There is a disturbing report published on Michael Shellenberger’s Public Substack detailing how the U.S. intelligence community called upon foreign governments to target associates of Donald Trump before the 2016 election. The request to the “Five Eyes” agencies (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) appears to have come from Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan.
According to Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag, foreign intelligence agencies were asked to conduct the surveillance, including “bumping” the associates — a term for making contact with or casually engaging a target to generate intelligence. These encounters may also have been used to generate intelligence reports used to support further intelligence efforts by the United States in the Russian investigation.
The journalists reported that Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters intelligence apparatus, or GCHQ, went ahead in contacting the Trump’s associates as early as March 2016.
Keep in mind that this was the same month that George Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign as an adviser. It was also when Papadopoulos met a London-based professor, Josef Mifsud, who Papadopoulos was led to believe had “substantial connections to Russian government officials.”
On March 21, 2016, Trump identified Papadopoulos and Carter Page as members of his foreign policy team.
If true, the question is the basis for such surveillance of U.S. citizens associated with the opposing political party and a presidential campaign.
The role of Brennan is intriguing. Brennan was the one who briefed President Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”
It was also Brennan who later declared during the Trump Administration that a press conference with Vladimir Putin was “nothing short of treason.” He later said that he did not mean real treason when he said it was nothing short of treason.
Brennan also signed the infamous letter warning that the Hunter Biden laptop had all of the markings of Russian intelligence, a letter that he later admitted was “political.”
Now these sources are claiming that agents from the Five Eyes “were making contacts and bumping Trump people going back to March 2016.”
Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation in 2021 after admitting that he falsified evidence to renew a wiretap against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Shellenberger and Taibbi have a record of investigating in areas long avoided by other journalists, particularly in exposing the massive censorship system funded and coordinated by the government. There is much to learn about these allegations and their underlying support. If proven, it would appear that neither the Inspector General nor John Durham were given the full picture of the origins of the Russian investigation. Moreover, there are intriguing questions over a referenced binder that sources said contained much of this intelligence and analysis. That binder or binders allegedly disappeared from the CIA.
Once again, this is still the early reporting and we need to have more confirmation on these facts. However, Congress should be interested in whether the origins for the Russian investigation began with nudges from American intelligence in 2016 to the “Five Eyes.”
All meant to distract from the multiple crimes committed during the Obama administration so that Trump would be too busy defending to go on the offensive. And I don’t like Trump. But I detest Brennan. Long history of authoritarian leftism.
Trump is to busy telling the world what a Russian asset he is by inviting Russia to take Europe.
Fishstick,
Really, you need to learn something called logistics and man power when it comes to warfare.
Otherwise, you will forever remain ignorant.
You might want to read up on Sun Tuz.
Anybody believing Putin would not invade the Baltic’s or eastern Europe with Trump’s help, is a fool.
And anyone with any degree of common sense would know Trump would do no such thing.
Sec Def Ash Carter under Obama did an interview on WBUR, On Point. In the interview he stated that world leaders do not read Trump’s tweets or what he says. They watch what he DOES. They all know Trump played the MSM, and leftists. But they paid attention to what he DOES.
And Trump is doing it, once again. And the MSM and dupes like you are falling for it all over again.
The only fool here is you.
And Putin does not want Trump elected.
He wants Biden.
“The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie” M. Twain was thinking of your type of thinking, that’s for sure.
Yet, Fishstick, you prove you are the fool believing all the lies that have been fed to you from your MSM aka ARM betters, playing you for the fool you are.
From the Russia Hoax, the 51 intelligence officers and Russian disinformation job, to COVID.
Just keep proving Twain right. You have a most excellent track record.
I agree.
This is a permutation of reporter Salena Zitos 2016 observation.
Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not litterally
Trump’s detractors take him litterally, but not seriously.
All that said – it does not matter what Trump might SAY – Russia is over extended.
Ukraine is turing into a war of attrition. Russia may prevail in that. But it is already self evident they are a paper tiger.
Russia can not take on NATO – even if the US sat the fight out.
Russia can not take on any european country with consequential airpower.
Russia can not take on another country while at war with Ukraine – or for a long time after – Russia is just not strong enough to do so
The only time Putin has invaded Europe was when dems were in office.
Right, Putin is having an enormous amount of difficulty dealing with Ukraine – a country that he was supposed to be able to overrun in 72 hours – and you honestly beleive he is going to start a much broader war ?
The Instant Russia invaded Ukraine they radically changed everything in Europe. Putin made it clear he was a threat to all of europe.
The next big change was Russia’s failure to crush Ukraine in the first 72hrs. That exposed that the Russian military is a paper tiger.
Putin might WANT to restore the former USSR – but Russia is unable to do so.
Whatever the outcome Ukraine is the end of the line for Russia. If Russia can not handle Ukraine – they can not handle Poland and certainly not all of NATO
The Ukraine was is turing into a deadly war of attribtion – Ukraine with western weapons and training vs Russians with large numbers of men and antique weapons. That is leading to a stalemate.
That stalemate breaks for ukraine either with the control of the air, or with more boots on the ground.
Any attack on the rest of eastern Europe exceeds Russian military ability.
You can rant about what Putin might do in a hypothetical world
We live in the real one.
