Free Republic

In their final encounter during the transition following the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s incoming national-security adviser surprised Barack Obama’s outgoing national-security adviser. Susan Rice writes in her memoir that the Michael Flynn she was dealing with had nothing in common with the firebrand she had watched leading a “lock her up” chant against Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention a few months earlier. Flynn, a retired general and the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was respectful and subdued, eager for her advice. When Rice extended her hand and wished him the best of luck, Flynn asked her...

(...) ♦ SUMMARY: Mary McCord submitted the original false FISA application to the court using the demonstrably false Dossier. Mary McCord participated in the framing of Michael Flynn. Mary McCord worked with ICIG Michael Atkinson to create a fraudulent whistleblower complaint against President Trump; and Mary McCord used that manipulated complaint to assemble articles of impeachment on behalf of the joint House Intel and Judiciary Committee. Mary McCord then took up a defensive position inside the FISA court to protect the DOJ and FBI from sunlight upon all the aforementioned corrupt activity. You can clearly see how Mary McCord would...

Here we go… It was only a matter of time before the DOJ-NSD architects of the Trump targeting operation came out from the shadows. This is the moment long-time readers of CTH should have been waiting for. For the past five years Mary McCord has been one of a small and select lawfare group organizing the targeting of President Trump. Mary McCord led the support team who created the Carter Page FISA warrant using the Steele Dossier to replace the required ‘Wood’s file’. McCord was the DOJ-NSD official who traveled with DOJ Deputy AG Sally Yates to talk to former...

A former Ukrainian prosecutor general is speaking out after Vice President Joe Biden forced him out of his job. Speaking to ABC News, former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin said he has “no doubt” Biden wanted him gone to help protect Hunter Biden’s employer. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings while Biden’s son Hunter was on the board earning as much as $50,000 a month. “Biden was acting not like a U.S. vice president, but as an individual,” he said to ABC News, “like the individual interested in having me removed — having me gone so that I did...

The FISA Court is CompromisedI hate to write this, but there is just no good way to look at this. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, specifically Presiding Judge James Boasberg, has hired former DOJ National Security Division head, Mary McCord, as amici curiae advisor to the court. [LINK] The placement was first noted by an announcement from Georgetown Law ICAP. Presiding Judge James Boasberg, is the decision-maker in the appointment of Amici Curiae to the FISA court. There is no way, NO WAY, Judge Boasberg does not know Mary McCord was at the epicenter of the fraudulent FISA application used...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Thursday that he is placing a hold on two of President Trump's nominees, saying the administration provided an "inadequate response" to his questions about the firing of two inspectors general. Grassley is placing a hold on Christopher Miller's nomination to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center over the firing of intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. He is also placing a hold on Marshall Billingslea's nomination to be the undersecretary for arms control and international security at the State Department for the ousting of State Department Inspector General Steven Linick. Grassley said...

A top State Department official has accused Steve Linick, the department’s fired inspector general, of contacting a former colleague, obtaining official documents and returning to his former office -- all in violation of the terms of his administrative leave, Fox News has learned. In a letter to Linick's attorney, obtained by Fox News, the State Department Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao says “in the days before his Congressional testimony, he sent a text message to the Deputy Inspector General, Diana Shaw, requesting a copy of the DOD IG report on the origins of a leak of a draft State...

The State Department inspector general whose recent dismissal ignited a political firestorm sent copies detailing a sensitive investigation to his personal email account, according to a probe into his conduct run by the Defense Department's inspector general. The inquiry report, dated March 17, confirms that fired State Department inspector general Steve Linick was the subject of a broad investigation related to the leaks of politically charged materials to journalists, specifically a draft evaluation report into Brian Hook, the State Department’s top Iran official. The report, which was provided to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, concluded that while Linick was permitted...

I started reading through and or skimming the tranche of released transcripts of testimony that has been hidden from view for far too long yesterday and found myself on the second Bannon interview. These are in alphabetical order with dates also listed oddly, so you need to pay attention when a witness testimony spans two days, such as Bannon’s, as it can be confusing when reading. Bannon’s has the two days with the second day listed first. I had read beyond Bannon when I realized there was a transcript missing. The transcript for Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is...

Sen. Mitt Romney is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers demanding that President Donald Trump explain why he fired the intelligence community inspector general. The eight senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, say the explanation Trump gave for removing Michael Atkinson was insufficient and does not comply with the law. The president cited a lack of confidence in the intelligence community’s top watchdog. “Congressional intent is clear that an expression of lost confidence, without further explanation, is not sufficient to fulfill the requirements of the statute,” the senators wrote in a letter Thursday. “This is in large part because...

