Some of the most interesting events this week have been the revelation that House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes — who was a Trump surrogate during the campaign and has supposedly recused himself from the Russia investigation after his tragically flawed attempt to expose “unmasking” which was in fact completely appropriate — has been holding together a secret working group of House Republicans whose mission is to investigate the Special Counsel investigation and the FBI with the intention of proving that they are political corrupt and biased against Donald Trump and want to implement a “coup” against him.
A group of House Republicans has gathered secretly for weeks in the Capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the Justice Department and FBI improperly — and perhaps criminally — mishandled the contents of a dossier that describes alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia, according to four people familiar with their plans.
A subset of the Republican members of the House intelligence committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes [sic] of California, has been quietly working parallel to the committee's high-profile inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. They haven't informed Democrats about their plans, but they have consulted with the House's general counsel.
The people familiar with Nunes' [sic] plans said the goal is to highlight what some committee Republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement. The group hopes to release a report early next year detailing their concerns about the DOJ and FBI, and they might seek congressional votes to declassify elements of their evidence.
This is growing even more intense at this appears to be a coordinated effort with the White House — with Nunez and others meeting Trump several times recently — to argue not only that any of the findings by the FBI and Mueller should be ignored, but that Mueller should be fired and prosecuted.
Ranking House Intel member Adam Schiff along with Ranking Senate Intel member Mark Warner and Former Attorney General Eric Holder have called the potential firing of Mueller the crossing of an Absolute Red Line for our Democracy — but that doesn’t appear to be any deterrent to the Nunes Cabal which seems to include Rep Jim Jordan and Rep. Matt Gaetz who appeared on Ari Melber’s The Beat as shown below.
Besides the fact the crackpots on Fox News have said that the “FBI plotted to assassinate Trump” and Sen Rand Paul has said “Obama Officials colluded against Trump’s candidacy” based largely on nothing, the fact is that the Nunes Cabal’s attacks on the FBI using the example of Agent Peter Strzok’s text messages are pretty near worthless since besides Trump he also criticized Chelsey Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Eric Holder, Julianne Assange, jeff Sessions and Scott Baio and revealed that he is a Conservative Democrat who was mostly leaning toward supporting John Kasich in the election, not Hillary Clinton.
The argument that Mueller’s team can’t be trusted because 6 out of 15 of them gave donations to Democrats has to be balanced against the fact the Mueller, his boss Rod Rosenstein and current FBI Director Christopher Wray [not to mention Comey] are all Republicans. And that Wray himself gave $50,000 to Republican candidates.
Wray is a registered Republican, NJ Advance Media reports, and has donated thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns over the years. This includes both John McCain and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns, as well as other smaller races — you're talking some $50,000, CNN reported after referencing Federal Election Commission records.
So if being a partisan and providing partisan political donations means you can’t be trusted to do your job — what does that say about all these investigations when all the bosses at FBI and DOJ are Republicans?
And that’s not even getting in the strong allegations that the New York Field Office of the FBI was “Trumpland” where they provided strategic leaks intended to hurt the Clinton campaign and stonewalled the investigation of the Steele Dossier during the election.
Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited.
“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent.
This atmosphere raises major questions about how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House.
The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”
Somehow I doubt Nunes will be investigating any of that.
And if I were the kind of person who engaged in rank baseless speculation — like say Nunes, Jordan & Gaetz— I might presume that perhaps the reason Strzok had to secret these little personal opinions to Park on a burner phone that was intended to be untraceable is because he knew he was working in Trumpland and couldn’t share any negative views about Donald without getting people jumping down his throat and yanking out his gizzard. [I’m sure Republicans know exactly how it feels when they say out loud what they really think in mixed company, particularly these days.] Strzok’s personal views were probably not the rule at the NYC FBI, they were the exception.