Fishstick, the problem with your “analysis” is that Trump was ALREADY president and guess what…Russia didn’t invade anyone. But they did invade under Obama/Biden and Biden/Harris. Boy, you make it so easy.
Upstate,
Sun Tzu (you misspelled it) doesn’t apply.
Russia wants a buffer ring around it, rather than have NATO directly on its borders.
Had Biden been a stronger leader and made it clear that going into Ukraine is a no-no and that Ukraine is not going to be part of NATO… Russia would never had invaded.
Biden is the weak/old man of the West.
He has done everything along w Obama to hurth this country.
-G
Ian,
The word is “hurt.”
You misspelled it.
I do not disagree with you about a buffer or not having NATO up against their borders.
Unfortunately that is not what we got. Looking back on history, the US/West said NATO would not expand Eastward. And then they up and did.
So here we are.
Spot on about Putin seeing weakness of the Biden admin and taking advantage of it with the invasion of the Ukraine. The US/West lead sanctions against Russia and Putin able to use those sanctions to his advantage was a brilliant strategic move on his part. The rest of the BRICS and now BRICS+ pivoting away from the US/West uni-polar world was a mix of US/West stepping on a rake and serendipity.
Putin recently announced he would like to see Biden beat Trump in the upcoming election. While he says it in a diplomatic way, I think we all know the better. Who benefits more with a weak, incompetent, old man with poor memory?
Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, the Houthis, the drug cartels on the Southern border.
Ian,
BTW, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
As I have seen from Afghanistan, we, we being the US military, did not know our enemy. I would question if we knew ourselves. That with several other Sun Tzu observations on combat is the reason why not only did the Soviets lose in Afghanistan, but we did as well.
And I saw it on the ground long before Trump or Biden.
Ian: let’s see if I have your thinking right: it’s OK for Russia to have a “buffer ring around it”, but not for the rest of the world to have a buffer against Russia, with all border countries being part of NATO, and that it’s all Joe Biden’s fault that Putin invaded Ukraine because Biden didn’t somehow signal that Ukraine would never be part of NATO? So, it must be the case that Biden has some obligation to keep Ukraine out of NATO to appease Putin because, in your opinion, Putin was right to invade Ukraine and Biden should look out for Putin’s interests, even if it involves hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians getting killed, their land confiscated and being put under the thumb of Putin? Did I get that right?
If so, WTF is wrong with you? Putin invaded Ukraine because he mistakenly believed that Trump’s trashing of our EU and NATO allies weakened the US’s relations with them, and that they wouldn’t or couldn’t put up a united front when he invaded Ukraine. That thinking backfired spectacularly. Ukraine has held its own, thanks to Biden mending relations with our EU and NATO allies, which have put up a united front. Now, Finland and Sweden are wanting to join NATO. Putin has always maintained that Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries still belong to Russia, even after the Soviet Union was dissolved and it is his goal to put the old Soviet Union back together. He has made it clear that he intends to try to get back all of the countries that used to be under USSR, starting with the Crimea Peninsula, and proceeding with invading Ukraine. If he gets away with that, he’ll go after Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, so he can control commerce to and from Eastern Europe via the Baltic and Black Seas. Poland would be next. They are all NATO countries.
The only “weak old man” is Trump–weak because of his ignorance and narcissism, his lack of fundamental understanding of the need for and benefits of NATO and a general lack of understanding of world politics. Multiple former members of his cabinet have commented about his lack of basic understanding of the politics leading up to and after WWII. He has a pathetic need to appear to be a “tough he man”, when he’s really a weak loser with a pathological need for attention, adulation and power. Putin, being former KGB. understands that Trump is easily manipulated by praise and attention, which is why he helped him cheat in 2016, believing that Trump would weaken NATO, which would help him try to recapture the former countries under the USSR. Putin was afraid of Hillary Clinton because she is both strong and intelligent, two things Trump isn’t, although he tries to fake it–his recent comments about NATO allies allegedly being told to “pay up” or the US would refuse to honor its treaty with NATO, and that “money came rollling in” after he threatened them, proves his basic lack of understanding of how NATO works.
And, where do you get off taking about what Putin would or wouldn’t have done, much less blaming Biden, when interview after interview with Putin makes clear his belief that former Soviet countries belong to Russia?
Obama invaded Ukraine and overthrew it’s Russian favoring democratically elected government in 2014, vic nuland testified to it and she’s still there. They spent 5 billion to do it. Putin knows, he just said so in the interview.
Nuland (OBAMA REGIME) also testified they spent TWENTY BILLION, that’s 20 BILLION, 20,000,000,000 dollars, not 5,000 dollars, to overthrow Putin in Moscow, to “interfere with their election”. 5k is what russia spent to mess in our 2016 election.
So Obama started the war in Ukraine. After the overthrow Obama started bombing the eastern half of Ukraine, with Joe Biden as the point man, another Uklraine war criminal from 2014.
YOU’RE THE WAR STARTER, THE WAR MONGER, YOU IDIOT.
IMB – you are correct about What Russia wants.
But it is self evident that is beyond Russias capability.
Biden did signal repeatedly to Putin that invading Ukraine was a no-no.
That it not the problem.
Biden cut US energy production leaving Putin to beleive that he had leverage over Europe.
Fortunately the US built massive LNG capacity under Trump.
