Russiagate Declassification Conga Line

I went kind of quote crazy today, but it seemed worthy:

A reminder from PJ Media of the main focus, Declassification: it's what's for breakfast

Eat it up good and chew every morsel.

Late Thursday evening, President Trump ordered several agencies to cooperate with Attorney General Barr's investigation into the origins of the RUSSIA-collusion hoax and gave Barr the authority to “declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence” as he sees fit.
. . .
This man is insane. Schiff Calls Barr Investigation Into Origins Of Russia Probe ‘Un-American’

Trump to Strzok and Page: You should have used a private server

Dumber than a box of rocks. CNN's Acosta suggests Trump ordered unsealing of 2016 intel to 'distract' from Pelosi spat

Ace, Mark Meadows: The Democrats Are Raging in Panic Because "There is information coming that will curl your hair" video at Ace's.

Battlespace preparation-- they're hurling out so many accusations that when proof of actual collusion -- and actual high crimes and misdemeanors -- comes to light, it'll just be another snowflake in the blizzard.

"There is information coming that will curl your hair. I can tell you that the reason why it is so visceral -- the response from the Democrats is so visceral right now -- is because they know, they've seen documents. Adam Schiff has seen documents that he knows will actually put the finger pointing back at him and his Democrat colleagues, not the president of the United States," he told host Sean Hannity.

Thomas Lifson at AmGreat: Russia hoax origins to be exposed as Trump authorizes AG Barr to declassify Russia probe documents

Heads are exploding all over the beltway, as the unraveling of the biggest political scandal in American history enters a new stage. Make no mistake, there is a plan and a timetable designed for maximum dramatic impact. President Trump finally has taken the long-awaited step to lift the cloak of classification and uncover the weaponization of the federal government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies against his candidacy and then presidency. . . . The timing is intriguing. . . 

NYT (readable via MSN) Potential Clash Over Secrets Looms Between Justice Dept. and C.I.A.,

Though the ultimate power to declassify documents rests with the president, Mr. Trump’s delegation of that power to Mr. Barr effectively stripped Mr. Coats and the C.I.A. of control of their secrets. The move could endanger the agencies’ ability to keep the identities of their sources secret, former intelligence officials said.

Mr. Coats and Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, will fight hard to ensure that their most valuable secrets — the identities of sources — are protected, former officials have said. Ms. Haspel has been described as a fierce political infighter, but she has also been careful to cultivate a strong working relationship with Mr. Barr, former officials said.

Traditionally, the C.I.A. has been effective at intramural governmental fights, in large measure because its power comes from its information and its closely guarded secrets. By taking that power from the intelligence agencies, Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr may have weakened the C.I.A.

The intelligence agencies already have a degree of unease over the Justice Department’s ability to keep the identity of sources secret. The name of the F.B.I. informant involved in the initial investigation of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia was inadvertently made public.

The WaPoo (30 day pass) has a similar screed in Barr could expose secrets, politicize intelligence with review of Russia probe, current and former officials fear

It appeared unprecedented to give an official who is not in charge of an intelligence agency the power to reveal its secrets. Current and former intelligence officials said they were concerned that Barr could selectively declassify information that paints the intelligence agencies and the FBI in a bad light without giving a complete picture of their efforts in 2016.

But note that Barr is the head of DOJ, of which the FBI, which is an intelligence agency, is a part. I'm awarding them 5 Pinocchios.

This was the rationale used by CIA director Richard Helms for his patently illegal spying on me and other journalists back in the 70’s. They had a nest across the street from our office in DC and agents tailed us and family members. Funny, nobody disputed it was “spying.” https://t.co/YX39ZVG0WE

— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 24, 2019

Kevin R. Brock at Da Hill,  Attorney General Barr puts former intel bosses on notice

IC leaders aren’t used to being held to account by the Justice Department, and their oversight by Congress generally is mild. Theirs is a comfortable world, obfuscated and kept mysterious by the liberal use of their classified-information shield. The demonization of Attorney General Barr has begun — a sign that he is probably on the right track. And the IC leaders are on notice.

Capt. Ed at Hot Air,  Graham: No Really, Declassification Will Be A Game-Changer



At CR, Defiant Trump: Democrats failed in ‘takedown attempt’ against me. So far . . . Also Capt. Ed, Schiff: Declassifying Crossfire Hurricane Data Is “Un-American”, Katie Pavlish at Town Hall says of that statement Adam Schiff Makes Quite a Revealing Statement After Trump Orders Declassification of Spying Documents

This is what we call projection. Schiff is accusing President Trump of exactly what the Left has been doing for years. Barr is investigating their scheming and corruption, which is making players like Schiff, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brenna, former DNI James Clapper, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and others squirm.

It was the Obama White House, FBI and Department of Justice that weaponized law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies. Whether it was the IRS working with DOJ to target conservative tea party leaders or the FBI using a bogus Clinton funded dossier to justify domestic spying on Americans working for the Trump campaign.

Further, Trump isn't covering up anything. He didn't assert executive privilege over the Mueller report, 90 percent of which is non-redacted. The 10 percent redacted material relates to sources and methods, in addition to grand jury information.

