Some Sickly Russiagate

Still anemic with its bout of coronavirus. Da Signal, House OKs FISA Reforms in Wake of FBI’s Carter Page Fiasco. Four main aspects of the FISA law expire tomorrow. Will the Senate up the House's bill today?  A reminder from RCP, Buried From Trump Tower Meeting: Translator Telling FBI 'No Collusion', but the Mueller team didn't say anything, and let the media trumpet it as potential Russian collusion anyway. That in itself was collusion.

Via the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 03.13.20 Julie Kelly at AmGreat sends Instead of Bracing for Coronavirus, Democrats Focused on Impeachment

n January 15, House Democrats delivered two articles of impeachment to the United States Senate. Democrats knew the Republican-controlled Senate would not have enough votes to convict President Trump. But that didn’t deter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from wasting government time, resources, and attention for months in a doomed effort to remove Donald Trump from the White House.

Six days later, on January 21, the first known case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19, or the Wuhan virus) was reported in the United States.


While the Left and NeverTrump Right predictably gather steam to condemn Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, congressional Democrats have escaped any accountability for ignoring the early stages of the outbreak. And, with no sense of irony, the very journalists and pundits who cheered impeachment are the same folks now blasting the president for “not doing enough” to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Let’s back up for a moment: Since before Donald Trump took the oath of office, the Left and NeverTrump Right have been on a destructive crusade to crush his presidency. It is unlike anything in recent political history—no tactic has been considered too beyond-the-pale or in violation of sacred limits. The Russian collusion farce and ensuing special counsel investigation into an imaginary crime monopolized the White House’s attention for more than two years. When that failed, House Democrats and their administrative toadies in government concocted the Ukrainegate scandal that began the month after Robert Mueller’s disastrous testimony on Capitol Hill.

As the impeachment inquiry got underway in late 2019, the coronavirus was devastating parts of China. Even though his White House was under siege, President Trump took action: On January 29, the president announced the formation of a special task force and declared coronavirus a “public health emergency.” A few days later, on January 31, Trump halted travel from China, a move largely viewed as a pivotal step to minimize the disease’s spread here.

Democrats, including several presidential candidates, accused the president of “fearmongering” and xenophobia. Joe Biden opposed the travel ban. “This is a virus that happened to pop up in China. But the virus doesn’t discriminate between Asian versus non-Asian,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) dimly told Politico. “In our response, we can’t create prejudices and harbor anxieties toward one population.”

On the same day that Trump announced the travel stop and mandatory quarantine of Americans coming back from afflicted regions, Democrats, rather than address the legitimate threat to the nation, instead pushed to extend their impeachment charade by demanding more witness testimony.

Democrats remained mostly silent on the coronavirus menace throughout February . . . 

Media who spent 3+ years peddling the Russia hoax, doxxing random meme makers, harassing grandmothers, defaming Catholic teenagers, lying about Kavanaugh, and claiming Net Neutrality was Armageddon didn’t magically start telling you the truth last week. https://t.co/tgK1SCY7DN

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 13, 2020

From Liz Vaughn at Red State The White House Targets Obama Era IGs for Using Security Clearance Retaliation as a Weapon. Kick 'em all out and appoint fresh ones.

Trump administration officials are focusing on a handful of IG’s whom they believe have worked to undermine the President’s agenda. The first IG who springs to mind is Intelligence Community IG Michael Atkinson. He received and pushed the whistleblower’s complaint last August, which triggered the baseless impeachment of President Trump. Not only did he send documents directly to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff after the DNI and the DOJ determined the complaint had not met the legal threshold of urgency or credibility, he made a quick rule change to allow the use of second-hand information for a whistleblower complaint. He also failed to report he’d had contact with the whistleblower, alleged to be Eric Ciaramella, several months after the complaint had been submitted. This was only reported after it became known that Ciaramella had contacted the Schiff team before filing his complaint. Considering two of Ciaramella’s former National Security Council colleagues and friends had recently joined Schiff’s staff, there is reason for suspicion.

Don Surber, Grenell upsetting liberals with reform. It's not reform if it hurts their chances of hurting Trump, right?

If he were a Democrat, the New York Times would herald him as a reformer implementing bipartisan recommendations from four separate studies.
But Richard Grenell is a Republican, and so the report on his efforts to rein in a rogue and politicized intelligence community was met with the story, "Acting Intelligence Chief Freezes Hiring and Looks to Cut Office. Some intelligence officers feared that a review of the office’s staff and mission was politically motivated. Senior officials denied the charge."

Chuck Ross at Da Caller reports that  Sen. Ron Johnson Shifts Gears, Will Subpoena Consulting Firm Linked To Burisma And Hunter Biden. Good. Meanwhile, from the WaFreeBee, Judge Approves Settlement Allowing Hunter Biden’s Finances to Remain Under Wraps

Roberts's lawyer told the Free Beacon that she was "happy a positive resolution of this case was reached and that the case is now concluded." He also said all information regarding Biden's income was sealed by the judge, and doesn't expect any of it to become public.

"All information about Mr. Biden’s income and child support paid is sealed by Judge Holly Meyer," said lawyer Clinton Lancaster. "We expect that no information about either of these items will be made public."

Biden's lawyer Brent Langdon also declined to share details. "The Judge has approved the final order and the case has been concluded," Langdon said. "There is no hearing tomorrow."

Though the exact terms of the deal are sealed, the order says the monthly payment amount was calculated according to Arkansas statute—which determines child support payments based on monthly income and number of defendants. The state lays out the exact dollar amount owed for salaries ranging up to $5,000 a month and stipulates that 15 percent of each dollar earned in excess of $5,000 be added to the monthly payment.

Stacy McCain thinks Michael Avenatti sitting in cell that reeks of urine A Heart-Warming Story That Every Patriotic American Can Celebrate. I agree. It's hard to do, but Michael has made peoples opinions of lawyers even lower than they were.