US Congress Authorises $5 Mln Prize Competition to Help Pentagon Tackle Deepfakes

The US Congress has approved an annual defence policy bill authorising up to $5 million in cash prizes for a competition to find a way to automatically detect deepfake technology, which allows fabricated images, sounds and videos to look like real ones, the intelligence defence publication website C4ISRNET reports.

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The ‘Deep State’ and the Impeachment Conspiracy

Ever since the impeachment bandwagon got rolling in September, anything said in defense of President Trump is automatically dismissed by Democrats and their media allies as either (a) “Republican talking points,” (b) “Russian propaganda” or (c) a “conspiracy theory.” The self-evident purpose of this rhetoric is to delegitimize the president’s defenders as either dishonest partisans, agents of a foreign enemy, or purveyors of paranoid delusions. It is impermissible, by the rules of the game as played on CNN and in other “mainstream” media outlets, to ask whether or not such accusations are more properly directed at Democrats. Are they never guilty of partisanship? Didn’t Democrats spend three years promoting a “collusion” conspiracy theory? And why is it that Russia is the only foreign power whose influence deserves our vigilance?

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FISA Court Warned Multiple Times For Years About FISA Abuse and Yet Did Nothing Until Now Proving It's Another Corrupt Obama Institution

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Rogers’ Cooperation With Durham Team the ‘Biggest Single Development’ in Case, Here’s Why

https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/12/26/digenova-calls-mike-rogers-cooperation-durham-team-biggest-single-development-heres/?utm_source=rsmorningbriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=8669d0fc2af5c2bedbe03e793662256b

British Ex-Spy Christopher Steele Shared More Anti-Trump Fake Conspiracy Theories With the FBI

https://pjmedia.com/trending/british-ex-spy-christopher-steele-shared-more-anti-trump-fake-conspiracy-theories-with-the-fbi/

Court Documents Suggest Dems Want To Impeach Trump A SECOND TIME

https://summit.news/2019/12/24/court-documents-suggest-dems-want-to-impeach-trump-a-second-time/

That walking pile of human waste, Adam Schiff, has no sympathy for the hell Carter Page was put through

https://thenationalsentinel.com/2019/12/22/that-walking-pile-of-human-waste-adam-schiff-has-no-sympathy-for-the-hell-carter-page-was-put-through/

FBI Agent Who Played ‘Significant’ Role In Surveillance Abuse Wore Several Hats In Trump Probe

• The Justice Department inspector general’s report on FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign offers a damning assessment of the bureau’s handling of the Steele dossier, and its investigation of Carter Page.
• Among those deemed “primarily responsible” for the “most significant” errors in the investigation is “Case Agent 1.” 
• The agent, who still works for the FBI, played a key role in several aspects of Crossfire Hurricane, including handling an FBI informant, interviewing a source for the dossier, and applying for warrants to spy on Page. 

“Case Agent 1” wore many hats during the Trump-Russia investigation.

The veteran FBI counterintelligence investigator was a handler for Stefan Halper, a Cambridge academic who met covertly with three Trump campaign advisers 2016. Case Agent 1 opened the case file, known as an Electronic Communication, on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in August 2016. He was also the main driver at the FBI for surveillance warrants on Page, and he was put in charge of verifying each strand of evidence included in the documents. He interviewed Page, a former Naval officer, five times in March 2017, and also met in January 2017 with Christopher Steele’s main source for information in the infamous Trump dossier.

Case Agent 1 is also one of the main villains in the Justice Department inspector general’s (IG) report on the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane.

“Case Agent 1 was primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions in the FISA applications,” Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, said in a scathing report laying out a series of missteps in the FBI’s handling of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)


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Lindsey Graham: Carter Page Should ‘Sue The Hell Out Of’ FBI And DOJ

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday he hopes that Carter Page “sues the hell” out of the FBI and Justice Department for relying on the unverified Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants against the former Trump campaign aide.

Graham was speaking at the opening of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to go over a Justice Department inspector general’s report that found the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to obtain spy warrants on Page.

The FBI relied heavily on information from former British spy Christopher Steele to assert that there was probable cause to believe that Page was a Russian agent. Steele, a former British spy who worked for the DNC and Clinton campaign in 2016, alleged that Page was part of a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” involving the Trump campaign and Russia.

But the inspector general’s office found evidence that raised questions about both Steele’s credibility and the reliability of the ex-spy’s dossier sources.

