Flotsam and Jetsam - Garland Kept FBI Out of Biden's Garage

Are we still talking about the top secret files that Joe Biden took at the end of the Obama administration, and seemingly scattered around his living and working places? Damn right we are! And a lot of people don't want us to! So we must. At the Wombats In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Morning Edition) Da Tech Guy wonders Has the Left Demoted Joe Biden from “Useful Idiot” to Just Plain “Idiot”?, and Don Surber suspects Biden May Be Cheneyed, The Lid thinks IT’S ON: House GOP Demanding Answers In Biden Document Scandal, Power Line sees Garage logic, Biden style,Victory Girls discuss Top Secret Corvette Security, Weasel Zippers hear from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): Investigating Biden’s Classified Document Scandal Is A “Political Game”, and The Federalist lists Five Times Media Ran Cover For Biden In Classified Documents Scandal (only 5? Seems low). And at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Evening Edition), EBL sends HUNTER BIDEN PAYING OFF THE “BIG GUY”? and Which Democrat Kingmaker(s) Want Biden Out?, Twitchy has Jonathan Last – Stupid People Can’t Tell The Difference Between Document Breaches, Special K Breaks Under The Weight Of More Questions About Biden’s Document Bungles, and American Power: The Big Problem With the Biden Documents Story. 

At PJ Media, Athena Thorne remembers That Time in 2010 When VP Biden Left Classified Documents Lying Around the West Wing, so he's a repeat offender. Althouse not impressed by Phil Bumps attempt to downplay the scandal in He knows you are, but what is he?. David Catron at Am Spec speculates Was the Mar-a-Lago Raid a Biden Insurance Policy? "Perhaps it was meant to indemnify him against the kind of scandal in which he is now immersed." 'Bonchie' at Red State notes Dan Bongino Has Two Theories About Biden's Classified Documents; Neither of Them Look Good "To start, Bongino suggests this could be a “sabotage hit job” against Biden by Democrats who want to force him out of the 2024 race. . . . Bongino then continued with his second theory, which is that something bigger is going on in regard to criminal liability Biden may be facing." Josh Hammer at Front Page isn't the first to suspect Is the Deep State Coming After Joe Biden? At the Free Bacon, This Overlooked Detail Suggests Biden's Classified Document Scandal Could Bring Down His Presidency "Ian Sams, the upward-failing Forrest Gump of political disaster, is handling the White House response." Mary Chastain at LI,  Democrats Use Schiff as Shiv to Stick Biden Over Classified Docs Debacle. At CNS News, Rep. Adam Schiff: ‘It Was Inadvertent That These Documents Were in These Locations’ which doesn't make it better. KT at Haut Hare, Obama’s ethics chief rips Biden for 'appalling negligence' of classified documents. Fox, Biden classified docs scandal: Watchdog files ethics complaint over White House Counsel's Office involvement. At JTN, Former Obama ethics chief excoriates Biden over classified document storage, "Biden's own retention of classified records reflects an inexcusable neglect of the most basic security protocols." At Power Line, Scott Johnson quips Lying well is the best revenge. Breitbart Reports White House Aides Admit Classified Doc Scandal to Impact Joe Biden’s Expected 2024 Launch.

An important detail from Dave Strom at Haut Hair, Merrick Garland kept FBI out of Biden document search.  The Wall Street Journal@WSJ "The Justice Department considered but decided against monitoring the search for classified documents at President Biden's homes, people familiar with the matter said." At Da Wire, though, White House Won’t Say If Feds Searching For More Biden Classified Docs Or If Biden Is Involved In Search.

At Da Caller, Scarborough Says GOP Isn’t Wrong To Want To Know Contents Of Docs In Biden’s Garage. Curtis Houck@CurtisHouck CBS's@StevenPortnoy to KJP: "The reason I ask is...the first call that [Biden's] personal attorneys made on Nov. 2 was not to the FBI that they had found...top secret documents out in the open. The first call was to...the West Wing. How is that the right thing?" Capt. Ed comments "Looks like the White House’s spin isn’t convincing its normally friendlier media outlets, eh? Kudos to Steve Portnoy, but the real answer to his question is clear — it wasn’t the right thing." Nick Givas at JTN, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre under fire in midst of Biden document drama. "It is increasingly painful to watch Karine Jean-Pierre," legal commentator Jonathan Turley  tweeted Friday, "as she argues that they have been 'transparent' by being transparently unwilling to answer any questions." Nick Arama at Red State watches WH Cracks Under More Grilling, Can't Keep Story Straight on Biden Classified Docs. "Joe Biden’s classified document scandal is unrolling like most things that involve Joe Biden — it’s full of lies and a complete mess." Jim Geraghty at NRO, Biden’s Useless Promises of Transparency. Fox, Biden again ignores reporters' questions on classified documents, "White House staff quickly rushes reporters out of Oval Office" At Mediaite, ‘I Looked Him Straight In The Eye!’ NBC’s Peter Alexander Caught On Hot Mic Complaining Biden Blew Off His Special Counsel Question. At Twitchy, Jonathan Last notes that ‘stupid people can’t tell the difference’ between document breaches. Dave Strom sees evidence MSNBC is panicked about Biden documents scandal. In a point against him, Rob Reiner Calls Joe Biden ‘Decent Law Abiding Person’ in Wake of Classified Documents Scandal (Breitbart). I&I, Biden: Making America Worse Again.

Natalie Winters at the War Room reports Hunter Biden’s China-Linked Company Paid $49,910 In Rent – Identical To Amount Hunter Biden Paid For Joe’s House Where Classified Documents Found, Expense Reports Reveal. Quite a 'coincidence,' but let's not forget Hunter was doing crack at the time. Breitbart reports Hunter Paid for 2010 Repairs on Delaware House Where Joe Biden Stashed Classified Docs, how sweet! Dave Harsanyi at Da Fed explains Here’s Why The Hunter Biden Corruption Story Is Worth Investigating, Chuck Todd. From the Daily Fetched, Biden Removed His Tax Filings from Campaign Webpage Just 3 Weeks before FBI Raid on Mar-a-Lago, since restored. Weird. Matt Margolis at PJ Media, Ex-Intel Official Admits He Knew Hunter Laptop Was Real, and That's Not the Worst Part. "But the worst part is, despite this deception by Wise and the other intelligence officials, he feels no regret for misleading the public." Dan Chaitin at Da Wire, Intel Veteran Knew Hunter Biden Laptop ‘Had To Be Real’ Before Signing Letter. Capt. Ed at Haut Hare, Recant? Intel signatory on Hunter laptop now says they knew much of it was real. Sundance at CTH hosts Tucker Carlson Outlines How the National Security State is Superseding Elections by Controlling Politicians.

