Ringing the bells for Christian traditions and getting our story out there. If we don’t, who will?
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Just time for a quick post today.
I do not know where this hoarding (billboard) is, but please note and remember the last three lines (image courtesy of 8chan):
If the Democrats hate America, chances are they hate you, too.
Even if you’ve voted for them all your life.
The US Constitution has been gradually eroded over the past century.
It’s getting worse, up to the point where the decisions of the American voters and the Electoral College are being undermined (origin of graphic unknown):
An article posted today at FrontPageMagazine explains it all.
Bruce Thornton’s ‘Dangerous Times for the Constitution and Freedom’ is well worth reading in full. Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Excerpts follow, emphases mine:
While We the People distract ourselves with porn stars and royal weddings, the cracks in our Constitutional order continue to multiply and widen.
Evidence continues to mount that a sitting president, Barack Obama, colluded in using the nation’s security and surveillance apparatus to subvert the campaign and then presidency of a legitimately elected candidate and president. This effort consisted of numerous illegalities: a mole planted in Donald Trump’s campaign; a FISA warrant granted on the basis of false opposition research paid for by his rival; the outgoing president’s expansion of the number of people allowed to unmask the identity of Americans mentioned in passing during surveillance; a rogue FBI director, James Comey, who illegally usurped prosecutorial powers to exonerate a felonious Hillary Clinton; and other FBI agents colluding in the plot to damage Trump. And don’t forget a Deputy Attorney General appointing the close friend of the fired and disgraced Comey as a special counsel to investigate the non-crime of “collusion,” an investigation that has gone on for a year with nothing to show but a handful of indictments resulting from dubious perjury traps.
To quote Bob Dole, “Where’s the outrage” at these attacks on the Constitution?
Outrage is surely warranted. These assaults on the rule of law and accountability to the people are akin to the catalogue of “repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States,” published in the Declaration of Independence. Yet our “watch-dog” media in the main have become the publicists for this attack on the foundations of our freedom, as they flack for the political party that long has resented the limitation of power enshrined in the Constitution. Only a few Cassandras, notably FOX News’ Sean Hannity, are trying to alert the citizenry to the coming conflagration that if unchecked could leave the architecture of our freedom in smoking ruins.
In fact, what we are witnessing in the deep-state Democrats’ undermining of divided government, check and balances, and government accountability, is the culmination of a process begun over a century ago …
For a century, progressives have been undermining the Constitution as they seek to expand and concentrate government power at the cost of freedom …
… If we allow those guilty of abusing the power of the state for partisan gain to get away with it, we will embolden even more enemies of freedom to do the same as soon as they get the opportunity. It is up to we the people to demand that Mueller’s inquisition come to an end, and that the true miscreants who have abused their power be investigated, indicted, tried, and punished. Only then will the fabric of the Constitution begin to be restored, and our freedom rearmored.
The article explains how various government programmes and policies dating from the First World War era have gradually made Americans a less free people living in a less free society. Even a vote is no longer sacrosanct.
It’s time Americans reclaimed their Constitution.
Please send letters or postcards to your public servants — representatives and senators — about specific issues, urging them to vote on them in a way that restores the Great Republic.
The future of the United States — and the world — depends on it.
In December 2017 and January 2018, I wrote about the FBI/DOJ schemes to undermine Donald Trump’s campaign and subsequent presidency.
The first burst of information emerged early in December:
December 1 and 2: update on the weekend’s news
At that point, Americans discovered that an FBI investigator, Peter Strzok, had been a Hillary supporter in 2016, was part of the group investigating the ‘matter’ of her email server, then went to work as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation before he was removed from Mueller’s team in the summer of 2017. That news had only been revealed in December.
An FBI/DOJ lawyer, Lisa Page, worked for former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe and was also assigned to Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation for a time. She and Strzok developed a close working relationship.
When this became public, it was thought the two were having an extra-marital affair. As time went on, this became less certain. Nevertheless, last year:
Strzok and Page exchanged upwards of 50,000 text messages, many of which have since been recovered. Before that point, however, one of the first sections of texts discovered discussed Strzok’s mention to Page of an ‘insurance policy’:
News in brief — December 12-14, 2017
The ‘insurance policy’ was meant to thwart the Trump presidency:
By January 2018, the DOJ’s inspector general Michael Horowitz had 50,000 of the texts but was missing five months’ more:
Be prepared for 2018 news: part 3 — FBI’s missing texts
I included a message from Q in that post. Q says these missing texts could cast doubt on the FBI and DOJ and put in jeopardy criminal cases from the Obama years:
Then a new batch of texts came to light, which revealed that Strzok and Page discussed an existing ‘secret society’ that would undermine Trump:
Be prepared for 2018 news: part 4 — ‘secret society’ and more on missing FBI texts
After Mueller dismissed Strzok from his team, the latter was assigned to the FBI’s HR department.
Page continued as an FBI lawyer with other, unspecified responsibilities.
On April 11, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) discovered that, according to FBI director Christopher Wray, both Strzok and Page still had their security clearances. The Conservative Treehouse has a full report with supporting documents. Excerpts follow, emphases mine:
Senator Paul inquired with the FBI Director about whether reassigned FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page still retained their Top Secret FBI clearances.
According to Senator Paul, the FBI director would not respond to specific agent inquiry, however, Wray did affirm that all existing FBI officials retain Top Secret clearances.
In essence, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, despite being removed from investigative authority over their role in the political efforts to target President Trump, retain employment within the DOJ/FBI apparatus in an unknown capacity and thereby their clearances.
This information by Rand Paul dovetails into an increasingly obvious storyline where Lisa Page and Peter Strzok remain employed because they are cooperating with the internal investigation by Inspector General Michael Horowitz and parallel federal prosecutor John Huber.
Similarly, former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker retained his:
In addition to Page and Strzok, former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker and former DOJ-NSD Deputy Bruce Ohr have been removed from their roles yet still remain inside the FBI and DOJ respectively. Those four are joined by the FBI Asst. Director in charge of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap. However, despite Priestap’s centrality to the 2015/2016 corrupt FBI activity -including the Trump operation- Priestap remains untouched.
After FBI Asst Director Andrew McCabe was fired the subsequent information revealed what happened inside the group. McCabe lied to FBI and IG investigators about his coordinating leaks to media. McCabe’s story conflicted with the account of his office attorney, Lisa Page. {Go Deep}
To validate the truthfulness of her position Lisa Page provided FBI investigators with access to her text messages which showed conversations about McCabe directing leaks by Page and FBI communications Director Michael Kortan. After the Page messages confirmed her version of the events; eventually McCabe admitted to misleading investigators.
Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Baker and Bruce Ohr have all been removed from responsibilities within the DOJ and FBI yet all still remain inside the organization. FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap, who was Peter Strzok’s’ boss throughout the corrupt group activity, remains in his role today.
By April 20, things started to unravel at the FBI. Vox has the whole story, but this tweet summarises the situation, saying that Trump will have the best laugh:
By April 25, it was thought that more Strzok-Page texts had been uncovered, although not made public. Q sent out a message (image courtesy of Reddit’s Q research board, greatawakening):
That day, Republican congressmen Devin Nunes (California) and Mark Meadows (North Carolina) appeared on Hannity calling for the release of the texts. The summary to the video linked here says:
Rep. Devin Nunes accuses the Justice Department of slow-walking the release of documents; he and Rep. Mark Meadows speak out on ‘Hannity.’
The next day:
The Last Refuge — Sundance from The Conservative Treehouse — posted a Twitter thread which discusses the newly released, yet redacted, texts. Only Strzok’s were made public. Excerpts follow:
Sundance also posted about this text release on his site, The Conservative Treehouse. Points of interest include the following (red emphases in the original):
♦[May 17th, 2017] Lisa Page mentions reviewing Benjamin Wittes Lawfare website (James Comey BFF and leak conduit) for “arguments to chronicle” on behalf of Special counsel advocacy.
NOTE: This is interesting because Lawfare Blog also mentions the “Insurance Policy”.
Important – May 17th, 2017 is the date of the Special Counsel Mueller appointment.
♦[May 17th, 2017] Date of Mueller appointment. Discussions of team being assembled. Strzok notes “emailing with Aaron”. Well that’s Aaron Ze[ble]y former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s Chief of Staff who was selected for Special Counsel position. He’s also a partner at WilmerHale, and Strzok mentions to Page that she might find herself working at WilmerHale if she plays her cards right.
The fact that Agent Strzok was emailing with “Aaron” Ze[ble]y prior to the official appointment of the special counsel team should likely raise a few eyebrows. Of course within this time-frame of the messaging released, the redactions increase. Go figure.
Toward the end of the release a more thorough picture emerges of who was selecting Robert Mueller’s team and why. Andrew McCabe was key player along with James Baker …
Page had broken off her texting with Strzok in 2017, long before the American public was aware of either of them. The Conservative Treehouse interprets her last text as follows:
–Page’s final “never write to me again” doesn’t seem like a hostile snub. Seems more like a signal/coded message to a friend: “We’re scr*wed. Every (wo)man for himself. I’m looking out for myself. You should too.”
That day, Q posted the following message (1288). Emphases in the original:
By April 29, The Conservative Treehouse stated — wisely — that there was no romantic relationship between Page and Strzok:
There is zero evidence of a romantic relationship between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page; and no, a complete chronological review doesn’t indicate the romantic stuff was withheld. By looking at the messaging chronologically, studying the date and times, there’s nothing to indicate segments of romantic stuff was removed. What does appear obvious in many redactions, and likely some removals of messages, is an intentional effort to remove content that would be of an embarrassing professional nature to Ms. Lisa Page.
It is more than likely the “affair narrative” was likely created by investigators as part of an agreement on content control to explain withholding some information and message redactions. Investigators would not want those being investigated to know the scale of the evidence trail. Regardless, except for the useful story, the romantic angle is irrelevant.
In looking at the ensuing congressional report, Sundance offered this analysis (excerpted, emphasis in the original):
[Congressional Report – Page 18, Item #3, second paragraph] “The DOJ OIG obtained the initial batch of text messages on July 20, 2017.” It is clear that Ms. Page underwent a period of (no less than) three solid days of extensive initial questioning by FBI (INSD) and DOJ (OIG) officials. [Which ended on/around July 20th, 2017.]
♦July 20th, 2017 is a key date. A critical point-of-reference to move forward and review action. It is absolutely clear [BEYOND CERTAIN], that INSD (Inspection Division) and OIG (Inspector General) knew of every single participant in the Page-Strzok engagement team by the end of July 2017.
Along with Page and Strzok, James Baker was also involved in the leaks (emphases mine):
The officials outlined in media leaks, direct or indirect, included: Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, James Baker (FBI Chief Legal Counsel), Andrew McCabe (Deputy Director), and Michael Kortan (FBI Office of Public Affairs). There are also discussions of other people leaking.
Indeed, one of the more stunning aspects of a full review was the scale of groups’ leaks to the media and how those leaks were used to frame the continued narrative about their ongoing efforts.
The messages show media leaks from 2015 all the way past the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Their discussions with the media were so frequent that Page and Strzok referred to media publications as “that’s your story”, or “that’s your article”, and enjoyed talking about the internal and external effect of the published accounts therein.
