From Conservapedia

This page chronicles an ongoing event and is updated regularly;

for the current version see Muellergate timeline 2019;

please link back as the story unfolds.

[1] Brennan (second left) invented the ploy, claiming to have received a tip from British intelligence sources as part of a supposed routine "intelligence sharing" agreement;[2] Clapper (third from left) rubber stamped the operation, lied to Trump about the scheme and facilitated leaks to the press to impugn Trump.[3] Adm. Rogers (end right), the lone hero of the group, detected the Obama FBI's abuse of the NSA's [4] Prime movers in the Deep State coup . Comey (first left) funneled raw FISA data to FusionGPS to make it appear the FBI's illegal surveillance of the Trump campaign came from outside the government;Brennan (second left) invented the ploy, claiming to have received a tip from British intelligence sources as part of a supposed routine "intelligence sharing" agreement;Clapper (third from left) rubber stamped the operation, lied to Trump about the scheme and facilitated leaks to the press to impugn Trump.Adm. Rogers (end right), the lone hero of the group, detected the Obama FBI's abuse of the NSA's FISA computer system and personally reported the illegal activity to the FISA court.

The Russiagate timeline chronicles Obama administration appointees and holdovers, in collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC, efforts to prevent the election of Donald J. Trump and, after he was elected, remove him from office. The Obama FBI Counterintelligence Division and DOJ National Security Division conducted an illegal counterintelligence operation against domestic political opponents.

Color key Ukrainian collusion in blue

2015 Progressive Police State

See : Obamagate timeline 2015 Progressive Police State

What Nixon contemplated - misuse of the FBI and CIA against domestic opponents - but failed to accomplish yet was nevertheless forced from office, Obama achieved beyond anyone's wildest expectations. The post-Watergate reform Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to supervise Executive Branch power was systematically and wantonly circumvented to harass political opponents in an attempt to dictate the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, and blackmail the winner with illegally gathered evidence should the Obama coterie of conspirators fail.

Obamagate timeline 2015 - the progressive police state documents how the Leftist authoritarian utopia under President Barack Obama was firmly in place to cover-up the crimes of Hillary Rodham Clinton, compromise whomever the 2016 GOP nominee would be, and rig the 2016 election for Hillary Clinton. This assault on American democracy is indisputable.

The origins of intelligence lures, FBI provocateurs or Spygate. Sally Yates terminates independent Inspector General oversight of the DOJ-National Security Division. Nellie Ohr hired as an FBI contractor to begin illegal FISA 702 surveillance on Michael Cohen and others. Papadopoulos set up.

Comey gives immunity to Clinton cronies who destroyed evidence under Congressional subpoena.

During a period of November 2015 through April 18, 2016, Justice Department political insiders and outside political contractors, including FusionGPS, accessed the NSA and FBI database using FISA-702(17) “About Queries”. They gathered information on political opposition of candidate Hillary Clinton, including Donald Trump campaign officials and affiliates. NSA Director Mike Rogers suspected illegal abuse and instructed the NSA compliance officer to conduct a full FISA audit. The NSA began querying DOJ and FBI activity.[5]

The unlawfully obtained FISA intelligence information ended up with Fusion GPS. The key personnel in FusionGPS are husband and wife Glenn Simpson and Mary Jacoby. Mary Jacoby's relationship with the Clintons’ goes back to the Rose Law Firm.[6]

2016 Election year

See : Russiagate timeline 2016 election year

The FBI 'small group' was participating in a plan to exonerate Hillary Clinton in her email investigation. That same FBI small group was simultaneously conducting opposition research on candidate Donald Trump and his campaign team. Those FBI officials were allied by entities outside the government. The ‘outside group’ were “contractors”. One of the contractors was FusionGPS or entities in contact with FusionGPS.

The contractors were using FBI intelligence databases to conduct opposition research “searches” on Trump campaign officials, FISA-702(16)(17) “To/From” and “About” queries. This FISA abuse was the allowed by the FBI, but the NSA detected the abuses in early 2016. NSA Dir. Admiral Mike Rogers stepped in on April 18, 2016 and stopped the FBI contractors from having any further access. Without access to the FBI intelligence database, the group needed a workaround.

The DOJ side of the operation was conducted within the National Security Division headed by John P Carlin. The DOJ-NSD could use the NSA/FBI database and pass information to, and receive information from, Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Nellie was hired by FusionGPS immediately after NSA Dir. Admiral Mike Rogers shut down the FBI ‘contractor’ use of the system. Nellie would be the go-between. On May 23, 2016, she received a technician-level amateur radio license.[7] There was speculation about timing given her cybersecurity knowledge, was Nellie Ohr hoping to use non-cyber short wave communications to hide her participation in that nefarious effort from the NSA? [8]

The problem was that any information from within the FISA searches could not be directly used by the FBI because they would have to explain how they gained it, and all search queries without a warrant were illegal. FusionGPS then hired the retired British MI6 officer Christopher Steele. The FBI needed to launder the intelligence product.

Chris Steele would be the laundry for the intelligence information pulled from the U.S. system. Unauthorized FISA-702(16)(17) results were passed on to Christopher Steele by Nellie Ohr. Steele would then wash the intelligence product, repackage it into what became known as the Steele dossier, and pass it back to the FBI ‘small group’ as evidence for use in their counterintelligence operation beginning in July 2016. Dir. James Comey intentionally failed to notify the Congressional Gang of Eight, denying congressional oversight of the operation.

Proof of this laundry process is found in a “search query” result that was actually a mistake. The faulty intelligence mistake was the travel history of Michael Cohen, a long-time Trump lawyer. The FISA search returned a Michael Cohen traveling to Prague, but it was the wrong Michael Cohen. However, that mistaken result was passed on to Chris Steele, and it made its way into the Steele dossier. Absent of a FISA search, there's no other way Christopher Steele could identify a random “Michael Cohen” traveling to Prague. The Cohen mistake created a trail from Chris Steele to the FISA database.

All of the unauthorized FISA-702 search queries, “To From”(16) and/or “About”(17), of the NSA/FBI database were returning results. Those results are “raw intelligence”. That raw intelligence needed “unmasking”, that's where the Department of State (DOS) is involved. The U.N. Ambassador is part of the DOS. Samantha Power testified she wasn't doing the daily “unmasking” identified by the House Intelligence Committee investigation. Someone, or a group of people, within the State Department, were doing unmasking requests using Ms. Power's authority. The collaborative process by officials within the State Department, as outlined and supported by Senator Chuck Grassley and his investigation, explains why those officials were also communicating with Christopher Steele.

The assembled but highly compartmentalized reports from the DOJ-NSD, FBI-Counterintelligence, Department of State, Office of National Intelligence (James Clapper) and CIA (John Brennan), was then constructed to become part of President Obama's Daily Intelligence Briefing (PDB). That's where National Security Adviser Susan Rice comes in and her frequent unmasking of the assembled intelligence product.

The Obama PDB was then redistributed internally to more than three dozen administration officials who President Obama allowed access his PDB. This includes the heads of DOJ, DOJ-NSD, FBI, FBI-counterintel, CIA, DOS, ODNI, NSA and Pentagon.

The distribution of the PDB was how each disparate member of the administration, the larger intelligence apparatus, knew of the ongoing big picture without having to assemble together for direct discussion.

2017 Deep State coup 1.0

See : Russiagate timeline 2017 soft coup

The information the FBI collected, and the material Christopher Steele and FusionGPS manufactured, were used to create the fake news Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, and to manipulate the FISA court into granting a FISA warrant - what Peter Strzok called “the insurance policy” against Trump's election. When James Comey reopened the Clinton investigation ten days before the election in October 2016, and Hillary's lead in the polls started to drop, the "insurance policy" became operational: officially sanctioned leaks alleging collusion between Trump and Russia were rampant.[9]

When James Comey asked for a private meeting with Trump on January 6, 2017 to present Trump with Hillary Clinton's fictional opposition research as a US intelligence product, Comey briefed Trump only on the sexual allegations and not a word about Carter Page, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen being targeted under the FISA Act. According to Comey, he acted on the instructions of John Brennan and James Clapper.[10] Clapper dutifully leaked the fact that Trump had been briefed on allegations that he consorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013 in an unsavory way to Jake Tapper of CNN.[11] CNN reported the made-up news from the supposed "intelligence report" and linked to the opposition research report on BuzzFeed, claiming it was some sort of official document in the hands of the US intelligence community that the government was acting on. The intelligence community had implemented the "insurance policy". Russiagate was no longer just Hillary Clinton's political campaign directed against Trump, it was now a disinformation operation aimed at deceiving the American people.

In early March 2017, Evelyn Farkas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia from the Obama Administration, appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe[12] and shared efforts to get information about Trump staff to The Hill in hopes to get information out. To many people this proved President Trump's claim that Obama had "his wires tapped" at Trump Tower.[13] Later in that same month she tries to backtrack and change the meaning of what she was saying.[14]

2018 Reckoning

See also: FISA abuse timeline

January 2018

The illegal FISA warrants gave the FBI unfettered access to real time upstream and downstream electronic communications of the Trump campaign. Having found no evidence of collusion between Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the Trump campaign, the FBI turned to sexual innuendo and payoffs which was fed to the State Department by Clinton operatives, and from the State Department to the FBI.

January. Adam Lovinger was a Strategic Affairs analyst with the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA). He had been working on loan as a White House National Security Council analyst after being selected for the position by General Michael Flynn.

