“When we were investigating Fusion GPS, they were actively involved in working to smear me to obstruct justice, to derail our investigation — and so, I’m gonna hold these guys accountable, and this is just one of many steps we’re gonna continue to take,” continued Nunes. Nunes filed a $9.9 million federal conspiracy lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia …
September 4, 2019 – Watchdog files FOIA lawsuit against FBI over James Comey’s ‘spies’ in the White House
“A conservative watchdog group filed a Freedom of Information Lawsuit against the FBI seeking information about two bureau officials it accuses of being “spies” for former FBI Director James Comey in the White House. The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by Trump attorney Jay Sekulow, announced on its website Wednesday that the FBI missed a deadline to respond …
September 5, 2019 – Senator Chris Murphy warns new Ukrainian president not to comply with Giuliani’s investigations into Burisma Holdings and Ukraine meddling in U.S. 2016 election
“Earlier this month, during a bipartisan meeting in Kiev, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) delivered a pointed message to Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. While choosing his words carefully, Murphy made clear — by his own account — that Ukraine currently enjoyed bipartisan support for its U.S. aid but that could be jeopardized if the new president acquiesced to requests by President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate past corruption allegations …
September 9, 2019 – IC IG Atkinson notifies Senate and House Intel committees he has a whistleblower complaint
(…) Seemingly closed down, the anti-Trump operatives had a back door into official intelligence channels, the same entrance they’d used for the Steele dossier — the media. A September 5 Washington Post editorial reported that Trump was “attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe …
September 09, 2019 – The Justice Department seeks McCabe’s text messages on FBI probe; former FBI agent Jeffrey Danik filed a FOIA two years ago for same communications
“The Department of Justice is seeking former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s text messages and according to government sources, those will play a significant role in understanding the FBI’s probe into both President Donald Trump’s campaign and the bureaus’ handling of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to send government emails. Lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to get the text messages during …
September 10, 2019 – Michael Flynn and his attorney, Sidney Powell, return to court – Powell confirms Rosenstein authorized targeting of Flynn Jr. for leverage
“Today Michael Flynn and his attorney Sidney Powell returned to federal court for a status hearing before Judge Emmet Sullivan. Generally status hearings are uneventful; however, this hearing falls on the heels of an explosive filing by Flynn’s defense outlining allegations of serious prosecutorial misconduct; and claims the DOJ is withholding Brady material. Before getting into the heart of the …
September 10, 2019 – Attorney Sidney Powell argues General Flynn’s case should be dismissed over ‘egregious government misconduct’
“An attorney for Michael Flynn said in federal court Tuesday she may seek a dismissal of charges against the former national security adviser, citing “egregious conduct and suppression” of exculpatory information in the case. Prosecutors handling the case had a surprise of their own, telling Judge Emmet Sullivan that they are now reserving the option of recommending jail time for …
September 11, 2019 – Court unseals Flynn Brady motion; Judge Sullivan threatens govt with contempt; A list of 40 items is requested by Flynn defense
“Since June 6, 2019, immediately upon accepting Mr. Flynn’s defense, new counsel for Mr. Flynn has requested the following information in unredacted form pursuant to Brady and its progeny. Thoroughly stymied in our efforts to obtain this information from the government, despite its obligations to produce it, we necessarily enlist the aid of this Court in enforcing its standing Order. …
September 12, 2019 – State Dept official Jonathan Winer used a personal email account to hide his communications with Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson
Senators Ron Johnson and Charles Grassley have a few questions that are put in a letter dated September 12, 2019, to State Department OIG Steve Linick who reviewed a meeting between State Dept officials and Christopher Steele. The review or lack thereof appears to have left them with more questions than answers. Here is a clipping of the relevant part …
September 12, 2019 – US attorney recommends proceeding with charges against McCabe; DOJ rejects last-ditch appeal
“U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has recommended moving forward with charges against Andrew McCabe, Fox News has learned, as the Justice Department rejects a last-ditch appeal from the former top FBI official. McCabe — the former deputy and acting director of the FBI — appealed the decision of the U.S. attorney for Washington all the way up to Jeffrey Rosen, the deputy attorney …
September 12, 2019 – Grassley and Johnson ask State OIG why he failed to issue report on his investigation into the meeting between Steele and State Dept officials, before the Carter Page FISA application
“U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Department of State Inspector General Steve Linick today seeking an explanation as to why his office did not issue a report on its investigation into the October 2016 meeting between …
September 13, 2019 – Schiff subpoena’s Admiral Joseph Maguire to get hearsay whistleblower’s complaint
(…) On September 13, Schiff subpoenaed [Admiral] Maguire to get the complaint. That same day, he put out a press release about the subpoena, which forced the whistleblower’s complaint into the public for the first time. HPSCI had always treated whistleblower’s complaints with discretion — but the point of the Ciaramella dossier operation was to force the complaint into the …
September 13, 2019 – State Department concludes Clinton email review and finds nearly 600 security violations
“State Department investigators probing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state discovered nearly 600 security incidents that violated agency policy, according to a report the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained. The investigation, conducted by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, found 38 individuals were culpable for 91 security violations. Another 497 violations were found, …
September 14, 2019 – Opinion: Scott Ritter probes Russian informant, Oleg Smolenkov’s role as a CIA asset and the use of his data by Brennan
“Reports that the CIA conducted an emergency exfiltration of a long-time human intelligence source who was highly placed within the Russian Presidential Administration sent shock waves throughout Washington, D.C. The source was said to be responsible for the reporting used by the former director of the CIA, John Brennan, in making the case that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered …
September 14, 2019 – Senator Graham says U.S. officials received as many as six warnings about Christopher Steele’s reliability as a source
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Friday that U.S. officials received as many as six warnings that dossier author Christopher Steele was an unreliable source of information regarding President Donald Trump. Graham discussed the assessment of Steele during a radio interview with host Sean Hannity, but he stopped short of describing all of the information regarding the former British …
September, 2019 – Judge Reggie Walton, chief justice of the FISA court during the Obama years, lashes out at Trump for a ‘Banana Republic’ influence in Andrew McCabe case
“A federal judge compared White House involvement in an investigation of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to a “banana republic,” and accused people “at the top” of undermining the “integrity” of the judicial process, new documents revealed Friday. The chilling statements were disclosed in records obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a lawsuit. …
September 17, 2019 – Trump directs ODNI, DoJ and FBI to immediately declassify materials
The White House Press Secretary released the following statement on September 17, 2019: At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages …
September 18-19, 2019 – WaPo reports hearsay whistleblower’s complaint involves “Trump communications with a foreign leader” and a “promise”
(…) On September 18, three of the Washington Post’s top collusion conspiracy theory reporters, Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, and Shane Harris wrote that the whistleblower’s complaint involves “Trump’s communications with a foreign leader” and a “promise” that was made. The release of the transcript would show no promise was made. On September 19, the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake showed two …
September 18, 2019 – Judicial Watch files a FOIA lawsuit for the records of FBI Special Agent Michael Gaeta
Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for records about FBI Special Agent Michael Gaeta, who was the Legal Attaché in Rome who helped circulate the Steele dossier (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-02722)). The suit was filed after the Justice Department and FBI failed to …
September 19, 2019 – Schiff acts like he doesn’t know what was in the hearsay whistleblower complaint; Pelosi admits to knowing what was said in the Trump-Zelensky call before transcript was released
“In the days leading up to last week’s release of a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff implied that he was unaware of the substance of the allegations in the document, which centered on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president. But a report from The New York Times on Wednesday raises news questions about …
September 21, 2019 – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko denies suggestions Trump had put pressure on Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a July call
“In an interview with media outlet Hromadske, Prystaiko said Ukraine was an independent state and would not take sides in U.S. politics even if “in theory” the country was in a position to do so. He added that Kiev appreciated the assistance it received from Washington. Zelenskiy’s office has so far declined to comment on the allegations. “I know what …
September 22, 2019 – Giuliani and Pompeo appear on the Sunday news shows to discuss Biden and evidence of collusion with Ukraine
On September 22, 2019, Pompeo and Giuliani appear on the three Sunday news shows, Giuliani also appears on Fox News Sunday. Giuliani suggests Biden removed Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and approved the new prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko as part of an effort to “frame” Paul Manafort and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. Giuliani also asserts that the new …
September 26, 2019 – Solomon: Once-secret memos cast doubt on Joe Biden’s Ukraine story
“Former Vice President Joe Biden, now a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, has locked into a specific story about the controversy in Ukraine. He insists that, in spring 2016, he strong-armed Ukraine to fire its chief prosecutor solely because Biden believed that official was corrupt and inept, not because the Ukrainian was investigating a natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, that hired Biden’s …
September 26, 2019 – The anonymous “hearsay whistleblower” complaint re Trump/Zelensky call, is released (pdf)
“If you have read any of the documents that came from Fusion-GPS, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele, you will likely find an amazing amount of similarity to the format and writing in this “whistleblower” complaint. It was obviously written by a Lawfare member. The complaint is the same structure as the Steele Dossier. No direct knowledge; no direct evidence to …
September 27, 2019 – State Department official Kurt Volker at center of whistleblower complaint, resigns
“Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative to Ukraine, resigned Friday amid fallout from a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump regarding a phone call in July with Ukraine’s president. Volker was one of five State Department officials that House Democrats said Friday they want to depose as part of an impeachment inquiry of Trump. The whistleblower complaint focuses on Trump’s July 25 phone …
September 27, 2019 – Italian officials provide an audio recording of Joseph Mifsud’s deposition to AG Barr
“Attorney General William Barr reportedly listened to an audio recording of the mysterious professor at the center of the special counsel’s probe during a surprise trip last week to Italy. Barr met with Italian intelligence officials during the trip, The Daily Beast reported citing Italian officials, and John Durham accompanied him. Durham is a federal prosecutor who is leading an inquiry into …
September 27, 2019 – The Trump-Zelensky transcript contradicts the whistleblower complaint in three notable instances
“The Trump-Zelensky transcript contradicts the whistleblower complaint in three notable instances, raising questions about the credibility of the whistleblower and his or her purported White House sources. First, WB claims that his sources told him that after “an initial exchange of pleasantries” Trump “used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests.” The transcript shows that the leaders …
September 28, 2019 – The State Department widens their investigation into Clinton email server
“The U.S. State Department has ramped up its probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server usage, with investigators questioning numerous aides of the Obama-era official in recent weeks, according to a report. On Saturday, the Washington Post reported State Department officials informed up to 130 Clinton aides that they were found to be “culpable” of handling information that …