Posts

Obama DOJ Blocked FBI From Scrutinizing Clinton Foundation

/0 Comments/in , /by

House Republicans have released the transcript of a closed-door interview of disgraced and fired former FBI official Peter Strzok, who acted as a point man for both the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email server investigation and its Trump-Russia probe.

The Strzok testimony, which is from June 2018, is creating a buzz on social media and appears to offer more insight into the FBI’s activities during the 2016 presidential election season.

Strzok testified that Hillary Clinton and the Department of Justice seemingly struck a deal that blocked the FBI from accessing her private, home-brew email server for information relevant to the Clinton Foundation.

Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner reports:

When asked by then-majority general counsel Zachary Somers if “the Clinton Foundation was on the server”, Strzok testified that he believed it was “on one of the servers, if not the others.” But Strzok stressed that due to an agreement between the [Department of Justice] and Clinton, they were not allowed to search Clinton Foundation emails for information that could help in their investigation.

Strzok further explained in his testimony:

“According to the [DOJ] attorneys, we lacked probable cause to get a search warrant for those servers and projected that either it would take a very long time and/or it would be impossible to get to the point where we could obtain probable cause to get a warrant.”

The Clinton Foundation has developed a reputation as a corrupt influence-peddling racket. The Department of Justice under President Trump has reportedly launched an investigation into whether the foundation acted as a “pay-to-play” scheme.

The release of the Peter Strzok transcripts comes the same week that Republicans released the transcripts from an interview of Lisa Page, Strzok’s FBI colleague and mistress. Page’s bombshell testimony confirmed that Hillary Clinton received what amounted to a secret pre-pardon from the Obama Department of Justice.

Both Strzok and Page were dismissed from Robert Mueller’s special counsel staff after texts surfaced showing that they not only had personal animosity against candidate Trump, but they were also prepared to take action in their official capacity as FBI agents to “stop” him from winning the 2016 election. The two also discussed an “insurance policy,” which Page later admitted was the Russia investigation, that was intended to delegitimize Trump’s mandate. (For more from the author of “Obama DOJ Blocked FBI From Scrutinizing Clinton Foundation” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

DOJ Prevented FBI From Pursuing Gross Negligence Charges Against Clinton

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Epoch Times. Early in the Hillary Clinton email case, the Department of Justice reached a decision that would have far-reaching implications in the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. . .

Notably, Comey had been convinced to remove the term “gross negligence” to describe Clinton’s actions from his prepared statement by, among others, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, FBI agent Peter Strzok, senior legal counsel Trisha Anderson, and FBI analyst Jonathan Moffa.

Because of Comey’s statement, many have mistakenly concluded that the FBI acted independently from DOJ influence in their investigation of Clinton. Congressional testimonies by high ranking FBI officials involved in the investigation reveal, however, that this was not the case. . .

Comey had also hinted at the influence exerted by the DOJ over the Clinton investigation in his July recommendation, stating that “there are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent.” . . .

But Lisa Page, a lawyer by training, seemed to have a very different understanding of what would be allowed by the DOJ. Page appeared to indicate during her testimony that because of the DOJ’s position, there was no reason for the FBI to even pursue evidence related to the specific statute of gross negligence. (Read more from “DOJ Prevented FBI From Pursuing Gross Negligence Charges Against Clinton” HERE)

_________________________________

Hillary Clinton Says She ‘Can’t Imagine’ Running for President Again

By The Hill. Hillary Clinton says she “can’t imagine” running for president again but says in a new interview that she’s “going to keep speaking out” about President Trump.

“I can’t imagine that, no,” the former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said Monday on Tina Brown’s podcast “TBD” when asked whether she could change her mind about running in 2020.

“I am very worried about the direction that Trump and his allies are taking us,” she added. “Just because I’m not running, I’m not going to keep my mouth shut. I’m going to keep speaking out.”

Clinton discussed the challenges for women running for president in 2020, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

“How does a woman stand up for herself on the biggest stage in the world without … looking aggressive, maybe a little bit angry, that somebody is behaving like that, being willing to go toe-to-toe when there are so few memories embedded in our collective DNA where women do that?” Clinton said of presidential debates. (Read more from “Hillary Clinton Says She ‘Can’t Imagine’ Running for President Again” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Former Top FBI Lawyer: 2 Trump Cabinet Officials Were ‘Ready to Support’ 25th Amendment Effort

/0 Comments/in , /by

Former top FBI lawyer James Baker, in closed-door testimony to Congress, detailed alleged discussions among senior officials at the Justice Department about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office, claiming he was told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said two Trump Cabinet officials were “ready to support” such an effort.

