The Russian Connection 3: Mueller is Coming

[fraurosena]

So,  has anyone else read it yet? This was like reading "The Sunne in Splendour" by Sharon K. Penman about King Richard III. You know how it's going to end, and you're still hoping against hope the story will end differently. 

Harsh, and unequivocally true words were spoken. Here's a sample:

Quote

Mr. Schiff. [...] And so let's be honest about what is happening here. This is obviously a Member-canvassed stratagem that was decided before this hearing. "Well, we can't very well prevent the minority; that would look bad. We are calling for transparency. god, we had the whole release-the-memo campaign. How will it look if we don't want to release the Democratic memo? Wil that hashtag come boomeranging around on us? Well, okay, maybe the best we can do is delay theirs so that we can get out and set the agenda."

I mean, is that really where we are now? The majority is going to vote to release classified information without it being vetted, even though theDepartment says that it is extraordinarily reckless. Each one of you, to a person, castigated Clinton, Secretary Clinton, for being extremely carless with emails, and now you are going to be extraordinarily reckless with this? I don't know how you reconcile that.

Or this:

Quote

Mr. Quigly. [...] I respect you all. I don't respect this process of what you are doing. And I am from Chicago, and you know the reputation I have lived with most of my life, working first as a staff person for the Chicago City Council. I saw the worst of the worst. They got nothing on you this one, folks. This is extraordinary.

And I know what is important here: Let's make sure the White House gets a copy of this first. Because that is who we are all working for, apparently. 

And:

Quote

Mr. Castro. [...] And now, if the majority is going to move forward and release its memo to the public, I would hope that it would have the courtesy and fairness to either wait for the minority's memo to also be ripe, as you have described, or to somehow release them at the same time.

To not do that would be reckless. It would be an indication that this is an exercise in pure politics, partisan politics, that the intent is to set a political agenda and also just to protect the White House and the President. 

I'm glad this is all on the record for prosperity. Like they said during the hearing, when the consequences of this become clear, "there will be hell to pay".

[fraurosena]

Oh... the irony! Don't you love these little factoids that come to bite the GOP in the ass?

 

[onekidanddone]

7 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Oh... the irony! Don't you love these little factoids that come to bite the GOP in the ass?

 

If it isn't on FoxSpews the TT will never hear about it. 

[Howl]

Some speculation that the White House had a hand in writing the memo. 

[GrumpyGran]

46 minutes ago, Howl said:

Some speculation that the White House had a hand in writing the memo. 

Of course they did. It's evident now that little Devin is their bitch. They must have promised him something but what is so weird is that I don't think they came though for him. I mean, he hasn't risen through he ranks since the election, has he? But still dutifully waiting for his gruel. Poor Devin, I'm looking at the bus schedule and...

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Adam Schiff is now publicly calling out Devin Nunes' deception. A bold, yet necessary move.

Devin Nunes Could End Up In Prison Thanks To Adam Schiff Exposing His Memo Deception

Quote

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) busted committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes for deceiving the House by changing the memo after it was voted on before he sent it to the White House.

In a letter provided to PoliticusUSA, Schiff wrote:

Dear Chairman Nunes:

This evening, the Committee Minority discovered that the classified memorandum shared by the Committee Majority with the White House is not, in fact, the same document that Members of the House of Representatives have been reviewing since January 18, 2018 and which the Committee Majority voted on Monday to release to the public, over objections from the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Upon our discovery that the document sent for public review had been secretly altered, the Majority belatedly afforded the Minority an opportunity this evening to compare the document transmitted on Monday night by the Majority to the White House with the document made available to all House Members since January 18. After reviewing both versions, it is clear that the Majority made material changes to the version it sent to the White House, which Committee Members were never apprised of, never had the opportunity to review, and never approved.

This is deeply troubling, because it means that the Committee Majority transmitted to the White House an altered version of its classified document that is materially different than the version on which the Committee voted. The White House has therefore been reviewing a document since Monday night that the Committee never approved for public release.

While the Majority’s changes do not correct the profound distortions and inaccuracies in your document, they are nonetheless substantive. The fact that the Majority found it necessary to make these changes without informing the Committee during the vote signifies that the Committee Majority no longer stands by the representation it has made to House Members in its original document and felt it necessary to deceive Committee Members during Monday’s vote, by withholding the fact that it planned to send a different document to the White House.

As you may recall, Representative Himes asked you specifically to confirm that it was in fact the Committee Majority’s intent “to make the memo as presented to this committee and as shown to Members of Congress […] available to the public ….” Representative Himes question led to the following exchange, as detailed in the meeting transcript:

THE CHAIRMAN: Only—yeah. It is to make the content available, is what we will do.

