Devin Nunes views Mueller scope memo

washington examiner ^ | 6/12/2019 | daniel Chaitin

[bitt]

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he has seen the scope memo for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

The House Intelligence Committee's top Republican slipped the news in at the end of an interview Wednesday evening with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

"I was finally able to see the scope memo," he said. "And remember, I had these concerns that it was based upon the Steele dossier."

Chief Political Correspondent Byron York on the expanded The California congressman said he could not talk about what is in the memo, but noted that Mueller's report was "probably, largely based on" British ex-spy Christopher Steele's unverified dossier on President Trump's ties to Russia.

The Justice Department and House Intelligence Committee struck a deal last month for access to underlying material to Mueller's investigation. Nunes has been heavily critical of Mueller, calling his report a "shoddy political hit piece" during a hearing Wednesday.

Allies of Trump, including Nunes, have called for full disclosure of that memo, to see "what Robert Mueller was supposed to be looking at" and documents related to investigatory efforts looking into Trump's inner circle, including FISA warrants that targeted onetime campaign aide Carter Page.

[bitt]

p

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it today.  Please chip in.

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $428.00 dollars to 98.00%

[marajade]

What the heck was Rod Rosenstein thinking?

[going hot]

....this time...THIS time...

[mass55th]

According to Sundance at Last Refuge in April, there were three scope memos. The original one was issued May 17, 2017. The second scope memo was issued August 2, 2017, and the third was issued October 20, 2017.

I hadn't heard about a third memo, but with the period of time that had elapsed between memos, it certainly looks like Mueller's team was manipulating the system to suit their needs, and Rosenstein capitulated each time. Every time they found someone or something new they wanted to investigate, they'd go running to Rosenstein, and he'd provide the means for them to do so. Rosenstein was a willing participant.

[lee martell]

Yawn.

[MAGAthon]

21 Apr: ConservativeTreehouse: Second Scope Memo – Rosenstein Authorizes Mueller to Target Michael Flynn Jr…
by sundance
The original authorization for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller was May 17th, 2017. However, the recently released Weissmann report shows there were two additional scope memos authorizing specific targeting of the Mueller probe. The first scope memo was August 2nd, 2017, OUTLINED HERE, and is an important part of the puzzle that helps explain the corrupt original purpose of the special counsel.
The second scope memo was issued by Rod Rosenstein to Robert Mueller on October 20th, 2017...
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/04/21/second-scope-memo-rosenstein-authorizes-mueller-to-target-michael-flynn-jr/

[Long Jon No Silver]

Always some big expose that never happens

[ReaganGeneration2]

It’s almost like there’s a “deep state” causing this material to never be de-classified

— someone, every day since Benghazi

[wastoute]

I took a lot of heat for suggesting Barr was engaging in Modified, Limited Hangout here on FReerepublic a few weeks back. Now it seems most of us see it.

[epluribus_2]

it’s still Devin Van Pelt until the President kicks the football!

[Lakeshark]

I took a lot of heat for suggesting Barr was engaging in Modified, Limited Hangout here on FReerepublic a few weeks back.

At this point, there is little evidence for that. All we have informationally is what happened under Sessions. Which was awful. The man was a huge mistake and disappointment.

Barr is not Sessions. He hasn't acted cowed, he hasn't been wishy-washy, he has not backed down in his claims. He continues to say Trump was spied on. He continues to say he's going to investigate to find out if there was any actual reason for what all these bad actors did. He has appointed a prosecutor who has subpoena and grand jury power. He clearly thinks something has been done that may have been illegal.

On top of that, it's clear that the democrats fear him, and intend to try to demonize him. A sure sign he is on the right track.

We know nothing, other than what we've seen him do for a couple of months. So far he's done everything we want a person of integrity to do.

Pretending we know he's going to do nothing, as Sessions did, is the height of hypocrisy, defeatism, an cynicism.

It's possible you are correct, but there is nothing in what we can see that points to that being the correct way to think about it.