As for James Baker:
It does not appear accidental that FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker was allowed, by INSD and OIG investigators, to remain in place, *until* Baker was notified of being called to testify to congress (December 21, 2017)… then INSD yanked him back; and FBI Director Christopher Wray removed Baker from responsibility.
James Baker remains inside the FBI today; in some unknown capacity. James Baker is also in the text messages as “JB”, “Jim”, “GC” (General Counsel), and “James”. He was also an interoffice mentor/role-model of sorts for DOJ assigned Special Counsel Lisa Page. Both Page and Strzok had a great deal of respect and admiration for Baker.
From the messages we can clearly see that James Baker is a key figure amid everything that was happening. Likely Baker’s cooperation with investigators is the biggest risk to James Comey and Andrew McCabe due to Baker’s knowledge of situations, decisions, non-decisions and events.
Ultimately (emphasis in the original):
Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr and James Baker have all been clearly identified by investigative releases as participating in gross misconduct at the DOJ and FBI. All four of them have been removed from their responsibilities, yet each of them remains employed within the FBI or DOJ.
It is highly likely all four of them are cooperating with INSD and OIG investigators.
Sundance surmises that those in the know who are not co-operating are as follows:
FBI Communications Director Mike Kortan (quit), DOJ-NSD Deputy Asst. Attorney General David Laufman (quit), AG Loretta Lynch (replaced), AAG Sally Yates (fired), DOJ-NSD Asst Attorney General Mary McCord (quit), FBI Director James Comey (fired), Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe (fired), FBI Chief-of-staff James Rybicki (quit).
Big news emerged on Friday, May 4. The New York Times reported (emphases mine):
WASHINGTON — Two top F.B.I. aides who worked alongside the former director James B. Comey as he navigated one of the most politically tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history resigned on Friday.
One of them, James A. Baker, was one of Mr. Comey’s closest confidants. He served as the F.B.I.’s top lawyer until December when he was reassigned as the new director, Christopher A. Wray, began installing his own advisers. Mr. Baker had been investigated by the Justice Department on suspicion of sharing classified information with reporters. He has not been charged.
The other aide, Lisa Page, advised Mr. Comey while serving directly under his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe. She was assailed by conservatives after texts that she had exchanged with the agent overseeing the investigation into links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia were made public. In the messages, they expressed anti-Trump views but took aim at Hillary Clinton and other political figures as well.
The decisions by Mr. Baker and Ms. Page to leave the bureau were unrelated. Mr. Baker said in a telephone interview that he would be joining the Brookings Institution to write for Lawfare, its blog focused on national security law.
Sundance at the Conservative Treehouse had mentioned Lawfare, as cited above. Lawfare was helpful to those in the FBI and DOJ in giving them narrative points and discussing the ‘insurance policy’.
The Daily Caller had more on the story:
The FBI attorney who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with another bureau official resigned on Friday, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The FBI confirmed that the lawyer, Lisa Page, tendered her resignation.
Page has faced months of scrutiny over the text messages, which she exchanged with Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division.
The exchanges show a deep hostility to President Donald Trump at a time when the two officials were working on the FBI’s investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government. Some of the texts show Strzok and Page cryptically discussing how to proceed with the investigation, which was opened on July 31, 2016 …
Both Strzok and Page also served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which began on May 17, 2017.
Page worked for several weeks on the Mueller team before returning to her position as one of McCabe’s counselors. Strzok worked on the Mueller investigation until July 28, 2017, when Michael Horowitz, the DOJ’s inspector general, notified Mueller of the scandalous text messages.
Page is also a central player in Horowitz’s investigation of McCabe. She is the FBI official who McCabe instructed to speak to The Wall Street Journal regarding an October 2016 article about the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. McCabe authorized Page to leak to The Journal “in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership,” Horowitz determined.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on March 16:
based upon a recommendation from the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
Horowitz released his report about McCabe on April 13:
that alleged McCabe gave inaccurate and incomplete statements about his authorization of the media leaks. The report, which dinged McCabe for a “lack of candor,” said he initially denied to both the OPR and the inspector general that he authorized Page to speak with The Journal.
The Daily Caller reported that Horowitz’s next findings would focus more closely on Strzok and Page.
That day, Q posted an update to the aforementioned message (1288) in a new one (1316). Emphases in the original:
[Updated]
James Baker – FIRED [reported today – resigned [false]] / removed Jan/FIRED 4.21
Lisa Page – FIRED [reported today – resigned [false]]
Testimony received.
Tracking_y.
[Added]
Mike Kortan, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs – FIRED [cooperating under ‘resigned’ title]
Josh Campbell, Special Assistant to James Comey – FIRED
[DOJ]
David Laufman, Chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section [NAT SEC – HRC email invest] – FIRED/FORCE
John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General – Head of DOJ’s National Security Division – FIRED/FORCE
Sally Yates, Deputy Attorney General & Acting Attorney General – FIRED
Mary McCord, Acting Assistant Attorney General – Acting Head of DOJ’s National Security Division – FIRED/FORCE
Bruce Ohr, Associate Deputy Attorney General – Demoted 2x – cooperating witness [power removed]
Rachel Brand, Associate Attorney General – No. 3 official behind Deputy AG Rosenstein – FIRED/FORCE
Cross against House/Senate resignations/final term announcements + CEO departures.
CONSPIRACY?
FAKE NEWS?
THE SWAMP IS BEING DRAINED.
TRUST THE PLAN.
JUSTICE.
Q
From that, it is interesting to see that, for public consumption, Page and Baker ‘resigned’, yet, both, according to Q, were actually ‘FIRED’. Q also notes: ‘Testimony received’.
Hmm.
Two of the other people — namely Mike Kortan and Rachel Brand — had reportedly ‘resigned’, too. Q’s take is that both were similarly FIRED.
The important point in Q’s message going forward are the last five lines before sign-off. What concerned Americans suspected wasn’t a conspiracy theory but actual conspiracy. Action has been taken, and the Swamp draining has begun.
Much more to follow once the next inspector general report is published.
Until then, trust the plan as the Trump administration enters the phase where it metes justice.
In the first half of 2017, Trump supporters — myself included — were enthusiastic about Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as attorney general.
On February 10, I wrote about child molesters and traffickers:
Can Jeff Sessions make pizza great again?
Although perverts and traffickers are always being arrested, under Sessions’s watch, the number began to increase exponentially. Great news!
Another big problem was MS-13. On April 10, I posted:
Attorney General Sessions sends message to MS-13: ‘We will find you’
From those two targets, we see that Sessions’s DOJ was making a move on people all of us can agree fall into the category of criminal.
However, there is another type of criminal: Washington DC politicians who work against the interests of the United States and, within that group, the subset which has been trying to bring down President Donald Trump since November 9, 2016, the day after the election. George True’s guest post of April 15, 2018 explains how serious this is:
Guest post: a reader’s perspective on the Deep State and Mueller investigation
That Jeff Sessions does not consider the DC Swamp rats to be criminals is problematic.
My other 2018 posts about him have reflected this:
Trump tweets frustration with slow investigation (February 24 – 28, 2018)
Increasing outcry for Sleepy Sessions to go (April 19)
Guest post: a reader’s perspective on Jeff Sessions’s priorities (George True, April 20 and Rosenstein’s presidential cufflinks)
Jeff Sessions began recusing himself from Swamp rat investigations early in 2017.
As a result, he has made life extremely difficult for President Trump and his associates. The coup continues apace.
January 10, 2017 — first hint of recusal
As early as January 2017, Sessions said he would recuse himself from any campaign issues involving Hillary Clinton.
On January 10, the Los Angeles Times reported (emphases mine):
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick to be the next attorney general, testified before Congress on Tuesday that he would recuse himself from any investigations and prosecutions involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Sessions and Trump called during the fall campaign for Clinton to be investigated and prosecuted for her use of a private email server, despite determinations by the FBI and Justice Department that her actions did not warrant charges. Since his election, Trump has said he did not support such an investigation or prosecution.
Sessions said he had made comments during the “contentious” campaign about Clinton’s use of the email server and her family’s charitable foundation that could place his objectivity in question.
“I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Hillary Clinton,” the Alabama Republican told senators on the Judiciary Committee.
March 2, 2017 – first recusal statement
After Sessions was appointed attorney general, he formally recused himself from campaign investigations.
On March 2, he gave a statement, excerpted below:
During the course of the confirmation proceedings on my nomination to be Attorney General, I advised the Senate Judiciary Committee that ‘[i]f a specific matter arose where I believed my impartiality might reasonably be questioned, I would consult with Department ethics officials regarding the most appropriate way to proceed.’
During the course of the last several weeks, I have met with the relevant senior career Department officials to discuss whether I should recuse myself from any matters arising from the campaigns for President of the United States.
Having concluded those meetings today, I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.
Quartz provided the background:
US attorney general Jeff Sessions, responding to mounting pressure from Democrats and from his own party, announced that he is recusing himself from any current or future investigations into the 2016 US presidential campaigns. The decision followed reports that he had spoken twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the US. Russia, of course, is widely believed by US intelligence agencies to have meddled in the election.
Sessions, a former Republican senator and an advisor to US president Donald Trump during the race, had testified during his Senate confirmation hearing in January that he had not had communications with the Russians during the campaign. At his press conference today (March 2), Sessions spoke about one of the meetings, recalling that it ending in a tense confrontation about Ukraine.
Business Insider provided more detail:
The attorney general recused himself on March 2 after reports emerged that Sessions had twice met with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, during the course of the election, contradicting statements he made during his Senate confirmation hearing, in which he said under oath that he did not have contacts with Russians during the campaign.
Following the bombshell report, Democrats swiftly demanded Sessions’ resignation, while a growing group of Republicans called on the attorney general to recuse himself from campaign-related investigations.
During questioning by Sen. Ron Wyden later in the hearing, Sessions said that there were no classified reasons for his recusal, as former FBI Director James Comey suggested in his Senate testimony last week. Sessions also claimed that he had informally recused himself since he was confirmed to lead the Justice Department.
“I basically recused myself the first day I got into the office because I never accessed files, I never learned the names of investigators, I never met with them, I never asked for any documentation,” Sessions told Wyden. “The documentation — what little I received — was mostly already in the media.”
Months later, the Los Angeles Times noted:
In March, Sessions announced he was recusing himself from any investigation into charges that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion between Russians and Trump’s campaign. Following his announcement, reports surfaced that Trump was irate that Sessions had recused himself from any investigation.
Fake news or a grain of truth in that last sentence?
I’m writing up what happened to HR McMaster, which I will post here in due course, and found that these rumours and reports turned out to be true.
June 13, 2017 – second recusal statement
On June 13, 2017, the Los Angeles Times reported Sessions’s second formal recusal, this time into Russian collusion:
Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions insists his recusal from any investigation into Russian collusion in last year’s election was simple: It’s the law.
In an opening statement before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Sessions cited a Department of Justice regulation that he said mandated him stepping aside …
“I recused myself not because of any asserted wrongdoing on my part during the campaign,” Sessions said. “But because a Department of Justice regulation, 28 CFR 45.2, required it.”
“That regulation states, in effect, that department employees should not participate in investigations of a campaign if they have served as a campaign advisor,” said Sessions.
Throughout much of the 2016 election, Sessions served as a senior advisor to Trump’s campaign.
