Whining Dems & Mueller Investigation

I found some interesting thoughts from MLMcCarren relating Robert Mueller’s so-called Trump-Russia collusion investigation.

MLM goes through the known facts indicating not one indictment has been handed down pertaining Trump-Collusion. The indictments that have been handed down are about potential crimes by individuals BEFORE the November 2016 election and two indictments for gotcha-lying moments possibly attained by illegal FISA Warrants. The lies had nothing to do with Trump-Russia collusion (BECAUSE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN), but rather with a couple of guys covering their butts or mis-recollecting (an excuse Crooked Hillary is fond of) events as they took place.

Who knows? Maybe the FISA Memo will become public revealing tons more corruption by FBI and (Obama) DOJ leadership?

I am unsure how much of MLMcCarren’s G+ post is his (I guess it could be “hers”) or how much is quoted material; nevertheless the sentiment should alert every red-blooded American.

JRH 2/1/18

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Whining Dems & Mueller Investigation

Jan 30, 10:36 PM

Originally shared by MLMcCarren BLAZE

G+ Community Defenders of the Constitution 2.0 *Nazi Free*

As per usual, the Progressives, in their desperation to find something relevant to disparage Trump over, are now making "Much Ado About Nothing" which stems from the following article ⤵⤵⤵⤵

Trump has “nothing to hide” regarding the Russia investigation
By Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman
Jan. 25, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html?referer=https://
🔼🔼🔼

Of course the article stated⤵
"They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation."
...which may be a felony!?

What is at the epicenter of the Left attempting to make political hay over the allegations of Trump trying to dismiss Mueller, is the fact that Trump had at one time raised the issue about three conflicts of interest that may have disqualified Mueller from overseeing the investigation:

✔First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-lawyers-seek-to-undercut-muellers-russia-investigation/2017/07/20/232ebf2c-6d71-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.a2fb8f467c8a

✔The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/business/jared-kushner-trump-russia-election-investigation.html

✔Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May.

Maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel, Robert Mueller for conflict, maybe he didn't, but does he not have a right to raise those questions?


The president dismissed the revelations on Friday, when asked about them by reporters as he arrived at the Congress Center in Davos, Switzerland, for meetings with world political and business leaders.

“Fake news, folks,” Mr. Trump said. “Fake news. A typical New York Times fake story.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/business/davos-world-economic-forum-trump.html

There have been news media reports revealed that several of Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors had donated to Democrats.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel.html

But nonetheless, the quickest way to clear the cloud of suspicion is to cooperate with Mr. Mueller, not to fight him. And there is every indication that is exactly what president Trump has been doing. The White House has denied nearly a dozen times since June that Mr. Trump was considering firing Mr. Mueller.

⭐Last month, as Republicans were increasing their attacks on the special counsel, Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Times that he believed Mr. Mueller was going to treat him fairly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/trump-interview-excerpts.html

⭐White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short
said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I’m not aware of the president ever intimating he wanted to fire” special counsel Robert Mueller.

⭐Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) noted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump cannot directly fire Mueller. He would have to pressure deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to do so.

She said that at a Senate hearing last year, she questioned Rosenstein “at length on this issue, and he was adamant that he would never give in to any White House pressure to remove” Mueller.


US taxpayers have spent millions and millions of dollars on investigations that have not proven any collusion thus far between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. Through it all the White House continues to cooperate in every manner providing any document the special counsel has asked for. They have continued to comply fully, which is a far cry from the Obama administration's conduct!!!

Admittedly Trump is agitated by the unwillingness of the House Intelligence Committee to release a four-page classified memo that reportedly suggests FBI officials may have used politically motivated sourcing to justify a request for a secret surveillance warrant in the Russia probe’s early stages.

I believe the president is more inclined for transparency in this investigation than being given credit for.

Interestingly enough, Tom Brokaw is a voice of reason in all of this:

🔽Tom Brokaw comments on the alleged reports that President Trump considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller last summer.


TOM BROKAW: "They thought that was the right thing to do. That their base would support them and that the president had a legal grounds for doing what he did. In this case, in the climate in which we now live, people move on in a hurry. He didn't fire him. He didn't get close to firing him because the White House was pushing back and he knew what the response would be on the Hill. So I think for the country... it's kind of a non-issue now that he was thinking about firing him six months ago but he did not. I think that they moved on. I honestly think in the next year there are going to be three big factors. One is the economy. If it continues to go roar along the way that it is a lot of people are going to put aside these other concerns that they have and say, "Enjoy the prosperity." The other one is what does Mueller find? Do we hear from them this year? And then just down from that, of course, is what happens with immigration. I think those are the three big factors that are in play out there for the country. And that's what they're paying attention to."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/28/tom_brokaw_non-issue_that_trump_considered_firing_mueller_he_didnt_fire_him.html

💡LET'S LOOK AT SOME HISTORY AND FACTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT

The Department of Justice announced the appointment of Mueller to oversee the federal investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election in May 2017.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/17/former-fbi-head-robert-mueller-named-to-oversee-russia-election-probe.html

The appointment came after a growing cry – mostly from Democrats – mounted for someone outside the Justice Department to handle the probe. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had already recused himself from the investigation.