At PJ Media, Bob Spencer says Oops: Joe Biden Just Torpedoed the Left’s Entire Jan. 6 ‘Insurrection’ Narrative If you need to work about taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s. You don’t need an R– AR-15. Has any president in American history so delighted in taunting his citizens?" And Rick Moran notes Paranoid Biden Worries That 2A Supporters Only Want to Overthrow the Government. At Da Caller, Biden Claims His Daughter Is A Social Worker — She Hasn’t Been One For 11 Years, living in the past, and the White House. Also,  Has Biden Outlived His Usefulness? Why Some Dems Are Throwing The Octogenarian To The Curb. At Da Mail, VP Biden insisted 'nuclear football' briefcase used for counterstrikes to protect US remain a MILE behind his motorcade in Wilmington to preserve his image as 'a regular Joe'. Diana Glebova at Da Caller wonders Where Has Kamala Harris Been For Seven Months? Who cares as long as she stays away.

At Front Page the great Victor Davis Hanson explains What Caused the Anti-Trump Hysteria "The main perpetrators ignored the ancient law of "what goes around comes around." And at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Evening Edition),  At Am Great, Batt Boose exclaims Compared to the Present, Trump Era Was a Golden Age "As much as one is tempted to blame the “elites,” and they are truly contemptible, the American people share responsibility for failing to rebuke the yoke of this new world order."

At the Pipeline, Michael Walsh claims that  To Save America, Repeal the 26th Amendment (18 year old vote). Good luck with that. 

Sundance at CTH, Manipulated Economic News on Inflation – Prepare for Bad Corporate Earnings Reports as a Result of Poor Holiday Sales. 

Breitbart, January 6 Rioter First to Be Acquitted of Obstruction, Convicted on Other Charges. The Redoubtable Julie Kelly at Am Great claims New Body-Worn Camera Footage from J6 Supports Calls for Release of All Video "The American people deserve the unvarnished truth, not the Capitol police version of events." Meanwhile ex-Congresscritter Adam Kinzinger sells signed copies of Jan 6th report for $100 (PM). Hey, baby needs new shoes!

John Sexton at Haut Hair reports the Number of Virginia high schools who failed to inform students of merit awards rises to 13. Ace, At Least Thirteen Virginia Schools Now Known to Have Hidden or "Delayed" Reporting of National Merit Awards to Students in Name of "Equity;" Governor Youngkin Blasts "Maniacal maniacal Focus on Equal Outcomes for All Students at All Costs." At Da Blaze, Youngkin slams district for hiring $450K equity coach, withholding students' awards. At the Wombats In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Morning Edition)  LI reports a California Woman Sues School District for Allegedly Advising Her Daughter to Gender Transition Without Her Knowledge,

John Green at Am Think thinks This a Republican Turning Point, of the Speaker fight. At Da Wire, ‘Going to Be A Knife Fight’: House GOP Fighting Biden Administration On Raising Debt Ceiling. Sundance is Cautiously Optimistic about The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. WaEx reports Marjorie Taylor Greene scores spot on Homeland Security and House Oversight committees as liberals shriek. With glee Mediaite claims Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert Threw Down in a Bathroom Screaming Match Over McCarthy. From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Evening Edition), Weasel Zippers: Antisemite Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) Complains She Will Be Removed From Foreign Affairs Committee Over Her Antisemitism.

Nick Arama at Red State highlights how Elon Highlights 'Concerning' Process to Destroy Secret Instructions from FBI to Twitter. Disappearing censorship instructions, ala Mission Impossible. The Dirty Truth (Josh)@AKA_RealDirty "@DavidSacks explains how the FBI was using a tool called “ teleport” to communicate with Twitter. They were able to send instructions that deleted after 10 days and they weren’t able to take a screenshot of the communication." Part of a very long video I posted the other day. ET hosts an INFOGRAPHIC: Key Revelations of the ‘Twitter Files’. Sadly, at Da Fed, Chris Bedford reports It’s Official: The 118th Congress Will Do Jack All To Stop Big Tech’s Abuses. Da Caller wants you to Meet The ‘Disinformation’ Panelists, Including A Media Mogul and Dem Congressman, Attending the World Economic Forum. Insty snarks TO BE FAIR, HE KNOWS QUITE A LOT ABOUT THE SUBJECT: Brian Stelter, formerly of CNN, hosts panel on “the clear and present danger of disinformation” at Davos. From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.17.23 (Evening Edition),  The Federalist: ABC News Refuses To Ask Adam Schiff About His Push For Big Tech Censorship. At WaEx, Twitter Files: Drugmakers pushed for censorship of generic vaccine advocacy.

Flotsam and Jetsam - Biden's Secret Papers Problems, House Passes Rules

Well, now, isn't that amusing. It turns out then Vice President Biden scooped up a few top secret documents on his way out of the Vice President's residence at the end of the Obama administration, along with some random documents probably belonging to the government as well, and they ended up mixed with non-secret documents in the think tank he started. Woops! Send out the FBI SWAT team! MSN cites ABC, DOJ reviewing as Biden lawyer says classified docs found in his old office. Sauron's Eye, U.S. attorney reviewing documents marked classified from Joe Biden's vice presidency found at Biden think tank. On the nth page of today's WaPoo, Justice Dept. reviewing classified documents found in Biden’s post-VP office.    Across da pond at Da Mail, 'When is the FBI going to raid the White House?': Trump leads Republican rage as he demands action after ten classified documents were found at Biden's think tank from his time as VP - when he did NOT have power to declassify documents. John Sexton at Haut Hare, FBI, US Attorney investigating how top secret documents from Biden's time as VP were recently found in his think tank office. Spencer Brown at Town Hall, DOJ Investigating Classified Documents Biden Kept After Leaving VP Office. 'Bonchie' at Red State, NEW: Classified Documents Found in Joe Biden's Old Office, DOJ Investigating. ADN America, President Biden was in possession of classified documents, but returned them to National Archives says lawyer. At Aces Quick Hits, The DOJ is preparing to cover up -- or as they call it, "investigate" -- reports of classified documents that have been at the Biden Center from his VP years.  Sundance at CTH is disgusted, As Vice President Joe Biden Took Classified Documents from White House to Private Office Storage in Washington DC.  "Is the publicity through CBS, a known friendly narrative engineering firm for the interests of the Democrat apparatus, a specifically timed release against the backdrop of a DOJ decision not to prosecute President Trump for similar issues?  Something to consider."  It's not an earth shattering crime; I expect this kind of stuff gets swept up in the move out of office all time, but he needs to be treated just like Trump. Raid his Delaware house, and all the ancillary businesses he's involved with just to make sure. 

Biden on classified material at Mar-a-Lago: "How [could] anyone ... be that irresponsible?" pic.twitter.com/IcEePiXJ2y

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 9, 2023

On their first day back after electing Kevin McCarthy speaker, House GOP passes McCarthy deal on rules, 220-213, whines the NYT, cited at Haut Hare. Capt. Ed comments "Seems as though the new House majority is hanging together rather well, rather than hanging separately." Spencer Brown again, Some Republicans Aren't Supporting the House Rules Package. Here's Why. Sundance, Republican House Rules Package Passes, All Republicans Vote Support Except Two Texans "Representative Tony Gonzales voted against it, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, did not vote." It does look like Crenshaw is setting himself of the be the Houses Mitt Romney. Fox, What's in it: House GOP rules package aims to curb trillions in yearly heaps of new debt. "Republicans say federal overspending has led to inflation."