July 2017 — a vexed Trump unloads
On July 19, three New York Times reporters — Peter Baker, Michael S Schmidt and Maggie Haberman — published an interview (and transcript) with President Trump at the White House.
Trump did not mince words. The article led with this:
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.
However, the topic did not come up until later in the interview. On this and other subjects, this has to be one of the best interviews ever. On Robert Mueller, Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein, Trump had this to say:
SCHMIDT: What do you understand to be the four corners of what Mueller [Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation] can look at, if he steps—— [crosstalk]
TRUMP: I don’t know. Nobody has contacted me about anything.
_________
TRUMP: Because I have done nothing wrong. A special counsel should never have been appointed in this case.
BAKER: Can we put that on the record?
TRUMP: Because so far, the only — yeah, you can put it down.
SCHMIDT: Was that [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions’s mistake or [Deputy Attorney General Rod J.] Rosenstein’s mistake?
________
TRUMP: Look, Sessions gets the job. Right after he gets the job, he recuses himself.
BAKER: Was that a mistake?
TRUMP: Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.
HABERMAN: He gave you no heads up at all, in any sense?
TRUMP: Zero. So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have — which, frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, “Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.” It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president. So he recuses himself. I then end up with a second man, who’s a deputy.
HABERMAN: Rosenstein.
TRUMP: Who is he? And Jeff hardly knew. He’s from Baltimore.
________
TRUMP: Yeah, what Jeff Sessions did was he recused himself right after, right after he became attorney general. And I said, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I would have — then I said, “Who’s your deputy?” So his deputy he hardly knew, and that’s Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, who is from Baltimore. There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any. So, he’s from Baltimore. Now, he, we went through a lot of things. We were interviewing replacements at the F.B.I. Did you know Mueller was one of the people that was being interviewed?
HABERMAN: I did, actually.
TRUMP: He was sitting in that chair. We had a wonderful meeting.
HABERMAN: Day before, right?
SCHMIDT: Did he want the job?
TRUMP: The day before! Of course, he was up here, and he wanted the job.
HABERMAN: And he made that clear to you? He would have——
________
TRUMP: So, now what happens is, he leaves the office. Rosenstein leaves the office. The next day, he is appointed special counsel. I said, what the hell is this all about? Talk about conflicts? But he was interviewing for the job. There were many other conflicts that I haven’t said, but I will at some point. So Jeff Sessions, Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers.
HABERMAN: You mean at the hearing?
TRUMP: Yeah, he gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t. He then becomes attorney general, and he then announces he’s going to recuse himself. Why wouldn’t he have told me that before?
HABERMAN: Why do you think it was? What do you think it was?
TRUMP: I don’t know.
BAKER: What would cause you — what would be the line beyond which if Mueller went, you would say, “That’s too far, we would need to dismiss him”?
TRUMP: Look, there are so many conflicts that everybody has. Then Rosenstein becomes extremely angry because of Comey’s Wednesday press conference, where he said that he would do the same thing he did a year ago with Hillary Clinton, and Rosenstein became extremely angry at that because, as a prosecutor, he knows that Comey did the wrong thing. Totally wrong thing. And he gives me a letter, O.K., he gives me a letter about Comey. And by the way, that was a tough letter, O.K. Now, perhaps I would have fired Comey anyway, and it certainly didn’t hurt to have the letter, O.K. But he gives me a very strong letter, and now he’s involved in the case. Well, that’s a conflict of interest. Do you know how many conflicts of interests there are? But then, then Comey also says that he did something in order to get the special prose— special counsel. He leaked. The reason he leaked. So, he illegally leaked.
Trump took to Twitter to express his vexation with Sessions, who was on an MS-13 mission in El Salvador at the time (see his priorities!):
So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?
On July 27, Sessions told Tucker Carlson (Fox News) how ‘hurtful’ the President’s tweets were. Note that he defended his recusals:
He never should have taken the job!
Mueller conflicts of interest
To go into all the conflicts of interest in this investigation would take ages. Uranium One is the biggest, and it involves Russia, Mueller and Rosenstein.
That said, the public were angry at the way Big Media — especially CNN — were reporting the Mueller investigation.
On July 24, a contributor to The_Donald posted a testy thread, the title of which is:
FAKE NEWS CNN defending Sessions’ recusal while DEAD SILENT about Mueller needing to recuse for the same reasons. MUELLER IS MORE CONFLICTED THAN SESSIONS! REPORT THE TRUTH!
By way of reply, someone posted a link to a Crime and Consequences article, ‘My View: Mueller is Conflicted Out‘. The premise of the article is that Robert Mueller cannot continue to serve as Special Counsel under 28 USC Section 528 and 28 CFR Section 45.2. You can read the article for the detail.
The author provides an excellent summary of Mueller, James Comey and more. The following continues to be discussed today, particularly in light of Comey’s recent book launch and associated interviews:
Jim Comey and Bob Mueller have been friends for about 15 years …
Comey now finds himself smack-dab at the center of the Russian investigation over which Mueller presides. Questions swirl around Comey — about whether the President wanted/hinted/hoped/asked/directed/or something else the investigation of National Security Adviser Gen. Flynn to be stopped/abandoned/slowed/soft-peddled/something else. This is probably the central element of the obstruction of justice case Mr. Trump’s opponents would like to see made against him.
Questions also swirl about Comey’s notes about this conversation, why he gave them to a private individual (Prof. Dan Richman of Columbia Law) to convey to the press. Additional questions have arisen about whether this curious and seemingly devious means of putting contents of the notes in the public domain (leaking, in other words) was designed specifically to bring about the appointment of a Special Counsel outside the President’s direct reach — and, indeed, whether Comey wanted, expected or intended his friend Mueller to get the job.
There is much to be said of all this, none of it very happy-making. But one thing that can be said with considerable clarity if not comfort is that, under the governing rules (set forth above), Mueller has a long-term relationship with Comey that “may result in a personal…conflict of interest, or the appearance thereof.”
He is therefore disqualified. I hope and believe that Mueller, whom I believe to be an honest man and a partisan of the rule of law, will see this for himself. If he doesn’t, I hope Rod Rosenstein will.
As I’ve said in many other contexts, I like rule-orientation and fear self-justification, a ubiquitous flaw in even the best of men. There is no way Comey is not a central witness in this investigation (if not a subject). Even less is there a way Mueller can be expected to evaluate Comey’s credibility with the fresh neutrality, arm’s-length curiosity, and objective sharp eye his job demands.
Whether Mueller’s departure would work out well or badly for Mr. Trump is not knowable (it is also decidedly not the subject of this post). My point is about the application of stated rules to the facts at hand. Let the chips fall where they may, the application is clear: Mueller cannot remain as Special Counsel.
That article was from June 2017. Nearly one year later, nothing has changed. Mueller’s still in situ.
On September 20, Law & Crime‘s Rachel Stockman asked why Rosenstein wasn’t recusing himself from the Mueller probe. Because Sessions recused himself, Rosenstein is the DOJ’s link to Mueller (emphases in the original, those in purple mine):
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein is overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation after Jeff Sessions recused himself. However, there are some concerns about his ability to adequately supervise an investigation that he has now become a part of. On Tuesday night, The Wall Street Journal broke the story that over the summer, Mueller’s investigators interviewed Rosentein about President Donald Trump‘s firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
The Journal claims the FBI’s handling of the interview “could be a sign that Mr. Mueller’s team doesn’t view Mr. Rosenstein as a central witness in its probe, as the deputy attorney general hasn’t withdrawn himself from overseeing it since that interview.” That could very well be the case, but the optics don’t look good. A spokesperson for Rosenstein said “if there comes a time when he needs to recuse, he will. However, nothing has changed.” Well, now might be the time …
Rosenstein, as a federal lawyer and a DOJ employee, is guided by both local D.C. ethics rules and Justice Department guidelines. Both would prohibit him from overseeing an investigation if he is a person of interest or a target …
However, legal experts emphasize that we don’t know yet whether Rosenstein is a target of the investigation for his role in writing that infamous memo giving Trump “justification” for firing Comey. Did Rosenstein cooperate in a lie to the public? 18 USC 1512(c)(2) says that obstruction happens when a person “corruptly… impedes [an] official proceeding or attempts to do so.”
“Creating a false narrative for firing Comey could be such an attempt. The definition of ‘official proceeding; includes “a proceeding before a Federal Government agency which is authorized by law.’ That language is broad enough to encompass the FBI and the Comey investigation,” Gillers said.
Now, the hope is that if the investigation starts honing in on Rosenstein, Mueller would advise him that he needed to recuse himself. BUT there is this added wrinkle: Mueller may have an incentive in wanting to keep Rosentein as his supervisor. Trump’s team has hinted more than once that he might fire Mueller. Federal law says that technically Trump can’t do the firing. Instead, the U.S. Attorney General (or in this case Rosenstein since Sessions recused himself) would have to do it. From all indications, Rosenstein would probably not demure to such a demand from Trump …
In the end, we must rely on Mueller’s integrity, and pray that if Rosenstein was in legal jeopardy, Mueller would do the right thing and ask him to take himself off the investigation. In the wake of James Comey’s breach in DOJ policy, asking us to trust our public officials seems like a scary thought. With so much at stake, so many unknowns, and the world watching, Mr. Rosenstein needs to think long and hard about recusing himself.
Well, Rosey’s still managing the Mueller investigation.
September 2017 – calls for unrecusal
By September, there were calls for Sessions to unrecuse himself. Here’s Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch:
By December, there was doubt as to whether Sessions should have recused at all:
On December 18, Alan Dershowitz offered the clearest rationale for an unrecusal. Emphases mine below.
He told Fox & Friends (video at the link):
Sessions could un-recuse himself, because the law allows anyone who’s recused themselves to un-recuse if there are new developments or circumstances.
And Dershowitz said the reason Sessions can do this, is because Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should recuse himself.
Rosenstein is a “key witness” after writing the memo justifying Jim Comey’s firing.
November 2017 – question over possible Uranium One recusal
On November 2, Breitbart reported that Rep. Mark Gaetz (R – Florida) told them that Sessions would recuse over Uranium One (H/T: Conservative Treehouse). Bold emphasis in the original, those in purple mine:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions told a small group of lawmakers in late September he was recused from appointing a special counsel to look into potential corruption surrounding the Uranium One deal and Fusion GPS’s work on the Trump dossier, according to one of the lawmakers present.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that he and other House Judiciary Committee Republicans had met with Sessions at the Justice Department on September 28 in advance of an upcoming committee hearing with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein later this month.
Gaetz said that when he asked Sessions to appoint a special counsel to investigate the 2010 Uranium One deal and Fusion GPS, the attorney general stood up, said he could not discuss the matter because he had recused himself, and walked out of the room, leaving them with a group of Rosenstein staffers “who showed no interest.”
“He said that anything that had to do with 2016 election, or Russia, or the candidates in the 2016 election, fell under the scope of his recusal, and he left the room,” Gaetz said.
“It was Sessions’ position that his recusal on the Russia matter divorced him from any oversight on Uranium One and Fusion GPS. That’s troubling. Sessions’ recusal is a function of his involvement in the Trump campaign. In no world does that impact his judgment as it relates to Fusion GPS and Uranium One. But he views the recusal more broadly. That’s troubling because that puts Rosenstein in charge,” he said.