💡Has anyone been charged?

In leading the probe, Mueller took over an ongoing investigation into Paul Manafort's financial dealings in Ukraine.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/24/how-paul-manafort-is-connected-to-trump-russia-investigation.html

💡Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and Richard Gates were indicted on Oct. 27, 2017 on 12 counts, including: conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, false statements and multiple counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/02/rick-gates-charged-in-muellers-russia-probe-who-is.html

⭐ALL OF WHICH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP OR HIS CAMPAIGN!

💡Michael Flynn, the administration’s short-lived national security adviser, was charged in December for lying to the FBI about certain conversations he had with a Russian ambassador. He pleaded guilty.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/01/michael-flynn-charged-in-russia-investigation-guilty-plea-expected.html

💡Additionally, George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in 2017 to one count of making false statements to investigating FBI agents, according to court documents.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.justice.gov_file_1007346_download&d=DwMFaQ&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=lEhLS_GPhWUCcVMYQxBvj1BGHOaVYRSWTZAJW1jDYO0&m=nCDsYlToY0aV-1hbqo1X0D02k19au0_ncNvLaKlOwjU&s=478BwDpzJyTcHlWxQZIppNkyHBwNR_qRxMFquiO_-IA&e=

(read more here)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/24/mueller-probe-meet-lawyers-who-gave-to-hillary-now-investigating-team-trump.html


💡In August 2017, Mueller's investigation reportedly expanded to include several lobbying firms, including the Podesta Group.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Counsel_investigation_(2017%E2%80%93present)

👉The Podesta Group was a lobbying and public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by brothers John Podesta and Tony Podesta.

Podesta Group represents American corporations as well as nonprofits and governments, and has "close ties to the Democratic Party.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)

...and the Obama administration.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Barack_Obama

John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who served as ✔White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from October 20, 1998 until January 20, 2001 and as ✔Counselor to President Barack Obama from January 1, 2014 until February 13, 2015. Before that he served as the ✔White House Staff Secretary and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations for the Clinton Administration between January 20, 1993 until October 20, 1998.

▶John Podesta was chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_presidential_campaign,_2016
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta_Group

So we see implications tying associates of Hillary Clinton into the investigation, just like we did with Uranium One

At long last, the Senate Judiciary Committee is probing this. The GOP Congress finally may hold a hearing on Uranium One. According to Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), ▶ “very serious questions remain about the basis for the finding that this transaction did not threaten to impair US national security.”

Bribes, kickbacks, gag orders, blackmail, Russians, uranium. What more do the broadcast networks need before they find this mushrooming story worthy of some air time?

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.nationalreview.com/article/452941/russian-clinton-uranium-scandal-media-silence-damning


💡What is the controversy with Mueller’s staff?

✔The Trump administration heavily criticized Mueller’s investigation as several of his attorneys on staff donated to Democratic campaigns, including to Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.

✔Additionally, two FBI officials – Peter Strzok and Lisa Page – are under fire for the anti-Trump text messages they exchanged during the election. Strzok was part of Mueller’s team but was removed from the probe after the text messages were revealed.

💡What has Trump said about Mueller’s investigation?

Trump has oftentimes dismissed the allegations that he colluded with Russia during his presidential election. He said he is “looking forward” to being questioned eventually under oath by Mueller.

He’s said the allegations are a “fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most of all demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution.”

This has turned into a last ditch effort by the Left to undermine the will of the American people who voted to put Trump in charge of our country!

The fact that the alleged desire of President Trump to dismiss Mueller occurred six months ago.

Surely if there were any evidence pointing to misconduct on the part of president Trump, there is every reason to expect it would have been uncovered by now.

It's time to end this circus sideshow, & for the Democrats to put on their big boy pants, stop their incessant whining, and accept the fact that Trump is president and likely will be through 2024!!!

MLMcCarren

______________

Edited by John R. Houk. II used a bit of the old spellcheck tool.

TV NEWS NETWORK BOOSTS SETH RICH REWARD

I am stunned that the Leftist MSM has ignored the OBVIOUS discrepancies in the reports of the D.C. Police (officially the Metropolitan Police Department or MPD) and FBI on the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich! The police are officially calling Rich’s murder a robbery gone wrong. AND YET Rich’s wad of cash, expensive watch, wallet and credit cards were ALL found on him. Oh yeah, has anyone mention that even though it is reported Rich was shot twice in the back he did not die on the scene. Rather Rich was rushed to the hospital by ambulance quite alive with quite survivable gunshot wounds. AND YET Seth Rich died mysteriously in the hospital.

