James Comey

[soonernvolved]

Rep. Devin Nunes: We’re putting together a legal team. Republican members of Congress have to be concerned because if they every spoke to any of these people their records will be released. And I think journalists should be concerned… So state law, I’m a California, so for sure state law, you cannot release somebody’s phone records. So for sure that right has been violated. But we also have to look at the constitutional aspects of this.

[soonernvolved]

dailycaller.com/2019/12/08/joe-biden-hunter-biden-axios/

Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared defensive when Axios co-founder Mike Allen asked him during an “Axios on HBO” interview about his son’s business dealings in Ukraine.



“What’s your understanding of what your son was doing for an extraordinary amount of money?” Allen asked after bringing up Hunter Biden’s high-paying gig on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, a position the Axios co-founder said “sounds fishy” to the “average Joe.”

“I don’t know what he was doing,” Biden responded. “I know he was on the board. I found out he was on the board after he was on the board and that was it.”

“Is that something you want to get to the bottom of?” asked Allen.

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“No, because I trust my son,” said the former vice president.

Allen commented that Biden’s response “doesn’t pass the smell test.”

“Don’t you need to know what’s happening with your family?” he asked. “Don’t you need to put down some guardrails?” (RELATED: Jesse Watters Forces Juan Williams To ‘Give Up’ When He Pulls Out ‘Mutual Legal Assistance’ Treaty With Ukraine)

“Unless there was something on its fact that was wrong,” Biden said, insisting that “nothing on its face” was wrong.


“I mean come on,” Biden responded. “You guys are amazing.”

“You think that everything that happened was kosher?” Allen pressed.

“You know there’s not one single bit of evidence, not one little tiny bit, that anything done was wrong,” Biden insisted. “You know that, but you keep asking me these questions. It’s OK. You’re doing what you have to do, but I’m not worried about it.”

Biden recently called an Iowa voter a “damn liar” when asked about whether he was “selling access” to former President Obama through his son’s overseas business dealings. In October, he became visibly frustrated when a reporter asked him about a potential “conflict of interest” presented by his son’s activities.

[soonernvolved]

dailycaller.com/2019/12/08/dana-bash-forces-nadler-defend-partisan-impeachment/



CNN’s Dana Bash put House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on the spot Sunday, asking him to address his own comments about the impact of a highly partisan impeachment.

Bash, guest-hosting “State of the Union,” introduced an old clip of Nadler by saying, “I want you to listen to something you said during the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998.”

“They must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment substantially supported by one of our major political parties and largely opposed by the other. Such an impeachment would lack legitimacy and produce divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come,” Nadler said in the 1998 clip.

Bash responded to the clip by putting a comparative question to Nadler. “So right now you’re moving forward against impeachment without support from one Congressional Republican. Is it fair to say that this impeachment, in your words back then, will provide divisiveness and bitterness for years to come?” she asked.

“No, I think that what puts bitterness and divisiveness into our politics is the conduct of the president who questions the patriotism of people who don’t agree with him, who calls political opponents human scum, who talks about the fake press, who derides the judiciary, who attacks all of our Democratic institutions,” Nadler responded.

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Nadler continued by immediately questioning the patriotism of the people who didn’t agree with House Democrats, adding, “And, yes, it will be up to — it is up to us now in the House and presumably up to the senators to see if we will and if the senators will put the welfare of the country and patriotism above partisan considerations or not.”

“So you are willing to impeach the president with no Republican votes, correct?” Bash pressed.

“We’re going to impeach the president,” Nadler declared, then corrected by qualifying, “If we impeach the president, we’ll impeach him on adequate and urgent grounds to defend our Democratic Republic.” (RELATED: ‘Courts Take Months And Months’: Nadler Admits He’ll Keep Impeachment Out Of Court For The Sake Of Speed)

“And if there are no Republican votes — so be it?” Bash asked again.


“It is up to them if they want to be patriots or partisans,” Nadler concluded, once again appearing to do exactly what he had accused Trump of doing — questioning the patriotism of those who did not agree with him.

[soonernvolved]

www.dailywire.com/news/cruz-shreds-far-left-journalists-publications-on-ukraine-meddling-in-2016-election

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) ripped far-left journalists and news publications on Sunday for continuing to push a misleading narrative that falsely claims that Ukraine did not attempt to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Cruz appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with far-left host Chuck Todd, who asked Cruz, “Do you believe Ukraine meddled in the American election in 2016?”

“I do,” Cruz responded. “And I think there’s considerable evidence of that.”


Todd, stunned by Cruz’s remarks, immediately shifted to bringing up dirt and prior conflict between Cruz and President Trump in what was an apparent attempt to get Cruz to not defend Trump’s comments about Ukraine.


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“Look, this is – Senator, this sort of strikes me as odd. Because you went through a primary campaign with this president. He launched a birtherism campaign against you,” Todd said. “He went after your faith. He threatened to ‘spill the beans’ about your wife about something. He pushed a National Enquirer story, which we now know he had a real relationship with the editors of the National Enquirer –”

“And Chuck, I appreciate you dragging up all that garbage,” Cruz responded. “That’s very kind of you. Go ahead.”

Todd responded, “No, but Senator, is it – let me ask you this. Is it not possible that this president is capable of creating a false narrative about somebody in order to help him politically?”


“Except that’s not what happened,” Cruz responded. “The president released the transcript of the phone call. You can read what was said on the phone call. And let me point out –”

“Look, on the evidence, Russia clearly interfered in our election,” Cruz continued. “But here’s the game the media is playing: Because Russia interfered, the media pretends nobody else did. Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election. The sitting ambassador from Ukraine wrote an op-ed blasting Donald Trump during the election season.”

Cruz persisted in getting his point across despite numerous interruptions from Todd, saying, “Chuck, Chuck, I understand that you want to dismiss Ukrainian interference, because, A) they were trying to get Hillary Clinton elected, which is what the vast majority of the media wanted, anyway, and B) it’s inconvenient for the narrative. You know, it’s hysterical. Two years ago, there was article after article after article in the mainstream media about Ukrainian interference in the elections. But now, the Democrats have no evidence of a crime, no evidence of violating the law. And so suddenly, Ukrainian interference is treated as, the media clutches their pearls. ‘Oh, my goodness. You can’t say that.’ Last week, Chuck, you called Senator John Kennedy, basically, a stooge for Putin.”

“I have been in multiple briefings. I have been in multiple briefings, year after year after year, about foreign interference in our election,” Cruz continued. “Russia has tried to interfere in our elections. China’s tried to interfere in our elections. North Korea’s tried to interfere in our elections. Ukraine has tried to interfere in our elections. This is not new. 2016’s not the first year they did it. And they’re going to keep trying. And so we need to be strong in dealing with it.”


“But the media needs to actually report facts. This is a kangaroo court in the House,” Cruz concluded. “They’re going to impeach, not because they have the evidence, but because they hate the president, want to do the election. But it’s going to go to the Senate. It’s going to go nowhere. I think the American people know this is a waste of time. And this is Democrats putting on a circus.”

Many of the claims that Cruz made are substantiated by a 2017 report from Politico that is titled: “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire: Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.”

The report details Ukraine’s attempts to meddle in the election in a manner to harm Trump and boost Clinton, and no media organizations have disputed the accuracy of Politico’s report.

Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Ingersoll noted in a tweet at the start of the month the basic strategy of how the Democrats and media are deceiving the American public about the Ukraine-meddling story.

Ingersoll’s tweet was directed at former Obama official and current CNN reporter Jim Sciutto, who wrote a thread on Twitter trying to debunk the claims that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

“Zero mention of Chalupa, Nellie Ohr, Fusion GPS, or the trials in Ukraine … of course,” Ingersoll wrote. “Similar strategy all over the wider media/democratic party: focus on bogus server theory, omit the rest. Certainly not close to similar in scope, but at least address it.”

Cruz went on the slam other far-left journalists and media publications who tried to inaccurately portray his comments from the interview.

CNBC reporter John Harwood wrote: “Ted Cruz disseminating propaganda fabricated by the Kremlin to weaken the Unites States.”