The US has been able to replace a significant percent of the NG that WAS coming from Russia because of infrastructure started 3 years BEFORE the war.
Separately Biden conveyed weakness with his mishandling of Afghanistan.
Next, Biden like Obama/Hillary and Bush before signalled that they wanted Ukraine in NATO – something Russia will not accept.
Biden created the circumstances in which invading Ukraine was necescary and possibly advantageous to Russia.
It did not work out that way – Ukraine fouhgt better than expected initially and at that point the West decided that maybe supporting Ukraine could weaken Russian.
How old are you?
Perhaps you’re not mentally mature enough to understand what hyperbole, irony, and sarcasm is, but I suggest you look up their meanings. It will keep you from further embarrassment.
Is it “hyperbole, irony, and sarcasm” if those to whom it was directed take it seriously?
https://apnews.com/article/europe-trump-nato-277d1b30ba6fd0ee37ca626c59ab05ed
No, the statement had real consequences because it was a real (and dumb) threat made by Trump.
The real individual who lacks “mental maturity” is Trump.
You must be part of those people that say, trump means what he said, and or, trump doesn’t mean what he said.
Fishstick,
Once upon a time here in America, someone could declare something, from the mundane to the outrageous, about possible future outcomes.
And someone else would respond, “I will believe it when I see it.” A very common sense response.
Then, sometime around 2016, about half of the American population lost all their sense of logic, common sense, critical thinking and just submitted to mindless hyper-emotional knee jerk reaction of what someone declared, or tweeted, as proof of future outcomes.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
So. Are you so certain about what Trump has said that it is concrete outcome in the future? And do base that off his past words or tweets.
If so, now do the Powerball.
Trump is the first President since Reagan to at least try to enact the vast majorities of policies he campaigned on. He was often stifled by the neo-cons (Flake, Romney, SC ahole, etc).
Did biden run on hot war in Ukraine? Open borders? genocide in gaza? licking CCP taint?
Underestimating Trump’s a fool’s game. Besides, remember not only the Clinton’s hands on selling Uranium One to Russia, the current administration denied Russia from using SWIFT.
You are part of the problem. Idiots like you who think they know everything are the most ignorant people in the USA today. It shows in every dumb comment you post, and the rest of us are laughing at how gullible you are.
You do understand that if the Taibbi story is correct – which it quite likely is, what you are spreading is deliberate CIA misinformation.
You are proving that the CIA successfully interfered in the 2016 election by spreading misinformation that YOU have bought.
OT,
Putin says he’d rather have Biden as President than Trump. “He’s more experienced, he’s predictable, he’s an old-school politician.”
He doubts Biden’s age makes him “incapable.” When they met Biden was “nothing of the sort.” “Who of us hasn’t banged their head on something?” pic.twitter.com/xGSHntvmdC
— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 14, 2024
Take that for what you will. 😉
What’s predictable for Putin is Trump handing him eastern Europe.
You are a moron. Before Russia invaded, Trump sent lethal weapons to Ukraine, unlike Obama. Trump wants NATO to be a more credible force.
Trump sent lethal weapons to Ukraine, oh he did after he tried extortion with the “perfect phone call”.
You don’t get to wipe out Russia, break it up into oblasts of various sizes and take it over you totalitarian fascist. YOU HAVE FAILED YOU WILL FAIL.
Putin says he would prefer Joe Biden to win US election rather than Donald Trump https://t.co/9zoat8REuN
— Financial Times (@FT) February 14, 2024
What WAS PREDICTABLE and what DID HAPPEN was that when Regime(TM) candidates were in office over the course of this millennium, we have started and/or become entangled in others’ wars.
What DID NOT HAPPEN when TRUMP was President, was any of that.
Just stop with your pure BS and get your dunning-kruger fixed.
My god, how many people have to die for the fantasies in your head? You have been brainwashed – just look at the evidence.
Wiping out the 99% white Ukraine is very important to the hate whiteys of the world.
Another FDR!
If you think the only GOP presidential candidate that Obama spied on in 2014-2015 was the one then considered least likely to win the nomination, I have this bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan I’d like to sell you
This is such a great observation.
This spying was NOT limited to Trump.
Obama was, and is still to this day, spying on all of his political rivals
We keep ignoring the fact that Obama is the only President to make his home in Washington DC. There are reasons. he has to be so close to the machine he built if DC. Brennen is part of that machine.
What is never talked about is Obama instructed his Agency heads to put in place at the top two or 3 levels of civil service personnel. All of those people are still answering to Obama, at his Washington DC Home.
iowan2 wrote: “This spying was NOT limited to Trump. Obama was, and is still to this day, spying on all of his political rivals ”
Quite possibly. But not necessarily with equal effect. Who do you think that whichever national security assets Obama can still influence would put more effort into spying on: some typical politician who will undoubtedly allow the Deep State to pursus its insidious agenda unmolested, even while possibly giving lip service to reigning in some of its activities; or a real loose cannon who might just dismantle the entire apparatus, if he finds that a compelling outcome to pursue?
I believe the question is moot.
Obama did this for long term. The Obama 3rd term, running into its final year now, continued to shore up the work already started by Obama. It will take a generation to root out all the extreme political operatives installed. More so for the military. This is the long view taken by Obama to control the federal govt, regardless of political outcomes.