WND has the details below which incorporates the reporting of One America News Network (OANN). (I find it suspicious that my browser cannot access ANYTHING to do with OANN. I don’t know if the website is down or if my Chrome browser is blocking access or if my Internet Provider (Cox Communications) is blocking access. The only reason I could think of for Cox blocking access is OANN actually has a news channel on Cox’s competitor Direct TV. Or is it something even more nefarious? Could Obama-Friendly Government Intelligent services be involved in blocking OANN? I don’t know, the could be as simple as the website is down. I simply have a huge mistrust with anything to do with the American Left and truthfulness these days.)

JRH 5/30/17
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TV NEWS NETWORK BOOSTS SETH RICH REWARD

Watch broadcast featuring step-by-step report on why murder case remains suspicious

WND EXCLUSIVE

May 29, 2017

Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich

WASHINGTON – A budding independent TV news company is jumping into the Seth Rich murder case with both feet today – boosting the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the slain Democratic National Committee employee’s killer or killers by an additional $100,000 and issuing a step-by-step report on why the mysterious death is more than a “conspiracy theory.”

With the additional reward money, the total amount from various sources has reached $245,000.

“We want to stress that our only agenda is finding the truth and that everything we report here is revealing the facts that we’ve uncovered in our investigation,” said Pearson Sharp in a new One America News broadcast on the case. OANN is on DirectTV and carried by many cable providers across the nation.

“Facts,” he emphasized, “and not opinions. And from an objective standpoint they simply don’t add up.”

While the report covers many of the details uncovered and published by WND.com in a sweeping story two weeks ago, it also raises some new issues.

Watch the OANN report on the Seth Rich murder case:

[Blog Editor: I can’t find the embed from WND of their version of the OANN report. I am choosing to not figure out how to find the WND embed. BUT I have found the exact same video on Youtube courtesy of the  Yankee Apocalypse Channel. Rather than posting the video at this article location as WND, I am posting it at the end of the WND cross post in order to place the entirety of the description comment from Yankee Apocalypse.]

More on the Seth Rich case:

See WND’s timeline of the Seth Rich case

See the latest from Judicial Watch on the Seth Rich case

One of the first responding police officers the morning Rich was shot was Robert Wingate Robinson. OANN reports he was a student at Georgetown University when John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, was a professor there. His sister, Nandy, the network reports, worked for the Clinton campaign as a research assistant in 2016. Since then she’s worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as a researcher.

The network reminds viewers that Rich was alive and talking to police and EMTs before being hospitalized, raising questions about what he may have been able to tell them. If he told them it was a botched robbery, that evidence has certainly not been made public.

The report also cites an anonymous Internet post by a person claiming to be a fourth-year resident at the hospital who confirmed Rich was not only alive when he arrived, but that his injuries were not life-threatening. Though the anonymous report cannot be confirmed, the resident said he was ordered not to visit Rich on his rounds because he was surrounded by law-enforcement officers and would only be seen by his attending physician.

That physician, OANN reports, was Dr. Jack Sava, a donor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, who visited the White House six times before the day of Seth Rich’s murder. His wife reportedly visited the White House 23 times during that same time period. They both reportedly visited the East Wing, reserved for then-first lady Michelle Obama and her staff.

In addition, the network reports, the manager of Lou’s City Bar [Blog Editor: Interesting info on the manager identity], the establishment Rich left early the morning he was shot, had also visited the White House July 6 – days before Rich was killed.

What about political connections at the police department that have been alleged?

OANN cites Heather Podesta’s seat on the board of the Washington Police Foundation where she served with former Washington Police Chief Kathy Lanier.

OANN’s report stated no evidence has been produced to date suggesting the WikiLeaks emails of Podesta and Hillary Clinton were the results of a Russian hack. The Democrat National Committee did not ask the FBI to investigate the source of the leaks. Instead, as WND has reported, the investigation was conducted by the DNC’s chosen private firm, CrowdStrike, which, interestingly, was founded by the Moscow-born Dmitri Alperovitch, a nonresident senior fellow at the globalist Atlantic Council, which has ties to Hillary Clinton.

“I’m glad to see another independent news organization jumping into the investigation of Seth Rich’s death,” said Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND.com. “We welcome the help. And we certainly welcome impartial official investigations with full subpoena power – something journalists don’t have.”

Rich’s murder is one of 65 unsolved cases in D.C. from 2016. His was the only murder last year in the quiet, well-to-d0 Bloomingdale neighborhood. There have been a total of five homicides in Bloomingdale since 2012, according to the Twitter feed DCHomicideCount.

