Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile the “Russian dossier” that triggered an FBI investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, according to a report Tuesday by the Washington Post.
A Republican had contracted first with Fusion GPS, and Clinton and the DNC continued to fund Fusion GPS’s work, the report says.
According to the Post:
Mark Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community …Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’s research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.
The “Russian dossier,” whose contents Trump has denied and which has been widely discredited, is believed to have led the FBI to investigate the Trump campaign and several Trump associates.
Until now, Fusion GPS has continued to refuse to cooperate with congressional panels investigating Russian attempts to intervene in the election, and how the Obama administration probed those efforts. Democrats have also protected the company.
The revelation that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee were involved in procuring the salacious accusations against Trump that fed their own later accusations of Russian interference in the election lends credence to those who, like Trump himself, have regarded the Russia accusations as conspiracy theories.
Last week, Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal observed:
The Washington narrative is focused on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. But the ferocious pushback and unseemly tactics from Democrats suggest they are growing worried. Maybe the real story is that Democrats worked with an opposition-research firm that has some alarming ties to Russia and potentially facilitated a disinformation campaign during a presidential election.
On the heels of revelations that the FBI was investigating Russian attempts to influence Hillary Clinton to approve a controversial uranium deal, Democrats will have more questions to answer about possible collusion with Russia. The FBI, too, will face additional scrutiny from Congress — especially as it agreed to pay Steele after the election for additional research into Trump’s potential Russia ties.
✧
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Bet the farm, McCain is involved.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not!
ReplyDeleteFront page: Washington Post
Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund the research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.
By Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind S. Helderman 3 hours ago
Rosalind Helderman
ReplyDeleteDid Ms Clinton, DNC and one Republican pay for lies, or were they paying for some level of reliability to the information they were paying for.
ReplyDeleteThat supposedly none of the stories told in the dossier have been proven to be false.., while not a validation of the dossier, it does lend some credence to its possible veracity
The FBI’s Political Meddling
ReplyDeleteMueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.Oct. 24, 2017 6:17 p.m. ET
WSJ
Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.
Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.
The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.
We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.
OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.
But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
{...}
{...}
DeleteHere’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.
The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.
This criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.
For anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.
The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.
{...}
{...}
DeleteWhich means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.
Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.
But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.
To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.
Appeared in the October 25, 2017, print edition.
Sean Hannity said there is now reason for special counsel Robert Mueller to resign his post, citing "conflicts of interest" during the time the Uranium One deal was approved.
ReplyDeleteHannity said Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, led a bureau that "clearly had the information" that called into question whether illicit or unethical activity was involved in the arrangement.
...
He said Rosenstein and then-Attorney General Eric Holder should be questioned by Congress on the matter.
Whole affair comes over as being radioactive, to me.
ReplyDeleteThe FBI’s Political Meddling
DeleteMueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, now special counsel on the Russia investigation, following a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, June 21. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Oct. 24, 2017 6:17 p.m. ET
Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.
Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.
The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.
We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.
OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.
But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
Here’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.
The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.
This criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.
DeleteFor anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.
The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.
Which means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.
Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.
But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.
To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fbis-political-meddling-1508883468
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOoops, that's the same story Deuce put up....o well it deserves a second reading.
DeleteHeh, the lawyers have a good time, don't they ? -
ReplyDeleteDo Private Uranium Investors Have a $3B Claim against Obama Administration Officials?
Joseph Somsel
Members of the Obama administration may have used the extensive regulation and secrecy integral to U.S. uranium operations to bankrupt a $3-billion private firm. Civil litigation, with very different and often more permissive rules of discovery and deposition, may be feasible as a mechanism of getting at the rot. More
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/10/do_private_uranium_investors_have_a_3b_claim_against_obama_administration_officials.html
The swamp at work: Hillary paid for the Steele Report - 10/25/17
ReplyDeleteThe plot thickens on the infamous "Trump dossier." More
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/the_swamp_at_work_hillary_paid_for_the_steele_report.html
Unbelievable that it's gotten this far.
ReplyDeleteThey all deserve to be hung for Treason.
So says the draft dodger that "ripped off" a bank fot thousands of dollars.
DeletePot calling the kettle black
Wrong on all counts Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed War Criminal, Jew hater, and Cathected Pathological Liar.
DeleteThat's all you've got, Draft Dodger?
DeleteRetelling the same old lies ...
Was Mr Corker speaking of you, or Mr Trump?
You both share the same pathologies
ReplyDeleteNeh. All THE NEWS UNFIT TO PRINT _
Fusion GPS-DNC story ... not so important to New York Times' readers - 10/25/17
Among the tweed with leather elbow patches set who read the New York Times, the news that Democrats paid for the Trump 'dossier' is too hot to handle. More
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/fusion_gpsdnc_story__not_so_important_to_new_york_times_readers.html
The wheels are really coming off the wagon now -
DeleteThe Hunt for Red November - 10/25/17
A lot of people have come to believe Russia interfered with our political system. Most of those believers are on the left. The cognitive dissonance has just begun for all of them. More
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/the_hunt_for_red_november.html
DNC head runs for the hills on Trump Russia dossier - 10/25/17
In the face of scandal allegations, the normal response of Democrats is to circle the wagons and defend their comrade under fire. That’s not happening now that the dam is breaking More
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/dnc_head_runs_for_the_hills_on_trump_russia_dossier.html
Time to get rid of Mueller & Company.
We are somewhere around about ACT 3 SCENE 2 or so......
DeleteGood play.
Worth the price of admission, for once.