This is about power. If you want something done, everyone knows where the Ex-President lives, in Washington DC. He has all the money he needs. The only good it does is to use the money to continue to consolidate and expand power.
Again. Trump has always been the danger, because he has no interest in the working of DC, and the political leverage is worthless against Trump, and you cant bribe him. But, Trump has learned, lawfare can cost him 100’s of $Millions. I’m sure before Trump filed to run for President again, he was warned, if he did, all the power of federal and state judiciary would be unleashed on him. He filed anyway. The left will claim its for money.
But he was warned all of this was coming. He could be touring all his resorts here and internationally. But instead he is compelled to serve the Nation he loves.
Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) praised President Barack Obama for putting together a campaign database that “will have information about everything on every individual.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGgZ5M6KMt8
This was from me…not anonymous!
Russia,Russia, Russia.
The trouble started when Trump’s 1st DOJ, Jeff Sessions took the Democrat bait & punked out by recusing himself.
In December of 1963 Harry Truman wrote an op ed in which he called for the CIA to be reined in. We’ve learned a lot more about John Kennedy’s assassination since then.
It’s not just American leftists that hate/fear Trump. The Davos crowd know Donald Trump is their mortal enemy. WHO, WEF, anything with the word world in its title is not good for our country. Trump understands this.
Dear Prof Turley,
Do you know where the ‘binder’* is, or not? Matt ‘Ahab’ Taibbi indicates President Trump declassified it on his way out the door – but only John Brennan/CIA can declassify national security information (see also Obama EO 13526).
Special Counsel Jack Smith is working overtime on that down in Florida, but the young Trump-Judge girl is not cooperating. .. and may be removed!
I was shocked to learn SC Weiss recently, finally charged Hunter Biden based on the Russian disinformation found in the laptop. (At least Putin still has a sense of dark humor, or imperial arrogance .. . preferring Joe Biden’s ‘predictability’ to Trump’s ‘uncertainty’ in the upcoming election ~ WaPo.)
Don’t hold your breath waiting on the ‘media’ .. . they’re working on new ‘national security threats’ every day.
*I guess we’ll just have to wait for the next Presidential debates.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OY_cTQY1dMs
The President is the ultimate declassifying authority.
One could be forgiven for thinking so. .. you’re probably still thinking about the U.S. Constitution
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13526
Executive Orders control the Classification ecosystem
You can go back and read ACTUAL EO. Not a snippet for Wiki. When you do, you will find toward the bottom, a statement that specifically enumerates the President of the United States, and the Vice President of the United States are not bound by the Executive Order.
A significant provision of EO 13526 is the creation of the National Declassification Center. The major focus is the idea that information should become declassified systematically as soon as practicable. Specific time limits are mentioned for different kinds of information, but there is also the provision that information that still needs to be classified can stay classified. Mechanisms are outlined for periodic reevaluation of the need to classify information, even if the result of the evaluation is to keep the information classified
Criticism
It has been claimed[by whom?], but not substantiated, that many classified documents are still illegally blocked from FOIA requests and treated as such despite the fact that classification must not be used to “conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; or to prevent embarrassment”.[citation needed]
*Wiki
If you watch one episode of Judicial Watch, it is confirmed that FIOA is illegally blocked all the time, it is routine.
Since wikipedia is a demoncrat lie fest, of course they claim it is not substantiated.
I also see you are up on the BUREAUCRACY that blocks, permanently and FOREVER, much of what Trump totally and authoritatively declassified.
The pukes here just don’t get it. They will keep getting rammed up the rear till they are all nearly dead, because it just doesn’t click for them. THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON, HOW TRUMPS’ DECLASS ORDERS WERE STYMIED AND THEY ARE NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. They spit out as few twigs, redacted near everything, and kept the vast majority.
THE SUPREMELY IGNORANT HERE DON’T GET IT.
Aww too many facts only confuses him.
EOs have their limits. And an EO that limits future POTUS’ rights under the constitution are well BS.
One has to ask why Obama wrote the EOs in the first place.
That should help explain a lot of things.
Executive orders are just that, they are only good until the next executive decides there validity and either lets them stand or cancels. A prime example is your President, Biden, cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. Really an ignorant statement.
– but only John Brennan/CIA can declassify national security information (see also Obama EO 13526).
I am repeating, but central to understanding that the Classification/declassification process is not touched in anyway, by legal Statute, Or Constitutional interaction.
What is being talked about is the Executive Branch of the United States. The constitution assigns the President of the United States soul power over the Executive Branch.
The Entirety of the Classification eco system serves at the invention and pleasure of the President of the United States.
So to claim only the entity that classified something is the ONLY person to declassify , something. Is dishonest.
Plenary Power: unqualified; absolute:
IT’S GOOD YOU KNOW THE LAW.
What you seem to have forgotten is Trump declassified loads of information, and the deep state simply used the mechanisms to deny it and gave him the finger.
How long till you presumed republicans catch up with reality ?
Trump’s DNI Ratcliffe was on national news multiple times pointing it out in exacting detail.
HE HAS BEEN, THOUGH GAY, A HUGE BENEFIT FOR THE REPUBLICANS.
But none of you know what he told you, over and over again.
Trump told you he declassified it all too, as he shrugged and hinted they did not give a damn. Trump didn’t say it outright, because it was a diss on his power as POTUS, HE HINTED AT IT, ASSUMING YOU FOOLS WERE CLUED IN.