THE FULL STORY FROM WND:

‘Credible evidence’ suggests ‘hanky-panky’ in Seth Rich case
Bombshell: Donna Brazile warned off private eye on Seth Rich case

See the latest from Judicial Watch on the Seth Rich case

Chilling similarities between Seth Rich murder and “Clinton body count” victims

Investigator: Cops hid evidence, halted Set Rich probe

Twitter suspends news agency for Seth Rich probe

Everything you want to know about Seth Rich story

Bar manager: Cops never talked with staff about night Seth Rich died

+++
UPDATE 7/16/17: I just discovered Youtube or Yankee Apocalypse removed the video "OAN Report on the murder of Seth Rich". I suspect the former more than the latter. As an update I am posting another OAN video from Youtube about Rich's murder, but I am leaving the Yankee Apocalypse description in place below the OAN replacement video just because it bothers me when videos are removed.

VIDEO: The Mysterious Death of Seth Rich


Posted by One America News Network
Published on May 19, 2017

The death of DNC staffer Seth Rich is stirring up national controversy as conflicting reports continue pouring in.

He was murdered last July--yet so far police have made no arrests in the case, and have no leads as to a suspect.

One America News believes solving this case---and bringing Rich's murderer to justice---is essential to exposing the truth for the American people.

We are offering a $100,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of a suspect in the case.

If you have any information, please write into our station.

Now to get to the bottom of the case, One America's Pearson Sharp takes a closer look---and reveals why the facts just aren't adding up.

+++

VIDEO: OAN Report on the murder of Seth Rich

Posted by Yankee Apocalypse

Published on May 29, 2017

(Zero Hedge) May 26, 2017 - Via Disobedient Media - The San Diego based One American News Network has released a new report highlighting key elements of the mystery surrounding the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. OANN cites a number of inconsistencies and lingering questions in the case, while also noting that Rich's murder occurred in close proximity to the similarly strange death of UN official John Ashe. Ashe was found dead just days before he was set to testify against Clinton in relation to matters pertaining to a corruption case where Chinese billionaire Charlie Trie helped launder $1.2 million dollars as part of Chinese government efforts to influence Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential election. Ashe's death was originally reported as a heart attack, but the story changed after it emerged that the cause was in fact a crushed windpipe in what was labeled a "workout accident." The full report can be viewed here:

On May 25th, one day before OANN's report, a representative of the media company made a post on the online messageboard 4chan appealing for help locating information regarding the doctor who treated Seth Rich for gunshot injuries he sustained during the incident. Within minutes of the post, OANN's website was taken offline in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack.

The findings of the report offer fresh insights what is appearing to be a story of complex political corruption and Democratic National Committee (DNC) attempts to downplay the scandal. Disobedient Media has previously reported on the extensive ties that key players in the Seth Rich case have to the DNC, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Rose Law Firm, the law firm which was at the center of the 1990's Whitewater Controversy.

(Gateway Pundit) May, 28, 2017 - On July 8, 2016, 27 year-old Democratic staffer Seth Conrad Rich was murdered in Washington DC. The killer or killers took nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone.

Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a “lead” saying that Rich was en route to the FBI the morning of his murder, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an “ongoing court case” possibly involving the Clinton family.

Seth Rich’s father Joel told reporters, “If it was a robbery — it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money — he still has his credit cards, still had his phone so it was a wasted effort except we lost a life.”

In August Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information on the murder of DNC staffer Seth rich. Julian Assange also suggested in August that Seth Rich was a Wikileaks informant.

On Friday American businessman Martin Shkreli offered $100,000 reward for information on Seth Rich’s murder.

Now this. OAN offered $100,000 reward for information on Seth Rich’s murder (This report says OAN offered $250,000 but it cannot be verified).

That brings the total up to at $245,000 in cash reward for information on Seth Rich’s murder.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-26/oann-releases-report-seth-rich-murder-raises-questions-about-chinese-corruption

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BOTH RINOs & Leftists Malign Trump Tweets

John R. Houk

© March 13, 2017

I saw on Fox News that Senator John McCain is publicly telling President Trump to put-up or apologize to the treasonous President Obama pertaining to the accusation of wiretapping during the 2016-election cycle. I don’t have the Fox News clip but here’s the CNN clip that Fox was referring to:

VIDEO: McCain: Provide wiretap evidence or retract

Posted by CNN

Published on Mar 12, 2017

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that President Trump should provide evidence for his unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower or retract the accusation.

My God! McCain might as well stop being a RINO and out right join the Deep State Democratic Party and become an overt Obama minion. No wonder McCain lost to the Marxist oriented Obama in 2008.

McCain is making all kinds of noise that more news will come out connecting President Trump yet keeping silent (copying MSM) on mounting evidence of Russian links to Crooked Hillary and family marking political favors for God only knows what nefarious purposes.

