Below is my column in The Hill on the recent disclosure of a document showing that the FBI used an agent to gather information for Crossfire Hurricane during campaign briefings of Trump during 2016. The document directly contradicted the long-standing denial that the investigation to Russian collusion was ever used to gather intelligence on Trump or his campaign. At the same time, the credibility of the Steele Dossier was further undermined this weekend with the release of new information that Steele misrepresented the sources and information used as the basis for this report, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The source for the most alarming allegations was revealed as Igor Danchenko, 42, as confirmed to The New York Times, He was not the “Russian-based” source claimed by Steele and the FBI learned that Steele took third-hard rumors and presented them as hard intelligence in the report used to help justify the Russian collusion investigation. This source was used in the last two renewal applications to the FISA court as a “truthful and cooperative” and “Russian-based,” according to the Justice Department Inspector General report found. So it turns out that the primary “source” of Steele’s dossier was “not a well-connected current or former Russian official, but a non-Russian-based contract employee of Steele’s firm.”
None of this has made any difference to the coverage. On ABC Sunday, George Stephanopoulos had Chris Christie as a guest but his involvement in the very meeting discussed in the document did not merit a single question from the host. In the meantime, Democratic leaders, who once mocked the idea of any investigation of Trump or targeting of the campaign, now say that it really doesn’t matter. Rep. Eric Swalwell says that it was actually “the right thing to do.”
Here is the column:
The Washington press corps seems engaged in a collective demonstration of the legal concept of willful blindness, or deliberately ignoring the facts, following the release of yet another declassified document which directly refutes prior statements about the investigation into Russia collusion. The document shows that FBI officials used a national security briefing of then candidate Donald Trump and his top aides to gather possible evidence for Crossfire Hurricane, its code name for the Russia investigation.
It is astonishing that the media refuses to see what is one of the biggest stories in decades. The Obama administration targeted the campaign of the opposing party based on false evidence. The media covered Obama administration officials ridiculing the suggestions of spying on the Trump campaign and of improper conduct with the Russia investigation. When Attorney General William Barr told the Senate last year that he believed spying did occur, he was lambasted in the media, including by James Comey and others involved in that investigation. The mocking “wow” response of the fired FBI director received extensive coverage.
The new document shows that, in summer 2016, FBI agent Joe Pientka briefed Trump campaign advisers Michael Flynn and Chris Christie over national security issues, standard practice ahead of the election. It had a discussion of Russian interference. But this was different. The document detailing the questions asked by Trump and his aides and their reactions was filed several days after that meeting under Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor, the FBI investigation of Flynn. The two FBI officials listed who approved the report are Kevin Clinesmith and Peter Strzok.
Clinesmith is the former FBI lawyer responsible for the FISA surveillance conducted on members of the Trump campaign. He opposed Trump and sent an email after the election declaring “viva the resistance.” He is now under review for possible criminal charges for altering a FISA court filing. The FBI used Trump adviser Carter Page as the basis for the original FISA application, due to his contacts with Russians. After that surveillance was approved, however, federal officials discredited the collusion allegations and noted that Page was a CIA asset. Clinesmith had allegedly changed the information to state that Page was not working for the CIA.
Strzok is the FBI agent whose violation of FBI rules led Justice Department officials to refer him for possible criminal charges. Strzok did not hide his intense loathing of Trump and famously referenced an “insurance policy” if Trump were to win the election. After FBI officials concluded there was no evidence of any crime by Flynn at the end of 2016, Strzok prevented the closing of the investigation as FBI officials searched for any crime that might be used to charge the incoming national security adviser.
Documents show Comey briefed President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on the investigation shortly before the inauguration of Trump. When Comey admitted the communications between Flynn and Russian officials appeared legitimate, Biden reportedly suggested using the Logan Act, a law widely seen as unconstitutional and never been used to successfully convict a single person, as an alternative charge against Flynn. The memo contradicts eventual claims by Biden that he did not know about the Flynn investigation. Let us detail some proven but mostly unseen facts.
First, the Russia collusion allegations were based in large part on the dossier funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The Clinton campaign repeatedly denied paying for the dossier until after the election, when it was confronted with irrefutable evidence that the money had been buried among legal expenditures. As New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it and with sanctimony for a year.”
Second, FBI agents had warned that dossier author Christopher Steele may have been used by Russian intelligence to plant false information to disrupt the election. His source for the most serious allegations claims that Steele misrepresented what he had said and that it was little more than rumors that were recast by Steele as reliable intelligence.
Third, the Obama administration had been told that the basis for the FISA application was dubious and likely false. Yet it continued the investigation, and then someone leaked its existence to the media. Another declassified document shows that, after the New York Times ran a leaked story on the investigation, even Strzok had balked at the account as misleading and inaccurate. His early 2017 memo affirmed that there was no evidence of any individuals in contact with Russians. This information came as the collusion stories were turning into a frenzy that would last years.
Fourth, the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and inspectors general found no evidence of collusion or knowing contact between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. What inspectors general did find were false statements or possible criminal conduct by Comey and others. While unable to say it was the reason for their decisions, they also found statements of animus against Trump and his campaign by the FBI officials who were leading the investigation. Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified he never would have approved renewal of the FISA surveillance and encouraged further investigation into such bias.
Finally, Obama and Biden were aware of the investigation, as were the administration officials who publicly ridiculed Trump when he said there was spying on his campaign. Others, like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, declared they had evidence of collusion but never produced it. Countless reporters, columnists, and analysts still continue to deride, as writer Max Boot said it, the spinning of “absurd conspiracy theories” about how the FBI “supposedly spied on the Trump campaign.”
Willful blindness has its advantages. The media covered the original leak and the collusion narrative, despite mounting evidence that it was false. They filled hours of cable news shows and pages of print with a collusion story discredited by the FBI. Virtually none of these journalists or experts have acknowledged that the collusion leaks were proven false, let alone pursue the troubling implications of national security powers being used to target the political opponents of an administration. But in Washington, success often depends not on what you see but what you can unsee.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates online @JonathanTurley
The Horowitz report was turned over to the person you should be extremely worried about, BTB.
His name is John Durham, and when he makes his move, “Hell is coming to breakfast”.
Bring it. Is that when McCabe is going to be indicted, because Olly has been promising that for over a year?
I don’t work for the justice department, so I cannot and have not promised he will be indicted. Given what we’ve known and with all the evidence to support it, I believe he and others should be indicted, prosecuted and at the very least sentenced to lengthy prison terms. What is missing from you is an opinion on whether you agree. Should those that perpetrated this fraud be indicted, prosecuted and imprisoned? If not, why not?
Rhodes, by the time Durham comes through with long-planned October ‘surprise’, only Trumpers will care.
Unfortunately that is true.
We have the most egregious abuse of power by a president ever – with the purportedly “scandal free” Obama.
And the Press is chasing its tail on meaningless nonsense.
Turley: are you doing this as some sort of ham handed effort to mitigate Trump’s failures: 1. to do anything about Russia paying a bounty to kill American troops–even say he’ll have it investigated; 2. his refusal to do anything about Russia’s ongoing attempts to influence the 2020 elections; never forget that the fat slob fired Dan Coates for not backing down on the truth about Russian interference, and the resulting lack of legitimacy of Trump’s “presidency”; 3. Russians trying to steal information on vaccine development; and 4. as a prelude to the thumping Trump and Republicans should receive in November unless his Russian pals come up with some way to rig this election too.
The “Steele Dossier” was started by a Republican who saw Trump as nothing more than a failed businessman and game show host out to sell his image as a self-made and successful businessman. When Trump got the nomination anyway, he handed over the information he received to the Clinton Campaign. The “Steele Dossier” was not the basis for the Mueller investigation. This is just another red herring.
