In a newly admitted &#8220;mistake&#8221; the defense has decried as &#8220;appalling,&#8221; the attorneys prosecuting former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn have been forced to admit this week that they &#8220;misidentified&#8221; the sources of the FBI notes upon which the case against Flynn has been based.
The notes on the conversation with Flynn that the prosecutors believed were written by anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok, the prosecutors admitted in a letter Tuesday, were in fact written by his partner, Joe Pientka. The admission further calls into question Strzok&#8217;s credibility, as he had insisted that Pientka was &#8220;primarily responsible&#8221; for taking the notes and writing the key document in the case, the FD-302 form. The admission also follows the defense&#8217;s accusation that the FBI deliberately altered the original 302 form to suggest Flynn had lied about his contact with a Russian ambassador
As reported by <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/doj-admits-in-michael-flynn-case-that-fbi-mistakenly-identified-peter-strzok-notes/">National Review</a>&#8216;s Tobias Hoonhout on Wednesday, in a letter sent to Flynn&#8217;s lawyer Sidney Powell, the Justice Department prosecuting attorneys were forced to admit that they had been misidentifying the sources of the notes on the FBI&#8217;s January 2017 interview with Flynn for the entirety of the case, some 18 months.
Since the FBI does not record its interviews, such notes stand in place of an official transcript. The notes incorrectly believed to have been taken by Strzok formed the basis of the official FBI document on the interview.
&#8220;We were informed that the notes we had identified as Peter Strzok’s, were actually the other agent’s notes (see Surreply, Exhibit 1), and what we had identified as the other agent’s notes were in fact Strzok’s notes (see Surreply, Exibit 2),&#8221; the prosecutors admitted to Powell in the letter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
New letter to the Court from DOJ on the Flynn case.
They misidentified the FBI agents&#8217; notes. 🤦‍♂️
Strzok&#8217;s notes are really Pientka&#8217;s notes, and Pientka&#8217;s notes are really Strzok&#8217;s notes. <a href="https://t.co/9eTBZrymv9">pic.twitter.com/9eTBZrymv9</a>
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) <a href="https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1191860980554354688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The FBI’s admission calls into further question the credibility of the case and of former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who told the FBI that his partner Joe Pientka was &#8216;primarily responsible for taking notes and writing the FD-302,&#8221; Hoonhout writes.
&#8220;In defending Flynn, Powell has argued that Strzok’s supposed notes were too orderly and well constructed to have been taken in the actual interview,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;Now the letter, coupled with prosecution’s release of notes last week, apparently reveal that Strzok, in fact, took the majority of the notes in the interview.&#8221;
Strzok has become a central figure in multiple cases, as he led the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton&#8217;s unsecured and unapproved private email server and was initially a member of Robert Mueller&#8217;s special counsel investigative team before being removed after evidence of his overtly anti-Trump bias came to light.
Powell recently accused the FBI of <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/flynns-lawyer-claims-fbi-tampered-with-interview-notes-demands-charges-be-dropped-due-to-outrageous-government-misconduct/">tampering</a> with the Flynn 302 document to suggest that Flynn lied about his contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
&#8220;Those changes added an unequivocal statement that ‘Flynn stated he did not’ — in response to whether Mr. Flynn had asked Kislyak to vote in a certain manner or slow down the UN vote [on sanctions],&#8221; Powell alleged in a 37-page motion two weeks ago. &#8220;This is a deceptive manipulation because, as the notes of the agents show, Mr. Flynn was not even sure he had spoken to Russia/Kislyak on the issue. He had talked to dozens of countries.&#8221;
&#8220;That question and answer does not appear in the notes, yet it was made into a criminal offense,&#8221; Powell stated. &#8220;The draft also shows that the agents moved a sentence to make it seem to be an answer to a question it was not.&#8221;
As National Review explains, the admission by prosecutors about confusing the source of the case&#8217;s key document was prompted by Powell demanding that the FBI search its &#8220;Sentinel Database&#8221; for all drafts of the 302 to show if any significant alterations had been made.  Flynn&#8217;s texts with his paramour FBI lawyer Lisa Page revealed that he admitted to making changes to the 302 with her help on the same day that news broke that Flynn had talked about sanctions with Kislyak. The reports cited &#8220;senior intelligence officials&#8221; as the source of the claim.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mueller-report-edited-conversation-between-trump-ashe-schow">Mueller Report Edited Conversation Between Trump, Flynn Lawyers. The Transcript Was Just Released.</a>

Peter Strzok

&#8216;Appalling&#8217;: FBI ‘Misidentified’ Anti-Trump Agent&#8217;s Notes In Case Against Mike Flynn

Department of Justice

Michael Flynn

Phelim McAleer knows liberal media bias describes more than just progressive spin. It also covers the stories reporters either ignore or aggressively downplay.
The text exchanges between former FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok fall squarely in the latter group. It’s why McAleer and his creative team produced “FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers” earlier this year.
The stage production used the agents’ own texts to reveal their romance as well as an “insurance policy” for stopping Donald Trump.
The production took place last June at Washington’s Ronald Reagan Center after the original site backed out following <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/theaters-fbi-lovebirds-violence-free-speech/">threats of violence</a>.
Now, anyone can see the show via YouTube, free of charge. The video generated more than 33,000 views in its first week alone with microscopic media coverage.
“The response of the audience on the night [in question] was amazing, and it has continued online. They really, really appreciate the truth told in an entertaining and accessible way,” McAleer says.
<iframe title="FBI Lovebirds | How Two FBI Operatives Tried To Take Down Donald Trump; Dean Cain &amp; Kristy Swanson" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tCutKd11kjg?start=2149&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Strzok and Page weren’t minor FBI players. Strzok oversaw Hillary Clinton’s email scandal probe and found himself tied to the Russia-Trump probe months later. Page served as acting FBI director Andrew McCabe’s top counsel.
Together, they epitomized what many conservatives feared most &#8211; a “Deep State” attempt to remove the unconventional leader.
Consider the following text exchange:
<blockquote>Page: “Trump’s not ever going to become president, right?”
Strzok: “No. No, he won’t. We’ll stop it.”</blockquote>
McAleer credits his stars, Kristy Swanson and Dean Cain, for elevating the already explosive texts.
“I thought the script was important and entertaining, but Dean and Kristy took it to a whole new level and found humor and pathos where I didn&#8217;t realize it was there,” says McAleer, who employed Verbatim Theater to create the play. His team used direct source material, not creative license, to bring the show to life.
In this case, “FBI Lovebirds” shared the infamous Strzok/Page texts as well as congressional testimony.
The press covered the Page/Strzok text exchanges, but with a fraction of the vigor applied to fake Trump scandals like SharpieGate.
They treated “FBI Lovebirds” with equal unease.
“A lot of the media ignored the play because the last thing they wanted to discuss or publicize is the origins of the ‘Russia Collusion’ story,” McAleer says.
The lessons from the Strzok/Page texts don’t apply just to the Russia collusion hoax, he says.
“This has direct relevance to the current Ukraine controversy where we are being asked to accept that the intelligence community is politically neutral when it is clearly not,” he says. “We need to treat ‘whistleblowers’ with skepticism.”
Comedy institutions also avoided the text exchanges despite their obvious appeal. The old “Saturday Night Live” could have feasted on the material for weeks.
“They would never dream of making a joke about this obvious subject, but even if they did think about it they would not do it for fear of being not popular with the ‘in’ crowd,” he says. “They are so busy giving themselves awards for bravery that they don’t see how cowardly their comedy really is.”
Swanson and Cain, by contrast, leaned into that comic potential, drawing guffaws from the D.C. crowd.
McAleer turned to online crowdfunding to make “FBI Lovebirds” a reality, much like he did for past projects (including the indie film “Gosnell”). He shares some tips for conservatives eager to follow a similar path.
“Try and make your art mainstream, and make sure it does not look or smell different,” he says. “Don’t be afraid to use genres to tell a story … but respect the genre. Don’t disappoint people who go for a romantic comedy or a horror story. Follow the rules of the genre and tell your story,” he says. “Do that, and you will get a much more engaged audience.”
&nbsp;

