016 to meet with operatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin and pay hush money to computer hackers.

                        No public evidence has arisen. Special counsel Robert Mueller hasn’t charged Cohen with any type of Russian conspiracy. Cohen repeatedly has denied the trip happened.

                        Also, there has been no public confirmation that Mr. Trump frolicked with prostitutes in Moscow, as Mr. Steele’s Russian sources alleged.

                        Fusion’s Mr. Simpson has pushed the Prague theory as well as the Alfa Bank story. Months after raising the allegation to the Justice Department, Mr. Simpson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no opinion.

                        He was not the only Clinton operative to try to sell the Justice Department on Alfa Bank. Michael Sussmann, a partner in the Clinton campaign’s law firm, Perkins Coie, pitched the server story in September 2016 to James Baker, then the FBI general counsel.

                        In the two years since the Slate story and the New Yorker piece, journalists don’t appear to have made progress nailing it down.

                        The 2016 Slate headline: “Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?”

                        The 2018 New Yorker headline: “Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?”


                        ____________________________
                        I am The Librarian
                        http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                        http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          House Judiciary approves subpoenas for 12 key witnesses, including Jared Kushner

                          House Judiciary approves subpoenas for 12 key witnesses, including Jared Kushner

                          Politico
                          By Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney
                          July 11, 2019



                          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...0018#post20018
                          http://christian-identity.net/forum/...0018#post20018
                          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...0018#post20018


                          The House Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for 12 crucial witnesses as part of House Democrats’ ongoing investigations targeting President Donald Trump.

                          On a party-line vote, the committee empowered Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to issue subpoenas to current and former Trump administration officials who were central figures in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month investigation of Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.

                          The subpoena list also includes Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, in addition to some of Mueller’s key witnesses: former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.

                          The panel also authorized subpoenas for executives of American Media Inc., which was involved in hush-money payments to women who alleged that they had affairs with Trump. Nadler has not indicated when or whether he’ll issue the subpoenas.

                          “We will not rest until we obtain their testimony and documents so this committee and Congress can do the work that the Constitution and the American people expect of us,” Nadler said.

                          Trump ripped the Judiciary Committee’s move early Thursday on Twitter, erroneously stating that Mueller concluded there was “no collusion, no obstruction.” He also accused Democrats of wasting time.

                          “Enough already, go back to work!” he said.


                          The committee also approved subpoenas for documents and testimony from unnamed administration officials related to the “zero tolerance” policy at the southern border, which has led to the separation of migrant families.

                          The Judiciary Committee — which will hear testimony from Mueller next week — has been investigating obstruction of justice allegations against the president, but the subpoenas for AMI executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard represent an expansion of the committee’s inquiry to include the hush-money payments.

                          In addition to Pecker and Howard, the list includes Keith Davidson, who was adult-film actress Stormy Daniels’ attorney while she was negotiating the terms of a $130,000 hush-money payment. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, is serving a three-year prison sentence in part for orchestrating that payment, which was found to be a campaign-finance violation.

                          Nadler will also have the authority to subpoena Corey Lewandowski, who served as Trump’s campaign manager but never worked in the White House, making it easier for the committee to subvert the White House’s efforts to block current and former officials’ compliance with the panel’s subpoenas.

                          Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of a “premature subpoena authorization.”

                          “In the world of congressional oversight, these subpoenas make no sense at all, but in the world of politics, this markup makes perfect sense,” he said.

                          Other Republicans used the meeting to vent about the strict constraints that members are poised to face during next week’s hearing with Mueller. Though the logistics for the high-stakes hearing are in flux, Judiciary Committee leaders are eyeing a format in which only 11 members on each side of the aisle get to question Mueller, excluding the committee’s more junior members.

                          “Next week we’re going to be questioning Robert Mueller, and I don’t even get a chance to question him? This is just plain wrong,” said Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.). “I’ve been elected just like everybody else here.”

                          Collins, too, ripped the tentative hearing format.

                          “We’re having our legs cut out from under us,” he said.

                          .


                          ____________________________
                          I am The Librarian
                          http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                          http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Traitor Top General commits treason with the Chinks betraying Trump

                            Top general was so fearful Trump might spark war that he made secret calls to his Chinese counterpart, new book says

                            ‘Peril,’ by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, reveals that Gen. Mark A. Milley called his Chinese counterpart before the election and after Jan. 6 in a bid to avert armed conflict.


                            https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...-milley-china/
                            http://christian-identity.net/forum/...3463#post23463
                            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...3463#post23463


                            Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country’s top military officer was so fearful that the president’s actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict.

                            In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.

                            One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Donald Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote.

                            The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.

                            “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

                            In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

                            Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week.

                            In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

                            Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors.

                            Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied.

                            Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”

                            The chairman knew that he was “pulling a Schlesinger,” the authors write, resorting to measures resembling the ones taken in August 1974 by James R. Schlesinger, the defense secretary at the time. Schlesinger told military officials to check with him and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs before carrying out orders from President Richard M. Nixon, who was facing impeachment at the time.

                            Though Milley went furthest in seeking to stave off a national security crisis, his alarm was shared throughout the highest ranks of the administration, the authors reveal. CIA Director Gina Haspel, for instance, reportedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup.”

                            The book’s revelations quickly made Milley a target of GOP ire.