(there's gonna be bodies - figuratively speaking, we all hope, don't we ? - all over the stage floor at the end of ACT 5)
DeleteAnd with Quirk doing the dynamics - this is a stage adviser who instructs the cast on how to increase drama and tension in the action - we're in for a ripping, stabbing, backbiting great time !!
The source of the Steele dossier and its funding, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, have nothing to do with Mr Mueller or the investigation he is leading.
DeleteYou have become a looped recording
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ReplyDeleteThe Flower in the Desert
There's enough screwed up about this country's governance that I haven't really had the time or inclination to carry on my criticism of Israel's PM and right wing government. However, it appears it's a slow news day so I offer up this...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/state-prosecutor-blasts-bid-to-immunize-pm-from-investigation/
In a rare public criticism of legislative efforts, published in the form of Bible commentary, State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan came out Monday against a bill that would give serving prime ministers immunity from criminal prosecution, arguing that probing the actions of public officials is an “essential tenet” of democracy.
Amid two ongoing criminal investigations into corruption allegations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would prohibit police from probing a serving premier for fraud, bribery or breach of trust. In its current form, the bill would likely not help Netanyahu in those instances as it specifies it would not apply to ongoing investigations, but would prevent him being made a suspect in further criminal cases. Some MKs have also raised fears that the bill may later be amended to apply retroactively to save Netanyahu from prosecution...
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Do your job and keep your nose glued to our domestic political play. Don't let your mind wander to the ends of the earth.
Delete.
DeleteSays the man who will put up a three page rant by Pam Geller or Robert Spencer about a shooting by a Muslim in Bumfuck, Egypt.
.
RUSSIA SCRIPT FLIPPED...
ReplyDeleteTop Hillary lawyer lied for YEAR about dossier...
MESS: Pressure builds on Mueller to recuse himself...
FBI On Hot Seat...
Busted Media Downplay Revelations....DRUDGE
DC ROCKED: CLINTON PAID FOR KREMLIN DIRT ON TRUMP....DRUDGE HEADLINE
WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL
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ReplyDeleteTrump Champion of Wall Street Banks and the Corporations
A quick visit to YouTube will produce plenty of examples of Donald Trump pledging to take on and punish Wall Street, the banks, and the corporations. We have seen this promise put to the lie with his proposed tax cut for the rich and the corporations. Now, we see him personally deliver the biggest win for those institutions since their bailouts in 2008. He did this when he sent his vice-president over to the Senate to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of a law that eliminates a rule that allows class-action suits against banks and big corporations.
Senate Votes to Kill New Rule Allowing Class Action Lawsuits Against Banks After Mike Pence Casts Deciding Vote
Set to take effect in March, the rule would not have banned clauses in checking account, credit card and other banking agreements that say disputes between companies and customers must be dealt with privately or in small claims court.
Instead, there would have been a ban on provisions that block consumers from banding together to bring class-action cases. The CFPB argued that such cases help hold banks accountable.
The determinations of an arbitrator are binding and consumer advocates say most decisions favor the company. The private proceedings also allow banks to deal with individual problems quietly rather than address widespread abuses.
Bureau Director Richard Cordray called the Senate vote “a giant setback for every consumer in this country” and urged Trump to veto the repeal legislation.
“It robs consumers of their most effective legal tool against corporate wrongdoing,” Cordray said. “As a result, companies like Wells Fargo and Equifax remain free to break the law without fear of legal blowback from their customers.”
George Slover, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, said the vote “means that big financial companies can lock the courthouse doors and prevent consumers who’ve been mistreated from joining together to seek the relief they deserve under the law.”
.
The Donald is out to help everyone, rich and poor alike.
Delete
DeleteThat is a lie, "Draft Dodger", straight up.
ReplyDeleteSecond US aircraft carrier enters western Pacific amid North Korea tensions
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/24/second-us-aircraft-carrier-enters-western-pacific-amid-korea-tensions.html
Kent State mulls whether telling someone ‘You need Jesus’ is hate speech
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thecollegefix.com/post/38242/
I recall once when Quirk was braying on and on about 'the rich' I said, "Quirk, relax, you need a drink".
Is that hate speech ?
He seemed really pissed about it is all I know.
DeleteYes "Draft Dodger", to reccomdnd alcohol is hateful as well as harmful.
You a steadfast purveyor of hate speach.
Quotes readily available
Go back to your mom's basement Dead Beat Dad, War Criminal, Liar and Jew hater.
DeleteIt's where you were meant to be.
.
ReplyDeleteRyan Says Lawmakers Will Not Take Up Healthcare Again This Year
Trump completes half of his promise. He has gutted Obamacare. Replacing it with something better? Not so much.
.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea: Threat of Atmospheric Nuclear Test Should Be Taken Literally
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The North Korean foreign minister's warning of a possible atmospheric nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean should be taken literally, a senior North Korean official told CNN in an interview aired on Wednesday.
"The foreign minister is very well aware of the intentions of our supreme leader, so I think you should take his words literally," Ri Yong Pil, a senior diplomat in North Korea's Foreign Ministry, told CNN.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said last month Pyongyang may consider conducting "the most powerful detonation" of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean amid rising tensions with the United States
ReplyDeleteHow A Two-Person Montana Company Ended Up With The Biggest Energy Contract In Puerto Rico
With ties to the Interior Department secretary and a Trump donor, is it a swampy deal — or innovation at work?
Ten miles south of Whitefish, Montana, a paved road turns into gravel, before turning into forest. On one side, there’s a small horse farm. On the other, signs read “Private Property” and suggest the area is being patrolled in order to prevent poaching. At the end of a long private drive lined with towering pines, an RV is parked on the grass in front of a log and stone cabin. This is the home of Whitefish Energy, a tiny company that has been awarded a contract valued at $300 million — the biggest to date — to restore power in Puerto Rico, where an estimated 76% of the island is still without electricity four weeks after Hurricane Maria.