It's easy to find out exactly what the left is doing. All we have to do is look at what Schiff and others like him are accusing the Trump administration of doing and we have the answer.

Sundance at CTH, Mueller “Team” Does Not Want Special Counsel to Testify…

Can you imagine the questions:

Q: Mr. Mueller, did you go to Oval Office on May 16, 2017, because you wanted to apply for the job of FBI Director?
A: No.
Q: Mr. Mueller, was the mysterious cell phone you left behind in the oval office that day actually yours?
A: No.

And then, as Rod Rosenstein takes a hard and uncomfortable swallow, the Weissmann constructed house-of-cards starts to collapse….

The Peacock, Robert Mueller wants to testify in private before Congress, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler says and Capt. Ed, Nadler: It’s Republicans’ Fault That Mueller Will Only Testify In Private, You Know ” … especially if the Republicans on the committee start asking him questions about the beginning of the — about this stuff, the beginning of the investigation.”  The Peacock again, House Judiciary Chairman Nadler Falls Ill at Mayor de Blasio Event in Manhattan. I'm usually above wishing misfortune on people over politics, but I might make an exception in this case.

And on to "Spygate." WaEx, Ex-FBI lawyer: Carter Page FISA application approved in 'unusual' way by McCabe, Yates, and Baker

In front of a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Aug. 31, 2018, former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson said she was normally responsible for signing off on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications before they reached the desk of her superiors for approval. Anderson said the “linear path” those applications typically take was upended in October 2016, with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates signing off on the application before she did. Because of that unusual high-level involvement, she didn’t see the need to “second guess” the FISA application.

Ace, Former FBI Deputy General Counsel: The Carter Page FISA Application Was Approved in a Non-Standard Way; Rather Than Letting Me First Review the Application, Andrew McCabe and Assistant Director of the DOJ Sally Yates Bypassed Me and Signed It Themselves Lock them up.

Svetlana Lokhova

Also mentioned by Ace, John Sexton at Hot Air reports Woman Accused Of Being A Russian Spy Sues Stefan Halper, WSJ, NY Times, Post, And MSNBC

Svetlana Lokhova is a British academic who works at Cambridge. Lokhova was born in Russia but has a British passport. Today she sued Stefan Halper, the Wall Street Journal, the NY times, the Washington Post, and MSNBC over stories which suggested she had contact with Gen. Michael Flynn on behalf of Russia. From Politico:

Svetlana Lokhova filed the suit Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., seeking more than $25 million in damages from longtime University of Cambridge academic Stefan Halper as well as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and MSNBC.
Lokhova alleges that Halper and the news outlets conspired to spread a false narrative that she approached then-Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn on behalf of Russian intelligence at a seminar dinner in England in 2014 and that Flynn and Lokhova had an intimate relationship.
Over time, as public attention focused on links between the Trump campaign and Russia — and after Flynn was fired from his role as national security adviser by Trump in February 2017, individuals hostile to Trump and Flynn seized on the alleged connection to Lokhova as evidence that Flynn had been compromised by Russia, she alleges in the suit.

You can read one of those 2017 stories here. The Guardian reported Flynn and Lokhova met at the dinner and exchanged emails afterward:

Known dirty-ops guy for the FBI Stefan Halper told @WSJ in 2017 that I had an affair with @GenFlynn based on Halper's observation about a dinner Flynn and me attended in Cambridge in 2014. Except I've always said Halper was not at that dinner, a new report just confirmed that. /1 pic.twitter.com/7MfSISYW4L

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) May 19, 2019

Sundace at CTH finds Evidence of Obama Administration Political Surveillance Beginning Mid-2012…., which in turn suggests the Obama admin began political spying about as soon as he could get the right people in place. Did they spy on Mitt? Does Mitt care?

JE Dyer at Liberty Unyielding, Spygate watch: The ‘purge’ of Italian intel, and Obama’s odd meet-and-greet, and a link to the Mysterious Mr, Mifsud.

Last week, George Papadopoulos and his Italian wife, Simona Mangiante, alerted social media users to reporting in Italian press that the Giuseppe Conte government had abruptly asked for resignations from four top national intelligence officials. (Their tweets refer to six, but the Italian reporting indicates that two of the references are to pre-existing vacancies. With the four requested resignations, the number of vacant positions at the top would grow from two to six.)

The pivotal significance is the connection of the individuals in question with Link Campus University in Rome: one-time haunt of Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor who apparently tried to set Papadopoulos up as a conduit for purported “Hillary dirt” to the Trump campaign.

George Papadopoulos reads this big move by the Italian government as preparation for “giving up Brennan.” We’ll have to wait and see how much of a connection it has to John Brennan, the former CIA director. But the connection to Link Campus is certainly there.

Fox, Trump used executive privilege in 'protecting the executive branch' from Congress, Levin says



and at last (today at least) Capt. Ed, “Commandeered”? CNN, MSNBC Unrepentant For Avenatti Promotion. Well, they'd have to have shame to be repentant, and they're shameless.