At ET, Here Are the 7 Conservative Bills Guaranteed a House Vote After Speakership Fight. John Solomon at JTN, McCarthy deal creates special investigative panels for COVID, weaponization of FBI. Ace, The Deal The Freedom Caucus Struck Will Guarantee Two Investigative Panels, One on the "Weaponization of Federal Law Enforcement," the Other On the Origins of COVID, "A lot of the weakling fake Republicans screamed and screamed that someone was daring to challenge the establishment." At PM, Jim Jordan to chair 'Weaponization of Government' Select Committee. "This investigative panel will demand emails and correspondence between the Biden administration and big tech companies, and follows the massive revelations that came to light through the recent release of the Twitter Files." Sundance, finds an Interesting Angle – New York Times, Which Means FBI and DOJ, Worried the New House Subcommittee on Fed Weaponization May Review Special Counsel Activity. Andy McCarthy at NYPo, Liberal media are trying to protect the feds from the much-needed House weaponization committee. Well, they have been aiding and abetting. 

 Haut Hare, McCarthy confirms: Schiff, Swalwell, Omar off of Intel, Foreign Affairs committees. At WaEx, WATCH: Ilhan Omar reacts to Kevin McCarthy's plan to pull her from committees. Fox, Rep. Ilhan Omar calls McCarthy speakership agreement a 'deal with far right insurrectionists,' At WaEx, Mark Green beats Dan Crenshaw in race to chair Homeland Security Committee. From Da Wire, Dan Crenshaw Walks Back ‘Terrorist’ Comment Against GOP House Members. Da Caller reports Chip Roy Says He Wasn’t Promised Anything After Vote Flip: ‘This Isn’t About… A Spot On A Committee.’ and GOP Rep Walks Back Promise To Step Down From Top Committee After House Floor Fight.

Fox claims House votes to rescind billions in funding to the IRS in first major majority action with McCarthy as speaker "Legislation will roll back billions in funding approved in Inflation Reduction Act for IRS" But how does it get past the Senate?  At Town Hall, Cutie Pavlich rhetorically questions How Many Democrats Voted to Continue IRS Harassment? All of them, of course.

At Ca Caller, David Bosse thinks McCarthy’s Battle For The Speakership Proved One Thing — Our Democracy Is Alive And Well, but NYPo's Michael Goodwin believes Congress dithered while US withered and LAT Don McManus says The real winner from the House fight? Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s indispensable man. The graveyards are full of them. At ET, Ben Sasse Officially Leaves US Senate. See?

At Mediaite, ‘PRIMARY THEM ALL!!!’ Trump Calls for All 18 Republican Senators Who Voted for Omnibus Spending Bill to Be Run Out of Office. But the wall are closing in, according to WaPoo, Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor investigating Trump, has taken on seemingly untouchable targets. "The Fulton County district attorney’s aggressive pursuit of Trump and his allies could soon lead to criminal charges". WABE, Georgia special grand jury finishes probe of Trump, 2020 election. 

 Capt. Ed at Haut Hare, WaPo: You know that big gov't-media freakout over "disinformation"? Yeah ... never mind. Ace,  Shock: NYU Study Finds Russian Trolls Had Little to No Impact on Trump's 2016 Election.  "Where do we go to get our last six years back?"

Your wife framed her opponent and sabotaged his transition into power. https://t.co/BLKgzAhiBm

— thebradfordfile (@thebradfordfile) January 9, 2023

Victory Girls note how White House Visitors Social Security Numbers Found In Jan 6 Files. Madeleine Hubbard at JTN hears Ashli Babbitt's mother says she was 'arrested aggressively' while laying flowers for daughter "Witthoeft and her group "were not allowed to" walk on the sidewalk because they were carrying "American flags," she said." Unauthorized use of the American flag in the Washington D.C. At PM, Donald Trump SLAMS arrest of Ashli Babbitt's mother. "Speaking at an event at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday evening, Donald Trump slammed the Biden regime over the arrest of Ashli Babbitt's mother."

At the World Trib, Notorious election worker in Georgia awarded Presidential Citizen’s Medal at White House.

Freeman and her daughter “were seen on the surveillance video pulling boxes filled with ballots out from under a table at State Farm Arena after supervisors had told poll workers they had quit for the night,” Debra Heine reported for American Greatness on Friday.

“After Freeman, Moss and another election worker retrieved the ballot boxes from underneath the table, the video shows Freeman and Moss scanning and rescanning stacks of ballots into an election computer.”

Freeman was employed by the temporary agency Happy Faces Personnel Group, which is a contractor to the Fulton County, Georgia Elections absentee ballot department, and linked to Stacy Abrams.

At the Center Square Ill, More than 30,700 mail-in ballots in Illinois for November election were rejected. Delusions of grandeur, JTN reports Maryland GOP Gov. Hogan holding focus groups amid presidential campaign rumors "The Republican has further indicated that his opposition to Trump was no longer a liability amid falling support for his candidacy." NYPo reports Charges dropped against man who hurled White Claw at Ted Cruz. Apologized profusely and claimed all he wanted was Ted to chug the White Claw. Really!  Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair reports on the Crisis pregnancy center hires PIs to do the work the FBI won't.

At Fox, Randi Weingarten ripped for tweet admitting 'remote education didn't work': 'Water is wet'. At Twitchy, Corey DeAngelis OWNS Randi Weingarten in heated back and forth after she lies AGAIN about closing schools. Denies pushing lockdowns and remote "learning".

We have a new wave of "Twitter Files" appearing, regarding the Twitter's assistance in the government censoring unwanted WuFlu discussions. PM, Twitter was pressured by Pfizer to suppress posts questioning Covid vax efficacy: Twitter Files. Twitchy, Elon Musk says Alex Berenson’s #TwitterFiles drop proves ‘some conspiracies are actually true’

1/ My first #TwitterFiles report: how @scottgottliebmd - a top Pfizer board member - used the same Twitter lobbyist as the White House to suppress debate on Covid vaccines, INCLUDING FROM A FELLOW HEAD OF @US_FDA!

Thanks @elonmusk for opening these files.https://t.co/UbHlmtjELP

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023

Reason wonders Did 'Every Conspiracy Theory' About Twitter Turn Out To Be True? "The internal company documents offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the federal agencies distorted the public debate on one of the world's largest social media platforms." At the Conservative Brief, Federal Appeals Court Blocks Jen Psaki From Testifying in Big Tech Censorship Case. Ace, Twitter Files: Adam Schiff Pressured Twitter to Censor New York Post Reporter Paul Sperry . . . "David French's "the government isn't censoring, it's just persuading" claim is looking more corrupt and more filthy by the day." Jim Treacher, Biden Tried to Silence Tucker Carlson on Facebook. "Remember, we wouldn’t know any of this stuff if Elon Musk hadn’t dropped $44 billion to buy Twitter. He opened the floodgates, and now all of this sewage is spilling out. How many other social media companies have been censoring conservatives like this? I assume the answer is: All of them." At Ace's Morning Rant, You Tube Blocks Heartland Institute’s “Climate Realism” Live Stream…Because of January 6?. At WUWT, Do Google Search Options Conceal Climate Data that is Contrary to Government Alarmists Propaganda? Absolutely.