Cruz responded, “Rabid partisan @johnjharwood was so biased for Dems in 2016 that he got NBC fired from moderating GOP debates. @kenvogel – a current NY Times & former Politico reporter – reported on Ukrainian “efforts to sabotage Trump.” Harwood claims saying that makes you a Russian asset. #Pravda”

Cruz added, “John, this is a flat-out lie & you know it. You’re not supposed to be a partisan hack; you claim to be a “journalist.” Report on these FACTS: .”

Cruz also called out Axios, a news publication that smeared Nikki Haley on Friday, which wrote on Twitter: “NEW: Sen. Ted Cruz said on ‘Meet the Press’ that Ukraine ‘blatantly interfered’ in the 2016 election, repeating a conspiracy theory that experts warn has been promoted by Russian intelligence services.”

Cruz responded: “@axios your bias is showing. Stop behaving like Schiff’s press secretary. Stop ignoring facts to push Dem narrative. This is why nobody trusts the media. Here are several FACTS that media chooses to ignore: (1) Hunter Biden was paid $83k a month from Ukraine’s biggest gas co.”

“FACT 2: VP Biden bragged publicly about withholding $1 billion in aid until Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma, the company paying his son $1mm/yr. Since MSM calls this a “conspiracy theory” & ignores facts, WATCH the actual video:”

“FACT 3: Here’s what Politico reported on 1/11/17: ‘Ukrainian govt officials TRIED TO HELP Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption…. and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they HELPED Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.’ Axios, was Politico pushing a ‘conspiracy theory?'”

“FACT 4: On 8/28/16, the Financial Times reported: ‘Kiev’s wider political leadership [did] something they would never have attempted before: INTERVENE, however indirectly, in a U.S. election.’ Axios, was the Financial Times pushing a ‘conspiracy theory’? @axios & @chucktodd are deliberately LYING. They know there’s significant evidence of Ukrainian corruption, but they refuse to report it. When anyone points to actual facts, they scream ‘Russian conspiracy.’ This isn’t journalism; it’s partisan propaganda. Chuck knows better.”

Jennifer Rubin, a far-left blogger for The Washington Post who claims that she is conservative, wrote an op-ed immediately after Cruz’s appearance on “Meet The Press,” titled: “It has come to this: Ted Cruz is Putin’s stooge”

Cruz responded to a tweet by Nathan Brand from the NRSC that showed numerous headlines from The Washington Post that claimed Republicans were Russia assets, tweeting, “Definition: ‘Freud considered that, in projection, thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings that cannot be accepted as one’s own are dealt with by being placed in the outside world and attributed to someone else.’ Hmm, does that mean @jeffbezos is a ‘Russian asset’?”

[soonernvolved]

www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/09/fusion-gps-chief-saw-russian-lawyer-before-and-after-her-trump-tower-meeting/

Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, admitted in his recently published book he met two times on the same day with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who led the infamous Trump Tower meeting.

Simpson said he met Veselnitskaya those two times the same day as the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, seeing her in New York before and in D.C. after Veselnitskaya’s Manhattan confab with the top brass of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.




Simpson also admitted that present at a dinner he had with Veselnitskaya the same day as the Trump Tower meeting was Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, who also attended the Trump Tower meeting.

Simpson claimed that as “incredible as it would later seem to Republican investigators,” neither Veselnitskaya nor Akhmetshin “ever mentioned to Simpson that they had sandwiched an encounter with the brains trust of the Trump campaign between that New York court date and their D.C. dinner.”

Fusion GPS was behind the anti-Trump dossier and was paid for its work by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee via the Perkins Coie law firm.

Veselnitskaya and Ahkmetshin worked closely with Fusion GPS on a legal matter involving the Russian-linked Prevezon Holdings Ltd., a firm that had settled a case in the U.S. involving the purchase of real estate with allegedly laundered money, accusations that centered around the Magnitsky Act.



The Magnitsky Act was the very topic of the Trump Tower meeting, yet Simpson claims he was not told by the two Russians about the meeting that day.

Instead he says he traveled to New York on June 9, 2016 to attend the hearing on Prevezon with BakerHostetler lawyers and Veselnitskaya.

That same day, Simpson took a train back to D.C. and had dinner with both Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin.

He writes:

After the hearing, Simpson dashed to Penn Station to catch a train home. As he did so, unbeknownst to him, Veselnitskaya was heading uptown for a far more consequential appointment: a meeting in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner to deliver what the Russians had promised the Trump campaign would be Kremlin dirt on Hillary Clinton.

This session between the Russian lawyer and the top brass of the Trump campaign would remain unknown to Fusion, the press, and investigators until news of it broke more than a year later, in July 2017.

…

After meeting the Trump campaign brass that Friday, Veselnitskaya traveled to Washington to meet with her American lawyers, who had organized a social dinner at a tapas restaurant called Barcelona Wine Bar, in the neighborhood of Cathedral Heights. Simpson attended. So did an impish, Russian-born, D.C.-based lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin, who, it was later revealed, had accompanied Veselnitskaya to the Trump Tower meeting.

Simpson got the day wrong. June 9, 2016 was actually a Thursday. He made the disclosures in his recently published book by written with Fusion GPS co-founder Peter Fritsch and titled Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump

Simpson’s encounters with both Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin were not the only unusual meetings the same day as the Trump Tower confab. In testimony, Akhmetshin further revealed that the same day of the Trump Tower meeting he met with a Clinton associate after the confab and possibly also just before.




In his senate testimony, Akhmetshin related a personal connection to Clinton via attorney Ed Lieberman, whose late wife Evelyn previously served as Clinton’s chief of staff when she was First Lady. Evelyn Lieberman also served as Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, and famously transferred Monica Lewinsky out of the White House to the Defense Department.

The New York Times previously reported that Lieberman in 1998 arranged for Akhmitshi’s position at “an organization pushing what he described as a pro-democracy agenda for Kazakhstan.” Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says he met Akhmetshin through Lieberman.

In his Senate testimony, Akhmetshin described taking an Acela train to New York the day of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, and says that Lieberman “may” have been with him on the train.

Akhmetshin says his dealings with Lieberman in New York that day were “personal” and centered on a scholarship program that he claims Lieberman started. “And he was in New York that day to discuss arrangements with Metropolitan Museum with kind of taking care of that scholarship award,” Akhmetshi stated.

Akhmetshin says that while he was in New York, he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, who told him about the scheduled meeting that day at Trump Tower, but she didn’t say anything about him attending.

He claims that after he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, she called him and asked him to attend the Trump Tower meeting, but she didn’t suggest any role he would play at the meeting or why he should attend.



After the meeting at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin says he went to dinner and a play with Lieberman, and the subject of the meeting that same day did not come up in his conversations with Lieberman at dinner or during the play. Akhmetshin also stated in the testimony that he was not asked to keep the meeting confidential.

In other words, Akhmetshin is claiming that he attended a meeting at the campaign headquarters of Clinton’s presidential challenger with that challenger’s son and other top Trump staffers, and that same night Akhmetshin did not even mention the meeting to his friend Lieberman, a Clinton associate.

He also said he had drinks that same night with another “friend” but could not remember who that friend was. It was not immediately clear how Akhmetshin went to dinner and a play with Lieberman, ostensibly in New York, and also made it to D.C. to attend the dinner that Simpson relates in his book.

Later in his testimony, when Akhmetshin described disclosing another matter to journalist friends, he was questioned about his claim that he didn’t tell Lieberman that same night about the Trump Jr. meeting, yet he seemingly evidenced a lack of discretion with reporters.

During further questioning in Senate testimony, Akhmetshin admited to possibly telling Clinton associate Lieberman about the Trump Tower meeting, but says he may have told him on another day and not the night they met the same day as the meeting.

Meanwhile, all Trump Tower meeting participants agree the confab focused largely on the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russian officials accused of involvement in the death of a Russian tax accountant, as well as talk about a Russian tax evasion scheme and alleged connections to the Democratic National Committee.



Veselnitskaya, who led the meeting, told the Wall Street Journal that she approached Russian real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, whom she was representing, to help set up a meeting with the Trump campaign as part of her efforts opposing the Magnitsky Act. She was also looking to spread information about Bill Browder, the primary supporter of the Magnitsky Act, she said.