‘FBI Lovebirds’ Producer: Audiences Hunger For The Truth

Donald Trump

Russia

United States Attorney John Durham is expanding his investigation into the origins of the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence probe into Russia and the Trump campaign after his team reportedly made significant discoveries.
Fox News&#8217; Bret Baier <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/durham-investigation-trump-campaign-surveillance-expanded-scope">reported</a> on Tuesday in a Fox News exclusive that &#8220;based on what he has been finding, Durham has expanded his investigation adding agents and resources, the senior administration officials said. The timeline has grown from the beginning of the probe through the election and now has included a post-election timeline through the spring of 2017, up to when Robert Mueller was named special counsel.&#8221;
&#8220;Attorney General Bill Barr and Durham traveled to Italy recently to talk to law enforcement officials there about the probe and have also had conversations with officials in the U.K. and Australia about the investigation, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings,&#8221; Baier added.
Barr&#8217;s appointment of Durham to conduct that investigation was revealed this May when the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/75e5c4efd5c74e6e9aa1ba0237a0e651">reported</a>: “The inquiry will focus on whether the government’s methods to collect intelligence relating to the Trump campaign were lawful and appropriate. Durham has previously investigated law enforcement corruption, the destruction of CIA videotapes and the Boston FBI office’s relationship with mobsters.”
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-assembles-team-to-look-into-counterintelligence-investigation-on-trump-campaign-in-2016-official-says">told</a> Fox News in April that Barr had assembled a team to investigate the origins of the FBI counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign:
<blockquote>Attorney General William Barr has assembled a &#8220;team&#8221; to investigate the origins of the FBI&#8217;s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, an administration official briefed on the situation told Fox News on Tuesday.
&#8230; 
The FBI&#8217;s July 2016 counterintelligence investigation was formally opened by anti-Trump former FBI agent Peter Strzok. Ex-FBI counsel Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was romantically involved, revealed during a closed-door congressional interview that the FBI “knew so little” about whether allegations against the Trump campaign were “true or not true” at the time they opened the probe, noting they had just “a paucity of evidence because we are just starting down the path” of vetting the allegations.</blockquote>
During a congressional hearing in April, Barr said: “I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016.”
Durham has been described as a &#8220;hard-charging, bulldog&#8221; prosecutor.
“Sources familiar with matter say the focus includes pre-transition period — prior to Nov. 7, 2016 — including the use and initiation of informants, as well as potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses,” Fox News noted in a separate <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-us-attorney-connecticut-surveillance-trump-campaign">report</a>. “An informant working for U.S. intelligence posed as a Cambridge University research assistant in September 2016 to try to probe George Papadopoulos, then a Trump foreign policy adviser, on the campaign’s possible ties to Russia, it emerged earlier this month. And, Papadopoulos told Fox News, the informant tried to ‘seduce’ him as part of the ‘bizarre’ episode.”
Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-barr-explaine/explainer-barr-investigates-the-investigators-of-russian-meddling-idUSKBN1WN2FN">reported</a> on Tuesday: &#8220;Durham’s probe seems to be moving at a more deliberate pace in Washington. While the FBI says it has been cooperating, senior figures involved in the 2016 investigation have not yet heard from Durham’s team, according to sources familiar with the matter. Among them: former FBI general counsel James A. Baker; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; former FBI agent Peter Strzok; and David Laufman, a former senior Justice Department official.&#8221;

U.S. Attorney John Durham Beefs Up Investigation Into Russia Probe Origins After Findings

From the moment this ridiculous Ukraine story began, I have called it the Wile E. Coyote scandal: yet another gizmo from the Acme Impeachment Company designed to catch President Roadrunner and destined to blow up in the Democrats’ faces instead. As I write this, I feel that has become a description of painfully exquisite precision — because it seems to me the Democrats have reached the end of the road, run off the cliff, and will hang there in mid-air until they look down and fall into the oblivion they so deserve.
No matter how hard the networks, The New York Times and CNN try to sell this piece o’ garbage, it still looks the same way: like a sinister ploy by corrupt members of the intelligence community and their willing media executioners, an attempt to distract us from upcoming revelations about Obama’s anti-Trump spying campaign and discredit those who are investigating it.
But the Ukraine story has collapsed and, like mid-air Wile E. Coyote, the Left doesn’t know it yet. The central charge — that the president withheld aid from Ukraine to pressure them into investigating Joe Biden’s son in order to scuttle his campaign — makes no sense. Reports in the New York Times and Buzzfeed that the Ukrainians weren’t aware the aid had been delayed makes the story implausible. And the revelation that McCarthyite Trump foe Adam Schiff had contact with the whistleblower who ratted Trump out makes the whole thing look like the political hit job it almost surely is. (The indispensable Kimberly Strassel has a revealing timeline in her Friday Wall Street Journal column showing how Schiff manipulated information as Dianne Feinstein did with the Kavanaugh smear.)
The press is as clueless as their pet Democrats. Trapped inside their own echo chamber, they don’t know how ridiculous they sound to the rest of us. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin actually interviewed former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe in a weird attempt to debunk charges against McCabe’s FBI. Remember, these are the guys who seem to have engineered spy games against Trump on the basis of Russian disinformation paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
“You were one of the top officials who made sure the Russia investigation was opened. You were at the top levels,” said Brooke — as if that made him an expert instead of a possible perp.
And McCabe — fired after coming under federal investigation for allegedly lying about press leaks — was shocked — shocked — to find that anyone could be suspicious of him. “The circumstances behind the opening of the Russia case are not a mystery. I have testified under oath about them as early as December of 2017. Jim Comey has made comments about them publicly. I have. We&#8217;ve both written books that touched on the issues.”
So the suspect says he’s innocent and his alleged co-conspirator agrees — how could anyone possibly continue to suspect him?!
MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace has the excuse of being on an openly left-wing outlet — but still. She brought on former CIA Director John Brennan, another of the alleged engineers of the anti-Trump plot. Wallace asked him if he could see any reason why he should be investigated.
Brennan was baffled! He then maundered on, Brennan-like, about how Trump was trying to discredit the investigation into Russian election interference. But that, in itself, is dishonest. Trump isn’t trying to discredit that. He’s trying to find out why he, a Republican candidate, was spied on by a Democrat administration. Seems like a pretty good question to me.
The truth will out, even as much of the press corps conspires to keep that truth from being revealed or believed. Meanwhile, the Democrats hover in mid-air as if they’re still on the road to victory.
But they can’t avoid looking down forever.

Adam Schiff

KLAVAN: What The Democrats Don’t Know Will Hurt Them

Andrew McCabe

John Brennan

Ukraine

For about two years, conservatives who closely watched the media’s reporting on President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia have wondered why his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, simply accepted his fate as the first casualty of what turned out to be a bogus narrative.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report showed, neither Trump nor his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election. The years-long investigation sent several Trump associates to jail for crimes unrelated to the campaign or the president. One of those caught up in the probe was Flynn, who eventually pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
A couple months ago, Flynn abruptly fired his legal team and hired new attorneys, including Sidney Powell. Powell is now requesting 40 documents related to Flynn’s case that she says will vindicate her client. The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/11/michael-flynn-40-documents-vindicate-halper-dossier/">reported</a> Wednesday that Powell “pressed Judge Emmet Sullivan in a court appearance Tuesday to dismiss charges against Flynn for what she called ‘egregious’ prosecutorial misconduct.”
Among the documents Powell has demanded is a January 30, 2017 memo clearing Flynn of being “an agent of Russia” and all of former FBI Director James Comey’s summaries of interviews with or about Flynn. Powell also sought information on Joseph Mifsud’s contact and reporting on Flynn in 2015. Mifsud had previously contacted Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos and told the aide he had “dirt on Hillary Clinton. Mifsud’s interaction with Papadopoulos is claimed to be one of the reasons the probe into the Trump campaign was opened.
While Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI, Mifsud was not, even though Mueller’s report mentioned the Maltese professor <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/08/02/starting_to_unravel_the_mystery_of_joseph_mifsud_140930.html">had lied to the FBI three times</a>. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was also found to have lied to FBI agents, yet he wasn’t charged either. The Daily Signal <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/09/14/former-fbi-official-mccabe-should-be-prosecuted-justice-demands-it/">reported</a> Saturday that McCabe’s behavior was “even worse” than Flynn’s because McCabe “was under oath when he was questioned by the IG and, moreover, he held the second-highest post in the most powerful law enforcement agency in the federal government.” Flynn, on the other hand, was not under oath when he was interviewed, though he could still be charged for lying.
Flynn’s lies, as <a href="https://www.apnews.com/d47a5be3e46442d0a1243c7dc52278f3">reported</a> by the Associated Press, related to his claims that he did not discuss sanctions while speaking to Russian Ambassador Kislyak on the same day the Obama administration announced sanctions against Russia. Flynn’s phone call with Kislyak was illegally leaked to The Washington Post’s David Ignatius — a felony — yet no one has ever been prosecuted. It is unclear whether the felony was ever even investigated.
Flynn’s attorney, Powell, is also requesting “cellphone and home phone records of former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and Ignatius, as well as records of any interactions between Ignatius and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan and officials at several other federal agencies,” the Caller reported.
The aggressive approach by Powell is a welcome sign to conservatives who have felt Flynn was treated unfairly by the justice system.

