Marching Into Russiagate

Not a lot here on the first morning of March. Althouse takes on the McGahn ruling, "The dissent suggests that Congress cannot fend for itself... [but] Congress can tailor its sanctions to the gravity of the Executive Branch’s offense."

We didn't get any sort of answer to the question what is the scope of executive privilege. The court is defining its own role, and even though a lot of people, during the impeachment proceedings, seemed to think that it's exactly the court's role to say what the law is and let us know how much executive privilege the President has and whether his resistance to Congress was a lofty protection of the power of the Executive Branch or a scurrilous thwarting of the power of the Legislative Branch, the court stopped at the threshold question of the power of the Judicial Branch.

So it needs further litigation to a higher court. And that's how the system is supposed to work.

Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx, Intelligence community disputes 2020 Trump-Russia story embraced by Democrats

The U.S. intelligence community is disputing information the media were given about a classified House Intelligence Committee briefing earlier this month, with officials denying that lawmakers were told that Russia is attempting to help President Trump in 2020.

“We cannot comment on classified briefings, but what we can tell you is that Shelby did not say Russia is aiding the reelection of President Trump,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the Washington Examiner.

The controversial classified briefing took place Feb. 13 and was conducted in part by Shelby Pierson, the intelligence community election threats executive under then-acting DNI Joseph Maguire. Officials from the FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency were also present. Sources cited by the New York Times last Thursday claimed Pierson warned that “Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump reelected.”

John Brennan, CIA director under President Barack Obama, immediately spread the narrative to his 766,000 followers, claiming “we are now in a full-blown national security crisis" and "Trump is abetting a Russian covert operation to keep him in office for Moscow’s interests.”

Also at WaEx, 'Political interference': Jerry Nadler seeks testimony from John Durham about Russia inquiry review . Sure, but he might not like what he has to say. Do it in open session, and give the Republicans a fair chance to ask questions too.

We had the video back on Friday, From Brad Slager at Hot VIP, Unraveling The Steele Dossier At CPAC – The Devin Nunes Interview With Dan Bongino. From "Bonchie" at Red State, CPAC: Dan Bongino and Devin Nunes Discuss New Revelations In the Spygate Saga

As RedState reported this morning, there have been some new revelations involving the nexus of the Trump-Russia investigation. That was further discussed today at CPAC, where Dan Bongino interviewed Devin Nunes in the main hall.

Nunes started by laying out that the 302s show that George Papadopoulos not only wasn’t trying to collude with Russia, but that he was actively offering to help the FBI. This was allegedly lied about in the sentencing recommendation made by Mueller’s team and Nunes says that an additional criminal referral is likely coming related to that.

What Bongino and Nunes further laid out was a fairly clear picture of the narrative the FBI (and by virtue, the Obama administration) were trying to weave. Think about this. Why would anything George Papadopoulos did be a legitimate catalyst to open an investigation into the far reaches of the Trump administration? Even if (and we know he didn’t) Papadopoulos was trying to “collude” with Russia, there was no evidence of any actual connection to Donald Trump or his campaign. Yet, the FBI continued to expand it’s probe despite coming up empty again and again.

Where were these “connections” coming from? The Steele Dossier, according to Devin Nunes, was the source material. Almost every string the FBI decided to pull on can be found in the Steele Dossier and nowhere else. And despite attempts to downplay its role, the dossier clearly played the primary role in the Trump-Russia investigation.

Bongino would also ask Nunes about the UK-Obama backchannel that was used to share information regarding figures like Michael Flynn and why Joseph Mifsud was never pursued. Nunes believes that the “rumor channel” existed in order to traffic in information that never would have passed muster via actual FBI regulations. In regards to Mifsud, Nunes made the obvious point that it’s extremely suspicious that the FBI had no interest in finding him. Here is a guy who’s supposedly at the genesis and who Papadopoulos is offering to help find, and the FBI suddenly doesn’t care. In fact, Mifsud would be allowed to leave the country after that.

That all points to Mifsud not actually being a “Russian agent” and supports the idea that he was working directly or indirectly for the investigation.

And, shockingly, Secret FISA court's future in jeopardy, lawmakers say  "“I don’t even give [the secret FISA Court] a 50-50 chance” of survival in its present form, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told Just The News." The Tribune, FBI surveillance tools at risk amid bipartisan opposition. The WaPoo has a long and interesting story this morning about another potential abuse of the FISA process in A former Boeing manager suspected of spying for China says that he, like Carter Page, was the victim of a flawed national security investigation. I only hope he's an important Democrat donor, because that would motive Democrats to take up FISA reforms.

Baldilocks take up the case of Philip Haney, the Obama era whistleblower found dead in Washington State with They Tell No Tales.

According to other reports I’ve read, Haney was a committed, active Christian. A widower, he was planning to remarry this year. Not exactly a prime candidate for suicide; I guess that’s why that angle was dropped.

I’m reading his book See Something, Say Nothing, published in 2016. It is an indictment of the Obama Administration as lackeys of global jihad and I’m look forward to reading about the San Bernardino and Orlando Islamist attacks, which could have been prevented, according to Haney.

Seems that a lot of highly placed people might benefit greatly by sending Mr. Haney into the next world.

I’m also planning to read Haney’s essay Green Tide Rising; suffice it to say that it’s not about climate change.

Well, you never see it coming. If we did, we could head it off.

Shockingly from WaPoo, I was a prosecutor in the Michael Milken case. I’m outraged at the pardon process. Take it up with the Founding Fathers.

Awe, Hunter Biden is hanging up his spurs as a global financier, Witness No More — Hunter Biden Embraces Life As An Artist, And The NYT Is Here For It

The New York Times publishing a softball puff piece about Hunter Biden’s new painting hobby manages to be embarrassing for both the newspaper and the subject: "Dressed in Oxford boots, jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt…" https://t.co/VEaQc52InE pic.twitter.com/tGAg2FVVFy

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) February 28, 2020