The testimony was delivered last fall to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. Fox News has confirmed portions of the transcript. It provides additional insight into discussions that have returned to the spotlight in Washington as fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe revisits the matter during interviews promoting his forthcoming book.

Baker did not identify the two Cabinet officials. But in his testimony, the lawyer said McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to him to relay their conversations with Rosenstein, including discussions of the 25th Amendment.

“I was being told by some combination of Andy McCabe and Lisa Page, that, in a conversation with the Deputy Attorney General, he had stated that he — this was what was related to me — that he had at least two members of the president’s Cabinet who were ready to support, I guess you would call it, an action under the 25th Amendment,” Baker told the committees. . .

In his testimony, Baker said of McCabe’s state of mind: “At this point in time, Andy was unbelievably focused and unbelievably confident and squared away. I don’t know how to describe it other than I was extremely proud to be around him at that point in time because I thought he was doing an excellent job at maintaining focus and dealing with a very uncertain and difficult situation. So I think he was in a good state of mind at this point in time.” (Read more from “Former Top FBI Lawyer: 2 Trump Cabinet Officials Were ‘Ready to Support’ 25th Amendment Effort” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Comey: Dossier Was Unverified Before and After FBI Used It to Obtain Spy Warrants

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Daily Caller. Former FBI Director James Comey told Congress Friday that the FBI had not verified the Steele dossier prior to relying on the salacious document to obtain spy warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

According to a transcript of Comey’s testimony released on Saturday, the former FBI chief also asserted that it was “not necessary” for the FBI to assess the sources that dossier author Christopher Steele used to compile his report, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign.

“I think I’ve dealt with warrants where you just identify that your primary [confidential informant], or primary source, has subsources, and so long as the court is aware of that phenomenon and that you’re speaking to the reliability of the primary source, to my mind, that’s a totally legit warrant application,” he said.

Comey told lawmakers that “work was ongoing” by the time he was fired on May 9, 2017, to “to replicate, either rule in or rule out” as much of the dossier as possible.

He said that by the time he was fired on May 9, 2017, he “still didn’t know whether there was anything to it,” referring to the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin. (Read more from “Comey: Dossier Was Unverified Before and After FBI Used It to Obtain Spy Warrants” HERE)

____________________________________________

Comey: Trump ‘Certainly Close’ to Being Unindicted Co-Conspirator

By The Hill. Former FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that President Trump is “certainly close” to being an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing investigation into campaign finance violations.

Comey said during a discussion with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace during an event that Trump does not fit the description in the “formal sense” because he hasn’t been named in an indictment.

“But if he’s not there, he’s certainly close given the language in the filing that the crimes were committed at his direction,” Comey said, referring to a filing from federal prosecutors last Friday that said Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump in steering illegal payments during the 2016 presidential campaign. (Read more from “Comey: Trump ‘Certainly Close’ to Being Unindicted Co-Conspirator” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Whistleblower Advocates, Attorneys Condemn FBI Raid on Clinton Foundation Whistleblower

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Daily Caller. Whistleblower advocates across the political spectrum condemned an FBI raid on the home of a recognized whistleblower who reported potential wrongdoing surrounding about the Clinton Foundation, the Uranium One deal and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Daily Caller News Foundation, in a bombshell report, detailed how 16 FBI agents raided the home of Dennis Cain, a former employee of an FBI contractor, on Nov. 19. They rummaged through his home for six hours even though he told them that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz awarded him whistleblower status, according to Cain’s lawyer, Michael Socarras.

Horowitz instructed a top aide to personally hand-carry the documents to the House and Senate intelligence committees over the summer after he received them from Cain, Socarras said. . .

“I really do question the need for this raid at all,” said Nick Schwellenbach, the investigations director for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group that frequently works with whistleblowers. “On its face it doesn’t seem like it was necessary.”

“This isn’t how we should be treating whistleblowers who are coming forward with information about high level wrongdoing,” he told TheDCNF. “It sends a very strong message that you will be treated as a criminal even though what you’re trying to do is expose crime or a potential crime.” (Read more from “Whistleblower Advocates, Attorneys Condemn FBI Raid on Clinton Foundation Whistleblower” HERE)

________________________________________________

FBI Raids Home of Whistleblower on Clinton Foundation, Lawyer Says

By The Daily Caller. FBI agents raided the home of a recognized Department of Justice whistleblower who privately delivered documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to a government watchdog, according to the whistleblower’s attorney.

The Justice Department’s inspector general was informed that the documents show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One, a document reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.