This choice puzzled many, including members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, which, according to the Washington Post, is now looking into the deal, and the governor of Puerto Rico, who just called for an audit of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s energy contracts. Some observers have raised questions about Whitefish Energy’s ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a Whitefish native and acquaintance of Whitefish Energy CEO Andy Techmanski. Zinke’s son Wolf previously worked as a flagger at one of Techmanski’s worksites; when Whitefish Energy attempted to build a transistor plant on a Superfund site in nearby Columbia Falls last year, then-congressman Zinke’s office reached out to the city manager. Both Zinke and Techmanski have denied that Zinke was involved in the procurement of the Puerto Rico contract.
DeleteWhat’s more, Joe Colonnetta, the head of one of Whitefish Energy’s major funding sources, Dallas-based HBC Investments, has made significant donations to Trump’s election campaign and PACs supporting Trump’s election. Colonnetta also contributed to the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, as well as then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who later appointed Colonnetta to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which has been embroiled in controversy surrounding allegations of cronyism on the part of Perry donors turned trustees. (In February 2017, a Change.org petition circulated to remove Colonnetta from his position, citing his involvement with the Center for Security Policy, a far-right, anti-Muslim think tank that advocates against refugee resettlement. A spokeswoman for the Center for Security Policy said that Colonnetta was previously a general board member, but is not currently involved with the organization).
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ReplyDeleteWONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL
You seem actually excited about the revelation about the Clinton team and the DNC paid for development of the Russian document.
Why is that? Are you shocked that politicians would seek dirt on their political rivals? Are you shocked that Hillary (or any politician) would be hypocritical about their behavior? That parts of the dossier were made up (something we don't actually know for sure at this point)? If so, you need to get out of Idaho more. Or perhaps, it is you that needs that drink you mentioned before.
.
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DeleteTime to get rid of Mueller & Company.
You associate Mueller with the Steele document but as rat pointed out, his only job is to investigate it.
Mueller doesn't care who wrote the document. His only interest is in those allegations in the document that point to any illegal contact between the Russians and people involved in the 2016 election that and, more importantly, evidence supporting those charges.
.
Mueller is dirty.
DeleteBesides, he is ugly as sin.
I am not in Idaho.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted.
I am not shocked, on the contrary, I feel that those that have seen the Clintons and Obamas for what they are and have been ridiculed and vilified have been vindicated.
As to the merits of the dossier, it shows more about the authors and purveyors than the intended victims. That we do know.
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DeleteWell, let's see.
The initial document was funded by some unknown Republican.
When he stopped funding it, the Dems picked up the ball and ran with it.
Disgusting? Possibly. But nothing new.
Didn't Kushner and others meet with the Russians in that Trump Tower meeting to get 'dirt' on Hillary?
I am not excited about the revelations. It's just one more confirmation, as if we needed one, that they are all dicks, hardly a premise any sane person would argue with.
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You have no hope because you have lived in Detroit and environs for so long you've forgotten what hope is.....if I had lived in such a Democrat ruled cesspool for as long as you I would have no hope either.
DeleteYou have my condolences, and, again, an invitation to the farm in case of armageddon, the last vast decisive conflict or confrontation. Or, even if you're just finally wasted out with life 'back East'.
Fly out on your Q Super-Low Skimmer. We can have a good time, hunt wolves from it.
I'll introduce you to Wayne. He will like you, I know.
Music to elder ears -
DeleteRUSSIA SCRIPT FLIPPED...
Top Hillary lawyer lied for YEAR about dossier...
MESS: Pressure builds on Mueller to recuse himself...
FBI On Hot Seat...
Busted Media Downplay Revelations...
TRUMP: 'HOAX IS TURNED AROUND'...
'They are very embarrassed'...DRUDGE
I just want Hillary to finally someway, anyway, to get hers -
ReplyDeleteDNC head runs for the hills on Trump Russia dossier - 10/25/17
In the face of scandal allegations, the normal response of Democrats is to circle the wagons and defend their comrade under fire. That’s not happening now that the dam is breaking More
In the face of scandal allegations, the normal response of Democrats is to circle the wagons and defend their comrade under fire. That’s not happening now that the dam is breaking, and people are catching on that the hysteria ginned over alleged Trump collusion was a cover, a means of deflecting attention away from the real corruption.
Both the Clinton and Obama wings of the Democrat establishment are implicated, and so are the henchmen who got the Special Counsel investigation of Trump going....
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/dnc_head_runs_for_the_hills_on_trump_russia_dossier.html
What say you, Ash ?
Delete.
DeleteAren't you celebrating a little early?
Everyone can agree that opposition research is nasty business (well, unless it's you doing it, of course).
On the other hand, other than some rather bizarre accusations that have been leaked and an unverified synopsis published by BussFeed, we have no official release of the documents. Since nothing official has come out at this point, the prudent thing to do would probably be to wait until the entire document is de-bunked before crowing about this.
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Delete...Buzzfeed...
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When I consider the time remaining to myself, I conclude it's wise to celebrate prematurely, in lieu of perhaps not being able to celebrate at all.
Delete.
DeleteWell, Trump was certainly celebrating today.
When questioned about his telcon with the wife of the dead soldier he said he has 'one of the great memories of all time.'
He also crowed that he graduated from an Ivy league school and was 'highly intelligent'.
And he complained that the press was making him look a lot worse than he is (presumably by quoting his actual words).