[ETL]

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he has seen the scope memo for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

The House Intelligence Committee's top Republican slipped the news in at the end of an interview Wednesday evening with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

"I was finally able to see the scope memo," he said. "And remember, I had these concerns that it was based upon the Steele dossier."

May 31, 2019

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California) on Robert Mueller’s May 29, 2019 (final?) press conference:

Nunes: "He [Mueller] was so blatantly dishonest yesterday that he says, well, the Office of Legal Counsel says that you can’t indict a sitting president.

Well, he should have been gone after day two.

He has no Russians, except for the Fusion and Clinton Russians, and possibly the dirty cop, the FBI’s Russians, those are the only Russians that he has, to show connections to the Trump campaign.

Clearly, the Clinton operation is heavily working with Russians or Russian disinformation.

He didn’t take time to look into any of that[!]”

Partial transcript above begins at about the 1:34 mark in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yutgFcr5T9A&list=PLlTLHnxSVuIyw5jPrLmewrpBJAPYKhgml&index=3

___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Top Putin advisor Vladislav Surkov

May 19, 2019

[Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Devin] Nunes said Clinton's campaign and the DNC "plainly colluded" with the Russians to receive and disseminate false information about Trump"

Devin Nunes 'likely' sending obstruction criminal referral over Steele-State Department meeting

by Daniel Chaitin | May 19, 2019

Newly released notes from an Oct. 11, 2016, meeting between Steele and former [Hillary-Obama] Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec cast doubt on the reliability of his dossier and called into question the information provided to the court in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application that was submitted later that month against onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The notes, which Kavalec is believed to have emailed to the FBI in mid-October, indicate that Steele knew he had been hired by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee and had been told they wanted his findings made public prior to the 2016 election on Nov. 8.

The Daily Caller reported the notes show Steele identified Russian sources, including former Russian foreign intelligence director Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Vladislav Surkov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nunes said Clinton's campaign and the DNC "plainly colluded" with the Russians to receive and disseminate false information about Trump.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/devin-nunes-likely-sending-obstruction-criminal-referral-over-steele-state-department-meeting

________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Foreign politicians talk about Russia’s interference in elections and referendums around the world. In fact, the matter is even more serious: Russia interferes in your brains, we change your conscience, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

--Vladislav Surkov, aide to Vladimir Putin

[ETL]

Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov

Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (born 21 September 1964)[1] is a Russian businessman and politician of Chechen descent.[2]

He was First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999 to 2011, during which time he was widely seen as the main ideologist of the Kremlin who proposed and implemented the concept of sovereign democracy in Russia.

From December 2011 until May 2013 Surkov served as the Russian Federation’s Deputy Prime Minister.[3][4]

After his resignation, Surkov returned to the Presidential Executive Office and became a personal adviser of Vladimir Putin on relationships with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Ukraine.[5]

Surkov is perceived by many to be a key figure with much power and influence in the administration of Vladimir Putin.[6][7][8]

According to The Moscow Times, this perception is not dependent on the official title Surkov might hold at any one time in the Putin government.[9]

BBC documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis credits Surkov’s blend of theater and politics with keeping Putin, and Putin’s chosen successors, in power since 2000.[10]

Journalists in Russia and abroad have speculated that Surkov writes under the pseudonym Nathan Dubovitsky, although the Kremlin denies it.[11][12][13][14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Surkov

[ETL]

Re: Top Putin aide Vladislav Surkov

Steele Identified Russian Dossier Sources, Notes Reveal

The Daily Caller | US
Chuck Ross | Investigative Reporter
May 16, 2019

• Christopher Steele told a [Obama-Hillary] State Department official a former Russian spy chief and a top Kremlin adviser were involved in an operation to collect compromising information on Donald Trump.
• The State Department official’s notes also indicate Steele claimed the Russians, Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Vladislav Surkov, were “sources” for the dossier.
• There is no evidence the compromising material mentioned in the dossier actually exists, raising questions about whether Steele was given disinformation.
• Trubnikov, the former head of the SVR, also has links to Stefan Halper, an FBI informant who had contact with [who had SPIED on] the Trump campaign.

