And yet more evidence Dems tried to hide showing the true
meddling in the 2016 election was the Obama Administration, the Crooked Hillary
Campaign AND probably Russian influence.
In December 2017 the head of opposition research firm Fusion
GPS admitted in a court filing that his
firm paid Nellie Ohr, the wife of senior Justice Department
official Bruce Ohr, to help dig up damaging information on then-candidate
Donald Trump.
As noted previously
at TGP, Nellie Ohr is a Communist sympathizer connected to Russia as
well as a corrupt Never-Trumper.
Author Diana West at the American
Spectator posted an article on Nellie Ohr last year.
Nellie Ohr is “the “dossier” spying scandal’s woman in the middle.”
To one side of Ohr, there is the
Fusion GPS team, including fellow contractor Christopher Steele. To the other,
there is husband Bruce Ohr, who, until his “dossier”-related demotion, was No.
4 man at the Department of Justice, and a key contact there for Steele.
What’s more revealing about Nellie Ohr is the men in her
life are protecting her involvement in the Russia scandal:
Notably, the “dossier” men in
her life have tried to shield Ohr from public scrutiny, even at professional
risk. Her husband, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, failed to
disclose his wife’s employment with Fusion GPS and seek the appropriate
conflict-of-interest waiver, which may have been an important factor in his
demotion from associate deputy attorney general late last year.
Under Senate and House
questioning, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson consistently failed to
disclose Nellie Ohr’s existence as one of his firm’s paid
Russian experts, let alone that he hired her for the red-hot DNC/Clinton
campaign Trump-Russia project.
Even Christopher Steele may
have tried to keep Nellie Ohr “under cover.” Steele, put forth
as the “dossier” author ever since its January 2017 publication in BuzzFeed,
does not appear to have let on to his many media and political contacts that he
had “dossier”-assistance from at least two fellow Fusion GPS Russian experts,
Nellie Ohr and Edward Baumgartner. Baumgartner, interestingly, was a Russian
history major at Vassar in the 1990s when Nellie Ohr taught Russian history
there.
It appears that
the men in Nellie’s life did all they could to prevent Nellie Ohr from being
outed for being involved in the dossier because she also has links to the CIA
and therefore to John Brennan.
Now this…
New evidence
suggests Nellie Ohr was working for the CIA and Fusion GPS when she passed on
the junk Trump-Russia dossier and information on the Trump Children to the
DOJ-FBI.
2) No-one spends that much time
gathering, formatting and distributing that much information for free.She had/has to be a government contracted
employee for the DOJ.[At least she was
in 2015 and 2016] pic.twitter.com/uc7GVGKwGC
The latest FOIA
requests indicate Nellie Ohr was working for the DOJ in 2015-2016.
4.) We already knew Nellie Ohr
worked for the CIA as an open source analyst in years past (see below), together
with Bruce and Fusion's Glenn Simpson. But the
latest FOIA documents seem to indicate she was working for the DOJ-NSD in 2015
and 2016. pic.twitter.com/6m0KfPILMT
6) And after Fusion GPS got the $$
contract from Clinton to create the Steele Dossier [April 2017]; which became
Nellie's primary assignment at Fusion; was exactly when Nellie got the
Ham Radio License. pic.twitter.com/7W6LUE2sp4
On Wednesday
night during his interview with Sean Hannity – President Trump called Nellie
Ohr the author of the phony dossier.
Nellie Ohr has
deep involvement with the creation of this fraudulent document.
NEW: Congressional interview transcripts
from Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr — wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr — reveal
details about her meeting with "Trump Dossier" author
Christopher Steele the day before the FBI launched its Trump-Russia
investigation.https://t.co/ltWWw2CJ9W
I just posted an interview
in which Rep. Jordan expressed his impressions on House questioning
of Bruce Ohr. The impressions were informative, yet this Daily Caller article
over the same questioning is specifics about Ohr connections to Steele, Christopher
Steele, Fusion GPS’s Nellie Ohr and most concerning; Mueller’s righthand attack
dog Andrew Weissmann among other FBI, DOJ and Fusion GPS Deep State nefarious
characters.