The Russiagate Razzle Dazzle

Hey, do you remember when the Comey's FBI announced that they they had searched Huma Weiner's laptop, using miracle de-duplicating software, and discovered nothing new, and re-closed the investigation into then candidate Hillary's secret bathroom email server really, really quick before the election? It turns out Comey lied. The magic de-duplication software didn't work, and only 3k of some 700,000 emails were examined, and some of them contained previously unrevealed classified information. The primary story is from Real Clear Investigations by Paul Sperry: Despite Comey Assurances, Vast Bulk of Weiner Laptop Emails Were Never Examined, but you should really read Ace's Flaming Skull analysis of the piece: FBI "Investigation" Into Weiner Laptop Was a Gigantic Fraud Upon the Public; FBI Only Looked at 3000 Emails, and Only Glanced At Those in a 12 Hour Window; Never Conducted Mandatory Security Assessment. The takeaway quote from the original:

“There was no real investigation and no real search,” said Michael Biasello, a 27-year veteran of the FBI. "It was all just show — eyewash — to make it look like there was an investigation before the election.”

Kathryn Blackhurst at Lifezette: Former Clinton Pollster Says Hillary Is the One Who Broke Laws, Not Trump (Details Here), Mark Penn argued the president should do a better job of picking aides who pay taxes — but he's not responsible for their financial woes

“Contrast what is going on here with the treatment of the millions of dollars paid to a Democratic law firm which, in turn, paid out money to political research firm Fusion GPS and British ex-spy Christopher Steele without listing them on any campaign expenditure form — despite crystal-clear laws and regulations that the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds must be listed,” Penn, who worked for both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, wrote in an op-ed on Wednesday in The Hill.

“There is no question that hiring spies to do opposition research in Russia is a campaign expenditure, and yet, no prosecutorial raids have been sprung on the law firm, Fusion GPS or Steele. Reason: It does not ‘get’ Trump,” Penn argued in his piece.

It really helps to have the FBI and DOJ pulling for you, and the CIA etc. Clapper: Obama Ordered The Intelligence Assessment That Resulted In Mueller Investigation. Twitchy: ‘AMAZING admission’! Maria Bartiromo hints Twitter may be ‘hiding’ DAMNING Clapper/ Obama tweet. PDT, Intel Officials Clash Over "Golden Ticket" Security Clearances. Tom Trinko, the American Thinker: John Brennan, Security Clearances, and the Office Stapler

Many left-wing fanatics are saying that it's unconstitutional, dictatorial, etc. for Trump to have removed Brennan's clearance.That's on par with saying it's unconstitutional, dictatorial, etc. for a company to say that when an employee leaves, or is fired, he can't take the office stapler with him.

Since Brennan is no longer working for the government, he no longer needs a clearance.  In fact, a clearance is useless for him. Even if he had a clearance, he certainly couldn't be told any new classified information, since he no longer has a need to know.

Too soon old, too late smart: Russia Influence Operations Seek to Sow U.S. Division, State official urges Senate not to politicize Russian subversion in U.S.

Manafort juror reveals lone holdout prevented Mueller team from winning conviction on all counts

“It was a very emotionally charged jury room – there were some tears,” Duncan said about deliberations with a group of Virginians she didn’t feel included many “fellow Republicans.”

I'm amazed they found any in NoVa. Trump says he is considering a pardon for 'friend' Manafort in Fox interview, Rudy: Yes, Trump Discussed Pardoning Manafort With His Lawyers, Was Told To At Least Wait Until The End Of Russiagate. Hey anybody remember, Marc Rich or Jon Corzine? Lesson, stay in the right party, and you can do anything.

This is news? Eddie Scarry at WaEx: Robert Mueller's 'win' exposes how the media never cared about Russia 'collusion' David Catron, American Spectator: Mueller and the Media Represent the Ancien Régime, Trump is the voice of a voter revolt that they intend to crush.

The Mueller probe, with its indictments of Trump associates for offenses unrelated to its ostensible mandate, combined with mendacious media coverage of President Trump, is an obvious attempt to restore the old order that the electorate rejected in 2016. It seeks to annul the will of the voters and return us to the incipient authoritarianism that germinated during the Obama era, and which the ruling class expected to blossom under Clinton. The bureaucrats who support the restoration of Beltway despotism call themselves public servants, yet despise the public. The politicians who support it call themselves Democrats, yet despise democracy.

Spengler: War of Attrition Against President Trump

There you have it, boys and girls: None of this has anything to do with paying off floozies who claimed to have done the dirty with a presidential candidate. No one cares about that. It's about using the legal system to extract "confessions" from Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen that will keep the Black Legend alive of a Russian hack of the 2016 elections. Cohen has no more knowledge of this, I am ready to wager, than he does of space aliens colonizing Chicago. Nonetheless, the swamp and their pet jackals in the media will spin new allegations until the public gets dizzy.

From an Althouse commenter:

1. Trump says or tweets something provocative.
2. I think, "C'mon, Trump, that crosses the line." Or, "That's just not wise."
3. Democrats and journalists react by going insane.
4. I think, "Atta boy, Trump. Kick them harder next time!"

This has happened so many times that I now skip from step 1 to step 4 by default. Similarly:

1. Democrats and journalists do a full court press on some issue, putting Trump on the defensive.
2. I think, "How is Trump going to survive this one?"
3. Trump emerges unscathed, or even triumphant, while his critics look like idiots. And Trump's poll numbers go up.
4. I think, "The SOB did it again!"

Now I just assume point 3 will always be true.

Da Hill: Impeachment debate moves to center of midterm fight. But mainstream dems want to hide the pea until after the election. Noah Millman at The Week wonders What happens if Trump brazens out impeachment?  IBD: Does Michael Cohen's Guilty Plea Justify All The Trump Impeachment Talk? Signs point to "No."  Hot Air, More Rudy: If Trump Were Impeached For Political Reasons, The American People Would Revolt. It's all designed to overturn an election they lost fair and square. Dov Fischer, Da Spectator: All the Talk About Impeaching the President Is Nonsense, but it keeps the media with something to talk about. Rush: Don't Get Lost in the Minutiae of the Leftist Coup. Opening a new front: Manhattan DA Reportedly Considering Criminal Charges Against Trump Organization. Say, how is that investigation of the Clinton Foundation going?

Reason: Trump Might Be a Criminal. But So Is Everyone Else. It turns out to be pretty hard to color between the lines, especially when they keep shifting.