  Dossier author Christopher Steele identified a former Russian spy chief and a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin as being involved in handling potentially compromising information about President Donald Trump, State Department notes show.

  In her notes, [Hillary Clinton/Obama] State Department official Kathleen Kavalec also referred to the two Russians — former Russian foreign intelligence chief Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Putin aide Vladislav Surkov — as “sources.” ...”

  https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/16/steele-dossier-sources-state-department/

  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  AG Bill Barr: 'I'm Concerned' the Steele Dossier Was Part of Russia's Disinformation Campaign

  PJMedia.com ^ | May 1, 2019 | Tyler O'Neil

  On Wednesday, [May 1, 2019] Attorney General William Barr testified that he is “concerned” about the Trump-Russia dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Barr whether or not the Department of Justice (DOJ) could confirm that the Steele dossier was not part of the disinformation campaign Russia used to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

  “How do we know that the Steele dossier is not itself evidence of the Russian disinformation campaign, knowing what we know now that basically the allegations made therein were second-hand, hearsay, or unverified,” Cornyn stated, referring to key claims in the dossier that the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller disproved, such as the claim that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen traveled to Prague.

  “Can you state with confidence that the Steele dossier was not part of the Russian disinformation campaign?” Cornyn asked.

  “No, I can’t state that with confidence and that is one of the areas that I’m reviewing,” Barr replied. “I’m concerned about it and I don’t think it’s entirely speculative.”

  If Russia had a hand in the Steele dossier, that would imply that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC either worked with Russians or were duped by the Russians in their disinformation campaigns.

  It would mean that the real “collusion” with Russia may have been on the Clinton side, rather than the Trump side.
  

  (Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...

  __________________________________________________________________________

  July 2017...

  [Dossier] Democrats intentionally used disinformation from Russia to attack Trump, campaign aides

  By Rowan Scarborough
  The Washington Times
  July 11, 2017

  While the mainstream news media hunts for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, the public record shows that Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump and attack his administration.

  The disinformation came in the form of a Russian-fed dossier written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. It contains a series of unverified criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s campaign aides, such as coordinating Moscow’s hacking of Democratic Party computers.

  Some Democrats have widely circulated the discredited information.

  Mr. Steele was paid by the Democrat-funded opposition research firm Fusion GPS with money from a Hillary Clinton backer.

  Fusion GPS distributed the dossier among Democrats and journalists. The information fell into the hands of the FBI, which used it in part to investigate Mr. Trump’s campaign aides.

  Mr. Steele makes clear that his unproven charges came almost exclusively from sources linked to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He identified his sources as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure,” a former “top level Russian intelligence officer active inside the Kremlin,” a “senior Kremlin official” and a “senior Russian government official.”

  The same Democrats who have condemned Russia’s election interference via plying fake news and hacking email servers have quoted freely from the Steele anti-Trump memos derived from creatures of the Kremlin.

  In other words, there is public evidence of significant, indirect collusion between Democrats and Russian disinformation...”

  Continued at source...

  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/democrats-spread-false-russian-information-on-trum/

  Or,

  https://web.archive.org/web/20170902055857/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/democrats-spread-false-russian-information-on-trum/

[wastoute]

You could be correct. Let me see if I can get a hold of Lois Lerner and see what she has to say.

[Lakeshark]

Your cynicism will lose the war as easily as the inaction of the GOP. It's actually the same thing, you've turned into a Stockholm Syndrome conservative.

Thankfully, Trump isn't going to let this go unanswered. He is not the GOPe, plus Sessions is no longer AD. Giving up like you appear to be doing helps nobody.

And this is from someone that Lois Lerner audited.

[wastoute]

In this day and age it is just assumed one will lie back and take it. I’m thinking that is a YUGE mistake.

[Lakeshark]

Agreed.

Taking crap from the left is the last thing any of us should do at this point. Allowing them to make us cynical is part of that.