Trump DID NOT COOPERATE with the Mueller investigation: he refused to be deposed, he had Rudy Giuliani answer written interrogatory questions which were incomplete and he refused to amend or supplement the responses. He did not provide relevant documents in response to subpoenas. He procured the lack of cooperation of witnesses. Therefore, the Mueller investigation was not complete. Mueller was hamstrung by Trump’s lack of cooperation and a DOJ used as an instrument to protect Trump from investigation and which refused to compel his cooperation, so please stop repeating the Kellyanne and Fox News lie that Trump was exonerated, or that Mueller did not find collusion between Trump and Russians because there was none to find. Mueller was denied full information, and there must be a reason for this. You don’t have to be very intuitive to know what that reason is.
I suggest you Trumpsters read Mary Trump’s book about her uncle. Mary holds a Ph.D. and is a clinical psychologist. Her book provides valuable insight from the perspective of a family insider who watched how this sociopathic narcissist came into being. She describes in detail about how he bullied his siblings, how his mother felt helpless to do anything about it and his father didn’t care. Mary’s father, Freddy, was the object of much of Donald’s bullying. She writes that his bullying of fellow students at the private school where his father was on the Board was so bad that they eventually had no choice other than to expel him, so he was sent to a military school (at the time thought of as a reform school), where he was bullied by upperclassmen. She describes his absolute lack of empathy, his unmitigated arrogance, his total inability to tell the truth, the lack of anything resembling a conscience or remorse, the need for attention and adulation, his vindictiveness and his abject failures as a businessman. She has financial records that show the staggering amounts expended by his father to create and maintain the Donald Trump image. All smoke and mirrors. Just like the faux “presidency”. Now, the economy is in shambles, every day sets new infection records, the rest of the world has brought the pandemic under control, but it rages on in America, where we still have no coordinated leadership for testing, distribution of PPE and a clueless narcissist who is more worried about the lack of cheering crowds to feed his fragile ego than the deaths of Americans or that our troops being murdered for bounty November cannot come soon enough.
NUTCHACHA cannot succeed without the crutch of unconstitutional generational welfare, affirmative action privilege, quotas, forced busing, compulsory “diversity,” government housing, WIC, TANF, HAMP, HARP, CARES, SSI, minimum wage, rent control, Obamacare, Fair Housing, Non-Discrimination, etc, etc., etc.
It’s not Merit That Matters, it’s Covetousness which is imperative.
You don’t have to WORK for it, you just have to WANT it.
Thou Shalt Not Covet, yet NUTCHACHA and the Parasite Gang thrive, not on endeavor and merit, but on coveting Other People’s Money.
They’all said they wanted “free-dom” but what they really, really, really wanted was “free-stuff” – the White Man’s Money.
They are all about “…fundamentally transforming…” OPM into their stash accounts.
Without a clue about American individual effort, failure and, if God bestows it, success, they come to America in masses to obtain America’s money.
And Americans are stupid enough to give it away.
Dang, America!
You’re in for a really bad 20201, Natacha.
I won’t be around in 20201, and neither will you. If you meant to say 2021, if the fat one manages to cheat his way back into the White House, the world will be in for a really bad time. I seriously wonder how bad it has to get for people like you to see the truth. I mean, do we have to have another stock market crash with another full-blown depression with soup kitchens and record foreclosures for people like you to finally accept that Trump has no clue what to do? His bluster about being an economic genius is just the blathering of a narcissist, proven by his business track record. Why do you think he is fighting so hard to keep his financial information secret?. He destroyed the successful, booming economy that he inherited from Barak Obama. How many Americans have to get sick and die before you see that the reason the U.S. is behind every other first-world country in handling the pandemic is due to lack of leadership of a serial bankrupter of businesses? Now, he’s trying to take health care coverage away from millions of American when unemployment and the pandemic both keep surging. He has no replacement plan. He’s had 3+ years to come up with one, but hasn’t. What does it take? He keeps saying things are under control, which is a lie. Why don’t these endless lies and the damage done to this economy and to the health of Americans faze you disciples?
Natacha – 1) The President won by playing by the rules 2) he is not fat 3) he has a degree in economic from a better school than AOC 4 ) vaccine trials start in AZ next week [it will be 2 shots 28 days apart] 5 ) we are still waiting for your ACT, LSAT, and BMI scores.
Paul has a mouse in his pocket.
Anon – Me and my dog
Trump does not deserve the title “President’, which is why so many pubic officials and media do not use this title when speaking of him. He doesn’t deserve the title not only because he cheated to get it, but he is unfit ethically, morally, and intellectually to be so addressed. He is not in the same league as Lincoln, FDR, JFK, the Adamses, or even the Bushes, for that matter. 1. He did not “play by the rules”. His campaign gave Russian hackers key insider polling information on where to place ads and lies on social media in key districts that could and did sway the election; Russians are up to the same thing now, and he and Republicans refuse to do anything about it. He also refuses to address, much less look into, reports about a bounty being paid to kill American troops. Why is that, do you think? I’ve seen reports from persons who claimed the reward. 2. He IS fat. Use your eyes. He’s also bald, he also is terribly wrinkled and his fake tan makes him look ridiculous. 3. He cheated to get into Wharton, according to his niece, and probably cheated on tests, too. Who cares about where AOC went to school, and how is she relevant this discussion? 4. What do vaccine trials have to do with the fat one you adore? He did nothing to develop vaccines, so is he hoping that if a vaccine turns out, that people will overlook all of the damage he’s done to this country.
BTW: do you have any substantive response to the matters written about by Mary Trump?
Natacha – 1) what are the qualifications for President and did Trump fulfill them? 2) The wife of the guy who supposedly cheated on the test didn’t meet until they were both in college, according to the guy’s wife. 3) Trump got rid of all the red tape so the vaccines could be developed at “Warp Speed”, so yes he is responsible for the vaccines 4) I think the niece has run out of money and is trying to sell a book. There is no other person in the Trump family that backs here up.
What are the “qualifications”? Well, what other occupant of the White House cheated his way in with the help of a hostile foreign government. What other President constantly lies, every single day? What other President brags about assaulting women, or is a rabid racist and anti-Semite, who cages infants and children to punish their parents, who is notorious for cheating contractors, who bankrupted several businesses, and whose only self-success in life is hosting a game show?
As to the SAT test: this was taken for Donald by a different guy named Shapiro, which, if you watched something other than Brietbart, Fox and Limbaugh, you would know. If Trump hadn’t threatened all of his alma maters with lawsuits if somehow his transcripts got released, we could look at his grades and decide whether Mary is telling the truth about Donald being expelled for being a discipline problem and that he was a poor student.
There is no “red tape” involved with vaccine production. More lies. There is no way to develop a vaccine other than to follow standard protocols developed over decades for safety and efficacy. There is no reason to create a vaccine that is not both safe and effective. The process begins with cultures obtained from the CDC, which gets the organism from disease victims and grows them in a laboratory, or engineers genetic material from the virus that can stimulate the human immune system. There can be no “warp speed” because it takes time, once a prototype is created to make sure it doesn’t kill you or make you as sick or sicker than the disease itself, to determine whether the vaccine provides an acceptable level of protection, whether different dosimetry applies to children, adults, the elderly, those with co-morbidities. It takes time to determine how long it tales antibody titers to reach a level to provide protection, how long the protection lasts, whether boosters are needed, and if so, how many, how long between doses, whether there are long-term side-effects, all of which depends on blood tests taken over a period of months or years. The human body cannot be compelled to show long-term antibodies that develop over time any more quickly. No, the fat slob is not responsible for vaccines. More lies. This is just like the lie about hydroxychloroquine being a “game changer”. More talking out of his ample ass. I, for one, will not take any vaccine developed while the grabber is in office, because he is pressuring vaccine manufacturers to cut corners, and Republicans are trying to pass legislation to provide immunity from lawsuits. You don’t have to be very bright to grasp the implications of a desperate narcissist and sociopath, behind in the polls, who brags about “warp speed” vaccine development, aided and abetted by desperate Republicans who buy into the concept that if a vaccine magically appears by November that the American public will somehow vote for them. This is just like the push to re-open businesses and schools that is backfiring so spectacularly right before your very eyes.
