Schiff Alleges Trump’s Policy Threatens National Security

by DavedaGruber:

On Friday the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., adamantly criticized the Trump administration for dangerously politicizing the Intelligence Community.

Schiff is requesting that the IC agencies provide more information about the president’s order which would allow them to declassify information related to the Russian probe.

Schiff has alleged that Trump’s policy threatened national security and he now wants the IC to provide all documents made available to Attorney General William Barr.

Schiff wants his committee, before any declassification, to provide an assessment on declassification’s harms to national security.  He also wants an in-person briefing on what the administration had requested to that point.

According to Schiff, Trump endangered national security by granting Barr the authority to declassify information without consulting with the IC.

Schiff wrote, in a letter to Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, “President Trump’s May 23, 2019 directive to you and other heads of agencies to assist and produce information to Attorney General William P. Barr … represents a disturbing effort by the President and the Attorney General to politicize the Intelligence Community (“IC”) and law enforcement, and raises grave concerns about inappropriate and misleading disclosures of classified information and IC sources and methods for political ends.”

Schiff sent his letters to the directors of National Intelligence, Dan Coats; the FBI Director, Christopher Wray; CIA and National Security Agency, Director Gen. Paul Nakasone.
President Trump had imposed an order in an push to accelerate his Justice Department’s investigation into the Russia investigation’s origins.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller was unable to conclude the president’s 2016 campaign engaged in a conspiracy with Russia. This has brought up questions as to how the whole Russian probe began.

Schiff has suggested that the administration’s argument behind that investigation was a “conspiracy theory” and that it incorrectly mistrusted the validity of Mueller’s probe.

Schiff said, “The Special Counsel’s report definitively establishes that the counterintelligence investigation was properly initiated based on credible information from an intelligence partner. Yet the Attorney General has called into question, without evidence, the validity of the predication of what became the Special Counsel’s investigation.”

Schiff also said, “This approach threatens national security by subverting longstanding rules and practices that obligate you and other heads of IC agencies to safeguard sources and methods and prevent the politicization of intelligence and law enforcement.”

Former FBI Director James Comey, who led the Russia investigation during the 2016 presidential election, had basically expressed similar views when he said, “The FBI wasn’t out to get Donald Trump. It also wasn’t out to get Hillary Clinton. It was out to do its best to investigate serious matters while walking through a vicious political minefield.”

In an interview on Friday with CBS, Barr, he has vowed to get to the bottom of the investigation’s origins. He admitted that he faced difficulty in obtaining the answers he needed and said, “I assumed I’d get answers when I went in, and I have not gotten answers that are at all satisfactory.”

Republicans see the situation differently. They have demanded accountability after the release of Mueller’s report. The main concern here is the controversial Steele dossier’s role in initiating the investigation.

One key witness who is expected to refuse to cooperate with the review is former British spy Christopher Steele who is the author of the controversial “dossier” about alleged Trump interactions with Russia.

Congressional Democrats are continuing to press the administration for more answers surrounding Mueller’s investigation.

The roadblocks are in place as the president invoked executive privilege to avoid complying with subpoenas.

Now, some Democrats have taken their party’s efforts further and are calling for impeachment proceedings against the president. They don’t have enough support from their own party to impeach and Republicans, except for Justin Amash, R-Mich., don’t want impeachment.

In my humble opinion, the Steele dossier is the key factor here. The FISA warrant was issued because the dossier’s allegations helped justify the FISA warrant to wiretap former Trump adviser Carter Page.

The dossier now serves as an exhibit for the defense rather than the prosecution.

The show is about to begin. Stay tuned; the trailers are running in my head and I’m excited to see what happens next.

Will the Deep State be Exposed?

by Daveda Gruber:

On Friday President Trump made a bold move as he vowed to uncover the origins of the Russia investigation. Trump’s confidence has led him to approve the declassification of documents that are related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is now on his way to Japan but before leaving on Marine One, he spoke to reporters and defended overriding “longstanding rules” on classified material.

Trump told reporters, “We want to be very transparent, so as you know, I declassified everything. We are exposing everything.”

Trump wants to have everything revealed so that investigators looking into the origins of the probe have everything they need, “so they’ll be able to see how and why this whole hoax started.”

The president also stated that the probe was an “attempted takedown of the president of the United States.”

He added, “You’re gonna learn a lot. I hope it’s going to be nice, but perhaps it won’t be.”

Trump made it very clear that he does not have “payback” in mind.

Attorney General Bill Barr has embarked on the review of the Russia probe which is being handled by a top federal prosecutor, John Durham.

Durham has allegedly been working on his review of the Russia probe “for weeks.” He is expected to focus on the period before Nov. 7, 2016 which includes the use of FBI informants as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.

Trump has ordered members of the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr’s probe.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information. Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.”

Sanders tweeted this:

Both the president and the attorney general have claimed that the Trump campaign in 2016 was a target of “spying.” The intelligence community and law enforcement officials maintain that they acted lawfully.

There was much disapproval for Democrats over Barr’s testimony when he used the word “spying.”

It is alleged that Barr is working “collaboratively” on Durham’s investigation with FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. Durham is also working with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is currently reviewing allegations of FISA abuses and the role of FBI informants during the early stages of the Russia investigation.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is not happy with the president for allowing the release of classified materials. He called a “corrupt escalation of the president’s intention” to politicize the intelligence community.

On Friday Schiff said in a statement, “The clear intent of this abuse of power is to override longstanding rules governing classified information to serve the President’s political interests, advance his ‘deep state’ narrative, and target his political rivals.”

In my humble opinion, Schiff has first hand information of how to “target his political rivals.” Isn’t that what Schiff has been doing? Schiff is using his own deeds to create his talking points.

Call it the “Deep State,” “Shadow Government” or the “Swamp;” it’s about time the real criminals are investigated.

 

Who Did Trump Jr. Call from Trump Tower?

by: Daveda Gruber:

The big question looming on a Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 with Russians that Donald Trump Jr. had is revealed.

Late Thursday, Trump Jr. was vindicated after reports of Democratic suspicions that he made phone calls to his dad, President Donald Trump.

Senate investigators have finally released the phone records that the younger Trump allegedly made at the Trump Tower meeting with Russians.

Trump Jr. gave his thoughts to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff in a tweet.

Longtime Trump family friends Brian France, the chief executive of Nascar, and the investor Howard Lorber were named by the New York Times.

Trump Jr. tweeted to Schiff:

Democrats had wrongly accused Trump Jr. after assuming that he had made the phone calls to his father.

In a statement to the Times, Trump Jr. said, “After a year of hearing about this one ad nauseam, yet another left-wing narrative officially bites the dust.”

On Thursday night Schiff spoke on MSNBC. He said that Democrats were unable to confirm the reporting “because the Republicans wouldn’t let us get the phone records.”

The report was seen by the White House as a victory when President Trump tweeted out a string of tweets:

Trump allies saw a challenging week that had seen the arrest of Roger Stone Trump Jr. has not deviated from his claims that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer he met with at Trump Tower, did not have any information to share and instead wanted to discuss the ‘Magnitsky Act’ and other sanctions.

We all know that the Trump Tower meeting has continued to be scrutinized by Democrats since the 2016 presidential election. Financial ties between some Trump associates and the Kremlin are still being investigated.

We await the ‘Russian Probe’, led by special counsel by Robert Mueller, to come to an end after over one year that has seen multiple charges against people associated with the presidential campaign come to an end.

End the WITCH HUNT, Mueller, we’re tired of it.