Mike Flynn Is Finally Fighting Back

Justice Department (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz has finished his investigation into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses during the 2016 election committed by then-President Barack Obama&#8217;s DOJ and, specifically, the FBI.
Horowitz wrote a letter to congressional leaders to inform them that his team of investigators was in the process of finalizing the report — and preparing to turn it over to the DOJ and FBI so that classified material could be redacted.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-inspector-general-submits-report-on-alleged-fisa-abuses-to-attorney-general">reports</a>: &#8220;Horowitz and his investigators have probed how the infamous, anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was used to secure the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant for former Trump aide Carter Page in October 2016, as well as for three renewals. Horowitz&#8217;s team has questioned why the FBI considered Steele a credible source, and why the bureau seemed to use news reports to bolster Steele&#8217;s credibility.&#8221;
&#8220;I am writing in connection with the [DOJ] Office of the Inspector General&#8217;s ongoing Examination of the [DOJ] and the FBI&#8217;s Compliance with Legal Requirements and Policies in Applications Filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Relating to a certain U.S. person,&#8221; Horowitz wrote in his letter, adding, &#8220;the team has reviewed over one million records and conducted over 100 interviews, including several of witnesses who only recently agreed to be interviewed.&#8221;
&#8220;We have now begun the process of finalizing our report by providing a draft of our factual findings to the [DOJ] and the FBI for classification determination and marking,&#8221; Horowitz continued. &#8220;This step is consistent with our process for reports such as this one that involve classified material. Once we receive the marked document back from the [DOJ] and the FBI, we will then proceed with our usual process for preparing final draft public and classified reports, and ensuring that appropriate reviews occur for accuracy and comment purposes.&#8221;
The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/13/doj-inspector-general-fisa-abuse/">reported</a> that Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) disclosed the development from Horowitz in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and asked Nadler to invite Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify in front of the committee after the report has been redacted.
&#8220;Earlier today, Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz notified Attorney General William Barr of the completion of his investigation into possible abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance of Act (FISA) by DOJ officials during the 2016 presidential election,&#8221; Collins said. &#8220;After the DOJ has a chance to review and comment on the report, it will be sent to the Judiciary Committee and made public.&#8221;
In a tweet, Collins added: &#8220;#FISA oversight falls squarely within the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction. We must address concerns outlined in the IG&#8217;s report. I&#8217;m calling on the chairman to schedule a hearing as soon as possible after Congress receives the report.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FISA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FISA</a> oversight falls squarely within the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction. We must address concerns outlined in the IG’s report. I&#8217;m calling on the chairman to schedule a hearing as soon as possible after Congress receives the report.<a href="https://t.co/FIyuI7nXDb">https://t.co/FIyuI7nXDb</a>
— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepDougCollins/status/1172601540621873153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The latest developments come after former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had his appeal to avoid criminal prosecution rejected this week.
&#8220;U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has recommended moving forward with charges against McCabe, a CNN contributor, though no indictment has been handed down,&#8221; Fox News added.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

michael_horowitz.jpg

DOJ Inspector General Has Finished FISA Abuse Investigation

Barack Obama

Surveillance

The Department of Justice has rejected CNN contributor Andrew McCabe&#8217;s appeal to avoid facing prosecution after federal prosecutors recommended that he be charged for allegedly engaging in criminal activity.
McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, &#8220;was fired from the FBI just before his retirement in March 2018 after the Justice Department&#8217;s internal watchdog concluded that he had improperly authorized a leak about a federal investigation into the Clinton Foundation in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign,&#8221; USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/12/andrew-mccabe-prosecutors-recommend-charges-former-fbi-official/2301473001/">reported</a>.
&#8220;The U.S. attorney, Jessie Liu, recommended that McCabe should be indicted, and in a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen at the Justice Department late last month, McCabe&#8217;s attorneys argued against that recommendation, one of the sources said,&#8221; CNN, McCabe&#8217;s employer, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/andrew-mccabe-justice-department/index.html">reported</a>. &#8220;On Thursday, a senior DOJ official sent McCabe&#8217;s legal team an email saying that that appeal had been rejected, according to a second person who is close to the legal team.&#8221;
NewsBusters&#8217; Curtis Houck noted that CNN buried the fact that McCabe is a paid CNN employee in the last sentence of its report.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">This article only lists McCabe as being a paid CNN contributor in the very last sentence. <a href="https://t.co/yFKQ9nPXJL">https://t.co/yFKQ9nPXJL</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1172210176461627398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Republican lawmakers, who began weighing in almost immediately, called for McCabe to face accountability for his alleged actions.
&#8220;Wow. Reports that a U.S. Attorney has formally recommended pursuing CRIMINAL CHARGES against former Deputy FBI Director and CNN analyst Andrew McCabe for lying to investigators,&#8221; Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) tweeted. &#8220;Hopefully this is merely the beginning of long overdue accountability. Justice will be done.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Wow. Reports that a U.S. Attorney has formally recommended pursuing CRIMINAL CHARGES against former Deputy FBI Director and CNN analyst Andrew McCabe for lying to investigators.
Hopefully this is merely the beginning of long overdue accountability. Justice will be done.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/status/1172210825622446080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Andrew McCabe was fired for good reason, violated his oath, weaponized his DOJ position &amp; broke the law. McCabe should be indicted &amp; tried,&#8221; Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) tweeted. &#8220;If convicted, he should be imprisoned. It’s time.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Andrew McCabe was fired for good reason, violated his oath, weaponized his DOJ position &amp; broke the law. McCabe should be indicted &amp; tried. If convicted, he should be imprisoned. It’s time.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepLeeZeldin/status/1172207335080488960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe in March 2018 after the inspector general found he had repeatedly misstated his involvement in a leak to The Wall Street Journal regarding an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-attorney-recommends-proceeding-with-charges-against-mccabe-as-doj-rejects-last-ditch-appeal">reported</a>. &#8220;The IG report faulted McCabe for leaking information to then-Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett for an Oct. 30, 2016 story titled &#8216;FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe.&#8217; The story &#8212; written just days before the presidential election – focused on the FBI announcing the reopening of the Clinton investigation after finding thousands of her emails on a laptop belonging to former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was married to Clinton aide Huma Abedin.&#8221;
Journalists have been critical of CNN&#8217;s decision to hire McCabe as a contributor in light of his ongoing legal matters.
The Intercept&#8217;s Glenn Greenwald tweeted: &#8220;CNN can have Andrew McCabe, their new national security analyst, cover his own criminal trial for CNN for lying to the FBI. If getting fired for lying to FBI helps you get a job reporting the news at CNN (see also: CLAPPER, JAMES), why should criminal charges be any impediment?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">CNN can have Andrew McCabe, their new national security analyst, cover his own criminal trial for CNN for lying to the FBI. If getting fired for lying to FBI helps you get a job reporting the news at CNN (see also: CLAPPER, JAMES), why should criminal charges be any impediment? <a href="https://t.co/5hFXR6a1MI">https://t.co/5hFXR6a1MI</a>
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1172220278400802819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;McCabe is still the subject of a federal criminal investigation,&#8221; Journalist Yashar Ali tweeted. &#8220;2. McCabe is suing the Justice Department and the FBI. Is CNN going to disclose that fact every time he is on air? I&#8217;m assuming they&#8217;re hiring him to talk about matters related to criminal justice and not the stock market.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">2. McCabe is suing the Justice Department and the FBI. Is CNN going to disclose that fact every time he is on air? I&#8217;m assuming they&#8217;re hiring him to talk about matters related to criminal justice and not the stock market.<a href="https://t.co/HXtQOwa5lu">https://t.co/HXtQOwa5lu</a>
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1164906245146456065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

BREAKING: DOJ Rejects CNN Contributor’s Appeal To Avoid Prosecution

Media Bias

President Trump has repeatedly slammed Puerto Rican officials for their handling of the Hurricane Maria relief effort, decrying the unincorporated U.S. territory as &#8220;one of the most corrupt places on earth.&#8221; On Tuesday, the FBI took action to crack down on corruption involving Maria relief, though rather than targeting Puerto Rican leaders, the bureau arrested two former FEMA officials — one of whom held a key position in the Obama administration — and a contractor.
&#8220;Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt,&#8221; Trump tweeted as Hurricane Dorian picked up steam two weeks ago. &#8220;Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt. Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!&#8230;.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1166723477879087104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump&#8217;s criticism of Puerto Rican officials has been one of his steady themes since the devastating hurricane wreaked havoc on the island in 2017. Amid criticism for his supposedly &#8220;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-dorian/trump-slams-corrupt-puerto-rico-as-hurricane-dorian-skirts-island-idUSKCN1VI0RH">tepid response</a>&#8221; to the disaster, Trump has repeatedly pointed the finger at Puerto Rico&#8217;s leadership, accusing them of botching the relief effort and wasting resources.
On Tuesday, Trump&#8217;s &#8220;corruption&#8221; claims about Hurricane Maria relief efforts were partly affirmed, but the alleged culprits were two former federal officials and a contractor, not Puerto Rican officials.
&#8220;A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/puerto-rico-fema-arrests-corruption.html">The New York Times</a> reported Tuesday.
The most high-profile of the arrests was Ahsha Tribble, FEMA’s former deputy administrator for the region including Puerto Rico who also once served as Homeland Security adviser for the Obama administration. A second former FEMA employee, Jovanda Patterson, who served as deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico, was also arrested. The third suspect is Donald Keith Ellison, former president of Cobra Acquisitions.
Puerto Rico&#8217;s U.S Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez revealed Tuesday that Tribble had a &#8220;close personal relationship&#8221; with Ellison, the Times notes. Cobra Acquisitions went on to hire Patterson, according to Vélez.
Prosecutors say Tribble, Patterson and Ellison defrauded the federal government. Ellison allegedly offered Tribble a &#8220;stream of benefits,&#8221; including helping her get an apartment in New York, first-class airplane tickets, hotel stays, and the use of one of his credit cards in exchange for Tribble helping secure a major contract for Ellison&#8217;s company. The indictment alleges that Tribble and Ellison attempted to conceal their special relationship and gifts through various means, including using a disposable cellphone.
&#8220;In return for the gifts, Ms. Tribble is accused of performing official acts to advance Cobra’s interests,&#8221; the Times details. &#8220;For example, according to the indictment, in February 2018, after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported an explosion at a substation in Monacillo, P.R., that left several municipalities without power, Ms. Tribble insisted that the public utility hire Cobra to make repairs or risk not getting reimbursed by FEMA — even though leaders of the utility insisted they could do the same work at a far lower cost.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51620/breaking-results-are-nc-congressional-races-big-james-barrett">Trump Passes ‘Test’ In North Carolina: Republicans Win Both Congressional Seats</a>

