Summary Judgement

For John, BLUF:  Elements within the FBI, the Department of Justice and the Obama National Security apparatus could not wait for the system to work through issues with the Trump Campaign, but took justice into their own hands, to the detriment of the Republic Now the President has a not unreasonable distrust of things coming out of Main Justice and from his own National Security Council.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Flynn prosecution now stands exposed as massive FBI and DOJ abuse of power

From The New York Post, by the Post Editorial Board, 31 January 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Here’s another black eye for the Justice Department’s Obama-era leadership: The case against Gen. Michael Flynn is in full collapse.

Federal prosecutors just backed down from their demand that Flynn — President Trump’s first, short-lived national security adviser — serve jail time for lying to FBI investigators, telling a court Wednesday that probation would be a “reasonable” sentence.

In fact, Justice had long wanted leniency, since Flynn cooperated fully with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations.  But last month it started seeking up to six months of confinement — mainly because he’s no longer taking responsibility for his crime.

“I am innocent,” he writes in a new filing, explaining that he pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI because he felt helpless to fight the charges:  He’d already had to sell his home to pay legal costs and was told his son could be indicted, too.

Involved in this imbroglio was FBI agent Peter Strzok, who is no Inspector Lewis Erskine.

Then there is the role played by National Security Adviser Susan Rice, someone I used to feel sorry for.nbsp; She leaked the fact of General Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.nbsp; Tacky, at best.

This whole episode is a blot on not just the FBI, but on the Department of Justice as a whole.

How do we fix this, make it better for the future?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Russiagate Backstory

For John, BLUF:  It is just possible the Obama Administration didn't have clean skirts WRT Russiagate.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Rosenstein:  The “Previous Administration” Didn’t Tell Us The Whole Truth, And Don’t Get Me Started On Comey

From Hot Air, by Mr Ed Morrissey, 26 April 2019.

Here is the lede:

Rod Rosenstein won’t stick around much longer at the Department of Justice, but the deputy Attorney General will make his departure memorable.  At a dinner hosted by the Armenian Bar Association, Rosenstein took aim at critics, the media, and especially Russia, whose aims at destabilizing the US remain vastly underappreciated, he warned.  However, when describing his last two years at the center of the Russiagate maelstrom, Rosenstein took veiled shots at the Obama administration, James Comey, and Congress for their roles in stoking those fires:

This makes Rod Rosenstein sound like a stand up guy, which makes him a credit to DOJ and the American System.

I hate this mess (Russiagate) and wish it would go away, before the hidden origins drag our nation further into the muck, but maybe we do need a house cleaning.  I hope Mr Horowitz is a man of integrity.

Hat tip to my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff

I am Shocked, Shocked

For John, BLUF:  Buried in here is a violation of the First Amendment.  The Federal Government, and a State Government, locking someone up as a foreign policy move.  It makes one think of John Adams, or Woodrow Wilson or FDR.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Benghazi attack organizer gets 22-year sentence in U.S.

From Reuters, by the Reuters Staff, 27 June 2018.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the organizer of the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 years in prison on terrorism and other charges, the Justice Department said.

Government evidence showed Khatallah led an extremist militia named Ubaydah bin Jarrah, which he directed to carry out the violence in Benghazi, the Justice Department said in a statement.

A friend of mine commented:

I could have SWORN that Benghazi was entirely due to an American-made/-released video that insulted Islam.

I could have SWORN, under oath, that Benghazi was spontaneous and not preplanned.

I'm pretty sure that USG officials, senior ones, did so, in an Administration famed for having NO scandals.

Mr Nakoula Basseley Nakoula could not be reached for comment.

Regards  —  Cliff

Surveillance Within Trump Tower

For John, BLUF:  Of course there was, but who cares now?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is the short form version of the story.

Tucker Carlson: "Patronizing Assurances That No One Was Spying On Political Campaigns Were False, Probably Intentionally So"

This is from Real Clear Politics and Reporter Tim Hains, posted 20 September 2017.  It includes a video.