Check this out from Angry Patriot:

While the liberals are trying their hardest to set up the Republicans in questionable ties with Russia, it seems as though it is being used as a distraction to hide the Democrats’ own connection with Russia.

Hillary Clinton’s election campaign manager, John Podesta, was on the board of a small energy company, Joule Unlimited, when it was given $35 million from a Russian government fund which has ties to Putin. (via Breitbart)

This information was discovered in a 56-page report titled, “From Russia with Money: Hillary Clinton, the Russian Reset, and Cronyism.” Podesta did not disclose this, although he is required to do so by law.

This was written by a non-partisan government watchdog group, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI). Stephen Bannon, the Executive Chairman of Breitbart and the Chief Strategist in the Trump Administration, is also the Executive Chairman of GAI.

During the “Russian reset,” then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the flag bearer of U.S. involvement in Russia’s technology initiative, called Skolkovo, which is intended to be the Slavic version of Silicon Valley.

This “innovation city” was to be located outside of Moscow and employ 30,000 people. Their technologically advanced facilities would be under the strict control of the Russian government. In 2013, the building was described, by Slate, as reminiscent of the Soviet “utopia” building projects.

The GAI report revealed that the Department of State, under Hillary Clinton, recruited companies like Intel, Cisco, and Google to participate in Russia’s project. Of the 28 companies that participated in Skolkovo, 17 were donors to the Clinton Foundation or had paid Bill Clinton to speak.

As Clinton’s involvement increased in the project, so did the chance that this technological investment was actually a way to spy on American military technology. In 2014, the FBI gave out an “extraordinary warning” to the companies participating in Skolkovo.

Podesta failed to mention that he had memberships to the board of this company, even while knowing that Russian investment in it may have been an attempt to steal our military technology. It all seems a bit suspicious. Why was Clinton, the U.S. State Department, and John Podesta tied up in this affair?

It would appear that they are the ones that need investigating into Russian ties rather than anyone in the Trump administration. (BREAKING: Hillary Connected to $35 MILLION Russian Bribe. Is This Treason? Angry Patriot; March 2017)

I can understand the Leftist MSM not picking up connections between Crooked Hillary and the Russians, but what Senator McCain goes after Trump for proof NOW when even the MSM has suggested improper violations of Obama Administration of wiretapping is just nuts. McCain would serve American Patriotism and the GOP better if he called out Obama to prove President Trump is incorrect.

Here are some news tidbits that implicate Obama wiretapping much more than President Trump angrily tweeting villainous Obama wiretapped the Trump campaign in a moment of emotional display.

JRH 3/13/17 (Hat Tip: Donald Moore of Blind Conservatives List)
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DC Secrets and Lies

By Clarice Feldman

March 12, 2017

American Thinker

A quick look at Obama’s history reveals he has always had the inclination, motivation, and opportunity to snoop on and disseminate information about his political opponents. It’s how he made his political career: getting his opponents' private divorce records unsealed and leaked with the help of the Chicago Tribune.

He and his administration continued this pattern and practice of skirting laws throughout his eight years in office, As Matthew Vadum reminds readers:

“Obama used the IRS to target conservative and Tea Party nonprofits, along with Catholic, Jewish, and pro-Israel organizations. He brazenly lied about it, too. His Justice Department surreptitiously obtained telephone records for more than 100 reporters."

Wikileaks revealed that under Obama, the NSA intercepted conversations of numerous foreign officials, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Silvio Berlusconi, and Nicolas Sarkozy.

So it is rather astonishing that so many disregard Trump’s claim that Obama and his aides spied upon him and his staff. There were several means at his disposal for him to do so, and it is increasingly likely that they did so. He apparently sought -- twice -- to get the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to approve tapping Trump communications, and was turned down once, in June of last year -- a rare occurrence as in 10,000 applications in a six-year period only two were rejected. Reportedly the Obama administration tried again, using a slightly modified request and received permission. Heat Street reported this on November 7.

This week, investigative journalists Sara Carter and John Solomon confirmed that the FISA court warrant was granted in October.

 "What we don't know is who was connected to that FISA," Carter said on Sean Hannity's show Wednesday night. "What was that FISA looking at? That is very highly classified. Nobody wants to talk about that particular FISA, right now. They said it did have to do with the Russian hacking on a very broad level, but it didn't hone in directly on Trump is what I was told," she said.

In addition to the FISA warrant in October, the FBI obtained a separate warrant that same month to look into a computer server tied to then-candidate Donald Trump's businesses in Trump Towers (but not located in Trump Towers). According to the report, the feds used traditional investigative techniques to examine allegations of computer activity tied to two Russian banks and there had been no intercepts of Trump’s phone or emails.

The FBI quickly concluded, "the computer activity in question involved no nefarious contacts, bank transactions or encrypted communications with the Russians."