What member of the “Trump family” has spoken against Mary Trump or accused her of lying? Name one. She has the financial records from the will contest suit she and her brother brought.
Still no cheating.
Beyond that the requirements are in the constitution.
You can ammend it to change them.
Ah, the nutso cucko “cheated” nonsense.
Would that be because you still buy the “collusion delusion” – if so there is therapy.
Or is it because you can not read the constitutional requirements to win a presidential election ?
I’ll still be around in some shape or form in 20201. You, on the other hand…
First of all, I didn’t vote for Trump, or the psychotic war criminal, named Hillary.
Second, please continue with the idiotic “defund the police” meme. (While you’re at it, have Joe put on a black leather Fonzi jacket & water ski’s, and see if he can jump over the shark).
Third, your nominee has Dementia, and it is not early stage.
So please explain how that is supposed to work out well for your chosen Democrat tribe?
I realize that it’s extremely difficult for you to comprehend. But most voters in this country do not suffer from severe TDS, like you. Therefore old Uncle Dementia Joe has got to emerge from his basement soon, or he’s toast.
Rhodes, This rap that Biden is ‘senile’ would only work if Romney were the incumbent. But Trump’s daily tweets and utterances have made his mental state a lingering question for 4 years.
we’re gonna see about that
The mental state and age of both candidates is a legitimate issue.
You can vote against Trump for any reason you wish.
I didn’t write that he is “senile”, I wrote that he has Dementia, Seth.
The reason I wrote that is because he clearly has Dementia. In fact, I was saying that last Summer when he was still in the early stages. But his decline accelerated rapidly through the Fall and Winter months.
“A majority of voters believe Biden is in the early stages of dementia”
https://zogbyanalytics.com/news/943-the-zogby-poll-a-majority-of-voters-believe-biden-is-in-the-early-stages-of-dementia-60-of-younger-voters-think-so-swing-voters-less-likely-to-think-biden-has-dementia
If his handlers won’t let him out of his basement, and refuse to allow the debates to occur as agreed to by both Parties, he’s done.
Rhodes – could I borrow some of your genes? 😉
Paul. My genes are actually quite valuable.So we need to talk pricing and quantities.
But I was referring to Dharma, as it is defined in Jainism.
When it comes to Natacha, all we can talk about is pretty much covered by; “Crazier than 2 Rats fighting in a coffee can”.
“I’ll still be around in some shape or form in 20201”
That’s over 18,000 years from now, and Natacha even pointed out to you the difference between “20201” and 2021. Whatever your shape or form will be in 20201, you won’t be alive.
Biden doesn’t have dementia, though he does have a lifelong stutter that is seldom noticeable but sometimes results in hime having temporary difficulty saying things.
Trump, on the other hand, has had a noticeable loss of language fluency (just compare tapes of him talking now vs. 10 years ago), is stupid enough to brag about being able to pass a basic dementia test, regularly displays his ignorance, …
“Whatever your shape or form will be in 20201, you won’t be alive.”
You need to work on your knowledge of what it means to be “alive”.
No, I don’t.
All people die (perhaps right after birth, perhaps after 100 years, perhaps somewhere in between or even a bit later, but no one lives for 18,000 years before dying). Once a person has died, s/he’s no longer alive.
Nataha, you are a perfect example of what Turley just claimed. Your correcting him that the Steele dossier was originally funded by a conservative is false. You got that from a year-long false reporting by the MSM of Hillary Clinton’s second cover story. The first was flat denial. The real truth came out and was verified on October 27, 2017, when the Washington Free Beacon raised its hand as the Steele client but absolutely proved they had nothing to do with any Russia documents or investigations of Trump. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/28/560544607/conservative-website-initially-hired-firm-that-later-produced-trump-dossier Clinton nor the DNC refuted the correction. The media stayed silent along with them and hoped nobody would hear the correction.
The second cover story thus continued in the MSM for the Clintons and DNC. Even James Comey repeated it on his book tour in his April 2018 interview on Fox News with Bret Behr. For the Democrats news organizations corrections rarely news even when they are debunking their falsely earned Pulitzer Prize reports as hoaxes. As Trump would say, sad.
You might want to read this, though I doubt you’ll believe it. https://www.factcheck.org/2019/03/dossier-not-what-started-all-of-this
All of this is a diversionary tactic–re-dredging Trump complaints to divert attention away from the more-relevant issues that show him losing in the polls in key battleground states, the surging pandemic, the lagging economy, and fears about children returning to school before the virus is under control.
There are myriads of errors in the fact check – papdoulis plead guilty for improperly recalling the date of an email, proving how incredibly petty Mueller and his henchmen were.
But the core of the fact check is correct – XFH was started by infoirmation from Amb. Downer regarding a conversation he had with Papadoulis. but that foundation ended very quickly after Downer was interviewed and it was clear the emails referenced were from the Clinton Bathroom email server.
From that moment on ONLY the Steele Dossier held up the investigation.
Factcheck is a Democrat sponsored BS site that is no more reliable than Snopes, post nasty divorce.
Are you really this clueless, Natacha?
That’s false. Factcheck.org is funded by the Annenberg Foundation. Annenberg was a Nixon appointee as our ambassador to the UK and a large contributor to Reagab.
He’s dead and the left took it over. He should have planned better.
While Walter Annenberg was very conservative and he expected his foundation to be very conservative, as with myriads of charities created by money from conservatives, they were ultimately taken over by lefties.
the Annenberg foundation provided Grants for programs that Barack Obama and Bill Ayres were part of in Chicago.
Programs that failed.
Yeah, Ron, it wasn’t originally known as the ‘Steele Dossier’. The Free Beacon can honestly say, “That wasn’t ours”. Technically that’s truthful.
But the Free Beacon initiated research; some which wound up in the Steele Dossier.
And yet, Coats is refuted by numerous emails and memo’s from actual members of the Intelligence services that have now been made available indicating that the analysis was that Putin flavored clinton not Trump.
Although JT chronicles the events of Russiagate with actual evidence, the response from the demoralized ilk on this blog that have been pumping the lies for the last 4 years was highly predictable. In fact, Yuri Besmenov articulated this phenomenon:
Referring to such people, Bezmenov said:
“They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You can not change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior.”
He goes on to say:
In what is perhaps a most striking passage in the interview, here’s how Bezmenov described the state of a “demoralized” person:
“As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore,” said Bezmenov. “A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him [a] concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he [receives] a kick in his fan-bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls then he will understand. But not before that. That’s the [tragedy] of the situation of demoralization.”
It’s hard not to see in that the state of many modern Americans. We have become a society of polarized tribes, with some people flat out rejecting facts in favor of narratives and opinions.
https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/yuri-bezmenov?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4
“The document directly contradicted the long-standing denial that the investigation to Russian collusion was ever used to gather intelligence on Trump or his campaign.”
How is it possible to investigate without gathering intelligence?
“How is it possible to investigate without gathering intelligence?”
Rather than surreptitiously gather intelligence on President Trump they could have simply informed him about their investigation and asked him whatever questions they had. This isn’t difficult too understand.
That’s your answer? They could have just asked him? And to be sure Trump would have told the truth, like….I have no business deals in Russia, well, except Trump Moscow Towers.
It is irrelevant whether Trump might lie.
The tools available to an investigation vary with the strength of the evidence currently available.
At the start of XFH all that was had was hearsay regarding Amb. Downer’s encounter with Papadoulis – and interviewing Downer destroyed even that as a foundation.
Spying requires a warrant and probable cause.
