By Sharyl Attkisson
TheEpochTimes.com

On Saturday, Congress released the 234-page transcript of closed-door testimony from ex-FBI Director James Comey before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee the day prior. This is a summary of notable moments with page number citations so you can read for yourself.
 

Hillary Clinton probe

Comey confirmed that controversial FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page served both on the team investigating Hillary Clinton’s email practices and the team investigating Trump-Russia connections (p. 18).

Context: Strzok and Page were pulled from the Special Counsel Robert Mueller probe in summer 2017 after the DOJ Inspector General discovered they had exchanged many, pejorative text message and emails. For example, emails lambasted Trump, saying that Hillary should beat him “100 million to zero.” One email referred to Hillary as “the President.” Strzok and Page left the FBI earlier this year amid ongoing controversy.

Comey says he would not have allowed Strzok and Page to serve on the Hillary email investigation if he had known about their private communications (p. 18).

Analysis: This appears to be an acknowledgment that the FBI investigation was tainted, or has the appearance of being tainted, by bias.
 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Comey said the tarmac meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton five days before Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview was problematic and “potentially inappropriate.” Comey acknowledges he didn’t take steps to find out the substance of the conversation (pp. 33-34).

Comey says he also learned of “material” that, if made public, “would be used to cast doubt on whether [Lynch] had acted appropriately” in the Hillary investigation (p. 35). He did not say what the material entailed.

Context: Comey first revealed the existence of the Lynch “material” in his book. According to a report on CNN, the material may refer to discussions between Lynch and Clinton staffer Amanda Renteria or former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. However, Lynch has denied discussing “any aspect of the investigation” with them.

Comey said there was “the appearance of conflict or the appearance that [Lynch] was compromised in some fashion” (p. 48).

Comey also said that Lynch should have recused herself from the Clinton investigation (p. 77).

Comey says he raised his concerns about Lynch’s objectivity with Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and that Lynch was subsequently “briefed and interviewed about the nature of that material” by McCabe and others (p. 36).

Note: McCabe was battling his own appearance of bias with his wife, Jill McCabe, a political candidate, receiving a large amount of campaign funds from Clinton connections.

Analysis: Lynch, McCabe, Strzok, and Page were key players in the Clinton email probe who ended up with conflicts of interest or the appearance of bias. Comey expressed no concern over the question of whether Lynch’s tarmac meeting and refusal to recuse may have amounted to obstruction of justice.
 

Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview

Comey said he doesn’t know who drafted the questions for Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview. He says he didn’t read them. The FBI didn’t record the interview. Comey said he also doesn’t remember why Clinton’s interview wasn’t conducted before a grand jury (p. 38).

Comey said he doesn’t know for sure why the witnesses in the Clinton email investigation weren’t subpoenaed and questioned before the grand jury. He says the FBI investigative team deemed it unnecessary (p. 212).

Comey would later tell the DOJ Inspector General that prior to Hillary’s interview he didn’t think there was any “there there.” (Comey says he doesn’t remember saying this to the IG, but agrees he did say it because it’s reflected in a transcript.) (p. 39).

You never saw it on CNN but one of the biggest reasons that the entire establishment media mobilized as shills for the Democrats is that a House win would completely shut down any investigations into Deep State malfeasance over the use of the bogus Fusion GPS dossier to obtain FISA permission to conduct surveillance on the Trump campaign.

HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes fought the good fight to have the information declassified but has been thwarted by dirty cop Rod Rosenstein at the Justice Department and now only days before Thanksgiving, the documents that would show that it is all a scam and that certain high-ranking officials conducted themselves in a dishonest if not criminal manner are still classified with hope waning that President Trump will act to allow the American public to see how the sausage is really made.

 

By Sharyl Attkisson
TheEpochTimes.com

Newly declassified documents reveal the CIA—which is supposed to be strictly limited in the types of surveillance and other secret operations it conducts on U.S. soil—routinely monitors U.S. government computer systems.

That information is contained in two formerly secret letters of “congressional notification” written in 2014 by the Intelligence Community inspector general at the time, Charles McCullough. In the letters, McCullough reveals the CIA secretly intercepted and collected emails between congressional staff and the CIA’s head of whistleblowing and source protection. The collection was said to occur as part of the CIA’s “routine counterintelligence monitoring of government computer systems.”

Several sources familiar with the congressional notifications at the time, but unable to speak about it until now because the material was classified, said it is extremely worrisome that the CIA intercepted private communications with Senate staff about Intelligence Community whistleblowers.

“Most of these emails concerned pending and developing whistleblower complaints,” wrote McCullough in letters to lead Democrats and Republicans at the time on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees—Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.).