The months-long FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential campaign briefly investigated a computer server tied to Donald Trump's businesses near the end of the election but has not gathered evidence of election tampering to date that would warrant criminal charges against any of the president’s associates, Circa has learned.

But a FISA warrant is not the only way to surveil communications. Under Chapter 36 of Title 50 of the US Code, and pursuant to Executive Order 12333, the president can authorize electronic surveillance without a court order, and we don’t know if Obama utilized one of these means as well. Nor can we ascertain who’s leaking, as on his way out of office –-17 days before his term was up -- Obama allowed the National Security Agency to circulate such intercepted messages among 16 other intelligence agencies without following longstanding protocols designed to insure privacy of those involved in the communications, in effect inviting selective leaking by partisans in those agencies.

This week former NSA official Bill Binney confirmed the veracity of Trump’s claim that his conversations had been tapped and monitored and claimed it was done outside the courts. 

Binney told Fox the laws that fall under the FISA court's jurisdiction are "simply out there for show" and "trying to show that the government is following the law, and being looked at and overseen by the Senate and House intelligence committees and the courts."

"That's not the main collection program for NSA," Binney said.

In any event, both the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and the head of the FBI James Comey have stated without equivocation that there was no evidence found of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

On the other hand, there is increasing evidence of Russian ties to Hillary Clinton and those closely connected to her.

Jerome Corsi connects a Russian billionaire to Putin with close ties.  He provides documentary “evidence of the circuitous path the Russian government has been using since Hillary Clinton was secretary of state to make large financial payments to John Podesta and to the Clinton Foundation.”

These transfers were made at the same time Hillary Clinton was transferring “U.S. advanced technology to Russia.”

John Podesta is not the only family member enriched by the Russians. His brother Tony also rode the Russian gravy train.

Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, has confirmed that it hired the consultancy of Tony Podesta, the elder brother of John Podesta who chaired Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, for lobbying its interests in the United States and proactively seeking the removal of various Obama-era sanctions, the press service of the Russian institution told TASS on Thursday.

[snip]

Previously, The Daily Caller reported that Tony Podesta was proactively lobbying for cancellation of a range of anti-Russian sanctions against the banking sector. In particular, he represented interests of Sberbank and was paid $170,000 for his efforts over a six-month period last year to seek to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country.  Podesta, founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Former President Barack Obama imposed the Russian sanctions following the break out in violence in east Ukraine in 2014.

Podesta’s efforts were a key part of under-the-radar lobbying during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign led mainly by veteran Democratic strategists to remove sanctions against Sberbank and VTB Capital, Russia’s second largest bank.

[snip]

The lobbying campaign targeted Congress and the executive branch, with Podesta and other lobbyists arranging at least two meetings between Sberbank officers and Department of State officials, according to Elena Teplitskaya, Sberbank’s board chairman, who spoke to House aides in August.

[snip]

The Podesta Group represented Sberbank and its subsidiaries, Troika Dialog Group in the Cayman Islands, SBGB Cyprus Ltd in Nicosia, Cyprus, and SB International in Luxembourg. Troika Dialog also was related to Klein, Ltd., a Cayman Island organization that once funneled tens of millions of dollars to environmental groups to oppose low-cost fracking in the U.S., which was hurting the Russian oil industry.

[snip]

Sberbank was the lead financial institution in the Russian deal to purchase Uranium One, owned by one of Bill Clinton’s closest friends, Frank Giustra. Giustra and Bill Clinton lead the Clinton-Giustra Enterprise Partnership, an integral part of the Clinton Foundation. Giustra has additionally donated $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Giustra sought to sell his stake in uranium reserves that included ore deposits in the Western United States, and Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state, approved the sale. And in one felled swoop, 20 percent of America’s uranium ore was sold to the Russian state atomic agency.

During the pending sale, the Podesta Group represented Giustra’s company and tried to advance the transaction. 

So there probably was surveillance on Trump and his associates, although no connection with Russia was established with them. Instead, all the connections to Russia were with Clinton and her closest associates.

What we also know was that, like Hillary Clinton, the Congressional Democrats repeatedly demonstrate a shocking disregard for national security. The Daily Caller has documented what the mainstream media is largely ignoring: the fact that dozens of Democratic congressmen, including the former head of the DNC, engaged three brothers from Pakistan and two of their wives at salaries multiple times over those similarly situated (over $4 million), gave them passwords, and allowed them access to sensitive computer files, even though it is impossible to fathom how people with their record of financial troubles got security clearances. These brothers are presently under criminal investigation accused of stealing House computer equipment and transferring information from Congressional files to a personal server. They owe $100,000 to an Iraqi businessman believed to have with ties to Hezb’allah who is a fugitive from U.S. authorities. This week, to cap it off, the brothers are under investigation for kidnapping and holding prisoner their stepmother to prevent her from seeing her dying husband in Pakistan.