I see a bunch of you opposing dgsnowden for his stupidity, but he is far more on the ball than all of you.
All you goons are losing, because THEY DON’T FOLLOW THE LAW OR THE RULES AND NONE OF YOU CAN COMPREHEND IT, EVEN TO THIS DAY. They don’t even tell you the depths of their mechanisms and bureaucratic rules that block your big bad LAWS YOU KNOW.
Same thing happened when Trump ordered troops withdrawn. THEY IGNORED HIM AND DIDN’T DO IT, LIED TO HIM, AND DIDN’T DO IT.
Maybe when the boot comes crashing down on your necks, as Yuri Bezmenov pointed out, you will finally realize what has been happening all along.
If any of you aren’t sure about the Taibbi Shellenberger revelations of 26 Brennan targets in march 2016, you are fools. It was going on LONG BEFORE THAT. That is merely the latest secret to slip after nearly 8 years, and you morons still aren’t sure what to believe.
I watched an NSA intel insider point out he was looking at the secret illegal spying intel on Barack Obama BEFORE HE BECAME AN ILLINOIS SENATOR. YOU’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE DOROTHY. YOU’RE SO FAR BEHIND IT IS PATHETIC.
I say it to you because you’re the least worst of them. Just multiply what you think by 100X and you’re in the ball park.
Shakdi: Here’s what the American Bar Association has to say about declassification of classified documents:
“Trump added to the confusion when he said in an interview with Fox personality Sean Hannity, “There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it. … If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it.”
Most national security legal experts dismissed the former president’s suggestion that he could declassify documents simply by thinking about it. But as an ABA Legal Fact Check posted Oct. 17 explains, legal guidelines support his contention that presidents have broad authority to formally declassify most documents that are not statutorily protected, while they are in office.
The system of classifying national security documents is largely a bureaucratic process used by the federal government to control how executive branch officials handle information, whose release could cause the country harm. The government has, however, prosecuted cases for both mistaken and deliberate mishandling of information. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president as commander in chief is given broad powers to classify and declassify such information, often through use of executive orders.
Some secrets, such as information related to nuclear weapons, are handled separately under a specific statutory scheme that Congress has adopted under the Atomic Energy Act. Those secrets cannot be automatically declassified by the president alone and require, by law, extensive consultation with executive branch agencies.
In all cases, however, a formal procedure is required so governmental agencies know with certainty what has been declassified and decisions memorialized. A federal appeals court in a 2020 Freedom of Information Act case, New York Times v. CIA, underscored that point: “Declassification cannot occur unless designated officials follow specified procedures,” the court said.
As the new ABA Legal Fact Check notes, the extent of a president’s legal authority to unilaterally declassify materials — without following formal procedures — has yet to be challenged in court.”
There is NO paper trail for the documents Trump stole and lied about “declassifying….even by thinking about it”. And , there IS a process for declassification that he didn’t follow. so he’s lying again. It’s not like he didn’t have the benefit of plenty of attorneys to advise him. His taking of classified documents was deliberate, his retention was deliberate, his lying about returning all of them was deliberate, his storage of the papers in unsecure locations was deliberate, his attempts to delay his trial for his conduct are deliberate, and we still don’t know who might have accessed the documents, photographed or copied them, or the extent to which sources and methods may have been compromised. He has to be brought to justice for what he has done.
There is NO paper trail for the documents Trump stole and lied about “declassifying….even by thinking about it”. And , there IS a process for declassification that he didn’t follow.
This is Gigi, but parts are cut and past from a source that gets most of it correct.
Except the part about the President being required to follow a process.
There are a bunch of questions around this but I will ask just one.
Exactly were is that process spelled out?
The answer to that question proves the assertion the President must follow a process, is a lie.
What you seem to have forgotten is Trump declassified loads of information, and the deep state simply used the mechanisms to deny it and gave him the finger.
How long till you presumed republicans catch up with reality ?
I understand, I have been paying attention in real time. None of this is new information. The Five Eyes involvement is not new information. There were several turn overs of leadership of the 5 eyes agencies after Trump was elected The first was the Head of MI6 that resigned with no notice to his staff. The Australian Secretary of State meeting up with George Papadopoulos in and alcohol fueled meeting in a London Bar. was for sure all crafted by the CIA with help from MI6 and the Australian spy agency.
None of this is new territory.
Only the media pretends any of this is a surprise.
Dgsnowden, you should stop now. Your ideas have become laughable. Now I know how your thinking mixed anti-Semitic views with mistruths. Your knowledge of past and present events is lacking. TDS is destroying you.
LOL. S. Meyer, I don’t even know what ‘anti-Semitic’ is.
I do know there is no such thing as ‘Chosen People’, S. Meyer. Furthermore, knowledge .. . ‘is a single point, but the ignorant have multiplied it.’
Growing up in the dark and bloody hunting grounds in the heart of Appalachia, I had only heard of ‘Jews’ in the Bible and thought they were extinct. .. I was pleasantly surprised when I loaded up the truck and moved to New York City.
*how’s it going in Gaza?
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
“LOL. S. Meyer, I don’t even know what ‘anti-Semitic’ is.”
Dgsnowden, can believe that. Anti-Semitism is linked with ignorance.