Graham highlighted those aspects of the report and questioned why the FBI did not re-evaluate its investigation of Page after receiving information that undercut the dossier.

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Christopher Steele ‘Meticulously’ Recorded Source Who Disavowed Dossier Claims, Lawyers Say

Christopher Steele “meticulously” documented and recorded interactions with a key source for his infamous Trump dossier, lawyers for the former British spy said Tuesday in a lengthy response to the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe.

The report, released Monday, poked holes in the dossier, and revealed that a primary source for Steele disavowed some of the information in the salacious document.

The source, whom FBI agents interviewed multiple times between January and May 2017, said Steele exaggerated or misrepresented information in his dossier, which the FBI cited extensively in applications for surveillance warrants against Carter Page.

FBI interviews with the source “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting,” according to the inspector general’s (IG) report.

The source, who is identified only as “Primary Sub-Source,” told FBI agents Steele’s dossier asserted there was evidence to support the claim that the Kremlin had blackmail video of Donald Trump in Moscow with prostitutes. But Steele’s source told the FBI that the information was based on “rumor and speculation,” and had not been verified.

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FBI Failed To Disclose That Carter Page Was ‘Operational Contact’ For CIA, Was Given ‘Positive Assessment’

The FBI failed to inform surveillance court judges that Carter Page was an “operational contact” for the CIA for years, and that an employee at the spy agency gave the former Trump aide a “positive assessment,” according to a Justice Department report released Monday.

The finding is included in a list of seven of the FBI’s “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page, a longtime energy consultant who joined the Trump campaign in March 2016.

The report said the FBI “omitted” information it obtained from another U.S. government agency about its prior relationship with Page.

The agency approved Page as an “operational contact” from 2008 to 2013, according to the report.

“Page had provided information to the other agency concerning his prior contacts with certain Russian intelligence officers, one of which overlapped with facts asserted in the FISA application,” the report stated.

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Joe Biden Claims Ignorance On His Son’s Conflicts Of Interest With Burisma

Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview Friday that he was never warned about potential conflicts of interest involving his son’s position with a Ukrainian energy company — a claim that conflicts with what a former Obama administration official told The New Yorker earlier this year.

“Nobody warned me about a potential conflict of interest. Nobody warned me about that,” Biden told NPR when asked about his discussions while vice president involving his son Hunter Biden’s position with Burisma Holdings.

Joe Biden’s denial conflicts with what a former Obama administration official told The New Yorker for a story published on July 1.

Amos Hochstein, who served as the Obama administration’s special envoy for energy policy, told The New Yorker he raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s position with the former vice president in December 2015.

Questions about potential conflicts of interest were also widely covered in the press in 2014 and 2015. A New York Times report from Dec. 8, 2015 asserted that Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma may have “undermined” his father’s anti-corruption message toward Ukraine.

“Now you look at the Hunter Biden situation, and on the one hand you can credit the father for sending the anti-corruption message,” Edward Chow, an expert on Ukrainian policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Times. “But I think unfortunately it sends the message that a lot of foreign countries want to believe about America, that we are hypocritical about these issues.”

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Report: FBI Failed To Tell FISA Court About Some Concerns With Steele Dossier’s Reliability

The FBI failed to tell surveillance court judges that investigators developed concerns about the reliability of the Steele dossier after interviewing a source for the document, according to a new report.

According to The Washington Post, sources familiar with the forthcoming Justice Department inspector general’s (IG) report say that FBI agents determined that information from Christopher Steele was not “entirely reliable” after they interviewed a subsource for the former British spy.

IG’s finding could undercut one of Democrats’ main defenses of Steele, who investigated the Trump campaign in 2016 on behalf of Fusion GPS. Democrats have argued that Steele was a credible source with a solid track record of providing information to the U.S. government

The FBI relied on information from Steele, a former British spy, in applications for four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Steele’s dossier alleged that Page met secretly with two Kremlin insiders to discuss ways to help the Trump campaign in exchange for a brokerage stake in the sale of Russian oil giant Rosneft.

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Jim Banks Calls On Lindsey Graham To Subpoena Adam Schiff’s Phone Records

Indiana Rep. Jim Banks is calling on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham to subpoena phone records for Rep. Adam Schiff, a lawyer for the Trump whistleblower, and Joe and Hunter Biden.