·DOJ official Bruce Ohr
testified before Congress on Tuesday about his contacts with Christopher
Steele, the author of the dossier
·One mystery surrounding
Ohr and Steele was who he told at the Justice Department about his interaction
with Steele
·Ohr testified that he
told his peers, but not his superiors, about the dossier-related contacts
Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr told Congress
earlier this week that he informed half a dozen FBI and Justice Department
officials about his contacts with dossier author Christopher Steele and
opposition researcher Glenn Simpson.
Sources familiar with Ohr’s testimony before the House
Judiciary and House Oversight Committees told The Daily Caller News Foundation
that Ohr informed Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page about his
interactions with Steele and Simpson. He also informed Justice Department
prosecutor Andrew Weissmann about his dossier-related work.
Weissmann is now serving as right-hand man to Robert Mueller
at the special counsel’s office.
Ohr testified that he informed his Justice Department peers,
but not his superiors, about his contacts with Steele and Simpson. One of the
superiors kept out of the loop was former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
Ohr said he was demoted as assistant deputy attorney general in December
because he failed to tell Yates and other top officials about his dossier
interactions. (RELATED: Trump: ‘How The Hell Is Bruce Ohr Still Employed?’)
Republicans have sought an interview with Ohr to find out
why he maintained contact with Steele even after the FBI decided to cut ties
with the former British spy just before the 2016 election. The FBI said in
applications for spy warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page that
the bureau dropped Steele as an informant because he had unauthorized contacts
with the media. Despite that, Ohr met and spoke with Steele numerous times
through May 2017. Ohr debriefed the FBI at least 12 times following his
post-election contacts with Steele.
Weissmann’s contact with Ohr about the dossier is
significant because of the mutual interest that Weissmann and Fusion’s Simpson
had in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, has told
Congress that Fusion GPS investigated Manafort’s links to Russian oligarchs as
part of its anti-Trump project.
“A lot of what we were talking to the media about were
things in the public record, specifically Carter Page, Paul Manafort had
resigned over allegations of illicit relationships with Russian oligarchs and
Ukrainian oligarchs,” Simpson told the Senate Judiciary Committee during an
Aug. 22, 2017 interview.
“So there was, you know, a lot of open source public
information pointing towards the possibility that the Russians had infiltrated
the Trump campaign,” he added. “So we spoke broadly to reporters and encouraged
them to look into this.”
As chief of the Justice Department’s criminal fraud
division, Weissmann was investigating Manafort even before the special counsel’s
team was formed. Weissmann facilitated a meeting in April 2017 with reporters
from The Associated Press to discuss the Justice Department’s investigation
into Manafort’s work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Weissmann is the lead prosecutor in two cases against Manafort for that
work.
Weissmann has also attracted criticism from Republicans
because of his overt support for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He
has donated heavily to Democratic political candidates and attended Clinton’s
2016 election night party in New York City.
Ohr’s wife was also a focus of Tuesday’s closed-door
interview.
Republicans pressed Ohr about how his wife, a Russia expert
named Nellie Ohr, came to work for Fusion GPS.
Ohr testified that Fusion approached his wife for a job and
that she began working for the research firm in late 2015. California GOP Rep.
Darrell Issa said Ohr testified that his wife was paid $44,000 by Fusion
GPS. As The DCNF has reported, Ohr did not disclose his wife’s Fusion income
on his annual ethics disclosure form.
Perkins Coie, the law firm for the Clinton campaign and
Democratic National Committee, paid Fusion GPS more than $1 million for the
Trump-Russia project. Fusion paid Steele nearly $170,000 for his work.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican who helped question Ohr,
said that he believes that Fusion GPS chose Nellie Ohr so that the firm could
leverage her husband’s senior position at the DOJ.
“Why did they need Bruce Ohr? Why did Fusion…want to work
with Bruce Ohr?” he said in an interview on Fox News Tuesday night.
“My guess is, because he is associate deputy attorney
general … that just adds heft and weight to what they were trying to do about
this whole dossier, which was the key to everything,” he added.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment on
Weissmann’s links to Ohr.
