The FBI planted a spy in the Trump campaign? Turns out that claim is true. But the story is so much deeper than that. Who that spy has turned out to be, is a man with CIA connections who has inserted himself into presidential campaigns before. This is a Reality Check you won't get anywhere else.

 

LEVIN DROPS A MOAB:

Constitutional expert Mark Levin dropped a MOAB on Mueller’s witch hunt Tuesday evening, arguing the ‘special status’ obtained by the special counsel’s lawyers show the probe is unconstitutional under Article II.

As previously reported, Robert Mueller and his team of liberal hack lawyers know they don’t stand a chance in Judge Ellis’ court so they are running a shady, legal shell game to salvage their case against Paul Manafort.

Mueller’s lawyers filed for, and obtained an obscure special status giving them dual roles as not only special counsel prosecutors, but also as ‘Special Assistant US Attorneys (SAUSAs) which could make it difficult for Judge Ellis to hand the case over to other prosecutors.

According to Politico’s reporting, this special status given to Mueller’s lawyers theoretically allows them to rove around and pursue matters outside of the special counsel’s mandate.

This bombshell revelation may be the key to dismantling Mueller’s entire operation, says Mark Levin.

Since Mueller’s lawyers have dual status as US Attorneys, that makes Mueller a US Attorney rather than a Special Counsel. Only a President can appoint a US Attorney. By appointing Mueller, Rod Rosenstein usurped the President of the United States.

THIS IS A HUGE DEVELOPMENT.

Via Fox News:

Levin said the attorneys in the case before an Alexandria, Va. federal judge are simultaneously considered “Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys.”

He said that therefore, their direct supervisor — Mueller — should be lawfully considered a “roving” U.S. Attorney.

He said the Constitution designates the president as the person who must nominate all “principal officers” — including U.S. attorneys and cabinet members.

But, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and was not confirmed by the Senate, as anyone working as a U.S. attorney should be by law, according to Levin.

Levin said that the scenario therefore “violates the Constitution [via] the Appointments Clause” in Article II.

“Rosenstein usurped the authority of the president of the United States to nominate whoever he wants as a prosecutor,” Levin said.

“Mr. Mueller is serving unconstitutionally in violation of the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution because of the way Rod Rosenstein appointed him.”

Watch Mark Levin break it down:

During a Tuesday appearance on the View, no less than the former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper described what was done by the Obama administration to Donald’s Trump campaign as “spying.”

 

By John Nolte
Breitbart.com

Although Clapper said he does not like the word “spying” (considering how the disclosure of this spying has blown up in the Obama administration’s face, who can blame him?), he still used the word twice — because there is no other word.

Sounding rattled and defensive, even though he was among friends, Clapper, a left-wing partisan who served as DNI during the Obama administration, attempted to spin the “spying” into something that was for Trump’s own good and the good of the country.

“With the informant business, well, the point here is the Russians,” Clapper volunteered. “Not spying on the campaign but what are the Russians doing? And in a sense, unfortunately, what they were trying to do is protect our political system and protect the campaign.”

 

 

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com

House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes said he still has not received "specific documents" from the Justice Department about an alleged FBI informant who reportedly met with two or three members of the Trump campaign.

“They continue to leak out things about this informant,” Nunes told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

“And we don't know if there's one informant or more informants, because there's so much out there now, it's really getting tough to follow, and all we're asking is, give us the documentation that you used to start this investigation."

Nunes noted that the Steele dossier -- opposition research paid for by the DNC and the Clinton campaign -- was used to get a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. "So we're trying to get to the bottom of, you know, what else was used in that FISA, because you have many people in the Department of Justice who claim that we're wrong (that the Steele dossier was the sole basis for the warrant). So, if we're wrong, show us the information,” Nunes said.

Former FBI Director Jim Comey recently told Fox News's Bret Baier that the FISA warrant did not depend solely on the unverified, salacious Steele dossier. Comey said he recollects that the FISA warrant stemmed from a "broader mosaic of facts that were laid before the FISA judge."

“Yeah, we're looking for the pieces of Mr. Comey and the FBI's mosaic," Nunes said. "We have a right to get the information, if James Comey and many others…people that are currently at the Department of Justice today continue to say there is nothing to see here. Well, if there's nothing to see here, show us the documents that we're asking for. And they refuse to do it.”

Nunes said someone at the Justice Department or FBI continues to "leak" following Nunes' and Rep. Trey Gowdy’s recent meeting at the Justice Department to discuss the documents they want to see.