1 January. House Intel Cmte. expands investigation beyond Russian interference into illegal activities of the Obama DOJ & Obama holdovers in the FBI. Bruce Ohr, Peter Strzok, James Baker, Lisa Page, Sally Moyer; and Greg Brower all summoned to testify.[15]

National Review takes apart the New York Times effort to salvage their collusion narrative and the Steele dossier. NYT originally reported the FBI's Trump investigation began after Carter Page's trip to Moscow. Now that it's known the Steele dossier was manufactured by Hillary Clinton and used to hoax the FISA court, NYT claims the FBI investigation began with George Papadopoulos in night of drinking in London.[16][17]

2 January. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s staff has obtained a sworn affidavit from an FBI agent that directly contradicts former Dir. James Comey's assurance. The agent testified under penalty of perjury that the Clinton email case did not address the destruction of federal records. The FBI did not pursue criminal charges when Clinton’s email archives were permanently deleted from her private server days after a subpoena for them was issued by a Congressional Committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The deletion occurred on the same day (Mar. 31, 2013) Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills and her lawyer had a call with the computer firm that handled the erasure using an anti-recovery software called BleachBit. “What did the FBI do to investigate this apparent obstruction?” Grassley asked. “According to affidavits filed in federal court — absolutely nothing. The FBI focused only on the handling of classified information.”[18]

President Trump calls for prosecution of Huma Abedin.[19]

3 January. Democrats start walking back and distancing themselves from the Steele dossier fraud.[20]

Mueller investigation from the beginning was never to find Russian interference in the election. It always was and continues to be a rear-guard action to protect former and current FBI officials.[21]

Nunes’ deadline - FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rosenstein requested an emergency and unscheduled meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan. Rosenstein is going over Nunes head to ward off a contempt of Congress citation for failing to deliver Lisa Page and others, and documents, in response to the August 24, 2017 subpeaona. Ryan grants Rosenstein a few more weeks. Lisa Page testified July 13, 2018 that Rosenstein never contacted her to testify.

Manafort sues Mueller for exceeding investigatory mandate.[22]

Fire breaks out at Hillary & Bill Clinton's NY Chappaqua residence.[23] Reports from last week stated Hillary Clinton was in possession of State Department documents labeled 'Muslim Engagement Documents' from her tenure as Secretary of State, which may be the only copies extant.[24]

TrumpSoldier tweets on Christopher Wray's testimony and actions that can be taken based upon the upcoming January 15 OIG Report. Policy, personnel, procedures, and re-opening of investigations. Immunity agreements can also be rescinded.[25] Rescinding immunity agreements and re-opening investigations can be handled without a Special Prosecutor. Any findings that require the DOJ to investigate itself, the Steele dossier for example, will have to be handled by a Special Prosecutor.[26]

Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida reports the Obama administration warned Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani of an impending assassination plot by Israel near Damascus in 2015, prolonging the life of the terrorist mastermind over political differences with Israel and a desire to pass the Iran nuclear deal.[27]

4 January. A day after the Chappaqua fire, FBI announces probe into the Clinton Foundation.[28]

Original May 2, 2016 unedited James Comey memo released; “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statute proscribing gross negligence in the handling of classified information and of the statute proscribing misdemeanor mishandling, my judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey penned. The passage was edited in May 16, 2016 revised memo that removed references to “gross negligence” and “misdemeanor mishandling,” leaving a much more generic reference to “potential violations of the statutes.” Comey originally concluded Clinton was “grossly negligent” – the statutory term supporting felony mishandling of classified information – when she and her aides transmitted 110 emails containing classified information through her nonsecure server but that subordinates edited the term to the lesser “extremely careless.”[29]

Comey's original draft a references the FBI working on a joint assessment with the intelligence community about possible national security damage from the classified information that passed through Clinton's nonsecure email servers. “We have done extensive work with the assistance of our colleagues elsewhere in the Intelligence Community to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the private email operation,” Comey originally wrote. The reference to the rest of the intelligence community was edited out in the May 16, 2016 the revised memo.[30]

The edits were made by subordinates to Comey including Peter Strzok and then accepted by Comey before he usurped Attn . Gen. Loretta Lynch's authority and announced that he would not recommend criminal charges of Hillary Clinton.

All James Comey memos written after meetings with President Trump were classified at the time they were written and remain classified to this day. Comey leaked memos he wrote through a surrogate to the New York Times, a felony.[31]

Agreement made between Chairman Devin Nunes and DOJ Asst. Attn. Gen. Rod Rosenstein for complete disclosure of all unredacted documents AND a list of witnesses who Nunes wanted the committee to question. Included are FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during an affair and previously worked on the special counsel's Russia probe; FBI general counsel James Baker, who was reassigned; FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, whom ex-FBI boss James Comey testified made the decision not to brief Congress about the Russia case during last year's election; and Bruce Ohr, a DOJ official reassigned after concealing meetings with persons involved in the dossier.

5 January. Senate Judiciary Committee makes criminal referral of Hillary Clinton operative Christopher Steele to the Justice Department for investigation and prosecution.[32][33] Steele lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the Steele dossier.

The criminal referral is based on FBI reports of meetings with Steele that the FBI has given to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Within those FBI reports are conflicting statements and accounts. If what the FBI says is true, then Steele is lying. If not, the Obama FBI and DOJ made materially false statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

7 January. Washington DC Press Corps knew for a full year Hillary Clinton was behind the Steele dossier and hid it from the public. Paul Sperry reported "DC press corps suppressed for full year the fact that Clinton campaign paid for the anti-Trump Russia dossier. Journalists knew Clinton behind dossier as early as September 2016 & kept mum, reporting dossier’s allegations as if they were legitimate intelligence!” Shortly after the Washington Post published their bombshell in mid-October revealing Hillary Clinton's camp paid for the dossier, prominent New York Times reporters came forward claiming they were lied to by Hillary's people. When NY Time reporter Kenneth Vogel questioned Clinton's campaign lawyer, Marc Elias, he pushed back “vigorously” saying Vogel's sources were wrong.[35]

8 January. Reports say House Intel Cmte. has now received all DOJ & FBI documents on the Steel dossier.[36] Only Rep. Trey Gowdy, John Ratcliffe, Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte reviewed the original FISA documents.

Bruce Ohr demoted a second time.Ohr was stripped of his directorship of OCDETF as well. Ohr was directly involved with Project Cassandra, the interagency investigation spearheaded by the DEA that tracked a massive international narcotics and money laundering scheme allegedly run by Hezbollah. The project and its potential prosecutions were sidelined by senior Obama administration officials who didn't want to upset Iran in the lead-up to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.[37]

9 January. Sen. Dianne Feinstein posts entire Glenn Simpson testimony. Included in Simpson's testimony: "Essentially, what [Christopher Steele] told me was [the FBI] had other intelligence about this matter from an internal Trump campaign source, and that — that they — my understanding was that they believed Chris at this point — that they believed Chris’s information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing, and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the Trump campaign." [38] Observers speculate the purpose of Feinstein's leak is to give a heads up to the mole.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein posts entire Glenn Simpson testimony. Included in Simpson's testimony: Observers speculate the purpose of Feinstein's leak is to give a heads up to the mole. Simpson says that the FBI paid for Steele to travel to Rome.

Simpson admits the Russian lawyers Natalia Veselnitskaya was hired by Simpson to lobby for the removal of sanctions. Simpson acknowledges that he either worked with or knows of four attendees at the Trump Tower meeting: Irakle Kaveladze, Veselnitskaya, Rinat Akhmetshin, and Anatoli Samochornov. The last one also worked on the Prevezon case. Simpson perjured himself in denying that the Democratic party and their nominee were his clients.

Congress was briefed on the contents of the Steele dossier during the campaign by the FBI, not Steele or FusionGPS, according to a Fusion GPS-sourced story in September 2016 by Michael Isikoff for Yahoo! News.[39]

Rep. DeSantis asks for complete declassification of DOJ & FBI Steele dossier investigation.[40]

Ken Dilanian, an NBC reporter identified as one source who frequently helps FusionGPS disseminate stories for its clients.[41] FusionGPS also paid reporters from the New York Times, ABC, NBC, Washington Post, Yahoo News, The New Yorker, and Mother Jones (David Corn) to disseminate Hillary Clinton's disinformation.

Longtime attorney for President Trump, Michael Cohen, files defamation lawsuits against FusionGPS and BuzzFeed. The lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages from FusionGPS.[42]

10 January. In a meeting between Rosenstein and HPSCI staff Fox News reported: “The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee's then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel. “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall.”

A second House committee staffer at the meeting backed up Patel’s account, writing: “Let me just add that watching the Deputy Attorney General launch a sustained personal attack against a congressional staffer in retaliation for vigorous oversight was astonishing and disheartening. ... Also, having the nation’s #1 (for these matters) law enforcement officer threaten to 'subpoena your calls and emails' was downright chilling."

The committee staffer noted that Rosenstein’s comment could be interpreted as meaning the department would “vigorously defend a contempt action" -- which might be expected. But the staffer continued, "I also read it as a not-so-veiled threat to unleash the full prosecutorial power of the state against us.”[43]

11 January. Feinstein regrets releasing Simpson transcript.[44]

16 January. Chairman Bob Goodlatte writes to FISA court judge Rosemary Collyer:

As the Presiding Judge of the FISC, you must be similarly concerned that the Executive Branch allegedly used an unverified dossier as evidence showing probable cause that someone connected with the Trump campaign, Carter Page, was an agent of a foreign power.[48]

17 January. Reps. Ted Poe, Thomas Massie, and Louie Gohmert call for prosecution of Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for perjury before five year statute of limitations expires March 12.[49]

Sweden preparing to use army to combat Muslim gang violence.[50] In an address to parliament Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said "This is the new Sweden; the new, exciting dynamic, multicultural paradise that so many here in this assembly ... have fought to create for so many years."[51]

18 January. House Intel Cmte. votes to delay interviews with Strzok, Lisa Page, Priestap, Baker and Bruce Ohr because of ongoing IG and internal DOJ prosecutor's criminal investigation.

