Free Republic

With much of the media, and indeed the President himself, fueling the ongoing headline discussion over the ramifications of the Obama administration setting up “surveillance”, “informants”, counterintelligence operations and “agent provocateurs” against their political opposition, ie. “SpyGate”, it is perhaps time for some mental sorbet. Relating to the overall issue, on March 28th, 2018, the DOJ Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz formerly announced an additional investigation of how the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in matters relating to the FISA Title-1 application filed against U.S. person Carter...

Hill sources are saying the FBI spy who infiltrated Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, Stefan Halper bled information into Hillary’s phony dossier, reported Paul Sperry. The informant, Stefan Halper, was paid a total of $411,575 in 2016 and 2017 for work with the US government that included spying on the Trump campaign. It was a lucrative business for Stefan Halper. Now the Democrats are in spin mode.

For the past 18 months, most media has dismissively mocked claims that a then-candidate’s campaign were rigged or spied upon during the 2016 election… Now: Once majestic ODIN grovels. Langley cowers and Arlington squirms under quisling book promos. Don’t lap up this drivvel that it’s only at the top. The dedicated core agents are out or dead. The remnant is shot thru with rot.

Newly-examined emails among high-ranking U.S. intel officials at the time—including then-Director James Comey and his chief of staff James Rybicki—reference a “sensitive matter team.” Based on the context of the emails, the “sensitive matter” appears to be the Trump-Russia narrative, and political opposition research funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The research— known as the “Steele dossier”— was peddled to the press and secretly used, in part, to justify controversial FBI wiretaps against at least one Trump associate. The emails were first obtained by the Justice Department Inspector General and recently turned over to the...

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...

Ratcheting up pressure on the Russia investigation, the White House announced Monday that top FBI and Justice Department officials have agreed to meet with congressional leaders and “review” highly classified information the lawmakers have been seeking on the handling of the probe. The agreement came after President Donald Trump made an extraordinary demand that the Justice Department investigate whether the FBI infiltrated his presidential campaign. It’s unclear exactly what the members will be allowed to review or if the Justice Department will be providing any documents to Congress.

The Department of Justice will allow Congress to review highly classified requested documents relating to the FBI’s investigation into the Trump 2016 campaign in conjunction with the White House and other agencies, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday. “Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign,” Sanders said. “It was also agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a...

President Donald Trump held a meeting at the White House today with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray. ~~~ President Trump has had enough of the stonewalling and took matters into his own hands Monday.

President Trump left a Monday meeting with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with an agreement on future steps to facilitate the release of Russia-probe documents to Congress. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the men "agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and DNI together with Congressional Leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.” House intelligence commitee Republicans led by chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., have sought unsuccessfully to see certain documents on the FBI's probe of possible Trump...

House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said Monday that he will refuse to meet again with the Justice Department until officials release documents he has requested about the Russia investigation. Nunes subpoenaed the Justice Department and threatened to hold officials in contempt of Congress if they refuse to release files regarding a confidential FBI informant who spoke to Trump campaign associates in 2016 about Russian election meddling. The California Republican said he and his colleague Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) had a “productive” meeting with DOJ officials a few weeks ago but ignored a Friday invite to meet again when they...

Friday’s outing of longtime CIA and MI6 asset Stefan Halper as an FBI asset sent to infiltrate the Trump campaign has social media abuzz today. Reactions have ranged from celebration to outrage, with little inbetween. To recap, after two weeks of hunting for a “mole” in the Trump campaign, the New York Times and Washington Post both printed incredibly detailed descriptions of Halper – withholding all but his name, solidly corroborating a March report by the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross about Halper’s meetings with the Trump aides. Neither publication give Ross credit, of course. Somehow several anti-Trump intellectuals got their...

The primary question within the letter is: under what authority, and within what statute, is the AAG authorized to assign a counterintelligence investigation to a special counsel: “More specifically, section 600.1 states the Attorney General “will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted.” The omitted regulations do not authorize counterintelligence investigations.” One of the questions within the letter is additionally interesting. SEE: 7. “Have you delegated FISA approval authority to the Special Counsel? If so, on what date, and was the delegation done in writing? If it was...

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) warned Republican lawmakers on Friday not to expose the identity of top-secret FBI informant, saying that to do so would be "irresponsible" — and potentially illegal. "It would be at best irresponsible, and at worst potentially illegal, for members of Congress to use their positions to learn the identity of an FBI source for the purpose of undermining the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in our election," Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "Anyone who is entrusted with our nation’s highest secrets should act with the gravity and seriousness...

Leakers to the New York Times confirmed in a story published on Wednesday that the FBI had run a spy operation on the Trump campaign that involved government informants, secret subpoenas, and possible wiretaps. The story comes ahead of the release of the pending Department of Justice inspector general report on the FBI’s actions during the 2016 election, and likely is an attempt by the leakers to paint the FBI’s efforts in the most flattering light possible. But the story revealed that the FBI – which is supposed to be an apolitical agency – was spying on the Trump campaign...

Days after Carter Page’s high-profile trip to Moscow in July 2016, the Trump campaign adviser had his first encounter with Stefan Halper, a University of Cambridge professor with CIA and MI6 contacts. The conversation seemed innocent enough, Page tells The Daily Caller News Foundation. He recalls nothing of substance being discussed other than Halper’s passing mention that he knew then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. But the interaction was one of many that the pair would have over the next 14 months, through a period of time when Page was under the watchful eye of the U.S. government. Their relationship included a...

Report: John Brennan Worked ‘Pee Dossier’ into Obama’s Daily Briefing, Called Steele ‘Credible Source’ (Full Title) A new report alleges that former CIA Director John Brennan included claims from the dubious Steele dossier into President Barack Obama’s Presidential Daily Brief — without disclosing the source of the allegations. “Brennan put some of the dossier material into the PDB [presidential daily briefing] for Obama and described it as coming from a ‘credible source,’ which is how they viewed Steele,” a source close to the House probe told Real Clear Investigations reporter Paul Sperry. “But they never corroborated his sources,” the source...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. – Texas Congressman and former state Appeals Court Justice Louie Gohmert published a devastating criticism of ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday. Those of you who still believe that the Witch Hunter in Chief is some sort of sterling individual with an unassailable background of defending truth, justice and the American Way should take half an hour out of your day today and read it. It will disabuse you forever of those silly notions. I was already aware of most of...

... Brennan dimly understood that there would be hell to pay if it came out that Hillary partisans in the U.S. government were spying on her opponent’s campaign, making use of opposition research that she had purchased. But Brennan, who was auditioning to be Hillary’s CIA director and choking on his anger at the thought of Trump as president, couldn’t help himself apparently. From April 2016 to July 2016, according to leaked stories in the British press, he assembled a multi-agency taskforce that served as the beginnings of a counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign. During these months, he was...

Speculation is mounting over the identity of a purported top-secret intelligence source who was part of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign. Such a source was first confirmed last week by leakers to the Washington Post. The leakers told the Post that senior FBI and national intelligence officials tried to stop House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes from receiving information that could “endanger a top-secret intelligence source.” The leakers also revealed the source is a “U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI.” They also revealed that providing the information about the source could “damage relationships...

Two senior House Republicans are accusing the Justice Department of being behind “anonymous attacks” in the press targeting a House Intelligence Committee GOP staffer who helped author the committee’s well-publicized memo alleging surveillance abuse by the FBI and DOJ during the 2016 election. The same House staffer is also a driving force behind the latest Russia records standoff. "I would have a lot more respect for DOJ or House committee Democrats if they would take out their frustrations on members of Congress, and leave staffers alone,” South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told...