Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help now-U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign, a Senate intelligence panel report said on Tuesday. WikiLeaks played a key role in Russia’s effort to assist Republican Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton and likely knew it was helping Russian intelligence, said the report, which is likely to be the most definitive public account of the 2016 election controversy. The report found President Vladimir Putin personally directed the Russian efforts to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) is about to become the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), and regardless of his current disposition the deepest part of the deep state will have full blackmail control over every aspect of his activity. To understand just how severely compromised Senator Warner is it becomes necessary to review why, when and how his corrupt legislative engagements with the intelligence apparatus took place. Keep in mind all dates connect. All dates are important. “You’ve got Bill Priestap on Feb. 15th, 2018, with four other people from the FBI briefing this Senate Intel Committee,...

Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo has filed a defamation suit against GOP U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Gade, asserting that during an Oct. 3 debate at Norfolk State University Gade falsely accused him of being "a known segregationist" and a "racist judge." The suit asserts: "Gade also stated that Cavedo had written that 'Black people are parasites' who would suck billions of dollars out of our economy.' None of these statements are true." Cavedo, citing damage to his personal and professional reputation, seeks $2 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages. Gade's campaign has said his assertions...

I sent this comment to Sen's Warner and Kaine. Despite the interesting theories of Sen. Coons and others, Judge Barrett is highly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. Her appointment was constitutionally correct and in accordance with precedent. She should be confirmed in the same spirit of comity and bipartisanship as Justices Kagan and Sotamayor. I received the following unasked for response from Warner: Sen. Mark Warner [donotreply@warner.senate.gov] Thank you for contacting me regarding the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding...

Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited a crucial section of the intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and assigned a political ally to take a lead role in writing it after career analysts disputed Brennan's take that Russian leader Vladimir Putin intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump clinch the White House, according to two senior U.S. intelligence officials who have seen classified materials detailing Brennan’s role in drafting the document. The explosive conclusion Brennan inserted into the report was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by...

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Sunday called on President Trump to disavow the far-right conspiracy movement QAnon – just days after the president said supporters of movement “love our country.”

On Tuesday August 18th, I had the opportunity to talk to, be interviewed by and brief, the person described as the “main guy”, the “central investigator”, “the guy who coordinates all investigative aspects” behind the John Durham investigation. His name is William Aldenberg, and before getting to the substance of the conversation some background context is needed. On June 7, 2018, an indictment against Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe was unsealed. Approximately six weeks later, July 21, 2018, the DOJ mysteriously declassified and publicly released the Carter Page FISA application. That’s when I noticed the first two documents...

In January of 2017 California Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her position as Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Upon the initiation of a new congress, and two weeks before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Virginia Senator Mark Warner took the SSCI Vice-Chair seat…. and that’s how things get started. Amid a concerted effort to resist the incoming administration the Russia Collusion Conspiracy was launched. Politicians, the U.S. intelligence apparatus and DC beltway media united in common purpose to push a Trump-Russia narrative. Within the early days of that effort, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence initiated...

In January of 2017 California Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her position as Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Upon the initiation of a new congress, and two weeks before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Virginia Senator Mark Warner took the SSCI Vice-Chair seat…. and that’s how things get started. Amid a concerted effort to resist the incoming administration the Russia Collusion Conspiracy was launched. Politicians, the U.S. intelligence apparatus and DC beltway media united in common purpose to push a Trump-Russia narrative. Within the early days of that effort, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence initiated...

The sweeping hack of verified Twitter accounts Wednesday night was one of the largest security lapses in the platform’s history and led to thousands of users being partially locked out for hours. But the social media giant, and its users, may have gotten off easy. Now lawmakers and top officials are mulling how to ensure Twitter is not hacked by groups with more malicious intentions and how to protect other potential cyber targets from the same fate. The conversation has taken on a particular urgency as geopolitical tensions increase during the COVID-19 pandemic with only months left until a presidential...