Matt Gaetz Issues Statement Demanding Intelligence Committee Release Classified Memo on DOJ and FBI to Public After Viewing.[52]

Simpson stands by August 22, 2017 testimony regarding a mole in the Trump campaign;[53] the December 30, 2017 New York Times Papadopoulos cover story, and subsequent retractions of Simpson's testimony, are bunk.

19 January. The FISA memo and Obamagate investigation in context:

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes is focused on the FISA abuse; and overall abuse from the larger intelligence community (FBI, CIA, ODNI and NSA). The FISA-702 angle is his leverage to reveal it.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is focused on the Dossier fraud; and the overall DOJ and FBI corruption. The Steele Dossier is his leverage to reveal it.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte is focused on the FBI and DOJ corruption; and his leverage is the Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, and the year-long IG investigation that just turned over 1.2 million pages of investigative documents.

The white hats: ODNI Dan Coats, the man who declassified the original FISA court opinion in May 2017, NSA Dir. Mike Rogers, CIA Dir. Mike Pompeo, FBI Dir. Christopher Wray, Attn. Gen. Jeff Sessions, Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Asst. AG Rod Rosenstein have each played a significant role in preparing to expose the Obama/DOJ/FBI lawbreaking. Reps. Jim Jordan and Ron DeSantis will be working toward messaging and clearing the fog from the fake news media.[56]

Every Democrat on House Intelligence Cmte. votes against allowing members of the full House to see Obama administration's illegal FISA warrant application on Trump and associates.[57] The Obama DOJ and FBI procured a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant against Trump associates using as probable cause false evidence manufactured by Hillary Clinton. Release of the documents to the public by the end of the month is expected to expose severe abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the Obama administration.[58]

Comey, McCabe, Strzok and others deliberately gave unlimited and unsupervised access to the most private raw FISA data to Fusion GPS.[59]

Man who offered $130,000 reward for info on the Murder of Seth Rich is attacked by unknown assailant. The attack “looked professional.”[60]

21 January. FBI destroyed evidence during early days of the coup, between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017. True Pundit reports: The FBI “failed to preserve” five months worth of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two FBI employees who made pro-Clinton and anti-Trump comments while working on the Clinton email and the Russia collusion investigations. The disclosure was made Friday in a letter sent by the Justice Department to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC). “The Department wants to bring to your attention that the FBI’s technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page,” Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, wrote to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of HSGAC. He said that texts are missing for the period between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017. Boyd attributed the failure to “misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBI’s collection capabilities.” “The result was that data that should have been automatically collected and retained for long-term storage and retrieval was not collected,” Boyd wrote.[61]

Loretta Lynch knew well in advance of FBI Dir. James Comey's 2016 press conference that he would recommend against charging Hillary Clinton, according to a new information turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee.[62]

22 January. Attn. Gen. Jeff Sessions announces 'the Inspector General discovered the FBI's system failed to retain text messages for approximately 5 months between December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017. The Department apprised the congressional committees of the missing text messages on Friday in the transmittal letter when providing the available text messages to them. I have spoken to the Inspector General and a review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to determine if these records can be recovered in any other way. If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal disciplinary action measures will be taken. We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source. If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately."[63]

Chairmans Gowdy, Goodlatte, Nunes release statement on missing Strzok-Page texts. "The contents of these text messages between top FBI officials are extremely troubling in terms of when certain key decisions were made by the Department of Justice and the FBI, by whom these decisions were made, and the evident bias exhibited by those in charge of the investigation. The omission of text messages between December 2016 and May 2017, a critical gap encompassing the FBI’s Russia investigation, is equally concerning. Rather than clearing up prior FBI and DOJ actions, these recently produced documents cause us to further question the credibility and objectivity of certain officials at the FBI.”

Unsealed FISA court ruling shows 85% of Obama's FBI and DOJ 704-5 FISA searches were illegal and illegally provided to government outsiders. A Report was released in April 2017 that received no publicity until recently. The report was a ruling on the results of an investigation or audit into FISA searches made by Obama's FBI and DOJ during Obama's time in office. The report shows Obama's FBI and DOJ participated in widespread criminal searches and criminal sharing of data with non authorized entities outside of government.[64]

23 January. Sen. Ron Johnson claims FBI “informant” has information about secret DOJ/FBI meetings[65][66]

Sen. Ron Johnson releases copies of text messages between Strzok and Lisa Page and FBI Lead Investigator Peter Strzok which Strzok indicates the he saw no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and was reluctant to join the Special Counsel Robert Mueller team because “there’s no big there there.”[67][68]

FBI “Small Group” Key Figure, James Rybicki. Rybicki was former FBI Dir.Comey's chief-of-staff and retained that position under current FBI Dir. Chris Wray. Rybicki was the key figure in circulating and coordinating the “Clinton Exoneration Statement” read by Director Comey on July 5, 2016. For the Clinton project Rybicki was the hub collecting and dispatching communication as the ‘talking points’ were constructed, edited, refined and ultimately finalized. Rybicki was the communication hub surrounding the Clinton-Lynch ‘Tarmac Meeting’ discussion points that led to public statements.[69]

True Pundit reports A high-ranking FBI official confirms a number of the missing 50,000 FBI text messages — as well as other text and email messages among FBI brass — reportedly discussed initiating physical harm to President Donald Trump.

The FBI official urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which oversees the U.S. Secret Service — to launch an investigation of the Justice Department, the FBI and all text messages missing and otherwise that threatened the President.

“This is dangerous territory and all FBI text messages and personal phones should be examined,” the official said. “It would reveal some frightening conversations.”

Did FBI brass discuss the assassination of President Donald Trump? If not, what was the nature of the threats against the president from inside the alleged premiere law enforcement agency in the United States?

“(Director) Wray wants a lid on this,” the FBI official said. “Many know there was talk of harming Trump politically but there is a group here (in D.C. HQ) that understands it goes deeper. We need a special counsel or Homeland Security. Somebody has to clean this up outside of DOJ. It is unacceptable.

“This is much larger than just texts between two FBI agents...Text messages just don’t disappear,” the FBI official said. “Not here. Someone outside DOJ has to look at all emails and texts. These (FBI bosses) are bad people. You’ve only scratched the surface.”

The high-ranking FBI official called on lawmakers and the Inspector General to focus on the text and email messages of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The official referred to McCabe’s official and personal correspondences “an anti-Trump treasure trove.”

As reported in March 2017 by True Pundit, McCabe openly threatened President Trump and then-National Security Adviser Gen. Mike Flynn, saying first we “F*** Flynn and then we F*** Trump” to several high-ranking FBI bosses who cheered his comment....Flynn has since been indicted and plead guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI from an investigation supervised by McCabe after a FBI interview conducted by Peter Strzok, one of the agents busted sending anti-Trump texts. And Trump remains under investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a figure linked to several conflicts of interest in the case including prior deals with McCabe.

As reported yesterday in True Pundit, members of the FBI and Justice Department’s top brass at their Washington D.C.headquarters and other field offices are now using burner phones to stay under the radar of federal investigators and lawmakers, according to FBI insiders....

While that is disturbing on one level, FBI and DOJ hierarchy employing the telecom habits of drug cartel bosses reaches a new low for the once-heralded federal law enforcement agency and the DOJ. And breaks federal laws as well.

Per The Hill yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday announced the Justice Department will investigate missing text messages sent between two FBI agents critical of President Trump...[70]

New York Post reports Evidence suggests massive scandal is brewing at the FBI.[71]

Friend of James Comey who leaked sensitive FBI memos to the New York Times in the wake of Comey's firing in May 2017 now claims to be Comey's personal attorney. Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, refused to disclose when exactly he became Comey's attorney. Comey was interviewed by Mueller's office in 2017. According to the New York Times, the line of questioning focused on memos that Comey wrote and later leaked after he was fired from his job by President Trump. Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote in a letter to the DOJ on January 3 that at least one of the memos Comey provided to his friend was classified. “My staff has since reviewed these memoranda in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the FBI, and I reviewed them in a SCIF at the Office of Senate Security, The FBI insisted that these reviews take place in a SCIF because the majority of the memos are classified. Of the seven memos, four are marked classified at the ‘SECRET’ or ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ levels. If it's true that Professor Richman had four of the seven memos, then in light of the fact that four of the seven memos the Committee reviewed are classified, it would appear that at least one memo the former FBI director gave Professor Richman contained classified information.”[72]

Joe Biden brags to an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations describing the pressure he put on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 to fire then Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to stop a criminal probe into Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Biden's son, Hunter Biden, sat. Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in funds unless the prosecutor was fired.