“I do know there is no such thing as ‘Chosen People'”
That is fine. But do you know what the Chosen People means? No. Why don’t you tell us what you think it means? Most people need to correct their understanding. It is not an affront to anyone else. believer or non-believer. It is actually a burden on the Jews but I will leave it to you to find the meaning which can be found in the Torah, Talmud and elsewhere.
“A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
In the distant future, I don’t expect the United States to exist or Israel as we know it today. But when I think about history and the ancient folk around 3,333 years ago, none remain in their ancient state. Not even the Romans, but the Jews do.
dgsnowden wrote: “the ‘media’ .. . they’re working on new ‘national security threats’ every day.”
Possibly incuding the recently rumored Russian effort to orbit nuclear weapons. What could be better to attempt to rally Americans behind Joe Biden against Russia and the evil Putin? The timing would be perfect, as well. Sadly, if history is any guide, most Republican politicians would fall right in behind that effort, and, along with the MSM, convince nearly the entire populace to join them. I’d very much like to be wrong about that, but, unfortunately, H. L. Mencken is even more correct today about the gullibility of the public than he was at the beginning of the 20th century.
Keep in mind that what Brennan called nothing short of treasonous was Trump standing on the world stage in Helsinki & taking Putin’s word over US intelligence agencies about Russian interference in the 2016 election. John McCain called Trump’s Helsinki comments about Putin “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”
And keep in mind that a Republican led Senate intelligence committee extensively detailed how Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf & said Trump’ campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer while other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
And keep in mind that George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI to conceal his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign.
But what Professor Turley is most upset about is Clinesmith altering an email 8 months after the 2016 election just before the FBI issued the third Carter Page FISA application. In Turley’s world, that’s a much bigger deal than the conclusions of a Republican led Senate intelligence committee.
Yeah, and there was a special counsel who looked into everything. Didn’t find squat.
Clinesmith altered an email that was being filed in an ex parte proceeding to get permission to surveil an American. You are a toad.
“You are a toad.” The juvenile name calling by Turley’s defenders is ridiculously predictable & commonplace on this website. Have a nice day, buddy.
Special Counsel Durham lost 2 of his 3 criminal cases. Not a very good batting average.
Papadopoulos & Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their Russian contacts. Roger Stone was found guilty of obstruction of justice, witness tampering & lying in a Congressional hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump pardoned Roger Stone & Papadopoulos. We can only image how outraged Trump defenders would be if Biden pardoned Hunter for lying to Congress & obstructing justice.
FBI claims of lies during interviews has been scuttled by the Flynn fiasco.
The charges are meant to ‘dirty up’ the target victim. It is clear extra judicial abuse of power. It is designed to dirty up President Trump.
The rubes like ATS fall for it.
We are to believe that Papadopoulos and Gates negate Obama spying on 36 people attached to the Trump campaign for the office of President of the United States.
Your sense of Justice is non existent.
Trump had information that Brennen spied on Trump and All of his Campaign advisors. It is easier to deal with and believe a corrupt tyrant than the Washington DC swamp rats like Brennen.
This has all been litigated.
Do you have an Opinion about the President of the United States Spying on the Campaign of a Presidential candidate?
Once again we see Bug’s assertion that the Trump-Putin collusion hoax has merit. I refer anyone inclined to believe this mendacious nonsense to listen to the recent podcast of Glenn Greenwald interviewing Aaron Mate’, which can be found at Real Clear Politics or Substack.
Edwardmahl,
I watched the Greenwald podcst. It was very, very good.
Hmmm.
McCain was a never Trumper because Trump picked a fight with him.
When you are POTUS you meet with world leaders… some you like, some you don’t. But as the representative of the US… you meet with them.
Meeting w Putin… wasn’t wrong.
At least Trump didn’t say… well lets discuss it after I win the next election like Obama foolishly said over a hot mic.
So yeah, lets keep playing this game.
Hmmm.
McCain was a never Trumper because Trump picked a fight with him.
I don’t remember the details exactly, but my bet is McCain threw the the first 5 punches. McCain sent his Aide to England to get a copy of the Steel Dossier. McCain. He was an early never Trumper.
SURPRISE! Absolutely nothing about this being reported by the mainstream media. I couldn’t even find anything buried deep in their websites. There could be video proof or Hilary and Obama conspiring to frame Trump and the media would be silent. This is why Trump is right when he calls them THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. This is why I’m a Trump supporter. He’s the lesser of the two evils.
Frame Trump? How did Hillary and Obama frame trump, when trump was the one who picked his advisors? Who had meetings with Russians over a hundred times. Just ask Michael Flynn. Look up the quotes from the trump boys about Russian money.
So the binder is missing with all the incriminating evidence of the CIA’s involvement. I’m speculating that it was a classified document which should have had a “custodian sheet” that says “who has it checked out”. Find out who that person is (hardy har har) and you have your criminal! Good luck!
Calling John LeCarre.
Well color me shocked, SHOCKED(!) that information went “missing” from Spooks Incorporated.
In any sane justice system, Clinesmith would have gotten life without parole. “Judge” Boasberg, whole swallowed whole that “Well I thought I was correcting” should be hooted off the bench.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that we have one main Political Justice System, (PJS) with subordinate criminal and civil justice systems.