President Trump Speaks At 2019 National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference

As Trump Slams ‘Corrupt’ Puerto Rico, FBI Arrests FEMA Officials For Hurricane Maria Relief Fraud

New York Times

Obama Administration

Puerto Rico

Law enforcement seized a former Marine&#8217;s firearms in August after a series of threats were made against Antifa activists. However, reports of the incident largely misrepresent what triggered the risk protection order.
Shane Kohfield, a 32-year-old former Marine and right-wing activist, surrendered five firearms after the FBI executed Oregon&#8217;s new &#8220;red flag&#8221; law. The order was executed days after Kohfield brought weapons to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler&#8217;s home while participating in a protest.
Using a loudspeaker, Kohfield warned at the time that &#8220;if Antifa gets to the point where they start killing us, I&#8217;m going to kill them next … I&#8217;d slaughter them.&#8221; The threat led the FBI&#8217;s Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF) to respond within days and temporarily confiscate Kohfield&#8217;s weapons.
The incident made headlines, as the government seemingly confiscated Kohfield&#8217;s property with no due process nor criminal charge for what many argued was exercising free speech.
However, Kohfield penned an email to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) months earlier that aired his frustration with the violent left-wing group. The email, titled &#8220;Savagery,&#8221; did not request casework assistance or personal help, but rather detailed plans to &#8220;systematically execute every member of Antifa&#8221; unless actions are taken against them.
Accordingly, Crenshaw&#8217;s office staff swiftly alerted the U.S. Capitol Police of the correspondence and, days later, the FBI conducted what would be its first interview in a series of threat assessments over the subsequent few months.
&#8220;When my office received the letter from this individual, we followed standard House protocol and shared it with U.S. Capitol Police,&#8221; Crenshaw told The Daily Wire. &#8220;It would have been impossible for my office to sit idly on a threat that was this serious and imminent, regardless of the person who wrote it, their background or the weapons they may possess.&#8221;
In the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire, Kohfield explained to Crenshaw that he had attended the #HimToo rally in downtown Portland in November 2017. The rally, which was counter-protested by hundreds of left-wing activists, erupted into chaos as protesters allegedly lit fireworks, flares, and smoke bombs, threw bottles, and sprayed pepper spray.
The bloody brawl ended in six arrests, but Kohfield contended that Antifa consistently had the upper hand, leaving what he described as no option but to escalate the situation.
&#8220;The police and mayor of Portland, Oregon were completely complicit in the savage attacks because of their policy to disarm conservatives,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;My friend and I accused the mayor of Portland of treason because he is intentionally and knowingly putting policies into effect that are causing citizens of the United States to literally be hunted like animals.&#8221;
Equating Antifa&#8217;s treatment of conservatives in Portland to the gore-filled fictional film &#8220;The Purge,&#8221; Kohfield argued that United States Constitution allows for him to &#8220;fix the problem&#8221; if the government will not.
&#8220;I can legally declare war on Antifa,&#8221; he wrote, adding that he wouldn&#8217;t even be charged with manslaughter for those he killed.
Kohfield also demanded that Crenshaw pursue legislative action to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization and have Congress charge any individual who wears a mask with committing treason against the United States.
&#8220;You will handle Antifa or the veterans will,&#8221; Kohfield threatened. &#8220;And veterans will hunt them like animals like they do to the citizens of the United States of America.&#8221;
He went on to explain how the supposed &#8220;veterans&#8221; would compile names of Antifa members through social media forums and collect personal information through connections at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Kohfield threatened that the group of &#8220;veterans&#8221; would then target each of the members&#8217; homes and &#8220;systematically execute every member of Antifa&#8221; until they have &#8220;achieved genocide.&#8221;
Kohfield attempted to rationalize the murderous plan by claiming that there&#8217;s no feasible alternative to killing since he realistically wouldn&#8217;t be able to arrest all of the members of Antifa. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to let Congress do its job or I have no choice but to go door to door and kill every single one of them,&#8221; he declared.
Kohfield further stated that he believed Antifa was preparing to &#8220;declare war&#8221; on him but that he is in the process of putting everything in place for when he executes his plot to retaliate.
Kohfield told Crenshaw that as a member of Congress, the freshman lawmaker was the only person he could trust with the letter, but also cautioned him against taking any action, boasting that arresting or killing him &#8220;would really kick my recruitment of veterans into overdrive.&#8221;
Based on the court order, Kohfield was committed to a veterans hospital for 20 days and prohibited from participating in subsequent protests while in Portland.
Following his release, Kohfield — who had served two tours of duty in Iraq — told local press that he never intended to harm anyone, but that he understood why law enforcement was alarmed.
&#8220;I looked unhinged,&#8221; Kohfield told the Oregonian. &#8220;I looked dangerous and have the training to be dangerous.&#8221;
Crenshaw confirmed to The Daily Wire that his office has not received any other correspondence from Kohfield and that the Capitol Police were not aware of any other lawmakers who received messages either.
&#8220;I&#8217;m grateful every House office has a resource for threats like these so we can ensure our communities stay safe,&#8221; Crenshaw added.

dancrenshaw

No, Police Didn’t Just Seize A Marine’s Weapon After He Criticized Antifa, Dan Crenshaw Reveals

Antifa

Dan Crenshaw

Portland

The following is satirical.
Calls are growing louder for former FBI Director James Comey to be brought up on perjury charges after an Inspector General’s report revealed that he is, in fact, a weasel. Comey had repeatedly claimed that he was not a weasel, including once when he was testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, which could be seen as perjury now that the IG&#8217;s report has uncovered that Comey was not just a weasel, but a weasly weasel of extreme weasly weaselness.
Investigators are also looking into reports that Comey, while serving as Director, often stood before the mirror and said &#8220;I am not a weasel. Really I&#8217;m not. No matter what anybody says, I am not, not, not a weasel,&#8221; which might constitute lying to the FBI.
Comey&#8217;s weasliness has been revealed again and again. Not only did he overstep proper procedure by publicly excoriating Hillary Clinton while declaring she should not be prosecuted, not only did he bring a salacious and untrue piece of oppo research to President Trump as part of a plan to make the ugly lies public, he also leaked classified memos to the press — memos about meetings with the president during which he claimed once again not to be a weasel even while being a sanctimonious hypocrite who took sleazy unethical actions like an extremely weasly weasly weasel.
Mick Weasel of the International Association of Weasels denies that Comey is a weasel. In a speech before an angry gathering of polecats, stoats, ferrets and Peter Strzok, Mr. Weasel said, &#8220;While it is true we are vermin that sneak into hen houses and rabbit warrens in order to steal and devour helpless farm animals, we have never sunk to the level of James Comey and we consider being associated with him a rank example of weasel-phobia.&#8221;
The weasel then demanded an apology — and so did James Comey — proving once again that he is, in fact, a weasel.