Further one could also surmise that part of the reason Comey came down so hard on Hillary’s email use with an unprecedented press conference, then grossly overstated the level of her “negligence” before Congress, was not just because of the Tarmac Talk between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton but also because the NY FBI Office would have leaked all kinds of negative little tidbits about Hillary if he didn’t address them himself, just as they leaked to Rudy Giuliani about the Abedine emails just days before the letter about it was sent to -— get this — Devin Nunes in Congress which was then immediately leaked to the press before they’d even requested a warrant to review the content of the emails.
That’s what one might conclude if they looked at all of the information, not just some of it.
Ranking House Member Adam Schiff suggests that all this is intended to grant Trump cover to fire both Rosenstein and Mueller in order to cover up Russian money-laundering through the Trump organization, and Senator Ron Wyden ranking democrat on the Finance committee has elaborated on that saying that he will idenfinitely hold the nomination to the deputy director the the Treasury until he receives the documents he’s requested, and says that “Firing Bob Mueller would be a criminal act.”
As it turns out over the last decade Donald Trump has gained almost $200 Million from Russian sources included renters in his Condos and mortgages for various properties.
In 2008, Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million. On the campaign trail, Trump at one point claimed it was his only dealing with Russia, but that’s not accurate.
The same year he sold the mansion, his son, Donald Trump Jr., told the global trade publication eTurboNews that Russians were key investors in the Trump Organization’s assets. "And in terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York,” Trump Jr. said in the interview. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. There's indeed a lot of money coming for new-builds and resale reflecting a trend in the Russian economy and, of course, the weak dollar versus the ruble."
Money from Russia was particularly important to Trump’s business interests because his many bankruptcies had taken a toll on his creditworthiness. Bankers on Wall Street became unwilling to lend him money due to what they termed “the Donald risk.”
The most notable — and most notorious — of Trump’s Russian investors came through the Bayrock Group, which according to CNN, was “a company run by Soviet immigrants, and according to a lawsuit filed, financed by Russian and Kazakhstan money.” Bayrock, whose operations were headed by a man accused in a lawsuit of using “mob-like tactics to achieve his goals,” helped develop huge Trump projects in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, and New York.
Also this week Sen. Mark Warner stated that more indictments beyond Papadopoulos, Flynn, Manfort and Gates are likely to come from Mueller’s office and that includes both Don Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner. [The potential charges against Don Jr. and Kushner I outlined within Update #27]
While all this has been swirling around some even more substantial reports have come out regarding the firing of James Comey and whether or not Trump attempted to obstruct justice in support of Michael Flynn.
Specifically WH documents obtained by Mueller show that White House Counsel Dan McGhan specifically looked up the laws regarding “Lying to the FBI” and the “Logan Act” just after speaking with former Acting AG Sally Yates when she told him “Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians” since he had told Ambassador Kislyak they would “look at everything” regarding the sanctions Obama put in place to punish Russia for hacking our election then lied when the FBI asked him about it.
Apparently Trump learned that Flynn had lied on that very same day.
Link to Video.
The White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, according to three people with direct knowledge of the confidential government documents.
The records reflected concerns that McGahn, the White House counsel, had that Michael Flynn, then the president’s national security advisor, had possibly violated either one or both laws at the time, according to two of the sources. The disclosure that these records exist and that they are in the possession of the special counsel could bolster any potential obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump.
The records that McGahn turned over to the special counsel, portions of which were read to this reporter, indicate he researched both statutes and warned Trump about Flynn’s possible violations.
In addition to this revelation FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to House Intel behind closed doors for 14 hours this week and while he did so he revealed that he can potentially confirm James Comey’s claim that during a private discussion with Trump — which occurred the day after McGhan informed him that Flynn had committed two felonies — he did indeed ask for Comey’s “Loyalty” and also for him to “let Flynn go.”
In private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week, McCabe told lawmakers that Comey informed him of conversations he had with President Donald Trump soon after they happened, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The testimony suggests McCabe could corroborate Comey’s account, including Trump’s ask that Comey show him loyalty, which the President has strongly disputed. Comey previously testified that he briefed some of his senior colleagues at the FBI about this conversation with Trump.