Gaetz said Rosenstein’s staffers provided “no answers” and “no timeline for answers.”
This is why many of us have been saying that Sessions must resign or, as such time as the Senate will approve a replacement, be fired.
Yet, investigative journalist Sara Carter told Fox’s Sean Hannity that the report was not true:
I hope Sara Carter is correct.
November 2017 – Sessions critics told they are disloyal
Sleepy’s critics are constantly being told by his supporters that by being critical of him they are being critical of Trump! False!
As much as I liked Imperator_Rex — currently Vachel Lindsay — on Twitter, the logic that he and others employ with this stance is wrong. Here’s a taster from a rather long thread of his from November 3:
Who knows what’s happening with The Storm? All the people we want to see brought to justice have been going on book tours (Hillary, Comey), giving speeches overseas (Obama) and leading a normal life (e.g. John Podesta).
Re 36, no, it’s not because Trump ‘wants’ Sessions there, it’s because the only way Trump can get a replacement for him is if he (Sessions) resigns (vacancy rules apply).
The Senate told Trump in 2017 that they will not approve any new cabinet members, making it impossible for Trump to fire Sessions. Nor will the Senate allow Trump to appoint someone new when the Senate is not in session. Consequently, the Senate has not been declaring any formal recess.
Trump’s hands are tied, unless Sessions resigns.
Even then, Trump has to have a replacement in mind.
It certainly won’t be Rosenstein.
Re 37, saying that Sessions critics are disloyal to Trump is egregious. We care deeply about President Trump. That’s why we want Sessions out of the way, so that Swamp rats can be dealt with the way the Founding Fathers intended.
Again, we have only Sara Carter’s word for that.
December 2017 – Former FBI director Kallstrom says Mueller should recuse
On December 4, former FBI director James Kallstrom told Breitbart that Robert Mueller should recuse himself:
“Bob Mueller should have never been offered nor accepted the job as special counsel as he has a huge conflict of interest,” Jim Kallstrom tells Breitbart News …
Not only do observers describe Mueller and the man he recommended to replace him as FBI director, James Comey, as close or even best friends, but the special counsel pursues an investigation heavily involving the bureau he once led. How one maintains detachment in leading a team that includes numerous anti-Trump partisans in a probe involving one’s close friend and the former bureau for which Mueller served as director goes unexplained.
Other problems Kallstrom sees include the means by which investigators obtained information and what constituted probable cause to obtain it.
“The Obama administration apparently, had the advantage of using electronic surveillance, collecting information on the Trump campaign,” Kallstrom explains. “That collection, in my view, may be found to be unlawful.”
…
If the surveillance and investigatory methods prove unlawful, Kallstrom notes that this puts Mueller in an awkward position of looking into his close friend and perhaps the bureau that both men once led.
“If they used the phony dossier as the predicate for the FISA order they obtained, that could be a huge problem,” Kallstrom tells Breitbart News. “If they knew the information was phony, that is a felony. If they did not know it was phony, they were incompetent.”
January 2018 – White House tried to talk Sessions out of recusal
On January 5, 2018, Fox News reported that White House officials tried to talk Sessions out of recusing himself in 2017 (emphases mine):
President Trump instructed three senior White House officials to talk Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of recusing himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and members of the Trump campaign, multiple sources told Fox News on Friday.
Trump called on White House counsel Don McGahn, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer to stop Sessions from recusing himself.
Spicer has denied the allegation.
The push to convince Sessions allegedly took place over the course of a number of telephone calls that covered a variety of other topics, the well-placed sources told Fox.
On Thursday, The New York Times first reported that Trump had directed McGahn to contact Sessions this past March. According to The Associated Press, two anonymous sources confirmed that McGahn unsuccessfully lobbied Sessions to continue to oversee the Russia investigation.
Sessions supporters will have trouble with ‘multiple sources’ and ‘anonymous sources’, but every single presidential administration has had them.
My upcoming McMaster chronicle shows that, nearly every time one of these sources spoke to the media, they were telling the truth.
March – Sessions took recusal advice from Obama lawyers
Just when the Sessions situation couldn’t seem more intolerable, the Gateway Pundit reported on March 14 that the attorney general took recusal advice from Obama adminstration lawyers (emphases in the original):
On Wednesday night FOX News contributor and legal expert Gregg Jarrett told Sean Hannity that Sessions used the WRONG LAW when announcing his recusal. He took advice from OBAMA OFFICIALS and they misled him.
Gregg Jarrett: He betrayed the president. He knew when he was sworn in that he was going to recuse himself and the very next day he put the recusal in motion. He never told the president about that. And by the way he cited the regulation in his recusal… He cited the wrong law. It didn’t apply.
Sara Carter: I think he was being advised badly at the time.
Gregg Jarrett: Yeah, by Obama’s holdovers. Who in the world would believe them?
Good grief! He cited the wrong law!
The DOJ regulation Sessions cited — 28 CFR 45.2— says “no DOJ employee may participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution, or who would be directly affected by the outcome.”
As Andrew McCarthy at National Review reported, “The regulation he cited applies to a different type of investigation.”
Once again the question must be asked: Who did deep state catch Jeff Sessions in bed with?
My thoughts exactly.
April 2018 – Congress asks Sessions to investigate Swamp
On April 18, members of Congress wrote to Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and United States Attorney John Huber requesting that they issue a criminal referral for a long list of Swamp dwellers, including FBI Director James Comey, Hillary Clinton and others – including FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, for a laundry list of potential crimes surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
You can read the letter in full at Scribd.
ZeroHedge has more (emphases in the original):
Recall that Sessions paired special prosecutor John Huber with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz – falling short of a second Special Counsel, but empowering Horowitz to fully investigate allegations of FBI FISA abuse with subpoena power and other methods he was formerly unable to utilize.
The GOP letter’s primary focus appears to be James Comey, while the charges for all include obstruction, perjury, corruption, unauthorized removal of classified documents, contributions and donations by foreign nationals and other allegations.
The letter also demands that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “be recused from any examination of FISA abuse,” and recommends that “neither U.S. Attorney John Huber nor a special counsel (if appointed) should report to Rosenstein.”
April 2018 – possible partial recusal in Cohen investigation
Early in April, the home, office and hotel room of President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen were ransacked.
It’s possible that Sessions could recuse himself from this, too — at least partially.
On April 24, Gateway Pundit carried a news story, ‘WTH? AG Sessions Will Not Recuse Himself From Cohen Investigation — Only on Certain Issues‘ (emphases in the original):
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided not to recuse himself from the investigation into Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Don’t get too excited because Sessions will consider stepping back on specific matters tied into the Cohen probe …
On Tuesday, GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin sent a letter to AG Sessions demanding to know his involvement in the FBI raid of Cohen.
“We would like to know if you approved, were consulted, or had any involvement in this decision by the Department of Justice,” Zeldin asked in a letter to AG Sessions about the FBI raid of Cohen on April 9th.
Gateway Pundit cited a Reuters article which says that Sessions discussed the matter at a Senate appropriations subcommittee meeting about the proposed 2019 budget for the Justice Department. Please read it, because it’s got all the classic Sessions recusal statements.
Conclusion
To date, Sessions’s recusals look increasingly like refusals to do the AG job in its entirety.
Jeff Sessions is up for the chop. It’s just a matter of time and circumstance. After the Cohen raid, Trump is even unhappier with the AG and the DOJ than he was a year ago at this time.
My reader George True has posted eloquent comments here.
I used two, with his consent, as guest posts:
Guest post: a reader’s perspective on the Florida school shooting (February 23 comment)
Guest post: a reader’s perspective on the Deep State and Mueller investigation (April 15, George True)
George’s latest is about Jeff Sessions’s priorities, initially posted here in reply to ‘Increasing outcry for Sleepy Sessions to go’.
George has kindly consented to my using his comment as a guest post. Q is the intel source dropping geopolitical breadcrumbs. Sundance is the founder and author of The Conservative Treehouse. Emphases mine below.
I really do not know what to believe at this point in time. Q keeps saying ‘trust Sessions’. Sundance keeps saying ‘trust Sessions’. Yet Sessions appears to have been MIA for fifteen months, while the entire time his boss (our President) has been continuously savaged by the MSM, the DNC, and rogue agencies such as the FBI and Sessions’ own agency, the DOJ.
One of the highly publicized actions of the DOJ under Sessions is the rounding up of MS-13 gang bangers in certain parts of our country. While I am in favor of this, what good does it do without also reining in the agencies that promoted and facilitated the importation of massive numbers of Mexican criminals in the first place? And in any case, how is arresting MS-13 members MORE important than arresting the ringleaders of what is now known to have been an attempted coup and overthrow of the lawfully and constitutionally elected government of the United States?
As I have opined in prior comments at this blog, I sincerely hope and pray that there is far more going on under the radar than we everyday people can possibly see. One of two possibilities exists. Either Sessions is doing essentially nothing……..OR, he is fully engaged in the greatest stealth operation of getting the goods on the Deep State criminal cabal that there has ever been. In other words, boiling the frog so slowly that he won’t realize it until too late.
Only time will tell. And time is running out. Primary elections are almost upon us, and the mid-term elections are just six months away. If there is no action against the coup plotters soon, the Republicans stand to lose big, possibly losing one or both houses of congress. Just today, April 20, the corrupt and criminal DNC filed suit against the Trump campaign in federal court. This highly visible lawsuit breathes new life into the ab initio false narrative of Trump being elected as a result of ‘collusion’ with Russia.
The suit will go nowhere. Its entire purpose is to continue the fraudulent claims against Trump for the purpose of tilting the all-important mid-term elections to the Democrats. Once they have even marginal control of congress, they will vote to impeach Trump. Even if they are unsuccessful in removing him, they will effectively hamstring his administration for the rest of his time in office. Only the public exposure and prosecution of the Democrat coup plotters by Jeff Sessions’ DOJ prior to then will blunt the ongoing propaganda campaign of the left and prevent a mid-term debacle. We will soon know whether Sessions is the real deal or not. Let us pray we do not find out the hard way due to complete inaction on the part of Sessions.
I couldn’t agree more, George.
What now looms in my mind is the possibility that Jeff Sessions has been compromised.
In February, Sessions had dinner with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — the de facto Attorney General after Sessions’s recusals — and Solicitor General Noel Francisco at a restaurant near the Justice Department. Was it, as the Washington Post posits, a show of solidarity?
The same WaPo article, published on April 20, zeroed in on Sessions’s rumoured loyalty to Rosenstein, who is closest to Robert Mueller and his investigation: ‘Sessions told White House that Rosenstein’s firing could prompt his departure too’:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange.
Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump’s fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI’s raid April 9 on the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen …
In the phone call with McGahn, Sessions wanted details of a meeting Trump and Rosenstein held at the White House on April 12, according to a person with knowledge of the call. Sessions expressed relief to learn that their meeting was largely cordial. Sessions said he would have had to consider leaving as the attorney general had Trump ousted Rosenstein, this person said.
Another person familiar with the exchange said Sessions did not intend to threaten the White House but rather wanted to convey the untenable position that Rosenstein’s firing would put him in.
Sessions’s primary loyalty should be to President Trump rather than Rod Rosenstein. The Mueller investigation is going nowhere, and Rosenstein is the one who appointed Mueller on May 17, 2017 without consulting with Sessions beforehand:
The decision took Trump by surprise and greatly angered him.