Fusion GPS investigated Browder for another client and their findings were used in the Prevezon trial.

Rob Goldstone, the English publicist and music manager for Agalarov’s son, admitted that when he wrote Donald Trump Jr. to set up the meeting with a Russian attorney at Trump Tower he used deliberately hyperbolic language to ensure that the meeting took place. In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed in full by Breitbart News, Goldstone further said that he believes the meeting was a “bait and switch” by a Russian lobbyist seeking a meeting on another matter by misleadingly claiming to be bringing the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.

[soonernvolved]

www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/09/live-updates-house-judiciary-committee-holds-second-impeachment-hearing/

9:11 AM: Nadler begins his opening statement accusing Trump of betraying his oath of office by placing his interests above the country’s. Nadler says his oath compels him to “come to the defense of the nation” even if it may cost him his job or is inconvenient. He says the framers warned “us against would-be monarchs, fake populists, and charismatic demagogues.” He says the framers knew the biggest threat could come within via an executive who puts his interests ahead of the country’s. He accuses Trump of putting himself before the country. Nadler keeps coughing. Nadler also claims that impeachment is a “serious” and “solemn” undertaking. Nadler defensively claims that the House is speedily moving forward with impeachment because “the integrity of our next election is at stake”–“nothing could be more urgent.” He says Trump’s conduct represents a “continuing risk to the country.”

9:08 AM: Nadler begins the hearing after noting quorum is present. Nadler now being heckled by a protester who is escorted out of the committee room.

8:45 AM: After the Intelligence Committee counsels (Berry Berke, majority; Stephen Castor, minority) and the Judiciary Committee counsels (Daniel Goldman, majority; Castor, minority) make their presentations, Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will get 45 minutes of questioning followed by Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins (D-GA), who will also get 45 minutes. Then, like the last hearing, each of the Committee Members will get five minutes of questioning.

[soonernvolved]

www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-says-he-wont-look-further-into-hunters-ukrainian-business-dealings-i-trust-my-son/

Former vice president Joe Biden continued to defend his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine during an interview Sunday, maintaining that Hunter did not act unethically while denying any knowledge of the specifics of Hunter’s role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

Biden went on to say he would not look further into the matter, telling Axios co-founder Mike Allen that he does not think an investigation is necessary “because I trust my son.”

“There’s not one single bit of evidence — not one little tiny bit — to suggest anything done was wrong,” Biden responded. “ . . . I’m not worried about it. Look, the American public knows me.”

President Trump and Republicans have been outspoken in alleging that the Bidens engaged in corrupt activity as Hunter served on the Burisma board while his father served as point man for Ukraine relations in the Obama White House. Last month, senators Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and Lindsey Graham all requested State Department documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ascertain any interactions between Hunter Biden and State Department officials.

“I’m doing this because somebody needs to do it,” Graham told host Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio when asked about the investigation he is conducting. “We’re not going to allow a system in America where only one side gets looked at.”

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Graham claims that Joe Biden “held a series of phone calls with former Ukrainian President Petro Porosehnko regarding previous demands to dismiss Prosecutor General Shokin for alleged corruption,” after which Shokin, who had seized property from Burisma’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky, was fired. Former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker told the House in testimony that Biden “was representing U.S. policy at the time,” and that it was widely assumed “that Shokin was not doing his job as a prosecutor general. He was not pursuing corruption cases.”

Other reports paint a negative picture of Hunter Biden’s influence with Burisma, particularly regarding corruption investigations.

Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a Ukrainian businessman and former politician who knows Zlochevsky, Burisma’s founder, told Reuters that Zlochevsky hired Biden in 2014 “to protect [the company].” Other sources called Biden “a ceremonial figure,” and alleged Burisma documents show payments of $83,333 a month to Biden for “consulting services.”

According to internal State Department email exchanges obtained by journalist John Solomon and later reported by the Wall Street Journal, a DC-based consulting firm representing Burisma Holdings used the Biden name in 2016 to leverage a meeting between the gas company and State Department officials.

[kcrufnek]

Nunes says that his call records don't match those released by Schiff. When does Schiff's actions become crimes?

And "impeachable treason"? WTF

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OAN reporter Chanel Rion has been traveling with Rudy Giuliani and reporting on his investigations in Hungary and Kiev, Ukraine.
In her report released on Sunday night Chanel Rion mentioned that Ukrainian officials showed her six criminal cases involving the Bidens, Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

[soonernvolved]

Before the two lawyers and “witnesses” were able to deliver their testimony several Republican committee members interrupted the proceedings to question Chairman Nadler about the minority day to call witnesses.

On Friday GOP Ranking member Doug Collins (R-GA) sent off a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) demanding the Republican minority hearing day before the committee decides on articles of impeachment.
This is their right. Republicans are owed a day to call in their own witnesses.
Rep. Collins called on Nadler to contact his office immediately to schedule the GOP day to call witnesses.





Of course, Democrats fear a day of minority witnesses will destroy their complete sham of an impeachment process based on lies and hearsay.

[soonernvolved]

Back to Nadler's Impeachment sham:

11:15 AM: Goldman, trying to make the case that Trump has engaged in a pattern of behavior, says the phone call with the president of Ukraine was neither the first nor last time Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine. He later quotes Ambassador Sondland’s testimony that “everyone was in the loop.” Goldman says the facts about the Biden investigation didn’t matter to Trump because he only wanted the political benefit from an investigation announcement.

10:55 AM: Goldman claims that Trump presents a “clear and present danger” the national security and the country’s free and fair elections. Goldman hammering the point that Putin benefits from the “baseless conspiracy theory” that Ukraine interfered in the 2020 elections.

Gohmert apparently fed up and having none of it:

10:43 AM: Goldman says he is here today because Trump abused the office of the presidency when he directed a “months-long campaign” to solicit foreign help in the 2020 election. He accuses Trump of applying increasing pressure on the president of Ukraine to make a public announcement about a Biden investigation. He also accuses Trump of an unprecedented campaign to obstruct Congress.

He, like other Democrats, praises the “courageous public servants”:

10:29 AM: Castor emphasizes Ukraine’s president has said multiple times that he felt no pressure from Trump to investigate the Bidens in exchange for aid. Castor says that at the time of the July 25th call, senior executives in Ukraine did not even know that aid was paused, so there was no “leveraging play.”

10:17 AM: Castor says Democrats focused on “obstruction of justice” after their Russia collusion narrative fizzled and didn’t move the impeachment needle. He says investigations take time and there is no “easy button” and accuses Democrats of blocking all sorts of information and not seeking information that would make the process fairer. Castor says Democrats have refused to negotiate in good faith with the Trump administration about witnesses/documents. Castor repeats Prof. Turley’s remarks about how this impeachment process could set a dangerous precedent. Castor says this process relies on ambiguous facts and presumptions and speculation.

10:12 AM: Castor emphatically states that Trump’s actions do not show he committed high crimes and misdemeanors. He says to impeach a president that 63 million people voted for due to eight lines in a transcript is baloney. Castor points out all of the instances in which Democrats wanted to impeach Trump dating back years (Green, Tlaib, et al.). He says the “obsession” with impeaching Trump is reflecting in how the the House committees have used their subpoena power. He says Democrats subpoenaed Michael Cohen and demanded Trump’s personal tax returns. He says they also wanted Trump’s bank records going back ten years that would cover every withdrawal and credit card swipe of every member of Trump’s family, including his minor child.

10:07 AM: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) says Berke’s remarks should be stricken from the record because they are “unparliamentary” because he was talking about Trump’s motives and characters and saying Trump is “disloyal” to America. Roll call vote on motion to table. It will, of course, pass along partisan lines.

10:05 AM: Berke claims Trump believes Trump can act as if he were above the law and put his personal and political interests above the nation’s interests and national security interests and integrity of its elections. He says we have an election coming up and that’s a reason not to postpone the impeachment discussion. He says history and future generations will be the judge, saying his sons and grandchildren will be reading about this.



