Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be “operational” on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed. The teen was in a text group with more than a dozen people in the fall of 2019 when he introduced the idea of saving money to buy a ranch where they could participate in militant training, according to the affidavit, which was filed under...

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday, during a contentious exchange at a hearing, asked fellow committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) why his wife, a former Treasury Department official, unmasked Michael Flynn. Jordan had just finished questioning Google CEO Sundar Pichai over the search engine’s bias against conservatives and whether he would commit to not interfering in the upcoming election to help Joe Biden. After Jordan finished his questioning, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) called his concerns “fringe conspiracy theories.”

In the latest development surrounding last week's announcement by Devin Nunes, according to which President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies, the NYT reports that the pair of White House officials who played a role in providing Nunes with the intelligence reports behind his claim, have been identified. The NYT has outed the Nunes sources, who it claims are Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked...

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra are being eyed for possible top cabinet positions in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, said two sources familiar with the discussions. Yates, who currently serves on the advisory board to Biden's transition team, is "no doubt" being considered as a candidate to become the country's next Attorney General, said one of the two, who asked to remain anonymous because no decision has been reached.

President Donald Trump blasted rival Joe Biden's family after new emails said to be from Hunter Biden's laptop were revealed, calling the family 'grifters.'Trump used the 'grifter' term – which critics including Rep. Adam Schiff recently applied to the president himself – following the release of emails that have unmasked some of Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine at a time when his father had an influential role with the country as vice president.'They're crooks, they've always been crooks. They're grifters and crooks, and this is what we're running against,' Trump told the conservative NewsMax network. 'And it's a disgrace....

The federal prosecutor Attorney General Bill Barr tapped to investigate whether Obama administration officials improperly requested the unmasking of individuals during the 2016 election has concluded his probe without “finding any substantive wrongdoing,” The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Barr appointed U. S. Attorney Jeremy Bash to review whether there was wrongdoing by the Obama administration in requesting the identities of individuals — in particular Trump allies — whose names are redacted in intelligence reports during the heated election. The practice, known as unmasking, is common and done to help government officials make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing,...

Well, this is interesting…. very interesting… U.S. Attorney John Bash, from the Western District of Texas, was given the responsibility by AG Barr of looking into the illegal unmasking by Obama-era officials in July of this year. Not only the illegal unmasking of General Flynn, but more extensive unmasking. Today Bash announced his abrupt resignation. “Abrupt” because he announced today, and he leaves on Friday. However, he does say he informed Barr last month: SAN ANTONIO, Tex. – U.S. Attorney John F. Bash announced today that he will resign from the Department of Justice on Friday, October 9, 2020, at...

The Justice Department announced new restrictions Tuesday on how it conducts any secret national security surveillance of candidates for federal office or their staff. The restrictions, announced by Attorney General William Barr in a pair of memos, are part of broader changes to the Justice Department’s surveillance procedures implemented in response to problems detected during the 2016 investigation into ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign. Coming just two months before the 2020 election, the changes are designed to ensure that law enforcement officials have to clear additional hurdles before pursuing the same type of surveillance as was conducted...

Judicial Watch Sues to Expose Full Truth Behind Obama Unmasking/Spy Abuses Judicial Watch Files First Amendment Lawsuit Against DC – Because No One Is Above the Law! Supreme Court Allows the Abortion Industry to Set Abortion Policy Happy Independence Day! Judicial Watch Sues to Expose Full Truth Behind Obama Unmasking/Spy Abuses The term “unmasking” refers to the practice of political appointees obtaining the identities of American citizens referenced in intelligence surveillance of foreign nationals. Unmasking has a legitimate purpose, but in the final months of the Obama administration his lieutenants were abusing the process as they frantically looked for...

Back in May acting DNI Richard Grenell declassified the list of Obama officials involved in the unmasking of General Mike Flynn in his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The names of the officials who were involved in unmasking General Flynn in his calls to Kislyak in late 2016-2017 were released by Grenell in May. The names included top Obama officials like Joe Biden and Susan Rice. The Obama administration was spying on General Flynn as he was performing the role of top advisor to incoming President Donald Trump.