“They were walking out to a press conference. I said, ‘Nah, I’m not going to — or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars.’ They said: ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president. I said, 'Call him,’ ” Biden says. “I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars.’ I said: ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours.’ I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”[74][75]

24 January. Victims of the Obama criminal gang in the DOJ and FBI consider suing for financial damages and lost job opportunities. Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide, said “It appears as if the FBI and Department of Justice were weaponized against the president and his associates, including me. I was informed I was unmasked and surveilled....This investigation has destroyed many lives and drained many bank accounts. If the FBI or the DOJ indeed broke the law, a group of us plan to sue to recover the damage to our families and businesses.” Caputo was forced to liquidate his children's college fund to pay for legal representation. "It’s just not fair, just because Hillary Clinton failed in her quest to become president of the United States.” J.D. Gordon, a former Trump campaign national security adviser, said “The Trump-Russia scandal is not just the hoax of the century… it’s also the crime of the century. Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a high-tech coup in action against President Trump accompanied by a widespread defamation campaign against dozens of Trump Associates."[76]

Daily Beast reports the House FISA memo findings specifically cite James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, and Andrew McCabe complicit in Obama administration illegal wiretaps on political opponents.[77]

McCabe (left) with Deep State co-conspirator Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch (right). McCabe took $700,000 from a Clinton campaign operative to fix the email investigation and save Hillary's nomination. Lynch deliberately compromised herself to avoid having to make the announcement not to prosecute Hillary Clinton's crimes, which was decided when President Obama publicly interfered in the investigation.

Grassley to release transcript of Donald Trump Jr., testimony about June 2016 Trump Tower FBI/Hillary Clinton entrapment sting operation on the Trump campaign.[80]

Asst. Attn. Gen. for the Office of Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd objects to FISA memo release.[81]

27 January. DOJ turned some Peter Strzok/Lisa Page texts over to Robert Mueller for redactions "related to the structure, operation, and substance of the [Special Counsel's Office]'s investigation because it is ongoing." In all, there are at least 50,000 text messages, not including the messages between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017 which are said to be recovered but have not been turned over to Congress. Of the 50,000 known messages, only 7000 (15%) have been turned over to Congress. The missing period covers the timeframe between John Schindler's threat ultimatum from the intelligence community until the first week of the Mueller probe as it was being organized.[82]

Daniel John Sobieski of the American Thinker writes, who would have the most to gain? As we await release of the House Intelligence Committee’s memo regarding the collusion between the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DOJ, and FBI to interfere with the 2016 election, ensure the election of Hillary, and the defeat or impeachment of Donald Trump, the answer to that question is clear -- one Barack Hussein Obama.



Can it be believed that as key players in the Obama administration like Strzok and Page, as well as FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, number 4 at Justice Bruce Ohr, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and many others were linked in a vast criminal conspiracy to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House, that Barack Obama was blissfully unaware of all this? ...



This scandal did not occur in a vacuum any more than did the weaponizing of the IRS to target the Tea Party and other conservative groups before Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign occured in a vacuum. The agencies under Obama’s control have been politicized before and used to intimidate and destroy his political opponents...



in April, 2016, President Obama gave an interview in which he seemed to have foreknowledge that Hillary Clinton would be exonerated for her “carelessness” and did not “intentionally” mishandle classified emails, words that Comey would use just a few months later...In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Obama seemed to prejudge the outcome of the ongoing inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal, and he disputed the notion that any of the emails contained classified information of true importance. "She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy,” he said. “What I also know is that there’s classified and then there’s classified. There’s stuff that is really top secret top secret, and then there’s stuff that is being presented to the president, the secretary of state, you may not want going out over the wire.”…



...we now see how Obama’s pledge that politics would not taint the investigation was a bald-faced lie. This confidence in her exoneration was shared by Mrs. Clinton, who also seemed to have foreknowledge that the fix was in: The FBI is investigating the matter, and while Mrs. Clinton has virtually promised she will not be indicted, the scandal still hangs over her presidential ambitions...“That is not going to happen,” she told NBC News when asked if she would be indicted. “There is not even the remotest chance that it’s going to happen.”



National Review Contributing Editor Andrew McCarthy has long argued that Obama was the ringleader in obstructing justice in the Hillary email investigation: "From the first, these columns have argued that the whitewash of the Hillary Clinton-emails caper was President Barack Obama’s call -- not the FBI’s, and not the Justice Department’s… The decision was inevitable. Obama, using a pseudonymous email account, had repeatedly communicated with Secretary Clinton over her private, non-secure email account....If Clinton had been charged, Obama’s culpable involvement would have been patent. In any prosecution of Clinton, the Clinton -- Obama emails would have been in the spotlight. For the prosecution, they would be more proof of willful (or, if you prefer, grossly negligent) mishandling of intelligence. More significantly, for Clinton’s defense, they would show that Obama was complicit in Clinton’s conduct yet faced no criminal charges."



...a draft dated June 30, 2016 (i.e., five days before Comey delivered the final version), contained a passage expressly referring to a troublesome email exchange between Clinton and Obama. (I note that the FBI’s report of its eventual interview of Clinton contains a cryptic reference to a July 1, 2012, email that Clinton sent from Russia to Obama’s email address. See report, page 2.) The passage in the June 30 draft stated: We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including from the territory of sophisticated adversaries. That use included an email exchange with the President while Secretary Clinton was on the territory of such an adversary. [Emphasis added.] Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account.



On the same day, according to a Strzok–Page text, a revised draft of Comey’s remarks was circulated by his chief of staff, Jim Rybicki. It replaced “the President” with “another senior government official.” So not only were edits made to Comey’s draft memo to hide Hillary’s guilt but also Obama’s involvement.



From the Strzok-Page text messages we know that Loretta Lynch knew Hillary would not be prosecuted. That meeting on the tarmac was to tell Bill Clinton the fix was in, a fix whose impetus came from the White House and an occupant concerned with both his legacy being erased by a President Trump but also by his involvement in covering up Hillary’s crimes....



This is Watergate on steroids. Not only do we have one party colluding with government agencies to keep its candidate from being prosecuted for her crimes and preventing the election of the other party’s candidate, but we also have a sitting and corrupt President using the powers of his office to subvert an election and hand-pick his successor.[83]

Edward O’Callaghan is named Acting Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division.

28 January. FBI releases the results of their investigation claiming the founder of RT killed himself in a Washington D.C. hotel in November 2015 by repeatedly smashing his head and upper body into the ground.[84]

29 January. Andrew McCabe fired for misconduct. The firing came after a private meeting with Dir. Christopher Wray during which Wray expressed concern about the findings in DOJ inspector general's investigation. In a message to FBI staff, Wray said the FBI had followed procedures, not politics, leading up to McCabe's departure. “My conviction to adhering to process is similarly matched by my conviction to holding people accountable,’’ Wray wrote in the message, adding “I remain staunchly ‘by the book,’ ” and that he “will not be swayed” by political pressure;“[85]

path clear for release of FISA memo now.[86][87]

20 page letter from John Dowd to Robert Mueller.[88]

30 January. True Pundit writes Rosenstein, Mueller, McCabe et al have used the office of special counsel and a politicized the FBI and DOJ to conduct a silent coup against a duly elected president and are unindicted coconspirators in Hillary’s crimes. They should be the targets of their very own special counsel.



Based on the flimsiest of evidence in a fake Russian dossier paid for by Democrats the surveillance of Carter Page began and was reauthorized by Rosenstein. Page has vehemently denied the allegations in the dossier and has sought the release of the memo to show its falseness and to show the DOJ of Rod Rosenstein and the FBI of Andrew McCabe colluded with the Democrats to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House.[89]

Polling data shows a reversal of roles of traditional support for the FBI in the Obama era after passage of the Patriot Act and expanded domestic surveillance.

Chairman Goodlatte of the House Judiciary Cmte. asks Dir. Wray of the FBI to preserve all emails and correspondence of Andrew McCabe.[90]

FBI evaluating the Shearer dossier written by Clinton operative Cody Shearer with allegations about the sexual and financial activity of Donald Trump. Shearer gave his memo to Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, who transmitted it to State Department official Jonathan Winer, [91] who then gave it to Christopher Steele, who passed it on to the FBI. [92] [93] The Shearer dossier was not included in BuzzFeed's January 10, 2017 release. After the fraud of the Clinton-Steele dossier was exposed Stormy Daniels claimed she was paid to keep silent about an affair with Trump, and a stranger threatened her and her child. Kathleen Willey was a volunteer at the White House in 1993 when President Bill Clinton grabbed her, fondled her, and pressed her hand against himself in the Oval Office. Willey told her story in a 60 Minutes interview and became a target of a smear campaign directed by the Clintons. [94] In 1998, just before Willey was to testify in the Paula Jones trial, Willey was approached by a stranger who asked her menacing questions about her children, naming them by name. On Hardball in 1999, MSNBC host Chris Matthews identified the mysterious stranger as Cody Shearer. [95]

written by Clinton operative Cody Shearer with allegations about the sexual and financial activity of Donald Trump. Shearer gave his memo to Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, who transmitted it to State Department official Jonathan Winer, who then gave it to Christopher Steele, who passed it on to the FBI. The was not included in BuzzFeed's January 10, 2017 release. After the fraud of the was exposed Stormy Daniels claimed she was paid to keep silent about an affair with Trump, and a stranger threatened her and her child. Kathleen Willey was a volunteer at the White House in 1993 when President Bill Clinton grabbed her, fondled her, and pressed her hand against himself in the Oval Office. Willey told her story in a 60 Minutes interview and became a target of a smear campaign directed by the Clintons. In 1998, just before Willey was to testify in the Paula Jones trial, Willey was approached by a stranger who asked her menacing questions about her children, naming them by name. On in 1999, MSNBC host Chris Matthews identified the mysterious stranger as Cody Shearer. HPSCI staffers Kash Patel and Damon Nelson helped write the Nunes memo. Patel traveled to London in late Summer 2017 without the knowledge of the U.S. embassy or British government along with committee staffer Doug Presley in search of Christopher Steele.[96] Nelson died suddenly of a mysterious illness five days after Nunes lost control of the House Intelligence Committee in the 2018 Midterms.