James Comey

Weasel Demands Apology After Being Called James Comey [Satire]

Hillary Clinton

Former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright, a Democrat, slammed disgraced former FBI Director James Comey on Friday over the way that he handled the investigation into President Donald Trump.
&#8220;How can you not be [livid]?&#8221; Wright said. &#8220;One, in 2016 we had effectively a coup, did we not? We had an individual that the IG report has now said, an FBI director leaked information to force a public action, that is the appointment of a special counsel. Not because the facts demanded it, but because he, [in] his own partisan drive, desired it. Now, that&#8217;s horrifying. Not only was that horrifying for Donald Trump or any president that could have been elected in 2016, the profound concern that I have as an American – forget Democrat or Republican – but and especially as an agency officer, we have 35,000 employees in the FBI, tens of thousand of CIA officers, who have access to some of the most profound powers and knowledge in this country.&#8221;
&#8220;Now what example does that set for them such that in 2020 or 2024, they can choose to use that information however they want to kneecap whoever they want whenever they want,&#8221; Wright continued. &#8220;We are at this precipice, we&#8217;re at this cliff&#8217;s edge of something very, very horrific happening that we&#8217;re not gonna be able to pull back from unless we are incredibly careful and we take Comey and Brennan and the rest of these characters to task.&#8221;
&#8220;In 2020, if we have Elizabeth Warren, or whoever on the Democratic side who happens to win – let&#8217;s just say [her] for argument&#8217;s sake – you don&#8217;t think there are gonna be conservative or Republican spies who aren&#8217;t gonna be out for revenge themselves?&#8221; Wright added. &#8220;And now what&#8217;s the consequence for their behavior? There is none. They get a book deal. I mean, that&#8217;s what Comey got, right?&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Brian Dean Wright: “We had an individual that the IG report has now said an FBI director [Comey] leaked information to force a public action; that is, the appointment of a special counsel. Not because the facts demanded it but because he &amp; his own partisan drive desired it.” <a href="https://t.co/o5e2LOTnpC">pic.twitter.com/o5e2LOTnpC</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1167512991887065088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Around the time of the segment, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167413739320201216">tweeted</a>: &#8220;The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated. Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?&#8221;
&#8220;The fact that James Comey was not prosecuted for the absolutely horrible things he did just shows how fair and reasonable Attorney General Bill Barr is,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167420374482599936">added</a>. &#8220;So many people and experts that I have watched and read would have taken an entirely different course. Comey got Lucky!&#8221;
After he saw the segment, Trump quoted Wright in a tweet: &#8220;Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Officer(Dem): &#8216;In 2016 we had a Coup. We have to take Comey and others to task. Makes no sense not to prosecute him. Comey got a book deal. I fear for my Country. He tried to kneecap our duly elected president, and there are no consequences.'&#8221;
Wright responded: &#8220;I proudly stand with you – and any other President – in facing the treasonous wrath of my fmr colleagues in the intelligence community. They do not get to decide the political winners &amp; losers in America. That is the job of the people. I join you in solidarity in that fight.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I proudly stand with you — and any other President — in facing the treasonous wrath of my fmr colleagues in the intelligence community.
They do not get to decide the political winners &amp; losers in America.
That is the job of the people.
I join you in solidarity in that fight. <a href="https://t.co/dSKYEEzJzE">https://t.co/dSKYEEzJzE</a>
— Bryan Dean Wright (@BryanDeanWright) <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanDeanWright/status/1167489819091619841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Former CIA Officer, A Democrat, Shreds Comey Over Handling Of Investigation

Trump Administration

On Thursday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8221; Klavan breaks down the recently released Department of Justice Inspector General&#8217;s report that shows former FBI Director James Comey violated Department policies and procedures. Video and partial transcript below:
The Justice Department&#8217;s inspector general found that former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey violated the agency&#8217;s policies when he shared memos about his interactions with President Trump with others, according to the report that was released [Thursday]. So you remember this, right? This is James Comey — Mr. Higher Loyalty, Mr. I&#8217;m Better Than Everybody Else. This sanctimonious — this is the guy who said to the — I guess, the House Judiciary Committee — just remember, we&#8217;re not weasels.
This weasel got fired by Donald Trump. Donald Trump has the power to fire the FBI director, right. This is an executive branch decision. He can do it if he doesn&#8217;t like James Comey’s tie, he can fire [him]. Zero scandal and obstruction of justice. It&#8217;s just, I don&#8217;t like your tie, get out pal. That&#8217;s what he did. He fired him in a very embarrassing way. You know, Donald Trump, he’s not Mr. Tact. He&#8217;s not Mr. Tact. I can&#8217;t remember what it was, it was like Comey was actually in public somewhere when the news came out that he had been fired without anybody telling him.
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Comey was ticked off and he wanted to start — he wanted a special counsel appointed to investigate Donald Trump. That was his vengeance. And so he took these memos that he had kept of conversations with Donald Trump that he thought showed Trump trying to obstruct justice by getting in the way of the investigation, by saying things like, &#8220;Could you leave Michael Flynn alone? He&#8217;s a good guy.&#8221; Stuff that, you know, Trump, who had just come into office at that point, probably didn&#8217;t even realize &#8230; might be seen as obstruction of justice.
Obviously, Trump has got a big mouth. He says all this stuff. So Comey, taking notes — didn&#8217;t do this with Obama. But he was taking notes with Donald Trump, then called his pal. What was his name? This is a guy, I guess, was later said he was his lawyer and released this and told him to release these memos to the press in the hopes of getting a special counsel appointed, which he did. That was the Mueller report. That was how the Mueller report got started.
So this comes out and James Comey — let&#8217;s call him James &#8220;The Weasel&#8221; Comey. James &#8220;The Weasel&#8221; Comey tweets out:
<blockquote>COMEY: DOJ IG</blockquote>
This is the Inspector General [Michael] Horowitz of the Department of Justice, quote:
<blockquote>COMEY: &#8220;found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media.&#8221;</blockquote>
And he then goes on to say:
<blockquote>COMEY: I don&#8217;t need a public apology from those who defamed me. But a quick message with a &#8220;sorry we lied about you&#8221; would be nice.</blockquote>
Here&#8217;s my quick message. You are a weasel because — what he did. The reason he calls this guy his lawyer is because he didn&#8217;t want him testifying against him, right. So he released this stuff to this Columbia lawyer — let me just get his name so I know what I&#8217;m talking about here. Richman, his name was, that&#8217;s right. He released these things to Daniel Richman, and basically said to him, release it. [He] gave him instructions to share the intel with a New York Times reporter. This is the probe, and this is what James &#8220;The Weasel&#8221; Comey is tweeting out, that they found no evidence — that he released any of this information. That&#8217;s not what they found.
So he said, I just want a quick message with a &#8220;sorry, we lied about you.&#8221; My quick message? You are a weasel. All right.
Some of these memos contained a little bit of classified information. And when he sent them, he scanned them with a personal scanner, mailed them with his personal emails — &#8230; violating the exact same statute that Hillary Clinton was accused of violating when she sent out all that stuff that was going back and forth between her and her pal, right. So basically, [it’s] the same thing that he got. Now, the DOJ has already said that they are not going to prosecute him for this. And a lot of people on the Right are really upset about this. I actually am in favor of this. This doesn&#8217;t sound like it reaches the level of criminality. Maybe, maybe, it&#8217;s true that if you did it you&#8217;d be arrested, and certainly it&#8217;s true if you did it and Obama was in office and he didn&#8217;t like you, you would be arrested. We know that from Dinesh D&#8217;Souza, who violated some tiny campaign contribution law and they threatened him with 15 years in prison. So we know under Obama, you&#8217;d be prosecuted for this.
But you know, if we respond in kind and that&#8217;s what the government becomes, and we&#8217;re living in a banana republic — Obama devolved us toward banana republicanism by using the IRS on his political enemies and by prosecuting guys like D&#8217;Souza for nothing. But, we don&#8217;t want to do that. I do not want to actually see James Comey be sent to jail for sending out a letter. It just shows what a small, wormy little guy he is a little bit more. I&#8217;m going to read this off. I only got a chance to quickly go through the report. This was breaking as I was coming in. But I&#8217;m going to go to Mollie Hemingway, who has been doing great work covering this.
Sending out these memos violated Department and FBI policies and this is extremely important, right, because the FBI policies are there to keep the FBI in line, from breaking the law. They&#8217;ve got incredible power, they can investigate you if you lie to them — that&#8217;s a crime, right. If you lie to me, that&#8217;s not a crime. The FBI has tremendous power and so they have to behave in certain ways that keep them within the law. The IG said that when Comey labeled these documents personal or private, that didn&#8217;t alter the fact that they were official documents — that they were used in the transaction of public business. And so they were covered by this policy. He did, he violated FBI policies and the requirements of his FBI employment agreement when he sent a copy of [the] memo &#8230; with instructions to provide the contents to a reporter.
Here&#8217;s what the [IG] report says: &#8220;The civil liberties of every individual who may fall within the scope of the FBI’s investigative authorities depend on the FBI’s ability to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure.&#8221;
Now, think about this for a minute, right. This is a former FBI director. Comey failed to live up to this responsibility. Now think about this for a minute. You&#8217;re an innocent guy, you&#8217;re under investigation. The FBI doesn&#8217;t know whether you&#8217;re innocent or not. But it starts gathering information about you. This is happening to you, OK, this is you. You&#8217;re going about your business but something comes up that the FBI thinks you&#8217;re guilty of. So they start finding information, oh maybe they find out you&#8217;re cheating on your wife. Maybe they find out you&#8217;re doing something else. But you&#8217;re innocent of the crime they&#8217;re investigating. If they want to get you and start releasing this information to the press, right, they have become a lawless operation.
In order to wield the kind of power they have, their investigation has to remain secret until it becomes clear that they can indict you — that you are going to be indicted for a crime. Comey, to get back at Donald Trump — to get back at him — broke that rule and released this stuff. It&#8217;s really ugly and the IG [report] says it: Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees. Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees, and the many thousands more former FBI employees who similarly have access to, or knowledge of, nonpublic information. Every one of these 35,000 people has an opinion. Every single one of them. every single one of these current FBI employees, and all the thousands of former FBI employees, has an opinion about who&#8217;s a good guy and who&#8217;s a bad guy. They can&#8217;t just start releasing information.
The IG [report] goes on to say: &#8220;In a country built on the rule of law, it is of utmost importance that all FBI employees adhere to Department and FBI policies.&#8221;
In other words, they&#8217;re really giving it to this — this is a beatdown, ok. This is slapping this guy around. I notice The Wall Street Journal is kind of playing this down in their release. This is a beatdown. This is taking this guy out to the woodshed and smacking him around. Comey’s own staff, when they were interviewed by the IG, they used words like &#8220;surprised,&#8221; &#8220;stunned,&#8221; &#8220;shocked,&#8221; and &#8220;disappointment&#8221; to describe their reactions to learning what James Comey, Barack Obama&#8217;s FBI director, had done.
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KLAVAN: James ‘The Weasel’ Comey Failed The FBI