McCullough said he was concerned about the CIA’s “potential compromise to whistleblower confidentiality and the consequent ‘chilling effect’ that the present [counterintelligence] monitoring system might have on Intelligence Community whistleblowing.”

The intercepts in question were conducted under the leadership of CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Both men dragged their feet, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), when he originally sought to have the congressional notifications declassified. A then-staffer of Sen. Grassley was among those whose emails were intercepted by the CIA.

Brennan and Clapper, now working in private industry and as consultants for NBC and CNN respectively, have been widely criticized for a variety of alleged surveillance missteps and abuses.

Both men were involved in controversial 2016 election year “unmaskings”—identifying protected names of Americans “incidentally” captured by government surveillance. Originally, when asked under oath in 2017 about unmasking requests made by any U.S. ambassador, including President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, Brennan claimed ignorance: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s ringing a vague bell but I’m not—I could not answer with any confidence.” It was later revealed that hundreds of unmasking requests had been made in Power’s name in 2016. Brennan also acknowledged that he requested that U.S. citizens’ names be unmasked on numerous occasions.

As for Clapper, he admitted, during a May 8, 2017, Senate judiciary hearing, to making at least one unmasking request related to “Mr. Trump, his associates, or any member of Congress.” Clapper also acknowledged having personally reviewed unmasked documents and that he might have shared unmasked material with other officials.

Clapper and Brennan have said they respected Americans’ right to privacy and did not violate any rules or laws.

In 2013, Clapper was criticized by Democrats and Republicans after denying under oath that the National Security Agency (NSA) was engaged in mass spying on tens of millions of Americans. Soon after that testimony to Congress, revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden proved the opposite was true. Clapper then argued he hadn’t been intentionally misleading.

In 2014, Brennan apologized to senators on the intelligence committee after it was revealed that the CIA had improperly monitored the computers of committee staff members. Brennan had previously vehemently denied the spying occurred.

The newly public congressional notifications about the CIA’s surveillance of whistleblower information were only released after Grassley appealed to current Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who was sworn in on May 17. Brennan and Clapper’s successors, appointed by President Donald Trump had ignored requests to declassify the documents, according to Grassley.

“The fact that the CIA under the Obama administration was reading congressional staff’s emails about Intelligence Community whistleblowers raises serious policy concerns, as well as potential constitutional separation-of-powers issues that must be discussed publicly,” wrote Grassley in a statement.

Sharyl Attkisson is the New York Times bestselling author of “Stonewalled,” a five-time Emmy Award winner, and the host of Sinclair’s national investigative television program “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.” She is a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and has reported nationally for CBS News, PBS, and CNN.

By Christopher Carter
OANN.com

 

One America News has been extended unprecedented first hand knowledge into the inside workings of Robert Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation, and the latest status after a year and a half ongoing efforts.

One America staff reporters have spent over five hours reviewing detailed, behind close doors, investigation questioning from those in the room.

Our sources tell us:

1. Mueller’s investigators have been focused on determining whether there was direct or indirect communications with WikiLeaks and Russian sources loosely associated with the 2016 Trump campaign.

Specifically, Mueller’s team has been aggressively drilling down to determine if there was any advance knowledge of anyone remotely associated with the Trump campaign, and advanced notice of the leaked DNC documents and hacked John Podesta’s email.

Mueller”s investigation team has thoroughly investigated all known possible individuals with potential advanced knowledge of the leaked documents. A number of individuals have been interrogated, some multiple times to date. Documents in at least the hundreds of thousands have been reviewed. Computer equipment has been reviewed by top electronic forensic teams, and a long list of individuals have been subpoenaed and interrogated.

The list includes well known names such as Steve Bannon, Dr. Jerome Corsi, Tandy Credico, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt Malloch, Sam Nunsberg, and Roger Stone.

Our sources tell us that Mueller’s investigators have aggressively interrogated these individuals and have used common coercion tactics with the threat of perjury charges unless unfettered cooperation was extended.

Investigators have honed into a tweet by Roger Stone, dated August 21, 2016. The email stated it will “soon be the Podesta’s time in the barrel.”

On October 7, almost 6 weeks after Stone’s email, WikiLeaks released the hacked emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

The implication is that Roger Stone knew well in advance that the Podesta emails were hacked and would be released.

There is no credible evidence indicating that Roger Stone or any other individuals loosely associated to the Trump 2016 campaign had any advance knowledge of the WikiLeak, DNC and Podesta emails.

The investigation is wrapping up regarding Roger Stone’s possible collusion with no findings.

Possible indictments for perjury are unfounded and based on memory lapse, a common challenge faced by the most experienced investigators.

One America News was with Corsi and his attorney for five hours on Friday as he expected to be arrested for threatened perjury charges. Corsi stated that a faulty long term memory isn’t perjury.