PJS has all eyes, all institutions and all resources available to it, for both foreign and domestic political justice. Dossiers, both real and fake, are the weapon of choice in this system.
There is no escaping criminal or civil justice, if the PJS wants you prosecuted. Conversely, there will be no criminal or civil prosecution if PJS doesn’t want it.
For us moving about those subordinate justice systems, it does appear two-tiered when equal violations of our systems are treated differently. But for those operating under the main, PJ System, there is one rule…f*ck up in this system and they have six ways to Sunday, <i[you know, the thing.
Well Jonathan, the depths of the new “Political Justice System” are much deeper than most people realize. But it sure paid off like a slot machine for Hillary Clinton ! An FBI Attorney lying on an affidavit to get a wiretap for against a Republican ? Not a problem. And Communist-Wanna-Be Puppet Master John Brennan having his “J. Edgar Hoover” moment briefing President Obama to help Hillary ? The DOJ prosecuting President Trump for retaining classified records IAW The Presidential Records Act while declining to prosecute President Biden for retaining classified records since 2017 ? It is long past time to turn the Nimitz into the wind….
Brennan is a traitor and should be tried for treason and executed. The fact that someone who bragged that he had once voted for President, Gus Hall the candidate from the American Communist Party became CIA Director under Obama tells you everything you need to know about Brennan, Obama, and Biden. Brennan also lied to Congress and was never charged with perjury
Alank, for all those you mentioned (and many others), they are held to a different “legal” standard, which is the Political Justice System. It functions as the supreme law of the land. While everyone in this country is subject to every other constitutional system of justice, the PJ system will determine who will be immune from it. Folks like Brennan, Obama, Biden and others are immune, while Flynn, Page and Trump are not. Jan 6 rioters are not, but Aug 2020 rioters are. Clinton and her private server is, a submarine sailor and his photo is not.
As I now see everything going on today, it comes into focus through the lenses of the PJS.
As more and more of the prog/left dem skullduggery is exposed you would think that the average citizen would be building up a head of steam to oust these socialist/progressive American-haters from any positions of power and yet we see the dem winning on Long Island. I am growing ever more pessimistic as to whether there continues to exist, within our populace, the necessary gumption to fix this thing. I am afraid that there is not a big enough group of patriotic individuals remaining to save us. If the daily exposure of these sorts of banana republic actions does not enervate enough people then we are on a rocket sled to oligarchic tyranny – and why is that? Look to your education industry – it has been infested since the time of Dewey – I doubt if we can be saved short of a devastating social upheaval.
I think you are right. Too many people have too little integrity, and too many people are flatly nuts. They are able to be delusional, because their delusions do not yet bite them in the rear end. Men can pretend to be women, and vice versa, mainly because other people will still pay them a salary. But in tough times, the nuts will be the first fired. Others can pretend Open Borders are cool, until they have to cough up the money to cover their upkeep, or to police them. San Francisco is a good example. Far too many people were cool Leftists there, and now it is biting them in the a$$. Poop everywhere, and needles, and crime, and now businesses are moving out, and people leaving to move someplace sane. About the same in Baltimore, and Chicago, and other inner city areas. Those that can afford it, move out. BUT, the costs of upkeep, keep going on. It will get worse. Baltimore, for example, is turning out scads of black kids unable to read or write well. Those same kids are only minimally socialized. That will take generations to repair. So, a huge financial collapse would hopefully reset things, but I am not sure of that. Maybe a massive terrorist attack would do it, like in this book I just read, The Attack, by Kurt Schlicter. Maybe not even that. Like they say with addicts – America has not been hurt enough yet.
“That will take generations to repair. ” That hits the nail right on the head – and with the swiftness with which things move in this internet age, I don’t think we have generations of time to fight this and destroy its trajectory. This is a paraphrase of a line from an article from The Spectator that caught my eye and it illustrates the long range plains that the communists have had with regard to destroying our nation: (to continue the “fundamental transformation” of America into the vision of a communist paradise Frank Marshall Davis plugged into Obama’s brain all those years ago in Hawaii.) And don’t forget that Tail Gunner Joe, while a terrible messenger, was also correct in noting the long path of those fellow travelers that have almost completed their mission here while we allowed the media to end McCarthy’s exposure of so much communist infiltration even back then.
I was a little too young then, but I remember getting my hands on a book called, None Dare Call It Treason sometime in the 60s. I found it frightening.
Hmmm. Apparently John Stormer wrote other books:
John Anthony Stormer (February 9, 1928 – July 10, 2018) was an American Protestant anti-communist author, best known for his 1964 book None Dare Call It Treason. Both a pastor and a Christian school superintendent, his books have sold millions, warning America about the communist infiltration of American society, politics and culture. He has been called by the conservative political commentator, Daniel Pipes, “the man who may be the most popular U.S. backstairs author of all time.”[1] Richard Hofstadter in The Paranoid Style in American Politics called it a “masterful piece of folkish propaganda.”[2]
Stormer’s main book, None Dare Call It Treason, argued that America was losing the cold war because it was being betrayed by its elites, who were pro-communist. The title of the book is derived from an epigram of Sir John Harington: “Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” It was published in 1964, during Barry Goldwater’s bid for the presidency, and sold over one million copies in the first six months. It was distributed in bulk quantities and during the campaign six million copies were circulated.[12] It was immensely influential with the harder-line sections of the American Right[13] and has been described as a cult classic of the New Right.[14] Because it was published by a private imprint, however, it never appeared on best-seller lists.[15]
In 1990, Stormer published None Dare Call It Treason… 25 Years Later, which contained the original book expanded with an equally-long update. In 1989, he also wrote that perestroika and glasnost were merely Soviet propaganda tools, drawing on KGB-defector Anatoliy Golitsyn’s New Lies for Old. In 1984, Golytsin predicted that some degree of retreat from hardline communism would be used by the Soviets as a way to fool the West.