9:50 AM: Berke spending his time rehashing all of the same arguments re: Trump/Ukraine about why Trump abused his power and engaged in a “quid pro quo.” Berke says none of Trump’s excuses “hold water” and have been refuted by testimony. Berke says they have not heard from all of the witnesses/seen all of the documents because Trump has obstructed the investigation. He says Trump is “replaying” the playbook from the Mueller investigation. Berke says because of the “true American patriots” who “told the story” and produced documents, they found out Trump abused his power and put his reelection interests above the country’s. “No one is above the law,” Berke says. “Not even the president.”

Berke says there is an “urgency” because Trump’s actions deal with an election that is coming up in the next year.

Berke again plays Trump’s Article II remarks to hammer him on the “abuse of power” theme and rehashing talking points from the left that have been said over and over again for the last couple of weeks.



9:35 AM: Berke (majority) and Castor (minority) get 30 minutes apiece now.

Berke dramatically says his son asked him if a president has to be a good person. He says he told his son that it is not a requirement that a president be a good person but the Constitution made clear that the “president be a person who does not abuse his power.” Berke says what is extraordinary is that Trump’s conduct violated everything the founders were concerned about. He says the “evidence is overwhelming” that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a “political rival.” He says it’s hard to imagine that “anybody could dispute” that Trump’s actions are not impeachable offenses. He says Trump’s actions are impeachable offenses that threaten our rule of law and threaten our institutions and republic. Berke says Trump’s excuses “do not make sense” and keeps repeating that Trump put his own interests above the nation’s.

9:30 AM: Biggs keeps raising a point of order about the lack of a minority hearing day.

9:20 AM: Collins now ready to give his opening statement. Collins says this will be known as the “focus group impeachment” because “we don’t have a crime” and “nobody understands what the majority is trying to do.” Collins says the “focus group impeachment” takes words and asks people how we can use them to impeach Trump. Collins again hitting his “clock and the calendar” theme. Collins said Pelosi took “the thrill out of the room” when she instructed Democrats last week to write the articles of impeachment. Collins says the motive for the “sham impeachment” is Democrats lost to Trump in 2016 and don’t want him to win in 2020 under a booming economy. He accuses Democrats of forcing a fact-pattern against a president they don’t like. He says the “entire case is built on a presumption.” Collins also notes that Schiff, the Chair of the Intelligence Committee, is absent today and accuses him of making up a “fairy tale” when reading the Ukraine phone call transcript. Collins calls it “massive malpractice” and says Democrats don’t even care what’s in the transcript or the fact that the aid was released to Ukraine. Collins again points out the committee is not hearing from any fact witnesses. Collins says the institution that he loves is in danger with committees being used as rubber stamps. Collins said Pelosi ordered Democrats to write the articles of impeachment after one day of hearings–“facts be damned.”

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johnsolomonreports.com/ig-report-provides-compelling-evidence-fbi-misled-fisa-court-in-russia-case-sources-say/

The evidence that the judges were misled is so sweeping that it could provide grounds, if Attorney General William Barr chooses, to withdraw the FBI’s application for the surveillance warrants that began in October 2016 to target ex-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the sources added.

“The evidence of false statements, false information, deception through omission is going to raise an important debate about FISA,” one source told me.

The report is expected to conclude the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in 2016 was adequately predicated but that its subsequent reliance on the so-called Steele dossier and execution of FISA warrants to assist the probe were problematic.

That reliance became even more troubling in early 2017 when the FBI conducted an interview with one of Christopher Steele’s sources that raised further concerns about the reliability of a dossier that was funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

One question, the sources said, is whether FBI officials with access to the facts failed to adequately divulge issues in the case to those officials who signed the warrant, which was approved Oct 21, 2016 and renewed three times in 2017.

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dailycaller.com/2019/12/09/strzok-mccabe-clinesmith-ohr/

The Justice Department’s watchdog is set to release a report that will focus on the activities of a small handful of now-former FBI officials during the Trump-Russia probe.
In an ironic twist, several of those officials have themselves come under scrutiny for a variety of alleged misdeeds.
Here is a list of the officials likely to face scrutiny in the watchdog report.
The Justice Department inspector general’s report on FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign is expected to focus on the activities of a small handful of FBI officials who led the investigation into possible collusion with Russia.

Nearly all of the FBI executives who handled the investigation have left the bureau. Some have been fired. Others have resigned under intense scrutiny from the media and White House. Several have become the subject of federal investigations themselves, and two have joined CNN as legal analysts.


Peter Strzok, former deputy chief of counterintelligence

FIRED

Strzok was fired from the FBI on Aug. 10, 2018, over anti-Trump text messages that he exchanged with Lisa Page, a now-former FBI attorney with whom he was having an affair.

Strzok led both the Hillary Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations. He opened the latter July 31, 2016.

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He joined the special counsel’s team after it was formed, but was removed July 27, 2017, after Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, informed special counsel Robert Mueller of the text messages.

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok testifies before a joint committee hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill July 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. While involved in the probe into Hillary ClintonÕs use of a private email server in 2016, Strzok exchanged text messages with FBI attorney Lisa Page that were critical of Trump. After learning about the messages, Mueller removed Strzok from his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok on Capitol Hill July 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Strzok was transferred to the FBI’s human resources department. The reasoning for his demotion and the existence of the text messages was not revealed until Dec. 2, 2017.

Horowitz, the inspector general, said in a June 2018 report about the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation that Strzok’s text messages “potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations.”

He has sued the Justice Department for unlawful termination.


Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director

FIRED

McCabe was fired March 16, 2018, stemming from an investigation into his authorization of media leaks in October 2016. He is reportedly the subject of a federal grand jury investigation.

The Justice Department inspector general and FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility found that McCabe displayed a lack of candor regarding his authorization to his top lawyer, Lisa Page, to speak to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the status of an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.


Andrew McCabe prepares to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 11, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

As FBI #2, McCabe played a key role in the Trump-Russia investigation. After James Comey was fired as FBI director May 9, 2017, McCabe directed the FBI to formally open investigations into President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (RELATED: CNN Hires Andrew McCabe)

Despite his checkered past, CNN hired McCabe as a law enforcement analyst Aug. 23.

Lisa Page, former counsel to McCabe

RESIGNED

Page resigned from the FBI on May 4, 2018, after months of scrutiny over her text messages with Strzok.

Page worked on the Trump-Russia investigation, and also served a short stint on the special counsel’s team. Her departure from the FBI and special counsel’s office does not appear to be directly tied to the scandal involving her text messages.


Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page arrives for her House Judiciary Committee deposition REUTERS/Leah Millis

James Baker, former FBI general counsel

RESIGNED

Baker served as FBI general counsel through the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations. He left the bureau in May 2018. He has also been the subject of a federal investigation regarding media leaks, reportedly about a topic that does not involve the Clinton or Trump investigations.

Baker is also a CNN legal analyst.

Bill Priestap, former chief of counterintelligence

RETIRED

Priestap served as Strzok’s boss at the FBI, where he managed the Trump-Russia investigation. Priestap left his counterintelligence post in December 2018 and retired from the FBI in April 2019.

He has not faced the same level of scrutiny as other FBI officials who worked the Russia investigation, and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

James Comey, former FBI director

FIRED

Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. The firing was a key focus of the special counsel’s investigation into whether Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia probe.

Rod Rosenstein, who served as deputy attorney general, signed off on Comey’s firing, but wrote in a letter at the time that he disagreed with Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation.

Since his ouster, Comey has written a book about his tenure at the FBI. He has also been an outspoken critic of Trump.

Kevin Clinesmith, former FBI attorney

REPORTEDLY UNDER INVESTIGATION

Clinesmith was the FBI’s top lawyer on the Russia probe in the early part of 2017. He is reportedly under federal investigation for altering documents that were used in applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Carter Page.

Clinesmith was identified as FBI Attorney #2 in Horowitz’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. Clinesmith sent text messages criticizing Trump after his election win. In one, he wrote “Viva le Resistance.”

Clinesmith took part in at least one interview in February 2017 with George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide. The FBI lawyer worked on the special counsel’s team through February 2018, when he was removed because of his text messages.