The first thing to understand is that there are so many laws, so broadly written, that just about anyone who has earned money, paid taxes, and run a business—or, God forbid, a political campaign—can be credibly accused of multiple criminal violations. Harvey Silverglate's estimate that the average American commits three felonies a day may be high, but his basic point is sound.
. . .
With great fanfare, prosecutors on Tuesday released a 22-page criminal information charging Cohen with five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, and two campaign-finance violations. That's it? That's like raiding Keith Richards' medicine cabinet and coming back with a half-empty bottle of Nyquil.

Damon Linker at the Week:  Campaign finance violations are going to bring Trump down? Ridiculous (Title from Hot Air). The Case Against Trump Is A Strong One: Just Ask John Edwards’ Prosecutors, who got off Scott free. Conor Friedsdorf at the Atlantic complains that Trump robbed voters of what they deserved to know. Another Hillary supporter devoid of appreciation for irony.

I think these two are saying the same thing, differently: Reuters, Democrats seek to make Republican scandals an election issue and Let The American People Decide Donald Trump’s Fate

Via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 08.23.18" Power Line has  Democrats, Be Careful What You Wish For, also, Trump Is Right About Stormy Daniels. Rich Lowry thinks Trump Should Come Clean, The president should confess his affairs, admit he wanted to keep them quiet and apologize to the public for his deception. Hey, it worked for Slick Willy. Heresy while being black. Jim Brown on Donald Trump: 'I Find Myself Really Pulling for the President'

From the annals of #FakeNew, At Da Caller: Lanny Davis Obliterated CNN’s ‘Bombshell’ Report About Michael Cohen And Trump Tower

“So Michael Cohen does not have information that President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians beforehand or even after?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Davis.

“No, he does not,” replied Davis, a longtime Clinton insider who started representing Cohen earlier this summer.

Davis’s bombshell statement severely undercuts a July 27 CNN report that Cohen was willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that he was in a meeting when Donald Trump Jr. told his father about an offer to meet with a group of Russians who wanted to provide dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Huh, and why does this matter? CNBC: Michael Cohen paid a mysterious tech company $50,000 'in connection with' Trump's campaign

Buried in the legal documents released Tuesday as part of Cohen's guilty plea on eight felony counts, there was a new, previously unreported payment Cohen made in 2016 to help Trump: $50,000 for work that prosecutors say Cohen "solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign."

The documents do not identify which tech company Cohen paid the money to, or what, exactly, the company did for him. But the mere existence of the previously unknown payment suggests that Cohen may have been doing more for Trump, and for the Trump campaign, than simply paying off women.

Maybe he got a server in his bathroom, like Hillary.

I'm Running Out of Russiagate Titles

And I'm too proud to just give them dates, or, say, random numbers. So here we go again:

JJ Sefton at Ace's Morning Report has a whole section on the Brennan security clearance revocation fallout: Brennan Pulls a Whoopi: When I Called Trump Treasonous, I Didn't Mean "Treason" Treason, Levin Unloads on Brennan's Deep State Defenders and Their Brazen Obama Administration Hypocrisy, Brennan's Anti-Trump Bellicosity Prompts Friendly Fire From His Own Defenders, Michael Hayden Dares PDT to Revoke His Security Clearance Too, Retirees Shouldn't Get Security Clearances (a-f***ing-men - jjs), PDT on Silencing Critics by Revoking Security Clearances: "If Anything, I'm Giving Them a Bigger Voice" (bingo - jjs) to which I'd add Clapper: Brennan's rhetoric is becoming an issue, A Desperate John Brennan Starts His Apology Tour, John Brennan: Political Hack and last, but not least, Kurt Schlicters: Pulling Their Clearances Is Only the Start – It’s Time to Stamp out Elite Privilege.

Help, I’m being oppressed! My freedom of speech was been utterly stripped from me because when I retired from the Army those fascist monsters took away my TOP SECRET security clearance. See, a security clearance is a special privilege I should be entitled to exploit for as long as I want to because… well, shut up peasant, that’s why. I learned this in my Con Law class, right after we studied the Constitution’s text enumerating the rights to abortion, wedding cake baking servitude, and to be called by the bizarre pronoun of your – I mean “xir” – choice.

This is even a question? Did Sally Yates enable DOJ official tied to Trump dossier? GOP investigators want to know

"The real question that we need to find out from Mr. Ohr: Was he just a rogue employee acting improperly on his own or did he have some authority from within the Department of Justice and was Sally Yates aware of what he was doing?" Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said Sunday on Fox News, alluding to Ohr's forthcoming testimony before the Oversight and Judiciary Committees behind closed doors on Aug. 28.

Professor Jacobson notes the Buried lede in the story of Trump's White House counsel spending 30 hrs with Mueller: “Mr. McGahn cautioned to investigators that he never saw Mr. Trump go beyond his legal authorities”

I’m reminded of the scene from the fugitive, where the fugitive Dr. Richard Kimball wrongly accused of murder (Harrison Ford) is confronted by Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones).  The fugitive says “I didn’t kill my wife,” and the U.S. Marshal responds “I don’t care.”

Leak of White House counsel's cooperation shows Mueller's team 'panicking,' Giuliani says. Well, Giuliani says a lot of things. Mueller doesn't panic; he doesn't have any skin in the game; it's all someone else skin, just like Steven Hatfill. More Giuliani: From Alternative Facts to “Truth Isn’t Truth”. He has a point, though. In the media's hand the truth is pliable and selective. A lawyers job is to show his clients side, and they resent the hell out of it. Trump Attorneys Worry Over What White House Attorney Told FBI Attorneys. It's what they get paid the big bucks for. The Donald doesn't help by saying  His White House counsel not a ‘RAT’ like Nixon’s.

The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

PowerLine has thoughts on What to make of the White House counsel’s cooperation with Mueller

. . . although it’s unlikely that McGahn’s answers can form the basis for valid allegations of criminality by Trump, Team Mueller may well have obtained information it will use to allege criminality. It’s likely that, during all of those hours spent questioning McGahn, Mueller’s team obtained nuggets with which, creatively, to spin out claims that Trump violated this or that law. I’m pretty sure that, at a minimum, they obtained politically embarrassing nuggets to include in their report.

This brings me back to my first point. Trump and his lawyers should never have consented to McGahn’s interview with Mueller’s team.

Michael Cohen reportedly under investigation for $20M in bank fraud, Is this under the new standard that using the Oxford comma in a sentence in a loan application is fraud? The true test of a loan is whether it gets paid off. More "Nixon" talk in Michael Cohen's attorney says he's talking to lawyer who brought down Nixon. John Dean's publicist has been busy.

Reason #5900 and #5901 That Trump Was Elected

A daily double today: First Trump pardons Kristian Saucier, former sailor jailed for submarine pictures

President Trump issued the second pardon of his presidency Friday to former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who learned the news while driving a garbage truck, the only job he could find with a felony conviction.

Saucier was sentenced to a year in prison during the 2016 campaign for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine. Trump invoked his case repeatedly on the campaign trail, saying he was “ruined” for doing “nothing” compared to Hillary Clinton.