"We're not going to go to another meeting where we don't get documents and then the meeting leaks out,” Nunes said. “And this should make people very suspicious. They were trying to get Mr. Gowdy and I to go on Friday to the Department of Justice for supposedly another briefing. We said, look, unless we're going to get documents -- we found out Thursday night they were not going to provide documents -- so therefore, we're not going to go.

“Now, if you look what happened on Friday night -- probably the mother of all leaks of all time to two major newspapers that came out late Friday night. Now, Had Mr. Gowdy and I went to that meeting, you can bet they would have tried to pin that on us.”

Both The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on Friday night that the FBI used a retired American professor to interact with several Trump campaign officials as part of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe. Neither newspaper named the person they described as an "informant" (not a spy), saying that to name him might endanger him or his connections.

Nunes noted that both newspaper reports had "lots and lots and lots of details."

"So remember, we don't have any documents, we can't confirm whether there's an informant or not an informant because we've never been told, nor given documents, and in fact, we've never asked for the name of any informants or any sources whatsoever. So if any of that is true -- if they ran a spy ring or an informant ring -- and they were paying people within the Trump campaign -- if any of that is true -- that is an absolute red line,” Nunes said.

“There is not an honest person in this country who can believe that taxpayer dollars going to fund this ring and operate like this...if any of that is true -- that's a red line in this country. You can't do this to political campaigns. This was done, I mean, according to them, this was done in the spring, I mean, before the counter-intelligence investigation was even opened. If that's true, we need to know about it.”

According to the New York Times, “FBI agents sent an informant to talk to two (Trump) campaign advisers (George Papadopoulos and Carter Page) only after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign.”

ZeroHedge.com

Just a few hours after President Trump "hereby demanded" that the DoJ investigate whether or not the "FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump campaign for Political Purposes," Axios' Jonathan Swan reports that Justice has confirmed a probe has begun. DoJ's Sarah Isgur Flores:

"The Department has asked the Inspector General to expand the ongoing review of the FISA application process to include determining whether there was any impropriety or political motivation in how the FBI conducted its counterintelligence investigation of persons suspected of involvement with the Russian agents who interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

As always, the Inspector General will consult with the appropriate U.S. Attorney if there is any evidence of potential criminal conduct."

The Deputy Attorney General issued the following statement:

“If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”

The liberal media is in full panic, meltdown mode, exclaiming that Trump has "interfered" with the investigation...

And The New York Times..."...in ordering up a new inquiry, Mr. Trump went beyond his usual tactics of suggesting wrongdoing and political bias by those investigating him, and crossed over into applying overt presidential pressure on the Justice Department to do his bidding, an extraordinary realm where past presidents have hesitated to tread...

Legal experts said such a presidential intervention had little precedent, and could force a clash between the sitting president and his Justice Department that is reminiscent of the one surrounding Richard M. Nixon during Watergate, when a string of top officials resigned rather than carry out Nixon’s order to fire a special prosecutor investigating him."

“I can’t think of a prior example of a sitting president ordering the Justice Department to conduct an investigation like this one,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

“That’s little more than a transparent effort to undermine an ongoing investigation.”

And The Deep State is furious... (or worried they're about to get busted)

By Investigative Bureau
TruePundit.com

Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department and James Comey’s FBI worked together with the Hillary Clinton campaign to entrap Donald Trump and associates — including his eldest son — prior to the 2016 presidential election, according to records and testimony of federal law enforcement insiders.

One high ranking official in the Justice Department called it a sweeping “highly illegal” scheme to ensure Hillary Clinton’s election to the White House.

“This was clearly a scheme using Justice (Department) resources and State (Department) resources to get the Russian lawyer into the United States,” one Justice Department insider said. “Who has the power to do this? Only the people at the very top.”

Lynch. Comey. Andrew McCabe. Preet Bhahara. Sally Yates.

And according to high ranking FBI sources, the Bureau played a definitive role in plotting this sweeping privacy breach. But the FBI had much help from the NSA, CIA, the Office of of the Director of National Intelligence, Treasury financial crimes division under DHS, and the Justice Department, federal law enforcement sources confirmed.

John Brennan. James Clapper. Jeh Johnson.

That places the Barack Obama administration directly into this illegal soup, led by Lynch, Yates, Comey and the FBI’s McCabe and associates.

In fact, Hillary Clinton along with the DNC bankrolled Fusion GPS to set up Donald Trump Jr. in the large scheme to undercut his father’s path to the presidency, sources said.

The Russian lawyer who set up Donald Trump Jr. — Natalia Veselnitskaya — was paid by Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was paid by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

Veselnitskaya and Fusion GPS worked together on another caper in 2014, two years before the Trump Jr. operation. In Russia.