Back to the present: on April 20, Donald McGahn gave Rosenstein a set of presidential cufflinks he wore at his appearance before the Supreme Court on April 23 to argue a case about sentencing in a drugs case conviction.
It’s difficult for the public to know what to think.
If President Trump did fire Rosenstein and Sessions subsequently resigned, then Trump could get a Senate-approved replacement for the AG spot under vacancy rules.
It wouldn’t hurt for Trump’s supporters to have a bit of clarity about this situation.
A post about Sessions’s recusals is coming soon.
Over the past week, there has been an increasing America’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions — former senator for Alabama — to resign or be fired.
He is supposed to be ‘honorable’, yet he fails to stop highly questionable moves by the Mueller investigation against President Donald Trump.
He is known to be the ‘silent assassin’ and ‘silent executioner’ from his days as US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and, subsequently, the state’s attorney general.
The problem is that when Sessions thinks of criminals, only gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers come to mind. Fair enough. However, he has spent too long in Washington DC to see another criminal class: politicians and government employees.
Because of that blind spot, he cannot be an effective attorney general (AG). And, as important as jailing gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers is, the overriding national concern right now is upholding the Constitution and putting crooked politicians — past and present — behind bars.
The latest episode in this long drawn out investigation of Robert Mueller’s is that President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had his home, office and the hotel room in which he was staying at the time ransacked by the FBI in New York on Monday, March 9, 2018 (Mueller is pictured at top right, Sessions beneath him):
Remember that Mueller and his team are only supposed to be investigating alleged Russian collusion involving Trump and his team. After nearly a year, they have not found any evidence of that with regard to the Trump campaign, so they have moved the goalposts and expanded their brief to find anything against Trump or one of his associates.
Jeff Sessions can’t help. Shortly after Mueller came on board, Sessions recused himself from any investigation into the presidential campaign of which he had been a part.
As Mueller’s investigation seems to be all-encompassing, Sessions’s hands are effectively tied.
There are those who say he could recuse, because of various irregularities with the investigation. However, it is likely he will play by the rules.
Therefore, for all intents and purposes, deputy AG Rod Rosenstein effectively runs the Department of Justice (DOJ).
With regard to Michael Cohen:
Meanwhile, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino points out the obvious:
This is something Sessions could — and should — work on:
He can — and should — assign work involving MS-13, drug dealers and human traffickers to subordinates in the DOJ and FBI. As it stands:
A lot of us had high hopes for Sleepy, who seemed pretty alert at first, but now the United States is approaching, if not already in, a constitutional crisis:
Ultimately:
Sessions could be investigating any number of those scandals and crimes, but he is not. His all-around inactivity in this regard is harming the nation, regardless of what many think:
On Tuesday, April 10, Judge Andrew Napolitano, legal analyst for Fox News, blamed the Cohen raid on Sessions’s recusal and said that he never should have accepted the AG appointment (emphases mine below):
Napolitano said the government raided Cohen’s office looking for evidence of bank fraud and believes it never would have escalated to this point if Sessions had made different choices.
“[Sessions] should have never accepted the appointment,” Napolitano said. “The Russia investigation started in October of 2016 and he knew he was going to be a witness. But if he felt he had to recuse himself — Mr. President you are entitled to an attorney general in whom have you great confidence. I’m not sure if I’m the guy if I recuse myself. Half of what the DOJ does, I will have nothing to do with.”
Earlier, on Saturday, April 7, longtime political strategist, Trump friend and earliest campaign manager Roger Stone said that congressmen have told him Sessions might not be mentally fit for office. Mediaite reported on a radio interview Stone gave that day to WMAL’s Steve Malzberg:
Stone replied that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is the “de facto attorney general,” before making a jaw-dropping allegation:
“I think Jeff Sessions is either neutered or non compos mentis. He may in fact even be senile.”
Malzberg asked if those comments should be taken literally, and Stone responded in the affirmative.
“Members of congress who have met with me have told me that he’s around the bend, he makes little sense, that he seems befuddled, confused, bewildered. So yeah, something is not well, he needs to step down.”
After President Trump found out about the raid on Michael Cohen, he spoke out:
“The Attorney General made a terrible mistake when he recused himself,” Trump said, raising again his dissatisfaction with Sessions for recusing himself from matters relating to the Russia investigation.
On April 10, The Daily Caller reported that two congressmen are awaiting overdue documentation from Sessions and Rosenstein about intelligence abuses:
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows appeared together on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday to express their displeasure with the Department of Justice and suggested a new attorney general might be the only cure.
Meadows of North Carolina and Jordan of Ohio said they were frustrated by delays within the DOJ, in turning over sensitive document related to intelligence abuses …
[Meadows] accused the FBI and DOJ of trying to hide information from Congress and said if Attorney General Jeff Sessions can’t get the job done then Trump should find someone who can.
Jim Jordan told The Daily Caller:
Congressman Jim Jordan says Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be “held accountable” for the leadership they have displayed at the Department of Justice, specifically as it relates to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“I’ve been extremely disappointed,” the Ohio Republican told The Daily Caller in an interview Tuesday. “They’re keeping critical facts from us, like the conversation between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page where they talk about the relationship Strzok has with one of the FISA court judges, the same judge who by the way heard Michael Flynn’s case and recused himself after Flynn pled guilty.”
It’s not as if Sessions is the only one at the DOJ with conflicts of interests. Rod Rosenstein has them, too:
The congressman had previously suggested Sessions step down as AG, but he specifically stated Tuesday that Rosenstein should see punitive measures for his role in both the Mueller probe and the FBI’s original Trump-counterintelligence investigation.
“Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the obstruction of justice investigation into the firing of James Comey, can he really do that when he’s the guy who wrote the memo recommending the firing of James Comey?” he posed. “[Rosenstein] signed one of the FISA renewals, despite knowing that the author of the dossier that the FISA warrant was based on had his relationship with the FBI terminated because he broke protocol and leaked information to the press — I mean, come on!”
The Republican-majority Senate told Trump last year they would not approve any new cabinet appointments and still forbid him from making them while they are in recess. This puts the president in a bind. He might be able to make a lateral move by putting Scott Pruitt, current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, into the AG post.
Whatever the case, Sleepy Sessions would do well to wake up and smell the coffee, recuse himself (wherever possible), then get on the case. In terms of investigating politically oriented crimes, he has done a terrible job not only for President Trump — but also for the American people.
Coming soon: Sessions’s recusals explained
In February, I published a guest post from one of my readers, George True, on the Parkland, Florida school shooting. If you missed it, please be sure to read it.
A few days ago, George True commented on ‘The bottom to top plan to save America’, which explains why we have not seen high profile arrests yet. (If you haven’t read it, please do, as it will put what follows in context.
George kindly granted me permission to use his eloquent, inspired comment as a guest post. Emphases mine below.
This is an excellent Christian perspective on what is happening in America right now:
I certainly hope this what is happening behind the scenes. Many American patriots, including myself, were expecting to see a number of high level arrests and prosecutions by now. The sheer number of crimes committed by high ranking members of the Obama administration is almost overwhelming to contemplate. And the in-your-face audacity of it all and them more or less daring anyone to do anything about it is breathtaking in its arrogance. The weaponizing of virtually all agencies of government by the prior administration against anyone, including common people, who had different political views is a level of evil that is so far beyond the pale it defies description.
This is by far the greatest government scandal in the entire history of the United States. And so far the perpetrators have gotten away with it scot free. If they are not indicted and prosecuted for their many felonies committed against the American people, then one can truly say that there is no law anymore in the former constitutional republic known as America, except the law of the jungle.
The Deep State is attempting to isolate Trump and get him before he gets them. The Republican establishment in particular is complicit in the attempt to bring Trump down. Never in my life have I seen one of the major political parties not even attempt to defend the leader of their party. Most of them are probably compromised, either through blackmail or having been bought off. And the travesty of Mueller, one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the Uranium One scandal, investigating Trump on the bogus and fraudulent claim that his 2016 campaign somehow conspired with Russia is both disgusting and enraging to see day after day. If real justice were in effect, Mueller and his entire crew of virulently anti-Trump leftists, along with all of the main criminals of the Obama administration would be taken into custody by the Marine Corps and transported to Guantanamo forthwith, where they would await trial by military tribunal.
I am not a vengeful person. Yet my soul cries out to see justice done. Something on the order of seventy million American Christians who remember what our country used to be prayed daily and fervently to our God for deliverance from the criminal cabal that has had a stranglehold on every aspect of our government. Our prayers were answered in the form of President Donald Trump, an imperfect man, but one who also remembers what out country used to be and was willing to risk everything, up to and including his very life in order to restore our republic to we the people. I cannot believe that God would bring us this far only to have the Deep State take out our champion that He has anointed.
I still fervently pray, with all my strength and all my heart and soul that there is much going on behind the scenes that we do not know about. I pray daily for Donald Trump’s health and safety, and that things are proceeding according to plan. Let the corrupt media bray and spew their misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Let the Deep State think they have gotten away with it, even as the net slowly but surely encircles them. And let us all continue to fervently beseech God for justice, and to thank God for all that he has done and continues to do for each of us individually and all of us collectively. I want nothing more than to be a righteous man in a once again righteous nation – a nation that looks to God for guidance, protection, and love.
That is a perfect description of the egregious present and the God-fearing past in America.
I hope George seriously considers starting his own WordPress blog. His thoughts deserve a wide audience.
This post can be found on my Recipes / Health / History / Health / Trump page.
Q continues to divide Trump supporters.
When the original Q — Q Clearance Anon — began posting for several days from the end of October through the first week or so in November 2017 — a lot of us thought that high level indictments were under way.
Then, another Q took over, thought to be comprised of a handful of people in the White House. Since then, Q followers have been in two camps: those who expect ‘live action’ (as some Americans say nowadays) and those who have come to take Q’s news as it happens.
The first group is becoming disillusioned. Below is a case in point. Q’s original messages and others’ comments are on 8chan.net (not for the faint-hearted or easily offended, but I have retained the live links below for those interested in the threads). N.B.: I do not approve of the alienating 8chan content. Last month, Q wrote several times of ‘March madness’ and the following exchange took place (message 990):
I still follow your lead on all of this (relying more on the inquiry of those digging here), but March wasn’t nearly as ‘mad’ as what you sold us. Please don’t build us up to break us down, Q.
Q replied that the month’s madness was all about talks between South and North Korea and the upcoming talks involving the United States:
NK.
Q
To anyone waiting for Hillary Clinton to be arrested, that is not a very exciting answer. However, to those in the corridors of power, the possibility of resolving a six-decade old problem is. The Korean War never officially ended. If President Trump can get Kim Jong Un to denuclearise without a shot being fired, that would be an excellent and historic development, as no other US president has ever tried to attempt such a breakthrough.
Early in April, Q outlined the month’s developments (message 988, emphases in the original):
April [A].
IG report.
Sessions public attack.
RR problems.
Seals broken.
[A]rrests.
Why was Huber made public?
Why now?
Everything has meaning.
[A]wan.
Tarmac.
Iran.
NK.
U1.
FBI.
DOJ.
Mueller.
Election Integrity.
Immigration Bill.
Border.
Wall.
Military start.
BIG month.
