An interesting couple of things happened just as Richard Grenell passed the sunlight baton to DNI John Ratcliffe. First, SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner is angered about the sunlight Grenell has delivered. Second, former AAG Matt Whitaker outlines how the Mueller investigation threatened him. Both issues merge (outlined below).
Michael Flynn’s defense attorney Sidney Powell appears on FBN with Liz MacDonald to discuss recent events. WATCH:
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When considering that Robert Mueller was used as a weapon (threat) and a shield (bury information); and when considering Senator Mark Warner’s recent protestations against Grenell; it is well worth going back in history to May 2018 when SSCI Vice-Chairman Warner was demanding the Mueller investigation must not allow congressional oversight.
Yes, it now makes sense, why Senator Mark Warner was demanding DAG Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray must keep records from congress.
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.”
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:
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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)
As one of his last actions before leaving his post, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell has declassified the transcripts of the wiretapped phone conversations between former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Additionally, it appears that Grenell has declassified some of the origination documents from the CIA and U.S. intel community that were manipulated in the assembly of the Intelligence Community Assessment (an aspect of particular importance to USAO John John Durham). As we suspected Ric Grenell is leaving the decision, and timing for their release to incoming DNI John Ratcliffe.
WASHINGTON DC – Richard Grenell has declassified a new batch of Russia probe documents on his way out as acting director of national intelligence, leaving the decision on whether to make those files public up to newly sworn-in Director John Ratcliffe.
The documents include transcripts of phone calls that then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had in December 2016, during the presidential transition period.
For well over a year we’ve been saying AG Bill Barr’s biggest challenge is not investigating the soft-coup but rather managing through what We The People are already aware of.
With that in mind; and with congress moving to put former DAG Rod Rosenstein and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller under a microscope; it is interesting to note AG Bill Barr recently conceding his two friends were corrupt. WATCH:
[Transcript] …”Now what happened to the president – and I’ve said this many times – what happened to the president in the 2016 election; and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent. It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history.”
“The law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian-collusion narrative against the president.”
The proper investigative and prosecutive standards of the Dept of Justice were abused, in my view, in order to reach a particular result.” ~ (AG Barr, May 18, 2020)
How can AG Barr say the DOJ/FBI conduct during the first two years of the administration “was abhorrent” without specifically implying his two friends, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein were complicit in the “grave injustice” he outlines?
It is interesting that no media (of any disposition) has ever questioned AG Barr about Rosenstein and Mueller considering his words that outline their behavior as abhorrent.
When contemplating the malign activity of Rod Rosenstein; and how angered President Trump is with former AG Jeff Sessions; it is worth remembering that Sessions requested Rod Rosenstein as his deputy, and then immediately thereafter Sessions recused himself, effectively positioning Rosenstein to run the operation against President Trump.
That’s the background context for a great interview by Gregg Jarrett where Jarrett walks through the timeline of events with former HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes. At the 5:30 point of the interview, Nunes identifies Rosenstein as part of the coup attempt and blasts him for how Rosenstein structured the fraudulent scope memos.
Nunes says his investigation is now looking at the part of the effort where Robert Mueller’s investigation was used as part of the initiating effort to remove President Trump. With the focus on the Mueller team, Nunes is now making additional criminal referrals based on his findings. WATCH:
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The Obama-era surveillance network is at the center of all of this.
It’s worth remembering Sharyl Attkisson has identified Rosenstein as a defendant in her lawsuit about illegal surveillance operations carried out while she was a CBS reporter.
According to the lawsuit (full pdf) Rod Rosenstein, as the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, was in charge of the Obama 2011 and 2012 operation to monitor journalists specific to Ms. Attkisson’s reporting on Fast-n-Furious and Benghazi.
Yesterday we noted a rather important, yet less discussed, motive for the strength of the DC Circuit Court position against Judge Emmet Sullivan. I’ll expand after the video.
In this interview Gregg Jarrett talks with Flynn’s defense lawyer Sidney Powell about the rather unusual behavior of Judge Emmet Sullivan. WATCH:
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A DC judge hiring a well connected DC lawyer to write his response to a DC circuit court appeals panel is the part that’s interesting. There’s no guarantee the appeals court will accept such a response; but that’s also another issue. Bottom line: Judge Sullivan is importing a lawyer to represent his interests. Very unusual.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell announced today he is in the process of declassifying the transcripts of the calls between Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Within a twitter response by Grenell, part of the riddle behind the transcripts gets a little more clarity: “The IC doesn’t have all the transcripts/summaries…. it wasn’t our product.”
The implication here is the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) did not generate one of the transcripts; that evolved into an FBI equity, and was later used in their case against Lt. General Michael Flynn. The December 29, 2016, intercept was not exclusive to the U.S. intelligence apparatus, and the call summary became proprietary to the FBI; the agency exploiting the underlying content.
This makes sense and explains how the FBI was able to manipulate the framework of the call and keep the remaining U.S. intelligence system away from their internal plan.
There was more than one phone call and conversation between Flynn and Kislyak. Some immediately after the election and in/around mid-December 2016. Reports of those contacts and communications WERE in the U.S. IC network and those reports led to unmasking requests. However, the specific December 29th communication was not an exclusive intercept of the U.S. intelligence community and therefore easier for the FBI to shape.