This is indeed a very bad one two punch to Trump’s repeated claims that “Flynn did nothing wrong” and that he never responded to reports about Flynn by trying to shield him from the FBI.
Even if no direct proof of Quid Pro Quo collusion with Russia ever emerges [although I think de facto collusion and conspiracy has already been shown since no one on the Trump team alerted the FBI when they were told Russia “has thousands of Hillary’s emails” even after they were specifically briefed about potential foreign influence and advised to report ANY foreign contacts to the FBI] the obstruction case against Trump personally for trying to cover up how they tried to use Flynn to pay Russia back for their help by dropping sanctions is simply getting stronger and stronger.
Certainly not weaker.
Day-by-Day update details excepted from Master Index Vol #5.
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December 16th —
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ABC News reports that Omarosa Manigault-Newman became worthless to Trump after planting an F-Bomb tirade on Black Leaders of the CBC after they asked for a moment of privacy to discuss what to tell the press. “You don’t get to come into our house and demand to have f*cking privacy,” Trump was unaware she had been fired until he saw it on television.
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Spicer tells Laura Ingraham he has no idea why Manigault-Newman was hired by Trump in the first place. [Neither does anyone else.]
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The Washington Post reports, CDC analysts were forbidden from using seven words: “‘vulnerable,’ ‘entitlement,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘fetus,’ ‘evidence-based’ and ‘science-based.'”
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According to the New York Times, Allan Blutstein, a vice president for Opposition Research firm Definers Public Affairs, has submitted dozens of FOIA requests to the EPA — many of which appear to specifically target employees who have been critical of the Trump administration.
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If not for Voter suppression Doug Jones could have defeated Moore by thousands more since 118,000 eligible voters in Alabama did not have a photo ID and the majority of those tend to be African-American.
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Carter Page whines that he’s been treated worse than a sexual abuse #MeToo Victims.
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Judge Amy Berman Jackson agrees to place Manafort on GPS monitoring and release him from House Arrest after he agrees to turn over $10 Million worth of property in collateral.
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Vanity Fair reports that Fox News toxic culture of sexual harassment still continues even without Ailes, O’Reilly and Bolling. “Women are Terrified.” Meanwhile Rupert Murdock says it’s “all nonsense.”
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Sens. Corker and Rubio drop their objections to the Tax Cut bill after minor adjustments are made clearing the way for a final vote next week.
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Stat reports that the Forbidden Words plan is apparently dropped, or denied, or changed, or something.
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WaPo updates their earlier report about banned words stating that two other agencies besides the CDC have receive similar forbidden word lists stating that the Affordable Care Act will be referred to as “ObamaCare” and the marketplace will be called “Health Exchanges.”
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December 17th—
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Politico reports that a new lawsuit alleges that Jared and Ivanka failed to disclose their involvement in at least 30 different investment funds before going to work in the WH.
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House Republicans on Intel committee stop naming witnesses in their Russia investigation indicating to Ranking Member Schiff that they intend to stop the probe. This week Rob Goldstone, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Michael Sussman of Perkins Coie are scheduled to be interviewed by the House.
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Former FBI Agent Clint Watts responds to Trump criticism of the bureau saying “Someone already made it bigger and better, Mueller.”
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MSNBC does a supercut showing the Trump and Putin use the exact same talking points, probably because Putin has them fed through RT and Sputnik right into Breitbart and the Daily Caller.
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Trump states during impromptu press availability that he won’t fire Mueller, yet.
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Richard Painter blasts the GOP as obstructionists. “What’s going on here is that members of Congress want to carry President Trump’s water, here, in attacking Robert Mueller,” Painter said, “but it’s not going to work because Robert Mueller is a Republican. He was appointed by a Republican Deputy Attorney General.”
