Thursday, March 8, 2018

A Rousing Dose of Morning Russiagate

Dear Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein:

Matters have arisen – both recently and otherwise – which necessitate the appointment of a Special Counsel. We do not make this observation and attendant request lightly. We have tremendous respect for the women and men of federal law enforcement and federal prosecution. In the vast majority of fact patterns, the Department of Justice, the career prosecutors and law enforcement professionals who serve there, and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country are fully capable of investigating, evaluating, charging where appropriate, and prosecuting matters for which there is federal jurisdiction.

Nevertheless, there are instances in which an actual or potential conflict of interest exists or appears to exist, or there are matters in which the public good would be furthered, and an independent Special Counsel is warranted as the relevant Federal regulations provide.

We believe that, in the case of certain decisions made and not made by the Department of Justice and FBI in 2016 and 2017, both an actual conflict of interest exists and separately, but equally significantly, the public interest requires the appointment of a Special Counsel.

With respect to potential and actual conflicts of interest, decisions made and not made by both former and current Department of Justice and FBI officials have led to legitimate questions and concerns from the people whom we all serve. There is evidence of bias, trending toward animus, among those charged with investigating serious cases. There is evidence political opposition research was used in court filings. There is evidence this political opposition research was neither vetted before it was used nor fully revealed to the relevant tribunal. Questions have arisen with the FISA process and these questions and concerns threaten to impugn both public and congressional confidence in significant counterintelligence program processes and those charged with overseeing and implementing these counterintelligence processes.

Because the decisions of both former and current Department of Justice and FBI officials are at issue, we do not believe the Department of Justice is capable of investigating and evaluating these fact patterns in a fashion likely to garner public confidence. In addition, while we have confidence in the Inspector General for the Department of Justice, the DOJ IG does not have the authority to investigate other governmental entities or former employees of the Department, the Bureau, or other agencies.

Some have been reluctant to call for the appointment of a Special Counsel because such an appointment should be reserved for those unusual cases where existing investigative and prosecutorial entities cannot adequately discharge those duties. We believe this is just such a case.

Accordingly, we request that you appoint a Special Counsel to review decisions made and not made by the Department of Justice and the FBI in 2016 and 2017, including but not limited to evidence of bias by any employee or agent of the DOJ, FBI, or other agencies involved in the investigation; the decisions to charge or not charge and whether those decisions were made consistent with the applicable facts, the applicable law, and traditional investigative and prosecutorial policies and procedures; and whether the FISA process employed in the fall of 2016 was appropriate and devoid of extraneous influence.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this important request.
Ace: Sen. Grassley, Rep. Goodlatte Write Letter to Sessions and Deputy AG Rosenstein Demanding Special Counsel, Pointing Out DOJ's and FBI's Unavoidable Conflicts of Interest in "Investigating Themselves"
If you can't question Clapper, Comey, Brennan, Yates, Rice and Powers all under subpoena and under penalty of perjury, then what is the fucking point?!
Lurch under the scope?  House Intelligence Committee Investigation Turns to John Kerry, State Department
The House Select Committee on Intelligence is now investigating former Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s possible role into the unverified dossier paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton Campaign, this reporter has learned. The dossier, assembled by a former British spy, laid the foundation for the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia and was the essential piece of evidence used by the FBI to get a warrant to spy on a former volunteer for the Trump campaign.
Hope Hicks
Hope Hicks told House Intelligence Committee she was hacked, sources say
A day before she resigned as White House communications director, Hope Hicks told the House Intelligence Committee last week that one of her email accounts was hacked, according to people who were present for her testimony in the panel's Russia probe.

Under relatively routine questioning from Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., about her correspondence, Hicks indicated that she could no longer access two accounts: one she used as a member of President Donald Trump's campaign team and the other a personal account, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the closed meeting of the Intelligence Committee was supposed to remain private.