Still, Trump allowed Saucier to serve his full prison sentence. He was released in September and returned to the Vermont home he shares with his wife Sadie and their two-year-old daughter.

Saucier, now 31, was 22 years old when he took the cellphone photos in 2009. He pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized retention of national defense information and his attorneys unsuccessfully requested the "Clinton deal," meaning little if any punishment.

The six photos found on a cellphone Saucier discarded were deemed “confidential,” the lowest level of classification, even though some depicted the vessel’s nuclear reactor. Clinton, by contrast, sent and received highly classified information on a private email server. In pleading guilty, Saucier admitted destroying evidence after being questioned.

Saucier told the Washington Examiner earlier this year that a felony conviction made it hard to find work. He works as a garbage man to support his family. While in prison, the family's cars were repossessed and his home is in foreclosure.

“We’re struggling,” Saucier said in January, describing frequent calls from credit card debt collectors and an electricity bill payment plan. “No one will hire me because I’m a felon ... All the skills I worked so hard for in the military are useless.”

Now Hillary, Huma and the rest of the crowd need to be convicted as well, so he can consider clemency, after serving their full sentences, of course.

US Added 313,000 Jobs In February

Talk about beating expectations. Economists had expected to see another maintenance-plus level of job creation in February at around a net 200,000 jobs added. Instead, the US economy had its best month since 2016, adding 313,000 jobs in the middle of winter. Construction and retail led the way in the massive boost:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in construction, retail trade, professional and business services, manufacturing, financial activities, and mining. …
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Blacks declined to 6.9 percent in February, while the jobless rates for adult men (3.7 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (14.4 percent), Whites (3.7 percent), Asians (2.9 percent), and Hispanics (4.9 percent) showed little change.

The drop in African-American unemployment is worth noting, mainly because the White House has been particularly focused on this as a metric. Donald Trump bragged about a sharp decline in this measure during his State of the Union address in January, only to see it tick back up again. This report shows the lowest level of unemployed blacks by numbers as well as a percentage since 2001 at 558,000. Expect to hear more bragging from the White House over that number.

But, but, but, Stormy Daniels!

More Rice Memo Muddle

The memo that National Security Adviser Susan Rice wrote to herself in the waning minutes of the Obama administration continues to attract interest and speculation, as well it should:

Ben Shapiro at the The Daily Wire reports that Congress has some questions for Ms. Rice: On Her Last Day In Office, Obama National Security Advisor Rice Sent Suspicious Letter About Obama, Comey, Trump-Russia Collusion Meeting

. . . the double emphasis on Obama stating that he wanted to proceed “by the book” smacks of a bit too much protest. Did Obama really want to proceed by the book? Or did he say that for effect?

Grassley and Graham ask a series of questions that deserve answers:

• Why did Rice send the email?
• When was she aware of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation?
• Was she aware of the FISA warrant on Carter Page?
• Did Comey or Yates mention any media coverage of the Steele dossier?
• Was she aware of the Steele dossier?
• Were there any more meetings of this sort?

The email is certainly odd. It will be fascinating to see if Rice bothers to answer the questions.

Ace lays out a case for Comey concealing facts from Congress: A By the Book Coup: Known Liar Susan Rice's Two-Weeks-After-the-Fact CYA "Memorandum"

. . . You might ask, "What was going on around January 5 that would incite such a big meeting?"

Well -- a whole heck of a lot, actually.

January 3, 2017: According to FNC, "outgoing Attorney General Loretta Lynch secretly signed an order directing the National Security Agency -- America's 60,000-person-strong domestic spying apparatus -- to make available raw spying data to all other federal intelligence agencies, which then can pass it on to their counterparts in foreign countries and in the 50 states upon request."
January 5, 2017: Meeting with Obama, Biden, Rice, Yates, Comey according to Rice's email to herself.
January 10, 2017: Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper, Evan Perez and Carl Bernstein broke the story in the WaPo that allowed the dossier to go public.

That story said the briefing happened "last week," so that would put it between the 2nd and 6th, and a source tells me it was actually January 6th.

Is there anything else that you should know?

Well, how about this: If Rice's email is truthful about Comey's presence at this little meeting, then Comey misled Congress by not informing them about it.

According to Law & Crime:Dated June 8, 2017, Comey’s "Statement for the Record" provided to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, notes, "I have tried to include information that may be relevant to the committee."
Comey clearly did not find the January 5, 2017 meeting to be particularly relevant.
In other words, on January 5, 2017, an Oval Office meeting occurred between then-FBI director Comey, the soon-to-be-former president of the United States (Obama), his soon-to-be-former Vice-President (Biden), then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice and soon-to-be Acting Attorney General Sally Yates–and Comey apparently viewed this meeting as irrelevant to congressional investigators.
Comey's failure to disclose this meeting to the Senate committee is likely to be viewed as an intentional and material omission of a highly relevant fact related to the Russiagate investigation.

Coming soon: James Comey tweets a Bible quote of Jesus saying something about the righteous man's obligation to lie to Congress.

John Hinderacker at Powerline suggests why Susan Rice Wrote the Memo to Herself:

The next paragraph of the email remains classified and has been redacted. The email concludes:

The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would.

Why did Susan Rice send herself an email purporting to document this part of the meeting? Because she was C’ing her own A. Rice was nervous about the fact that, at the president’s direction, she had failed to “share information fully as it relates to Russia” with President Trump’s incoming national security team. This violated longstanding American tradition. Outgoing administrations have always cooperated in the transition to a new administration, whether of the same or the opposing party, especially on matters relating to national security.

Susan Rice is far from the brightest bulb on the tree, but she was well aware that by concealing facts ostensibly relating to national security from her counterpart in the new administration–General Michael Flynn–she was, at a minimum, violating longstanding civic norms. If she actually lied to Flynn, she could have been accused of much worse. So Rice wanted to be able to retrieve her email, if she found herself in a sticky situation, and tell the world that she hid relevant facts about Russia from the new administration on Barack Obama’s orders.

What were the secrets that Obama wanted to keep from the new administration? We can easily surmise that the fact that the Steele memo was paid for by the Democratic Party; that the FBI had to some degree collaborated with Steele; that the Clinton campaign had fed some of the fake news in the dossier to Steele; and that Comey’s FBI had used Steele’s fabrications as the basis for FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign were among the facts that Obama and his minions didn’t want Michael Flynn and Donald Trump to know. Susan Rice, we can infer, was told to keep these secrets, and if anyone ever asked why she had failed to disclose them to Michael Flynn and others on Trump’s team, or even lied to those people, she would have the defense that President Obama ordered her to do it.

Tom Cotton To Chris Wray: Does The FBI Still Believe The Steele Dossier Is “Salacious And Unverified”?

“Salacious and unverified” was the phrase famously used by James Comey during testimony last year to describe parts of the dossier, although those comments have since been misinterpreted — including by Republicans on the House Intel Committee — as a reference to the entire document. Cotton’s setting Wray up here for an obvious follow-up: If the dossier is salacious and unverified, how on earth could you offer it to the FISA Court as evidence of probable cause to believe that Carter Page is a foreign agent?

