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The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to take a fresh look at drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations linked to Hezbollah after an investigative report last month claimed that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to such activities to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. The task force, dubbed the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT), will begin its work by reviewing investigations stemming from Project Cassandra, a campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting the Lebanese terror group’s actions. According to a Politico report published last month, officials with the Obama Justice...

A former Minneapolis FBI agent has been charged after allegedly leaking secret documents to a national news reporter, according to federal criminal charges filed in Minnesota this week. The charges, filed by prosecutors for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, are the first to come in Minnesota since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a broad crackdown on government leaks last year. A two-page felony information, a charging document that typically signals an imminent guilty plea, outlines two counts filed against Terry J. Albury of unlawfully disclosing and retaining national defense information. Albury is accused of sharing a document on assessing...

A research firm that compiled a dossier of sometimes salacious information about U.S. President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russians failed to block a congressional bid to see its banking records. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington agreed on Thursday that information sought by the House Intelligence Committee is pertinent to its probe of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. The judge rejected Fusion GPS’s argument that disclosure of the data could reveal secrets about the firm’s clients and devastate its business.

A well-known conservative lobbyist was sprayed with a “caustic substance” by a masked attacker outside his Arlington home Tuesday, according to local police. Jack Burkman, who made headlines again in 2016 by offering a $130,000 reward for information on the mysterious murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich, was reportedly attacked Tuesday. Local police told The Washington Post they have not yet determined the perpetrator’s identity. Burkman told WaPo he was returning from the grocery store when a man wearing a ski mask jumped out of a black SUV, sprayed him in the face with what appeared to be pepper spray,...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry recently made a trip to London, where he met with Palestinian official Hussein Agha. Agha is close to Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, who walked away from peace talks after the U.S. announced an embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. During the meeting, Kerry reportedly told Agha that Abbas should essentially ignore President Trump. He also strangely suggested Trump wouldn't be in office by the end of the year.

Cody Shearer, a longtime Clinton insider, was peddling dirt on President Donald Trump as early as Aug. 2016, two months earlier than previously known, a U.S. government source tells The Daily Caller News Foundation. The official also said they originally discounted the information when they first heard of it because of Shearer’s reputation as a Clinton hatchet man. The House Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees are investigating the so-called “Shearer memo” and how it made its way from the Clinton operative, through the State Department, and into the hands of Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the infamous...

A bank has reportedly handed over a series of financial records from intelligence firm Fusion GPS after the firm pushed to prevent the documents from being given to Congress.The release of the documents was in response to a subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee as part of its probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and ties to the Trump campaign.A congressional lawyer said Friday that TD Bank "produced all remaining responsive documents" to the House Intelligence Committee under the terms of a confidential settlement, CNN reported. ADVERTISEMENT The handover of the 70 documents comes after a federal judge on Thursday dismissed the...

Lisa Barsoomian is the wife of Rod Rosenstein. Lisa is a high-powered attorney in Washington, DC, who specializes in opposing Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of the Deep State Intelligence Communities. Lisa Barsoomian works for R. Craig Lawrence, an attorney who has represented Robert Mueller three times, James Comey five times, Barack Obama forty-five times, Kathleen Sebellius fifty-six times, Bill Clinton forty times, and Hillary Clinton seventeen times. Rod Rosenstein her husband is Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice (right behind Sessions) and the guy in charge of the Russia investigation who selected and...

Lawyers for Richard Gates, a former Trump campaign aide charged with tax fraud and money laundering last year as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, have filed a motion to leave the case. Gates's lawyers filed the motion Thursday, though the reason for their leaving was not made public. "Pursuant to Local Rule 44.5(d), undersigned counsel hereby move to withdraw as counsel of record in this case effective immediately for the reasons set forth in Exhibit 1 which is the subject of a motion to be filed under seal," the filing reads. The motion by Gates's lawyers comes...