Content created by The Daily
Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news
publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our
original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
The Gateway Pundit has a report that centers on the
nefarious Deep State treasonous activity of Nellie Ohr. Old Nellie may be more
important than anti-Deep Staters realized. AND it appears info is getting
closer to exposing the worst President in American history – Barack Hussein
Obama.
As the details behind the Spygate scandal are uncovered,
the connections to former President Obama are unearthed.
According
to Zero Hedge, the head of opposition research firm Fusion GPS
admitted in December 2017 in a court filing that his firm paid the wife of a
senior Justice Department official to help dig up damaging information on
then-candidate Donald Trump.
Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion
GPS, filed the signed declaration in a D.C. court this week affirming
that Nellie Ohr, wife of demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr,
was contracted by Fusion through the summer and fall of 2016 “to help our
company with its research and analysis of Mr. Trump,” according to the
filing. The House Intelligence Committee determined that in November 2016,
Simpson met
with Bruce Ohr shortly after the election to discuss their
findings regarding Russia and Trump. Bruce Ohr lost his senior-level position
at the DOJ as associate deputy attorney general after his meetings with
Simpson and British spy Christopher Steele, who assembled the Trump-Russia
dossier, were discovered.
And why would Fusion GPS hire
Nellie Ohr? Aside from the obvious connection to her DOJ husband who was in a
position to provide Fusion GPS with information on Trump gathered by US
intelligence agencies, Nellie Ohr also represented the CIA’s “Open
Source Works” group in a 2010 “expert working group report
on international organized crime” along with Bruce Ohr and Glenn
Simpson.
The connections between Nellie Ohr and the ‘Spygate’ scandal
were hidden at a distance for months.
As noted last
week at TGP, Nellie Ohr is a Communist sympathizer connected to Russia
as well as a corrupt Never-Trumper.
American
Spectator recently posted an article on Nellie Ohr, who they
call “the “dossier” spying scandal’s woman in the middle.”
To one side of Ohr, there is the
Fusion GPS team, including fellow contractor Christopher Steele. To the other,
there is husband Bruce Ohr, who, until his “dossier”-related demotion, was No.
4 man at the Department of Justice, and a key contact there for Steele.
As central as Nellie Ohr’s
placement is, her role in the creation of the “dossier” remains undefined. For
example, the House Intelligence Committee memo on related matters vaguely tells
us that Nellie Ohr was “employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of
opposition research on Trump”; the memo adds that Bruce Ohr “later provided the
FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research.” Senator Lindsey Graham more
sensationally told Fox News that Nellie Ohr “did the research for Mr. Steele,”
but details remain scarce.
What’s more revealing about Nellie Ohr is the men in her
life are protecting her involvement in the Russia scandal:
Notably, the “dossier” men in
her life have tried to shield Ohr from public scrutiny, even at professional
risk. Her husband, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, failed to
disclose his wife’s employment with Fusion GPS and seek the appropriate conflict-of-interest
waiver, which may have been an important factor in his demotion from associate
deputy attorney general late last year.
Under Senate and House
questioning, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson consistently failed to
disclose Nellie Ohr’s existence as one of his firm’s paid Russian experts, let
alone that he hired her for the red-hot DNC/Clinton campaign Trump-Russia
project.
Even Christopher Steele may have
tried to keep Nellie Ohr “under cover.” Steele, put forth as the “dossier”
author ever since its January 2017 publication in BuzzFeed, does not
appear to have let on to his many media and political contacts that he had
“dossier”-assistance from at least two fellow Fusion GPS Russian experts,
Nellie Ohr and Edward Baumgartner. Baumgartner, interestingly, was a Russian
history major at Vassar in the 1990s when Nellie Ohr taught Russian history
there.
Yesterday, President Trump’s attorney, former New York
City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani outed former Obama CIA Director John Brennan as the
man in charge of ‘Spygate’. Rudy claims Brennan orchestrated the
‘Spygate’ scandal and was the quarterback:
President Trump’s lawyer Rudy
Giuliani announced on Monday evening that he believes former CIA Director John
Brennan is the person responsible for the entire Mueller investigation.
Giuliani made the claim during a segment of “Hannity” on Fox News.