 

 

Click on infographic to enlarge.

 

By Jeff Carlson
TheEpochTimes.com

Although the details remain complex, the structure underlying Spygate—the creation of the false narrative that candidate Donald Trump colluded with Russia, and the spying on his presidential campaign—remains surprisingly simple:

1. CIA Director John Brennan, with some assistance from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, gathered foreign intelligence and fed it throughout our domestic Intelligence Community.

2. The FBI became the handler of Brennan’s intelligence and engaged in the more practical elements of surveillance.

3. The Department of Justice facilitated investigations by the FBI and legal maneuverings, while providing a crucial shield of nondisclosure.

4. The Department of State became a mechanism of information dissemination and leaks.

5. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee provided funding, support, and media collusion.

6. Obama administration officials were complicit, and engaged in unmasking and intelligence gathering and dissemination.

7. The media was the most corrosive element in many respects. None of these events could have transpired without their willing participation. Stories were pushed, facts were ignored, and narratives were promoted.

Let’s start with a simple premise: The candidacy of Trump presented both an opportunity and a threat.

Initially not viewed with any real seriousness, Trump’s campaign was seen as an opportunistic wedge in the election process. At the same time, and particularly as the viability of his candidacy increased, Trump was seen as an existential threat to the established political system.

The sudden legitimacy of Trump’s candidacy was not welcomed by the U.S. political establishment. Here was a true political outsider who held no traditional allegiances. He was brash and boastful, he ignored political correctness, he couldn’t be bought, and he didn’t care what others thought of him—he trusted himself.

Governing bodies in Britain and the European Union were also worried. Candidate Trump was openly challenging monetary policy, regulations, and the power of special interests. He challenged Congress. He challenged the United Nations and the European Union. He questioned everything.

Brennan became the point man in the operation to stop a potential Trump presidency. It remains unclear whether his role was self-appointed or came from above. To embark on such a mission without direct presidential authority seems both a stretch of the imagination and particularly foolhardy.

Brennan took unofficial foreign intelligence compiled by contacts, colleagues, and associates—primarily from the UK, but also from other Five Eyes members, such as Australia.

By Chris Donaldson
ILoveMyFreedom.org

With the entire national media focused on the bruising confirmation battle for new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another massive story has all but disappeared.

That would be the fate of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who will be meeting this week with members of Congress over an explosive story that he offered to wear a wire to secretly record President Trump and to then lobby administration members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

The Kavanaugh circus forced Trump to put his meeting with Rosenstein on the back burner and speculation has swirled that he would either resign or be fired for his role in what can be referred to as Operation Get Trump.

The plot to reverse the results of the election relied heavily on the infamous and discredited “PeeGate” dirty dossier put together by slimy British spook Christopher Steele and oppo research firm Fusion GPS.

The contents of that 35-page conglomeration of “salacious” charges was paid for by Team Hillary and then was used to procure a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Trump campaign members including Carter Page.

The surveillance set off a chain of events that led to Rosenstein’s appointment of deep state dirty cop Robert Mueller to undertake a sweeping fishing expedition in order to find “evidence” that could justify Trump’s impeachment.

Republican Devin Nunes who is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee spoke to Fox News and delivered a bombshell that the politicized FBI headed up by James Comey received the dossier directly from a DNC lawyer which would be revealed if Trump’s request to declassify portions of FISA warrants and texts between dirty FBI and DOJ officials ever takes place.

CHECK IT OUT:

 

The Gateway Pundit investigative journalist Cassandra Fairbanks interviewed three former intelligence officers with knowledge of the corrupt – criminal activity of the Obama CIA.

 

By Cassandra Fairbanks
TheGatewayPundit.com

The former officers told The Gateway Pundit:

• The U.K.’s Joint Intelligence Committee was the venue used by the CIA and the DNI to share and receive “intelligence” allegedly linking Trump to Russia.
• The sources believe that John Brennan and James Clapper used highly classified intelligence channels to create a trail of fake evidence linking Trump to Russia.
• George Papadopoulos was targeted deliberately by U.K. intel operatives in a plot to trick him.
• It was Joseph Mifsud, not Papadopoulos, who raised the prospect of meeting with the Russians and introduced the claim that Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
• Joeseph Mifsud was a British operative, not a Russian asset.
• The only entity that could have coordinated the entire operation was the Obama White House.

Multiple former intelligence officers believe there is indisputable evidence that British Intelligence organizations—GCHQ and MI6 in particular—collaborated with the U.S. intelligence community to portray Donald Trump and his associates as pawns of the Russians.

By Greg Jarrett
FoxNews.com

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s actions, as recounted by the New York Times Friday, are the equivalent of an attempted coup -- a plot to overthrow the president. 