CROZET, Va. (AP) — In a story Jan. 31 about a fatal train crash carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress, The Associated Press, relying on information from a congressman at the scene, misidentified who was killed in the pickup truck. It was a passenger who died, not the driver. A corrected version of the story is below: Train carrying GOP lawmakers strikes trash truck; 1 killed A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress to a policy retreat has slammed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia By ALAN FRAM and HEIDI BROWN Associated Press CROZET, Va. (AP)...

To recap, the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines last night to make public a classified memorandum, written by Republicans and drawn from US intelligence, pertaining to some element or elements of the overall Russia matter.  The specific subject matter of the document remains unclear, although the surveillance of former Trump aide Carter Page appears to be at least somewhat relevant. Democrats have objected vociferously to publishing the memo, claiming that it paints an inaccurate picture of reality, based on incomplete information.  They've drafted their own private memo, which the committee voted unanimously to make available to all House...

The House Intelligence Committee has released a 51-page, unclassified transcript of the Monday night meeting that led to the vote to release the controversial, classified memo created by GOP staffers, alleging surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and the FBI. The memo itself has not yet been released. The release of the memo is opposed by the FBI. Earlier Wednesday, the FBI issued a rare statement warning against the memo's release, saying incompletely information in the memo raised "grave concerns." FBI Director Christopher Wray also objected to the memo's release, and, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, asked White House chief of staff...

What happens when federal agencies accused of possible wrongdoing — also control the alleged evidence against them? What happens when they’re the ones in charge of who inside their agencies — or connected to them — ultimately gets investigated and possibly charged? Those questions are moving to the forefront as the facts play out in the investigations into our intelligence agencies’ surveillance activities. There are two overarching issues. First, there’s the alleged improper use of politically-funded opposition research to justify secret warrants to spy on U.S. citizens for political purposes. Second, if corruption is ultimately identified at high levels in...

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snip: On January 4, Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the crime and terrorism subcommittee, sent a criminal referral to the FBI and Justice Department concerning Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the Trump dossier. In a cover letter, Grassley and Graham suggested that Steele might have lied to the FBI during his association with the bureau as he compiled the dossier. That's all the cover letter said. The referral itself, which was classified, made the actual case about Steele. Grassley wrote an unclassified version of the referral for public release — finally, the public could understand...

Republicans claim a secret document reveals a Hillary Clinton plot "worse than Watergate" – and they're getting a big boost from Russian bots On a day like Friday, with a shutdown looming and DACA in the balance and Chuck Schumer huddling with President Trump in the White House, you might logically expect right-wing Twitter to be blowing up – but not, necessarily, with the seemingly unaccountable hashtag that's dominated the platform since Thursday evening: #ReleaseTheMemo. But then again, you might not logically expect American conservatives to work in concert with Russian state propagandists and Twitter bots – though by now,...

Spent an amazing day with two very interesting folks

During his testimony before Congress in August, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson said that the FBI had a source inside the Trump campaign who gave credence to the infamous dossier the company created for the Democrats. He repeated the claim in a New York Times op-ed on January 2. But today, Fusion GPS is retracting that statement, saying that Simpson "mischaracterized" the source. Washington Times: Then suddenly, as quick as the headlines went up, some one close to Fusion was waving off reporters. Mr. Simpsonhad “mischaracterized” the source. It was not some one on the Trump inside, but apparently an...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Tuesday released the full transcript from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. "The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice," Feinstein said in a statement. "The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public." The release of the transcript, Feinstein said, was supported by committee Democrats. The move follows committee a decision by Republicans Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham...

Well, well, well… here’s a surprise. Office of Inspector General has apparently begun giving Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte the 1.2 million pages of evidence from the year-long inspector general investigation into FBI and DOJ politicization: As previously discussed, Inspector General Michael Horowitz had promised to deliver around 1.2 million pages of documents from his investigation to Chairman Bob Goodlatte on/around January 15th, 2018. The DOJ Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs is Stephen Boyd; he’s a Trump appointment and replaced the politically corrupt Peter Kadzik (John Podesta’s pal). Boyd is the liaison between the DOJ and Congress responsible for complying...