No doubt he would have given answers similar to what he told Mueller in writing (in writing because his lawyers didn’t want him to answer questions in person, knowing how prone to lying Trump is) that “I have no recollection … Nor do I recall … I have no independent recollection … I do not remember … I do not remember … I have no independent recollection … I do not recall … I have no recollection … I have no recollection … I do not remember … I do not recall … I do not recall … I have no recollection … I have no recollection … I do not recall … I have no recollection … I do not recall … ”
I’m not even quoting all of the times he responded that way, and he entirely refused to answer the questions about “what should be communicated to the Russian government regarding the sanctions,” Flynn’s communications with Kislyak, whether he spoke “to Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, or any other individual associated with the transition regarding establishing an unofficial line of communication with Russia,” etc.
Hillary did not recall over 250 times in 2 hours. when questioned by the FBI.
Any “should” question is improper.
The first place the FBI investigation should have started was verifying the sources.
Confirming with Downer what he actually heard.
When the FBI did that XFH fell apart – because it was clear the conversation was about the Clinton bathroom server, not the DNC emails.
The investigation would have ended their but for the Steele Dossier.
Before engaging in “intelligence gathering” regarding the target – as with the Downer allegations the first step was to verify the crediblity of the allegations from the alleged sources.
As with a traffic stop – meeting the minimal requirements to open an investigation is not alone sufficient to deploy all investigative tools.
Professor Turley, I welcome your writings on the law, the constitution and specifically, your robust defense of free speech. But would you mind devoting a few words to gun rights every now and then? We are in an area where Alexandria has passed some gun ordinance, and Falls Church and Arlington are considering the Alexandria model.
Thanks.
what is there to know?
Shoot the mofo. Its not like they value anyones life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness
😉
Turley writing a article about how the media left out things is funny in itself. Outside of Bill Barr, nobody is as good as Turley, leaving things out. When Turley uses “no collusion” he is deceiving right from the git-go. He knows what that term means, and how he can shape the willful ignorance of his Trump base. The Trump crime family and the RNC is getting its money’s worth from Turley.
meanwhile, BLM style “peaceful protests” have spread to air conditioned malls, apparently
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1287586304440414208?s=20
Yeah, keep focusing on that pipe dream BS, Fishy.
You’re rising to the bait with the treble hook buried in it.
BTW, the Bush-Clinton crime family has no idea what to do about a nominee with Dementia, who on his best day before the Dementia, was as dumb as a sack of hammers.
He’s running out of basement runway.
Sorry FW – it is absolutely clear there was no collusion.
If you are still trying to sell that – you are delusional.
Guess what? A generation ago, the media were biased and slipshod. Now they’re just liars. There is no civic benefit to having salaried liars employed by the Jeff Bezos, the Sulzberger clan, and whichever soulless corporation now owns the networks.
Guess what? Some members of the media lie, and others don’t.
For example, Tucker Carlson claims to be telling viewers “the facts,” but often he isn’t, and “Fox News’s attorney, Erin Murphy, told the judge hearing the [McDougal slander lawsuit] case that ‘there’s no statement that a reasonable viewer would understand in this context to state something provably false’ – and argued that viewers simply do not consider Mr Carlson a source of factual news.” (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fox-news-tucker-carlson-facts-trump-playboy-model-a9573436.html)
Still writing garbage. I would like to write constructive criticism but to trash its impossible
BLM’s “urban youths” protest white privilege,.,,, at a Putt Putt center!
https://www.tmz.com/2020/07/26/300-kids-drop-off-putt-putt-memphis-plexiglass-stampede-chaos-refund/
Putt Putt is built upon the legacy of slavery, they say so! Democrats vote for more “not working” bonuses to help these urban youths
Yeah, Absurd. P J Media is the only reliable source.
SPLC has lost a lot of the wind in its sails since Morris Dees’ and his clique were purged, due to his long-hidden bad habits of harassing women and POC at SPLC, but, they are still out there sucking up donations from liberal fools. I guess that is a good thing since they do very little with it except spend about 85% of every donation on their own promotional and staff expenses
but, PJ Media is following them closely, even now as Dees and Cohen have sailed off into their very handsome retirements
https://pjmedia.com/tags/splc
Just print the facts – not your oppinion or spin and I do not care what your masthead says.
In a closing statement in the debates Trump should address this plus bring to light how the Dems want to control the suburbs through the Obama-tweaked Expanded Affirmative Fair Housing Act.
Trump, and all Republicans, should shout from the rooftops NOW about The Expanded Affirmative Fair Housing Act (AFFAH). If Biden wins, his platform proposal seeks to abolish America’s suburban communities. If your community does not match the statistics of the much larger greater metropolitan area by measurement of income, racial makeup, education, etc., AFFAH,(as proposed by Biden) will prohibit federal money (your taxes) from block grants,transportation, roads, etc.UNLESS the community commits to (for example) high density housing, restricting single family zoning and moving schools..
Last Sunday(July 26), Mark Levin had an hour interview with Stanley Kurtz which focused on AFFAH. The program ‘Life, Liberty and Levin’ on Fox is rebroadcast later this week. Very worthwhile to watch.. . . o
One of the “gifts” of the MSM to this country is legitimizing anarchists and rioters by calling them protesters. Last night in Austin (a city under a strict mask and social distancing orders) a “protest” was held downtown. Hundreds of people walked down the middle of the main drag, chanting something I could not understand. A 28 year old man brought his AK-47 to the protest and we got to hear him talk about how all those who are against the protests are nothing but a bunch of “pus—-” and he knew he couldn’t shoot a cop because he’d be killed but he decided to bring his rifle for “protection.” A citizen made a wrong turn onto the main drag. Protesters started banging on his car and the 28 year old walked around to the driver’s side and pointed his loaded AK-47 at the driver. In fear for his life, the driver pulled his legal concealed handgun and killed the protester. The MSM reported nationally that a protester was shot and killed in Austin. No mention was made of his AK-47 or confrontation with the driver. There are important lessons that could have been learned but the MSM could care less. Today, the protester is being mourned by thousands as the driver is condemned..
I saw that and I shook my head thinking about the McCloskeys who stood on their private property and made warnings to a mob that just broke down a iron gate to their neighborhood. Fear of deadly action is the basis for defending oneself or others against that threat. The McCloskeys felt threatened but were disciplined in their actions and used their legally owned weapons to ward off a perceived threat. The freedom to assemble does not supersede the right to bear arms. In Austin, these principles apply the same.
The McClockeys were not dealing with free assembly – they were dealing with tresspassers.
The “protestors” were on private property having broken into a gated community.
I would further note that the right to protest and assemble is not the right to do so anywhere.
It is limited to public space, and often specifically to public space set aside as a public forum.
At the same time the McCloskey’s were not careful in their use of firearms. On occasion they pointed their guns at a person.
Unless you intend to shoot someone that is a bad idea.
“The MSM reported nationally that a protester was shot and killed in Austin. No mention was made of his AK-47 or confrontation with the driver.”
That’s false. Here are a couple of counterexamples, and it’s easy to find more:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/what-we-know-about-the-austin-blm-protest-shooting.html
https://www.boston.com/news/national-news-2/2020/07/27/garrett-foster-brought-his-ak-47-to-protests-in-austin-then-he-was-shot-dead (from the NYT)
So this fellow brought his AK 47 and wheelchair bound girlfriend to a likley riot. Seems unwise. I have always said the “open carry” crowd are nuts
Is he some kind of Boogerloo boi? Was he wearing a hawaiian shirt? they say that’s a tell. you fellows were just telling me last week they are a problem. perhaps they are.
considering he pointed an AK-47, good thing the car driver shot him dead. Easy decision.
here are some Democrat voters at work peacefully protesting white privilege
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1287586304440414208?s=20
vote Democrat if you want ‘peaceful protests” like this to come to a mall near you
@kurtz-Gee, I’ll bet they’re all honor roll students who will bring greatness to society.