Bruce Ohr, former associate deputy attorney general

REASSIGNED

Ohr served as principal deputy assistant attorney, one of the highest career positions at the Justice Department, until December 2017. He was transferred to a different role after it was learned that he was the FBI’s liaison to Christopher Steele.

Former Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney General Bruce Ohr enters an elevator after testifying behind closed doors before the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform Committees on his alleged contacts with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled a "dossier" of allegations linking Donald Trump to Russia, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Aug. 28, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
Former Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney General Bruce Ohr on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Aug. 28, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked as a contractor in 2016 for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the Steele dossier.

Ohr had a longstanding relationship with Steele when they met in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2016, to discuss the former British spy’s investigation into Donald Trump. Steele told Ohr, who was accompanied by his wife at the meeting, that he had collected information on Trump’s possible ties to the Kremlin. Ohr briefed Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page on the information days later.

The FBI would tap Ohr after the November 2016 election to maintain contact with Steele. The bureau had cut ties with the dossier author Oct. 31, 2016, because he had unauthorized contacts with the media. Ohr had at least a dozen contacts with Steele, according to documents released by the FBI.

The Justice Department has claimed Ohr was not demoted over his contacts with Steele. Instead, the agency has said he was given a job that did not require him to visit to the White House.

Christopher Steele, former FBI confidential human source

Steele has never been an FBI employee, but the former British spy has worked as a paid FBI informant since leaving British government service in 2009. He served as an unpaid confidential human source for the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.

The FBI relied on information from Steele’s dossier, which was funded by Democrats, in application to obtain surveillance warrants against Carter Page.


Christopher Steele in London (VICTORIA JONES/GETTY IMAGES)

The FBI officially cut ties with Steele on Oct. 31, 2016, after discovering that he had disclosed his work with the FBI to a journalist with Mother Jones. Investigators established a back channel to Steele through Bruce Ohr after Trump’s surprise election win. (RELATED: Will The FISA Report Address Whether Christopher Steele Lied To The FBI, As GOP Senators Alleged?)

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham referred Steele to the FBI and Justice Department for possible prosecution Jan. 4, 2018, alleging the former spy might have lied to the bureau about his media contacts.

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www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/09/democrat-counsel-barry-berke-deceptively-edited-video-impeachment/

Barry Berke, the counsel for House Democrats at Monday’s impeachment hearing at the House Judiciary Committee, played the same deceptively-edited video clip of President Donald Trump that Democrats had used in last week’s hearing of legal experts.

Burke played a clip of the president saying, “Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”


He did not play the full context — or even the full sentence.

As Breitbart News noted last Friday, the clip was taken from a speech by the president on July 23 to a Turning Point USA youth group conference in Washington, DC.

The president was specifically discussing his power under Article II to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller — which he had not done — just as he had discussed that power in a June interview on ABC News in similar terms.

Mueller was due to testify in Congress the day after the Turning Point USA conference.

The president’s full remarks, in context, were:

… 500 subpoenas. They did everything. Their collusion? No collusion. They have no collusion [Applause] Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president, but I don’t even talk about that. Because they did a report and there was no obstruction. After looking at it, our great Attorney General read it, he’s a total professional, he said, “There’s nothing here, there’s no obstruction.” So they referenced, no obstruction. So you have no collusion, no obstruction. And yet it goes on. And they think this is helping them. I personally think it’s hurting them. A lot of people think it’s very bad for them. But it just goes on. But I wrote something out this morning on a thing called Twitter, whether we like it or not [Applause] it is a good way of getting the word out. Because I saw Mueller was testifying, yeah.

Berke noted that the president was “responding to the prior investigation by [the] Department of Justice,” but claimed that Trump believed, quoting President Richard M. Nixon, “If the president does it, it is not illegal.”

He said that Trump “has said the same thing,” then played the clip.

Berke then claimed that Trump was declaring that “he has the right to do whatever he wants as president,” linking it to Nixon’s remarks and omitting Trump’s context, which concerned his specific power to hire and fire executive branch employees.

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12:01 PM: Hearing resumes, and Castor says the evidence does not support the claims Democrats are trying to make about Ukraine. He says there is no clear evidence that Trump “acted with malicious intent.” He says the record is “riddled with hearsay, presumptions, and speculations.” He points to “conflicting and ambiguous” facts throughout the record. He notes that Prof. Turley said last week the record is heavy on presumption and thin on proof. Castor says there are legitimate questions about Burisma and the Bidens and Democrats should not dismiss them. Castor says Burisma brought Hunter Biden on its board as part of a “broad effort” to bring in well-connected Democrats at a time when they were facing investigations by Obama administration officials. Castor says at the time Hunter Biden joined the board, Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point person re: Ukraine. Castor points out even the Washington Post said it was nepotism at best and malicious at worst.

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DOJ IG report:

www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf

DOJ OIG Releases Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the release of a Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) findings are summarized in the report’s Executive Summary.

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www.zerohedge.com/political/horowitz-report-reveals-fbi-made-major-mistakes-investigating-trump-process-untainted

DOJ Inspector General Releases Report On FBI Conduct, Finds "Clear Abuse" Of FISA Process

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released his report into the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election. The report concludes that despite nearly everybody investigating President Trump hating him - and evidence was fabricated by at least one FBI attorney, and they misrepresented Christopher Steele's credentials, none of their bias 'tainted' the investigation, and the underlying process was sound.

That said, Horowitz faults the FBI for "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in their applications to secretly monitor Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, and agents "failed to meet the basic obligation" to ensure the applications were "scrupulously accurate."

Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, says that the report "now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken."

Horowitz also found that the Steele dossier provided "probably cause" to spy on Carter Page, and that the FISA application "drew heavily...upon the Steele reporting to support the government's position that Page" was a Russian agent.

Rep. Devin Nunes suggested that the DOJ IG report makes clear that "Republican FISA abuse memo from February 2018 was accurate and actually understated the FISA abuse the dirty cops engaged in."

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1:01 PM: Berke is trying to establish that Trump did not raise questions about the Bidens until Biden officially entered the presidential race. Castor says he doesn’t know Trump did or did not.

12:55 PM: Castor says he believes the record does not support the claim that Trump asked the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden, Trump’s political rival. Goldman says he doesn’t think there is any other conclusion.

12:47 PM: Nadler asks Goldman if the investigative committees concluded if the president used his office for personal gain. Goldman says they did. Nadler wants to know if the evidence showed that Trump compromised the security of the United States and Goldman predictably answers that it did. Berke, despite objections from Gohmert about being a judge and a witness, is now questioning Castor. He asks Castor if Biden was a leading contender to face Trump in 2020, and Castor disagrees, saying it was too early in the process. Gohmer is outraged that a witness (Berke) is now a questioner. He says there is no rule or precedent about this. Gohmert says Berke is “inappropriate.”

12:46 PM: Nadler gets 45 minutes to question followed by Collins, who will also get 45 minutes.

12:45 PM: Castor says Trump has released and declassified the call transcript with the president of Ukraine and notes the Dems’ narrative ignores “any evidence that is not helpful to their case” like the many statements made by the Ukrainian officials that the president of Ukraine did not feel strong-armed and that there was no “quid pro quo.” Castor says Schiff should testify like Ken Starr and Robert Mueller.

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The Justice Department’s internal watchdog found requests to conduct surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser were rife with errors and omissions, but also found something far more fascinating.


The Department’s inspector general said in a new report that a bogus dossier put together by counterintelligence specialist[ Christopher Steele, a former head of the Russia Desk for British intelligence (MI6), played “a central and essential role in the decision by FBI OGC to support the request for FISA surveillance targeting Carter Page, as well as the FBI’s ultimate decision to seek the FISA order.”

FISA stands for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which created a secret court by which federal officials can petition a judge to conduct physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of “foreign intelligence information” between “foreign powers” and “agents of foreign powers” suspected of espionage or terrorism.


The Steele Dossier included allegations that members of the Trump campaign joined forces with Russian operatives to interfere in the 2016 election to help President Trump win. The report — partially funded by the Clinton campaign — also claims Russia sought to damage Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. And the report included a claim that Trump was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013.