Attorney General William Barr appointed a federal prosecutor to review so-called “unmasking” requests that Obama administration officials submitted against Trump associates, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said Wednesday. Kerri Kupec, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said on Fox News that Barr appointed John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to conduct the review. Bash will carry out the probe in coordination with U.S. attorneys John Durham and Jeff Jensen, who are looking into various aspects of the Trump-Russia investigation. “The attorney general determined that certain aspects of unmasking needed to be reviewed separately as a support...

Attorney General William Barr has asked a U.S. attorney to look into the practice of “unmasking” before and after the 2016 presidential election, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Barr has asked U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas John Bash to review the “unmasking.” "Unmasking inherently isn't wrong, but certainly, the frequency, the motivation and the reasoning behind unmasking can be problematic, and when you're looking at unmasking as part of a broader investigation – like John Durham's investigation – looking specifically at who was unmasking...

Tomorrow morning ends the tenure of Richard “Ric” Grenell as the acting Director of National Intelligence. At 12:15pm DNI John Ratcliffe will be sworn-in [LINK] and the declassification/sunlight baton will be passed to senate confirmed DNI John Ratcliffe. On the topic of the FBI capture and use of the December 29, 2016, Flynn-Kislyak phone call… First we had a hunch; then it became a suspicion… that evolved into a likelihood… that has now become a strong probability. The capture of the December 29th phone call, which generated the raw “CR cuts“, was an FBI summary, modified for a specific interpretation....

If the media is looking for a symbol of 'deviancy' in our politics that only '[makes] things worse,' they should stop looking at the press secretary and instead look in the mirror. New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany isn’t letting so-called journalists get away with inane questions in the briefing room at the expense of real news, and the media don’t like it.This was on full display over the weekend during the latest media-Trump administration go-around, when McEnany sparred with reporters over the Obama administration’s malfeasance with regard to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.After a contentious exchange about...

Breaking via WaPo: Michael Flynn's name was never 'masked' in the FBI document on his communications with Russian ambassador. "When the FBI circulated [the report], they included Flynn's name from the beginning," said a former senior U.S. official.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday asked acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell for the underlying intelligence reports in which former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s name was “unmasked.” In a letter obtained by The Hill, Warner asked Grenell for any underlying intelligence reports concerning conversations between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisltak, as well as the reasoning behind declassifying the unmasking requests, “given the potential compromise to sources and methods.” “As you are well aware, there are substantial protections built into the process for requesting that identities of U.S. persons...

You thought for all these years of hard work you were going to get a real graduation ceremony, and instead your mom erected this embarrassing plaque by your front door. Sad sights are popping up all over my neighbourhood: yard signs reading, “So and so of such and such high school. Class of 2020.” Congratulations, Emily and Jacob, you are being ripped off! You thought for all these years of hard work and perseverance you were going to get a real graduation ceremony, and instead your mom erected this embarrassing plaque by your front door.All over America. traditional graduation ceremonies...

Two top Republican senators have expanded their request for records related to the “unmasking” of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to include information prior to the start of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane operation, which began in July 2016. On Wednesday, acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified the names of those in the White House involved in revealing Flynn’s identity as a U.S. citizen corresponding with a foreign actor, as requested by Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Flynn had held discussions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition as the...

A seat on the U.S Federal Reserve Board, carries tremendous power. The seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. A full term is fourteen years. During that time, a board member can influence the financial policies of the world's most powerful economy. In some ways the seven men and women, have more power than Congress or even the President himself. That's why appointments to the Federal Reserve Board deserve as much scrutiny as those to the Supreme Court. President Barack Obama recently made three nominations...

SCOOP @CBSNews obtains @RichardGrenell notification to congress declassified “unmasking list” Flynn between late 2016 and January 2017