Veselnitskaya was barred from entering the United States. Federal law enforcement sources said Lynch and Comey — using Preet Bhahara’s clout in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the southern district of New York — ensured she was granted a special visa for entry, just to set up the Trump inner circle.

A Justice Department official said Clinton likely never expected her campaign’s role and finances to be uncovered and broke a host of federal laws while trying to get elected in 2016, including bringing Veselnitskaya — who was previously barred from entering the United Stated — into Manhattan for the Trump sit down.

Using research firm Fusion GPS as a buffer, Clinton and associates are now linked to financing a scheme to set up the controversial Trump Jr. meeting at Trump Tower before the 2016 presidential election.

Fusion GPS is already on the legal hot seat for commissioning the Dodgy Dossier on Trump, hiring former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the bogus manifesto with the financial backing of the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign, as well as the FBI.

But these new revelations — that Fusion GPS played a key role in setting up President Trump’s elder son to make it look like he was colluding with the Russians to beat Hillary — pushes this scandal into a new and more troubling orbit.

Soon after the meeting, Clinton and her campaign flunkies began slamming Trump for his links to Russia and Vladimir Putin, a chorus that continues to this day.

But it appears now this loud chorus was a manufactured arrangement of lies from a paid choir.

Especially since this scheme was backed by Hillary-Clinton dollars which implicates Clinton and her campaign in helping orchestrate the Russian sit down to entrap members of the Trump family.

Perhaps even more alarming, it is now alleged Barack Obama’s Justice Department and FBI helped sneak the Russian lawyer into the United States for the Trump Tower meeting, the insider said. She was previously banned from entering the country (more on that below).

If you are paying attention, this scandal is shaping up into a serious and disturbing criminal plot.

The Democrats and Clinton herself lambasted Trump Jr. for meeting with Russian lawyer   The Democrats alleged Trump Jr. was working a backroom and illegal deal at the behest of his father. The meeting has been part of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation and Trump Jr. has testified at the Senate level to explain the meeting. Trump Jr., corroborated by evidence since the investigation began, met with the Russian delegation for anything but illegal reasons.

No collusion, as the Democrats have cried out for, has been proven on Trump Jr.’s part or that of his father. Nor does it appear it ever will be.

Fusion GPS has been fighting Congress in federal court to keep its banking records private, battling a federal subpoena to turn over the details of money coming in and flowing out of the Virginia-based research firm.

Following the Trump Tower sit down with Russian lawyer  Natalia Veselnitskaya, investigators began digitally wiretapping Paul Manafort, Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner who were also at the meeting.

Federal agents previously disclosed to True Pundit that after the concocted Russian meeting, the British spy agency GCHQ could officially justify wiretapping Trump associates as an intelligence front for NSA because Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya was considered an international security risk and prior to the June sit down was not even allowed entry into the United States or the UK, federal sources said.

Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who spearheaded the Trump Tower meeting with the Trump campaign trio, was previously barred from entering the United Sates due to her alleged connections to the Russian FSB (the modern replacement of the cold-war-era KGB).

Yet mere days before the June meeting, Veselnitskaya was granted a rare visa to enter the United States from Preet Bharara, the then U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York. Bharara could not be reached for comment and did not respond the a Twitter inquiry on the Russian’s visa by True Pundit.

Now, according to new Intel gems from a White House insider, Fusion GPS may have played a role in paying Veselnitskaya’s way into the United States as well as a possible stipend, travel expenses and accommodations.

Veselnitskaya returned to Russia after the meeting, sources confirmed.

Federal law enforcement sources said Bharara was simply following the orders of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who lobbied the State Department to issue the disavowed Russian a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa. This permitted Veselnitskaya entry into the United States for the sole purpose of entrapping Trump associates to use as fuel to commission wiretaps, federal sources said.
Veselnitskaya may have been paid as well by the U.S. government, FBI sources said. It was reported previously by True Pundit that Steele, who compiled the Trump dossier was paid at least $100,000 from FBI funds as well. But that came later, after the wiretapping was well underway.

The illegal eavesdropping started long before Steele’s dossier. Federal sources said the wiretaps on Trump insiders began in late 2015, almost a year before the 2016 election. The targets then were Flynn and Page, sources confirmed. When no smoking gun was recovered from those initial taps, U.S. intelligence agencies moved to broaden the scope through their newly-formed alliance.

The Department of Justice inspector general has reportedly completed a draft of his report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation; Reps. Jim Jordan and Ron DeSantis join Sara Carter on 'Hannity' with reaction.
 

The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway is interviewed by FOX News' Tucker Carlson on surveillance of the Trump presidential campaign, the extent that former CIA director John Brennan was involved, and how far it goes.