Banks cited in a letter to Graham Wednesday House Democrats’ impeachment report from Tuesday that revealed Democrats obtained AT&T phone records that showed phone calls involving GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, journalist John Solomon, and a former associate of Giuliani named Lev Parnas.

Schiff, a California Democrat, and his fellow House Democrats said the phone records show the call participants were working to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden related to Ukraine. Parnas worked closely with Giuliani and Solomon to investigate the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine.

Conservatives blasted Schiff for releasing the phone records of a journalist and a sitting member of Congress who are not accused of wrongdoing.

Banks, a Republican, called on Graham to subpoena Schiff’s phone records, along with those of Mark Zaid, a lawyer for the CIA analyst whose whistleblower complaint led to the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. 

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How The FBI Risked Exposing Sensitive Russia Probe Details During Meeting With Christopher Steele

• During a meeting in Rome in October 2016, FBI agents shared a sensitive piece of information with a subcontractor for the Democratic Party about one of the main targets of the Trump-Russia probe.
• The subcontractor, Christopher Steele, was at the time working with Fusion GPS to collect information about the Trump campaign. 
• At the time of the meeting, Steele was actively meeting with reporters to share information about his investigation. 

FBI agents shared a significant piece of information about a target of the Trump-Russia investigation with a Clinton campaign subcontractor during a meeting in Rome in October 2016, potentially putting a highly sensitive detail of the Trump-Russia investigation at risk of public exposure prior to the 2016 election.

According to Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch in their new book, “Crime in Progress,” FBI agents surprised Christopher Steele, a former British spy on the DN“FBI agents surprised Steele by asking him what he knew about Trump adviser George Papadopoulos,” Simpson and Fritsch wrote.

“Nothing, it turned out; none of Steele’s sources had ever reported on him,” they added.C and Clinton payroll, by asking him during a meeting in Rome on Oct. 3, 2016 if he had any information about Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos.

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John Podesta Set Up Fundraising Meetings For Fusion GPS After Trump’s Election Victory

Former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was one of Fusion GPS’s “most helpful” resources in an effort to raise money after the 2016 election to continue investigating President Donald Trump, the co-founders of the opposition research firm revealed in a book released on Nov. 26.

Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the co-founders of Fusion GPS, wrote in “Crime in Progress” that Podesta provided welcome support in early 2017 for an effort to raise money to fund The Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP), a nonprofit group former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer Daniel Jones created on Jan. 31, 2017.


Podesta agreed during a meeting with Simpson in early 2017 to contact potential donors to help arrange meetings with Fusion GPS and Jones, according to the book.

“In mid-February [2017] and then again in early March, Jones — supported by Fritsch and Simpson — took prospecting trips in the West. They didn’t know the tech community well, so before heading out, they sought some door openers and validators from the world they knew best,” the authors wrote.

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“Devin Nunes Accuses Fusion GPS Of Retaliation After Book Reveals Oppo Research Campaign

Rep. Devin Nunes says that a book from the co-founders of Fusion GPS shows that the opposition research firm investigated him in 2018 as retaliation for his work to reveal that Democrats funded the infamous Steele dossier.

“They actively obstructed justice by disrupting multiple congressional investigations and retaliated against me for revealing that the Steele dossier was funded by the Democrats,” Nunes said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation in response to revelations in “Crime in Progress,” written by Fusion GPS co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch.

In the book, Simpson and Fritsch reveal for the first time that they conducted opposition research against Nunes in 2018 during his congressional reelection bid.

Simpson and Fritsch are highly critical of Nunes throughout the book. They express particular frustration at Nunes’ efforts to obtain Fusion GPS’s bank records in October 2017. 
Those records revealed that the law firm for the In “Crime in Progress,” Simpson and Fritsch wrote that they hoped to keep the identity of their dossier clients for as long as possible.Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS more than $1 million in 2016 for an investigation of President Donald Trump.


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DOJ Report Will Describe ‘Spygate’ Professor Stefan Halper’s Contacts With Trump Campaign Advisers: Report

The Justice Department report that will be released in December regarding FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign will include information about Stefan Halper, the former Cambridge professor who established contact with multiple Trump campaign aides in 2016 while serving as an FBI informant, people who reviewed a draft of the report told The New York Times.

The Justice Department’s inspector general found that the FBI did not attempt to plant informants or undercover agents inside the Trump campaign, according to The NYT.

