Tag Archives: Senate Judiciary Committee

WSJ Columnist: Why is the Media Ignoring the Real Bombshell FISA Memo? by Guy Benson

Posted on February 8, 2018 | Leave a comment

The “real bombshell” memo referred to in the title is the one from the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Charles Grassley. From Guy Benson at theburningplatform.com:

WSJ Columnist: Why is the Media Ignoring the Real Bombshell FISA Memo?

We’ll bring you Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel’s tweetstorm in a moment, but I’ll take a stab at answering her question about the media right out of the gate.  Three possibilities: (1) The GOP hyped the Nunes memo, which quickly became the center of this whole firestorm — replete with counter-memos, FBI objections, etc.  The press followed the spotlight. (2) As we’ve been saying, there are so many complex pieces of this larger puzzle, following the plot is difficult.  It’s not just news consumers wondering, “which memo is this now?” — it’s many of the people trying to cover this drama, too.  The document in question here is a second, less redacted, version of a Senate memo that few people have even heard of. (3) The Senate memo, produced by non-bomb-throwers Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, is substantially more disruptive to the Democrats’ narrative than the Nunes document.  And the press generally prefers Democratic narratives to Republican ones because most journalists are liberals.

My guess is that some blend of all three factors helps explain why the Grassley/Graham memo has barely registered on the national radar, even after we’ve endured multiple high-octane news cycles starring Nunes and Schiff.  But on the substance, does Strassel have a point, or is this just the latest shiny object the right-wing is waving around to distract from “the real story,” now that the Nunes memo was arguably a bit of a dud?  Here’s her case:

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Declassified Grassley Document Confirms FISA Memo’s Explosive Claims, by Tyler Durden

Posted on February 7, 2018 | 1 comment

Now Senate Republicans are chiming in: a declassified memo from the Senate Judiciary Committee supports the House Intelligence Committee’s memo, and has some new allegations as well. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

  • A declassified document from the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms that the FBI “relied heavily” on an unverified dossier in order to obtain FISA surveillance warrants on one-time Trump advisor Carter Page
  • Unredacted portions of the document reveal the FBI’s extensive involvement with the creator of the dossier, former UK spy Christopher Steele
  • Despite Steele lying to the FBI which led to the agency ending their relationship, they still used his unverified memo and vouched for his reputation to obtain the FISA warrants
  • The unredacted memo clarifies that the FBI notified the FISA court of the dossier’s political origins “to a vaguely limited extent”
  • The FBI has withheld the notes from their meetings with Steele
  • Steele received information for an unpublished second dossier from the Obama State Department led by John Kerry at the time
  • Much of the information in this “Grassley Memo” matches with the contents of the “Nunes Memo” released by the House Intelligence Committee last Friday.

A largely unredacted version of a criminal referral made against Fusion GPS operative Christopher Steele reveals several new bombshells, and confirms that the FBI heavily relied on an unverified dossier created by the former UK spy – along with a Yahoo News article which used Steele’s information, to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant on one-time Trump advisor Carter Page.

The previously redacted sections of the document notably covered up the FBI’s extensive working relationship with Steele – who was paid $168,000 to create the dossier used in the FISA applications. The fact that he was considered reliable was used as an argument to the FISA court to make up for the fact that the underlying dossier was unverified.

To continue reading: Declassified Grassley Document Confirms FISA Memo’s Explosive Claims

 

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Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Intelligence, Investigations, Uncategorized

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Clinton, Podesta And Others In Senate Crosshairs Over Dossier; Given Two Weeks To Respond, by Tyler Durden

Posted on January 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

Hillary Clinton and friends are increasing hemmed in by congressional investigative committees. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

GOP Congressional investigators have written six letters to individuals or entities involved or thought to be involved in the funding, creation or distribution of the salacious and unverified “Trump-Russia dossier” believed to have been inappropriately used by the FBI, DOJ and Obama Administration in an effort to undermine Donald Trump as both a candidate and President of the United States.

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SCS) wrote six Judiciary Committee letters requesting information from: John Podesta, Donna Brazille, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Robbie Mook, the DNC, and Hillary For America Chief Strategist Joel Benenson.

A brief refresher of facts and allegations:

  • The DNC and Hillary Clinton’s PAC was revealed by The Washington Post  to have paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS for the creation of a dossier that would be harmful to then-candidate Donald Trump.
  • Fusion commissioned former UK spy Christopher Steele to assemble the dossier – which is comprised of a series of memos relying largely on Russian government sources to make allegations against Donald Trump and his associates.
  • According to court filings, Fusion also worked with disgraced DOJ official Bruce Ohr, and hired his CIA-linked wife, Nellie Ohr, to assist in the smear campaign against Trump. Bruce Ohr was demoted from his senior DOJ position after it was revealed that he met with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson as well as Christopher Steele – then tried to cover it up.
  • Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, denied under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he knew about the dossier’s funding, while Clinton’s former spokesman, Brian Fallon, told CNN that Hillary likely had no idea who paid for it either.
  • Current and past leaders of the DNC, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) also denied knowledge of the document’s funding.
  • Podesta met with Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson the day after the Trump-Russia dossier was published by Buzzfeed News. 
To continue reading: Clinton, Podesta And Others In Senate Crosshairs Over Dossier; Given Two Weeks To Respond

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Man Behind Trump “Dossier” Subpoenaed After Refusing To Testify, Will Plead The Fifth, by Tyler Durden

Posted on July 23, 2017 | Leave a comment

Another article about Fusion GPS: the head of the company is refusing to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee about how the firm came up with the salacious Trump dossier, which to date has received no independent verification and portions of which have been discredited. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

For all the talk of obstruction and interference by the Trump camp, it’s neither Donald Trump Jr. nor Paul Manafort who are challenging their scheduled testimony in the Senate next Wednesday, but rather the man who according to many started the whole “Trump Russia collusion” narrative, who is doing everything in his power to avoid testifying next week.

Manu Raju

✔@mkraju

FUSION GPS head Glenn Simpson won’t testify before Senate Judiciary next week, his rep attacks “partisan” hearing and vows to plead Fifth

3:09 PM – 21 Jul 2017

On Friday, attorneys for Glenn Simpson, a former WSJ reporter who now runs the infamous Washington political intelligence firm Fusion GPS – best known for compiling the salacious “dossier” of unverified research about President Trump – told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter that their client was on vacation through July 31 and traveling abroad through August 3, and would be unavailable for next week’s hearing. Perhaps for writers of opposition research fiction, vacations take precedence over being summoned to Congress.


Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson

As a reminder, Simpson’s Fusion GPS is the firm which hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, and his London-based Orbis Business Intelligence, to conduct opposition research on then presidential candidate Donald Trump, resulting in a 35-page dossier that was widely shared in political and media circles during and after the 2016 election. Steele and Orbis are currently being sued in the U.S. and U.K. by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive who says he was falsely accused in the dossier of hacking the Democratic National Committee’s email systems.

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