But Wray doesn’t take the bait.

It could be that the answer’s “yes” but he’s reluctant to say that publicly, knowing the political sensation it would cause. But I don’t know what the point would be of saving the truth for this afternoon’s classified testimony. Obviously, if he undermines the dossier’s credibility in that session, it’s going to leak.

Cotton also asks him about the curious coincidence of Christopher Steele reaching out to the Senate Intelligence Committee via an attorney for … Oleg Deripaska, a mega-rich Russian Putin crony. Is it possible that Steele has worked for Deripaska too? If so, the odds that the dossier contains Putin-planted disinformation would rise considerably, which means the credibility of the document would drop accordingly.

Say what? Christopher Steele might have been collecting a check from a Putin crony as well as the Clinton Campaign and the DNC? Ace is on it!  Was Super-Spy Christopher Steele Actually Being Paid by Putin's Close Ally Oleg Deripaska?

As Sheriff J.W. Pepper said when told James Bond was a secret agent, "On whose side?!". . .

If Steele was employed by Deripaska or by his lawyer to do work on his behalf, it is likely to cast the dossier he allegedly authored in a new light.

Yes, one could say. Unless Jake Clapper chooses to ignore it, in which case all the #FakeNews Republican cucks will nod their heads and say in unison, "Jake Clapper is the kindest, bravest, most warm and wonderful person I've ever met."

Ace is also on the mysterious case of Michael Flynn, whom Bob Mueller indicted for lying to the FBI after the FBI reported that they did not believe he had lied to them and how that might relate to the Rice memo:  Byron York: Comey Told Congress That FBI Determined that Michael Flynn Did Not Lie In Interviews, But DOJ Senior Officials Had a Particular Desire to Find Him Guilty of Something

Byron York notes what immediately occurred to me-- around this time, reporters friendly to Obama began talking up the LOGAN ACT and how it's Totally a Serious Law You Guys.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

It was Yates who sent the FBI agents to interview Flynn, on the bizarre theory that he might have violated the LOGAN ACT (which is not enforced because you cannot make it illegal to talk to foreigners, and which only even gets discussed as a law when used against Republicans -- Democrats can chat up foreign potentates and enemy leaders all the doo-dah day) and on the bizarre theory that he might be blackmailable.

On those thin reeds, Yates built her case against Flynn.

Oh, and Yates was at that January 5 meeting. Coincidentally enough.

Could it be that that January 5 meeting was to coordinate what the Obama loyalists who would continue in their jobs after the inauguration should be doing to further the coup?

#Russiagate: The Second Time as Farce... or Tragedy?

The more we learn about #Russiagate, or what we might now call #Dossiergate, the more the whole affair comes to resemble a Ken Kesey novel.

Indeed, the more one considers all the players in this unbelievably bizarre saga, including Sid "Vicious" Blumenthal, Cody "The Hatchet" Shearer, James "Reinhold Niebuhr" Comey, text-messaging "Pyramus" Peter Strzok and "Thisbe" Lisa Page, Andrew "The Vanisher" McCabe, Mark "Big Leaks" Warner, Christopher "Get Smart" Steele, Adam "Mendacity" Schiff, and Bruce and Nellie "Ratched" Ohr, not to mention the half-dozen or so other nameless people who mysteriously disappeared from the DOJ in recent days, the more it seems the only sane person in the entire demented charade -- taking the Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) role in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- is Devin Nunes.

Want to know why there are so many redactions in all those FBI/DOJ documents, the ones whose contents you can't make heads or tails of while the indelible ink spills off the pages and stains your best flokati rug black forever? It's only 1% security but 99% humiliation. Forget "sources and methods." They are so ashamed of themselves they don't dare tell the truth. They should put a shroud over the Hoover Building and do penance until the next millennium. It's that embarrassing. (And maybe they should change the name of the building while they're at it. No more Robert E. Lee? No more J. Edgar Hoover. Fair's fair.) . . . 

Ben Stein pleads to the GOP: Come on, GOP, man up.

I can’t help it. I keep reading story after story, hearing harangue after harangue on the television that the Trump/Russia “collusion” is our era’s Watergate, or maybe even worse. My conclusion, after all of this palaver, is that the news stories are right. What’s happening with Trump today is Watergate all over again.

Only it’s the real Watergate. It’s not the fake history Watergate in which RN was committing terrible crimes and was kicked out of office by brave reporters hiding in garages and a heroic Congress.

The real Watergate was where the greatest Peacemaker the nation has ever known, a man with stupendous accomplishments in foreign affairs, the opening of China, the salvation of Israel, the détente with the Soviets, a President who gave us the EPA, the greatest school desegregation there has ever been, and brought America from chaos to order and progress — was deposed in a coup d’état waged by the mainstream media — notably the three major networks, the New York Times, the Washington Post, allied with what we now know as the Deep State — a permanent, powerful prosecutorial bureaucracy hooked up with a Democrat Congress. That coup d’état ousted the President who won by the largest margin in history in 1972. And what was the great crime that Mr. Nixon did?

Why, that no one knows. It all started with a burglary at the Watergate office building in which a group of Cubans broke into the DNC HQ. No one at all even alleges that RN knew a thing about it in advance. What did he know? That some of his friends knew about it.

What was the crime again? That he mentioned — just mentioned — asking the CIA to pull the FBI off the chase. Bad, to be sure. But bad enough to kick out the biggest vote getter in history, who had set the stage for ending the Cold War and saving the world from Armageddon? As bad as smashing Mrs. Clinton’s computer and throwing her emails into the drink and lying to Congress about Benghazi? And how did they do it to Nixon? They got the cool kids, the ones at the anchor desks at the networks, to look solemn and say that RN was a bad guy. They got a special prosecutor appointed whose sole aim was to ruin Nixon. When Nixon fired that wildly partisan prosecutor, to try to get some balance at Justice, that was called a “massacre.”

They did what prosecutors can always do. They asked Nixon’s aides tens of thousands of questions and — of course — found inconsistencies and evasions and got guilty verdicts on lying to the bureaucracy. Thus, they had a “trail” of crimes leading to RN. But of course any prosecutor can do that with any target.

So when RN flew off to San Clemente in August 1974, we had a new form of government: the mass media and the prosecutorial arms of the Deep State were running things. God help us, we got Jimmy Carter.

Unfortunately, that's not how the GOP works.

Clinton.com Signed the NDA

Clinton Signed NDA Laying Out Criminal Penalties for Mishandling of Classified Info

As the nation’s chief diplomat, Hillary Clinton was responsible for ascertaining whether information in her possession was classified and acknowledged that “negligent handling” of that information could jeopardize national security, according to a copy of an agreement she signed upon taking the job.

A day after assuming office as secretary of state, Clinton signed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement that laid out criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure” of classified information.

Experts have guessed that Clinton signed such an agreement, but a copy of her specific contract, obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through an open records request and shared with theWashington Free Beacon, reveals for the first time the exact language of the NDA.