The delivered documents also show that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct pertaining to Rosatom and to other Russian government entities attached to Uranium One, the document reviewed by TheDCNF alleges. Mueller is now the special counsel investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

“The bureau raided my client to seize what he legally gave Congress about the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One,” the whistleblower’s lawyer, Michael Socarras, told TheDCNF, noting that he considered the FBI’s raid to be an “outrageous disregard” of whistleblower protections. (Read more from “FBI Raids Home of Whistleblower on Clinton Foundation, Lawyer Says” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Details Reinforce That the FBI Used Fake Pretexts to Start Investigating Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize launching its investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. While the FBI claimed it initiated Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 in response to reports that Russian-linked individuals told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that story seemed shaky from the start.

Since then, text and email messages between former MI6 spy and Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele and twice-demoted Department of Justice attorney Bruce Ohr raised the possibility that information Steele fed the FBI through Ohr was the true justification for the the FBI targeting the Trump campaign. A Wednesday tweet from Carter Page gives further credence to the suggestion that the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier served as the basis for the FBI’s interest in the Trump campaign. . .

A second detail from this week’s reporting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation adds further evidence to the fraud the FBI pushed in pointing to Papadopoulos as the basis for the Russian probe. Papadopoulos’ purported Russian connection was a Maltese academic named Joseph Mifsud, who supposedly told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Clinton. However, as I noted previously, in February 2017—more than six months after the FBI launched their investigation into the Trump campaign—Mifsud spoke at a State Department-sponsored function in Washington D.C., at which time the FBI interviewed him. Mifsud later returned to Italy and disappeared.

Contrast the FBI’s kid-glove handling of Mifsud, the supposed Russian agent, with how Mueller’s team treated a London-based academic named Ted Malloch. Malloch made news again this week when Jerome Corsi, a former bureau chief for InfoWars and WorldNetDaily author, claimed Mueller’s team wanted him to testify that he “was the conduit to WikiLeaks and Assange for Roger Stone, who in turn had been a conduit to the campaign.”

While Corsi denied contacting WikiLeaks’ founder, Corsi reportedly forwarded Malloch an email from Stone, in which Stone wrote: “Get to Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending WikiLeaks emails.” Corsi claims he never heard back from Malloch and had no contact to Assange. (Read more from “New Details Reinforce That the FBI Used Fake Pretexts to Start Investigating Trump” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

6 Things We Know About Mail-Bomb Suspect Cesar Sayoc

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Cesar Altieri Sayoc, the man suspected of being behind the recent slew of mail-bomb packages, has been arrested by federal authorities in Florida. Here’s what we know about the man suspected of mailing the suspicious packages to prominent Democrat political figures:

1. He has an extensive criminal record
Sayoc has been arrested countless times over the course of the past couple decades, for multiple felonies.

The most prominent mark on his record is a post-9/11 bomb threat:

2. A major Trump supporter
The Florida resident is an enthusiastic supporter of President Trump, often writing confusing screeds on social media showing his commitment to the president.

3. History of racist social media screeds
Sayoc has a long history of racist rants on social media that refer to former President Obama and others as a misspelling of the N-word.

4. Fingerprint and DNA traced to secure his arrest
In a press conference Friday afternoon, FBI Director Chris Wray explained that authorities used fingerprint and DNA samples to find Sayoc.

5. Sayoc is charged with 5 crimes
As of now, the suspect is charged with interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, threats against former presidents and other persons, threatening interstate commerce, and assaulting current and former federal officers. He faces up to 58 years in federal prison.

In the news conference, Attorney General Jeff Sessions added that Sayoc could face additional charges.

6. “These are not hoax devices”
Director Wray said, “Though we’re still analyzing the devices in our laboratory, these are not hoax devices.” None of the devices detonated.

(For more from the author of “6 Things We Know About Mail-Bomb Suspect Cesar Sayoc” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Growing Scandal: Undercover FBI Agent Paid Thousands Supporting Gillum Fundraiser

/0 Comments/in , /by

The corruption scandal surrounding Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum continued to grow on Friday as newly-released documents show that an undercover FBI agent, who posed as a developer seeking to do business with Gillum’s Tallahassee government, allegedly paid thousands of dollars to support a fundraiser for Gillum’s political action committee, Forward Florida.

“It is the first piece of evidence linking the ongoing FBI probe to Gillum’s campaign for governor,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported. “The emails and receipts released Friday as part of a supplemental records request from the Florida Commission on Ethics shows that the agent, Mike Miller, was invoiced $4,386 by 101 Restaurant and Mint Lounge, a restaurant owned by lobbyist Adam Corey at the time.” . . .

Forward Florida “was originally set up as a general leadership committee focusing on improving life for Tallahassee and Florida residents, but its mission statement was crafted by Gillum … via city email,” the Tallahassee Democrat noted. “Once Gillum officially announced his candidacy in March 2017, Forward Florida officially became his gubernatorial PAC.”