Speaking on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night after the release of the Inspector General’s report detailing the actions of former FBI director James Comey, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani bluntly stated not only that Comey should be prosecuted, but that he was &#8220;going to extort the President of the United States.&#8221;
Ingraham began by asking, &#8220;What is your personal takeaway from this report, which is exceedingly detailed, and unlike the Special Counsel’s report, exceptionally well-written?&#8221;
Giuliani responded:
<blockquote>Well, I think this report, forget whether it’s a crime or not, sort of details the worst director in the history of the FBI … Take Jay Edgar Hoover, put him aside, whatever he did, this guy, he broke every rule. If you look at the Horowitz report, he broke every rule of the FBI. Now, I think he should be prosecuted. If you don’t think he should be prosecuted, okay. But for him to say I didn’t leak. The report demonstrates that he leaked. He’s completely lying today. &#8220;I didn’t lie&#8221;? The report demonstrates he lied. It just — they’re giving him a break. They’re basically saying, &#8220;Oh, you know, we shouldn’t prosecute, not enough evidence.&#8221; But he lied; he leaked; he’s a disreputable head of the FBI. He’s a disgrace to the FBI. He used it for political purposes, the report demonstrates all of that.</blockquote>
Ingraham pointed out, &#8220;(Former CIA director James) Clapper was on CNN tonight; they didn’t even ask him a question about it. Not one question.&#8221;
Giuliani quipped, &#8220;I’m not sure Clapper even knows where he is. (Former CIA director John) Brennan is the brains; Clapper is the idiot. If you want me to guess who orchestrated this, Clapper’s not capable of it.&#8221; He added slyly, &#8220;I won’t tell you who I think did.&#8221;
Ingraham played a clip of Comey offering his explanation for briefing President Trump on the Steele dossier, in which Comey stated, &#8220;It was important for me to assure him that we were not personally investigating him … I didn’t want him thinking that I was briefing him on this to sort of hang it over him in some way … I was briefing him on it because we had been told by the media it was about the launch, we don’t want to be keeping that from him … and I was very keen not to be leaving him with the impression that the bureau was trying to do something to him…&#8221;
Ingraham quoted the Inspector General’s report stating, &#8220;Witnesses interviewed by the OIG (office of the Inspector General) also said that they discussed Trump’s potential responses to being told about the &#8216;salacious information&#8217; including that Trump might make statements about, or provide information of value to, the pending Russian interference investigation.&#8221; She asked, &#8220;Rudy, is this evidence that Comey and FBI officials were trying to undermine Trump from the very beginning, that there was a conspiracy inside that department to set him up at that first meeting?&#8221;
Giuliani answered:
<blockquote>100%. Number one, it was a clear entrapment. 100% clear entrapment by Comey, who, despite his moral problems, is a very smart guy. Unlike Mueller, who is lacking intellect, this guy’s very smart. He was trying to trap him, like he trapped (Former national security advisor Michael) Flynn. Trying to trap him. &#8220;You’re not a target; it’s okay; I have the thing in my bag, but I wasn’t going to tell you, I’m going to indict you.&#8221; Horrible thing to do; any reputable prosecutor would be disgraced by that. So he was going to trap the president, and it’s completely disingenuous for him to make these statements now.
Who knows what the liberal media is going to do with this, but this guy is completely disgraced in the eyes of any FBI agent. They realize this is worse than anything J. Edgar Hoover ever did. When he walked in, when the president was president-elect, and faced him with that, he was trying to tell him, &#8220;I have something, I have something on you so you better keep me in office.&#8221; And he even realized he was going to do it; there are other statements that made it clear that he realized he was going to extort the president of the United States.</blockquote>
Video below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xtIk_f1J67E?start=1144" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

Rudy Guiliani

WATCH: Rudy Says Comey Should Be Prosecuted, Was ‘Going To Extort The President Of the United States’

Rudy Giuliani

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who resigned from the company on Thursday amid his alleged ties to a government operation, made bombshell accusations on CNN late on Thursday night, claiming that top FBI officials reached out to him in 2015-2016 to conduct law enforcement activities that turned out to be political espionage.
Byrne appeared to indicate that the request came from FBI agents after it was passed down from a top FBI official, who he later says he learned was anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok. Byrne said that the political espionage operation targeted four candidates: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.
Byrne appeared on Fox News with Martha MacCallum before he went on CNN, where he &#8220;said that all of the purported information he gleaned from his experiences ultimately landed in the hands of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, who has been conducting an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe at the behest of Attorney General William Barr,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/patrick-byrne-overstock-claims-interview-politics">Fox News</a> reported.
MacCallum then asked former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to respond to the wild allegations that Byrne was making.
&#8220;He&#8217;s describing it like he was being used as a source and being inserted into a situation by the feds, and there are protocols for handling sources,&#8221; Whitaker said. &#8220;All of this can be corroborated. That&#8217;s the key. This whole situation has to be corroborated and the nice thing about John Durham is that he has the full picture of everything that was feeding into this investigation.&#8221;
Last month, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reluctant-witnesses-in-fisa-abuse-probe-agree-to-talk-to-doj-inspector-general">Fox News</a> reported that &#8220;key witnesses sought for questioning by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz early in his investigation into alleged government surveillance abuse have come forward at the 11th hour&#8221; in what was described as a &#8220;breakthrough.&#8221;
There is no indication from Fox News&#8217; report that Byrne was one of the people who came forward or that the story involves him.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne says the FBI in 2015/2016 reached out to him and got him to help with law enforcement activities that turned out to be political espionage against Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz
Byrne says the request came from Peter Strzok <a href="https://t.co/ArfL8bpzdx">pic.twitter.com/ArfL8bpzdx</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1164713067717914624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Byrne claimed: &#8220;[FBI agents], they said, &#8216;we want to be clear, this never happens in the United States, we are the good guys, we don&#8217;t work like the bad guys, but we need to ask you to rekindle a romantic relationship with Maria Butina.'&#8221;
Maria Butina is a Russian national and a convicted spy who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence &#8220;after she admitted to gathering intelligence on the National Rifle Association and other groups at the direction of a former Russian lawmaker,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maria-butina-video-convicted-russian-agent-maria-butina-releases-video-from-jail/">CBS News</a> reported.
Byrne claims that the FBI agents told him that the orders were being &#8220;personally supervised&#8221; by three people, two of which he did not name, and the third person he claimed was former FBI Director James Comey.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">BREAKING: Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne claims former FBI Director James Comey was involved in this entire operation <a href="https://t.co/4zfuwBftaM">pic.twitter.com/4zfuwBftaM</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1164716230277599232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Byrne claimed that he liked former President Barack Obama, did not vote for Trump, and that he could not believe what was going on that he claims happened.
Byrne claims that the FBI basically allowed the entire Russia scandal to develop so they could &#8220;shake it up and &#8230; spread it all over the Republican Party.&#8221;
Byrne claims that after the investigation was done that &#8220;it became clearer it was more about blackmail than it was law enforcement.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne claims the FBI let the Russia scandal develop so they could &#8220;shake it up and &#8230; spread it all over the [GOP]&#8221;
Byrne claims &#8220;when the corruption investigation was done &#8230; it became clearer it was more about blackmail than it was law enforcement&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ZKCrzdbvrR">pic.twitter.com/ZKCrzdbvrR</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1164741111207694337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Patrick Byrne

Overstock CEO Bombshell Claim: FBI’s Strzok Behind Secret Espionage Operation, Comey Involved