President Trump’s lawyer Rudy
Giuliani announced on Monday evening that he believes former CIA Director John
Brennan is the person responsible for the entire Mueller investigation.
Giuliani made the claim during a segment of “Hannity” on Fox News.
“She got off because of that fixed
investigation. A totally phony fixed investigation run by Peter Strzok who then
turns around, the dossier is obtained on the day that they dropped the case
against Trump — against Hillary. So that case gets dropped and they had to even
up the score,” Giuliani stated.
“The reality is I’m going to tell
you. We don’t have the time to go into it, we can do it later, I’m going to
tell you who was the quarterback for all of this. It isn’t just Strzok. Strzok
is a bit of a puppet. Then there’s Mueller, he’s a puppet. The people working
for him, some of them are,” he continued.
Hannity cut of Giuliani saying, “I
have a funny feeling you are about to drop a bomb on me.”
Giuliani and Hannity were
discussing the firing of disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, which happened
earlier on Monday.
“Well the guy running it is (John)
Brennan and he should be in front of a grand jury. Brennan took an affidavit –
a dossier, unless he’s the biggest idiot intelligence agent that ever existed,
although he never did much intelligence work, it’s false. You could look at it
and laugh,” Giuliani stated.
✝Donations are welcome & …
READ THE REST (Description
added by Blog Editor.)]
It appears that the men in Nellie’s life did all they
could to prevent Nellie Ohr from being outed for being involved in the dossier
because she also has links to the CIA and therefore to Brennan.
If Brennan is outed as the quarterback of the dossier scandal, then
by association, so is his boss, former President Obama.
Now we know that communist sympathizer Nellie Ohr, and
the men who surrounded her, her husband, business partners, John Brennan, and
by association President Obama, were all connected. Together they
attempted to prevent Candidate Trump from being elected and later to remove
duly elected President Trump from office.
Persecutor-in-chief Robert Mueller has found ZERO criminal
conspiracy between the Trump Campaign of 2016 and Russians. Or as the Leftist
MSM might or should say – NO COLLUSION!
Aleksej Gubarev
Keeping this in mind, the Steele Dossier fake accusations
against Donald Trump also accused Russian owned businesses of criminal hacking in
election 2016. One of those accused Russians is tech mogul Aleksej Gubarev
owner of Russian tech company XBT Holding
which in turn owns Dallas based tech company Webzilla:
A report compiled by a former
Western intelligence official as opposition research against Trump was made
public Tuesday when BuzzFeed posted its 35 pages. The document included
unsubstantiated claims of collusion between the Trump campaign team and the
Kremlin.
It also alleged that global tech
firm XBT Holding, with operations in Dallas, was instrumental in the hack of
leaked Democratic Party emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton and fellow
Democrats.
XBT, owner of Dallas-based
enterprise-hosting company Webzilla, is run by a successful Russian tech
startup expert, Aleksej Gubarev. In a phone interview from Cyprus, where he
said he'd lived since 2002, Gubarev said he was surprised to see his name in
the report. (Tech
firm named in Russian hacking report has operations in Dallas;
By Wire Services; Dallas News;
1/11/17)
Aleksej Gubarev was not pleased to have his name associated
with any kind of criminal election conspiracy. So, he is suing:
A Russian tech executive suing
BuzzFeed News over the Steele dossier says he is vindicated by special counsel
Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian nationals allegedly involved in cyber
attacks against Democrats.
Aleksej Gubarev, the executive,
says Mueller’s indictment shows he was not involved in hacks of Democratic
National Committee emails, as the dossier alleges.
He has filed defamation lawsuits
against BuzzFeed News, the website’s editor, Ben Smith and dossier author
Christopher Steele. BuzzFeed published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017. Steele, a
former British spy, compiled the dossier as part of an anti-Trump research
project funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign.
… READ THE
REST (RUSSIAN SUING OVER STEELE DOSSIER CALLS MUELLER INDICTMENT
AN ‘UTTER VINDICATION’; By Chuck Ross; Daily Caller; 7/13/2018 11:53
PM)
And Tyler Durden reports:
A Russian venture capitalist and
tech executive accused in the Steele dossier of "using botnets and porn
traffic" to conduct cyberattacks on Democrats says that Friday's
indictment of 12 Russian nationals for hacking the DNC is an "utter vindication,"
reports the Daily
Caller.