Hicks, who portrayed herself as not savvy in matters of technology, told lawmakers that one of the accounts was hacked, according to two sources who were in the room. It is unclear if Hicks was referring to the campaign or the personal account.
Sadly, in this day and age we must all presume all our accounts are hacked. The only real question is who and why.

Democrats say Trump associate may have misled House panel over Seychelles meeting. Well, they've been wrong before. In fact, more often than they're right. But Mueller heard the dog whistle and Mueller gathers evidence that 2017 Seychelles meeting was effort to establish back channel to Kremlin

Did Hillary Clinton Run FBI's Trump Investigation? No, she doesn't really run anything. But she has lackeys. George Neumayr destroys Jane Meyer's Christopher Steele adulation article in the New Yorker: Jane Mayer’s Publicity Work for Christopher Steele. A taste:
Mayer casts all movements of Trumpworld as sinister while sanitizing everything on the Steele/Hillary side. Her description of Steele’s politics is laughable. In the British press, he has been described as “very left-wing” and a Cambridge Union socialist. Mayer tones that down to: “Steele was a middle-of-the-road Labour Party supporter.” And then on the say-so of some impossible-to-evaluate source, she informs us that he is very bipartisan. “He’s not an ideologue,” says this source. Oh, okay. That settles it. In Mayer’s world, liberals aren’t ideologues and bipartisanship is defined by a shared hatred of Trump.
Reddit admits Russian trolls got into website during 2016 presidential election Was there any attempt to keep them out? How? Anyone can sign in to Reddit.

New York Times: If GOP Wins Midterms, Democrats Will Rage at Russian Meddling. Democrats loved the Russians when they were murderous communists. Now that they're murderous crony capitalists, not so much. Lonelier than the Maytag repairman Russian Ambassador: It’s Been Pretty Lonely Here In Washington, but not as lonely as the government ethics officer. From Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 03.07.18" Power Line has How Russia Tried To Block US Energy Production. But then, so did the Democrats.

Stormy Daniels
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen tries to silence adult-film star Stormy Daniels
President Donald Trump's lawyer is trying to silence adult-film star Stormy Daniels, obtaining a secret restraining order in a private arbitration proceeding and warning that she will face penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president, NBC News has learned.

The new pressure on Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, comes a day after she filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court alleging that a nondisclosure agreement she made to keep quiet about an "intimate" relationship with Trump is invalid because he never signed it.

Tuesday's lawsuit says that Trump attorney Michael Cohen — who brokered the agreement with Clifford during the presidential campaign — attempted to "intimidate" Clifford and "shut her up" by initiating what it calls a "bogus arbitration proceeding" against her in Los Angeles on Feb. 27.

On that day, Cohen obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford from the private arbitrator, a retired judge, which bars her from disclosing "confidential information" related to the nondisclosure agreement signed in October 2016, according to a copy of the order obtained by NBC News.
Well, pornstars should be seen and not heard! Except for a few groans and expletives that is. OK, here's the thing. We knew what Trump was. That's already been discounted in his election. It's still better than the rapist and the rapist enabler Clintons.

 Mark Steyn: And Then There Were Nunberg...
Next on the rundown was the latest target of Robert Mueller's "Russia" investigation - Sam Nunberg. Deroy Murdock began by correcting Mark's pronunciation:

The delicate flowers at Media-ite didn't care for the cut of Deroy's jib:
"They found no evidence of this," Murdock declared. "What amazes me, Mueller is so busy trying to find somebody that doesn't exist. Yet, you have massive collusion on the part of the Democrats and the Russians. He's not interested in looking at that."
The NRO editor then took aim at Clinton, bringing up the Uranium One deal as an example of Russian collusion before giving a laundry list of purported crimes committed by the former Secretary of State... After Steyn said it was all to help the Russians, Murdock added "lock her up — now, more than ever before."
And Ace again, from the morning reportMedia Fight for Democrats in Washington Leak Wars. This is news?

Wombat-socho has "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: Champagne Season" and "FMJRA 2.0: Listening To The Music The Machines Make" ready for your edification and amusement.

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