.
In the world of name calling "Dotard" is pretty apt.
DeleteReport: Trump data chief reached out to Wikileaks about releasing Hillary’s emails
ReplyDeleteALLAHPUNDIT Oct 25, 2017 1:31 PM
Contact.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/25/report-trump-data-chief-reached-wikileaks-releasing-hillarys-emails/
Let's make a deal -
Give that man US Citizenship and a Presidential Pardon in exchange for all he's got.
I read that the woman, or one of them if there were others, doesn't want the 'rape' charge pursued. There was some Swedish law about wearing condoms too. At any rate he's served a lot of time.
DeleteFormer Bush Aide: It Sure Looks Like Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Colluded With The Russians
ReplyDeleteMatt Vespa Matt Vespa |Posted: Oct 25, 2017 1:10 PM
Cortney wrote about this last night, but let’s rehash. The infamous Trump dossier that alleges the president had ties to Russia and served as part of the reason why we have a special counsel—Robert Mueller—looking into such allegations turned out to be a DNC-funded operation. Marc Elias, a lawyer with the Hillary campaign and the DNC reached out to Fusion GPS to pay a former British intelligence operative to collect information (via WaPo):
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.
Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.
After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the company in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by an unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.
The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’s research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.
Former Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the new revelations reek of collusion between the Hillary campaign and the Russians in an effort to interfere in the 2016 election. Wait—didn’t Republicans start this operation as an opposition research effort? Yes and no. Yes, it started as an opposition research project by an anti-Trump Republican, but Democrats were the only ones who gave Fusion GPS money and paid Steele (via WaPo) [emphasis mine]:......
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/10/25/former-bush-aide-it-sure-looks-like-hillary-clintons-campaign-colluded-with-the-n2400143
The National Interest
ReplyDeleteIs It Time for a U.S.-India Alliance?
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/it-time-us-india-alliance-22888
YES !!
For Doug -
ReplyDeleteHunter bags 36-point freak-of-nature deer with his crossbow
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/24/hunter-bags-36-point-freak-of-nature-deer-his-crossbow/797367001/
Rep. Goodlatte: ‘Smoking gun’ emails prove settlement money was progressive slush fund
ReplyDeleteJOHN SEXTON Oct 25, 2017 5:01 PM
“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun.”
“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte said Tuesday on the House floor. Goodlatte revealed emails which he says prove the Obama Department of Justice used settlement money as a slush fund for progressive groups. From Fox News:
While Eric Holder was U.S. attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens. Republican lawmakers long have decried those payments as a “slush fund” that boosted liberal groups, and the Trump DOJ ended the practice earlier this year.
But internal Justice Department emails released Tuesday by Goodlatte indicated that not only were officials involved in determining what organizations would get the money, but also Justice Department officials may have intervened to make sure the settlements didn’t go to conservative groups…
“Concerns include: a) not allowing Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation (does conservative property-rights legal services),” the official, whose name is redacted in the email, wrote under the title of “Acting Senior Counselor for Access to Justice.”
The official added that “we are more likely to get the right result from a state bar association affiliated entity.”
In response, the Pacific Legal Foundation told Fox News, “We are flattered that the previous administration would be concerned enough about our success vindicating individual liberty and property rights to prevent settlement funds from making their way to Pacific Legal Foundation.”.....
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/25/rep-goodlatte-claims-smoking-gun-emails-prove-settlement-money-progressive-slush-fund/
The FBI’s Political Meddling
ReplyDeleteMueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, now special counsel on the Russia investigation, following a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, June 21. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Oct. 24, 2017 6:17 p.m. ET
Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.
Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.
The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.
We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.
OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.
But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
Here’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.
The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.
DeleteThis criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.
For anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.
The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.
Which means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.
Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.
But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.
To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fbis-political-meddling-1508883468
The shit is really hitting the fan -
ReplyDeleteFEC complaint accuses Clinton campaign, DNC of violating campaign finance law with dossier payments
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/25/fec-complaint-accuses-clinton-dnc-violations/
ha ha ha hahahaHA !
DeleteAfter the election, the FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue gathering intelligence, but the bureau pulled out of the arrangement after Steele was publicly identified.
ReplyDeleteThe dossier was published by BuzzFeed News in January. Fusion GPS has said it did not give BuzzFeed the document.
Officials have said the FBI has confirmed some of the information in the dossier. Other details have yet to be verified and may never be.
The National Interest
ReplyDeleteWhy Trump Is Right about North Korea
Artillery pieces are seen being fired during a military drill at an unknown location, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 25, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA/File Photo
In terms of defending the homeland from Kim Jong-un, President Trump’s risk calculus is spot-on.
Michael McLaughlin
October 24, 2017
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-trump-right-about-north-korea-22890
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a rare congratulatory message to China’s President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, the North’s state media said on Thursday, wishing the Chinese leader “great success” in his future tasks as head of the nation.
ReplyDelete...
China has said it will strictly enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions banning imports of coal, textiles and seafood, while cutting off oil shipments to the North.
Best comment from Mark Steyn:
ReplyDelete"it seems that everyone in Washington knew about Russian collusion except Trump."
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DeleteIsn't Trump usually the last to know about everything.
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Trump spoke during his election campaign about the possibility of South Korea and Japan acquiring nuclear weapons, but administration officials have played down the remarks and given no indication of any plan to redeploy tactical weapons.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he would visit the tense demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea during his Asia tour and responded enigmatically.
“I’d rather not say, but you’ll be surprised,” he told reporters.
Trump, always the showman, should be co-pilot in a nuclear armed B-52 and fly around the peninsula.