Here is the lede plus three:

According to a new report from CNN, Paul Manafort, who for a time last year was the Trump campaign chairman, was indeed wiretapped by the federal government, both before and after the election.

Manafort, it ought to be noted, had an apartment inside Trump Tower at that time, so it is virtually certain that surveillance of him would have included other members of the Trump campaign staff, maybe even Trump himself.  In other words, it looks like Trump's tweet may have been right.  So why did three top members of Congress from both parties, and the country's top law enforcement officers all assure us that the surveillance didn't happen?  That there wasn't a shred of evidence to suggest it had happened? Were they lying or did tey simply not know?

Neither answer is comforting.

Either the intelligence agency has gone rogue, pursuing its own goals without meaningful oversight from elected officials, or, our elected officials are colluding with each other to lie to the public, apparently for political reasons.

Don't you wish Richard Nixon was still in the White House?  If he was this would are a major scandal.

Here is the long form version of the story.

WHY OBAMA REALLY SPIED ON TRUMP

The sub-headline is:

Obama had to spy on Trump to protect himself.

From Front Page Magazine and Writer Daniel Greenfield, it has a dateline of 20 September 2017.

The lede and a few:

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.

Last week, CNN revealed (and excused) one phase of the Obama spying operation on Trump.  After lying about it on MSNBC, Susan Rice admitted unmasking the identities of Trump officials to Congress.

Rice was unmasking the names of Trump officials a month before leaving office.  The targets may have included her own successor, General Flynn, who was forced out of office using leaked surveillance.

While Rice’s targets weren’t named, the CNN story listed a meeting with Flynn, Bannon and Kushner.

Bannon was Trump’s former campaign chief executive and a senior adviser.  Kushner is a senior adviser.  Those are exactly the people you spy on to get an insight into what your political opponents plan to do.

Now the latest CNN spin piece informs us that secret FISA orders were used to spy on the conversations of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.  The surveillance was discontinued for lack of evidence and then renewed under a new warrant.  This is part of a pattern of FISA abuses by Obama Inc. which never allowed minor matters like lack of evidence to dissuade them from new FISA requests.

Desperate Obama cronies had figured out that they could bypass many of the limitations on the conventional investigations of their political opponents by ‘laundering’ them through national security.

I am hoping the current Ken Burns series on Viet-nam will talk about the Domestic Spying that went on in the 1960s and early 1970s.  Things covered by the Church Committee.  Then there was the veneer of national security.  Today it is just politics.♠

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I wonder if Mrs Clinton thinks back to her time on the Senate Watergate Committee as a staffer and thinks about how wrong President Nixon was, or if she thinks that he was just wrong to get caught.

This is Disappointing

For John, BLUF:  Maybe Candidate Trump's victory convinced the Democrats walking the corridors of power that some malignant outside force must have been at work.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Reminder: Susan Rice Lied About Her Role In The Obama Admin Unmasking Scandal

Back on or about 4 April 2017.

This is a report from The Federalist, written by Mr David Harsanyi, 14 September 2017.

Very disappointing, although I suppose she thought she was protecting the family jewels of US Intelligence by not revealing the "unmasking" of members of the Trump Team, post election.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Coin With Two Sides

For John, BLUF:  This "Russia Hacking" thing may not turn out all that well for Democrats.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Fox News: Rep. Schiff's Office Was Told About Unmasking Subpoenas 24 Hours in Advance

From PJ Media And Reporter Debra Heine, today, 2 June 2017.

This is about Representative Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) (House Intelligence Committee ranking member) whinging to the press that he had been cut out of the loop. From the article:

But according to Fox News' James Rosen, Schiff's staff was given a day's notice about the subpoenas.

Twenty-four hours notice that Team Obama members Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and John Brennan (Unmasking issues) were being called in addition to four witnesses regarding possible Russian interference in the US election November last.

I think Rep Adam Schaffer sees the whole thing unwinding, and worse, getting Democratic Party skirts dirty.

Regards  —  Cliff

Can We Examine This Puzzle?

For John, BLUF:  I wonder if there is a belief out there that if President Trump was forced from Office that Mrs Clinton would magically ascend to that place?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I admit I am in the "Basket of Deplorables", and thus part of the crowd of the undereducated, so I am confused by this current Susan Rice / Russian Hacking Imbroglio.