Q
I wrote about Robert Mueller’s investigation, the FBI, DoJ and Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz a month ago. More is coming out and Horowitz’s long-awaited report might be out this month. I won’t be holding my breath.
That said, the day after Q posted this, news emerged about RR — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. A memo from 2017 that Rosenstein sent Mueller suddenly surfaced allowing Mueller to go outside the scope of the Russian collusion investigation. On April 3, the Gateway Pundit reported (emphases in the original):
Last week we stated that the US is now in a constitutional crisis due to the unconstitutional and corrupt Mueller investigation kept in place by corrupt FBI and DOJ Leadership. Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort may soon be the one to shut it all down.
Mueller’s illegal Trump-Russia investigation continues to take corrupt and unconstitutional actions while criminal activities in Obama’s FBI, DOJ and State Department are ignored. If there is justice, America will soon have a real investigation looking into the Obama and Clinton criminal acts while in office.
Paul Manafort first made arguments in a suit with Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions as Head of the DOJ, related to illegalities in the way that Rosenstein set up the Mueller special counsel. Rosenstein’s special counsel order was not based on a crime and unconstitutionally stated that Mueller could basically look at anything he wanted to look at. These provisions are against the law and are now for the courts to settle.
The FBI raided Mr and Mrs Manafort’s home during the early hours of the morning in late July 2017, alarming them both, to say the least. The heretofore unseen Rosenstein memo, dated August 2, 2017, was:
supposedly directing Mueller to look into Manafort actions with a Russian operative perhaps before 2016. This however is clearly outside the scope of Sessions’ recusal as argued by Manafort and doesn’t even address Manafort’s argument that these actions are not for Mueller to take or Rosenstein to order but are Sessions actions alone as AG.
If Rosenstein and Mueller can’t come up with something legal and constitutional their gooses may finally be cooked by of all people, Paul Manafort. We can only hope and pray for justice.
In message 1028, Q presented a series of questions about the Mueller investigation, with information no doubt to be revealed in the months ahead. The same message had this about Trump, Manafort and a Trump campaign volunteer, Carter Page, whose stay was short:
It was not supposed to be revealed POTUS is not under criminal investigation _ NOT YET.
Traitor.
Massive intel sweep.
Manafort was a plant …
Carter Page was a plant.
Trace background.
Open source.
Why is Mueller going after ‘inside plants’?
Oh well, at least Paul Manafort got then-candidate Trump the necessary delegates to win the Republican nomination in July 2016.
As for the Awans, see Wikipedia for now. I have a whole collection of articles, but there is too much to go into for the purposes of this post.
Construction of the border wall began on March 26 by the Army Corps of Engineers based in Greencastle, Indiana. The emblem of the Army Corps of Engineers is a white castle on a red background. Q referred to this last month on the day President Trump said wall construction would begin the following Monday:
Depending on the context, a future mention might mean this particular unit in relation to the wall.
In other matters domestic, we might find out more about the tarmac meeting Bill Clinton had with Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the summer of 2016, when he boarded her plane for a private conversation. A big no-no.
On March 30, Fox News reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed a federal prosecutor, John Huber, to look into:
certain issues involving the FBI, the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, but said he would not appoint a second special counsel at this point.
In a letter directed to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, Sessions revealed that he asked U.S. Attorney John Huber to lead the evaluation into issues raised by the committees in recent months.
Huber’s appointment is definitely a positive step. I hope it means the IG’s report is coming soon.
North Korea is still in the mix as is Iran. With Mike Pompeo in place as Secretary of State after Rex Tillerson’s departure, things will begin moving rapidly. Pompeo and Trump see eye to eye. Also, John Bolton has replaced HR McMaster as National Security Adviser. Although I am not a fan of Bolton, he and Trump are on the same page geopolitically. Bolton has been known to do what he is asked. As Trump believes in negotiating solutions rather than starting wars, I’m praying for a positive, lasting outcome.
Q also signalled that Silicon Valley giants could be brought down to size (message 989):
>875265
Facebook.
Amazon.
Twitter.
GOOG. ……….. BIG problems.
Q
With regard to GOOG, Q gave us a name to watch for: Jared Cohen (message 1024). He is CEO of Jigsaw, formerly Google Ideas. He worked closely with Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton during their respective tenures as Secretary of State. He was on the social media side of ‘regime change’ outside of the US.
Q discussed the necessary presence of troops and future wall along the southern border to prevent the human ‘caravan’ (Pueblos sin Fronteras’ word) from entering the United States (message 1009). According to Q, this caravan seems to have been cooked up by the CIA (Clowns) and Democrats with big background money. John McCain (‘name we don’t say’) and Jeff Flake are pro-immigrant Republicans:
>>893904
Troops to Border.
Clown Black Ops.
Private funds.
Raised how?
Troops @ Border does what?
Impact?
To who?
D’s involved.
MS_13/Illegals road block.
Sex traffic road block.
Children road block.
Drugs road block.
Guns road block.
China/Russia pass-through-intel-pull road block.
Name we don’t say AZ road block.
Jeff Flake AZ road block.
Big money TERMINATE.
The WALL means more than you know.
The FIGHT for the WALL is for so much more.
Q
Message 1025 expressed gratitude and reminded everyone of the Q slogan ‘Where we go one, we go all’ (image courtesy of an 8chan reader, not Q):
We are sincerely appreciative for your kind words and appreciation. Means more than you know. Each one read in full. We are in this together. WWG1WGA.
2018 will be glorious!!
God bless,
Q
As I write, there have been four military air crashes during the first week of April. (UPDATE: A fifth occurred on Saturday, April 7, also noted by Q (message 1068).)
A Chinese satellite also fell to earth.
Such a close succession of military crashes is practically unheard of.
Q had this to say (message 1030):
Coincidence or silent war?
Pray.
Night
[2]
Q
An 8chan contributor commented:
4th crash chances of all being accidents is less than 1% (0.8%), and Q basically confirms it ain’t accidents. Damn
As for the satellite, Q asked (message 1033):
>914474
What fell from space recently?
Accident or retaliation?
Q
China hasn’t said much about the satellite and the media are reporting it as a routine event.
Q’s questions point to rogue players in various national governments. An 8channer offered this explanation, which is along the same Q themes from last year (emphases mine):
have anons not learned yet?
the cabal is GLOBAL
that means chinese russian israel britain USA ALL have traitors
xi putin and potus are leading the fight against them
much disinfo and acting
never telegraphn
make enemies guess
WE ARE WINNING
there are many traitors and criminals that can inflict damage but THEY CANNOT WIN
In closing, Q has referenced this short video from the Military Channel three times in the past few days:
Q has mentioned April showers more than once. I hope rain — justice — is due for America’s domestic enemies.
I hope to revisit this post at the beginning of May, if not before.
The week of December 11, 2017 has been chock-a-block with news.
It’s unlikely Big Media have reported the bulk of it. What follows are a few stories people might have missed.
The anti-Trump FBI ‘insurance policy’
A series of text messages between FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page were released on Tuesday, December 12. The Daily Caller reports (emphases mine):
Two FBI officials who worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation exchanged text messages last year in which they appear to have discussed ways to prevent Donald Trump from being elected president.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok wrote in a cryptic text message to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and his mistress.
“It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok wrote in the text, dated Aug. 15, 2016.
Andy is likely Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
Several congressional panels have been after these text messages since the beginning of December, when news emerged of their existence. However, Strzok was dismissed from the Mueller investigation four months ago.
The text messages, some of which The Daily Caller quotes, are anti-Trump. Some have four letter words. Most are cryptic:
“Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace,” Page wrote.
“I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps,” Strzok replied.
Like many of the exchanges, the full context of the message is not entirely clear.
Strzok also offered praise for Clinton while suggesting that he planned to vote for her.
In a March 2, 2016 text Strzok said he would likely vote for Clinton. In another exchange he wrote that if Trump won the Republican primary, Clinton would likely win the presidency.
On Wednesday, December 13, the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released more information about the texts. The Daily Caller has more on the story. Horowitz received the text messages on July 20:
A week later, he met with Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to inform them of the politically-charged texts.
Strzok was “immediately” removed from the investigation after Mueller was told of the texts.
Strzok, who then served as the FBI’s No. 2 counterintelligence official, conducted many of the biggest interviews in the investigation, including with Clinton and her top aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills …
The FBI handed over those messages on July 20, 2017. After reviewing those exchanges, Horowitz expanded the investigation to include all of the text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page from Nov. 30, 2016 to July 28, 2017.
Horowitz’s office received those messages on Aug. 10.
Strzok’s departure from Mueller’s team was reported by ABC News on Aug. 16. The network reported that Strzok had been placed in a job in the FBI’s HR department.
The reason for Strzok’s demotion remained a secret for nearly four months as the Justice Department and Mueller’s office declined media and congressional requests for an explanation. The levy finally broke on Dec. 2, when The Washington Post and New York Times simultaneously reported the existence of the text messages.
A sample of the texts were released Tuesday night ahead of Rosenstein’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee …
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pressed Rosenstein on that text message, suggesting that Strzok was indicating that he planned to prevent Trump from being elected.
[Senator Charles] Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Rosenstein on Wednesday inquiring about the text message.
Rosenstein said Wednesday that the Justice Department and FBI plan to soon make Strzok available for an interview with the House Intelligence Committee.
Strzok’s cryptic Aug. 2016 text [re the insurance policy] was sent just after he was handpicked to supervise the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Horowitz’s letter leaves a few questions unanswered. For one, it is not clear whether Strzok sent politically-charged texts with anyone else. It is also not clear whether the messages contained in the second requested batch of Strzok texts contain any controversial remarks.
The Wall Street Journal has more (note final paragraph):
This is a developing story which has the potential for unveiling criminality — but ultimately:
Alabama special election
In a surprise upset, the Democrat candidate Doug Jones was elected to the Senate, defeating Roy Moore.
The background to the story is that Jeff Sessions vacated his Senate seat in Alabama to serve as Attorney General earlier this year. Sessions appointed Luther Strange to replace him. Alabama governor Kay Ivey directed that a special election take place. However, I read anecdotally that she did not need to hold a special election. Strange could have served until his term ran out.
In any event, Luther Strange ran against Judge Roy Moore in the Republican primary. Strange lost to Moore. Accusations of molesting a teenage girl in the 1970s — unproven — led by an attorney who tried to smear then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 — dogged Moore. Even so, Moore did not have any get-out-the-vote programme, whereas Jones and the Democrats did. Moore then lost to Jones — but only by 1.5%.
Could this have been a case of voter fraud in a state that votes overwhelmingly Republican?
Rumours are circulating that out-of-state voters were brought into Alabama and driven around from polling station to polling station — a classic Democrat strategy that works.
The Republican Party — specifically Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader — also refused to help Moore. McConnell’s detractors refer to him as Turtle.
Imperator_Rex has a good analysis, excerpted below:
He concludes that Trump surely has a game plan in mind.
The 2018 mid-terms require Republicans like McConnell to shape up or ship out.
However, as Imperator_Rex says, McConnell and his ilk don’t really care. They are all part of the Uniparty, so life continues for them much as before. Democrat dominance, especially when it comes to opposing Trump, is preferable to a Republican majority that might be persuaded to turn Trump policies into law.