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Trump lawyers demand that Mueller give back tens of thousands of transition emails that were generated on government accounts, then claims they’ll “Vet them” for Attorney-client privileged material and give them back. Honest. [By the way, this is exactly what Hillary Clinton lawyers did before releasing 30,000 of her emails to the State Dept to satisfy a FOIA request in the first place. Goose, meet the Gander.]
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Mueller’s team shoots back: “When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process,” Special Counsel’s Office spokesperson Peter Carr told BuzzFeed News. [In other words, they had a warrant, permission.]
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In an interview with Jeremy Scahill John Dean states that Trump’s obstruction of the Mueller investigation is worse than what Nixon attempted during Watergate, and it may lead to the end of his administration. He also notes that the transition emails obtained by Mueller may also show coordinated violations of the Logan Act.
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Russian news agencies report that Putin spoke by phone with Trump to thank him for intelligence supplied by the CIA which allowed Russia's FSB security service to break up an Islamic State group cell that was planning a suicide attack on December 16, [It would have been nice if Russia had done that for us prior to the Boston Marathon Bombing.]
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Fox News suggests the Mueller investigation is an anti-Trump coup while Kellyanne Conway says ‘the fix was in’
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Congressman Eric Swalwell responds to Trump lawyers complaints about Mueller obtaining “private” transition emails from the GSA. “‘Private documents’ on a U.S. Government, public email system? What are they afraid was found? Baloney.” [Yep.]
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‘A reckless con man as president’: LA Times burns Trump to the ground in brutal editorial.
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December 18th —
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CNN reports that Trump is deludedly expecting Mueller’s probe to end by the end of the year and that he’ll receive an exoneration letter soon and that if he doesn’t get it he’s contemplating firing him which just may get him impeached — because that’s not up to him, it’s up to Rosenstein and he’s stated that there’s no valid reason to do so. Mueller’s team and WH lawyers are scheduled to meet this week.
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WaPo reports that sources close to Mueller team have stated they expect to continue their probe through most of 2018, at a minimum.
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WSJ reports that Agent Strzok’s talk of an “insurance policy” against Trump’s electoral victory “was meant to convey that the bureau needed to aggressively investigate allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia,” and was not intended to “suggest a secret plan to harm the candidate but rather address a colleague who believed the [FBI] could take its time because Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was certain to win the election.”
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Former U.S. Attorney Seth Waxman states that if Trump tries to have Mueller fired without genuine evidence of misconduct and over the objection of Rosenstein — Mueller will take him to court.
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Trump claims the GOP has been undefeated in 2017 congressional elections except that they lost for Alabama Senator, New Jersey Governor and Virginia Governor.
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James Clapper states his opinion that Putin is a “very good hander for his Asset — Trump.” Former NSA analyst John Schindler responds “Jim Clapper has done our country a valuable service by stating the plain truth about our president.”
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An AP-NORC Poll surveying 1000 Americans finds that 63% of them believe Trump has attempted to obstruct the Russia investigtaion.
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Scaramucci goes on Fox and Friends and claims there’s nothing to Impeach Trump for [LIke Obstruction, Conspiracy, Trading with the Enemy, violating the Logan Act, violating FEC rules, Violating the Emoluments Clause or Aiding, Abetting and procuring a series of Cyber Fraud Felonies after the Fact] and that he hasn’t implemented any policies that Liberals might find objectionable. [Other than banning people over their religion, deporting and scapegoating immigrants because of their race, coddling violent and murdering racists, repeating/retweeting sick violent memes by White-Supremacists, ignoring Right-Wing mass murder and rampant gun crimes while hyping bigoted foreign terrorism fears, Ignoring Climate Change which increases the threat of more intense hurricanes, storms, draughts, floods and fires. ignoring 1000 hurricane deaths in Puerto Rico, stealing funding from public schools to give tax payer money to private religious school mills that cherry pick the easier students but don't get better educational results, threatening the Press with retaliation for not co-towing to his endless ego, selling off pieces of the internet to the highest bidder, blocking access to legal abortion to underage undocumented rape victims, knee-caping the agencies that protects consumers from rampant investment and banking fraud, threatening Black Football players with being fired for seeking legal non-violent redress of their grievances against the government, selling out the middle-class to corporate greed, disrespecting the families of our Fallen Vets, fucking up peoples health care, destroying our national parks, gutting safety and health regulations which put the environmental, consumer product standards and worker safety in dire peril, and systematically destroying our democratic institutions until there’s likely nothing left but an autocratic kleptocracy. Other than that, nothing much.]