…
In order to help defend themselves
against Gubarev, BuzzFeed
filed a lawsuit against the DNC to force them to hand over
information related to the "Steele Dossier" after the DNC
ignored a subpoena for proof they were hacked - including "digital
remnants left by the Russian state operatives," as well as a full
version of the hacking report prepared by cybersecurity firm
CrowdStrike.
The DNC notably wouldn't
allow FBI investigators to look at the server, instead
relying on the hacking report prepared by CrowdStrike (founded by Russian
expat Dimitri Alperovitch - who sits on the very Anti-Russian Atlantic
Council along with Evelyn "loose
lips" Farkas).
“As part of the discovery process,
BuzzFeed is attempting to verify claims in the dossier that relate to the
hacking of the DNC,” said BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenhal in a statement.
“We’re asking a federal court to force the DNC to follow the law and allow
BuzzFeed to fully defend its First Amendment rights.”
… READ
ENTIRETY (Russian Suing Over Steele Dossier Says Mueller Hacking
Indictment An "Utter Vindication"; By Tyler Durden; Zero Hedge; 7/14/18 15:55)
Aleksej Gubarev recently learned that “District Court
Judge Ursula Ungaro ruled that the firm’s client relationships
“are not protected from disclosure by the First Amendment even though
the opposition research it conducts on behalf of clients may be political in
nature.”
Although Gubarev may believe Mueller’s indictment of 12
Russian GRU spies exonerates him of any complicity, Mueller have opened himself
to proof his persecution of Trump is indeed a needless politically motivated
witch-hunt.
The Federal judge’s ruling was ‘everything’ that the
lawyer for a Russian dot-com executive slandered by Christopher Steele had
‘hoped for.’ After using every legal stalling trick they could think of, the
executives of Fusion GPS, including Glenn Simpson, are now compelled to answer
key and sensitive questions at the heart of the controversy.
Unswayed by weak arguments put forth by Fusion GPS and
it’s founder Glenn Simpson,
District Court Judge Ursula Ungaroruled that
the firm’s client relationships “are not protected from disclosure by the First
Amendment even though the opposition research it conducts on
behalf of clients may be political in nature.”
Ungaro issued a ruling on Tuesday that pleased the American
public a lot more than the lawyer for Russian mogul Aleksej
Gubarev, but he’s ecstatic. In fact, the ruling has implications
for the DNC.
Attorney Evan
Fray-Witzer happily declared. “This ruling gave us everything
that we had hoped for.” It was a long battle.
“After a year of trying everything they could think of to avoid being deposed,
Fusion is finally going to have to sit down and answer our questions.”
Outraged citizens have long been demanding to know how Barack Obama’s
Department of Justice was corrupted into
a more “Nixonian” political weapon than what happened at the Watergate hotel,
and now they will get to find out.
As stated in the final order, “Representatives of Fusion GPS
must answer a broad array of questions about the opposition research
firm’s role in
creating, investigating and disseminating the infamous Steele dossier.”
For over a year, Gubarev has been trying to interrogate
Glenn Simpson and other Fusion GPS management in depositions, which are
sessions of sworn testimony that happen in the lawyer’s offices, “to determine
the purported factual basis for the dossier’s allegedly defamatory statements.”
The underlying defamation suit was filed against
left-leaning news outlet BuzzFeed News.
It spans two continents with one part filed in London and another filed in
Miami, Florida.
The trial in Miami is scheduled to get underway this
November. In the European half of the case, a British court also recently ruled
in Gubarev’s favor, ordering that Christopher
Steele will have to take the stand for questioning.
Gubarev alleges that Steele “defamed him,” by reporting that
two of his companies, XBT Holding S.A. and its subsidiary, Webzilla, hijacked
Democratic Party computers “using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses,
plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘altering operations.’”
Steele’s dossier blamed Webzilla for the hack. Now the Democratic
National Committee will be deposed and asked to prove it.