If you point a gun at someone you can expect them to legitimately treat that as a threat to kill them.
Anyone who owns a gun should have been taught not to point a gun at someone unless you intend to shoot them.
This was an issue with the McCloskey’s in Mineapolis. Who are purportedly being charged with brandishing or Menacing.
Under the circumstances that is NOT approriate – they were defending their home against a Horde that were tresspassing.
Still it is dangerous to point a weapon at someone.
Mr. Turley,
You ought to do an article on the comparisons between Watergate and Crossfire Hurricane. Watergate was a criminal scandal that sought to get any damaging “paper” content on the opposite party by breaking and entering. It led to the resignation of President Nixon after denials by all levels of his administration that Nixon was involved. Crossfire Hurricane, under the “Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act” procedures, which is intended on spying on foreign threats (after 9/11’s changes to the Act, the walls were lowered for better cohesion, and may be used to determine domestic involvement-primarily against terrorism) had no need to steal paper documents because, since Watergate, everything has gone electronic. So instead of criminally stealing paper documents, administrative officials under the President and Vice President of the United States, used all of our “surveillance” tools to obtain electronic information to get any damaging content against the opposite political party. I am not too familiar with the Nixon administrations false pretexts for their actions. In Crossfire Hurricane the obfuscation that the Russians were meddling in our election, even though they were, is still all the usual suspects justification for illegal “surveillance” (sic spying) to create political damage to the incoming President of the United States and his administration. It is a nuanced criminal breaking and entry also against an opposing political party. But in this case, it is directly targeting a duly elected President of the United States. At a minimum, upon the President being elected, all the illegal antics should have stopped. The usual suspects couldn’t stop because ultimately their actions would have been known to the President, so they needed to continue to cover their tracks. In the end, it is all the electronic “paper” trail that has proven criminal activity. The abuse of power and Governmental resources went to the heads of the preceding administration which blinded them, and continues to, to the illegality of their actions.
After serving as a Federal LEO for 22 years, it is obvious the purpose for use of our surveillance tools for personal and political gain. It is a shame that organizations like the ACLU etc will not step up to do what they were chartered to do, exposed civil abuses of power. Turning a blind eye to this type of abuse will only lead to greater and more detrimental abuses in the future if not realized and curbed now. But the hatred of this President is the trade off of our system of justice by so many.
Let’s take a look at those tax returns. That would answer a lot of questions. Imagine how much egg can be thrown to the faces of Democrats when Trump’s tax returns back up his statements of being a yuge billionaire, not having any dealings with Russian banks or oligarchs, etc. Boy of boy, won’t the Democrats be sorry if Trump reveals his tax returns, even to a closed group.
As for the argument based on non existence how about the non existence of voting opportunities by Republicans, the gerrymandering of districts-Democrats have done this but it is primarily done by Republicans, “I don’t care if it’s good for America or bad for America, if it comes from the Obama White House, it will be blocked.” Mitch McConnell, etc., etc., etc.
Talking about the news that is not presented, no one omits more than Turley.
Issac, we’re not supposed to ask about Trump’s tax returns. Turley has walled-that-off as a legitimate topic of discussion.
You see, big investors like Donald Trump often partner with other investors who might be foreign nationals. And those partnerships might look bad to the average Joe who lacks the ‘sophistication’ to access investment partnerships.
So Trump made an ‘executive decision’ not to show his tax returns. And we Americans must have faith that Trump isn’t hiding partnerships with Russians, Chinese or Saudis.
You’ve had your say about that for years. Now, I get the idea. I want to say the subversive paymaster Geo Soros’ tax returns. Now, that’s probably ten thousand pages of documents considering that he is a true global billionaire, but I should like to see them anyways
https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-soross-18-billion-tax-shelter-1511465095
Yeah, Kurtz, let’s see Charles Koch’s returns while were at it.
YES get those TRUMP HATING GLOBALISTS and expose them
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/the-koch-brothers-found-one-thing-they-hate-more-than-donald-trump
I observe their agricultural operations have been harmed by Trump’s fair trade policies– they have lost a lot of money on exports to China– they hate Trump for protecting American workers and they seek to flood the country with cheap migrants to lower the average wages of workers they employ
No doubt Kroch bros money is behind these RINO groups like the one that’ Mr Kellyanne gets paid to “lead”
You are not entitled to ANYONE else’s tax return.
Want to see the tax returns of JEFF BEZOS RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD
who pays jack squat on his profits at amazon
destroyer of ten thousand brick and mortar businesses, generous Democrat donor, and owner of the Wapoo
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-amazon-federal-taxes-profits-analysis-20190216-story.html
Yeah, have faith in a POTUS that cannot open his mouth without lying. He also told us that he had no business with Russia while he was running for the POTUS, of course he was.
Democrat leader NADLER you know the short fat one, refuses to disavow ANTIFA RIOTING
claims it’s a myth
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1287766425315110913?s=20
VOTE DEMOCRAT IF YOU FAVOR MORE RIOTS
Deflect! Project! Resist! You are once again missing the point.
From the article: “What is astonishing is that the media has refused to see what should be one of the biggest stories in decades. The Obama administration targeted the campaign of the opposing party based on false evidence.”
But it’s okay because it was Obama’s admininstration. It’s okay when ‘we’ do it. Hold onto Power by any means necessary is the Dem/media playbook.
Then you could name an actual Trump business in Russia.
Not a hypothetical business.
Words have meaning.
If you accuse someone of lying – you are required to prove your claim.
The burden of proof false against you and the claim has to be proven narrowly.
Seth, sorry, sometimes I forget that Turley is a right wing hack lawyer, professor, contributor to many here, here, and here, blogs. And, I forget sometimes that Trump is owed allegiance by all and must stand when he enters the room, and never stop clapping. Instead of belonging to America as was intended. With great power comes great responsibility. The only responsibility shown by Trump has been to his ego. He could care less about the dupes that he suckered. Drift back a few decades and follow his career. There’s a special place down below for the likes of Trump. Leona Helmsley will be waiting to usher him in. Leona will make him buy a ticket.
You can ask another person whatever you want.
You have no right to compel them to answer.
You can demand whatever you want in return for your vote.
If you do not get it, you can vote accordingly
If the fact that Trump did not provide his tax return – bothers you
Do not vote for him.
But I gather that was not happening no matter what.
And that is part of the issue – you do not seem to grasp that the only people that a candidate needs to respond to during an election are those voters he may lose, or those he may gain.
Those who are going to vote for him no matter what – he can piss off.
Those who will not vote for him no matter what – he can piss off.
Trump is highly unlikely to respond to your demands or those like you.
This is not unique to elections – again something beyond your ken.
You can not expect others who need nothing from you to respond to your demands.
Putrid liar. Turley declared no such rule nor censorship.
Do you see the Democrats are using the same political playbook against Trump? Viva la Resistance! Pelosi, Schumer, et al, have resisted and blocked Trump’s agenda from *before* day one, even if not reported as such in the media, it is precisely the Dem’s MO: “We don’t care if it’s good for America or bad for America, if it comes from the Trump White House, it will be blocked.” Lying, obstructing Dem’s and their fake news media allies continue doing exactly that. Oh but nasty Mitch McConnell said he would block Obama’s agenda? Oh the horror! As if that is not exactly how the current Democrat lying leadership is playing the political game? Obstruct! Resist! Lie! Cheat! Project! Repeat!
Anonymous – if Trump said air was necessary for life, the Dems would pass legislation against breathing.
Gerrymandering is the name that one side gives to anything the other side does that disadvantages them.
There is no objectively correct means to determine voting districts.
Absent a completely objective standard – all redistricting is gerrymandering.
Separately gerrymandering is naturally self regulating.
Its NORMAL purpose is to create safe seats for senior congressmen.