The DOJ report, released Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, laid out 17 separate inaccuracies across three surveillance applications, including the one dealing with Carter Page, who served as foreign-policy adviser to Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign.

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According to the report the FBI was spying on at least four Trump officials and not just two.
Via Jim Jordan:

“We thought they spied on two Americans, we now know it was FOUR. The Inspector General’s report confirms what many of us feared: James Comey’s FBI ignored guidelines and rules in spying on President Trump’s campaign in 2016. e now know that within one week of the investigation opening, the FBI was surveilling the campaign and four specific individuals associated with it. The U.S. government’s powerful tools designed and authorized for international intelligence gathering were deployed to monitor the activities of a Presidential campaign. This is a grave matter that should deeply trouble Americans of all political stripes. There are many lingering questions, and I expect both @repjerrynadler and @repmaloney to convene hearings with Inspector General Horowitz as soon as possible.”

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The DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz finally released his report on FISA abuses on Monday.

The report revealed what we knew to be true all along — the FBI defrauded the FISA court and purposely omitted exculpatory information from the FISA judges in order to obtain FOUR FISA warrants on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

Horowitz, however concluded that the FBI investigation into Trump was not politically motivated — and John Durham hit back.

US Attorney from Connecticut John Durham immediately released a statement following the release of the FISA report and disputed Horowitz’s findings and conclusions.

“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/statement-us-attorney-john-h-durham

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www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-ig-report-finds-fbi-fell-far-short-made-serious-errors-in-fisa-application-to-surveil-trump-campaign

Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged FBI misconduct during its surveillance of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign found that the FBI “fell far short” and made “serious” errors in obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications that it used to surveil the campaign.

“We concluded that the failures described above and in this report represent serious performance failures by the supervisory and non-supervisory agents with responsibility over the FISA applications,” the investigation found. “These failures prevented [Office of Intelligence (OI)] from fully performing its gatekeeper function and deprived the decision makers the opportunity to make fully informed decisions. Although some of the factual misstatements and omissions we found in this review were arguably more significant than others, we believe that all of them taken together resulted in FISA applications that made it appear that the information supporting probable cause was stronger than was actually the case.”

“We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures,” the investigation found. “These errors and omissions resulted from case agents providing wrong or incomplete information to OI and failing to flag important issues for discussion.”


The report states that Crossfire Hurricane, which was the code name of the FBI’s counterintelligence operation, found that there was insufficient evidence to support probable cause that Carter Page was an agent of a foreign power and that the FBI ultimately used the anti-Trump dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele to surveil the Trump Campaign.

The report continues, “However, on September 19, 2016, the same day that the Crossfire Hurricane team first received Steele’s election reporting, the team re-initiated discussions with OGC about seeking a FISA order authorizing surveillance targeting Page and specifically focused on Steele’s reporting in drafting the FISA request.”

That means that it appears as though that opposition research, paid for by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was used to launch the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign.

Even worse, the FBI “did not have information corroborating the specific allegations against Carter Page in Steele’s reports when it relied upon them in the FISA applications,” the investigation found, adding that the Steel’s unverified claims “played a central and essential role in the decision by FBI OGC to support the request for FISA surveillance targeting Carter Page, as well as the Department’s ultimate decision to seek the FISA order.”

The report also found that the FBI used Steele to get information on General Michael Flynn and promised Steele that he would be paid “significantly” for the information and that he would be paid an additional “$15,000 for his trip to the European city for the early October meeting.”

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1:39 PM: Collins, who gets 45 minutes, asks, “Where’s Adam?” Collins says Goldman is a great attorney but he is not Adam Schiff and he “doesn’t where a pin.” Collins asks Goldman if he knows what a quid pro quo means. Collins claims Biden is the only one who has done a quid pro quo re: Ukraine.

He then asks Goldman how many subpoenas were issued. Goldman says they issued six and all were denied by the executive. Collins wants to know who ordered the “match game” for members of Congress, media, etc after they issued subpoenas. He wants to know if it was him or Chairman Schiff. Collins keeps pointing out that Goldman is not answering his questions, pointing out he subpoenaed four numbers and then played “match game” to find other numbers. Goldman says he is going on record to not reveal how he conducted this investigation. Collins and Gaetz point out that Schiff should be testifying instead of Goldman but Schiff won’t even stand by his report.

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www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-poll-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin-6776a580-9a0f-4362-a8a7-e6180f18ed14.html

Poll: Impeachment is helping Trump in 3 key battleground states



Quarterly polling by the Republican firm Firehouse Strategies, with Optimus, had President Trump struggling in the mega-battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — but in the newest edition, he beats every Democrat.

The big picture: Trump won by an average of six percentage points in hypothetical match-ups against all current Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden, who was performing well in head-to-head contests against Trump in polling conducted earlier in the year.

The poll found that a majority of likely 2020 voters surveyed do not support impeaching and removing Trump from office.
What they're saying: Firehouse partner Alex Conant tells Axios: "Democrats racing towards impeachment are at serious risk of leaving behind the voters they need to retake the White House next year."

Methodology: The survey was conducted Dec. 3 through Dec. 5 and interviewed 1,759 likely 2020 general election voters in Wisconsin (N = 610), Michigan (N = 551), and Pennsylvania (N = 598) via live landline, live cellphone and peer to peer text message to web and has a margin of error of +/- 4.1% in Wis., ± 4.3% in Mich., and ± 4.3% in Pa.

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Videos at link:

www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2019/12/09/exasperated-journalists-fear-dems-may-have-blown-impeachment

Exasperation is in the air.

Liberal journalists are convinced the only way to save the Republic is to impeach Donald Trump and yet increasingly hosts, reporters and pundits are clearly worried they and the Democrats might have missed their shot.

NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd compared the President to O.J. Simpson when he worried Trump would evade justice: “I’m having a quick flashback to the O.J. trial.” Todd feared Trump was “going to get acquitted” even though “everybody knew” he was “guilty.” His MSNBC colleague Donny Deutsch yelled at his fellow Democrats for being too weak: “We can’t bring a knife” to a fight with Republicans who have “machine guns.”

CNN host Brian Stelter fretted to fellow CNNer Jake Tapper are we going to “regret not doing even more to speak out about this lying and deceit?” Stelter was so confounded that any Republican could support Trump, he actually asked on a cult expert: “You say the President is using mind control, but how is that provable?”

Lefty celebrities are exasperated as well. Robert De Niro called Trump a “fake president” and Robert Redford charged it was time for “dictator” Trump’s “monarchy in disguise” to be ousted.

The following are just a few of the worst outbursts from liberal journalists and celebrities over the past month:



Worried That “Guilty” Trump Going To Get Off Like OJ





“I’m having a quick flashback to the O.J. trial, frankly, where the facts were damning, but it didn’t matter. And yet, he was innocent, but everybody knew he was guilty. Are we about to head into a situation like that where he’s going to get acquitted and yet everybody knew he’s guilty?”
— Host Chuck Todd on MTP Daily, November 21.



Can’t “Survive” Four More Years of Trump





“Facts and the laws are not going to protect us right now. And the point being for the Democrats, we need to twist and meld and work. We are fighting against an enemy, the Republicans, with machine guns and we can’t bring a knife to it. And I’m not saying do anything dishonest. But we have to find a way to take what is happening there [impeachment hearings] and make it so compelling to the voter because otherwise we’re going to get four more years of Donald Trump. And we can’t survive four more years.”
— Former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, December 3.



Trump Bringing America To Its “Terminal Moment”





Host Brian Stelter: “You have been around a little longer than me. You covered Watergate. You covered the Clinton impeachment. On the eve of another impeachment inquiry – hearings this week, do you fear for the country?”...
Former PBS host Bill Moyers: “Yes, for the first time because...a society, a democracy can die of too many lies. And we’re getting close to that terminal moment unless we reverse the obsession with lies that are being fed around the country.”
— CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 10.