The DNC has been frantically fighting a subpoena demanding
“technical information” that they really don’t want to release.
Gubarev told them to fork over anything they might have,
backing up their story with “‘clues’ and ‘evidence’ left behind by the
cyber-intruders who breached the DNC’s network in 2016.”
Ungaro is allowing Gubarev’s attorneys to grill Fusion GPS
representatives “about the firm’s dossier clients, its efforts to verify the
dossier, its decision to hire dossier author Christopher Steele and its
interactions with government officials and media outlets, including BuzzFeed.”
It seemed intentional to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
and fellow lawmaker Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
that all of Steele’s inflammatory material was leaked to the press, so they are
digging into whether “Steele coordinated in any way with employees of the FBI
or DOJ,” to leak the dossier to the media.
Other big questions that conservative lawmakers are asking
are, did “the FBI, DOJ, or Office of National Intelligence” have a copy of the
dossier before January 10, 2017; did Senator John McCain get
a copy of the dossier’s first 33 pages on or about December 9, 2016 and;
“whether, prior to January 10, 2017, Mr. Clapper, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Brennan,
and/or Mr. Comey briefed President Obama about the Dossier and provided a
synopsis of it.”
According to a disillusioned investigator on the Crossfire
Hurricane investigation that turned whistleblower, Hillary
Clinton was right in the middle of everything.
“The dossier and its related dirt was on a circular flight
path aboard a courier service called ‘Air Clinton,’ and the FBI kept signing
for the packages.”
Multiple versions of the same bogus information were hand
carried around the globe by known Clinton “operatives” as mutually
corroborating “support.”
When Peter Strzok’s FBI
superiors wanted to know “which one” leaked to
BuzzFeed, he told them it had to come from John McCain.
“The set is only identical to what McCain had. (it has
differences from what was given to us by Corn and Simpson),” Strzok wrote in a
recently surfaced email.
“Simpson all but acknowledged he and Steele provided the
information to McCain ally David Kramer,
who provided it to the Arizona senator to forward to the FBI.”
Christopher Steele alleged in previous testimony that he
warned Kramer that the evidence in his file was “raw intelligence,” when he
handed it over.
He only wanted McCain to have it for “analyzing,
investigating and verifying” the contents and decide if action was “necessary
for the purpose of protecting US national security.”
It also highlights just how extensively Clinton influenced
and directed what would eventually become Robert
Mueller’s Russia collusion special investigation.
Without checking any of the information, Obama
administration officials presented it to the FISA court to get political
wiretaps.
Strzok’s email also contradicts Glenn Simpson’s prior
testimony to Congress under oath. He swore that the FBI didn’t get his copy,
only Christopher Steele’s.
Former bureau investigators who reviewed Strzok’s text
message note that “the FBI is supposed to be immune to manipulation by circular
information flows, especially with sensitive investigations such as evaluating
whether a foreign power tampered with an American election.”
In this case, they explain, “the generally same information
kept walking through the FBI’s door for months, recycled each time by a new
character with ties to Hillary Clinton or hatred for Trump.”
As American Thinker pointed out in anticipation of Inspector
General Horowitz’ investigation report, the scheme engineered by Hillary
Clinton’s campaign and the Democrat National Committee “is going to make
Watergate look like the petty burglary it was.”
Conservative Daily Post is an
independent news organization that thrives on independent journalism and truth.
Company History
Founded in the summer of 2016
during the tumultuous Trump-Clinton election cycle, CDP has grown to become one
of the largest news publishers on the west coast. CDP strives to provide
breaking headlines and notable news to our audience each and every day.
TRUMP REACTS TO FISA MEMO: "I
Think It's Terrible. I Think It's a Disgrace What's Happening in Our
Country"
When you read the FISA Memo you must realize it was
sanitized to allegedly protect sources and methods of investigation. Even so,
it is not a difficult stretch to understand the nefarious nature that Donald
Trump was targeted before and after the November 2016 election by Obama
Administration leadership (probably including Obama himself). The
weaponized police state of Obama, the Dems AND Crooked Hillary tried to feloniously
steal the election and failing that, STILL use false and/or fake data to
impeach a duly elected President.