Safe Seats always come at the expense of the party.
The less normal reason is to increase the total number of seats the majority party can win. But that has the high risk of lossing nearly all seatsif there is a very small change in the electorate.
Most reasonable estimates indicate that the net national effect of Gerrymandering is only one or two house seats.
It is possible to compile a practice manual which provides impersonal procedures for redistricting. It does require some tolerance for variation in district populations, something the courts have precluded with their officious interference in the political process.
An “impersonal procedure” doesn’t have to result in variation in district populations. There’s more than one mathematical algorithm that can be used to determine district boundaries, such as the shortest splitline algorithm and the “k-means” clustering algorithm (see, e.g., https://rangevoting.org/SplitLR.html and http://district.cs.brown.edu/).
CTHD is great at trolling you guys into endless elaborate discussions about BS.
The purpose is to clog the comments section with minutiae so that new reader’s can’t find pro – Trump material or stuff critical of Democrats
it’s as simple as that. so you are not winning arguments by wrestling with this tar baby, you are just getting tied up in the weeds
Tar baby???
😆 Pot, meet kettle. Are you now going to entertain us with more of your anti-enlightenment/pro-collectivism wisdom?
Kurtz, go play in the yard if you’re not up to the conversation.
Being mathematical does not make it objectively correct.
I can trivially write an algorithm to gerry mander a district to favor one party.
There is not an objectively correct way to do this.
Therefore we keep this out of the courts – lets not corrupt them too.
And we do not deal with independent commisions. We do not need to corrupt those either.
And we stick to legislators who we can vote out when we are offended.
People can chose to agree on the process of redistricting.
There is no objectively correct means to do it.
For 3 years moderate Democrats ignored the obvious perversion of power by the previous Dem administration and their lackeys in government. For 3 years, it has been obvious that the smear campaign was built and driven by political partisans in the Democrat party but NOT ONE MODERATE DEMOCRAT (sorry Dr. T – including you) was willing to step up and say loudly “Wait – none of this adds up”.
Meanwhile, Republicans were extorted/agreed to wait and let the justice system of the US do its work, despite its slow walk and the extreme collateral damage (Papadopoulis, Flynn, Carter Page, multiple members of the Trump Administration) created by the Press and the Democrat liars (Comey, Rice, Powers, Brennan, Clapper, Schiff, Swalwell, Pelosi, the Mueller team). THAT IS WHY REPUBLICANS ARE SO ANGRY! The lies perpetrated upon us by Democrats and the Press need to be exposed and rooted out because they are vile. And they need to be punished.
Obama knows every syllable of Saul Alinsky’s manual for deceit and uprising, as currently implemented by the DNC.
Turley claims “The document directly contradicted the long-standing denial that the investigation to Russian collusion [Crossfire Hurricane] was ever used to gather intelligence on Trump or his campaign,” but he can’t be bothered to quote or link to whatever “denial” he’s referring to.
We’ve known for a long time that the counterintelligence investigation Crossfire Hurricane (and Crossfire Razor, as a sub-investigation) gathered diverse information about individuals associated with Trump’s campaign because — wait for it — Crossfire Hurricane was explicitly an “FBI investigation opened on July 31, 2016, … into whether individuals associated with the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election” (quoting the Horowitz report: https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf ).
Has Turley ever read the Horowitz report??
Meanwhile, Turley mentions Igor Danchenko but is totally silent about the fact that A.G. Barr and Sen. Graham “declassified (Barr) and made public (Graham) info that revealed [identity] of FBI source. Risking his life, his family, [and] at least one other source who’s been identified. The Russia expert was voluntarily cooperating with the FBI — and actually helped show them weaknesses in the Steele Dossier (he was a source for Christopher Steele) — and cooperated with intelligence committee ALL ON CONDITION OF CONFIDENTIALITY. Barr and Graham blew his cover. … This breach also now compromises the US intelligence community’s ability to obtain trust of sources in future. …”
https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1286984962844102656 (a thread from NYU law professor Ryan Goodman)
I don’t have the energy right now to point out the rest of Turley’s misleading claims.This is yet another irresponsible column.
You are the most dishonest person on this site and there is nothing objective in anything that you write.
Commit, it’s okay when Republicans blow the cover of an FBI informant because they’re the party of law and order. That’s why Chad Wolf is serving on a lapsed appointment as ‘Acting Secretary’ of Homeland Security. Republicans don’t have time to confirm a real Secretary with all the protests going on.
Agreed re: your joke, but just want to note that Republicans can’t confirm Wolf because Trump has never actually nominated him.
Ditto for Cuccinelli, who is amusingly identified on the DHS site as “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary” — https://www.dhs.gov/leadership
there’s spiralling civil chaos, riotts, crime, arson, and CTHD draws attention to a molehill of supposed legalities
if that isn’t a “speck in my eye, log in your own” situation I dont know what is
and he she it calls self “honest”
There was no FBI informant.
Steele was hired by Clinton,
Igor was hired by Steele.
Igor had no actual direct knowledge of anything – he does not meet the legal defintion of a source – not even for Steele.
Igor is essentially a private researcher – not a source. And definitely not an FBI source.
Igor further aparently thinks he is a criminal – as he demanded immunity from prosecution before talking to the FBI.
Steele was commissioned originally for Opo research on Floptop within republican circles. HRC didn’t pick him up until after the jig was up and the orthodoxy realized trump was going to be their nominee.
You should show more respect to “Commit.” It only took him three terms to complete his degree……,.,..Carter, Reagan and Bush.
ROFL. I quoted the Horowitz report and provided a link; anyone can confirm that I quoted it accurately. I quoted a law prof. and provided a link; anyone can confirm that I quoted Goodman accurately. But “Mike Mike” then falsely claims “there is nothing objective in anything that you write.”
Since few comments are posted here under the name “Mike Mike,” and since an infrequent commenter isn’t likely to know who is “the most dishonest person on this site,” I’m going to guess that “Mike Mike” is a sock account for a regular commenter.
It’s also pretty funny that someone claims I’m dishonest but doesn’t quote anything false from me. Maybe “Mike Mike” is projecting.
Again you lie. I have been following the site for years and only recently decided to comment after reading your nonsense and some others like you. I enjoy reading opposing views which are objective but yours are beyond the pale.
And you still haven’t quoted me saying anything false “Mike Mike,” much less have you produced any evidence that I’ve lied (which requires that a claim not only be false, but knowingly false rather than a mistake).
Your avatar name is false so there you go
Bwahahahaha
Like OLLY, you need to learn the difference between opinions (which you just voiced) and T/F claims. My name isn’t a T/F claim in the first place, so it’s literally impossible for it to be false.
When you voice an opinion that is supported by links to information that is then proven to be false, that’s at best being honestly wrong. When you subsequently remain committed to that opinion, at best you’re being willfully ignorant. So at this point you’re either being willfully ignorant or dishonest…your choice.
Go ahead OLLY: link to the exchange that you believe is evidence of me “voic[ing] an opinion that is supported by links to information that is then proven to be false.” If I’ve actually made a factual mistake (which is what you imply by “proven to be false”) and I haven’t already corrected it, then I’d like to correct it now.
If you can’t, then your claim is only an evidenceless allegation.
Commit, over the last year or so I have several times begun what I hoped would be reasonable discussions of issues with Olly. For a post or two, “so far so good”. Then he begins personally attacking me, an obvious reaction to his not being able to support his contention otherwise. Disappointing, but proven now multiple times.
Yup, unfortunately most of the conservatives here are disappointing. I’ve had a few decent exchanges with SteveJ though.
Yes on SteveJ and also Kurtz when he’s not off his meds.
Yup, unfortunately most of the conservatives here are disappointing.
Thank you for the compliment.
It is easy to be disappointed when you are not interested in the truth, and are only seeking to trade virtue signals.