Marco Rubio

Ted Cruz

A bipartisan coalition of three Texas congressmen introduced a bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to create a distinct domestic terrorism criminal statute in the United States.
While the U.S. penal code currently contains a statute for the federal government to charge instances of foreign terrorism, no such statute exists for crimes that fall under the exclusive purview of domestic terrorism. The latter crimes can be categorized as domestic terrorism, and investigated as such, but the FBI presently charges any other relevant underlying crimes rather than the domestic terrorism charge itself.
“Unlike international terrorism, which has penalties, domestic terrorism exists in federal law but lacks penalties,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), the bill’s sponsor, said <a href="https://weber.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=540">in a statement</a>. “As a result, individuals who commit crimes that constitute an act of domestic terrorism must be charged under non-terrorism statutes.”
“In some cases, the crimes committed by people the FBI describes as domestic terrorism suspects do not violate federal law,” he continued. “Thus, these individuals may never be federally charged as terrorists.”
The Domestic Terrorism Penalties Act (<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4187/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22weber%22%5D%7D&amp;r=1&amp;s=2">H.R. 4187</a>) seeks to amend the Crimes and Criminal Procedures title of the United States Code to penalize individuals who kill, kidnap, assault, do damage to, or attempt or conspire to any of the above with the intent to influence governmental conduct.
Weber, along with co-sponsors Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), introduced the bill in the aftermath of back-to-back deadly mass shootings.
In early August, a gunman opened fire in a shopping center in El Paso, Texas, murdering more than 20 bystanders and injuring over two dozen others. A second attacker took the lives of nine people and injured nearly 30 others after he gunned down people outside of a Dayton, Ohio bar in a separate incident.
Despite the timing, Weber has reportedly been crafting the legislation over the last few months.
“The attacks earlier this month in Dayton and El Paso are a stark and hideous reminder that the threat of domestic terrorism is very real. As a former prosecutor, I know our federal domestic terrorism laws are insufficient and lack any real recourse to charge domestic terrorists with the crimes they’ve committed,” McCaul said. “The bill we introduced today would change that. It provides the FBI and DOJ with tools to better identify domestic terrorism before it occurs and fully prosecute those responsible.”
“We need to do more than denounce the hateful ideologies that spur this type of violence,” he continued. “We have to take action to better prevent the spread of homegrown radicalization.”
Cuellar, who serves as vice chair of the House’s Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, emphasized his responsibility to keep Americans safe as part of his duty.
“The shootings in El Paso and Dayton demonstrate that we need to do more to stop terrorists in our own backyard,” Cuellar said. “Designating domestic terrorism as a federal crime will give law enforcement officials the necessary resources to effectively investigate suspects and fully prosecute criminals.”
Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH) also recently signed on a co-sponsor to the legislation.

Rep. Randy Weber

Texas Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Combat Domestic Terrorism

Terrorism

Texas

The FBI claimed in its initial FISA warrant application and three following renewals that were used to spy on former Trump 2016 aide Carter Page that it did not believe former British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele had supplied information to a Yahoo News reporter who wrote about the investigation into Page.
The FBI used reporter Michael Isikoff’s article as justification for the warrant against Page as a way to claim it did not use Steele’s infamous and dubious “dossier” as a source for the warrant. According to newly released <a href="https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/JW-v-DOJ-Ohr-302s-02107.pdf">redacted transcripts</a> of FBI interviews with DOJ attorney Bruce Ohr, it appears the FBI was aware — at least for the three renewals — that Steele was Isikoff’s source yet failed to change their reasoning.
The first FISA warrant against Page was issued on October 2016. On November 22, 2016, Ohr told the FBI that Steele, Isikoff, and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson (who hired Steele to create the dossier on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign) had been meeting.
“OHR met [redacted] in Washington, D.C. in late September, possibly close to the time when the Yahoo news article was published on September 23, 2016,” read the Ohr notes.
“Simpson and [redacted] could have met with Yahoo or Michael Isikoff jointly, but OHR does not know if they did,” they continued.
It was already known that Steele was the source for Isikoff’s article because they both said they met in mid-September 2016. The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/09/bruce-ohr-transcript-carter-page-fisa-fbi/">pointed to</a> Steele’s May 18, 2017 British court filing that he had met with several reporters, including reporters from Yahoo. Isikoff finally acknowledged in 2018 that he had met with Steele and Simpson in mid-September 2016. As Ross noted, most of the reporters briefed on Steele’s allegations ignored them for lack of evidence. Not Isikoff.
Isikoff’s admission to meeting with Steele came long after the FBI stopped renewing FISA warrants to spy on Page. Steele’s admission in court filings came a month before the final FISA warrant was issued.
But Ohr’s statements make it clear that the FBI must have or should have known that Steele was the source of Isikoff’s article. In a footnote in the FISA warrants against Page, the FBI noted “The FBI does not believe that Source #1 directly provided this information to the identified news organization that published the September 23rd News Article,” believing instead that the information indirectly made its way to that news organization.
Whether it was direct or indirect, Steele was still the source for Isikoff’s article, yet it has still been used to independently corroborate the dossier and obtain warrants against Page.
The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General and Attorney General William Barr are each investigating the origins of the FISA warrants used to spy on Page and other Trump associates during and after the 2016 election.

Former Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr Questioned By House Cmte Oh Steele Dossier

FBI Claimed Christopher Steele Wasn’t Source For Story Alleging Russian Collusion Used In FISA Warrants. That Narrative Is Now Bust.

Ex-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired in March 2018 after misleading investigators over his role in leaking to the press, is now suing the Bureau and the Department of Justice, claiming his firing was illegitimate.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/us/politics/mccabe-trump-fbi.html">reported</a> Thursday that McCabe claims in his lawsuit that the DOJ participated in a “politically motivated and retaliatory demotion in January 2018 and public firing in March 2018.” Further, he claimed President Donald Trump “purposefully and intentionally” pressured the DOJ into eventually firing him in order to discredit the investigation into whether he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. The Special Counsel investigating the collusion determined there was no evidence.
McCabe has been making this claim since his firing. He told the Times shortly after he was let go that it was for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-fbi-fired.html?module=inline">political reasons</a>. He also defended himself in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/andrew-mccabe-not-in-my-worst-nightmares-did-i-dream-my-fbi-career-would-end-this-way/2018/03/23/5ff8fd8c-2eb9-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html">an op-ed</a> for The Washington Post.
One month after McCabe was fired, the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4437277/DOJ-OIG-McCabe-Report.pdf">a report</a> that determined McCabe “lacked candor, including under oath, on multiple occasions in connection with describing his role in connection with a disclosure to the [Wall Street Journal]” — which is a violation of FBI policy. He also was found to have violated FBI and DOJ policy by disclosing “the existence of an ongoing investigation in the manner described in this report.”
McCabe’s lawsuit is curiously timed, coming just days after Peter Strzok, who was also fired while working on the investigation into Russian collusion, filed his own lawsuit claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50315/strzok-strikes-back-sues-fbi-doj-being-fired-over-james-barrett">reported</a>, Strzok was removed from the special counsel’s investigation over clearly anti-Trump text messages sent to another member of the investigation — with whom Strzok was having an affair.
Strzok claimed his text messages were protected by the First Amendment and that his due process rights were violated when he was fired. He had been removed from the investigation for his strong political bias against the subject of the investigation.
In another <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/world/scathing-justice-dept-watchdog-report-rebukes-james-b-comey-cites-major-missteps-by-fbi/2309/">OIG report</a>, released in June 2018, Strzok and others were accused of showing a “willingness to take official action” in order to keep Trump from becoming president.
The coincidental timing of the lawsuits did not go unnoticed. The Federalist’s Sean Davis suggested on Twitter that perhaps McCabe and Strzok were “trying to get ahead of indictments stemming from the DOJ inspector general’s investigation into FBI corruption and attempting to pose as victims of retaliation.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The timing of these bizarre lawsuits from McCabe and Strzok makes me wonder if they’re trying to get ahead of indictments stemming from the DOJ inspector general’s investigation into FBI corruption and attempting to pose as victims of retaliation. <a href="https://t.co/UBz0KjmapG">https://t.co/UBz0KjmapG</a>
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1159558769287802882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The OIG is conducting yet another investigation into how McCabe, Strzok, and other FBI officials handled the Russian collusion investigation. This investigation is separate from one being conducted by Connecticut prosecutor John Durham on behalf of Attorney General William Barr.

Ex-FBI Deputy Director Sues Bureau, DOJ Over ‘Politically Motivated And Retaliatory Demotion’ And Firing