                            Trump, speaking Tuesday evening on the conservative television network Newsmax, labeled the chairman’s reported actions “treason” and said, “I did not ever think of attacking China.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to President Biden urging him to dismiss the Joint Chiefs chairman, saying he had undermined the commander in chief and “contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict ...” A White House spokeswoman earlier Tuesday declined to comment on the book. Milley’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

                            “Peril” also provides new reporting on Biden’s 2020 campaign — waged to unseat a man he told a top adviser “isn’t really an American president” — and his early struggle to govern. During a March 5 phone call to discuss Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, his first major legislative undertaking, the president reportedly told Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va), “if you don’t come along, you’re really f---ing me.” The measure ultimately cleared the Senate through an elaborate sequencing of amendments designed to satisfy the centrist Democrat.

                            The president’s frustration with Manchin is matched only by his debt to House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement before that state’s primary propelled Biden to the nomination and gave rise to promises about how he would govern.

                            When Clyburn offered his endorsement in February 2020, it came with conditions, according to the book. One was that Biden would commit to naming a Black woman to the Supreme Court, if given the opportunity. During a debate two days later, Clyburn went backstage during a break to urge Biden to reveal his intentions for the Supreme Court that night. Biden issued the pledge in his final answer, and the congressman endorsed him the next day.

                            “Peril,” the authors say, is based on interviews with more than 200 people, conducted on the condition they not be named as sources. Exact quotations or conclusions are drawn from the participant in the described event, a colleague with direct knowledge or relevant documents, according to an author’s note. Trump and Biden declined to be interviewed.

                            On Afghanistan, the book examines how Biden’s experience as vice president shaped his approach to the withdrawal. Convinced that President Barack Obama had been manipulated by his own commanders, Biden vowed privately in 2009, “The military doesn’t f--- around with me.”

                            “Peril” also documents how Biden’s top advisers spent the spring weighing, but ultimately rejecting, alternatives to a full withdrawal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned from a NATO meeting in March envisioning ways to extend the mission, including through a “gated” withdrawal seeking diplomatic leverage. But they came to see that meaningful leverage would require a more expansive commitment, and instead came back around to a full exit.

                            Milley, for his part, took what the authors describe as a deferential approach to Biden on Afghanistan, in contrast to his earlier efforts to constrain Trump. The book reveals recent remarks the chairman delivered to the Joint Chiefs in which he said, “Here’s a couple of rules of the road here that we’re going to follow. One is you never, ever ever box in a president of the United States. You always give him decision space.” Referring to Biden, he said, “You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is.”

                            His decision just months earlier to place himself between Trump and potential war was triggered by several important events — a phone call, a photo op and a refusal to rule out war with another adversary, Iran.

                            The immediate motivation, according to the book, was the Jan. 8 call from Pelosi, who demanded to know, “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?” Milley assured her that there were “a lot of checks in the system.”

                            The call transcript obtained by the authors shows Pelosi telling Milley, referring to Trump, “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. … He’s crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness.” Milley replied, “I agree with you on everything.”

                            Milley’s resolve was deepened by the events of June 1, 2020, when he felt Trump had used him as part of a photo op in his walk across Lafayette Square during protests that began after the killing of George Floyd. The chairman came to see his role as ensuring that, “We’re not going to turn our guns on the American people and we’re not going to have a ‘Wag the Dog’ scenario overseas,” the authors quote him saying privately.

                            Trump’s posture, not just to China but also to Iran, tested that promise. In discussions about Iran’s nuclear program, Trump declined to rule out striking the country, at times even displaying curiosity about the prospect, according to the book. Haspel was so alarmed after a meeting in November that she called Milley to say, “This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?”

                            Trump’s fragile ego drove many decisions by the nation’s leaders, from lawmakers to the vice president, according to the book. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was so worried that a call from President-elect Biden would send Trump into a fury that the then-Majority Leader used a backchannel to fend off Biden. He asked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, formerly the No. 2 Senate Republican, to ask Sen. Christopher A. Coons, the Democrat of Delaware and close Biden ally, to tell Biden not to call him.

                            So intent was Pence on being Trump’s loyal second-in-command — and potential successor — that he asked confidants if there were ways he could accede to Trump’s demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. In late December, the authors reveal, Pence called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, for advice.

                            Quayle was adamant, according to the authors. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” he said.

                            But Pence pressed him, the authors write, asking if there were any grounds to pause the certification because of ongoing legal challenges. Quayle was unmoved, and Pence ultimately agreed, according to the book.

                            When Pence said he planned to certify the results, the president lashed out. In the Oval Office on Jan. 5, the authors write, Pence told Trump he could not thwart the process, that his role was simply to “open the envelopes.”

                            “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this,” Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president, “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”

                            Within days, Trump was out of office, his governing power reduced to nothing. But if stability had returned to Washington, Milley feared it would be short-lived, the authors write.

                            The general saw parallels between Jan. 6 and the 1905 Russian Revolution, which set off unrest throughout the Russian Empire and, though it failed, helped create the conditions for the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks executed a successful coup that set up the world’s first communist state. Vladimir Lenin, who led the revolution, called 1905 a “dress rehearsal.”

                            A similar logic could apply with Jan. 6, Milley thought as he wrestled with the meaning of that day, telling senior staff: “What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.”

                            .


                            ____________________________
                            I am The Librarian
                            http://whitenationalist.org/forum/
                            http://www.pastorlindstedt.org/forum/

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X