The dinner fundraiser for Gillum was hosted at Corey’s house and was described in one email as the “first kickoff event” for Gillum’s gubernatorial campaign.

Those attending the dinner had to make a minimum donation of $5,000 person, but Corey arranged a special way for Miller, the undercover FBI agent, to donate to the fundraiser, allowing him to pay for “the cost of the meals and drinks.”

(Read more from “Growing Scandal: Undercover FBI Agent Paid Thousands Supporting Gillum Fundraiser” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Analysis: Trump Is Not Responsible for the Actions of a Mentally-Disturbed Supporter

/0 Comments/in , /by

The biggest story of the day is the arrest of a Florida man, in connection with the series of mail bombs sent to prominent critics of President Trump. In addition to reportedly having a criminal record for minor offenses and threats, the suspect appears to be a mentally unstable and cartoonishly-fanatical Trump supporter. This is unsurprising information. As I wrote yesterday, based on the identities of the bomb targets, Occam’s Razor suggested that these acts of terrorism were politically-motivated. It now seems likelier than ever that they were. Allow me to make a handful of non-mutually-exclusive observations:

(1) Our country would be better off if our public officials and other prominent political figures debated issues with more substance, greater civility, and less hysteria. This very much applies to the president, who likes to claim — among other things — that his opponents “favor” or “love” ruthless gangs who murder Americans. It also very much applies to Democrats, who frequently frame Republican proposals as world-ending, or tantamount to mass killings.

(2) Overheated partisan rhetoric that falls well short of direct incitement to violence can be grotesque and counter-productive, but it should not be blamed for the actions of disturbed people. It’s possible, if not likely, that this bomber heard Trump’s words and decided to take it upon himself to punish or eliminate Trump’s opponents. If so, that’s a reflection on the bomber’s evilness or mental illness, not Trump. Similarly, it’s quite likely that the Congressional baseball shooter heard the words of numerous high-profile leftists and decided he needed to save the country by assassinating Republicans. That was a reflection on the shooter’s evilness or mental illness, not the leftists he followed or favored.

(3) Demands that politicians and commentators calibrate their language in order to prevent depraved and insane people from engaging in depraved and insane conduct is more likely to harm free speech, or be exploited to disqualify legitimate political dissent as “dangerous,” than it is to achieve that ostensible goal. Crazy people find reasons and imagine “cues” to do crazy things; the argument that non-incitement speech might push someone over the edge strikes me as slippery and specious. Couldn’t something as simple as politician X alleging that politician Y is “hurting America” have this effect? The threshold for ‘triggering’ harmful impulses in the mind of a deranged person is unknowable, inconsistent and subjective. We therefore cannot shape our rules for discourse based upon that standard — even if we agree that our broader discourse needs serious rehabilitation.

(Read more from “Analysis: Trump Is Not Responsible for the Actions of a Mentally-Disturbed Supporter” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

There’s Another Explanation for Peter Strzok’s March 2016 Texts Than Setting up Trump

/0 Comments/in , /by

Yesterday, George Papadopoulos suggested in a tweet that text messages between disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his colleague and “companion,” FBI attorney Lisa Page, implicated Joe Mifsud in the plot to spy on the Trump campaign.

As the former Trump campaign advisor noted in the tweet, he first met Mifsud—the supposed Russian agent who later told Papadopoulos the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton—in Rome on March 14, 2016.

Papadopoulos later passed Mifsud’s claim to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer over drinks in a London bar. Then, following WikiLeaks’ release of the Democratic National Committee emails in July 2016, the FBI pegged Papadopoulos’ statement to Downer as evidence that Trump operatives had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks’ hack. The FBI responded by launching Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016, to investigate the Trump campaign’s supposed collusion with Russia.

However, over the last year, the FBI’s proffered explanation for launching Crossfire Hurricane has fallen apart. Similarly, contrary to Democrats’ attempts to portray Mifsud as a Russian agent, the evidence instead suggests that Mifsud has various connections with Western intelligence agencies. These revelations, coupled with the FBI’s admitted use of sources connected to the Trump campaign, led many to surmise that Mifsud was working as an informant, feeding information to Papadopoulos in order to entrap Trump.

Papadopoulos sees the messages exchanged between Strzok and Page as confirmation of this theory, stressing that on March 16, 2016, the FBI colleagues exchanged texts stating: “Our guy is talking,” and “Rock on.” Again, Papadopoulos first met Mifsud on March 14, 2016, and as he made clear in a second tweet, he met with Mifsud from March 14 to 16, 2016. (Read more from “There’s Another Explanation for Peter Strzok’s March 2016 Texts Than Setting up Trump” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.