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The family of Sgt. La David Johnson who was killed mysteriously in Niger complains they’ve been told “So Many Lies” because the Army has given them 7 different stories about his death.
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At least four Democrats including Sen Manchin urge Sen. Franken to reconsider resigning in January. “What did do that was so atrocious?”
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Ted Cruz and Don Jr. pose for a picture mocking Obama with a racist cookie.
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Sally Yates calls for Americans to ‘stand up, speak out’ and relocate ‘core values’.
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An Amtrak train traveling through Washington hits a 30mph turn at 80mph and derails on an overpass across I-5 injuring dozens and killing 3 people because it wasn’t installed with Positive Train Control which a Dem Congress mandated in 2008 to be complete by 2015, but the Repub Congress in 2015 pushed back to 2018.
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Senate Intel Chief Burr admits his committee is looking into potential collusion between the Jill Stein campaign and Russia.
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29 year-old Track Palin, who has a history of violence, is arrested for assaulting his father Todd at his 50th Birthday over an argument about borrowing a truck in their Wasilla home after Sarah calls 9-1-1 on him.
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Twitters suspends British Anti-Islamacist Jayda Fransen who's false videos of violent Muslims had been retweeted by Trump.
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December 19th —
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Fox panel goes wobbling off the rails as one guests suggests FBI Agent Strzok plotted to assassinate Trump, when in reality he was only saying the investigation into Trump/Russia should continue even if Hillary won, “as an insurance policy” against foreign corruption.
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NBC News reports that the FBI provided security briefings to both the Clinton and Trump campaigns in late July/early August that foreign agents, particularly Russians, may try to contact and infiltrate their campaigns, and that they should alert the FBI if this happens. At that point in time Papadopoulos, Flynn, Carter Page, Rick Dearborn, Jeff Sessions, Don Jr, Kushner and Manafort had already been in direct contact with Russians and nearly all of them lied about it.
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House Passes the Tax Scam bill by 227 to 203 which will cuts taxes for the rich by $Millions and only $5 per day on the middle class, while taking away major deductions and the individual mandate which will ultimately cost more people than it saves and also increase the deficit by $1.4 Trillion.
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Due to a technically reconciliation glitch the House has to revote on the Tax Scam tomorrow after it passes the Senate.
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Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testifies before House intel behind closed doors for 14 hours where he’s expected to be asked about the Steele Dossier and bias by Agent Strzok.
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Leaks claim that Republican members complain McCabe is “overly friendly” to Dem members.
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McCabe confirms Comey’s claims that Trump had repeatedly demanded his loyalty and that in addition to how contemporaneous notes Comey had told McCabe about his private dinner meeting with Trump with the loyalty pledge and his February meeting where Trump cleared the room and asked him to “go easy” on Michael Flynn.
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Republicans question McCabe intensely over the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation suspecting it may have been rigged in her favor by Agent Strzok, Rep Jim Jordan states after the interview that Rep. "Everything that I've heard reinforces what I believed before"
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Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance in response to news about Trump staff promising him an exoneration letter from Mueller: “You can’t help but think that what’s going on here is a lot like these toddlers you see in toy stores with their parents, and they’re screaming and they want their parents to buy them something, and their parents will tell them anything just to get them out of the toy store without making a scene,”
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US vetoes UN resolution rejecting Trump’s Jerusalem decision.