Politico reports that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the DNC, refuses to fire one of the brothers even though he is banned from the House network. She’s keeping him on as an “adviser.”

Really, it’s impossible to parody Democrats these days. It would be too unbelievable.

+++

SUPERSTAR REPORTER GOES PUBLIC WITH OBAMA'S CREEPY SPYING ON HER

Shares bizarre details about hacked computer as she investigated scandals

By GARTH KANT

March 12, 2017

WND

Former Attorney General Eric Holder and former President Obama

“It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.” – George Orwell, “1984” 

WASHINGTON – The woman who is perhaps the nation’s top investigative journalist is fighting back against Big Brother.

Sharyl Attkisson shared with WND a detailed and harrowing description of what it was like to experience a reality straight out of Orwell: The reporter claims she was spied on by the Obama administration while investigating its scandals.

What tipped her off?

Imagine what it must be like to watch your computer turn itself on and off.

“That’s one visible sign I noticed over many months,” Attkisson told WND in an email interview.

“At the time, I suspected it was some sort of phishing program seeking my passwords and contacts, and was confident my computer had sufficient protections. I never suspected it was connected to an intrusion of my systems until sources and forensics told me that it was.”

She also watched a different computer that she used delete files by itself.

After Attkisson released a video showing that as it was happening, Vox’s Max Fisher claimed it was more likely that she had a stuck backspace key.

Sharyl Attkisson

WND asked, as an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist and now the anchor of her own Sunday morning national TV news program, “Full Measure,” did she find Fisher’s claim that she was confused by a keyboard plausible?

“It was just a silly attempt by a noted propagandist blog that had no firsthand information to deflect from the surveillance,” she replied dismissively.

“The ‘expert’ didn’t even know enough to understand there is no ‘backspace’ key on the computer shown, and — in any event — that holding down such a key cannot duplicate the super fast deletions demonstrated at the beginning of that particular video clip.”

What do YOU think? Will President Trump spy on American citizens like Obama did? Sound off now in the WND Poll!

The five-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting announced in January she is suing the Justice Department and seeking $35 million in damages for illegally hacking her computers and monitoring her work between 2011 and 2013.

Three separate computer forensic exams of her computers revealed what appears to be stunning evidence pointing straight to the Obama administration.

“The most important and irrefutable finding is: forensic evidence of a government-owned I.P. (internet protocol) address accessing my computer,” Attkisson told WND.

She said she was told that was “better evidence than the U.S. had when it accused China of various acts of hacking into our government, which the government accepts as proven.”

Her computers were examined by three independent forensics examiners including: a confidential source, an examiner hired by CBS News, and an examiner hired by her attorney.

What they found is just stunning.

Attkisson provided an itemized overview of some of their findings, and described what a confidential source and examiner hired by her attorney found:

§  “A government-owned I.P. address was used to access my computer.”

§  “We are able to see instances of exact date and time that the intruders entered my computers, and the methods they used to do so.”

§  “They used commercial, non-attributable software proprietary to the CIA, FBI, NSA or DIA.”

§  “The malware was constantly running on my computers. It included a feature that logged my keystrokes, accessed all my emails and collected my passwords.”

§  “Skype was surreptitiously used to listen in on audio.”

§  “My smartphone was also infected.”

§  “Three classified documents had been put on my computer.”

§  “Once sources notified me that I was likely being surveilled, and I discussed this in emails, the intruders took steps to erase evidence of their presence. However, the deletions themselves create a record of evidence.”

CBS and its analyst found:

§  “Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions in late 2012.”

§  “Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts.”

§  “An intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.”

§  “This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.”

§  “[Attkisson’s] systems were indeed subject to non-standard interactions between June 2012 and January 2013.”

§  “Definitive evidence that shows commands were run from Sharyl’s user account that she did not personally authorize.”

§  “This history has been deliberately removed from Sharyl’s hard drive.”

§  The intruders conducted an inordinate number of internal computer clock “time stamp” changes, likely to try to confuse any forensics that might be conducted.

Why her?

WND asked the former CBS Washington bureau investigative correspondent, did she think the administration considered her a foe? And acted to stop her out of purely political concerns?

“I have no idea, the perpetrators would have to answer that question and they certainly aren’t stepping forward,” she replied.

“But,” she continued, “my computer intrusions occurred in context of the Obama administration’s crackdown on whistleblowers and a lot of my work deals with whistleblowers.”

“Additionally, we know the administration was aggressively trying to control the narrative on a number of stories it saw as damaging, especially as the re-election year of 2012 shaped up.”

Attkisson detailed her experience under surveillance in 2014 in her highly acclaimed New York Times bestseller, “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.”

Stonewalled by Sharyl Attkisson

Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, records previously obtained by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch indicate Attkisson was targeted by the Obama administration because of critical reporting.