BTB it is very difficult to have a reasonable discussion with you – you do not make arguments.
You emote or spray fallacies. That is not a reasonable discussion.
Your name is a T/F claim – it is just not one that can be verified by anyone without knowledge of your thoughts.
We have to conclude whether it is accurate based on your actions.
CTHD is a troll whose purpose is to mute any criticism of Democrats coming from Turley or the other commentators by sucking people into “discussions” about boring minutiae.
It exercises daily tactical discipline doing this. A disciplined response would be to a) ignore and b) post five new comments to educate the readers about new content whilst ignoring and swamping its irrelevances
Or not traffic in steve bannon talking point bs, Kurtz. Maybe try that.
Inside the Democrat engineered, anarchist siege of a federal courthouse, untamed criminal rabble’s activity is viewed on every security screen
https://twitter.com/DonutOperator/status/1287756786083266560?s=20
You continue to fail to grasp that the standard of proof required to open an investigation is incredibly low – The Horrowitz report you cite notes that. It goes out of its way to note that opening of XFH was justified BARELY, that the initial justification was rapidly weakened and that the Steele Dossier showed up just in time to keep the investigation alive, and that even the steele dossier was ultimately sufficiently discredited that by Jan 2017 there was no longer sufficient justification for an investigation.
The standard that needs to be met to spy is substantially higher. That is a constitutional issue, it is also a DOJ procedural issue and a Patriot Act issue.
Just because you have a legitimate open investigation does not mean that you are free to use all legitimate investigative tools.
To use a traffic stop as an analogy – a police office needs very little justification to pull your car over. He needs much more to cite you, or to arrest you, or to search your car, or any of a variety of other investigative and law enforcement tools. It is common for the police to try to persuade people to allow them to search their cars, their home, their person – because they do not have the legal justification to do so, but can if they get the targets agreement.
This is the same – Horrowitz found the FBI could open XFH – that standard is incredibly low.
But merely opening XFH did not make spying legal.
The standard that must be met to spy on a US person is probable cause – not the low reasonable suspicion that is needed to open an investigation. Further the patriot act requires a FISA warrant to spy on a US person as part of a counter intelligence investigation.
There was no FISA warrant at this time.
I would further note this issue applies not just to briefings of presidential candidates – but to all executive branch briefings.
We saw this nonsense with Flynn in Jan 2017.
But more obviously it applies to members of congress – especially the “gang of 8”. This is a clear message to everyone who is ever briefed by the FBI, that the briefing may be being used as an opportunity to spy on you – without a warrant.
This is unconstitutional, illegal, in violation of DOJ procedures and morally wrong. But then the left has no clue what morality is.
You said Horowitz refused to confirm Spying – that is correct, Ge prefered different language “illegal surveilance”, and he confirmed that the facts seemed to indicate that was going on, but that determination was outside his perview.
Horowitz was NOT your friend.
Yes, it is of critical importance to the US intelligence community to have sources from Brookings who are making things up, are not actual sources for anything.
Your rant is nonsense. You are claiming that it is of critical importance to US intelligence to protect people who lie to them ?
This situation is the perfect example of WHY much of this needs declassified.
To a large extent Igor Danchenko exonerates Clinton. It has long been beleived that Steele got the information in the Steele Dossier from actual russians in Russia. In otherwords the Clinton campaign was actually colluding with Russia to get Dirt on Trump.
Instead we find out that the Steele Dossier is the work of a russian born US educated expat living in the US and working for the prominent left think tank Brookings.
Merely knowing who the primary subsource is almost entirely discredits the entire dossier. There is no presumption that Danchenko should know the things he wrote. And we know that a great deal of the Steele Dossier is made up or embellishments of decades of rumors that got somehow printed in the news.
The FBI knew or should have known this from the start.
And you are making a poor argument.
Danchenko is in danger from WHO ? Irrate lefties ? Putin ?
I would further note that Danchenko was not a US government source. He was Steele’s source. Sort of – because the facts appear to be that he was not a real source of any kind. Regardless Steele was a private contractor.
Danchenko was contacted by the FBI – and agreed to talk to them AFTER getting an immunity for prosecution deal. That alone should have tanked the credibility of the Dossier. Regardless, he was still never an intelligence source. He was arguably an investigative target. Not even close to the same.
He did not show them the weakness in the steele dossier. He WAS the weakness in the steele dossier.
Regardless, atleast you are adminitting the Steele Dossier is crap.
That means you are DONE.
No Steele Dossier – no FISA Warrants. No Steele Dossier – XFH dies in Sept 2016, after the Downer info fizzles the moment it is clear the emails refered to with from Clinton’s bathroom email server.
No Steele Dossier – no Mueller.
The FBI Knew the steele Dossier was crap by Mid January. It should have known In August.
Mueller certainly knew.
I would note that if you can not get a FISA warrant – then every other warrant or subpena issued by Mueller and his team is crap too.
Popodopolous mouthing off in a bar got the party started.
That is correct and the FBI interviewed Downer and quickly determined the refered to emails were from Clinton’s bathroom email server – so no issue.
Why can not every single criminal charge that sprang from the illegal original investigation be tossed for being fruit from the poison tree?
It Should be.
But it wont.
No court has found it to be an “illegal original investigation.” That you, personally, believe it to be illegal doesn’t make it illegal. That other Trump supporters join you in believing it to be illegal doesn’t make it illegal. Nothing is stopping people from trying to convince a court. What are you waiting for?
No court found Whitey Bulger guilty until they captured him and tried him.
This posting of CTHD is more of the same. He focuses on the periphery in order to distort the actual discussion taking place. He is such a nuisance that it appears Turley had to close his comment section down because of CTHD’s selfishness and egotistical postings depriving everyone else of that outlet. CTHD can’t even be grateful for the free play pen provided to him.
The FISA court voided two FISA warrants.
That is the court PRECISELY saying that any investigation based on those warrants was illegal.
CTHD is as usual WRONG, and clearly not being honest.
“That is the court PRECISELY saying that any investigation based on those warrants was illegal.
CTHD is as usual WRONG, and clearly not being honest.”
CTHD provides us with a bit of the mindset of those in the FBI that trampled on their responsibilities and did things that I believe were criminal with criminal intent. They did it because they thought they had the protection fo the offices that contained the most powerful leader in the world. I shouldn’t compare CTHD with them because his intellectual level is so abysmally low.
The FISA court found that the last two FISA warrants were improvidently granted.
That entirely invalidates any criminal action that occured based on those.
At this point given new information the first two FISA warrants are equally invalid.
As to your claim – courts do not typically find that.
Yes, it was all a deliberate farce, but Turley needs to go just one step deeper and start talking about how Stefan Halper, Josepf Mifsud, Charles Tawil, Alexander Downer, British Intelligence, Italian Intelligence, and the NSA database were used by the Obama administration to target Trump and his associates. That is the real scandal…the biggest in American history.
Waiting for the comments of our resident Pinkos saying that we misunderstood the memos and by the way, Orangeman is still bad.
This was/is a coup attempt. Politics aside, our republic has been damaged and if the perpetrators are not punished, we will see more such efforts from both sides.
The justice system is proving to be partisan; if Americans lose faith in the various safeguards, then anything goes.
The purpose of the first amendment is to demand that government live up to its equal protection obligation.
The purpose of the 2nd amendment is to compel government to live up to its first amendment obligation.
The purpose of the 2nd amendment is to provide for the militia which is otherwise under the training and direction of the Congress and may be called up by the President. Nothing in the Constitution addresses John’s imagined purpose, and it is the law of the land.
The contemporaneous writings of the founders specifically address this.
Even your militia claim supports this. The founders did not want a standing army. They did not view the militia as a subordinate force to a standing army or directly answerable to elected masters, but as an armed populace that could either defend the country – or over throw the government in the event of over reach. At the time of the constitution, every male over 16 was required to own and know how to use a gun – each male citizen was the militia.