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WH blames Trump historically low 32% approval ratings on “bad press.”
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December 20th —
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Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) suggest that the Strzok texts suggest that the FBI and Obama had colluded in a plot to steal the WH from Trump and CNN’s John Berman says “that had to be the worst plot ever — because look what happened?”
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Documents and emails turned over to the Mueller investigation reveal that WH Counsel Dan McGhan had looked up the requirement for violating the Logan Act and lying to the FBI immediately after he met with former Acting AG Sally Yates and also that he informed Trump of what he found on Jan 26th, the same day she first met with him. So now we know exactly when Trump was told Flynn lied to that FBI
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Politico reports that Devin Nunes and a small cabal of GOPers, including Jordan, have a plot to undermine the FBI and Mueller by claiming that they conspired against Trump during the election, even though all the real evidence shows they actually conspired against Clinton.
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Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló calls for 5.3 Million Puerto Ricans who live in the rest of the US to implement Mid-Term Election revenge on the GOP for their passage of the Tax Scam because it treats Puerto Rico as a Foreign Nation and raises their taxes by 12.5% while they still only have power restored to 65% of their citizens. He argues this could flip House seats in as many as 14 states in 2018.
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Esquire reports that Murdoch’s WSJ pulled an editorial which would have detailed Trump’s ties to the Mob.
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Trump after admitting that he told his people to lie about it boasts that since the Tax Scam ended the individual mandate that he’s “Cancelled Obamacare” — which means he now owns what happens, and when premiums start to spike he’ll have no one else to blame. Meanwhile CMS announces that 8.8 Million people have enrolled in the Exchanges this year.
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DOJ dodges questions on why only 375 text messages between Agent Strzok and Lisa Page were released when they actually have over 10,000 messages connected to the IG probe?
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CNN’s KFile team reports, Frank Wuco, who has worked for the White House and Homeland Security since January, pushed a number of “unfounded” conspiracy theories including “claims that former President Barack Obama’s memoir was ghost written by former anti-Vietnam War radical Bill Ayers, claims that former CIA director John Brennan converted to Islam and claims Attorney General Eric Holder had been a member of the Black Panthers.” He’s also a Birther and believes Huma Abedine’s parents were part of the Muslim Brotherhood. [Some of these whoppers have been repeated by Trump himself]
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Don Junior says that Government Officials [The Deep State?] “are trying to “undermine Trump” — [Although from their point of view, they may be trying to prevent him from destroying the country.]
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December 21st —
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Roy Moore still refuses to concede and has a Facebook meltdown posting links to World Net Daily and blaming his loss on Muslims, Marxists and ‘Doug Jones’s gay son’ in wake of his humiliating defeat.
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Veteran intel experts tell Newsweek that James Clapper is right — Putin has been handling Trump like an Asset.
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New Ranking House Judiciary member Jerrold Naddler, who replaced John Conyers, says he’s ready to look into Impeachment of Trump, although that’s unlikely until Dems take the House and he becomes chairman.
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Sen. Rand Paul says there needs to be an investigation of Obama Officials who “might have colluded against Trump” during the election, by which he means the intel agencies who determined that Russia hacked the DNC and tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor.
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Ranking Senate Intel member Mark Warner states his opinion that there are “More indictments” on the way from Mueller, and that some of those may include Jared Kushner and Don Jr.
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Former Attorney General Holder calls for protests if Mueller is fired or targets were pardoned calling it a ABSOLUTE RED LINE for our Democracy.
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Rep Ted Lieu points out that the three people in charge of the Special Counsel investigation, Mueller, Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray are all registered Republican, and Wray even donated $50,000 exclusively to republican candidates.
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Ranking House Intel member Schiff says that Chairmen Nunes has been blocking their ability issue subpoenas in their Russia investigation, even though he’s supposed to be recused from it.