DeleteMega-headlines !
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DeleteOr, he could ride the bomb down like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.
Now, that's showbiz. A boffo performance sure to elicit a standing ovation.
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No can do.
DeleteThe Donald doesn't have a cowboy hat.
Slim Pickens Rides The H Bomb
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTaSJk0n_Y
My favorite ever actor.
"A fistful of dollars and a belly full of beer"
Update: The U.S. Air Force has clarified that there are no imminent plans to put B-52 bombers back on 24-hour alert, although facilities for the aircraft and crews are receiving renovations to prepare for the possibility of around-the-clock readiness should U.S. Strategic Command decide to issue the order.
ReplyDeleteMama the Chimpanzee, 59, recognizes an old friend right before dying -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/10/24/559837354/watch-the-moment-a-dying-chimpanzee-recognizes-an-old-friend
Was it George Bush?
DeleteQuirk, saying goodbye to an old girlfriend.
DeleteB-52s back on Cold War-like nuke alert? The U.S. Air Force is considering placing its nuclear-capable B-52 bombers back on 24-hour ready alert for the first time since the status was rescinded in 1991.
ReplyDelete“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, told Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.”
But can the USAF fly the planes? In the meantime, the Air Force is struggling with a shortage of over 1,500 pilots. On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing Air Force officials to involuntarily recall up to 1,000 pilots on an emergency basis in order to fill the gap.
Long — and constant — deployments, and more lucrative contracts from the civilian airline industry has helped to sap the ranks of qualified fighter and bomber pilots from the service in recent years. The Air Force said on Sunday that they don’t expect to take the president up on his offer just yet, however.
CIA’s own Afghanistan surge. The Central Intelligence Agency is “sending small teams of highly experienced officers and contractors alongside Afghan forces to hunt and kill Taliban militants,” the NYT’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt and Adam Goldman write.
The new deployments are something relatively new for the agency, which has in the past bristled at waging such an open-ended campaign against the Taliban.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWestern tourists spending their vacation on Caribbean islands may be targeted by returning Islamic State (ISIS) militants, officials warned. A vast majority of Westerners fighting with ISIS hail from Trinidad and Tobago, and the country has struggled with radical Islam in the past.
ReplyDelete...
In 1990, a radical Muslim group carried out a failed coup. In 2007, terrorists from the country and neighboring Guyana planned an attack on fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
HOW OBAMA USED HILLARY’S DOSSIER TO SPY ON TRUMP
ReplyDeleteThe conspiracy that led from the Hillary campaign to eavesdropping on Trump officials.
October 26, 2017 Daniel Greenfield
How do you legally spy on your political opponents?
At some point in time that question was asked in the White House, at the DNC or in the hotel suites where Hillary and her staff were staying during her speaking tours. It wasn’t exactly asked that way.
But it was asked. And now we know more of the answer.
What Hillary and Obama did wasn’t Watergate. That was amateur hour. Its sophistication is a tribute to the left’s deep knowledge and control of the workings of Washington, D.C. The men and women who planned this and carried it out understood not only government, but had an intimate familiarity with the loopholes in the laws and the networks of contacts that could realize their highly illegal plans.
The eavesdropping on Trump officials carried the ‘fingerprints’ of an administration that bypassed Congress to fund left-wing groups by blackmailing banks into huge settlements paid out to political allies in a billion dollar slush fund and sent pallets of foreign currency to Iran on unmarked planes. A complete lack of ethical norms was combined with the careful use of legal loopholes to protect the actions of the perpetrators even while they were engaging in a criminal conspiracy.
The revolutionary cell is embedded into left-wing organizing. These cells combined into networks across government, the media and the non-profit sector to pursue a collective agenda. The latest revelations about the Trump dossier give us greater insight into how Obama and Hillary’s people conspired to legally eavesdrop on political opponents by breaking up that eavesdropping into a series of legal actions carried out across different cells.
The road that led to Susan Rice and Samantha Power ‘unmasking’ Trump officials began with the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funding a dossier pushing Trump-Russia conspiracies. The dossier was sourced through Fusion GPS which is notorious for handfeeding material to reporters.
The Clinton campaign was seeing to it that whatever Fusion GPS produced would make its way into media stories without having Hillary’s fingerprints on it. Indeed the only reason we learned that Hillary and the DNC were ultimately behind the dossier was a congressional subpoena that risked exposing other Fusion GPS clients.
But the second reason was far more devious and devastating.
Fusion GPS’ man for the job was Christopher Steele. The former British intelligence figure had connections with FBI people. Hillary Clinton wasn’t just doing “opposition research” as her former press secretary has claimed. The best way to do opposition research in an American election doesn’t involve hiring a Brit in London with contacts in Russian intelligence and the FBI.
That is however the best way to independently produce information that can be injected into an intelligence investigation. (It’s also, perhaps not coincidentally, a great way for the Russians to inject their own material into a presidential election without getting their fingerprints on it.)
Hiring Fusion GPS and then Steele created two degrees of separation between the dossier and Hillary. A London ex-intel man is a strange choice for opposition research in an American election, but a great choice to create a plausible ‘source’ that appears completely disconnected from American politics.
What would an ex-M.I.6 agent have to do with Hillary, Obama or Trump?
The official story is that Steele was a dedicated whistleblower who decided to message an FBI pal for reasons “above party politics” while the Fusion GPS boss was so dedicated that he spent his own money on it after the election. Some figures in the FBI decided to take Steele’s material, offering to pay him for his work and reimbursing some of his expenses. Portions of the dossier were used to justify the FISA eavesdropping on Trump officials and were then rolled into the Mueller investigation.