31 January Chairman Nunes of the House Intel Cmte. said "It's clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign. Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again." The FISA memo alleges surveillance misconduct in the early stages of the FBI's investigation into alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia. Speaker Paul Ryan said it shows "there may have been malfeasance at the FBI by certain individuals...there are legitimate questions about whether an American's civil liberties were violated by the FISA process." Rosenstein and Wray warned White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that releasing the FISA memo could set a dangerous precedent.[97]

Senate Judiciary Cmte investigating communications between 40 individuals and entities associated with the Democratic National Committee and FusionGPS, including Clinton operatives Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer.[98]

Mueller asks for delay in Michael Flynn sentencing hearing.[99] The original judge recused himself in early December 2016, and revelations since of Obama administration FISA court abuses have cast a shadow over the whole Mueller investigation as a fruit of the poisonous tree exercise.

February 2018

[100] SEC opens investigation in Patrick Byrne 's Overstock.com. FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok's wife, Melissa Hodgman, happens to be the Assoc. Director of the SEC Enforcement Division, who happened to be leading the SEC investigation of Patrick Byrne's company shortly after the name Peter Strzok first became public.

February. Never Trump resister Kevin Clinesmith removed from Mueller investigation for extreme bias. [101]

Never Trump resister Kevin Clinesmith removed from Mueller investigation for extreme bias. 1 February. Andrew McCabe under ethics investigation by the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, subject to the FBI I administrative rules. McCabe's family received money from Clinton operatives during Hillary Clinton's email investigation which McCabe oversaw. McCabe cannot collect his lucrative full benefit FBI pension until he is cleared, and may have to answer questions before Congressional committees into Obama administration corruption and FBI interference in the 2016 presidential election before he is cleared.[102]

FBI messages reveal agents sought way to evade federal record requirements.[103]

FBI Dir. Chris Wray asks for all names to be redacted from the FISA memo. The request is denied.[104]

2 February. FISA memo released;[105][106] the memo is written by Trey Gowdy. Rep. Matt Gaetz states: The Democratic Party hired the Perkins Coie law firm. The Perkins law firm hired Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele to go and dig up the dossier, and then they hired Nellie Ohr, the wife of Bruce Ohr to get the fake dossier from a political environment into the bloodstream of the intelligence community and to convert it into an intelligence document.



And what’s most outrageous to me is that this fake dossier was so unreliable that the way that it was validated to the FISA Court was a Yahoo News article written by Michael Isikoff, planted by Christopher Steele.



So Christopher Steele wrote the fake dossier, and then he went and planted fake news stories to validate the dossier.



The FBI was going to pay Christopher Steele. They had authorized payment, but then when they found out he was talking to the media and that he was unreliable, they canceled payment to him. But even after canceling payment to Christopher Steele, the FBI and the Department of Justice re-authorized the FISA warrant to spy on American citizens based on a political document that had its origins at the Democratic National Committee.[107]

The FISA memo notes that, according to the FBI, "The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Peter Strzok," yet "There is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos."

Michael Isikoff reacts to FBI using his article to secure the Carter Page FISA warrant. "It's self-referential." The FBI was already in possession of the same information from the same source.[108]

Josh Campbell, Special Assistant to James Comey, resigns. Campbell writes an op-ed in the New York Times on why he is leaving but does not disclose in op-ed that he was Special Assistant to Comey or that he had been offered lucrative CNN job. Campbell takes job with CNN on February 5, 2018.

3 February. Michael Goodwin of the New York Post writes: The Washington swamp — the deep state — is bigger, more vicious and more dangerous to American liberty than even a cynic could have imagined.



Because of the memo and previous revelations, we know that swamp creatures are embedded in the top of the FBI and the Department of Justice. Some used their power to try to tip a presidential campaign based on their personal politics.



They conducted a sham investigation of the Democratic candidate and misled federal judges to spy on at least one associate of her Republican challenger.



To block exposure of their misdeeds, these officials falsely claimed that national security would be damaged. Add that despicable lie — issued in the name of the FBI itself — to their shameful records.



Thanks to the battle over the memo, we also know with 100 percent certainty that the mainstream media is part of the swamp. The efforts by the New York Times and the Washington Post, among others, to keep the memo from ever seeing sunshine were appalling.



Before it saw the memo, the Times’ editorial page called it proof of “The Republican Plot Against the FBI.” A Washington Post columnist warned President Trump he would be making a historic mistake in releasing it.



"Presidents don’t win fights with the FBI,” Eugene Robinson wrote, seemingly endorsing the blackmailing habits of the disgraced J. Edgar Hoover.



Oddly, the campaign by those papers coincided with the celebration of their roles in releasing the Pentagon Papers nearly 50 years ago, as heroically depicted in the movie “The Post.”



Then, those papers took great risks in standing up for the First Amendment in the face of government threats and financial pressures. Now, those same papers take the side of butt-covering secrecy and demonize those who demand transparency.



Those organizations are betraying their legacies and their duties as journalists. They share with corrupt officials a hatred of Donald Trump and believe that ending his presidency justifies any and all means.



Their motives are as partisan as that of the Democrats who fought tooth and nail to scuttle the memo.



The details of the memo make a strong case that current and former officials committed crimes by misleading FISA court judges in seeking four surveillance warrants against Carter Page, a bit player in the Trump campaign ­orbit.



Those details seal the sordid legacy of former FBI Director James Comey. He signed off on three warrant requests, reportedly without informing the judges that the essential piece of evidence against Page was the infamous Russian dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.



Months later, Comey himself told Congress the dossier was “salacious and unverified,” yet was secretly willing to use it in court against Page.



Its author, Christopher Steele, a former British spy, never went to Russia to interview his paid sources, some of whom were Kremlin officials. Did the judges know any of that before letting the FBI read Page’s e-mails and listen to his phone calls?



Steele was hired by the FBI, then fired when he shared his dossier with the press and lied about it. He also confided to an agent that he loathed Trump and “was passionate about him not ­being president.”



Did the agent, Bruce Ohr, whose wife worked for the same firm as Steele, FusionGPS, tell the judges that? Did Comey? The memo says no.



Without knowing that partisan link, the court was deprived of evidence that would have called into question the surveillance request. Indeed, the memo claims that Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director removed for his conduct during the separate Clinton investigation, testified that no warrant would have been sought “without the Steele dossier information.”



Not incidentally, current FBI Director Christopher Wray and his team read the memo before it was released, and did not dispute ­McCabe’s claim.



To the Trump haters, these facts don’t matter. He is, in their minds, unfit to be president, so nothing short of assassination is out of bounds.



Yet it is a mistake to view the memo’s revelations through the lens of whether you like Trump, or what you think of Carter Page. The ultimate issues are no more limited to them than were other landmark moments in American history limited by the personal ­interests of the parties involved.



The case in which Nazis were permitted to march in the Jewish neighborhood of Skokie, Ill., was not an approval of Nazis. The issue was whether repugnant speech has the same rights as popular speech.



The Supreme Court effectively said it did in a 1977 ruling that strengthened First Amendment rights for all Americans.



Similarly, the “Miranda warning” that allows a suspect in police custody to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination stems from a case involving a hideously violent criminal. Ernesto Miranda ultimately was convicted of kidnapping and rape, yet all suspects, innocent and guilty, benefit from the 1966 Supreme Court ruling in his favor.



Rulings like those weave the Founders’ ideals of equality into the fabric of contemporary life and make America the beacon of hope to the world.



Something even larger is now at stake. Trump is the great disrupter who has overthrown the established political order like no one in modern history, and many opponents have lost their bearings in resisting his presidency.



In their rage and bigotry, they are willing to abandon fundamental principles. We only know this because he won the election; none of this shocking misconduct would have been revealed under a Hillary Clinton presidency.



The claims in the memo that FBI and Justice officials acted corruptly should concern all fair-minded Americans, regardless of political preference. Those claims force us to ask whether we are a nation of laws that apply equally to all.



If not, we are no longer America. We are a banana republic where it’s acceptable for the government to use its police powers against political opponents.



The choice we face is especially stark given that the case at hand potentially implicates other top aides to former President Barack Obama. Recall that Page and others linked to Trump were accused of having ties to Russia, then their names were leaked to the media in a bid to sway the election and then to topple the president. There may be other flimsy FISA applications covering other Trump associates we don’t yet know about.



The memo is a giant step in ­uncovering what appears to be an unprecedented conspiracy, but it is not the endgame. More documents, congressional hearings, investigations and criminal prosecutions are unavoidable.[109]

4 February. John Brennan again repeats his false claim on NBC's Meet the Press that the Clinton-Steele dossier was no factor in the joint Intelligence Community Assessment on Russisn election interference in the 2016 presidential election presented to President Barack Obama on January 6, 2017.[110]

Sharyl Attkisson, former CBS News anchor writes, There are strict rules requiring that each and every fact presented in an FBI request to electronically spy on a U.S. citizen be extreme-vetted for accuracy — and presented to the court only if verified.

There’s no dispute that at least some, if not a great deal, of information in the anti-Trump Steele dossier was unverified or false. Former FBI director James Comey testified as much himself before a Senate committee in June 2017. Comey repeatedly referred to “salacious” and “unverified” material in the dossier, which turned out to be paid political opposition research against Donald Trump funded first by Republicans, then by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Presentation of any such unverified material to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to justify a wiretap would appear to violate crucial procedural rules, called “Woods Procedures,” designed to protect U.S. citizens.

Yet Comey allegedly signed three of the FISA applications on behalf of the FBI. Deputy Director Andrew McCabe reportedly signed one and former Attorney General Sally Yates, then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein each reportedly signed one or more.[111]

Daily Caller speculates FusionGPS may have been trying to bribe Bruce Ohr and gain access to the DOJ by hiring Bruce's wife, Nellie, in the Democrats' and Obama administration's Trump-Russia scam.[112]

Victoria Nuland says Obama State Department informed FBI on the Steele dossier.[113]

5 February. Sen. Grassley releases redacted version of Chris Steele criminal referral.[114] The redactions were made by the FBI. Steele was fed information from the Obama Justice Dept and Clinton campaign that made up a previously unknown Oct. 19, 2016 memo,[115] known as the Shearer dossier.

The Duran: Adam Schiff's collusion with oligarch, Ukrainian arms dealer, exposed. [116]

7 February. Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence, cyber security, counterespionage and export controls David Laufman ousted. Laufman would have been involved and hold knowledge of the FISA “Title-1” surveillance program initiated on Carter Page and the “incidental” collection of information on Trump campaign officials. Laufman would also have close contact with former Asst. Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr, husband of FusionGPS employee Nellie Ohr. Laufman also participated in the July 2nd 2016 interview of Hillary Clinton and cover-up of lawbreaking in the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

Senate Homeland Security Committee issues Interim Report on the Clinton Email Scandal and the FBI's Investigation Of It.[117]

At least four Russian mercenaries killed in firefight with U.S. forces in Deir el-Zour province, Syria.[118] There remains no legal basis under U.S. law or international law for the presence of U.S. forces in Syria, which Obama ordered in 2014, one year after the Deep state removal of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who proposed rectifying the situation. These are the first Russians killed in direct combat with the U.S. military since the Korean War - more evidence the anti-Trump forces want Hot War with Russia.

8 February. Democrat ranking Sen. Mark Warner of the Senate Intelligence Cmte. private text message exchanges with Adam Waldman, lobbyist for Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska in an effort arrange contact with Christopher Steele becomes public.[119] The contacts occurred in March 2017.[120] Deripaska is said to have ties to organized crime. Warner keeps the contacts hidden from Senate colleagues until October 2016.

FBI chief press spokesman Mike Kortan ousted for issuing unauthorized false and misleading attacks and impugning the integrity of the House Intelligence Committee's investigation of the FBI corruption scandal. Kortan was exposed by FBI Agent Peter Strozok as having specific information that the investigation into Hillary Clinton was manipulated by the “small group”. “Mike’s” job was to sell the whitewash and coverup of Clinton as a valid investigation.

Former Obama counsel and present defense counsel for Susan Rice, Kathryn Ruemmler, responds to Sens. Grassley and Graham request for information on Rice's January 20, 2017 12:15 EDT email on White House server memorializing (two weeks later) the January 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting with Obama, Biden, Rice, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Sally Yates and Adm. Rogers. An extended portion of Rice's email remains redacted. Ruemmler refers to National Security Advisor Rice as "Ambassador Rice" throughout. Ruemmler claims Rice was unaware of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation at the time.

"The memorandum to file drafted by Ambassador Rice memorialized an important national security discussion between President Obama and the FBI Director and the Deputy Attorney General. President Obama and his national security team were justifiably concerned about potential risks to the Nation’s security from sharing highly classified information about Russia with certain members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. In light of concerning communications between members of the Trump team and Russian officials, before and after the election, President Obama, on behalf of his national security team, appropriately sought the FBI and the Department of Justice’s guidance on this subject. In the conversation Ambassador Rice documented, there was no discussion of Christopher Steele or the Steele dossier, contrary to the suggestion in your letter. Given the importance and sensitivity of the subject matter, and upon the advice of the White House Counsel’s Office, Ambassador Rice created a permanent record of the discussion. Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion on January 20, because that was the first opportunity she had to do so, given the particularly intense responsibilities of the National Security Advisor during the remaining days of the Administration and transition. Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion in an email sent to herself during the morning of January 20, 2017. The time stamp reflected on the email is not accurate, as Ambassador Rice departed the White House shortly before noon on January 20. While serving as National Security Advisor, Ambassador Rice was not briefed on the existence of any FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia, and she later learned of the fact of this investigation from Director Comey’s subsequent public testimony. Ambassador Rice was not informed of any FISA applications sought by the FBI in its investigation, and she only learned of them from press reports after leaving office.[121]

Russian oligarchs paid millions in bribes to influence the Obama administration and the Clinton's in the Uranium One deal.[122]

McCain complicit in Russia collusion hoax.[123]

Leftist ideology, not merit, key to promotions within the FBI.[124]

9 February. Sen. Grassley writes a letter to Paul Hauser, Oleg Deripaska's London lawyer, and asks, "Is it the case that Mr. Steele, through you, works or has worked on behalf of Mr. Deripaska or businesses associated with him?" Hauser refused to answer, claiming such information was privileged. But he added: "I can confirm that neither my firm nor I was involved in the commissioning of, preparation of or payment for the so-called 'Steele Dossier.' I am not aware of any involvement by Mr. Deripaska in commissioning, preparing or paying for that document."[125]

Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, the number three official directly behind Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, resign.

Warner/Waldman text messages released; Wolfe indictment is still under seal and the general public does not quite grasp the significance of the Warner/Waldman texts.[126] Intel Committee co-chair Mark Warner was trying to arrange covert contact with Christopher Steele on March 17, 2017 - the date the Senate Intel Committee received the Carter Page FISA application and James Wolfe leaked it to Ali Watkins of BuzzFeed. By March 17, 2017, less than two months into President Trump's term and two months before Mueller's appointment, the Senate Intel Committee and the Washington media establishment knew the Russia collusion narrative was false after reviewing the Carter Page FISA application; and they knew the Obama Justice Department and FBI had acted improperly.

fivethirtyeight.com quotes Prof. David Garrow: "Normally you might expect Democrats to raise some questions about long-term surveillance of a U.S. citizen who seems like a pretty minor actor in the Trump campaign,” he said. “But instead, anything that seems to be anti-Trump or damaging to Trump is being embraced without question.” This is troubling, Garrow continued, because “we should have the same standard for whether surveillance is acceptable for any citizen, whether it’s Carter Page or Martin Luther King.” The Democrats’ willingness to abandon that standard when it’s politically convenient, he said, could amount to an abdication of their traditional role as FBI watchdogs....



"I can’t believe that I’ve lived to see liberal Democrats wholeheartedly embracing the FBI’s tactics,” said David Stebenne, a professor of American political and legal history at Ohio State University. “It’s really something when Democrats clearly perceive that the FBI is more credible and trustworthy than the president.”[127]

Kiddie porn lawyer and attorney for Deep State informant Eric Ciaramella, Mark Zaid, brags he has obtained national security clearances for "guys with child porn issues."

10 February. Poll shows 55% of Americans said it was "likely" that the Obama administration "improperly surveilled the Trump campaign during the 2016 election." On the question of whether a Special Prosecutor was needed to "investigate whether the FBI and the Department of Justice improperly surveilled the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election," 54% responded "yes," and 44% "no."[128]

Kiddie porn lawyer and attorney for Deep State informant Eric Ciaramella, Mark Zaid, brags on Twitter that he has obtained national security clearances for "guys with child porn issues."[129]

11 February. Former Obama CIA Dir. John Brennan under investigation for perjury.

[130]

Chairman Nunes plans to release a separate report detailing the Obama State Department's role in creating and disseminating the Steele dossier – which was the foundation of the Obama administration's Russia "collusion" investigation. The report will identify Obama-appointed diplomats who worked with partisan operatives close to Hillary Clinton to help Christopher Steele compile the dossier, sources say. "Those are the first two phases" of Nunes' multipart inquiry, a senior investigator said. "In phase three, the involvement of the intelligence community will come into sharper focus.

Nunes will focus on John Brennan as well as President Obama's first CIA director, Leon Panetta, along with Obama DNI James Clapper, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and security adviser-turned U.N. ambassador Samantha Power, among other intelligence officials.

"John Brennan did more than anyone to promulgate the dirty dossier," the investigator said. "He politicized and effectively weaponized what was false intelligence against Trump."[131]

12 February. Senate Judiciary Committee investigating mysterious email Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice sent to herself of briefing notes following an Oval Office meeting with Barack Obama, James Comey, Sally Yates, and Joe Biden about the Steele dossier on January 5, 2016, five days before the Obama administration leaked the dossier.[132][133]

Chairman Nunes interview with FNC's Sunday Morning Features' host Maria Bartiromo: NUNES: Well, we know that -- that the attorney general was briefed in the spring of 2016. So we know she was made aware. We know now, by the people from the State Department who have said that John Kerry, Secretary Kerry was briefed on the dossier. We know most of the news media was briefed on the dossier. So all of this was out there -- everybody, I think, but the Trump campaign and Republicans and the American people. Everybody else outside of those three groups knew about the dossier and were actively trying to open investigations, start investigations to – to use this dirt to go after the other campaign.



BARTIROMO: Incredible. So we know that Hillary Clinton goes to run for president and she’s got the full weight and strength and power of the U.S. government behind her, where FBI and other agencies are completely politicized to make sure she wins, and she still lost. This is just an extraordinary story.[134]

BuzzFeed and NYT reporter Ali Watkins, girlfriend of James Wolfe, receives a notification required by law that her email and phone data was retrieved by the DOJ in a classified leak investigation. Data retrieved was February 1, 2017 through July 31, 2017. This is within the time-frame of the Carter Page FISA application delivered to the SSCI and leaked by Wolfe to Watkins on March 17, 2017.[135]

14 February. At an open hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asked FBI Director Christopher Wray about Oleg Deripaska: Cotten: Is it fair to call him a Putin-linked Russian oligarch?

Wray: Well, I'll leave that characterization to others, and certainly not in this setting.

Cotten: Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, last week sent a letter to a London-based lawyer who represents Mr. Deripaska, and asked if Christopher Steele was employed, either directly or indirectly, by Oleg Deripaska at the time he was writing the so-called Steele dossier. Do you know if Christopher Steele worked for Oleg Deripaska?

Wray: That's not something I can answer.

Cotten: Could we discuss it in a classified setting?

Wray: There might be more we could say there.[136]

15 February. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte request from FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer the actual FISA Title-1 application as submitted by the Obama DOJ/FBI for surveillance of Carter Page. Evidence suggests the Obama administration may have modified the FISA documents within its possession in an effort to hide from Congress the trail of a conspiracy against Donald Trump and the incoming administration. The FISA documents held by the court may not be identical to the FISA documents released by the Department of Justice to Congress. The only people who have actually seen the FISA Title-1 application are officials in the DOJ and/or FBI who assembled it, presumed to be from the DOJ – National Security Division, possibly: John P Carlin, Mary McCord or people in a similar position; the FISC judge who approved the application, possibly Judge Rudolph Contreras; Reps. Trey Gowdy, John Ratcliffe, Adam Schiff and Bob Goodlatte.

Evidence suggests Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Baker, Bill Priestap, Bruce Ohr and likely Nellie Ohr, are cooperating with the Inspector General and internal DOJ task force investigation into Obama deep state criminal activity.[137]

The American Thinker asks, "Is it possible that these top national security and foreign policy journalists were focused on something else during Obama’s two terms in office, something that had nothing to do with foreign policy or national security? It seems we must even entertain the possibility they slept for eight years because nearly everything that frightened them about the prospects of a Trump presidency had already transpired under Obama. Whatever one thinks of Obama’s foreign policy, it is hardly arguable that he ceded American interests in Europe and the Middle East in an effort to avoid conflict with Russia.

The Trump team wanted to stop short of having the RNC platform promise lethal support to Ukraine—which was in keeping with official U.S. policy.[139] Obama didn’t want to arm the Ukrainians.[140] He ignored numerous congressional efforts to get him to change his mind. “There has been a strong bipartisan well of support for quite some time for providing lethal support,” said California Rep. Adam Schiff. But Obama refused.

As for the western alliance or international order...it was under the Obama administration that Russia set up shop on NATO's southern border. With the Syrian conflict, Moscow re-established its foothold in the Middle East after 40 years of American policy designed to keep it from meddling in U.S. spheres of influence. Under Obama, Russia's enhanced regional position threatened three U.S. allies: Israel, Jordan, and NATO member Turkey.

In 2012, Moscow's Syrian client brought down a Turkish air force reconnaissance plane. According to a 2013 Wall Street Journal article, “Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised alarms in the U.S. by suggesting that Turkey might invoke NATO’s Article V.” However, according to the Journal, “neither the U.S. nor NATO was interested in rushing to Article V...NATO was so wary of getting pulled into Syria that top alliance officials balked at even contingency planning for an intervention force to protect Syrian civilians. "For better or worse, [Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ] feels he can count on NATO not to intervene right now,’ a senior Western official said.”[141]

Whatever one thinks of Obama’s foreign policy, it is hardly arguable that he—wisely, cautiously, in the most educated and creative ways, or unwisely, stupidly, cravenly, the choice of adjectives is yours—ceded American interests and those of key allies in Europe and the Middle East in an effort to avoid conflict with Russia.

When Russia occupied Crimea and the eastern portion of Ukraine, there was little pushback from the White House. The Obama administration blinked even when Putin’s escalation of forces in Syria sent millions more refugees fleeing abroad, including Europe."

American Thinker further asks, didn't "Applebaum notice that Obama’s posture toward Russia made Europe vulnerable. She’s a specialist in Europe and Russia—she’s written books on both. Her husband is the former foreign minister of Poland. So how, after eight years of Obama’s appeasement of a Russia that threatened to withhold natural gas supplies from the continent, did the Trump team pose a unique threat to European stability?

Is it possible that Goldberg never bothered to research the foreign policy priorities of a president he interviewed five times between 2008 and 2016? In the last interview, from March 2016, Obama told him he was “very proud” of the moment in 2013 when he declined to attack Assad for deploying chemical weapons. As Obama put it, that's when he broke with the “Washington playbook.” He chose diplomacy instead. He made a deal with Russia over Assad's conventional arsenal—which Syria continued to use against civilians throughout Obama's term.

...regardless of how you feel about Obama's decisions, the fact is that he struck an agreement with Moscow that ensured the continued reign of its Syrian ally, who gassed little children. Yet only four months later, Goldberg worried that a Trump presidency would “liberate dictators, first and foremost his ally Vladimir Putin, to advance their own interests.”

Remnick wrote a 2010 biography of Obama, but did he, too, pay no attention to the policies of the man he interviewed frequently over nearly a decade? How is this possible? Did some of America's top journalists really sleepwalk through Obama's two terms in office, only to wake in 2016 and find Donald Trump and his campaign becoming dangerously cozy with a historical American adversary?"

They enlisted their bylines in a political campaign on behalf of the Democratic candidate for president and rehearsed the talking points Steele later documented. But weren’t the authors of these articles, big-name journalists, embarrassed to be seen reading from a single script and publishing the same article with similar titles within the space of two weeks? Weren’t they worried it would look like they were taking opposition research, from the same source?

No, not really. In a sense, these stories weren’t actually meant to be read. They existed for the purpose of validating the ensuing social media messaging. The stories were written around the headlines, which were written for Twitter: Putin’s Puppet; It’s Official: Hillary Clinton is Running Against Vladimir Putin; Trump and Putin: A Love Story; The Kremlin’s Candidate. The stories were vessels built only to launch thousands of 140-character salvos to then sink into the memory hole.

Since everyone took Clinton’s victory for granted, journalists assumed extravagant claims alleging an American presidential candidate’s illicit ties to an adversarial power would fade just as the fireworks punctuating Hillary’s acceptance speech would vanish in the cool November evening. And the sooner the stories were forgotten the better, since they frankly sounded kooky, conspiratorial...the Trump-Russia collusion media campaign really was delusional and deranged; it really was a conspiracy theory. So after the unexpected happened, after Trump won the election, the Russiagate campaign morphed into something more urgent, something twisted and delirious."

The article concludes, "The reason the media will not report on the scandal now unfolding before the country, how the Obama administration and Clinton campaign used the resources of the federal government to spy on the party out of power, is not because the press is partisan. No, it is because the press has played an active role in the Trump-Russia collusion story since its inception. It helped birth it.

To report how the dossier was made and marketed, and how it was used to violate the privacy rights of an American citizen—Page—would require admitting complicity in manufacturing Russiagate. Against conventional Washington wisdom, the cover-up in this case is not worse than the crime: Both weigh equally in a scandal signaling that the institution where American citizens are supposed to discuss and debate the choices about how we live with each other has been turned against a large part of the public to delegitimize their political choices.

The phony collusion narrative is a symptom of the structural problems with the press. The rise of the Internet, then social media, and gross corporate mismanagement damaged traditional media institutions. As newspapers and magazines around the country went bankrupt when ownership couldn’t figure out how to make money off the new digital advertising model, an entire generation of journalistic experience, expertise, and ethics was lost. It was replaced, as one Obama White House official famously explained, by 27-year-olds who “literally know nothing.”

But the first vehicles of the Russiagate campaign were not bloggers or recent J-school grads lacking wisdom or guidance to wave off a piece of patent nonsense. They were journalists at the top of their profession—editors-in-chief, columnists, specialists in precisely the subjects that the dossier alleges to treat: foreign policy and national security. They didn't get fooled. They volunteered their reputations to perpetrate a hoax on the American public.

That's why, after a year of thousands of furious allegations, all of which concerning Trump are unsubstantiated, the press will not report the real scandal, in which it plays a leading role."

Justice Dept tries to keep details as to when it received full Steele dossier under wraps in response to subpoena in defamation suit against Buzzfeed.[142]

CIA defends selective disclosure.[143][144]

US v. Concord Management. Mueller indicted the proverbial ham sandwich. When litigators for the Russian defendents actually showed up in court, Mueller was denied an easy public relations win. Mueller argued a nude selfie collected from the phone of a Russian troll bot was "vital to the strategic national security interests of the United States." . Mueller indicted the proverbial ham sandwich. When litigators for the Russian defendents actually showed up in court, Mueller was denied an easy public relations win. Mueller argued a nude selfie collected from the phone of a Russian troll bot was "vital to the strategic national security interests of the United States."

16 February. Rod Rosenstein announces "joke indictment" of Russian organizations that didn't even exist during the time they were supposed to have been engaged in election interference.[145]

No Americans were involved. No collusion with the Trump campaign was found.[146][147][148]

One US citizen plead guilty four days ago to selling fake IDs to Russians.

John Kerry approved visas for Russian operatives to enter US in 2014 and ‘interfere’ with the 2016 election.[149]

Roger Simon asks What Do We Do about the Biased and Incompetent FBI?[150]

17 February. Trump criticizes FBI for ignoring public safety while doing work for the Democrats.[151]

Judge Jeanine Pirro calls for "complete overhaul, complete cleansing" of the FBI.[152]

Media and Democrats have created 'more chaos' than Russians, says White House spokesman.[153]

WaPo reports much of the information in the Mueller indictment about Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election had already been published in October 2016 in an article by a Russian business magazine, RBC.[154]

Robert Barnes asks in Law and Crime, "Does Mueller Indictment Mean Clinton Campaign Can Be Indicted for Chris Steele?". "[W]ill Mueller indict Christopher Steele, FusionGPS, PerkinsCoie, the DNC and the Clinton Campaign?...three things make Steele a criminal: first, he is a foreign citizen; second, he tried to influence an election, which he received payments to do (including from the FBI itself); and third, he neither registered as a foreign agent nor listed his receipts and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. Also, according to the FBI, along the way, Steele lied...three things make FusionGPS a criminal co-conspirator: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission...three things make PerkinsCoie a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its receipt of payments from the Clinton campaign as a “legal expense.”...three things make the DNC a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its payments to Steele as laundered legal expenses to a law firm...three things make the Clinton Campaign a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its funding of payments to Steele laundered through a law firm as a “legal expense.”[155]

Former CIA Dir. James Woolsey admits to US meddling in foreign elections.[156]

18 February. Mike Cernovich reports FBI Dep. Dir. Andy McCabe altered Peter Strzok's interview notes (302s) with Michael Flynn and destroyed evidence.[157] Strzok and Comey both reported Flynn did not lie, however Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller later used tainted evidence to blackmail Flynn into offering a guilty plea for lying to Strzok, along with threats to prosecute Flynn's son. A new judge in the trial is now reviewing the new evidence in the case.

Byron York breaks down A non-alarmist reading of the Mueller Russia indictment: a total spent on Facebook ads targeting Wisconsin was $1,979, in Michigan it was $823, and in Pennsylvania it was $300. Russians spent "thousands" of dollars every month between 2015 and 2017. The Clinton and Trump campaigns spent a combined $2.4 billion. Facebook said the Russian operation bought about 3,000 ads, spending about $100,000 on Facebook and Instagram combined. That is compared to about $81 million the Clinton and Trump campaigns spent on Facebook and Instagram combined. Facebook estimated about 11 million people saw at least one of the ads between 2015 and 2017. Facebook said that of ad "impressions" — that is, how many times an ad appeared on screen in a person's news feed — just 44 percent came before the election, while 56 percent came after the election. About 25 percent of the ads were never seen by anyone. And of the total ads, "The vast majority…didn't specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or a particular candidate."[158][159]

Sharyl Attkisson interview Chairman Devin Nunes: Rep. Devin Nunes: So in that investigation, we've unearthed things that are very concerning. We know that there are un-maskings that occurred and probably were leaked to the media. So this is, so these were, this is an intelligence products that were put together. The names or the names of the Americans were masked.



Sharyl: Because it's so sensitive, Americans aren't supposed to be spied on by our intelligence agencies. So when they are captured, their names are-



Rep. Devin Nunes: Are masked-



Sharyl: Right, Masked, inside the government.



Rep. Devin Nunes: And what we found was happening is, in the last administration, they were unmasking hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of American's names. They were unmasking people for what I would say, for lack of a better definition, were for political purposes.



Sharyl: How could they use that information?



Rep. Devin Nunes: We have no evidence, that they leaked this information, okay. We only know that we only know this. That names were unmasked. And those names ended up in the newspaper.



Sharyl: In a derogatory sense, in terms of political enemies of the Obama Administration.



Rep. Devin Nunes: Right, it's like political dirt to create a narrative and a spin with the mainstream media.



****



Sharyl: On the unmaskings, one very tangible bit of evidence that to me looks like a crime. Is the fact that the US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. It looked like she had made a masking request on a near-daily basis. Which is amazing in 2016. It's pretty incredible. Yet she reportedly told Congress, most of those were not really her.



Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah.



Sharyl: Wouldn't that mean somebody committed a serious National Security Crime if they used her name to request unmaskings of US Citizens?



Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah, so we don't know what the truth is there. I think it would be, I think it's highly unlikely that she was not the one who was giving permission to make those unmasking requests.



Sharyl: So you don't believe her?



Rep. Devin Nunes: I just don't know how that's possible.



Sharyl: There appears to be a serious conflict of interest that the intelligence community, FBI, who are in charge of the investigation some of these things, are implicated in some of these alleged misdeeds. How do you get around that? How can this be investigated fairly, when the only prosecutorial authority really rests with the people accused of wrongdoing?



Rep. Devin Nunes: Yeah and I think what you're, and now what you're getting into is the FISA abuse. So I want to, I think we want to make sure we make that change, the difference there. So there was unmaskings that we unearthed, then there are the FISA abuse that we've discovered.



Sharyl: That's the secret court. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, where intelligence officials can go to try to get wiretaps on US citizens or foreign actors.



Rep. Devin Nunes: That's right. And so this is where the FBI and the Justice Department because they're involved in this FISA Abuse. Because they're the ones who make, to go before the secret court to get the warrants, they're all involved, they're all implicated in this.



Sharyl: But the most you can do about it to be clear, is to just raise the issue. Congress can't prosecute or refer cases for prosecution.



Rep. Devin Nunes: Congress can, right. Congress can make criminal referrals. Congress can



Sharyl: To the people accused of wrongdoing in this case.



Rep. Devin Nunes: Right, right. So there's really nowhere for it to go. And that's I think a lot of people. We are a separate equal branch of government, but we don't have the ability to prosecute people. And that's the challenge.



Sharyl: Why is the Carter Page wiretap interview so important? Carter Page is the former Trump volunteer, advisor, who was wiretapped apparently, at least four times. Three times by the way, apparently after President Trump was elected. Why is that wiretap so important?



Rep. Devin Nunes: It really boils down to this. You had a campaign. The Hillary Campaign and the Democratic Party went out and paid for dirt. They got it from Russians by the way. Then they used that dirt and funneled it into the FBI. The FBI then used that dirt to get a warrant on a US citizen who was part of the other campaign. A limited role, yes. But still, to do that, it's wrong.[160]

The Russians didn't keep Hillary out of Wisconsin; the Russians didn't make Hillary use personal email; the Russians didn't hire FusionGPS; the Russians didn't pay Christopher Steele; the Russians didn't make a dossier or deliver work product to the State Dept; the Russians didn't do the unmasking of campaign officials; the Russians didn't apply for a FISA warrant; the Russians didn't lie to a FISA court; the Russians didn't leak Mike Flynn monitored phone calls; the Russians didn't use DOJ and/or FBI databases to download FISA 702(16)(17) queries and extract the data to private contractors; the Russians didn't hire Nellie Ohr and Russians didn't approach president-elect Trump and warn him of politically weaponized intelligence surveillance.[161]

Jill Stein reacts to Mueller assertion the Russian government supported her candidacy for president.[162]

Democrat Sen. Bob Casey doesn't want Robert Mueller to release Russia report near 2018 midterm election.[163]

19 February. Former CIA analyst and senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy, Frederick Fleitz, says President Trump "should be pardoning anybody who’s been indicted and make it clear that anybody else who gets indicted would be pardoned immediately." Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says “The whole super structure of the Russia investigation is compromised. Those caught up in it deserve some protection. Rather than just let the virus run its course, it’d be appropriate for the president to consider pardons for people who are caught up in the prosecution.”[164]

Daniel Greenfield asks Where are the indictments for Obama's foreign colluders? The indictment states that, “the Federal Election Campaign Act… prohibits foreign nationals from making any contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, or disbursements for electioneering communications.” Obama chose to accept untraceable donations from abroad. He had failed to ask for proof of citizenship and his website allowed donations from Iran and North Korea. The chair of Nigeria’s stock exchange organized an “Africans for Obama” fundraiser. The Albanian Socialist Prime Minister has been accused of a scheme to transfer $80,000 to an Obama fundraising committee. Muslims in Gaza ran a phone bank for Obama. Gazans bought and resold Obama T-shirts from the campaign website. The Clinton campaign employed a British foreign agent who supposedly used Russian intelligence sources to put together opposition research meant to interfere with the results of a United States election. Foreigners are not allowed to interfere with elections in the United States, unless they're named Christopher Steele and work for Hillary Clinton. Facebook Vice President of Ad Product Rob Goldman noted that 56% of the Russian ad spending took place after the election. “We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn’t align with the main media narrative of Tump and the election,” Goldman tweeted. The Russian collusion hoax originated as a Clinton smear during the election. If you believe Steele, the foreign agent hired by the Clinton campaign, it may have originated with the Russians. That's better evidence that Hillary Clnton colluded with the Russians than Trump.[165]

Kurt Schlicter writes: "And then there’s Robert Mueller and his agonized admission that no American citizens were willingly involved with Russian meddling in the election. Note the word is now “meddling.” They don't use the word “collusion” anymore since Mueller admitted that there was no collusion – which is what we’ve been saying for over a year in response to Team Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit's pathetic attempt to explain away her humiliating defeat at the hands of patriotic Americans.

Instead of frog-marching the whole of Trump World out of the West Wing for partying with Putin, Mueller's festival of liberal onanism has instead resulted in indictments of a bunch of trolls who remain safely out-of-reach in Vladivostok, the better to avoid the feds being humiliated in court like they were by Cliven Bundy. But hey – they were going for Trump and instead got the mastermind manipulators behind 13 follower accounts such as @MAGATrumpMAGAGuy and @BernieSuperFan72, so that's almost as good.

“Collusions” fades to “meddling” which fades to “random tweeting” which fades to framed victim of liberal machinations Mike Flynn either withdrawing his coerced guilty pleas or getting a presidential pardon