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We didn’t get to this yesterday but let’s do it now because it’s one of the funnier bits of spin to come out of Trump’s first two years. A few days ago his intel chiefs went before Congress for a hearing and either contradicted or qualified some of his biggest foreign-policy boasts. Is ISIS defeated? Well, they’ve lost almost all of their territory, said Dan Coats and Gina Haspel, but they still command thousands of fighters and we need to stay on top of the problem. Not a great talking point for Trump’s withdrawal from Syria. How about North...

To manifest his opposition to President Donald Trump's decision to pull all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria, and half of the 14,000 in Afghanistan, Gen. James Mattis went public and resigned as secretary of defense. Now Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, in public testimony to Congress, has contradicted Trump about the threats that face the nation. Contrary to what the president believes, Coats says, North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons. ISIS remains a serious threat, even if the caliphate has been rolled up. And there is no evidence that Iran, though hostile and aggressive,...

Leading congressional Democrats are looking to stall the process to release documents related to the Russia investigation, which President Donald Trump ordered declassified on Monday. Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mark Warner, sent a letter Tuesday asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to provide an “immediate briefing” to the Gang of Eight before declassifying and releasing the documents. The four Democrats expressed “profound alarm” at Trump’s order to declassify the records. Trump ordered the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National...

Showdown? In letter, Pelosi/Schumer/Schiff/Warner order intel agencies to ignore presidential order on declassification until consulting with Congres

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 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications. In...

NEW YORK — Amid reports that President Trump is exploring the possibility of removing security clearances from former top Obama administration officials, it may be instructive to take a closer look at former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s recently released book. Inside the work, titled “Facts and Fears,” Clapper reveals that he feels it is his “duty” to speak out publicly against Trump by writing the book and doing television appearances, especially on CNN where he is a contributor. Clapper lists a litany of anti-Trump charges, and repeatedly makes clear that his public appearances are aimed at countering Trump’s...

President Trump is looking into revoking the security clearances of several top Obama-era intelligence and law enforcement officials, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday. During the daily press briefing, Sanders told reporters that the president was considering taking away clearances for former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and former Director of National Security Michael Hayden (who worked under President George W. Bush).

The top U.S. intelligence official said Saturday he meant no disrespect to President Donald Trump in a televised interview discussing the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said his Thursday comments at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado were not intended to be critical of the president’s decision to invite Putin to a meeting in Washington later this year. “Some press coverage has mischaracterized my intentions in responding to breaking news presented to me during a live interview,” Coats said. “My admittedly awkward response was in no way meant to be disrespectful or criticize...

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Thursday that he felt he "needed to correct the record" following President Trump's comments during the Helsinki summit with Russia President Vladimir Putin, adding that he wished Trump had "made a different statement" as it is "undeniable that the Russians are taking a lead on this." Our thought bubble: It was a STUNNING interview ... and is already catching heat and attention among Trump loyalists. I've already had two phone calls from sources close to Trump expressing their astonishment. The fact that Trump’s own intelligence director is saying these things...

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday he would make “unmasking” requests to reveal the identity of a U.S. citizen every “couple of weeks” during a more than six-year period. His comments about unmasking were made to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who asked about then-President Barack Obama’s U.N. Ambassador Samantha Powers’ testimony in which she said other people had used her name to make unmasking requests. Mr. Clapper said he did not know how that could happen, and that during his time as DNI director, he would make a unmasking request “once every couple of weeks, something...

The Democrats’ ongoing quest to topple the president. The new House Intelligence Committee report finds no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The former FBI boss tasked with finding the collusion, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, recently announced that President Trump is not his target. This has left many observers puzzled, but one Russian actor may be able to put things in perspective.   In the 1981 Fort Apache the Bronx, police officers throw a man off a roof. Many American viewers were horrified but Russian actor Yakov Smirnoff had a different take. “This is nothing,” Smirnoff said. “In Russia,...

A government watchdog who played a central role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the Obama administration told Fox News that he, his family and his staffers faced an intense backlash at the time from Clinton allies – and that the campaign even put out word that it planned to fire him if the Democratic presidential nominee won the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had admitted that the FBI spied on his presidential campaign, further escalating his attacks on the law enforcement and intelligence communities charged with probing possible collusion with Russia. "Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign," Trump tweeted, referring to an interview Clapper did Tuesday on ABC's "The View." But that's false — Clapper did not say that. Responding to a direct question from one of the hosts, Joy Behar — "Was the FBI spying on Trump's campaign?" — Clapper said, "No, they were...

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on Monday with Justice Department and intelligence officials to discuss his order to look into whether his 2016 presidential campaign was infiltrated or surveilled under the Obama administration, a White House official told Reuters. Trump will meet at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, the official said.

President Trump is meeting Monday with Senior FBI, DOJ and DNI officials at the White House to discuss classified documentation requested by the House Intelligence Committee and whether or not members of the Obama administration authorized the use of a long-time informant of the CIA and FBI to investigate members of his 2016 campaign. The meeting came on the heels of the President’s demand Sunday for the Justice Department to investigate the FBI’s operation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, which included surveillance of members of the Trump campaign. And this meeting is crucial because it will be a major opportunity for...

On Sunday a justifiably outraged President Trump called for the former Obama administration to be investigated for its unprecedented and profoundly un-American spying and sabotage operation against the 2016 Trump campaign. “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the [Federal Bureau of Investigation/Department of Justice] infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Trump tweeted Sunday at 1:37 p.m. Just the day before, President Trump had written on Twitter, “If...

Clapper admitted the FBI “may have had someone who was talking to them in the campaign,” referring to President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He explained away the possibility of an FBI informant spying on the campaign as the bureau was trying to find out “what the Russians were doing to try to substantiate themselves in the campaign or influence or leverage it.” Obama’s Director of National Intelligence then went on to say, “So, if there was someone that was observing that sort of thing, that’s a good thing.” He also stated he believes “it’s hugely dangerous if someone like that...

Some major reporting today from Paul Sperry includes very interesting details about how President Obama’s intelligence community structured their Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Russian interference in the 2016 election – – In essence by following-up with various people involved in the construct of the ICA, journalist Paul Sperry outlines how CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, subverted their own intelligence guidelines in assembling the intelligence report. Some major reporting today from Paul Sperry includes very interesting details about how President Obama’s intelligence community structured their Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Russian interference in the...

More information came to light this week about the extensive, illegal operations of Obama’s rogue bureaucratic corps. Like the Attorney General, the President, Professor Alan Dershowitz, Joe DiGenova, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn and millions of others, we think this is taking far too long, and the Mueller investigation needs to close its bunker door and fade away. I’m with them. Moreover, if indictments of the Obama Bureaucrats who confected this nonsense and tried to cover it up don’t follow quickly on the release of the Inspector General’s report -- now due May 8 -- it is hard to imagine...

""FEDS DROP BOMBSHELL: Comey & Lynch Colluded with Clinton Campaign to Entrap, Wiretap Trump; Illegal Scheme Involved Entire U.S. Intel Community"""" Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department and James Comey’s FBI worked together with the Hillary Clinton campaign to entrap Donald Trump and associates — including his eldest son — prior to the 2016 presidential election, according to records and testimony of federal law enforcement insiders. One high ranking official in the Justice Department called it a sweeping “highly illegal” scheme to ensure Hillary Clinton’s election to the White House. “This was clearly a scheme using Justice (Department) resources and State (Department)...