The FBI agent who headed up the investigation into Hillary Clinton&#8217;s unauthorized email server and was eventually booted off the special counsel&#8217;s investigation into Donald Trump over a series of overtly anti-Trump messages is now suing the bureau and the Department of Justice for what he says is wrongful termination.
&#8220;In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Strzok excoriates the Justice Department and FBI for their handling of his dismissal over a trove of text messages he wrote to a colleague that were critical of Trump,&#8221; <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/06/peter-strzok-lawsuit-firing-trump-texts-1448615">Politico</a> reported Tuesday. &#8220;Strzok accuses the president of inappropriately bullying law enforcement officials deciding his fate, raises questions about why his texts were leaked to the media and lambastes the administration for only defending its employees&#8217; free speech rights when they are praising Trump.&#8221;
Strzok&#8217;s lawsuit claims that both his free speech and due process rights were violated when he was terminated by the Department of Justice after his politically biased messages emerged. The leaking of those messages, he says, also violated the Privacy Act.
After being dismissed in June 2018 following a series of reports exposing the agent&#8217;s communications involving Trump with DOJ attorney Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair, Strzok&#8217;s firing was made official in August after 22 years with the bureau.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed Strzok from the Russia probe after evidence revealed that the agent held strong political animus against Trump, thus threatening to undermine the legitimacy of the &#8220;collusion&#8221; investigation.
In a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/world/scathing-justice-dept-watchdog-report-rebukes-james-b-comey-cites-major-missteps-by-fbi/2309/">500-page report</a> released in June, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz condemned Trump-fired FBI Director James Comey&#8217;s handling of the Clinton investigation and accused senior FBI officials, including Strzok, of having shown a &#8220;willingness to take official action” to prevent Trump from becoming president, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-receiving-briefing-ahead-of-public-release-of-report-expected-to-criticize-fbi/2018/06/14/c08c6a5a-6fdf-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html">The Washington Post</a> reported.
&#8220;The inspector general did not find evidence supporting assertions made by the president and his allies that political bias inside the FBI had rigged the case to clear Clinton, but the report cited numerous instances of unprofessionalism, bias and misjudgment that hurt the bureau’s credibility,&#8221; the Post reported. &#8220;In particular, the report singled out lead agent Peter Strzok as showing anti-Trump bias that could have affected his thinking on the case during the immediate run-up to the 2016 election.&#8221;
Strzok&#8217;s lawsuit in part focuses on the leaks of his text messages, which were featured in Horowitz&#8217;s lengthy report. Among the leaked texts are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31876/congressman-why-does-anti-trump-peter-strzok-still-james-barrett">messages</a> in which Strzok and Page blast Trump as an &#8220;idiot,&#8221; cheer on the prospect of a Clinton victory, express desperation that Trump is &#8220;not ever going to become president,&#8221; and mention an &#8220;insurance policy&#8221; in case he gets elected. (See sample text messages below.)
After Strzok was officially fired in August, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34468/trump-goes-fired-agent-strzok-fbi-investigation-ben-shapiro">unloaded</a> on him on Twitter. &#8220;Fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok is a fraud, as is the rigged investigation he started. There was no Collusion or Obstruction with Russia, and everybody, including the Democrats, know it. The only Collusion and Obstruction was by Crooked Hillary, the Democrats and the DNC!&#8221; Trump tweeted in August. &#8220;Strzok started the illegal Rigged Witch Hunt — why isn&#8217;t this so-called &#8216;probe&#8217; ended immediately? Why aren&#8217;t these angry and conflicted Democrats instead looking at Crooked Hillary?&#8221;
Below are some of the messages between Page and Strzok revealing political bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton compiled by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/06/14/how-the-two-rogue-fbi-officials-explain-their-text-messages-about-trump/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.03305ac9279d">The Washington Post</a>:
<blockquote>April 1, 2016
Page: “So look, you say [to your wife] we text on that phone when we talk about hillary because it can’t be traced, you were just venting bc you feel bad that you’re gone so much but it can’t be helped right now.”
July 26, 2016
Page: &#8220;Yeah, it is pretty cool. [Clinton] just has to win now. I’m not going to lie, I got a flash of nervousness yesterday about trump. The sandernistas have the potential to make a very big mistake here …&#8221;
Strzok: &#8220;I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about the anarchist Assanges who will take fed information and disclose it to disrupt. We’ve gotta get the memo [on the findings of the Clinton email server investigation] and brief and case filing done.&#8221;​
July 31, 2016
Strzok: &#8220;And damn [the opening of the investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion] feels momentous. Because this matters. The other one [the Clinton investigation] did, too, but that was to ensure we didn’t F something up. This matters because this MATTERS. So super glad to be on this voyage with you.&#8221;
Aug. 6, 2016
Page: &#8220;This is not to take away from the unfairness of it all, but we are both deeply fortunate people. … And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace [in reference to Trump and possible collusion with Russia].&#8221;
Strzok: &#8220;Thanks. It’s absolutely true that we’re both very fortunate. And of course I’ll try and approach it that way. I just know it will be tough at times. I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps….&#8221;
Aug. 8, 2016
Page: &#8220;[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!&#8221;
Strzok: &#8220;No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.&#8221;​
Aug. 15, 2016
Strzok: &#8220;I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s [Andrew McCabe] office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.&#8221;
May 18, 2017
Strzok: &#8220;For me, and this case [the Russia collusion investigation, which Strzok was a part of until being removed for bias], I personally have a sense of unfinished business. I unleashed it with [the Clinton investigation]. Now I need to fix it and finish it.&#8221;​
Strzok: &#8220;you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.&#8221;
Nov. 9, 2016
Page: &#8220;Are you even going to give out your calendars? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society.&#8221;</blockquote>

&#8216;Anti-Trump&#8217; Agent Sues FBI, DOJ Over Firing

Michael Horowitz

Robert Mueller

A newly discovered FBI document shows that the Bureau has, for the first time, started to identify fringe conspiracy theories as a new type of domestic terrorist threat.
The document, obtained exclusively by <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html">Yahoo! News</a>, came out of the Bureau’s Phoenix field office a little over two months ago.
The FBI decribed &#8220;&#8216;conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists&#8217; as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so,&#8221; Yahoo! News reported. &#8220;It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.&#8221;
Specific conspiracy theories that the document mentions include QAnon and Pizzagate.
&#8220;The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts,&#8221; the document states.
Yahoo! News noted that the FBI said in the document that it believes some fringe conspiracy theories could increase the risk of violent attacks during the 2020 election.
The document added that one factor that is increasing the threat posed by fringe conspiracy theoris is &#8220;the uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political figures.&#8221;
President Donald Trump and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have all pushed, in recent weeks, to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49659/cruz-cassidy-introduce-resolution-take-action-ryan-saavedra">designate</a> the far-left group Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
For example, Trump recently tweeted: &#8220;Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 &amp; others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 &amp; others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155205025121132545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

FBI Warns Of A New Type Of Domestic Terrorist Threat

On Thursday, on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, former Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) blasted former FBI Director James Comey after it was alleged that Comey wrote a memo that contained the code names and real names of informants for the FBI and took the memo home with him. Chaffetz snapped, “Director Comey was so self-righteous in telling the world that he didn’t leak; he didn’t do sneaky things, and that he knew the law better than anybody else, but when the FBI goes to your home and gets memos, that reveal, evidently — we have to see if this is true —confidential and classified information.”
Fox News host Bill Hemmer started the conversation by noting, “New documents revealing the FBI retrieved several memos, including a secret memo that Comey drafted the night before the agents arrived. Now we’re learning the IG’s office is going through them to see if any improperly contained classified information.”
Chaffetz commented regarding Comey, “I had a one-on-one conversation with him; we talked directly about that. He explained to me you cannot summarize classified information, put it in your own handwriting, and then hold onto it personally. That’s why he was pursuing Hillary Clinton, but it appears he did the very same thing himself.”
Fox’s Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts explained the background of Comey and his memos:
<blockquote>This wasn’t so much a search as it was a pre-arranged interview and handing over of evidence, this all according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch … The documents show that a month after he was fired on June 7, 2017, FBI agents went to former FBI Director James Comey’s house to interview him and retrieve evidence including memos that he had written on February 4, March 30, and April 11, believed to be memos that he wrote to memorialize conversations he had with President Trump. Those memos were previously known and discussed at length in Comey’s appearances before Congress. What is new here is a memo that Comey wrote the night before the FBI came to his home. Again, he knew they were coming; a memo dated “Last night at 6:30 p.m. ,” which would have put the date that he wrote it as June 6.
According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the memo from February 4 was two pages long; March 30 two pages, April 11 one page, and then the memo from June 6 was four pages long. Comey also told FBI investigators that there were two other memos he had written about his meeting with the president, or conversations at least, that he could no longer find. Those memos were possibly about a phone conversation that Comey had with the president-elect sometime between January 7, 2017, and Inauguration Day and possibly about a conversation he had with the president on the way to an FBI leadership conference in Leesburg on March 7. Comey described that call as all business, but is not certain whether he memorialized the conversation or not. The Department of Justice Inspector general is investigating whether Comey improperly shared classified information with a professor at Columbia University which was then shared with the press. In a memo dated March 30 the second page was labeled “Secret: No Foreign” which means no foreign access to that information. According to the documents, though, Comey told FBI agents that page had been mislabeled and should have simply read “Unclassified: For Official Use Only.” Some of that information may have involved the genesis of the Russia investigation and the use of the FISA court to begin surveillance of Trump campaign officials.</blockquote>
Chaffetz stated, “Director Comey was so self-righteous in telling the world that he didn’t leak; he didn’t do sneaky things, and that he knew the law better than anybody else, but when the FBI goes to your home and gets memos, that reveal, evidently — we have to see if this is true — confidential and classified information. I mean, one of the allegations in there, Bill, is that there were code names and the real names of people that were informants for the FBI. You can’t just take that information and put it into your own personal — have it personally. You just can’t do that. And how ironic, because that was the allegation against Hillary Clinton: that there was classified information in a non-classified setting. That’s why the Inspector General for the intelligence community made the recommendation to the Department of Justice to pursue an investigation of her.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Director Comey is in some hot water&#8230;.. <a href="https://t.co/Ika6YEJvVt">https://t.co/Ika6YEJvVt</a>
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasoninthehouse/status/1156919453679886337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
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FBI

Articles tagged with FBI

‘Appalling’: FBI ‘Misidentified’ Anti-Trump Agent’s Notes In Case Against Mike Flynn