Jones’s election nearly puts the number of Democrat senators on a par with Republicans. Danger, Will Robinson, danger!
Message to the black electorate
On December 13, the Revd Leon Benjamin and his family were guests at the White House.
They are an example of the middle class families helped by Trump’s proposed tax reform. Trump spoke about the tax plan, then invited the pastor to speak.
Pastor Benjamin had an important message, which began with:
To God be the glory!
Former Milwaukee sheriff David A Clarke expressed similar sentiments the day before:
Happy news
On Wednesday, December 13, First Lady Melania Trump participated in a charity drive for toddlers, the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots, at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders received a verbal kicking after Thanksgiving from CNN’s April Ryan, an annoying journo at the White House press briefings. Ryan criticised Sanders’s pecan pies, accusing the press secretary of not having made them herself.
So (although the crusts look store-bought) …
Here’s what happened on the day. Food really does bring people together:
Never mind that. Sarah’s dad had a message for her:
This will be my last news-related item until after Christmas.
Some reading this would be delighted if President Donald Trump were toppled from office.
With the recent revelations during the past two weeks, it does not appear as if this will happen (thank goodness), but the coup is real.
In July, I wrote about a South African — now American — Evangelical pastor who held a 24/7 prayer vigil at his church praying for Trump’s safety.
Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne is no tin-foil hat wearer. The danger is real.
Cascade Free Zone has an excellent article, ‘The Deep State Coup’, which is brilliantly written and informative. I highly recommend it.
Brief excerpts and a summary follow. Emphases mine below.
The coup has been going on since the November 8, 2016 election. The means and accusations were in place long before then — e.g. the Russian dossier. Note that the dossier is still in active play and old accusations about Trump and women are making the news cycle once again. Impeachment stories feature strongly as do news items about the president’s mental state.
Now:
We are approaching the end of the first-phase of the coup. This is a non-military coup, but what we are witnessing clearly fits the definition of “the overt seizure of the state by an elite within the state apparatus”.
Renowned patriot author and speaker Matt Bracken, in a series of postings and interviews, has outlined the basic mechanics of the coup. Central figures include former FBI director James Comey and the Independent Counsel Robert Mueller, assistant US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and current acting director of the FBI Andrew McCabe. Motivation for all of them is self-preservation. As we have learned Clinton-World was a very corrupt place and the list of self-serving deals and those who benefited from them includes all of the key plotters. None of them believed there was any chance Hillary would lose and leave them exposed. She did. They are.
Here is an illustration of the plot:
The Special Counsel investigation of Russian collusion — led by Robert Mueller — has not found the president guilty of anything.
Meanwhile, several Democrats have found themselves embroiled in impropriety.
So have law enforcement organisations, such as the FBI:
Americans of a certain generation have to strip away the years of propaganda indoctrination that the FBI are “the good guys” and look closely at what they do. The DOJ are their partners in all this, together they are the muscle of the Deep State plotters.
As for the wiretapping — the word the New York Times used in a headline — of Trump Tower last year:
This was clearly an illegal use of the most powerful wiretapping tool in the US law enforcement arsenal. FISA warrants were created to help prevent terrorism, not to ensure election of Deep State approved candidates. It has been criminally misused by the Obama administration to spy on political opponents and blackmail them with the illicitly obtained knowledge.
This goes further than deposing Trump. This is meant to also prevent his successor, Vice President Mike Pence, from taking his place:
the Deep State agenda is not merely to remove Trump, but also to remove Pence, Ryan, McConnell and whoever else stands in their way. Discussion of “do-over elections” is a serious topic there, as is simply removing every person until a flexible insider is found to run things.
Good grief. If that isn’t a totalitarian notion, what is?
There are minor — yet seemingly powerful — players, too. Saul Montes-Bradley has a good Twitter thread, excerpted below, spelling edited (photos in the thread):
(3) Two major events occupied out time last year during the campaign: The Clinton investigation over Hillary’s corrupt and felonious handling of her office as Secretary of State, and the,”Steele Dossier,” that abhorrent and at times sophomoric attempt to besmirch candidate Trump.
(6) I have tried to keep abreast of events as they developed, from the collusion of a venal press with the DNC, to the shenanigans of FBI agents in the Mueller probe.
(8) But it is much, much worse.
And all is coming together now.
Let’s bring a few more names to the forefront.
Does anyone remember Aaron Zebley? …
(9) Zebley was Mueller’s Chief of Staff at the FBI before becoming a Senior Counselor in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice.
Before that he was Special Agent of the FBI in the Counterterrorism Division for seven years.
(10) In between his two tours at the FBI, Zebley served as an Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) in the National Security and Terrorism Unit in Alexandria, Virginia.
If he is any measure, no wonder the fight against terrorism was an utter failure for years!
(11) In March 2014, he joined the law firm Wilmer Hale. “Aaron’s experience at the FBI, DoJ and the US Attorney’s Office will add to our internal investigations, crisis management and cybersecurity capabilities,” crowed his new managing partner …
wilmerhale.com/pages/publicat…
(12) Guess who this upstanding shyster represented there?
Justin Cooper …
(13) Yep.
The cretin who set up the Hilldebeast private email server in her basement and then took a hammer to the blackberries she claimed she did not use!
The one who handled classified information without a security clearance.
(14) … [Zebley] … went from defending Cooper to the Russia investigation under Mueller, working with McCabe and Strzok, who were supposed to have investigated Cooper…
Go figure.
(15) There’s always room for a couple more … in this caper.
Enter Andrew Weissman, for one.
(16) … he returned to the Bureau in 2015 (amazing how many of these vermin found their way back to the bureau in 2015, isn’t it.)
This time as Chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Fraud, mind you.
(20) There are quite a number more.
Like Jeannie Rhea, a shyster in Mueller’s team, who defended Ben Rhodes, finally a focus of the investigation into the “unmasking” caper.
She and 8 others donated to the Hilldebeast’s campaign.
(21) Or Rudy Contreras, judge who presided over @GenFlynn’s plea agreement without telling anybody he was on the FISA court that authorized the tapping of Trump’s phones and God knows why, suddenly remembered and recused himself.
ONE DAY AFTER THE PLEA.
Did he find religion?
(22) And then of course, there’s good ‘ol Bruce Ohr, former Associate Deputy Attorney General, AND Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.
“Former” since Trump demoted him four days ago …
(23) Why was he demoted?
Oh, well, he forgot to declare a minor detail to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) investigating a tiny thingy called the “Trump Dossier.”
What did he forget?
(24) Nothing much. Just that he had “ties” to Fusion GPS and its founder, Glenn Simpson.
It gets better. Simpson had introduced him to Christopher Steele (though some sources he has known Steele for 10 years!).
(25) Steele, yes, the chap who concocted that abomination paid for by the DNC to smear candidate Trump.
Ohr met with Steele SEVERAL TIMES during the campaign, just as this thing was going on, and back with Simpson soon after the election.
What a coincidence!
(26) In fact, Simpson and Ohr met “around Thanksgiving” to discuss “the anti-Trump dossier, the Russia investigation and what Simpson considered the “distressing development of Trump’s victory.”
Distressing, indeed. And after all that work, too!
(27) But that’s not all.
Who was working with Steele in the cooking of the infamous dossier but Ohr’s better half, his wife, Nellie.
What do you know, SHE was HIRED by Fusion GPS in 2016!
Her area of expertise? You guessed it: Russia, Russia Russia.
(28) Ohr didn’t declare any of this. Oops! Forgot.
It was discovered by the HPSCI, but only after threatening Director Wray and Deputy Dog Rosenstein with finding them in contempt …
(29) And this in spite of the obstruction of … Adam Schiff, who tried every which way to stop the committee.
Uncharacteristically, he is now silent over this.
Cat ate his tongue.
(30) Who else had his nose in this?
Peter Strzok … who interrogated @GenFlynn without a lawyer and without disclosing his conflicts of interest.
(31) Now, as the Dimms like to remind us, there is under Federal law the crime of conspiracy to perform a criminal act.
Indeed, if it turns out that these band of 3rd world misfits conspired to undermine the investigation into the Clinton mishandling of classified information
(32) AND to pervert the 2016 elections AND to undermine the legitimately elected President of the United states, while endangering the country creating conflicts with foreign powers…
(33) …not to mention other beauties like egregious violations of the Hatch Act, lying to Congress, falsifying information…they should be in a world of trouble …
(34) Meanwhile, five have already been demoted or suspended pending investigation, one has been recused and, suddenly, it looks as if the … charge against @GenFlynn might well end up dismissed as the only evidence against him is the tainted word of a felon.
Poisoned fruit
(35) What upsets me the most, especially today, is that the FBI these vermin corrupted into a political police doing the dirty job of the DNC, neglected its counter espionage functions and endangered us all.
(37) I said months ago that the Dimms may come to regret ever having demanded this investigation.
It looks like that was an understatement.
They swallowed the hook, line and sinker.
Amateur hour is over.
Somebody WAS looking.
FINIS
Ultimately, the coup will fail. In fact, it looks as if many of the players are imploding. More will follow suit.
We can only hope that they are fully investigated and, where possible, prosecuted and sentenced.
Yesterday’s post discussed the events that took place Friday, December 1, 2017.
Today’s entry serves as an update on the weekend’s news. I won’t be recapping much of what I wrote about Friday, so you might want to read that post before continuing here.
ABC’s Brian Ross
ABC’s veteran reporter Brian Ross was suspended for four weeks without pay for his fake news of Friday that caused the US stock market to dip for an hour:
President Donald Trump was delighted:
But he was not yet finished:
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, father of Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is a past Republican presidential candidate and former Fox News show host:
This lawyer and writer for The Federalist listed more of Ross’s huge blunders:
Mueller investigation — Peter Strzok
One of Robert Mueller’s top investigators has been sacked from his team investigating the Trump campaign’s notional Russian collusion:
One could not make this up:
You can read clips from more articles on that subject here (image courtesy of a Reddit contributor).
Trump chimed in:
Advice came in for the new FBI director, Christopher Wray:
Judicial Watch has been keen for the McAuliffe/Clinton scandal to be investigated:
Their November 21 article begins with this summary:
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 79 pages of Justice Department documents concerning ethics issues related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s political campaign. The documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited for a Virginia state senate race in February 2015 by then-Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam’s office.
The news that Clinton used a private email server broke five days later, on March 2, 2015. Five days after that, former Clinton Foundation board member and Democrat party fundraiser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, met with the McCabes. She announced her candidacy on March 12. Soon afterward, Clinton/McAuliffe-aligned political groups donated nearly $700,000 (40% of the campaign’s total funds) to McCabe’s wife for her campaign.
Most Trump supporters knew about that during the 2016 campaign, but it got little media coverage.
Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton has been doing great work in exposing Swamp scandals. See here, here and here.
This is very serious. Can one imagine a Republican getting away with such a thing?
Where’s the justice?
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has been made to look like a criminal for lying to the FBI, but we have senior US officials — present and former — who have committed crimes. The American people are told there is nothing to see.
Congressman Steve Smith (R-Georgia) summarised the situation well:
Trump is, rightly, on the warpath:
Is he having a go at his Attorney General Jeff ‘Sleepy’ Sessions?
Sleepy will be leaving soon, probably early in 2018.