How Can Anybody Support Trump? We’ll Ask a Cult Expert





“The word ‘cult’ has been popping up more and more. Think back to two weeks ago on this program, Anthony Scaramucci talked about his claim that Trump supporters are in a cult. Just last week, Dan Rather said he thinks for Trump seems increasingly cultish. And this weekend in The Washington Post, Trump critic and Republican strategist John Weaver said, the GOP is ‘not a party anymore in the traditional sense; It’s a cult.’ But none of them are mental health experts. Steven Hassan is. He’s out with a brand-new book called The Cult of Trump. He has firsthand experience escaping the Unification Church back in the ’70s....You say the President is using mind control, but how is that provable?”
— Host Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 24.



End Is Near for Trump “Cult”





Host Brian Stelter: “Dan you tweeted something that might be related to this. You said the other day, ‘I have covered many cults. Some end with a bang, others with a whimper, but they invariably end. The question is how much damage they leave in their wake.’ Is Mitch McConnell part of the Trump cult?”
Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather: “Yes. I think the short answer is yes. And I’m not the only one making this observation that increasingly President Trump’s support seems cultish. It’s all about him it’s not about the policy, it’s not about the standards of politics....These cults generally don’t end well. People will say it’s too much to say it’s a cult. But I don’t think so.”
— CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 17.

“We watched a moral crisis unfold in front of us this morning, in which we discovered that one of our great political parties has given itself over to a cult of personality and a cult of personality that surrounded around only his interests, around Donald Trump’s personal interests, and that the entire of the Republican Party [sic] is willing to subsume itself to that is shocking. It’s sad.”
— MSNBC host Joy Reid during MSNBC’s post-debate analysis, November 21 at 12:39 am Eastern.



Trump’s “Idiot Nationalism” Is Going To Take Down America and the World With Us
“We thought Emperor Nero was wrong to fiddle as Rome burned – this guy [Donald Trump] is worse. He uses the reality of climate change to posture himself as the little guy taking on the experts, the sophisticates, the foreigners. Donald Trump gets votes by consciously lying about the scourge facing the only planet we have. He’s telling us that none of it is true, none of what we see is true, none of what our eyes and minds and instincts are telling us. He’s using idiot nationalism to take us down – not just we Americans, but the world with us.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, November 26.



Oust Trump to Reverse Bad Historic Ebb for America
“Now we face this wildly unconventional president who is actively and overtly putting all the norms, that so many of us were accustomed to, on trial. And so, we have these forces in American life that are perennial: xenophobia, extremism, racism, nativism, isolationism. They ebb and they flow in American life, they always have. And right now they’re flowing. The task of the country is to get them to ebb.”
— Former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham on CBS’s Face the Nation, December 1.


Barack Obama = “Conservative”
“The former president [Barack Obama] was skeptical of sweeping change, bullish on markets, sanguine about the use of military force, high on individual responsibility and faithful to a set of old-school personal values....To the dismay of many on the left, and to the continuing disbelief of many on the right, Obama never dramatically departed from the approach of presidents who came before him. There’s a simple reason: Barack Obama is a conservative.”
— Washington Post Outlook Assistant Editor David Swerdlick in November 24 article.



Our Liberal Bias Is “Reality-Based”





“We can’t just sort of say, you know, take it down the middle and sort of say ‘here’s what the people on the right are saying. Here’s what the people on the left are saying.’ I mean, that does amount to a false equivalency, because, unfortunately, you know, what’s being viewed as left-wing media is actually what I like to call the reality-based press.”
— Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan on CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 24.



Journalists Not Anti-Trump Enough
“Do you think journalists are going to look back years from now and regret not doing even more to speak out about this lying and deceit?”
— Host Brian Stelter to CNN’s The Lead host Jake Tapper on CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 24.



Arbiter of Truth Dan Rather Has Spoken
“I’m reminded of Lincoln’s words: ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time,’ which what President Trump has been attempting to do.”
— Disgraced former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather on CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 17.


Screw “Uniting” the Country! “Trump Is Dangerous” for Minorities!





“Particularly for voters of color, there is no conversation of interest to talk about uniting, to be blunt, with the party that has given up not just its moral standing, but its soul....to the person who is President of the United States right now. The danger of Donald Trump is much more extent to my community. It’s much more extent to both my immigrant relatives, to African-Americans, to Latinos, it’s not about whether or not we can regain our public standing on the world stage and be seen as America, as America was, to people who look like me, it’s about imminent danger. Donald Trump is dangerous to our families, he’s dangerous to our lives.”
— MSNBC host Joy Reid during MSNBC’s post-debate analysis, November 21 at 12:39 am Eastern.


Why Aren’t You More of a Lefty?
“It seems like you are saying that the democracy we are currently living in doesn’t work, it is broken, which calls for foundational change. But you are not a foundational change candidate. Why are you not a candidate calling for Medicare for All like some of the other candidates?...Why can Canada have it, why can the U.K. have it, why can’t we have it?’
— Host Katy Tur to Democratic presidential candidate Colorado Senator Michael Bennett on MSNBC Live, November 8.



Trump Is a “Bad Idea” Just Like Hitler





“I think Facebook would give Hitler his own fan page....Time magazine had Hitler on the cover and The New York Times in 1922 didn’t think that Hitler was a bad idea, but that was before they knew what a bad idea he was. Just like all the networks gave air time to Trump before they knew what a bad idea he was. Now we know what a bad idea he is, and we know what a bad idea Hitler is – was.”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, November 25.



Why Doesn’t America Hate Trump Like We Do?!





“Why is it that support for impeachment is going down for Americans, and Trump’s approval ratings – I can’t even say it, it makes me nauseous – are going up? What is that they like about him? Is it the fact there are still 4,000 kids still at the border in custody or that he trashes veterans or that he makes deals with Russians, that he handed them the Middle East over to Russia?...They have brainwashed Americans into thinking he didn’t commit a crime!”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, November 22.



De Niro Wants to Dump “Fake President”





“He’s a fake president....He calls everything fake because he knows he’s fake, so he’s projecting....I like [Mike] Bloomberg. He’s an adult. He’s a grown-up....To me, Bloomberg might be the one. I love Buttigieg....But we need to get past this horrible situation.”
— Actor Robert De Niro on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, November 25.



Time to Vote Out Trump’s “Monarchy in Disguise”
“We’re up against a crisis I never thought I’d see in my lifetime: a dictator-like attack by President Donald Trump on everything this country stands for. Our shared tolerance and respect for the truth, our sacred rule of law, our essential freedom of the press and our precious freedoms of speech – all have been threatened by a single man. It’s time for Trump to go....This monarchy in disguise has been so exhausting and chaotic...There are only 11 months left before the presidential election; 11 months before we get our one real chance to right this ship and change the course of disaster that lies before us.”
— Actor Robert Redford in November 26 opinion piece for NBCNews.com.



Capitalism Is “Killing Us,” Screams The Highly-Paid Actor
“It’s time for an economic revolution. Capitalism today is failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children’s future.”
— December 1 tweet by actor Mark Ruffalo.

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www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/12/08/nadler_well_bring_articles_of_impeachment_presumably_before_the_committee_at_some_point_later_in_the_week.html

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler told NBC's Chuck Todd Sunday on "Meet the Press" that it is likely he will bring official articles of impeachment before the committee before the end of this week and discussed what those articles might be.

CHUCK TODD: This week – what does this look like? Is this the beginning of the drafting of articles of impeachment? Is that what this week is going to be about?

REP. JERROLD NADLER: Well, this week is going to start with tomorrow. Tomorrow, Monday, we’re going to have the report from the Intelligence Committee, an examination of their -- of their people by both sides. After that, we’ll have decisions to make about drafting articles and where it goes.

CHUCK TODD: Explain how that decision process works. Is this going to be in a committee hearing that we'll all watch or are you going to make those decisions behind closed doors to say, "Okay, we'll do abuse of power here, bribery there." Give me a little sense of what it looks like.

JERROLD NADLER: There will be a lot of consultations between members of the committee, with House leadership, with members of the House, and we'll have t make those decisions, so we’ll bring articles of impeachment presumably before the committee at some point later in the week.