DeleteThat is how cells coordinate by breaking up a larger plot into a series of individual actions that just happen to produce the ideal result. Hillary and the DNC hire Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS hires Steele. Steele contacts an FBI pal. The FBI takes up the dossier. And then it’s turned into a pretext for eavesdropping.
But there isn’t supposed to be a link between the Democrats and the eavesdropping.
That’s why Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign and DNC lawyer who hired Fusion GPS, had denied it in the past. It’s why Fusion GPS fought the investigation so desperately. Opposition research isn’t a crime. A conspiracy to eavesdrop on your political opponents however is very much a criminal matter.
A forensic examination of the dirty dossier’s journey shows us that this modern Watergate was a collaborative effort between an outgoing Democrat administration and its expected Dem successor. The effort was broken up into two big pieces. The Clinton side would generate the material. The Obama side would make use of it. Steele was positioned as the interface between the two sides of the effort.
The London detour created and laundered the dossier. Moving the operation offshore tangled the connection between the Clinton side and the Obama side. This was important because what Steele produced wasn’t really opposition research, but a pretext for a government investigation.
That pretext couldn’t come directly from Hillary. But the FBI was too politically divided to generate it.
Obama Inc. needed that pretext, but it also didn’t want to generate it internally. Any investigation of the political opposition was inherently explosive. It was better if the intelligence came from outside and especially overseas. That was why Fusion GPS brought in Steele.
The first FISA request was filed in June. It was shot down by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That was the same month we were told that Fusion GPS hired Steele. The second FISA request came through in October. That was the month, Steele did his first media interview with Mother Jones.
Two birds were being killed with one stone.
Obama’s Watergate depended on extensive compartmentalization. The process that led to the eavesdropping on Trump officials and their unmasking at the hands of his officials had to appear as ‘clean’ as possible. Susan Rice and Samantha Power could make unmasking requests to the NSA, but they couldn’t be involved in generating the investigation that led to those requests.
DeleteSeeding the media with an astroturf campaign through Fusion GPS created the appearance of an organic push to investigate Trump-Russia ties. Targeting the lefty fringe of the media, Mother Jones, The Guardian, would bake in the narrative among a demographic already prone to conspiracy theories.
The operation was vastly more sophisticated than the crude ugliness of Watergate. But it was not unique in that regard. The fusion of government loopholes, political campaigns, media operations, opposition research and covert funding had occurred more than once during the Obama era.
The most recent example of such a fusion before Trump-Russia was the Iran Deal in which members of Congress were eavesdropped on, money was moved around through non-profits to influence the media, a White House operation planted stories in the media and billions were smuggled to Iran. This mixture of influence operation, propaganda, eavesdropping and laundering has likely happened far more often in the previous administration than we know.
The IRS targeting of conservatives, shutdown theater and the Libyan War offer more examples.
Obama’s eavesdropping on Trump didn’t break the norms. They had already been thoroughly broken. The network that is being uncovered, the interfaces between media insiders, top government officials and private interests, demonstrates why Obama Inc. believed that it could get away with it.
It had gotten away with all its old abuses. There was no reason to doubt it could do so again.
America still has elections. The rule of law exists. In theory. But the network being uncovered in the dossier investigation looks very much like something that would be found in a totalitarian state.
The combination of media propaganda, government surveillance and contrived investigations of political opponents is the sort of thing you would expect to find in… Russia. The key players were wary enough that they compartmentalized their conspiracy, breaking it up across the private and public sector, the media, private firms, law enforcement figures and even another country. But that just makes it look like a cross between terrorist cells and organized crime.
And that is what we are dealing with here.
The left’s networks are becoming increasingly malignant. They executed a sophisticated attack on the political process while contriving to blame it on their victims. What the attack reveals is just how much the levers of power in our political system are embedded in the shadowy networks that operate in and around government. And what those networks are willing to do to win.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268230/how-obama-used-hillarys-dossier-spy-trump-daniel-greenfield
ReplyDeleteFEC COMPLAINT: Hillary’s Dirty Dossier Payments BROKE LAW
By Pamela Geller - on October 25, 2017
CLINTON CORRUPTION
17
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History is closing in on Hillary Clinton.
DC ROCKED: CLINTON PAID FOR KREMLIN TRUMP DIRT…
SCRIPT FLIPPED…
TRUMP: ‘HOAX IS TURNED AROUND’…
Top Hillary lawyer lied for YEAR about dossier…
MESS: Pressure builds on Mueller to recuse himself…
FBI On Hot Seat…
Busted Media Downplay Revelations…
ABC ‘GMA’ Gives Just Seconds of Airtime…
FEC COMPLAINT ACCUSES CLINTON CAMPAIGN, DNC OF VIOLATING CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW WITH DOSSIER PAYMENTS
BY DAVE BOYER – THE WASHINGTON TIMES – WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017
Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for a dossier on Donald Trump, according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint from the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said the Democrats effectively hid the payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law. By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient.
“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation and strategy at CLC and a former FEC official. “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.”
Media reports on Tuesday alleged that a lawyer for the Clinton campaign hired Fusion GPS to investigate Mr. Trump in April 2016. The private research firm reportedly hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy with ties to the FBI, to conduct the opposition research, and he compiled a dossier containing allegations about Mr. Trump’s connections to Russia.
The Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the effort until the end of October 2016, just days before the election.