 

Transcript:
 

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Well, on Twitter, you may read former CIA head John Brennan spouting off about the political news of the day, attacking the president's dishonesty, he says.

But it turns out Brennan himself is a liar. He's been caught lying, odd for a government official. Last year, for example, Brennan told Congress that the infamous Steele dossier had no influence at all on the intel community's claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Here's a selection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER HEAD OF THE CIA: I don't.

GOWDY: Did the CIA rely on it?

BRENNAN: No.

GOWDY: Why not?

BRENNAN: Because it wasn't part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the intel community assessment that was done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Busted! Liar! By the way, Brennan, you should know this, is an NBC and MSNBC paid contributor now, needless to say.

Two top former intel officials, though, dispute his claim, the one you just heard that the dossier formed no part of the corpus of intelligence used by our government to spy on the Trump campaign.

Retired National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and Former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper both admit now that the Steele dossier and its Clinton campaign-funded allegations did, in fact, influence the intel community assessment. We knew that, but it's nice to hear it confirmed.

Mollie Hemingway is senior editor of "The Federalist" and she joins us tonight.

Mollie, I know you've been following this carefully. A lot of these stories seem to lead back to this guy, John Brennan. And you would think, as the former head of the CIA, he is someone you'd be able to trust, but he seems not only a liar, but an inept one. Am I misreading this?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, "THE FEDERALIST" SENIOR EDITOR: We have a problem with multiple heads of intelligence agencies, and that does include Brennan, who has a history of lying, specifically about spying on American citizens.

So, it's difficult to hold him - take him seriously.

But we've also had problems with falsehoods being set also by James Clapper, who gave inconsistent testimony about his leaking to the media.

And we have also had problems with James Comey himself, whether he understands what a leak is and how he has been involved in it.

But one of the things that's interesting is Clapper and Comey have been so much a part of this story, and we've seen their names a great deal, but Brennan has been able to kind of stay out of the limelight until recently where people are starting to piece together just how integral he was to the entire Russia narrative.

So, for instance -

CARLSON: Please go ahead.

HEMINGWAY: Yes. He actually launched the investigation. He has bragged about how he was involved in launching the investigation.

He also was really key in briefing Harry Reid, which Harry Reid has said he understood that he was being briefed by Brennan specifically so he would leak that information and get it out to the media and also pressure James Comey.

And then, these other things that are interesting that are coming out now about how he claimed that the dossier wasn't used, which made no sense already because we know the dossier was used to secure a wiretap against someone in the Russia investigation.

And also, it just stands to reason that it would have been included, but now we actually have people who do have a little bit more integrity, particularly Mike Rogers saying that, of course, it was used in the intelligence community assessment.

CARLSON: It's becoming clear that a lot of the secrecy surrounding these activities is designed not to protect the United States from foreign threats, but to protect the misdeeds of the people gathering the intelligence. It's CYA.

HEMINGWAY: Yes. It does seem that that has become a big part of the operation. Whether people got in over their heads, whether they were led astray by Brennan and they did things that maybe they shouldn't have done, it does seem that a lot of what we've seen in the last few months is about attempting to keep people from finding out the full extent of what was happening.

Today, "The New York Times" did report based on just a widespread leaking from people who were involved in the investigation that, yes, people are now admitting they were spying on the Trump campaign in a fairly widespread fashion.

It wasn't just Carter Page. It was four top officials. They weren't just using FISA wiretaps. They were also using national security letters and human intelligence. At least one human intelligence source.

So, this is busting wide open and I think people will start demanding a little bit more in terms of just what the FBI and other intelligence agencies were thinking when they began spying on the political campaign of a major party.

CARLSON: Liberals used to be worried about things like this. Not anymore.

Mollie Hemingway, thank you. Thanks for that.

On his radio show Wednesday night, LevinTV host Mark Levin discussed new revelations about a “secret cabal” of FBI agents that began surveillance of President Trump and his campaign over three months before the November 2016 election.

Levin referred to a report at the New York Times earlier that day which outlines the origins of the FBI’s secretive probe into what it suspected were the Trump campaign’s dealings with the Kremlin. According to the story, what was then known as “Crossfire Hurricane” amongst the handful of agents involved, began months before election day.

The story serves to further vindicate Levin, who was widely attacked as a conspiracy theorist for his assertions that publicly-available evidence clearly suggested that the Trump campaign had been surveilled.

“They clear the decks for Hillary despite her serial felonies under the Espionage Act and then immediately genuflect and go after Trump with this secret cabal of FBI agents,” Levin remarked, “That’s what the New York Times has revealed tonight whether or not they realize it.”