Everything is disconnected until somebody connects it. On February 9, 2018, the DOJ released a batch of captured text messages between Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and the lawyer for Christopher Steele, Adam Waldman. At the time the texts were released the media narrative surrounded the top-line story that Senator Warner was having back channel discussions to communicate with the author of the now famous Trump dossier, Chris Steele. However, no-one seemed to wonder why these messages were captured, and even more curiously why they were released. Immediately following the release, SSCI member Marco Rubio, the current acting chairman...

Should Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) worry about his seat come November?  In 2014, he barely cruised to re-election by under a percentage point against Republican challenger Ed Gillespie—a race that stunned political observers everywhere. Now, the self-described “radical centrist” and senior Virginia senator is banking on his political transformation to secure a third term. Warner’s seat is listed as “Solid Democratic” by Cook Political Report and “Safe Democratic” by Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. But he must answer for voting 84 percent of the time with Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and why he, previously the wealthiest U.S. Senator, believes capitalism doesn’t work anymore.  Warner, however, does...

The outgoing intelligence director thinks Sen. Warner's philosophy of transparency is 'based solely on political advantage' Outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is dismissing a top Democratic senator's insinuations that he had harmed the U.S. intelligence community by declassifying the names of individuals who had requested Michael Flynn's unmasking. Last week, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner asked Grenell in a letter to explain why he had revealed the names of numerous Obama administration officials, including Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, who had requested that Flynn's name be unmasked in intelligence reports. Flynn has been at...

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...

...Just 10 days before the February 2017 meeting, Jones had incorporated a nonprofit called The Democracy Integrity Project (known internally as TDIP) after huddling with Simpson. The goal of their ongoing project is to “prove” the allegations in the dossier, while digging up new dirt on Trump and feeding it to media outlets, congressional investigators and the FBI to derail his presidency. The work of such opposition research outfits has become a mainstay of Washington journalism. In their book, “Crime in Progress,” Simpson and Fritsch detail their access to top journalists at The New York Times and other influential publications....

President Trump is withdrawing his nomination for former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu to serve as the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, a top position overseeing economic sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge. The big picture: Liu was confirmed in September 2017 to lead the largest U.S. attorney's office in the country, overseeing a number of politically charged prosecutions that included the case against Trump associates Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and other spinoffs from the Mueller investigation.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) holds confirmation authority over leaders appointed to the intelligence community. Chairman Burr and Vice-Chairman Warner participated in the IC effort to target and remove President Trump from office. You might remember recently how Burr and Warner would not support Rep. John Ratcliffe for Director of National intelligence under the auspices of Ratcliffe not having enough “experience” within intelligence operations. However, those same “experience” concerns were absent when they approved dirty ICIG nominee Michael Atkinson. Reminding ourselves how ICIG Atkinson manipulated the ‘whistle-blower’ regulations to permit hearsay from CIA operative Eric Ciaramella; and knowing...

There are several dozen critical issues that stem from revelations about the DOJ and FBI conduct in/around the Carter Page FISA application (2017) and Steele Dossier writ large; but DOJ official Bruce Ohr still being employed isn’t one of them, and here’s why. (further down) -- Bruce Ohr wasn’t the only non FBI person back-channeling information from corrupt source Christopher Steele into the FBI and Mueller team in 2017. SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner was doing exactly the same thing. Senator Warner was having secret contacts, “would rather not have a paper trail”, with Steele through liaison Adam Waldman, and then...

Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (VA) said during an interview this week that President Donald Trump deserves credit for allowing the United States to “punch back” at and use its “offensive capabilities” against Russia’s cyber attacks. He also noted that Trump has made it a lot easier to take action against Russia than former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made the remarks on PBS’s “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,” which aired on Friday. “There are two main issues: There is the integrity of the election infrastructure, and then there’s the...

With media reporting that U.S. Attorney John Durham has expanded the timeline and scope of his investigation into U.S. government and intelligence community activity during the 2016 election, there’s an interesting quote from NBC: …”Justice Department officials have said that Durham has found something significant, and that critics should be careful.”… The expanded investigative timeline is now into May 2017 when Mueller was appointed special counsel, and would mean all of the preceding (and surrounding) activity leading up to Mueller would be reviewed. With that carefully in mind…. During the 2016 effort to weaponize the institutions of government against the...