Free Republic

Lawyers are trained never to ask a question of a witness if they don’t already know the answer. But it is quite different in journalism – at least in principle, if the principle is getting at the truth. But alas, in these days of fake news and fanatical dead-ender opposition to President Trump, those MSM TV networks committed to driving Trump from office might want to consider retraining for their talking heads. Make them more like lawyers and avoid embarrassnents like that suffered by CNN’s Brian Stelter. Courtesy of Grabien, here is a disastrous interview in which the guest, Larry...

NSA whistleblower Russel Tice – a key source in the 2005 New York Times report that blew the lid off the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretapping – told Peter B. Collins on Boiling Frogs Post (the website of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds): Tice: Okay. They went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. But they went...

During his twelve-year reign as FBI Director, Robert Mueller not only protected his criminal friends by silencing those who could expose their bad acts, he projected his friends’ crimes onto others in order to fraudulently appoint a Special Counsel. And the FISA court judge Reggie Walton — who was hacked by Obama officials John Brennan and James Clapper, according to whistleblower evidence — has been involved in more than one of these plots. There is no better Deep State tool for punishing your enemies than a fraudulent Special Counsel (who is not accountable to anyone) with an unlimited budget and...

Former FISA court judge Reggie Walton is now under scrutiny due to evidence that Obama administration officials John Brennan and James Clapper hacked into Walton’s phone records in addition to the phone records of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and President Donald Trump before Trump ran for office. (READ: Evidence of the Walton Hack, and How Comey Covered It Up).Now we know that Walton has been on the bench in multiple fraudulent Deep State operations, including the Scooter Libby case, which also involved some of the main figures from the anti-Trump Operation Crossfire Hurricane plot. In the Libby case, then-deputy...

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating Dick Cheney's former top national security aide, according to the Daily Beast. John Hannah, who worked on Trump's State Department transition team, has not been accused of any wrongdoing at this point, but he is affiliated with two men who are already being questioned by Mueller.

Washington June 8, 2007 - CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reported this evening that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace's departure from that post may be linked to his recent comments regarding lesbian and gay military personnel. According to Starr's report, Pace's comments, along with his role in planning the war in Iraq and his support for convicted Vice Presidential advisor I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, played key roles in Congressional opposition to Pace's re-nomination. "His recent statements that he believed homosexual statements are immoral" presented a "significant problem" for Pace according to Starr. "Congressional leaders, in warning Secretary...

Fired FBI Director James Comey has reportedly hired former US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to be one of his personal lawyers. Fired FBI Director James Comey has retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as one of his personal attorneys, bringing in a heavy-hitting former prosecutor, close friend and longtime colleague to help him navigate his dramatic role as a potential witness in the investigation of President Trump’s campaign and potential obstruction of justice. Two Capitol Hill sources independently confirmed to TPM that Fitzgerald was serving as a lawyer for Comey. Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald go back decades as buddies.

Speculation is mounting (except, of course, among the “professional” press), as to the identities of six of the eight individuals included in the Libby subpoena to The New York Times (see Clarice Feldman’s piece here). The Times deemed the identities of only two of the parties worthy of release, former CIA director George Tenet and former White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer. The names of the other six remain elusive

Remember the outrage when CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name was leaked to newspaperman Robert Novak? Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson, accused the Bush White House of doing it in retaliation, because her husband was a critic of its war policy. Wilson said it would be “fun to see Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.” Only one problem: Rove didn’t do it. The State Department’s Richard Armitage did. Now the worm has turned. Last week, Glenn Greenwald, the man who helped Edward Snowden get stolen American secrets published, wrote an article naming the woman — a...

Trump knows the Deep State, and he is not George W. Bush WARNING: The following is, necessarily, somewhat extensive reading because the web of deceit it outlines is itself complex. Media speculation over the meaning of President Trump’s pardon of Lewis “Scooter” Libby is predictable and wrong. Three examples:

In his decision Friday to pardon a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, President Trump telegraphed his open hostility to the criminal justice system and his desire to use the power of the presidency as a personal political tool. As with his controversial pardon last year of a former Arizona county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who had been held in contempt of court, Trump effectively thumbed his nose at the judiciary by pardoning I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The Justice Department was not involved in either case, officials said.

BREAKING NEWS: @POTUS pardons former Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. #ScooterLibbyhttps://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/984845700155478017  

Mark R. Levin ‏ @marklevinshow 2h2 hours ago Good for President Trump. He’s going to pardon Scooter Libby, which George W. Bush, for whom he worked, refused to do. The prosecutor, Fitzgerald, was appointed by Comey and he's friends with Comey.

President Donald Trump is poised to pardon Scooter J. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, according to sources familiar with the president’s thinking. The president has already signed off on the pardon, which is something he has been considering for several months, sources told ABC News. The move would mark another controversial pardon for Trump and could raise questions as an increasing number of the president’s political allies have landed themselves in legal jeopardy. The White House has repeatedly said that no pardons are currently on the table for people caught up in the Russia...

CBS Films has optioned Michael Isikoff and David Corn’s “Russian Roulette,” the story of the Russian attempt to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. The book is currently on top of nonfiction titles on the New York Times bestseller list. Isikoff and Corn will serve as executive producers. Nick Wechsler, whose credits include “American Assassin,” is on board to produce. The deal, announced Thursday, came following an auction of the movie rights. It was made on behalf of the Ross Yoon Agency by Hotchkiss & Associates. Wechsler is represented by Carlos Goodman at Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group's annual report. It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets. The Ploughshares Fund's mission is to "build a safe, secure world by developing and investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world's nuclear stockpiles," one that dovetails with President Barack Obama's arms control efforts. But its behind-the-scenes role advocating for the Iran agreement got more...

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will not give further consideration to a lawsuit brought by a fired CIA agent and her husband against high ranking Bush administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney. The decision is a victory for Cheney and his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. They and nine unnamed co-defendants were sued by Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joseph after her CIA cover was leaked to reporters.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan accused key Clinton allies of helping craft a second anti-Trump dossier and accused them of “rigging the game,” Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” Jordan was asked about a possible second dossier and said Clinton operatives Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer had paid Christopher Steele to do opposition research, but then told Steele which specific details to include. “The names we keep hearing are Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer — people who have been around the Clintons as being a part of this. But I also think it’s kind of interesting because what it looks like is,...

On July 14, 2003, a Robert Novak column in The Washington Post outed the CIA-agent wife of vociferous Bush administration critic, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. Thus was born the "Plame Affair" which quickly became a morality tale of how an out of control Bush Administration would do anything to justify its war in Iraq. A mere three days later, journalist David Corn, summarized the allegations that would color reporting on the Iraq War for the next three years and eventually lead to the indictment of a top aide to the vice president for lying to a grand jury: ((((THE OLD...

WASHINGTON - David Margolis, a lawyer at the Justice Department for 40 years, was named Friday to oversee a special prosecutor's investigation of who in the Bush administration disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer. Margolis, whose title is associate deputy attorney general, is taking the place of Deputy Attorney General James Comey, whose last day of work was Friday. Comey will be Lockheed Martin's new general counsel. Comey made the designation of Margolis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stepped aside from the probe because he was White House counsel when Valerie Plame's name was leaked in 2003 and...