A Smattering of Russiagate

The media furor over Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation has abated just enough to allow some Russiagate sneak in through gaps in the wall of wind and whirling debris.

53 Transcripts From House Intel Committee's Trump-Russia Probe Will Show No Collusion



From Sundance at CTH, Devin Nunes Discusses Rosenstein Motive To Manipulate Declassification of Documents…



Mueller's office cites Watergate precedent in defending special counsel's authority

Filed in D.C. federal appeals court Friday, the 71-page brief claimed that previous appointments make it clear that Mr. Mueller is legally authorized to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters, contrary to arguments raised by Mr. Miller.

“These instances — involving appointments by Attorneys General under Presidents Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, George H.W. Bush and Clinton — span nearly 140 years and include some of the most notorious scandals in the Nation’s history, including Watergate,” wrote Michael Dreeben, U.S. deputy solicitor general.

The Supreme Court ruled during Watergate that “the Attorney General has statutory authority to appoint a special counsel and delegate prosecutorial authority to him,” Mr. Dreeben wrote. “That precedent forecloses Miller’s challenge to the statutory authority for the appointment here.”

Mr. Miller is among several people contacted by the special counsel’s office with ties to Mr. Stone, an early adviser to Mr. Trump’s presidential election campaign, and was served with a grand jury subpoena in May compelling him to produce documents and testimony.
. . .
Paul Kamenar, an attorney for Mr. Miller filing the appeal with the aid of the National Legal & Policy Center, claimed in a previous filing that the special counsel lacks authority because he was appointed by the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, rather than the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in light of the latter recusing himself from matters related to the 2016 race.

“While General Sessions may have recused himself from a certain investigation, he cannot divest himself of or delegate his constitutional duty to appoint the investigator,” Mr. Kamenar argued on appeal.

If it was inarguable, they wouldn't be in court arguing about it.

Uh oh! FBI spy Stefan Halper's $240,000 Pentagon study disavowed by high-profile experts

Stefan Halper, the college professor turned FBI spy on the Trump campaign, was paid $244,000 by the Pentagon to write a Russia-China study in 2015 and 2016.

Mr. Halper boasted a heady list of foreign policy specialists. On Pages 7 and 8 of the 300-plus-page analysis are the names of 43 “advisors and consultants” such as former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and David Shambaugh, a China scholar at George Washington University.

But a spot check by The Washington Times revealed that neither man contributed to nor had heard of the study, titled “The Russia-China Relationship: The Impact on the United States’ Security Interests.”

“No memory of project or person,” Mr. Hayden told The Times.

Mr. Shambaugh: “No, I was not an adviser to his study.”

Listing such esteemed individuals would convey a well-connected Pentagon contractor able to network with Washington’s establishment.

So he's prone to make stuff up? You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.