In 2014, Judicial Watch said it “obtained an October 4, 2011, email to White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz, Attorney General Eric Holder’s top press aide, (in which) Tracy Schmaler, described Attkisson as ‘out of control.’

“Schmaler added ominously, ‘I’m also calling Sharryl’s [sic] editor and reaching out to Scheiffer’ (an apparent reference to CBS’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Face the Nation moderator Bob Scheiffer). Schultz responded, ‘Good. Her piece was really bad for the AG’ (attorney general.)”

Given that Obama’s Justice Department had labeled her as “out of control” and tried to get the reporter’s employer to rein her in, WND asked Attkisson:  What did she make of an administration that seeks to control reporters?

“I expect it,” was the sober response. “But it’s our job to resist it and we aren’t doing a very good job of that as an industry.”

(Attkisson described problems endemic in the news media, including the genesis of fake news, in an interview with WND in December previewing her new book titled “The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote,” due to be published on May 22, 2017.)

The Smear by Sharyl Attkisson

Did she think her experience and that of the Associated Press and Fox News reporter James Rosen (both spied on by the Obama administration) were part of a pattern?

“Yes. I was informed about my case prior to us knowing about any of the other cases, just before the Snowden revelations, and prior to former DNI (Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper falsely telling Congress that the government was not collecting data of millions of Americans…but all of these events occurred in the same general time frame.”

So, was it the administration that was “out of control?”

“You decide!” she replied, echoing a famous news slogan.

Investigating the truth about her own story, the award-winning reporter has faced what she called a Catch-22 dilemma.

“To find out who accessed my computer, we need the government’s cooperation, but the government isn’t cooperating.”

“In my lawsuit, we seek to learn who had access to the I.P. address that was used to infiltrate my computer,” she continued. “To date, the Department of Justice has taken multiple steps to block us from finding this answer.”

However, her persistence has revealed some compelling results.

“Finally, at my request, the DOJ (Department of Justice) Inspector General’s office sent investigators to look at a separate computer, my personal home computer.”

Attkisson said that although the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office will not release their notes and records, “and have improperly failed to respond to my Freedom of Information Act request for the information,” their forensics investigators reported to her that they found the following on her personal computer:

§  “Evidence of suspicious deletions of files that could not have been done by me.

§  “Use of my computer in ‘advanced mode’ (which was not done by me).”

§  “‘Someone’ installed software onto my desktop and executed it and overwrote some important logs effectively covering their tracks and erasing much evidence of their actions.”

§  “As with my CBS computer, they found a lot of unusual time and date setting changes on my personal computer as well (15 times in four days).”

§  “They executed data recovery, recovering previously deleted logs.”

Attkisson said the forensics examiners working for the Justice Department’s inspector general “told me they believed the intruder(s) were actually working in my house at the computer conducting these acts, rather than conducting them remotely, but, in fact, the acts were conducted remotely, as with the work computers referenced above.”

“Furthermore,” she continued, “the examiners indicated that prior to their supervisors signing off on their findings, ‘somebody’ narrowed their mission to only reporting on any ‘remote’ intrusions (i.e. not addressing the suspicious forensics they found by someone they believed was actually in my house working at the computer.)”

And that’s when the investigation hit a wall.

“At this point, as their report was sent to higher-ups for approval, they dialed back their communications with me and would not deliver the promised final report or the notes that went with it.”

Attkisson said she filed a FOIA to obtain them but it was ignored. Many months went by.

“When Congress pressed the issue, the DOJ IG issued only a summary and emphasized there was no evidence of ‘remote’ intrusion in that computer and left out the suspicious forensics they discovered,” explained the investigative super-sleuth. “To this day, the DOJ IG has failed to properly respond to my FOIA requests seeking the full information and report.”

As a result, “Many in the media misreported that this DOJ IG report was somehow conclusive evidence that my computers had not been infiltrated.”

“In fact,” she clarified, “the DOJ IG didn’t even examine the primary computers in question — referenced in the other exams above— because CBS would not allow them to look at the computers.”

Did she think the problem was specific to the previous administration, or was it due the growth of the surveillance community, its powers and lack of oversight?

“I think this is an outgrowth of technology that makes such surveillance possible, politicians and corporate interests who are willing to use it for improper purposes, and a weak and conflicted news media that has done little to stop it.”

Finally, WND said it would be remiss if it did not ask the ace reporter if her experience had given her any insight into President Trump’s accusations that his campaign had been spied on by the Obama administration.

However, Attkisson said she has not looked at, or reported, on those allegations.

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BOTH RINOs & Leftists Malign Trump Tweets

John R. Houk

© March 13, 2017

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SUPERSTAR REPORTER GOES PUBLIC WITH OBAMA'S CREEPY SPYING ON HER

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