MR. HIMES: Again, we all reviewed a memo with specific words, as did Members of Congress. That memo contained any number of references to highly classified information. So I guess what I am looking for, is that memo word for word to be made public, or will it be redacted or altered in any way?

THE CHAIRMAN: Well, as the gentleman knows, we will send the content over to the White House, and the President has five days to either agree with us that it should be made public, or the President could say that he does not want it made public.

This response was deliberately misleading. Because there were material changes made to the document unbeknownst to Committee Members and only revealed to us this evening, two days after the vote, there is no longer a valid basis for the White House to review the altered document, since this new version is not the same document shared with the entire House and on which Committee Members voted.

It is now imperative that the Committee Majority immediately withdraw the document that it sent to the White House. If the Majority remains intent on releasing its document to the public, despite repeated warnings from DOJ and the FBI, it must hold a new vote to release to the public its modified document. This can be done at the business meeting on Monday, February 5, 2018 when we will move, once again, to release the Minority’s responsive memorandum, which House Members have now had the opportunity to read.

It is way past time for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to remove Nunes from his position as Intelligence Committee chairman. A criminal investigation must also be launched into Nunes’ activities and his involvement with potential Trump cover-ups. Nunes deliberately misled Congress, and he must be the subject of an independent investigation.

If Nunes has engaged in criminal activity to protect Trump, he could end up in prison, and Adam Schiff could end being the man who sends him there.

There's a typo in this headline: it's not could but should.

Because we all know nothing will be done about it with the Repugs in power.

 

[formergothardite]

The Nunes memo is confusing me. Can someone explain it. Why is it a big deal?

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

The Nunes memo is confusing me. Can someone explain it. Why is it a big deal?

Brace yourself, @formergothardite, this is a long post. I hope I'm getting all of this right. If not, I hope the others here will correct me where I got it wrong. Here goes:

This memo supposedly contains evidence that the FBI is using nefarious means (presumably by using the Steel 'dossier' as basis for a FISA warrant to wiretap Carter Page) to oust the presidunce. However, Devin Nunes' staff composed this four page memo based on classified information that was given to the House Intelligence Committee by the FBI. Before this information was shared, Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein spoke with House speaker Ryan, voicing concerns about sharing the information with the House Intelligence Committee. Against their concerns, speaker Ryan told them to share the information regardless. The FBI then handed over the information, under the agreement that this information would not be shared further and only read by two members of the Committee. Upon receiving the info, the memo was written and it was promptly shared with every member of the House of Representatives. Now the GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee have voted to make the memo public.

The problem is, the memo has cherry-picked from the FBI info and drawn conclusions from it that have no real basis in fact. It seems the only purpose it serves is to help the WH attack the FBI and discredit the Mueller investigation. The memo supposedly shows wrongdoing by Rod Rosenstein, and may therefore be used as an excuse to fire him. 

Furthermore, the memo will make public top secret classified information, damaging and undermining the FBI's methodology in gathering information from their sources. The FBI and the DOJ have voiced their concerns to the WH, the committee and the public. The FBI has now publicly stated that it would be extraordinarily reckless to release this information.

The GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee, under guidance of Nunes, have decided not to let the FBI or the DOJ review the memo before its release, nor to let them speak to the Committee on the matter to explain the context and detail the consequences of the information.

Nunes did not wish to answer any questions by Dem members of the Committee if he, or any of his staff, had been in contact with the WH about the contents of the memo, which is why there are legitimate concerns that the WH has co-written the memo, or has been in some other way part of writing it.

Now Adam Schiff, ranking minority leader of the House Intelligence Committee has found out that Nunes has secretly significantly altered the memo that was voted on last Monday (see my previous post about that). 

So now a memo will (presumably) be released to the public today that the HIC has not voted on, and that contains classified information that will have damaging consequences to the intelligence communities. 

[Howl]

11 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

Of course they did. It's evident now that little Devin is their bitch. They must have promised him something but what is so weird is that I don't think they came though for him. I mean, he hasn't risen through he ranks since the election, has he? But still dutifully waiting for his gruel. Poor Devin, I'm looking at the bus schedule and...

What a perfect characterization of Nunes, @GrumpyGran! 