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GOP Strategist Nicole Wallace says “It is a bit on the tin foil hat side of conservatism to sit there and think that Rod Rosenstein, who is a Trump appointee, who works for Jeff Sessions, also a Trump appointee, are part of some grand conspiracy,” Wallace added.
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Sovereign Citizen group “Posse Commitatus” issues their own “indictments” of Hillary Clinton and Harvey Weinstein calling for their execution.
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Hannity tries to attack CNN and NBC for ignoring a story about Uranium One — which he found on the NBC website. The story was that Sessions has asked if another Special Counsel is needed to investigate their previous investigation of U-One.
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The UN Votes 128-9 with 35 abstentions to condemn Trumps call to move the Israeli capital to Jeruselum from Tel Aviv — in response Trump and Niki Haley threaten those countries with losing all their foreign aid, even Jordan and Egypt who are our allies against ISIL. Canada on the other hand, who had been one of the 35 abstentions, reverses their vote to against so that they aren’t seen as a puppet of Trump’s.
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Huckabee-Sanders : ‘For 1000th time, no intention of firing Mueller’ because ‘this hoax will wrap up very soon’ [Yeah, right.. .sure]
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Pence says he cooperating with the Mueller probe. [Which I guess means he decided to stop lying about what he really knows about Russia contacts finally….]
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Business Insider reports Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) have all spoken with Trump and are acting on his behalf to torpedo the Mueller investigation.
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Bloomberg reports that Mueller is investigating the Anti-Magniski act Foundation of Rinat Akhmetshin.
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First 6 Defendants in the Trump Inauguration protest cases are acquitted of all charges.
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December 22nd —
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Palestinian President Abbas says there will be no peace plan with Israeli following Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.
House Intel schedules a meeting with Trump’s longtime personal assistant Rhona Ghraff in New York. Jeremy Bash, a former chief of staff for both the Department of Defense and the CIA, says “The big picture is that the last three weeks have been weeks of panic for the Trump team,” [Since Flynn’s guilty plea] and that the interview of Ghraff could make this even worse.
House Intel also interviews former Russian mobster and Senior Trump Advisor Felix Sater, however this meeting like one with Ghraff is scheduled to happen in New York and during the Tax Vote, so no actual members of the Intel Committee, only staff, are able to attend.
Dr. Jill Stein is interviewed on CNN and throws cold water on the Russia Hacked the DNC story complaining that the FBI never directly examined the DNC servers and that independent security company that did, Crowdstike, has a “weak reputation” [which is a lie], she also says her dinner in Moscow with Putin during the RT anniversary was merely coincidental and she didn’t speak to anyone at the table except a German rep who was seated to her right.
Joy Ann Reid discussed with Authoritarian Regime expert Sarah Kendzior if the hack of Lindsey Graham emails have been used to blackmail him into blind fawning support of Trump.
WaPo reports that Breitar editor-in-chief Max Barlow attacked Roy Moore’s accusers even though he personally believed one of them.
Newsweek Reports that Trump has saved more than $100 Million on his Golf Course Resorts such as Mar-A-Lago using special tax easements, and that after passage of his Tax Scam bill he could personally save another $600 Million over the next decade.
Nikki Haley disinvites the ambassador of every country that voted against him on Jerusalem to the State Dept Christmas party.
Former CIA Director John Brennen returns to twitter to call Trump a ‘narcissistic, vengeful autocrat’. [Yep, pretty much.]
State tells refugee organizations such as UNHRC to downsize their US operations [Because I guess were no longer in the business of saving people from starvation and destitution due to despots since we’ve got one of our own right here.]
Trump signs the Tax Scam bill and doesn’t invite any of the Republicans who wrote and passed it. [Ohh, burn...]
Sen. Mark Warner states that he’s seen damning evidence against Trump — but Mueller has much worse.
Federal Prosecutors issue subpoenas for banks records related to Jared Kushner’s business ties to Deutsche Bank.
Professor who failed Carter Page twice describes his memorably awful Phd thesis.