Lee Smith appears on Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest revelations in the Obama-era surveillance operations. Mr. Smith calls it “Obama’s culture of espionage.”
After President Trump announced he would veto any FISA reauthorization bill, without a full investigative review of prior FISA abuse so that legislation could be created specifically to fix the severe flaws in the process, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dropped the vote for FISA reauthorization:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Thursday dropped consideration of legislation that would have extended U.S. surveillance tools, after President Donald Trump threatened a veto and his fellow Republicans withdrew their support.
“The two-thirds of the Republican Party that voted for this bill in March have indicated they are going to vote against it now,” Representative Steny Hoyer said in a statement on Thursday, after a vote on the measure was unexpectedly postponed late on Wednesday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to members of the Democratic caucus saying she intends to hold negotiations with the Senate on a possible compromise bill that could be passed and sent to Trump. (read more)
A little background context is needed. In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is scheduled to hold a press briefing from the James Brady press room today at 2:00pm ET.
UPDATE: Video Added
The Dept. of Labor released weekly unemployment data showing an additional 2.1 million workers filed new unemployment compensation claims last week; bringing the total claims to over 40 million since the Wuhan virus mitigation effort shut down the U.S. economy.
However, there is some good news within the data. The “continuing claims”, meaning those who have been collecting unemployment compensation for at least two weeks, is now at 21 million. That’s a drop of almost four million from the prior week and signals that jobs are returning as the state economies begin reopening.
Additionally, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the second estimate of the first quarter Gross Domestic Product. The estimate moved the prior contraction of -4.8 percent slightly lower to a newly revised estimate of -5.0 percent.
With the first quarter at -5.0 percent (Jan, Feb, March) and a guaranteed much larger contraction in the second quarter (April, May, June) it is now a certainty we will officially be labeled “in a recession” when the Q2 numbers are released on the last Friday of July. The media is using the data lag to narrate, and drag-out discussion of negative economic news, as long as possible.
There are some indicators the rebound will be strong (home sales, housing starts, mortgage applications, consumer confidence) but the key to both a wide and deep recovery is putting people back to work as quickly as possible.
John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, has been assigned to assist USAO John Durham in the investigation of corrupt and malign activity by former USIC, DOJ and FBI officials. USAO Bash is in addition to USAO Jeff Jensen who is reviewing activity specifically as it pertains to General Michael Flynn.
John Bash is assigned to review the scale and severity of overall Obama-era unmasking to identify if laws were broken, and or if downstream leakers can be identified.
Tonight Sean Hannity invites Justice Dept. Spokesperson Kerri Kupec onto his television show so she could listen to him talk about it. Within the interview: “the attorney general determined that certain aspects of unmasking needed to be reviewed separately as a support to John Durham’s investigation,” Ms. Kupec said. WATCH:
Within an interesting interview conducted by Jan Jekielek of Epoch Times, former AAG Matt Whitaker confirms what CTH long suspected. The Mueller investigation was used by corrupt interests within the special counsel’s office to threaten any/all executive branch and congressional officials with “obstruction of justice” charges if they revealed any exculpatory or counter-narrative information during the Mueller probe.
Whitaker describes this as the “obstruction of justice trap.”
Essentially, this approach confirms the second-prong purpose of the Mueller investigation itself. First, use the special counsel in 2017, 2018 and into the beginning of 2019, as a shield (hide information); and secondly a weapon (threats) against any entity who would reveal the background intelligence that undercut the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
We know President Trump was threatened by Rod Rosenstein not to declassify any information in September of 2018 or the Mueller investigation would use that act as evidence of obstruction. Whitaker confirms that same approach was applied toward any executive branch officer who would reveal or release information to congress during the tenure of the special counsel; even within the DOJ and including the attorney general.
This is how the Mueller probe was weaponized to mislead the American people.
Moments ago President Trump tweeted he will veto the House FISA re-authorization if it is passed without first investigating and exposing prior FISA abuses committed against his prior election campaign and administration:
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote by proxy on the FISA re-authorization previously passed by the Senate. No-one has any idea if the FISA vote will actually pass the House and it appears most republicans are positioned to vote against it.
Lou Dobbs discusses the issues with Representative Jim Jordan shortly before President Trump tweeted his intent. WATCH:
.
These developments come on the heels of increased sunlight into the corrupt purposes and intents of Obama-era intelligence officials and how they weaponized their authorities to target the Trump administration starting with National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
[…] It was the FBI, not the NSA, that wiretapped Kislyak’s calls and created the summary and transcript, the former officials said. (link)
Senator Marco Rubio was moved into the position of Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) for the specific purpose of defending the interests of the senate. The SSCI under republican leadership was weaponized against Donald Trump and was a participating unit in the soft-coup against a sitting U.S. president.
The corrupt intent crosses over party designations; this is a unified self-interest.
Rubio previously shielded SSCI Vice Chair Mark Warner for his covert contacts with Christopher Steele after a series of “would rather not have a paper trail” text messages were discovered during the investigation of SSCI Security Director James Wolfe’s leaks.
The Florida Senator was moved into position recently as surfacing documents started to put more sunlight on the Senate Intel Committee. Rubio’s role is to cover their tracks.
As an outcome we see this – Rubio Defending Obama-Era IC Weaponization:
CTH wants details. Details on the process of this testimony from Rod Rosenstein; how it will be structured, how much time the committee will allow; who is questioning, Skype or in-person? Why are details important? Because CTH has enough questions to take more than a full day just from our independent research.
Additionally, Rosenstein is at the epicenter of the ‘insurance policy’ phase of the coup against President Trump. If the intent of Graham is to provide both transparency or a cover-up, former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is who you’d start with on both fronts.
According to numerous media reports Rod Rosenstein is scheduled to be the first witness to testify before Senator Lindsey Graham’s Judiciary Committee.
We have over two dozen documented contacts between Rosenstein and Robert Mueller before the special counsel was launched. The first contact was a phone call the morning after former FBI Director James Comey was fired. Literally hours after Comey was fired, based -in part- on a letter written by the former DAG recommending the firing, Rosenstein was coordinating the appointment of the special counsel to investigate President Trump.
You could spend several hours of inquiry into just that part of the decision-making process alone; without even touching the ramifications of his role in the Carter Page FISA applications and what came next. Rosenstein was also the principle influence agent in 2018 who told President Trump not to declassify any documents requested by congress or POTUS would be facilitating an ‘obstruction’ charge against the office of the President.
Yeah, Rosenstein has a lot to answer for.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross contrasts the importance of the latest U.S. SpaceX launch in an era when China is increasingly expressing communist control over Hong Kong. Within the interview Secretary Ross outlines the likelihood of an economic response toward Beijing to countermand aggressive geopolitical ambitions.
Shifting high-tech industrial manufacturing away from China, back to the United States, is an important component in the strategic U.S. economic approach.