AND the American free press (aka the Leftist MSM) have been
full participants in disseminating the falsified/fake data to an American
public of which many believe the Mainstream Media is still a credible source of
news.
So, this is what I’m going to do for my blog readers. First,
I am posting a Fox News’ Catherine Herridge report. Second, the FISA Memo
sourced from the Western Journal. WJ leaves out the intro on the original Memo
so I am extracting from a pdf downloaded from SCRIBD courtesy of the fake
news channel CNBC.com. Last but not least – third, BPR review article
entitled, “7
biggest takeaways from the FISA memo that was just released”.
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On January 29, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence (hereinafter “the Committee”) voted to disclose publicly a
memorandum containing classified information provided to the Committee in
connection with its oversight activities (the “Memorandum,” which is attached
to this letter). As provided by clause 11(g) of Rule of the House of
Representatives, the Committee has forwarded this Memorandum to the President
based on its determination that the release of the Memorandum would serve the
public interest.
The Constitution vests the President with the authority to
protect national security secrets from it disclosure. As the Supreme Court has
recognized, it is the President’s responsibility to classify, declassify, and
control access to information bearing on our intelligence sources and methods
and national defense. See, e.g., Dep’t of Navy v. Egan, 484 US. 518, 527
(1988). In order to facilitate appropriate congressional oversight, the
Executive Branch may entrust classified information to the appropriate
committees of Congress, as it has done in connection with the Committee’s
oversight activities here. The Executive Branch does so on the assumption that
the Committee will responsibly protect such classified information, consistent
with the laws of the United States.
The Committee has now determined that the release of the
Memorandum would be appropriate. The Executive Branch, across Administrations
of both parties, has worked to accommodate congressional requests to declassify
specific materials in the public interest.1 However, public release of classified
information by unilateral action of the Legislative Branch is extremely rare
and raises significant separation of powers concerns. Accordingly, the
Committee’s request to release the Memorandum is interpreted as a request for
declassification pursuant to the President’s authority.
The President understands that the protection of our
national security represents his highest obligation. Accordingly, he has
directed lawyers and national security staff to assess the
_________________________________
1 See, e.g. S. Rept. 114-8 at 12 (Administration of Barack Obama)
(“On April 3, 2014 . . . the Committee agreed to send the revised Findings and
Conclusions, and the updated Executive Summary of the Committee Study, to the
President for declassification and public release”); H. Rept. 107-792
(Administration of George W. Bush) (similar); E.O. 12812 (Administration of
George H.W. Bush) (noting Senate resolution requesting that President provide
for declassification of certain information Via Executive Order).
_________________________________
declassification request, consistent with established
standards governing the handling of classified information, including those
under Section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526. Those standards permit declassification
when the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the
information. The White House review process also included input from the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice.
Consistent with this review and these standards, the President has determined
that declassification of the Memorandum is appropriate.
Based on this assessment and in light of the significant
public interest in the memorandum, the President has authorized the declassification
of the Memorandum. To be clear, the Memorandum reflects the judgments of its
congressional authors. The President understands that oversight concerning
matters related to the Memorandum may be continuing. Though the circumstances
leading to the declassification through this process are extraordinary, the
Executive Branch stands ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight
requests consistent with applicable standards and processes, including the need
to protect intelligence sources and methods.
Sincerely,
Donald F. McGahn II
Counsel to the
President
Here’s the Full Text of the FISA Memo Written by Rep.
Devin Nunes
In all cases, any typographical
emphasis — whether bold type, italics or underline — is original to the memo.
Our goal here was to provide as accurate a representation of the original
document as possible while still making it a little easier to read than the
facsimile versions currently available online. — Ed. Note
January 18, 2018
To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the
Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose
This memorandum provides Members an update on significant
facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of
Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential
election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with
the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling
breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from
abuses related to the FISA process.
Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA
probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance
on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer
advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under
FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy
Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General,
Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney
General for the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting
Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50
U.S.C. §,1805(d)(l)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by
the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable
cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on
behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally
Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or
more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ
Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence
activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified.
As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends
on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest
standard—particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens.