“Questions about who paid for this dossier are the subject of intense public interest, and this is precisely the information that FEC reports are supposed to provide,” said Brendan Fischer, director of federal and FEC reform at CLC. “Payments by a campaign or party committee to an opposition research firm are legal, as long as those payments are accurately disclosed. But describing payments for opposition research as ‘legal services’ is entirely misleading and subverts the reporting requirements.”
https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/fec-complaint-hillarys-dirty-dossier-payments-broke-law.html/
Trump told reporters he would “love to do a DACA deal,” but he needed something “very substantial” to complete legislation helping so-called dreamers -- listing “the wall” and the ability to “stop drugs from pouring in” to the U.S. Trump again vowed that at some point, the administration would declare a “national emergency” for the opioid epidemic.
ReplyDeleteTrump jumped to tax reform, promising an “incredible” plan.
“We’re going to bring back $4 trillion, I think at least, from overseas, and that money is going to be put back into our country,” Trump said.
Hugh Fitzgerald: Is White Nationalism Destroying the West?
ReplyDeleteBy Hugh Fitzgerald - on October 25, 2017
https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/white-nationalism-west.html/
Too long to paste but the usual excellent Hugh.
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ReplyDelete'Extraordinary elevation': Trump kowtows to kingpin Xi
Donald Trump has saluted the “extraordinary elevation” of President Xi Jinping and compared him to a “king” on the eve of his trip to meet an exalted and emboldened leader now considered China’s most powerful since Mao.
Xi confirmed his absolute supremacy over China’s one-party state this week with the historic decision to enshrine his political thoughts in the Communist party’s constitution during a congress marking the end of his first term.
Party officials responded by showering adjectives of adulation on the man they say is making their nation great again, hailing Xi’s incisive, glorious, magnificent, visionary, pioneering and thrilling leadership.
Trump – who is scheduled to fly to Beijing on 8 November for a three-day visit – went almost as far on Wednesday. “Spoke to President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation,” the US president tweeted, having refrained from weighing in on Asian affairs during Xi’s political sensitive summit. “Also discussed NoKo [North Korea] and trade, two very important subjects!”
In a second tweet Trump said he was looking forward to “what will hopefully be a historic trip!”.
Trump continued his charm offensive in an interview with Fox Business Network. “He’s a powerful man,” he told anchor Lou Dobbs. “Now some people might call him the King of China – but he’s called president.”
What's with our presidents? Bush kisses the Saudi King and walks him through the garden holding hands. Obama bows to him. Now, Trump is toadying up to the president of China. Kind of embarrassing IMO.
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NIMO
DeleteHe wants China's help on North Korea.
A few complimentary words are not out of place.
IMO
DeleteHear, Hear
Can you imagine the comment if Trump said something abrasive and inflammatory?
Delete.
DeleteWhy would he do either? He's the damn president of the US, the leader of the free world, not one of us guys bullshitting among ourselves here at the EB. Show a little decorum, Mr. President. Respect the office.
Insults are Trump's mother-milk in dealing with people when, except of course, when he is looking for something from them or they agree with something he did. This latest instance with one of our top two adversaries in the world today is embarrassing. It's his MO though. And it's transparent. From the article...
However, Shi Yinhong, a Renmin University international relations expert, said Trump’s blarney would not fool China’s leaders. “He’s a two-faced man … Beijing might be happy about [his flattery]. But they know very well in their hearts [what Trump is like].”
Hopefully, Trump's charm initiative will do better than his previous attempt. He pulled the same thing the first time he met Xi at Mar-A-Lago. Trump turned on the charm and handed Xi a $100 million trade deal hoping to get Xi's help with North Korea. Xi took the deal but ignored Trump for months until Kim started shooting rockets over Japan every other day.
Hopefully, Trump will 'negotiate' something better this time around.
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ReplyDeleteFormer President George H.W. Bush has acknowledged touching multiple women inappropriately in what his spokesman called "patt[ing] women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner."
Two women have reportedly accused the former president of groping them while posing for photographs with Bush in recent years.
Actress Heather Lind wrote a post on Instagram, which has since been deleted, about an incident from early 2014.
"[W]hen I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo," Lind wrote in a post Tuesday, according to CNN. "He didn't shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again."
All the interesting things being revealed about our stellar ex-presidents.
ReplyDeleteWho knew?
Maybe, Obama's real birth certificate will appear.
We'll never see it.
DeleteJust like his school records.
Buried.
ReplyDeleteThe Kurds have been swiftly making concessions to Baghdad since last week, when Abadi sent his forces to seize all Kurdish-held territory outside of three autonomous provinces.
A startlingly rapid advance by government troops transformed the balance of power in northern Iraq within a matter of days and has wrecked decades-old dreams of Kurdish independence that had come to a head last month with a referendum on secession.
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Stand Tall
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq/iraqi-pm-abadi-demands-kurds-cancel-secession-bid-as-price-for-talks-idUSKBN1CV1LY?il=0
DeleteAnother liberal off to "therapy" for his perfunctory act of contrition:
ReplyDeleteMark Halperin Exits NBC News After Multiple Accusations of Sexual Misconduct
Another in the the Democratic Snot of Sanctimony
The Wall Street Journal is demanding Mueller resign.
ReplyDeleteWSJ To Mueller After Dossier Exposé: Resign
DeleteED MORRISSEYPosted at 10:01 am on October 26, 2017
“Strip out the middlemen,” the Wall Street Journal’s editors argue this morning, “and it appears that Democrats paid for Russians to compile wild allegations about a US presidential candidate.” The editorial demands a “full investigation” into the FBI’s activities during the previous presidential cycle, saying that collusion may have taken place — only in a completely different direction than previously thought. And that puts the special counsel in an impossible position, the editorial concludes:
The more troubling question is whether the FBI played a role, even if inadvertently, in assisting a Russian disinformation campaign. We know the agency possessed the dossier in 2016, and according to media reports it debated paying Mr. Steele to continue his work in the runup to the election. This occurred while former FBI Director James Comey was ramping up his probe into supposed ties between the Trump campaign and Russians.