As the Times reveals, Rosenstein was furious that Democrats blamed him for the firing of FBI Director James Comey. 

Rosenstein, who had volunteered to write the firing memorandum, was “regretful and emotional.”  His behavior was described as “erratic.”

He blamed Trump. 

So, in an apparent act of vengeance, he proposed secretly recording the president to try to gain damaging information about him. 

He solicited others to wear wires, including Andrew McCabe, who was later fired as Assistant FBI Director. Rosenstein is said to have discussed recruiting cabinet members to depose Trump under the 25^th Amendment. 

All of this is reportedly evidenced in memos, including those written by McCabe.

Friday afternoon, in response to the Times story, Michael R. Bromwich, Andrew McCabe’s attorney issued this statement for the record:

"Andrew McCabe drafted memos to memorialize significant discussions he had with high level officials and preserved them so he would have an accurate, contemporaneous record of those discussions. When he was interviewed by the Special Counsel more than a year ago, he gave all of his memos -- classified and unclassified -- to the Special Counsel's office. A set of those memos remained at the FBI at the time of his departure in late January 2018. He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos."

Rosenstein strongly denied that the facts recounted by the Times.

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he told Fox News. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”

Additionally, Rosenstein also said this in a statement: “I never pursued or authorized recording the President and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the President is absolutely false.”

So who is telling the truth?

Consider this: Is it any wonder that Rosenstein has refused to produce those records which Congress lawfully demanded months ago? Rosenstein has been trying to cover-up evidence of his own wrongdoing.  This may constitute obstruction of justice by withholding incriminating evidence.

Were Rosenstein’s words merely sarcasm, as some suggest? Here are two critical passages in the Time’s story: 

“One participant asked whether Mr. Rosenstein was serious, and he replied animatedly that he was.”

“According to the others who described his comments, Mr. Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other FBI officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Mr. Trump.”    

This invites the question: did Robert Mueller, who interviewed with Trump to be FBI Director the day before he accepted the job as special counsel, wear a wire? Probably not. But as I explained in my book, “The Russia Hoax,” Mueller may have been there to gather evidence against Trump during his interview with the president.  It was one of the three reasons why Mueller should have recused himself.  Yet, he refused to do so. 

Mueller’s Investigation Should Be Terminated

Rosenstein should be fired immediately. Proposing to secretly record the president is, at the very least, a violation of regulations that govern a security clearance. 

Importantly, the entire special counsel investigation should be promptly terminated.  This illegitimate probe has been tainted by corruption from the outset, and this is just the latest in a mountain of damning evidence.  

Rosenstein has been in charge of the Mueller probe. Yet, it is clear that he harbors an extreme bias against Trump. How can anyone now view the investigation as fair, objective and neutral? It is not.  It never has been. 

The special counsel probe has been compromised and contaminated by Rosenstein’s actions, Mueller’s refusal to disqualify himself, the misconduct of former FBI agent Peter Strzok, and the obvious bias of lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. 

From the moment Trump was sworn in as president, saboteurs at the FBI and Justice Department have worked furiously to undue the election results and frame Trump for “colluding” with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. 

They conjured a false case based on a fabricated “dossier” paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and composed by a British spy who was fired for lying. 

They misappropriated that document to launch the Trump-Russia investigation without probable cause. They then exploited the same “dossier” to wiretap a Trump campaign associate, Carter Page. In the process, they concealed vital evidence and deceived FISA judges, perpetrating a fraud on the court.

Those who abused their positions of power to subvert the rule of law and undermine the democratic process should be held accountable. 

It should begin with the firing of Rod Rosenstein. It should end with a presentment to a grand jury for potential criminal indictments.

 

By Thomas Paine
TruePundit.com

During their final days of access to FBI files and computers Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok — before losing their jobs — each allegedly tried to destroy evidence and documents, per well-placed FBI and DOJ sources.

But they were nabbed by a sting operation.

Two of the supposed brightest minds who served the FBI — and led the country’s Intel apparatus — each separately set out to allegedly destroy incriminating evidence before their departures from the Bureau. And neither one had any clue they were being watched.

But FBI Director Christopher Wray had suspected as much and — working with personnel from the Inspector General’s office — set up a sting-like operation to prevent against evidence destruction, both documents and electronic, two FBI sources confirm.

Though at differing times, McCabe and Strzok were under 24-hour surveillance both at the office and outside FBI HQ in Washington D.C. And any documents, files, and databases that were deleted or manipulated by McCabe and Strzok were being recorded and documented by federal agents. The original records were restored after the duo vacated the FBI.

“They had no clue they were being watched,” one FBI source said.