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
– Thomas Jefferson,
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
– Thomas Jefferson,
“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
– Thomas Jefferson,
“To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”
– George Mason
“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
– George Mason,
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
– Noah Webster
I can provide more if you want.
Many are specific references to the constitution.
Democrats are good about pretending they don’t see things. The Portland Mayor didn’t even see the riot he was in the middle of.
Why do people continue to vote for Democrats??? Do they think the country is invincible and can withstand anything. Because no country is invincible.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – what riot? There are no riots in Portland. There was an ice cream social at the Federal courthouse when Wheeler was there, that was all he say through his tear-gassed eyes.
J H Kunstler had a great article about Portland on Friday. You have to spell the F word in the link to get to it. Hilarious.
https://kunstler.com/clusterf–k-nation/acting-out/
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
It is clear that some FBI leaders, abetted by the liberal press – staged a coup attempt.
While bad, the republic can recover from that treason if justice is served.
What the republic cannot recover from is that the plotters escape justice and the establishment gets a pass.
If the coup attempt is not punished, then others will try it again. This methodology (and other, more dramatic tools) will become part of the Washington tool chest to fight the other party.
I vote for Democrats because they’re better than Republicans.
I don’t think the country is invincible, and I don’t know a single Democrat who does think that.
Quite the opposite, most of us are deeply concerned about the extent to which Trump and the GOP are harming the country.
As they say in England “Pull the other one its got bell on”
bells
CTHD
Concern
Troll
Hates
Democracy
Democratic results hesheit doesn’t preapprove, that is. Like Trump’s.
The Democrat leader who lead the persecution of Trump says ANTIFA riots are a “myth”
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1287766425315110913?s=20
If ever there was an opportunity for you to prove what you’re actually committed to being honest about, this was it. And you didn’t let us down.
I vote for Democrats because they’re better than Republicans.
Sure. Better at destroying a country from within. You must be so proud.
OLLY, I think you don’t have a very deep understanding of what it means to be honest.
Being honest means things like: not knowingly saying something false, trying to avoid errors, correcting mistakes when one makes them, … — all things that I do.
You seem bothered that I voiced an opinion that you don’t share. Oh, the horror. Do you seriously not understand the difference between facts and opinions?
As long as that’s my actual opinion (which it is), I was being honest when I voiced it. With respect to honesty, it’s irrelevant that you have a different opinion. FFS, if you’re going to criticize someone about honesty, develop a sufficient understanding of what you’re trying to talk about.
Hmm? Now where have I heard a statement like this before? Oh that’s right; when Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asks Director of National Intelligence James Clapper “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”. Director Clapper answered “No, sir … not wittingly.” Later that year, it was revealed the the NSA was indeed collecting telephone metadata of millions of law-abiding Americans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiUVUJmGjs
So you admit, you honestly have an opinion that runs afoul of facts and evidence. In the immortal words of Vinny:
OLLY, your response is truly bizarre.
Your comment about Clapper comes across as moving the goalposts, though perhaps you strangely think that the statements or actions of a single person would affect whether anyone (me, you, anyone else) should believe that Democratic politicians as a group are better than Republican politicians as a group. Not only that, but your example is someone who wasn’t elected.
Just to be clear: there are unethical people of every political affiliation. And there are also ethical people of every political affiliation.
“So you admit, you honestly have an opinion that runs afoul of facts and evidence”
No, I haven’t admitted that. Your claim there is either a lie (that’s my guess) or you’re astoundingly confused about how to tell whether someone has admitted something.
And since this kind of bullish*t is boring, I doubt I’ll respond further.
Your comment about Clapper comes across as moving the goalposts, though perhaps you strangely think that the statements or actions of a single person would affect whether anyone (me, you, anyone else) should believe that Democratic politicians as a group are better than Republican politicians as a group. Not only that, but your example is someone who wasn’t elected.
Non Sequitur.
And since this kind of bullish*t is…
Exposing you as the fraud you are. Got it.
“Being honest means things like: not knowingly saying something false, trying to avoid errors, correcting mistakes when one makes them, … — all things that I do.”
Right.
Honesty is easy for the left – just redefine honesty to mean lie.
Words are fungible for the left.
“I vote for Democrats because they’re better than Republicans.”
Yes, we know – the left, full of moral superiority, but no actual moral principles.
“I don’t think the country is invincible, and I don’t know a single Democrat who does think that.
Quite the opposite, most of us are deeply concerned about the extent to which Trump and the GOP are harming the country.”
Specifically how is Trump hurting the country ?
Is he starting lots of foreign wars ?
Is he using the IRS as a political weapon against political enemies ?
Is he spying on political opponents, members of his own party and journalists ?
I do not think Trump is a great president or even a good one. But he is head and shoulders above the last two bozo’s.
Riots? Impossible – This is the summer of love!
Our local newspaper printed in this morning’s edition a cartoon of Lady Liberty being trampled by Trump’s gestapo “storm troopers” in Portland. All the while Lady Liberty has been face down in the mud since Obama’s FBI ran over the rule of law in 2016/17. The media, FBI and the treasonous co-conspirators in congress are closer to Goebbels propaganda and the SS than I’ve ever seen in this country.
Breathtakingly accurate… and most distressing… the question remains, will enough Americans be able to see thru this propaganda this November?
You nailed it!
Specifically Black Americans. Will they see the farce and the lie that is the Democrat party? What does the Democrat party offer to Blacks? I mean, really their values are more aligned with the Republican party…and all the opportunities that have *finally been coming through the Trump administration’s policies — unemployment lowest ever, opportunity zones, working to keep Black neighborhoods safer, prison criminal justice reform, etc…but the lying Dem’s and their fake news media allies do not want America to know the Truth. Let’s hope Black Americans are waking up to see that ol’ Joe Biden doesn’t just want your vote, he is desperate for the Black vote in order to win. He will not win without it. And what do Blacks get in exchange for our vote? Joe Biden uttered one of the most racist, condescending insults to our intelligence: “If you don’t vote for me, you ain’t Black!” And yet again, the media chose to dutifully downplay this as it continues to run cover for Biden, Obama and the rest of the Democrat party. It’s sickening, really.
Trump 2020
My distaste for the left is as likely as great as yours,
But treason was deliberately defined by our founders in the constitution,
specifically to avoid each of us trying to criminalize political differences.
The left is wrong, often immoral, and sometimes evil.
But it is not treasonous – just as Trump is not authoritarian and
there are no storm troopers.
Arresting people for destroying or attempting to destroy property,
or for assaulting or attempting to assault people, is the most fundamental
obligation of government.
Legitimate protestors make a statement with words, not rocks, lasers, or molotov
cocktails.
In 1965 in Selma – protestors like Rep. Lewis non-violently walked across the Pettis bridge and were
beaten by the Alabama police.
Those destroying property and beating police share NOTHING with actual protesters.
“Now if only the media would develop a spine, and some integrity, and report on these things”.
***
Oh, they have steel spines but they are evil.
(music)
Put another log on the fire!
Cook me up some Dems and some deans.
Go out to the shed and take a dump.
Wash my news and iron the naked news.
Oh, beat on Trump and then go fetch my chickens.
Obama.was the biggest lie of all.
And sit here at our feet with election cheer sheets.
You know it ain’t feminine to fight!
If nothing else, these revelations about the dossier and collusion are a solace to those of us who trusted that Trump was indeed innocent of these false allegations. Now if only the media would develop a spine, and some integrity, and report on these things.
The media is without spine.
“Now if only the media would develop a spine, and some integrity, and report on these things.’
Are you seriously thinking about the propaganda arm of the democrat party??? Those who want to know the truth will seek it out, those who now need to remain willfully ignorant will continue to do so, it is all they have at this point. Either that or admit they are tools and bigots.
Fat chance