Firing the US intelligence community’s inspector general is a big deal. I should know. I was a former longtime Central Intelligence Agency official who blew the whistle on the Clinton White House and agency bosses. Even so, I believe President Trump’s firing last week of IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson was appropriate — indeed, overdue. Liberals and their media allies are predictably framing the firing as ­retaliation for Atkinson’s decision to inform Congress about a complaint by a so-called whistleblower that set off the Democratic effort to impeach the president. That’s false. Let’s review the facts. On Sept. 9, 2019,...

This guy should be locked up. Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson left behind a trail of lies and corruption from his days at the DOJ and as ICIG. Even his wife is connected to the Deep State. On Friday President Trump announced that he was firing ICIG Atkinson because he could no longer be trusted. The President had lost all confidence in Atkinson. Here is the President’s letter to the US Senate announcing the move: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-fires-atkinson-v2.jpg Atkinson was identified in the most recent FISA abuse report by the DOJ IG Horowitz as one of the individuals who was...

Here are the details you need to know to fully understand why President Trump lost confidence in Inspector General Michael Atkinson and exercised his presidential prerogative to replace him. On Saturday, reporters queried President Trump about his Friday firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. TrumpÂ’s response seemingly confirmed the left-leaning press and DemocratsÂ’s narrative that the firing was retaliation for the IG informing the House Intelligence Committee of a whistleblowerÂ’s complaint. That complaint concerned TrumpÂ’s conversation with the Ukrainian president that set in motion TrumpÂ’s impeachment.But what the media and TrumpÂ’s political opponents wonÂ’t tell you is that...

Michael Atkinson broke his silence Sunday saying he's "disappointed and saddened" at President Trump's late-night decision just a day earlier to fire him from his watchdog post in the intelligence community. "It is hard not to think that the president's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general, and from my commitment to continue to do so," Atkinson wrote in a two-page statement. The watchdog had alerted Congress to concerns about a Trump phone call with the president of Ukraine – a matter that led to the...

Michael Atkinson, the outgoing intelligence community inspector general fired by President Trump on Friday, says he believes the president dismissed him because of his commitment to his duty as an impartial watchdog. "It is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General, and from my commitment to continue to do so," Atkinson said in a statement released Sunday night that was obtained by several news outlets and shared on social media. Trump fired Atkinson in a memo on Friday, explaining...

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt Commanding Officer Captain Brett Crozier are examples of people the Trump administration fired for speaking the truth. Schumer said, “There’s all too familiar a pattern in this administration, when you tell the president the truth, you get fired. This guy was a patriot. This guy stood for — our intelligence agencies have done such a wonderful job. … And by politicizing it, dismantling it, not wanting to hear the truth, that’s — since World War II, we have...

A day after he was abruptly fired by President Trump, outgoing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson spoke on the phone with Senate Minority Chuck Schumer. The New York Democrat said Saturday evening that he told the independent watchdog, whom defenders fear was removed to settle a score stemming from the impeachment saga, he will be remembered as a "hero." "I spoke to Inspector General Michael Atkinson tonight, thanked him for his service, and told him that history will remember him as a hero and those who retaliated against him as scoundrels," Schumer tweeted.

President Donald Trump fired off a laundry list of grievances at his daily White House press conference with the coronavirus task force Saturday, bashing Rep. Adam Schiff, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the Ukraine whistleblower. The wild diatribe was kicked off by a reporter asking Trump about his firing of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who told Congress about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump’s phone call with Ukraine, ultimately leading to his impeachment. “I thought he did a terrible job,” Trump said. “Absolutely terrible.” Trump proceeded to falsely claim the Ukraine whistleblower...

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Devin Nunes on Friday threatened to escalate his concerns about Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson’s handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint to the Justice Department unless Atkinson complies with congressional requests for information and documents. In a letter obtained by Fox News Friday, Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, issued the stark warning to Atkinson, giving him a Feb. 14 deadline to comply with past congressional requests.

President Trump on Friday night fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community who had deemed “urgent” a whistleblower’s complaint about the president’s actions on aid to Ukraine. In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, the president said “it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general.” “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general,” Mr. Trump said. The president said the firing would take effect in 30 days and he will nominate a new candidate, who must be confirmed...