Ex-FBI Boss Has ‘Grave Concern’ FISA Court Was ‘Defrauded Intentionally’ in Russia Probe

“I have grave concern that the court was defrauded intentionally … There was some type of agenda, an inappropriate agenda beyond an objective intelligence or criminal investigation,” said Kevin Brock, a retired FBI assistant director for Intelligence who helped implement most of the intelligence and informant rules the FBI uses today.

“I struggle to find any other explanation,” Brock told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “Any other explanation just doesn’t pass the smell test. I mean, the glaring — the Steele dossier, for an experienced counterintelligence agent in the field, was blinking red lights Russian disinformation campaign, and yet you’re going to have the highest levels of the FBI executives use that to create an investigation?”

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Trump Praises Carter Page’s Lawsuit Against FBI and DOJ, Asks ‘Where’s Durham?’

Trump was lamenting that the Justice Department was not investigating allegations of voter fraud in various swing states. He brought up an investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham into FBI and CIA intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign in 2016.

Republicans had high hopes for Durham’s investigation when it started in April 2019, but have recently grown frustrated at a lack of public revelations from the probe.

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Peter Strzok Defends FBI Against FISA Abuse Allegations, Says Agents Were ‘Overworked’

Former FBI official Peter Strzok defended the bureau’s surveillance of former Trump aide Carter Page in an interview aired Sunday, attributing failures found in a government watchdog report to agents being “overworked.”

“I don’t think at all that it’s anything improper. You get people who are overworked, who make mistakes — and don’t get me wrong, inexcusable mistakes,” Strzok said in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”

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Commentary: Time to Grab Some Popcorn as Attorney Lin Wood Agrees to Take on Carter Page’s Case

Lin Wood, the attorney representing a Kentucky teenager in a number of defamation lawsuits against major media outlets, announced a settlement Friday with the Washington Post. The terms of the agreement between the family of Nicholas Sandmann – the Covington Catholic High School student accused of disrespecting a “native elder” while wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat during the January 2019 March for Life – remain secret. 

Wood and Sandmann settled a similar lawsuit against CNN earlier this year. Cases still are pending against NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Gannett.

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Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham Says He’ll Grant Request For Mueller Testimony

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he will approve Democrats’ request to invite Robert Mueller to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee after the former special counsel published an op-ed in The Washington Post criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence for Roger Stone.

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Appeals Court Orders Dismissal of Michael Flynn Prosecution

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said in a 2-1 ruling that the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the case against Flynn settles the matter, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

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Eight More Key ‘Russiagate Investigators’ US Attorney John Durham is Likely Investigating

The multiple investigations of the U.S. government’s intelligence-gathering activities against the Trump campaign have typically focused on the actions of the same small group of former officials: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan, James Clapper and a few others.

But just as significant to the efforts to get to the bottom of the government’s Trump-related surveillance are a handful of current and former FBI and Justice Department employees whose names are not as well known to the public.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham Says He’s Been Denied Access to FBI Employees Who Interviewed Key Dossier Source

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he has been denied access to interview an FBI agent and FBI analyst who met with a key source for the Steele dossier who disavowed the salacious document.

Graham has sought interviews with the FBI case agent and supervisory intelligence analyst to discuss their interview in January 2017 with the primary source for Christopher Steele, the former British spy who investigated the Trump campaign for Democrats.

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Judge Sullivan Defends Delay, Says Justice Department Reversal in Flynn Case ‘Unusual’

A federal judge on Monday defended his decision not to quickly approve the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its own criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that the department’s reversal was unusual and he wanted to consider the request carefully before ruling on it.

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Once a Staunch Opponent of De-Classification, Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff Now Calls for Releasing ‘Any Flynn Transcripts’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Friday called for transparency in the release of a transcript of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s phone calls in late December 2016 with a Russian ambassador.

“We need to ensure a transparent and complete public record free of political manipulation,” Schiff wrote in a letter to Richard Grenell, the acting director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

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Mark Meadows: ‘Strong Suggestion’ that Undercover FBI Sources Taped Trump Campaign

Mark Meadows

by Chuck Ross   North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said Wednesday that there is a “strong suggestion” that undercover FBI sources secretly taped members of the Trump campaign. “Now whether that was a confidential human source taping an individual, that’s what I believe it is, but it’s important that we…

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US House Intelligence Committee to Vote on Release of Trump Russia Transcripts

Reuters   A U.S. House of Representatives committee will vote on Friday on whether to release dozens of transcripts of interviews from its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including conversations with senior associates of President Donald Trump. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to agree to send…

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Gowdy: Russia Docs Are ‘Embarrassing’ For John Brennan, DOJ And FBI

by Chuck Ross   South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said the information in a batch of Russia investigation documents that President Donald Trump was considering for declassification will prove “embarrassing” for the Department of Justice, FBI and former CIA Director John Brennan. Gowdy made the remarks in an interview…

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EXCLUSIVE: Released Texts Messages And Emails Show Mueller Team’s Cozy Relationship With Press

by Joe Simonson   Hundreds of pages of emails and texts messages released from the Justice Department’s special counsel office through a FOIA request document shows an ongoing relationship between Robert Mueller’s team and the press, according to an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The documents, released in…

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DOJ Official Bruce Ohr’s Congressional Testimony Contradicts Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson’s

Glenn Simpson, Bruce Ohr

by Chuck Ross   Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr told Congress in August that he met before the 2016 election with Glenn Simpson, a direct contradiction to what the Fusion GPS founder said in a congressional deposition in 2017. Sources familiar with Ohr’s Aug. 28 testimony tell The…