“I have been advised that the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling of SCI by me could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by a foreign nation,” the agreement states.

Clinton received at least two emails while secretary of state on her personal email server since marked “TS/SCI”—top secret/sensitive compartmented information—according to the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general.

The State Department said in September that Clinton’s private email system, set up at her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, was not authorized to handle SCI.

The Democratic presidential frontrunner defended her unauthorized possession of SCI and her sending of emails containing classified information by claiming that the information was not marked as classified when it was sent or received.

The language of her NDA suggests it was Clinton’s responsibility to ascertain whether information shared through her private email server was, in fact, classified.

“I understand that it is my responsibility to consult with appropriate management authorities in the Department … in order to ensure that I know whether information or material within my knowledge or control that I have reason to believe might be SCI,” the agreement says.

Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, Clinton’s two top aides, also signed copies of the classified information NDA.

Mills sent classified information to officials at the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation in 2012, an email released by the State Department in September shows.

Mills’ NDA required her to inquire about the classification of information in her possession if she was unsure about its status. However, her attorney said that she “presumed” that the information she sent to the foundation was unclassified because it had been sent to her at her unclassified State Department email address.

But Clapper has yielded to pressure from above and decided the secrets weren't meant to be secrets after all, according to the fake news outlet Politico.

The U.S. intelligence community has retreated from claims that two emails in Hillary Clinton’s private account contained top-secret information, a source familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

After a review, intelligence agencies concluded that the two emails did not include highly classified intelligence secrets, the source said. Concerns about the emails' classification helped trigger an ongoing FBI inquiry into Clinton's private email setup.

Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III made the claim that two of the emails contained top-secret information; the State Department publicly stated its disagreement and asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s office to referee the dispute. Now, that disagreement has been resolved in State’s favor, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for Clapper said the review of the emails has not been completed. "ODNI has made no such determination and the review is ongoing," Clapper spokesman Brian Hale said.

However, the source said State Department officials had already received instructions from intelligence officials that they need not use the strictest standards for handling the two emails in dispute – meaning that they aren’t highly classified.

Hackers went after State Department personal emails while Clinton was SecState

The Clintonemail case is getting curiouser and curiouser as a State Department memo shows Hillary Clinton was warned about the potential of hacks on private emails while Secretary. Competitive Enterprise Institute and Washington Free Beacon got the 2011 memo showing security officials were very worried about phishing attacks.

Threat analysis by the DS cyber security team and related incident reports indicate a dramatic increase since January 2011 in attempts by to comprise the private home e-mail accounts of senior Department officials. The actorsare targeting senior United State government officials and their staffs. Victims include personnel at the Ambassador, Assistant Secretary, and Under Secretary levels at DoS, EOP, DoD, DOJ, Treasury, and the U.S. Senate.

No one should be surprised at all that hackers were going after the personal emails of government workers, but it again raises questions into just how secure Clinton’s private email server was. I’ve written before how Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills were using non-government or Clintonemail accounts to conduct State Department business. It’s now looking more likely hackers targeted the private emails in hopes of gaining access to whatever information was out there. In fact, the memo points out hackers appeared to have known senior Department officials were using private emails.

It's always been my contention that Clinton.com emails were likely being read in real time by numerous foreign and personal hackers. She would be an obvious target for espionage, and the fact that she was using a private, largely unprotected server was a not particularly well concealed "secret". Although the secrets are bad enough, to have the whole business of the Secretary of State laid out would be a spies dream.

But on to happier thoughts from Maggie's Farm, a reminder of the very essence of the criminal/political mob I call Clinton.com: The Clinton money-laundering machine

. . . This is a summary of how the Clinton Foundation works as a tax-free international money laundering scheme. It will probably eventually prove to be the largest political criminal enterprise in U.S. history.

This is a textbook case on how you hide foreign money sent to you and repackage it to be used for your own purposes. All tax free. Here's how it works:

1. You create a separate foreign "charity." In this case one in Canada.

2. Foreign oligarchs and governments then donate to this Canadian charity. In this case, over 1,000 did, contributing mega-millions. I'm sure they did this out of the goodness of their hearts, and expected nothing in return. (Imagine Putin's buddies waking up one morning and just deciding to send untold millions to a Canadian charity).

3. The Canadian charity then bundles these separate donations and makes a massive donation to the Clinton Foundation.

4. The Clinton Foundation and the cooperating Canadian charity claim Canadian law prohibits the identification of individual donors.

5. The Clinton Foundation then "spends" some of this money for legitimate good works programs. Unfortunately, experts believe this is on the order of 10%. Much of the balance goes to enrich the Clinton's, pay salaries to untold numbers of hangers-on, and fund lavish travel, etc. Again, virtually all tax free, which means you and I are subsidizing it.

6. The Clinton Foundation, with access to the world's best accountants, somehow fails to report much of this on their tax filings. They discover these "clerical errors" and begin the process of re-filing 5 years of tax returns.

7. Net result -- foreign money, much of it from other countries, goes into the Clinton's pockets tax-free and untraceable back to the original donor.

This is the textbook definition of "money laundering."
. . .
Sarcasm aside, if you're still not persuaded this was a cleverly structured way to get unidentified foreign money to the Clinton's, ask yourself this:

Why did these foreign interests funnel money through a Canadian charity?

Why not donate directly to the Clinton Foundation? Better yet, why not donate money directly to the people, organizations and countries in need?

This is the very essence of money laundering and influence peddling. Now you know why Hillary's destruction of 30,000 e-mails was a risk she was willing to take.

And now for the files of Global Warming Global Climate Change Global Climate Weirding, Global Climate Stability hypocrisy: Hillary Clinton: Climate change has contributed to refugee crises, including Syria . . .

She wants you to bike

"We have to ask ourselves: Why is this happening?" Clinton said. "Because of terrible governance, because of corruption, because of conflict, because of climate change, there are so many reasons why people are being, in their minds, forced to leave and try to get to safety."

and then gets into her comfy private jet which burns 350 gallons of jet fuel per hour to reach the next Video shows Hillary Clinton boarding private jet just hours after launching global-warming push – and she's using a FRENCH aircraft that burns 347 gallons of fuel every hour! 
campaign stop:

While she takes the private jet

Just hours after Hillary Clinton unveiled her presidential campaign's push to solve global warming through an aggressive carbon-cutting plan, she sauntered up the steps of a 19-seat private jet in Des Moines, Iowa.

The aircraft, a Dassault model Falcon 900B, burns 347 gallons of fuel per hour. And like all Dassault business jets, Hillary's ride was made in France.

The Trump-esque transportation costs $5,850 per hour to rent, according to the website of Executive Fliteways, the company that owns it.

And she has used the same plane before, including on at least one trip for speeches that brought her $500,000 in fees.

As Instapundit proclaims with some frequency, perhaps I would take the threat of global warming more seriously if the people who use it to promote their control over the world behaved like the possibility actually scared them.