Josh Marshal at Talking Points Memo has some thoughts on this in yesterday's editorial Nunes Dirty Hands — Part Two?  A few excerpts:

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Over the last day or so I’ve been hearing these questions about whether the White House collaborated on writing the Nunes Memo. It seemed neither side – not Nunes or the White House – was giving a straight answer. After hearing this a few times, it clicked for me. Of course, they worked together! They have a history. This goes all the way back to the Spring of 2017 when Devin Nunes got caught up in that bizarre “un-masking” nonsense, working as the errand boy of the White House. Remember, that midnight visit to the White House, looking at supposedly highly classified documents that revealed a scandal about ‘un-masking’ and illicit Obama White House surveillance of the Trump 2016 campaign. The whole charade finally blew up in Nunes’ face and led indirectly to his what amounted to his forced recusal from the House intelligence committee investigation. So he’s got a history.

But it actually goes deeper than this. Looking again at what happened, in that case, gives us an important clue to what may be happening here.

Josh then takes us back to Ezra Cohen-Watnick (remember him?) and Nunes' daring midnight caper -- you remember, right?  The "you can't make this shit up" caper? I think this was last March. 

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That’s where Devin Nunes comes in.

Cohen-Watnick brought Nunes over to the White House to share his ‘findings’ in that notorious midnight caper. That was how Devin Nunes went to work for the White House, got himself temporarily kicked off the Russia investigation (he’s the chairman of the committee) and began the ‘unmasking’ charade and clown show. (I did a more detailed narrative of these events in this post from last April if you’re interested.)

Anyway, lots more to this editorial.  Click on the title if you want to enjoy all of it.  

[fraurosena]

If push really does come to shove, then I hope this does happen.

 

[fraurosena]

This sums up the obstruction of justice in one picture.

 

[fraurosena]

I wonder if he'll get an answer though.

 

[Audrey2]

57 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder if he'll get an answer though.

 

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, we only want to keep "scary brown people out". White foreign agents are totally welcome. Bonus points if they're from Russia!

<Sarcasm off>

I feel like I'm living in sarcasm mode.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GrumpyGran]

13 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Ruh-roh. "But he told me I wouldn't get in any trouble!"

Hope Hicks, devious schemer or clueless twit?

[formergothardite]

Thank you @fraurosena. It makes sense now. 

It seems things are reaching a critical point. Are the republicans all deeply tied with some shit that the FBI is digging up? Why are so many of the GOP willing to toss the country into the garbage for a guy who really isn't doing much for them? 

[GrumpyGran]

10 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

Thank you @fraurosena. It makes sense now. 

It seems things are reaching a critical point. Are the republicans all deeply tied with some shit that the FBI is digging up? Why are so many of the GOP willing to toss the country into the garbage for a guy who really isn't doing much for them? 

This was a great explanation @fraurosena. As an addition to this, the FBI's position on this bears serious consideration. It appears that Nunes, at Dump's direction wants to discredit the information that led to the warrant, thereby making the whole investigation "illegal". They are playing reverse Jenga, looking for the block that they can remove that will bring the whole tower down. It appears that Rosenstein is the perfect target, with help from a seriously manipulated "memo". The fact that Nunes felt the need to tweak it after showing it to the House would indicate that TPTB didn't think it would be effective enough in the form shown to the House.

The obvious reason the FBI is opposed to this is that this will recklessly expose sources within the scope of domestic surveillance. In the past few months the FBI has foiled terrorist attacks in this country. They do this using confidential informants. If it becomes apparent that the FBI can no longer protect the identity of these informants, they will quit working with the FBI. The Repubs foolishly believe they can "rebuild" this trust after dismantling the entire bureau.

So to stop an investigation into our president, the Republican party will put all of America at risk of terrorist attacks. Who's side are they on? Oh, I guess we know the answer to that.

[fraurosena]

So, how are they going to explain editing the memo? How is it possible that an entity being investigated by the FBI gets a fraudulent memo discrediting the FBI and then edits it before letting it be released to the public?

 

[GrumpyGran]

4 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

So, how are they going to explain editing the memo? How is it possible that an entity being investigated by the FBI gets a fraudulent memo discrediting the FBI and then edits it before letting it be released to the public?

 

Well, this is interesting, isn't it? Lots of possibilities here.

[fraurosena]

Oh my. The FBI is fighting back. Chris Wray, appointed by the presidunce himself, is coming out of his corner and entering the ring.

 

[fraurosena]

Interesting tweets (with sources) on all the enabling of the KGB to spy on the US.

 

 

 

 

 

[formergothardite]

So most likely everything is bugged. I'm going to assume that the FBI and CIA are smart enough to know this and are attempting to be careful. 

[fraurosena]

From the FBI Agents Association:

 

 

[LeftCoastLurker]

Does anybody else feel like we're playing out a Tom Clancy novel in real life?