His immediate recusal from this probe, because it was connected with the Trump campaign and he was part of the campaign, caused a lot of grief for a lot of people, including the spring-summer campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom the Mueller team treated terribly — including a middle-of-the-night FBI raid on his and his wife’s home while they were asleep.
What Manafort has been indicted for isn’t even related to the Trump campaign but to work he did in Ukraine years before.
See how justly Manafort has been treated:
Obama still acts as if he’s in office
But wait, there’s more.
Never has there been a US president who hasn’t let his successor be in charge.
But not Obama:
Even if he was only referring to climate change, he should do the decent thing.
On December 2, the Washington Examiner reported:
While speaking to a group of business leaders in Paris, former President Barack Obama said there is a “temporary absence of American leadership” when it comes to tackling climate change.
“I grant you that at the moment we have a temporary absence of American leadership on the issue,” the former president noted, which was met with laughter from the room full of French former ministers and CEOs at the invite-only event, according to Reuters.
Obama also recently visited China:
Swamp tries to trap CIA director Pompeo
On December 2, the CIA director Mike Pompeo — a Trump appointee — was a guest at the Reagan National Defense Forum.
TrumpSoldier has a detailed Twitter thread on Pompeo’s appearance, video clips and still photos included. A summary with most of the tweets follows. I corrected a few original typos below.
The Reagan National Defense Forum (RNDF) sounds conservative until one looks at who is on the steering committee (see point 4), including the CEO/Publisher of the Washington Post, a few Obama appointees, anti-Trump Republican senator John McCain and former Clinton adviser and CIA director Leon Panetta. Fox News’s Bret Baier conducted an interview on stage with Pompeo and Panetta (emphases mine below):
5) Mike Pompeo was going into swamp territory and now everything makes sense to me as you will soon see.
6) The slogan for the RNDF is “Investing in Peace Through Strength” I like Peace through Strength but the “investing” part sets off alarm bells. I am not going to investigate who funds them but I imagine it’s not pretty.
7) The RNDF is an organization that is run by active and retired swamp creatures whose main purpose is influencing and shaping policy.
8) Mike sat down with Panetta and his lackey Bret Baier for an hour and they discussed world events from a security perspective. It was light hearted and fun and that is all part of the set up.
9) Mike Pompeo is relaxed, joking and having fun. Panetta even tries to connect with him as “two Italians”. Bret’s ambush questions are strategically placed for maximum effect.
10) The Triggering!
Baier asks Mike Pompeo about Saudi Arabia: Panetta and decades of swamp failure are brought face to face with the dramatic sudden success of Trump Administration Foreign Policy.
11) Everything was jovial up to this point (at about 30 minutes in) Panetta’s reactions became really serious and concerned and his responses became lectures. An old swamp thing cut off from power flailing for relevance.
12) The Soft Ball
Baer asks Mike Pompeo how he shares intelligence with Trump.
No real answer, by the way. Good.
14) The Ambush!
Mike Pompeo asked about #FakeNews stores regarding the mental state of President Trump: “It’s Absurd” (watch and listen closely)
15) Remember everyone is laughing and having a good time up to this point and on cue as the question is asked Panetta laughs. It was the perfect set up!
16) You can see the moment when Mike senses the trap he licks his lips and smiles ever so slightly. He is ready!
17) Mike breaks character, reveals his power level, and suddenly kills the room! Panetta nervously begins laughing some more to try to lighten the mood. I would have loved to see Baier’s face as he absorbed this stare. I guarantee he looked down and away.
18) The next order of business to to try to get Pompeo to listen to the wisdom of a “very concerned” Panetta regarding the danger of #TrumpTweets
19) #TrumpTweets are Dangerous!
Mike Pompeo doesn’t think so. He uses them strategically.
In fact, The Hill reported on this interview:
CIA Director Mike Pompeo said on Saturday that President Trump’s Twitter habits have actually helped his agency gather and understand intelligence …
“I’ve actually seen it help us,” he said. “I have seen things the president has put on his Twitter account actually have a real-world impact on our capacity to understand what’s going on in other places in the world.”
“That is, our adversaries responded to those tweets in ways that were helpful to us to understand command and control issues, who’s listening to what messages, how those messages are resonating around the world.”
Back now to the Twitter thread. Baier was eager to pursue this line of questioning, even though Pompeo wanted to move on to other topics. Panetta also pressed Pompeo on Trump’s tweets, expressing ‘concern’.
22) Note Mike’s body language and comments he really is trying to politely end the conversation but they keep pushing…
23) THE KILL
CIA Director Mike Pompeo reminds old swamp creature (Leon Panetta) that he is a failure and irrelevant.
24) After you are done laughing consider how deadly serious this was. It was a carefully orchestrated trap completely scripted and gamed out in advance and Mike came up aces!
25) Pompeo’s ruthless defense of Donald Trump speaks volumes about his loyalty and dedication to the cause. His defense of #TrumpTweets confirms that they are highly strategic and coordinated with the CIA. This frightens everyone… but us.
No doubt this week’s narrative will be about Trump’s mental health again.
The Left’s dirty game
For over a year, the media and other Democrats have been saying that it was wrong for the Trump team to speak to the Russians prior to the inauguration.
It is legal and something that every president-elect’s transition team does.
As for contact with Russia during the campaign, to date, Mueller’s team has found nothing, except for the abortive meeting with the Russian lawyer. Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner left soon after it started. President Trump was unaware of it at the time.
My post yesterday listed three meetings that campaign advisers to then-candidate Obama had with Hamas and FARC. When he was still president-elect in January 2009, he met with the president of Mexico.
The Democrats — including the media — are being very dishonest with this anti-Trump narrative which is dividing the country.
In January 2017, Obama’s press secretary Mark Toner said there was no problem with the Trump team speaking with the Russian ambassador:
That text comes from the transcript of January 13. This is what precedes it:
QUESTION: — reports starting yesterday, but then more of them this morning, about contact between the incoming national security advisor and the Russian ambassador. I’m just wondering, from the State Department’s point of view, is this something that’s of concern at all? Or – I’ll just leave it there and then follow up.
MR TONER: Again, not necessarily – I’ve seen the reports. I don’t think they’ve been confirmed or corroborated yet. But that’s – as he’s part of the transition team, that’s really for them to speak to in how they are engaging. I mean —
QUESTION: Right, but —
MR TONER: — the president-elect is also engaged on his own with many world leaders.
Lt Gen Michael Flynn
Now a word about the embattled Lt General Michael Flynn.
On Saturday, December 2, Trump tweeted:
And:
The Conservative Treehouse has a good analysis and timeline of Flynn and the Russian ambassador, including Flynn’s dismissal. Excerpts follow (emphases in the original):
Many people have asked the question why would Michael Flynn have lied about talking to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the first place?
It’s a great question.
The Occam’s Razor answer is the toxic political environment that existed in January 2017, where the administration was being hammered by a tsunami of media narratives and political opposition claiming that any scintilla of contact with anything Russian meant that Putin and Trump were “colluding” BFFs,…. and Flynn didn’t want to fuel that nonsense.
That’s really the only reason to mislead about Russian contacts.
And/or once Vice-President Mike Pence made the statement that Flynn had no contact with anyone from Russia etc. any contradictory statement from Flynn would make Pence appear compromised; so Flynn had to stick to it without clarification.
Sunday January 15th – VP-elect Mike Pence appears on Face The Nation. [Transcript Here] …
[*NOTE* Notice the narrative questioning at the time (early Jan) was framed that ‘any contact’ with Russians was evidence of meddling/election-collusion with Russians.]
•Friday January 20th – Inauguration
•Tuesday January 24th – Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn was interviewed at the WH by the FBI. [Either Flynn contradicts Pence, or he tells a lie, those were his options.]
Afterwards, having received a report of the interview, Department of Justice (DOJ) employee, Sally Yates — since fired — had discussions about Flynn with other senior Obama holdovers still working there. This was what brought about the charge that Flynn lied to the FBI.
Another part of this story is that Flynn had talked to the Russian ambassador in December 2016 about the sanctions that Obama had imposed on Russia.
The following comes from The Last Refuge, the founder and author of The Conservative Treehouse (emphases mine below):
11. So on December 29th, sanctions day, Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak… Essentially, saying ‘chill out, we’ll get through this’ etc.
14. We arrive at Sunday January 15th. VP-Elect Mike Pence appears on Sunday talks to discuss political stuff and the Trump administration.
15. On that Sunday 1/15/17 Pence appeared on CBS Face the nation (John Dickerson)
16. What does Dickerson start off with? Of course – The Vast Russian Hacking Election conspiracy: “did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?”
17. Amid the questioning, there is no distinction between *BEFORE* the election, and during the President-Elect transition period (ie. *AFTER* the election). It’s just one long framed question about “contact” and “collusion” etc.
18. And with that framework VP-Elect Pence says: “Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.”
19. VP-Pence says “of course not”, ie NO CONTACT. In doing so, and without pointing out the transition team would have ordinary and customary contact, Pence has now painted Flynn into a corner.
20. Flynn has had contact (ordinary and appropriate contact), but VP-Elect Pence gave an emphatic: “Of course not.”
22. The January 24th [FBI] interview is where the “Flynn Lied” to the FBI came from.
23. At the time of the interview the media cycle was filled with intelligence leaks. During that interview Flynn had two options: Option #1) tell investigators he did have conversations with Kislyak in December – and as a consequence contradict VP Pence.
24. Option #2) tell investigators he did not have conversations with the Russians (Kislyak) and align with VP Pence statement a week prior.
Option #1 puts the criticism and Russia story on VP Pence for lying to CBS. (He didn’t, because the question was vague on timing but that didn’t matter amid the frenzy) and as an outcome weaken the incoming administration 4 days after inauguration.
26. Option #2 puts himself at risk; but protects VP Pence and avoids the immediacy of a narrative against the White House and new administration.
27. Likely Flynn knew the FBI was up to no good because they probably already knew the answer to the question (wiretapping). But these decisions were about politics amid the frenzied media swarm. The downstream sh[*]t-storm on Pence would have been brutal.
28. The very next day, Wed Jan 25th, Sally Yates (DOJ) gets an after action report on the FBI questioning of Flynn.
37. Note the presumption here is that Flynn had lied to VP Pence. However, there is nothing to indicate that angle/aspect is or was actually correct. Specifically, there is ample evidence the ‘lie to Pence’, evolved from a storyline -driven by necessity- to save face for Pence.
38. The administration was now boxed in. Flynn lied to protect Pence’s political posture/integrity/position, (ie. Military Leadership Training 101: never compromise your leadership), but was now confronted by Sally Yates. FUBAR!!
Conclusion — thus far
It seems this past weekend served, in part, as a watershed moment.
As I write, Trump’s Twitter account has over 43m subscribers. Imagine factoring in millions of others, e.g. yours truly, who don’t subscribe but check it at least once a day.
Tens of millions of people are reading and passing his tweets along to millions more every day.
Over time, that’s a lot of red pills being handed out.
Trump is taking this time to get the American people psychologically prepared for The Storm / the Silent War.
I have read several online commenters saying that they never realised how corrupt America is until they read about the Strzok dismissal and the crookedness of this Mueller investigation which, so far, has cost around $5m in taxpayer money.
Meanwhile, actual criminals who served at federal level are on the loose. Where’s the DOJ? Where’s the justice?