CHUCK TODD: Do you have an idea of how many articles you think we'll draw up?

JERROLD NADLER: I'm not ready to decide that and it is not just my decision, obviously.

CHUCK TODD: Is this the Speaker? You come up with recommendations and she ultimately says do this and not that?

JERROLD NADLER: She'll have a role, as may other members of the caucus. But the decisions have to be made based on everything we've learned until now and what we hear tomorrow. Remember, some of these things are very clear at this point. There is overwhelming evidence, uncontested by the Republicans, that the president put himself above the country, that the president sought foreign assistance in an election and sought to cover it up. Completely defied participation in the Congressional investigation in order to hide his role, that he sought foreign assistance for the next election...

Well certainly abuse of power, might be abuse of Cong – obstruction of Congress. It is not cooperating. You know, he refused every single document. He told everybody in the executive branch, “do not cooperate, do not answer, do not testify.” No president has ever done anything like that. So, this is a defiance of the role of Congress given by the, by the Constitution for impeachment. But again, he put himself above the country. He sought to get foreign interference against the integrity of our election. And this is a matter of urgency to deal with because we have to make sure that the next election is conducted with integrity and without foreign interference.

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www.dailywire.com/news/bombshell-fbi-altered-evidence-that-falsely-cast-carter-page-as-russian-spy-report-says

BOMBSHELL: FBI ‘Altered’ Evidence That Falsely Cast Carter Page As Russian Spy, Report Says

Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged FBI misconduct in surveilling the Trump campaign found that the FBI “altered” evidence that falsely cast former Trump presidential campaign adviser Carter Page as a Russian spy.

The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis and Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway wrote that the report “found that the FBI falsely claimed to the FISA Court not only that Carter Page was a Russian agent, but also falsely claimed that an unnamed intelligence agency had told the FBI that Page was ‘not a source’ in their efforts to surveil and curtail Russian intelligence efforts.”

“Page, who had previously been an informant and witness for the United States in a federal espionage case against a Russian intelligence official, was targeted by the Obama FBI as a Russian spy helping Putin to steal the election from Hillary Clinton in 2016,” The Federalist reported. “According to the IG report, before the FBI and DOJ went to the FISA Court to apply for a warrant to spy on Page, an unnamed U.S. intelligence agency had told the FBI that Carter Page had previously assisted that agency’s efforts against Russian spies. Although exculpatory information about potential spy targets is required in spy warrant applications, Obama’s FBI and DOJ deliberately withheld that information from the spy court in order to paint Page in the worst possible light.”


“Ahead of an application to renew the spy warrant in 2017, a top FBI lawyer doctored evidence from the unnamed agency which confirmed that contrary to FBI claims that he was a Russian spy, Page had in fact assisted the United States in its efforts to counter Russian operations,” The Federalist added. “An e-mail from the agency that clearly stated Page was ‘a source’ for them was doctored by Kevin Clinesmith, a top FBI national security lawyer, to give the opposite impression to the federal spy court.”

The inspector general’s report found [emphasis added]:

The renewal applications also continued to fail to include information regarding Carter Page’s relationship with another U.S. government agency and information Page had shared with the other agency about his contacts with Russian intelligence officers, even after the Crossfire Hurricane team re-engaged with the other U.S. government agency in June 2017.

As described in Chapter Eight, following interviews that Page gave to news outlets in April and May 2017 stating that he had assisted the U.S. intelligence community in the past, one of the SSAs supervising Crossfire Hurricane sought additional information about the issue. SSA 2, who was to be the affiant for Renewal Application No. 3 and had been the affiant for the first two renewals, told us that he wanted a definitive answer to whether Page had ever been a source for another U.S. government agency before he signed the final renewal application, because he was concerned that Page could claim that he had been acting on behalf of the U.S. government when engaging with certain Russians.

This led to interactions between the OGC Attorney assigned to Crossfire Hurricane and a liaison from the other U.S. government agency. In an email from the liaison to the OGC Attorney, the liaison provided written guidance, including that it was the liaison’s recollection that Page had a relationship with the other agency, and directed the OGC Attorney to review the information that the other agency had provided to the FBI in August 2016.[/i][/u] As noted above, that August 2016 information stated that Page did, in fact, have a prior relationship with that other agency. However, the OGC Attorney altered the liaison’s email by inserting the words “not a source” into it, thus making it appear that the liaison had said that Page was “not a source”; the OGC Attorney then sent the altered email to SSA 2.

Relying upon this altered email, SSA 2 signed the third renewal application (that again failed to disclose Page’s past relationship with the other agency). Consistent with the Inspector General Act of 1978, following the OIG’s discovery that the OGC Attorney had altered and sent the email to SSA 2, who thereafter relied on it to swear out the final FISA application, the OIG promptly informed the Attorney General and the FBI Director and provided them with the relevant information about the OGC Attorney’s actions.

None of these inaccuracies and omissions that we identified in the renewal applications were brought to the attention of OI before the applications were filed. As a result, similar to the first application, the Department officials who reviewed one or more of the renewal applications, including Yates, Boente, and Rosenstein, did not have accurate and complete information at the time they approved them.

The IG report found that the FBI made 17 “serious” errors in getting a FISA application on Carter Page and said that the FBI “fell far short” in correctly doing its job. The Daily Wire has already separately reported on these specific 17 errors.


The report stated that investigators were “deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked investigative teams; on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations; after the matter had been briefed to the highest levels within the FBI; even though the information sought through use of FISA authority related so closely to an ongoing presidential campaign; and even though those involved with the investigation knew that their actions were likely to be subjected to close scrutiny.”

[soonernvolved]

3:35 PM: Rep. Louie Gohmert (D-TX) rips the “absurd process” that is the “kangaroo system.” He worries that Democrats have set the bar so low that it will become “irreparable.” “I’m scared for my country,” he says.

3:27 PM: Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) questions Goldman and asks him if there was any evidence that any government agency wanted the Bidens investigated and makes the case that Trump/Biden cases are different.

3:22 PM: Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) says the committee is “investigating the wrong guy.” He asks Castor about Hunter Biden’s involvement in “Ukrainian corruption” and points out that concerns about Hunter Biden were first raised by the Obama administration. He says the Obama administration’s concerns didn’t end there and Ambassador Yovanovitch was coached on how to answer potential “pesky” questions about the Bidens that could come up during hearings. Chabot says Biden got testy last week with a voter and says Biden’s objections are a bunch of “malarkey.”



3:16 PM: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) now questioning Goldman about Trump/Ukraine. She asks Goldman what Trump was referring to when he wanted a “favor.” Goldman says Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate a “debunked conspiracy theory.”

3:12 PM: Hearing resumes with Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) voicing his concerns about the “beginnings of a surveillance state” that he thinks is outrageous after discussing the metadata that Schiff’s committee subpoenaed/matched. He says he met Joe McCarthy twice and Democrats have made him look like a piker. He rips Democrats for their “abuse of power.” He also says Democrats thought the Mueller Report was going to be a “smoking gun” but was just a “cap pistol.”

2:37 PM: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) now gets her five minutes. She tries to compare Trump to Nixon and make the case that Trump used a “foreign government to do his bidding” using aid that was approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis. Committee now in 15-minute recess.



2:33 PM: Collins is up grilling Goldman about the metadata. Collins says this committee should be having FISA hearings. He says the problem he has is the committee made a choice to put the phone records into the report. Collins says it was a “gratuitous drive-by.” He says he could have put in “Congressperson 1” and “Reporter 1” instead of naming the people whose numbers were matched. Collins says the Schiff report now reads like a partisan smear against people Democrats don’t like.

2:27 PM: Questioning begins with Nadler asking Goldman to explain the difference between Biden and Trump re: Ukraine. Goldman says when Biden pressured Ukraine to remove a corrupt official, he was doing it with international support while Trump’s ask for an investigation had nothing to do with official U.S. policy. Nadler asks Goldman to explain what happened with the phone records. Nadler doing his best to rehabilitate Goldman after Collins’ line of questioning. Goldman says it was just metadata and not the content of calls, texts, etc. He says they got call records and matched them up with important events that occurred in the “scheme.”