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Nellie Ohr To Testify Before Congress About Work For Fusion GPS

by Chuck Ross   Congress will interview Nellie Ohr, the wife of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, later this week, Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Sunday. Ratcliffe said Sunday that Ohr is expected to appear for a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform…

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Nunes: Democrats, Journalists Will Be ‘Frightened’ By Declassified Trump-Russia Documents

by Chuck Ross   House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said this week that Democrats and the media are likely to be “frightened” by the information contained in Trump-Russia documents that Republicans are asking President Donald Trump to declassify. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Security Policy…

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New Text Messages Show FBI Officials Discussed ‘Media Leak Strategy’ Ahead Of Major Trump-Russia Revelation

McCabe Page and Strzock

by Chuck Ross   Newly released text messages show that disgraced FBI official Peter Strzok asked to speak to former FBI lawyer Lisa Page about a “media leak strategy” during a crucial period of the Trump-Russia investigation last year. The text messages were revealed on Monday by North Carolina Rep.…

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Maria Butina Worried Russian Email Hacks Would Hurt Attempts To ‘Befriend Politicians’

Maria Butina

by Chuck Ross   Maria Butina, a Russian national accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, expressed concern in July 2016 that her efforts to establish relationships with American politicians would be disrupted by Russian hacks of Democrats’ emails. “Right now I’m sitting here very quietly after the scandal…

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Papadopoulos Verdict: 14 Days in Jail, 200 Hours of Community Service, and a $9,500 Fine

Robert Mueller, George Papadopoulous, Donald Trump

by Chuck Ross   Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days jail in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday. District Judge Randolph D. Moss also ordered a year of supervision, 200 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine for the 30-year-old former Trump aide.…

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President Of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton Trashes DOJ And FBI For Abusing ‘Awesome Powers’ Without Accountability

Tom Fitton

by Nick Givas   Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton trashed the FBI and Department of Justice for abuse of power on “Fox & Friends First” Tuesday and said they are not being held accountable for their actions. Fitton’s group sued under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain surveillance warrant documents related…

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Commentary: The ‘Self Licking Ice Cream Cone’ of Mueller’s Russia Probe

James Brennan

by George Rasley   Senator Rand Paul met with President Donald Trump Monday and asked him to consider revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Our friend Sara Carter reports the Kentucky Senator later took to Twitter and wrote, “Just got out of WH meeting with @RealDonald Trump. I…

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President Trump Says DOJ and FBI ‘Misled’ Surveillance Court to Wiretap a Former Aide

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that newly released documents about the origins of an investigation of a former adviser’s links to Russia help vindicate his claim that U.S. government investigators were spying on his 2016 election campaign. He contended in Twitter remarks that “as usual,” the documents “are ridiculously heavily…

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FBI Official Peter Strzok Testifies About Anti-Trump Text Messages

Peter Strzok

by Masood Farivar   A top FBI official at the center of controversy over alleged political bias at the bureau said on Thursday that his private views about President Donald Trump did not influence his actions as the lead investigator on the Hillary Clinton email investigation team. Testifying publicly for the…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will NOT Present ‘Collusion’ Evidence at Manafort Trial

Paul Manafort

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing Friday that his prosecutors will not present evidence regarding Trump campaign collusion with Russia at an upcoming trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument…

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DOJ IG: McCabe Used Strzok’s Mistress To Bypass Chain Of Command To Monitor Clinton Probe

McCabe Page and Strzock

by Luke Rosiak    – Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe used Peter Strzok’s mistress, Lisa Page, to get information on the FBI probe into investigation of Clinton’s private servery  – McCabe used Page to “circumvented the official chain of command”  – Other bureau officials took issue with the decision Then-Deputy FBI…

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‘We’re Getting Close:’ Nunes Says Impeachment Is On The Table For Rod Rosenstein

Devin Nunes, Rod Rosenstein

by Chuck Ross   House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday that “there will be hell to pay” — including impeachment for top Justice Department officials — if the agency fails this week to give Congress documents about an FBI informant used to spy on the Trump campaign. “We…

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White House Official Feels ‘Duped’ By FBI Informant Who Sought Ambassadorship

Navarro

by Chuck Ross   White House trade czar Peter Navarro said he feels “duped” by Stefan Halper, the FBI informant who sought out members of President Donald Trump’s campaign and applied for an ambassadorship in Trump’s administration. “I feel duped, yeah, pretty much,” Peter Navarro told Fox Radio’s Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday.…

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Commentary: Time For Democrats and The Media To Admit the Russia Investigation Was Illegitimate from the Start

by George Rasley   In the last week, as revelation upon revelation hit that Obama administration officials and career employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) spied on the Donald Trump campaign in the run-up to the 2016 presidential…

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Commentary: Time to Fire Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein

by CHQ Staff   We’ve said many times that we think Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be fired, but his latest round of tone deaf pronouncements ought to be the final straw for the President and Attorney General. After President Trump rightly complained about the latest revelations about the…

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Ron DeSantis Says He May Know Who Was Spying On The Trump Campaign: ‘There Needs To Be Follow Up’

DeSantis Spy Insite

by Nick Givas   Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis of Florida thinks he may know who was spying on President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, but said further investigation is needed to get to the truth. Rumors of an FBI mole planted within the campaign have surfaced and DeSantis, a Florida gubernatorial candidate, believes the…

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