First, what is "Hacking the Election"?

1. There is the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Campaign Chairman Leon Penetta.  That is hacking, where the security on the computer is weak and folks just walk in.  If you think it doesn't happen everywhere, you are naive.  We, the US Government, do it all the time.
2. Then there is the theory that the Russians, or whoever,♠ dumped materials to influence voters.  This is a bit more edgy, but it is what the Obama Administration used to do, as did others before it.
3. Finally, there is the actual "hacking" of voting machines or vote counts, in order to change the outcome.♥  We have been assured by competent authority that this did not happen.♦

But, now to the contradictory stories on then Mr Trump and President V Putin, and thus President Obama and Ms Susan Rice.

The Main Stream Media, in an act of mental gymnastics, tell us that (1) Mr Trump and President Putin were working together to swing the election, but that (2) no one "wire tapped"♣ Mr Trump.

My question is, if they didn't do (2), how do they know about (1).★  I would say that they wouldn't know, but also the whole story of Russian meddling represents a logical inconsistency if there was no "wiretapping".

There is, of course, the comment of the late F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time.

And, Reporter and Author George Orwell gave us the term doublethink in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I find it interesting that all of a sudden Mr Julian Assange is a Russian stooge.  At one time he was a hero of Democracy, but, alas, he was converted into an enemy for the convenience of the Democratic Party in the United States.
♥  This reminds me of the joke in which Moscow buys a whole bunch of old voting machines from the City of Chicago and in the first election for Mayor of Moscow, the winner is Richard J Daley.
♦  There was a theory going around that Mr George Soros owned a company that had made voting machines for 16 states, but Business Insider debunked that idea.
♣  Or otherwise eavesdropped on Mr Trump or his family or his campaign staff.
★  I am not saying I believe (1), but that even if it were true, the various holdovers from the Obama Administration, from FBI Director James Comey, to DoD Official Evelyn Farkas, to former National Security Advisor Susan Rice would not know anything unless they were spying on Mr Trump, which seems a pretty un-American kind of thing to do.  This is the stuff of novels and movies, and now of real life politics.

Covering For Ms Susan Rice

For John, BLUF:  From poor misled to misleading.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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MSNBC’s Matthews, Corn Meltdown, Claim Susan Rice ‘Unmasking’ Controversy Is Racist and Sexist

From Newsbusters and Mr Curtis Houck, Yesterday, 4 April 2017

Here is the lede:

On Tuesday’s edition of Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews and MSNBC political analyst/Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief David Corn were unglued over the Susan Rice “unmasking” controversy, suggesting that it was racist and sexist for these accusations to be leveled at the former National Security Adviser because she’s never done anything wrong.

And, straight from the InstaPundit, as posted:

HOWIE CARR:  “If I ever get in a jam, I ask for no special treatment.  Just treat me like Susan Rice.”

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Susan Rice Did It

For John, BLUF:  The New York Times was basically correct, back on 20 January.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Susan Rice Requested Unmasking of Incoming Trump Administration Officials

MASKING:—NSA has wide discretion to conduct surveillance on people outside of the US, but there are supposed to be legal barriers to snooping on US citizens. If the NSA picks up communications from a US citizen in the course of monitoring a foreign national, it is practice to "mask" the identity of the US person. Additionally, the identification of a US citizen mentioned in discussions between two foreign nationals is supposed to be masked.
Source is CNN.

UNMASKING:  When the Government exposes who these "masked" people are.

This is from Mr Mike Cernovich and The Medium.

Bloomberg, here.

Remember the line "When in charge, take charge."  In the Obama White House not so much.

I apparently will be needing a tag for Ms Susan Rice.  I used to think that she was a smart woman, abused any her masters in the White House.  Like when she was put out on the weekend talk shows to defend the Administration position on Benghazi.  I am moving away from that position.  And making her the fall guy for this action is just part of the pattern of her being abused, and her accepting it.

Maybe we need a new Church Committee.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff