“This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,” Trump tweeted. “Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”

The tweet renewed Democratic complaints that Trump is wrongly challenging the independence of the special counsel. Trump has repeatedly blasted the probe as a “witch hunt,” but the call for Sessions to intervene represents another escalation.

Sessions, however, already recused himself last year – handing off oversight to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. So he is unlikely to act.

A Justice Department spokesperson had no comment on the tweet when reached by Fox News. Another source familiar with the investigation downplayed the implications of the tweet – as Trump previously has vented his frustration with both the Russia probe and Sessions’ recusal from it.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement: “We have been saying for months that it is time to bring this inquiry to an end. The President has expressed the same opinion.”

Trump afterward tweeted concerns about the trial of ex-campaign boss Paul Manafort, which entered its second day on Wednesday morning.

“Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn’t government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion – a Hoax!” he tweeted.

Trump went on to target the anti-Trump dossier and former investigators who exchanged anti-Trump text messages.

The president has previously tried to assert that Mueller is conflicted, based on a claim that he turned him down for FBI director, his ties to fired bureau boss James Comey and other issues. Trump has long complained about the presence of Democratic donors on the Mueller team.

But Democratic lawmakers have warned Trump and his allies about encroaching on the Mueller probe’s independence.

In response to Wednesday’s tweet, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top intelligence committee Democrat, said, “This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it.”

After conservative House members unveiled a Rosenstein impeachment resolution, top House Democrats last week also noted that Mueller has already obtained over two-dozen indictments and said: “Any attempt to [take action against Mueller or Rosenstein] will be viewed by Congress and the American people as further proof of an effort to obstruct justice with severe consequences for Trump and his presidency.”

As Trump issued his call, Manafort’s trial, for tax and bank fraud charges unrelated to Russian meddling, was moving into full swing.

His defense team’s opening day strategy was to try and undermine the Mueller team’s star witness, Rick Gates, who was Manafort’s deputy in business and at the Trump campaign. The attorneys argued Gates was the one who transferred all the money into accounts, including consulting fees collected from Ukrainian political figures. They said he was embezzling money and later lied about it to investigators – before agreeing to flip and testify against Manafort.

But the Mueller team contends Manafort bankrolled a luxurious globe-trotting lifestyle with money he wasn’t paying taxes on.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye told the jury Tuesday that Manafort considered himself above the law as he funneled tens of millions of dollars through offshore accounts to pay for personal expenses such as a $21,000 watch and a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich.

“All of these charges boil down to one simple issue: that Paul Manafort lied,” Asonye said. “Manafort placed himself and his money over the law.”

Later Wednesday, Trump tweeted again, putting Manafort up against mob boss Al Capone, known by the nickname “Scarface,” who was charged with tax evasion.

“Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?” Trump tweeted.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy, John Roberts, Brooke Singman and Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/01/trump-urges-attorney-general-sessions-to-end-russia-probe.html

The post Trump urges Attorney General Sessions to end Russia probe first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON — The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election issued an indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers on Friday in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign. The indictment came only three days before President Trump was planning to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki, Finland.

The 29-page indictment is the most detailed accusation by the American government to date of the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election, and it includes a litany of brazen Russian subterfuge operations meant to foment chaos in the months before Election Day.

From phishing attacks to gain access to Democratic operatives, to money laundering, to attempts to break into state elections boards, the indictment details a vigorous and complex effort by Russia’s top military intelligence service to sabotage the campaign of Mr. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

The timing of the indictment, by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, added a jolt of tension to the already freighted atmosphere surrounding Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin. It is all but certain to feed into the conspiratorial views held by the president and some of his allies that Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors are determined to undermine Mr. Trump’s designs for a rapprochement with Russia.

The president has long expressed doubt that Russia was behind the 2016 attacks, and the 11-count indictment illustrates even more the distance between his skepticism and the nearly unanimous views of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies he leads.

“Free and fair elections are hard fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide and conquer us,” Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said Friday during a news conference announcing the indictment.

“So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed,” he said.

It was a striking statement a day after Republican members of Congress, engaging in a shouting match during a hearing, attacked Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. agent who oversaw the early days of the Russia investigation, and questioned the integrity of the Justice Department for what they charged was bias against the president.

The announcement created a bizarre split screen on cable networks of the news conference at the Justice Department and the solemn pageant at Windsor Castle in England, where Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, were reviewing royal guards with Queen Elizabeth II.

Russia has denied that its government had any role in hacking the presidential election, and on Friday, Mr. Trump said he would confront Mr. Putin directly. But the president said he did not expect his Russian counterpart to acknowledge it.

“I don’t think you’ll have any, ‘Gee, I did it, you got me,’” Mr. Trump said during a news conference hours before the indictment was announced. He added that there would not be any “Perry Mason” — a reference to the 1950s and 1960s courtroom TV drama in which Perry Mason, a criminal defense lawyer played by Raymond Burr, often got people to confess. “I will absolutely firmly ask the question.”

But Mr. Trump also said he believed that the focus on Russia’s election meddling and whether his campaign was involved were merely partisan issues that made it more difficult for him to establish closer ties with Mr. Putin.

The Kremlin agreed. A statement on Friday from Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that the indictment was meant to “spoil the atmosphere before the Russian-American summit.”

[Read the indictment here.]

After the indictment was announced, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and others in his party called on Mr. Trump to cancel his one-on-one meeting with Mr. Putin.

The indictment, Mr. Schumer said in a statement, was “further proof of what everyone but the president seems to understand: President Putin is an adversary who interfered in our elections to help President Trump win.” He added that “glad-handing with Vladimir Putin” would “be an insult to our democracy.”

The indictment builds on a declassified report released in January 2017 by several intelligence agencies, which concluded that “Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

Mr. Trump has long questioned the findings of intelligence agencies, suggesting alternate scenarios for who might have carried out the hacking campaigns. “It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, O.K.?” Mr. Trump said during the first presidential debate in September 2016.

Friday’s indictment did not include any accusations that the Russian efforts succeeded in influencing the election results, nor evidence that any of Mr. Trump’s advisers knowingly coordinated with the Russian campaign — a point immediately seized upon by the president’s allies.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, said in a Twitter post that the indictment showed “no Americans are involved,” and he called on Mr. Mueller to end the inquiry. “The Russians are nailed,” Mr. Giuliani wrote.

Still, the indictment added curious new details to the events leading up to the November 2016 elections.

The indictment revealed that on July 27, 2016, Russian hackers tried for the first time to break into the servers of Mrs. Clinton’s personal offices. It was the same day that Mr. Trump publicly encouraged Russia to hack Mrs. Clinton’s emails.

“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference in Florida. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

The indictment does not mention those remarks.

Separately, the indictment states that the hackers were communicating with “a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign.” Two government officials identified the person as Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser to Mr. Trump and the subject of close scrutiny by the F.B.I. and Mr. Mueller’s team. There is no indication that Mr. Stone knew he was communicating with Russians.

Communicating on Aug. 15 as Guccifer 2.0, an online persona, the Russian hackers wrote: “thank u for writing back … do u find anyt[h]ING interesting In the docs i posted?”

Two days later, the hackers wrote the person again, adding, “please tell me If i can help u anyhow … it would be a great pleasure to me.”

In another interaction several weeks later, the hackers, again writing as Guccifer 2.0, pointed to a document stolen from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and posted online, asking, “what do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.”

The person replied: “[p]retty standard.”

Friday’s indictment is a “big building block in the narrative being constructed for the American people regarding what happened during the election,” said Raj De, the chairman of the cybersecurity practice at Mayer Brown and the former general counsel of the National Security Agency.

By pulling together threads that Americans have read about for years — including the hacking of political institutions and campaigns, the dissemination of hacked emails and the attempts to compromise state election infrastructure — “this shows that the Russian campaign to impact the election was more coordinated and strategic than some have given it credit,” Mr. De said. “This indictment is our clearest window into that campaign.”

The document is a portrait of a coordinated and well-executed attack that targeted more than 300 people affiliated with the Clinton campaign, as well as other Democratic Party organizations. They implanted malicious computer code into computers, covertly monitored their users and stole their files that led to a series of disastrous leaks

Investigators identified the 12 individuals in the indictment more than a year ago, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Starting in April 2016, the hackers began to spread their stolen files using several online personas, including DC Leaks and Guccifer 2.0. The tens of thousands of stolen documents were released in stages that wreaked havoc on the Democratic Party throughout much of the election season.

The Russians also worked with people and organizations that were in a position to spread the information, including WikiLeaks, identified in the indictment as “Organization 1.”

According to the indictment, WikiLeaks wrote to Guccifer 2.0 in July 2016 asking for “anything Hillary related” in the coming days.

Most of the Russian intelligence officials charged in Friday’s indictment worked for the Russian military intelligence agency, formerly known as the G.R.U. and now called the Main Directorate.

While many of the broad elements of the Russian scheme were known before, investigators have not previously said how the Russian agents paid for the hacking campaign. The hackers’ use of cryptocurrency was one of the last pieces to fall into place for investigators in a case that they have been working on for more than a year.

The indictment released Friday said that the agents handled the most delicate transactions with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The Malaysian computer server that hosted DCLeaks.com, for instance, was paid for with the virtual currency.

Because Bitcoin functions without any central authority, the technology “allowed the conspirators to avoid direct relations with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade greater scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds,” the indictment said.

The Russian agents had several methods for acquiring Bitcoin, according to the indictment. At one point, the agents were actually mining new Bitcoin, a process that involves using computers to unlock new Bitcoin by solving complex computational problems.

The indictment’s extraordinary details may raise pointed questions about actions taken and not taken by American intelligence agencies and the Obama administration as the Russian campaign unfolded.

In many instances, the indictment describes the actions of individual Russian intelligence officers on particular dates. It is unclear from the indictment whether American intelligence agencies, primarily the National Security Agency, were watching in real time as the Russians prepared for and carried out their attacks against Democratic targets in spring 2016.

It was not until October 2016 that the government put out its first public statement on the Russian intrusion. If Americans knew much earlier about Russian actions, there will be questions about why they did not warn the targets, try countermeasures or call Russia out publicly before they did.

It is possible, however, that American spies did not detect the Russian attacks in real time, but reconstructed them later by studying the hacked Democratic networks and possibly breaking into Russian systems to examine logs.

The post 12 Russian Agents Indicted in Mueller Investigation first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post “Your IMPEACHMENT Is Coming In 7 Days”, Matt Gaetz Didn’t Give Rosenstein Any Air To Breathe first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Rep. Devin Nunes (right), chairman of the House Permanent Select committee on intelligence, has widened the net in the panel’s investigation into the use of the unconfirmed Russia dossier against Donald Trump. (Associated Press/File)

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has expanded its 2016 election investigation from a starting point of Russian interference to an end-game that focuses on federal law enforcement and how it conducted a drive to snare President Trump and his people.

Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, is accusing the Justice Department and the FBI of misleading him in “a pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated.” He charges that Justice claimed it possesses no documents related to the infamous Trump dossier, then, under pressure, produced “numerous” such papers.

Republicans in the first half of 2018 are likely to wind down the starting-point inquiry into Russian hacking of Democrats and whether Trump aides helped.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee’s top Democrat, already is protesting the likely move. He is pushing an extended list of witnesses he wants summoned by Republicans, who suspect Mr. Schiff would like to see the probe stay active into November’s midterm elections and beyond.

Democrats, including Mr. Schiff, have conceded in recent weeks that their hope of finding an extensive Russia–Trumpconspiracy to jointly attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has fallen short at this point.

What could outlive the initial Russia probe are missions undertaken by Mr. Nunes. He has put in place what amounts to a separate investigation of the FBI and the Justice Department hierarchy.

There are three main components:

• Fusion GPS. The Democrat-friendly opposition research firm and Mr. Nunes have squared off in U.S. District Court over access to Fusion’s financial transactions. Fusion funded the infamous Trump–Russia dossier with money from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

• The FBI and the dossier. Republicans want to know how the document’s unconfirmed felony accusations fueled the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation since July 2016.

• Investigative bias. The committee is demanding appearances from Justice officials who seemed out to get Mr. Trumpand/or had ties to the dossier’s distribution.

On Fusion, Mr. Nunes has used his subpoena power to seek records of Fusion’s financial transactions between law firms, journalists and media companies.

Fusion, founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters, notably Glenn Simpson, argues its records are protected by First Amendment rights.

The Washington Examiner reported that a key subpoenaed witness is David Kramer, an associate of Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, Arizona Republican. Mr. Kramer is one of the few people known to have possessed a hard copy of the dossier.

At the behest of Mr. McCain, Mr. Kramer represented the senator at a Nov. 28, 2016, meeting with Christopher Steele in Surrey, England. A British ex-spy, Mr. Steele compiled the 35 pages of memos making up the dossier based on his paid Kremlin sources, some close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Kramer then obtained a copy of the dossier from Fusion GPS. Mr. McCain hand-delivered a copy to then-FBIdirector James B. Comey in December 2016.

Mr. Kramer may be able to disclose the identities of Mr. Steele’s Moscow sources.

Mr. Kramer has been deposed by attorneys for Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev, who is suing the news website BuzzFeed and Mr. Steele for libel over dossier allegations.

A Gubarev attorney told The Washington Times that they now know who gave the dossier to BuzzFeed but cannot publicly identify the person because of a court gag order.

The Daily Caller asked Mr. McCain in October if he supplied the dossier to BuzzFeed.

“I gave it to no one except for the director of the FBI. I don’t know why you’re digging this up now,” Mr. McCain replied.

The bias element

According to an interview in Mother Jones magazine, Mr. Steele said he supplied his memos — the ones accusing Mr. Trump of a Russia conspiracy — to the FBI in “early July” 2016. Mr. Comey has testified he began the counterintelligence investigation in “late July.”

The early memos (they eventually spanned from June to December) accuse the Trump team of a far-reaching conspiracy with the Kremlin to damage Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Steele said the FBI asked for more of his memos in early August.

BuzzFeed at some point also obtained a copy and posted it in full on Jan. 10, 2017.

Concerning the FBI, Mr. Nunes wants more information on how the bureau used the document to investigate Trumppeople. He has been in a behind-the-scenes battle to gain access to FBI documents, only to be rebuffed.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, intervened by openly urging the FBI to cooperate. It then showed Mr. Nunes‘ staff a limited amount of information.

An impatient Mr. Nunes on Dec. 28 came close to accusing Justice and the bureau of a cover-up.

In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Mr. Nunes said the Department of Justice at first said dossier-related FBI interview summaries, known as 302s, “did not exist.”

Weeks later, under an Aug. 24 subpoena, DOJ suddenly located “numerous FD-302s pertaining to the Steele dossier, thereby rendering the initial response disingenuous at best,” the House intel committee chief wrote.

Based on the stonewalling, Mr. Nunes said the committee no longer can accept Justice’s position that it cannot turn over other official investigative forms, called 1032s. They document meetings between the FBI and confidential human sources.

“As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters,” Mr. Nuneswrote.

He gave the Justice Department until Wednesday to comply.

“Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI’s intransigence with respect to the August 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Mr. Nunes wrote. “At this point, it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.”

A third area of committee inquiry is anti-Trump bias by investigators.

In December, the committee heard closed-door testimony from Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was asked what the bureau confirmed among the dossier’s core collusion charges. He said just one: a trip to Moscow by Trumpcampaign volunteer Carter Page to deliver a public speech to a university.

Mr. McCabe headed the Clinton email investigation after his wife received nearly $700,000 in campaign donations from the Democratic Party and a PAC controlled by a close Clinton ally, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Jill McCabe lost her state Senate race in 2015.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz is investigating whether Mr. McCabe should have recused himself from the probe, which did not recommend criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Nunes also wants testimony from FBI agent Peter Strzok. He headed the Trump inquiry until special counsel Robert Mueller fired him in July over his biased text messages to his FBI lover, Lisa Page. On his FBI-issued phone, Mr. Strzok texted about an unspecified “insurance policy” to keep Mr. Trump from winning the election. Mr. Nunes also demands that Ms. Page to be made available for interviews.

Also on the witness list in 2018 is senior Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr. He met with Mr. Steele during the election and with Fusion GPS afterwards. His wife worked as a Russia expert at Fusion, where she may have participated in the company’s anti-Trump campaign behind the scenes.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/1/devin-nunes-expands-russia-probe-use-Trump-dossier/

The post House expands Russia probe to FBI, Justice use of unconfirmed dossier to snare Trump first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Rep. Devin Nunes (right), chairman of the House Permanent Select committee on intelligence, has widened the net in the panel’s investigation into the use of the unconfirmed Russia dossier against Donald Trump. (Associated Press/File)

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has expanded its 2016 election investigation from a starting point of Russian interference to an end-game that focuses on federal law enforcement and how it conducted a drive to snare President Trump and his people.

Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, is accusing the Justice Department and the FBI of misleading him in “a pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated.” He charges that Justice claimed it possesses no documents related to the infamous Trump dossier, then, under pressure, produced “numerous” such papers.

Republicans in the first half of 2018 are likely to wind down the starting-point inquiry into Russian hacking of Democrats and whether Trump aides helped.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee’s top Democrat, already is protesting the likely move. He is pushing an extended list of witnesses he wants summoned by Republicans, who suspect Mr. Schiff would like to see the probe stay active into November’s midterm elections and beyond.

Democrats, including Mr. Schiff, have conceded in recent weeks that their hope of finding an extensive Russia–Trumpconspiracy to jointly attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has fallen short at this point.

What could outlive the initial Russia probe are missions undertaken by Mr. Nunes. He has put in place what amounts to a separate investigation of the FBI and the Justice Department hierarchy.

There are three main components:

• Fusion GPS. The Democrat-friendly opposition research firm and Mr. Nunes have squared off in U.S. District Court over access to Fusion’s financial transactions. Fusion funded the infamous Trump–Russia dossier with money from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

• The FBI and the dossier. Republicans want to know how the document’s unconfirmed felony accusations fueled the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation since July 2016.

• Investigative bias. The committee is demanding appearances from Justice officials who seemed out to get Mr. Trumpand/or had ties to the dossier’s distribution.

On Fusion, Mr. Nunes has used his subpoena power to seek records of Fusion’s financial transactions between law firms, journalists and media companies.

Fusion, founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters, notably Glenn Simpson, argues its records are protected by First Amendment rights.

The Washington Examiner reported that a key subpoenaed witness is David Kramer, an associate of Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, Arizona Republican. Mr. Kramer is one of the few people known to have possessed a hard copy of the dossier.

At the behest of Mr. McCain, Mr. Kramer represented the senator at a Nov. 28, 2016, meeting with Christopher Steele in Surrey, England. A British ex-spy, Mr. Steele compiled the 35 pages of memos making up the dossier based on his paid Kremlin sources, some close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Kramer then obtained a copy of the dossier from Fusion GPS. Mr. McCain hand-delivered a copy to then-FBIdirector James B. Comey in December 2016.

Mr. Kramer may be able to disclose the identities of Mr. Steele’s Moscow sources.

Mr. Kramer has been deposed by attorneys for Russian entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev, who is suing the news website BuzzFeed and Mr. Steele for libel over dossier allegations.

A Gubarev attorney told The Washington Times that they now know who gave the dossier to BuzzFeed but cannot publicly identify the person because of a court gag order.

The Daily Caller asked Mr. McCain in October if he supplied the dossier to BuzzFeed.

“I gave it to no one except for the director of the FBI. I don’t know why you’re digging this up now,” Mr. McCain replied.

The bias element

According to an interview in Mother Jones magazine, Mr. Steele said he supplied his memos — the ones accusing Mr. Trump of a Russia conspiracy — to the FBI in “early July” 2016. Mr. Comey has testified he began the counterintelligence investigation in “late July.”

The early memos (they eventually spanned from June to December) accuse the Trump team of a far-reaching conspiracy with the Kremlin to damage Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Steele said the FBI asked for more of his memos in early August.

BuzzFeed at some point also obtained a copy and posted it in full on Jan. 10, 2017.

Concerning the FBI, Mr. Nunes wants more information on how the bureau used the document to investigate Trumppeople. He has been in a behind-the-scenes battle to gain access to FBI documents, only to be rebuffed.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, intervened by openly urging the FBI to cooperate. It then showed Mr. Nunes‘ staff a limited amount of information.

An impatient Mr. Nunes on Dec. 28 came close to accusing Justice and the bureau of a cover-up.

In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Mr. Nunes said the Department of Justice at first said dossier-related FBI interview summaries, known as 302s, “did not exist.”

Weeks later, under an Aug. 24 subpoena, DOJ suddenly located “numerous FD-302s pertaining to the Steele dossier, thereby rendering the initial response disingenuous at best,” the House intel committee chief wrote.

Based on the stonewalling, Mr. Nunes said the committee no longer can accept Justice’s position that it cannot turn over other official investigative forms, called 1032s. They document meetings between the FBI and confidential human sources.

“As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters,” Mr. Nuneswrote.

He gave the Justice Department until Wednesday to comply.

“Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI’s intransigence with respect to the August 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Mr. Nunes wrote. “At this point, it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.”

A third area of committee inquiry is anti-Trump bias by investigators.

In December, the committee heard closed-door testimony from Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was asked what the bureau confirmed among the dossier’s core collusion charges. He said just one: a trip to Moscow by Trumpcampaign volunteer Carter Page to deliver a public speech to a university.

Mr. McCabe headed the Clinton email investigation after his wife received nearly $700,000 in campaign donations from the Democratic Party and a PAC controlled by a close Clinton ally, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Jill McCabe lost her state Senate race in 2015.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz is investigating whether Mr. McCabe should have recused himself from the probe, which did not recommend criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Nunes also wants testimony from FBI agent Peter Strzok. He headed the Trump inquiry until special counsel Robert Mueller fired him in July over his biased text messages to his FBI lover, Lisa Page. On his FBI-issued phone, Mr. Strzok texted about an unspecified “insurance policy” to keep Mr. Trump from winning the election. Mr. Nunes also demands that Ms. Page to be made available for interviews.

Also on the witness list in 2018 is senior Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr. He met with Mr. Steele during the election and with Fusion GPS afterwards. His wife worked as a Russia expert at Fusion, where she may have participated in the company’s anti-Trump campaign behind the scenes.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/1/devin-nunes-expands-russia-probe-use-Trump-dossier/

The post House expands Russia probe to FBI, Justice use of unconfirmed dossier to snare Trump first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“We look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. | Alex Brandon/AP

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that President Donald Trump hopes special counsel Robert Mueller will wrap up his “hoax” investigation soon, and she said lawmakers should “absolutely” look into what they view as election-related wrongdoing under the previous administration.

Sanders said Trump does not intend to fire Mueller, whose team is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, including any ties to Trump campaign officials. But the White House spokeswoman also took aim at the probe’s legitimacy.

“We have no intentions of firing Bob Mueller. We are continuing to work closely and cooperate with him,” Sanders said on Fox News. “We look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon.”

Sanders was asked whether she agreed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who tweetedon Thursday that it was “time to investigate high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump!”

“I think it’s something that certainly should be looked at,” Sanders said.

Paul also suggested during an interview on Fox News that members of the intelligence community may have conspired to keep Trump out of the White House. Pressed on whether the White House agreed with the senator’s sentiment, Sanders said an investigation into the matter would be worthwhile.

“I haven’t asked [the president] directly about Sen. Paul’s statement. I think the senator, if he feels there is something to be looked at, we absolutely should be looking at that,” she said.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the ongoing probe into ties between his campaign aides and foreign officials as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”

The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., similarly floated Tuesday that government officials were conspiring against his father.

“There is, and there are, people at the highest levels of government that don’t want to let America be America,” Trump Jr. told a group of young conservatives in Florida.

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/21/bob-mueller-hoax-russia-investigation-sarah-sanders-312214

The post Sanders brushes off ‘hoax’ Russia probe, backs calls to investigate wrongdoing under Obama first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Washington (CNN)The Justice Department has agreed to allow congressional investigators to interview a key FBI employee believed to have served as the main contact, or “handler” of, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who compiled the so-called “dossier” of allegations about President Donald Trump’s connections to Russia, according to a department spokesperson.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/03/politics/justice-department-house-intel-russia-investigation/index.html

The post Justice Dept. offers up key witness in Russia probe as House Intel Chair threatens contempt first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.