However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is
reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent
on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts.
This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA
application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the
government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to
accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings
indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was
omitted.
1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele
dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary
Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application.
Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and
Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS,
to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
a) Neither the initial application
in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the
DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even
though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior
DOJ and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application
notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS
and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie)
representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that
political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does
not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and
Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele
for the same information.
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a
September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff,
which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not
corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by
Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application
incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo
News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo
News — and several other outlets — in September 2016 at the direction
of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts
because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele
and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
a) Steele was suspended and then
terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of
violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the
FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David
Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts
with Yahoo and other outlets in September — before the
Page application was submitted to the FISC in October — but Steele improperly
concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
b) Steele’s numerous encounters
with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling — maintaining
confidentiality — and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable
source for the FBI.
3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he
maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce
Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General
Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began
interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in
September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate
Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get
elected and was passionate about him not being president.” (Emphasis
Nunes’.) This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time
and subsequently in official FBI files — but not reflected in any of the Page
FISA applications.
a) During this same time period,
Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of
opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s
opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS.
The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed
from the FISC.
4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence
division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier
was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After
Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent
unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated.
Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a
summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was — according to his June 2017
testimony — “salacious and unverified.” While the FISA application relied on
Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it
ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations.
Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December
2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without
the Steele dossier information.
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information
regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no
evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The
Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence
investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned
by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text
messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter
Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of
Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also
reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to
the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an
“insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.
+++
7 biggest takeaways from the FISA memo that was just
released
By declassifying the memo, President Trump just blew up
Washington, D.C.
The controversial FISA memo, released by
the House Intelligence Committee to the public on Friday, contains a number of
bombshell revelations related to the FBI’s surveillance on the Trump campaign
during the 2016 election.
At least one Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona,
concluded that the document shows “clear and convincing evidence of treason.”
Here are the biggest takeaways.
1. Andrew McCabe admitted the dossier was used as the
justification to secure a FISA warrant on Carter Page
Former FBI Deputy Director
Andrew
McCabe. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
“Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in
December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC
[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] without the Steele dossier
information.”
2. The FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign was triggered
by aide George Papadopoulos
“The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an
FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete
Strzok.”
3. The FBI had no evidence of a connection between
Papadopoulos and Page
Former Trump adviser Carter
Page. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
“The Page FISA application also mentions information
regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no
evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos.”
4. The FBI knew the DNC and Clinton campaign were behind
the dossier–but didn’t disclose that knowledge to the FISA court
Former FBI Director James
Comey. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File).
“Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of
the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or.
any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political
origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.”
“The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a
named US. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who
was paid by a US. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it
was known by DOI at the, time that political actors were involved with the
Steele dossier).”
5. The FBI paid Christopher Steele to work on the dossier
Christopher
Steele, the former MI6
agent who compiled the Trump dossier. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via
Getty Images).
“The application does not mention Steele was ultimately
working on behalf of – and paid by – the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the
FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.”
6. Top DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele in 2016 and
told the FBI the British spy had an anti-Trump bias
Glenn
Simpson, co-founder of
Fusion GPS, which paid for the dossier on behalf of the DNC and Clinton
campaign. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais).
“Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he
maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce
Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General
Yates and later Rosenstein.
“Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr,
documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016,
Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele
said he ‘was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate
about him not being president.’
“This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at
the time and subsequently in official FBI files, but not reflected in any of
the Page FISA applications.”
7. The memo reveals which officials green-lighted
surveillance on Carter
Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik).
“As required by statute, a FISA order on an American citizen
must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate
finding of probable cause.
“Then-Director James Comey signed three
FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew
McCabe signed one. Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana
Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more
FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.”
In response to the memo, President Trump said “it’s a
disgrace what’s happening in our country” and that “a lot of people should
be ashamed of themselves.”
Pres. Trump says GOP memo has been declassified:
"Congress will do whatever they're going to do. But I think it's
a disgrace what's happening in our country...A lot of people should be
ashamed of themselves." https://t.co/OfR9pu29Wopic.twitter.com/wJHEptrGrk