His 1998 book, None Dare Call It Education, was an account of how education reforms are undermining academics and traditional values. Written from the point of view of Republican politics and evangelicalism, it claimed, with the help of statistics, a failure of American public schools to perform their stated mission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Stormer
“I don’t think we have generations of time to fight this and destroy its trajectory.”
Whimsical, I agree. However, even if Trump had multiple terms and did as expected, he could only fix some of what was broken by the left. Those with the idea that in one or two terms (he only has one), Trump or anyone else can repair the damage is wrong. Trump can only do so much and start restoring the trajectory, but he cannot bring us back to better times.
As you say, it will take generations for those being born today to be educated appropriately. But first, that means the state has to release control over the families and school systems. The next group of voters will reappear in 20 years or five Presidential terms.
Everyone must vote against the Democrat Party and start choosing in the primaries Republican legislators who are not corrupt or liars.
“I am afraid that there is not a big enough group of patriotic individuals remaining to save us.” Ma, trust me on this…tens of millions (or quite likely even more) of regular folks, people the idealogical Left considers ‘lessers’ with unknowable numbers of weapons (and lets call them “projectiles”), are ready to step in. They’re just not going to take the literal “first shot” when the firing war begins between Your Betters™ and we ‘lessers’. I hope it doesn’t actually come to that but unfortunately history does tend to eventually repeat itself.
Trump’s associates had direct contact with Russian agents in support of the Russian effort to muck with our election. It would have been dereliction of duty for the IC to ignore such a threat.
But that is not what happened.
Carter Page was a “operational contact” for the CIA for years.
The CIA even gave him a “positive assessment.”
Are you aware that there are koolaid detox centers available for all TDS sufferers and it is free to all who continue to deal with this affliction.
Meantime, more fun stuff from the Left/Progressive types, in line with “The eyes have it” because yes, you can’t unsee this stuff:
“A transgender Kentucky daycare worker who pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct after being accused of abusing an infant while changing her diaper will avoid prison time, a report from Reduxx revealed.
The investigative outlet unearthed court records detailing how Maria Childers, a male who identifies as a woman, was arrested in February 2023 after a co-worker made an anonymous report alleging he had behaved inappropriately with a baby in their care.”
Great picture at the link,
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2024/02/10/court-docs-trans-kentucky-daycare-worker-avoids-prison-time-sexually-abusing-baby/
and:
“Video has emerged online of young children taking part in a parade in Spain wearing burlesque style lingerie, nipple shields, and wigs, with rainbow ‘Pride’ flags attached to their backs.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/outrage-spain-children-paraded-around-lingerie-pride
Disturbing pics at the link.
When Eisenhower recorded the atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp, he knew that in time, there would be some that would try to say that these barbaric acts never happened. We should never forget what Obama, Brennan, Clinton, Comey, Garland and their toadies in the Mainstream Media are trying to do to our country.
What are they trying to do? Hold Trump accountable for his actions? MAGAs love to talk about how bad the “mainstream media” is (ignoring that Fox News is the biggest of them) but it is almost always in the context of news reports that are accurate and dis-favorable to Trump.
Sammy BOT, you took the bait.
They tried to illegally change the course of a Presidential election.
No, they saw a legitimate threat and kept an eye on it in secret. That is the opposite of what you claim. The only effort to illegally change the course of a Presidential election recently was Trump’s attempted coup, which you are totally cool with.
Sammy BOT, once again you took the bait.
What was the legitimate threat?
If it was in secret, how did the NY Times get the story?
Let me guess, you are a recent product of our media/education industry and you are just ignorant of your own ignorance – that is fine as long as you become aware of your addiction and seek help… I’m sure you think that FOX and all the conservatives somehow manage to make biden look like a dementia-addled senile bag of mis-firing synapses too. Keep those conspiracy theories coming and forget what your lying eyes tell you each and every time you observe either biden or harris and totally bury what we know about hunter and his laptop – all creations of the deplorables in your eyes I am certain.
Any normal person would be able to look at all the evidence of misconduct and understand this was an attempt at election interference. That is what the Russia Hoax was. That is what the 51 intelligence officers saying the laptop from hell appears to be a Russian disinformation job. That is what a near total blackout by then Twitter, Facebook and other social media of the laptop from hell. That is what the current lawfare cases against Trump are. The attempts to keep him off the ballot.
It is all election interference.
You are either not bright enough to see it, or as Whimsicalmama aptly puts it, “Please take advantage of free detox centers for koolaid addiction and TDS. Seek help before it is too late.”
“Alleged” my foot! They done it!
You can’t stop what is coming. Nothing can stop what is coming.
The atomic sledgehammer of truth and justice is about to fall, and it will be glorious.
From your mouth to God’s ears!