Two pertinent questions: Did the dossier trigger the FBI probe of the Trump campaign, and did Mr. Comey or his agents use it as evidence to seek wiretapping approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Trump campaign aides?
Congressional investigators need to focus on the FBI’s role, and House Speaker Paul Ryan was correct Wednesday to insist that the bureau comply with Congress’s document demands “immediately.” Mr. Sessions has recused himself from the Justice Department’s Russia probe, but he and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein can still insist on transparency. Mr. Ryan should also reinstall Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes as lead on the Russia investigation, since it appears the Democratic accusations against him were aimed in part at throwing him off the Fusion trail.
Also, WSJ editors note, this impacts on the supposed independence of special counsel Robert Mueller. Even aside from the Uranium One issue that took place while Mueller ran the FBI, the dossier case will directly reflect on James Comey, his friend and protege. And unlike the initial conception of the collusion probe, in which the FBI was presumed to be merely a collector of evidence, it now appears that the agency he led will have to get scrutinized as well — which, the WSJ concludes, makes Mueller’s position untenable:...........
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/26/wsj-mueller-step-collusion-case-focuses-fbis-use-russian-disinformation-fisa-warrant/
Hillary, the gas bag, is blowing up like the Hindenburg - I sure like the sounds of that -
DeleteConrad Black: Russia ‘Collusion’ Story Is Blowing Up Like the Hindenburg
Longtime publisher says Washington Post, CNN struggling to report news that destroys the narrative about Trump
by Conrad Black | Updated 25 Oct 2017 at 1:20 PM
It is delicious to see, even more suddenly and completely than anyone had anticipated, the breakdown of the steamroller media smear of Donald Trump. A trinitarian deus ex machina descended.
The Washington Post, struggling desperately in its discomfort, a few days ahead of the information being forcibly extracted by congressional subpoenas, acknowledged that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had paid for the assembly of the Steele dossier.
This rotten fish of lies and gossip was universally regarded at first as rubbish so scurrilous no one would publish it for months until Buzzfeed, the bottom of the web barrel, took it up, which emboldened the flounder skimming the bottom, CNN, to present it as a major triumph of journalistic enterprise and to popularize it.
Carl Bernstein, one of America’s most Pulitzer-laden mythmakers, was exhumed to pronounce it an important document.
Finally, after everything else had led nowhere, bloodthirsty Trumpophobes like the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sens. Burr and Warner, acknowledged that Steele was all they could go on, and they could not get at its sources because of the intervention of special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, preventing FBI officials from testifying before Congress.......
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/conrad-black-russia-collusion-story-is-blowing-up-like-the-hindenburg/
haHaHA HAH!!!!
DeleteLife is good this morning.
The old gas hag bag is blowing up like the Hindenburg.
HOOO HO HO HO HO Ho HOHOHO !
Delete.
I have full confidence in Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
We must await the outcome of their investigation.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete
Delete.
Mueller has an honest face. I trust him.
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DeleteBut you are a thief, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, so what does that tell us about your trust worthiness?
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DeleteWow, it looks like the Twins have changed their tune.
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You don't support your own children, Dead Beat Dad and War Criminal. What does that say about you as a 'father' and a 'man' ?
DeleteMultiple congressional committees are investigating an Obama-era deal that resulted in a Russian company purchasing American uranium mines.
ReplyDeleteAnd after the request from many Republican lawmakers, the Department of Justice has lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant who is expected to have more information about the agreement that allowed Russia to control about one-fifth of the uranium mining in the U.S. – and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s involvement in it.
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In 2013, Rosatom, backed by the Russian state, acquired a Canadian uranium mining company, now called Uranium One, which has assets in the U.S. Uranium is key to making nuclear weapons.
Through the deal, Russia is able to own about 20 percent of U.S. uranium production capacity. However, Colin Chilcoat, an energy affairs specialist who has written extensively about Russia's energy deals, said that the company only extracts about 11 percent of uranium in the U.S.
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Republicans have largely decried the deal, especially as some investors reportedly donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. Former President Bill Clinton also received a $500,000 speaking fee in Russia and reportedly met with Vladimir Putin around the time of the deal.
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ReplyDeleteLong-secret JFK assassination files released
Or were they? The answer of course is no. Trump says it requires further review of some of the material less it causes 'potentially irreversible harm' to national security. Translation: it would embarrass someone or some government agency. Can't have that.
BOSTON (AP) — The public is getting a look at thousands of secret government files related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination, but hundreds of other documents will remain under wraps for now.
The government was required by Thursday to release the final batch of files related to Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. But President Donald Trump delayed the release of some of the files, citing security concerns.
"As long as the government is withholding documents like these, it's going to fuel suspicion that there is a smoking gun out there about the Kennedy assassination," said Patrick Maney, a presidential historian at Boston College.
What to expect from the files:
The last batch of assassination files included more than 3,100 documents — comprising hundreds of thousands of pages — that have never been seen by the public. About 30,000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives released more than 2,800 documents on its website Thursday evening. But Trump delayed the release of the remaining files after last-minute appeals from the CIA and FBI. Trump cited "potentially irreversible harm" to national security if he were to allow all the records out now and placed those files under a six-month review. Officials say Trump will impress upon federal agencies that JFK files should stay secret after the six-month review "only in the rarest cases."
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