But the bureau did rely on at least one informant, Halper, to obtain information from two Trump campaign advisers, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, about any possible ties they had to Russia.

An undercover government agent who worked with Halper during meetings he had with Papadopoulos worked for the FBI, The NYT reported. Halper introduced the agent, Azra Turk, to Papadopoulos in September 2016.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported March 25, 2018, that Halper first met Page on July 10, 2016, at a political event held at Cambridge. Halper reached out to George Papadopoulos on Sept. 2, 2016, with an offer to fly the Trump aide to London to discuss writing an academic paper.

Papadopoulos accepted the offer, and flew to London on Halper’s dime. While there, Papadopoulos met with Halper and Turk.

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Fusion GPS Founders Still Think Dossier Allegations About Michael Cohen Are ‘Credible’ And ‘Unresolved’

The founders of Fusion GPS said Tuesday they still consider the Steele dossier’s explosive allegations about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to be “unresolved” and “credible,” even though special counsel Robert Mueller’s report all but debunked them.

“Did Michael Cohen go to Prague? Where do we stand on that question?” ABC News producer Matthew Mosk asked Fusion co-founders Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson during an interview on Tuesday.

Mosk was referring to former British spy Christopher Steele’s claim that Cohen met with Kremlin operatives in Prague in August 2016 to discuss paying off Russian computer hackers. Cohen has vehemently denied ever visiting Prague, or of conspiring with Russians to hack and release Democrats’ emails. The special counsel’s report cited Cohen’s denials, and also found that there was no evidence that any Trump associates conspired with Russians in 2016.

Though the Cohen-Prague theory is widely considered to be debunked, Fritsch and Simpson say they consider it “unresolved.”

“I mean, it’s unresolved. If you look at the Mueller report, Mueller report reports what Michael Cohen told him,” Fritsch said. Asked if they are sticking by the Cohen-Prague allegation, Fritsch said that “we’re sticking by the credibility of Chris’s reporting” — a reference to Steele. “We believe it’s credible. Whether it’s true or not is another matter,” said Fritsch.

Simpson and Fritsch also dodged questions about the dossier’s inaccuracies during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday.

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Schiff Plans To Send Impeachment Report To House Judiciary After Thanksgiving

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Monday that he expects to send a report laying out evidence to support impeaching President Donald Trump to the House Judiciary Committee soon after Thanksgiving.

In a letter to his congressional colleagues, Schiff said that evidence gathered from depositions with 17 current and former U.S. officials has revealed “a months-long effort in which President Trump again sought foreign interference in our elections for his personal and political benefit at the expense of our national interest.”

The House voted largely along partisan lines on Oct. 31 to open an inquiry into whether Trump should be impeached over his actions towards Ukraine. Democrats have accused the president of improperly pressuring Ukraine’s president to open politically charged investigations in order to secure a White House meeting, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid.

As the evidence conclusively shows, President Trump conditioned official acts — a White House meeting desperately desired by the new Ukrainian president and critical U.S. military assistance — on Ukraine announcing sham, politically motivated investigations that would help President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign,” Schiff wrote in his letter.

A whistleblower complaint released on Sept. 26 kicked off the impeachment push. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

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DOJ Watchdog Addresses At Least One Of The Conspiracy Theories About Joseph Mifsud In Upcoming Report

• The Justice Department inspector general concluded that Joseph Mifsud was not working for the FBI when he made contact with former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos in 2016. 
• It is unclear whether the report addresses the other conspiracy theory about Mifsud: that he was a Russian agent. 
• Mifsud told Papadopoulos during a meeting in London on April 26, 2016 that he had learned that the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands” of her emails. 
• The special counsel’s team ultimately found no evidence that Papadopoulos or anyone else on the Trump team conspired with Russia to obtain Clinton’s emails. 

The Justice Department’s inspector general has reportedly concluded that a Maltese professor who established contact in 2016 with former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was not an FBI informant, as some Trump allies have theorized.

The reports about the inspector general’s findings do not say whether Inspector General Michael Horowitz found evidence to support a competing conspiracy theory about Joseph Mifsud: that he was a Russian agent. The special counsel’s team suggested in court filings and in its final report that Mifsud was suspected of working on behalf of Russians when he made contact with Papadopoulos in 2016.

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Fusion GPS Founders Say A ‘Handful’ Of Dossier Allegations Are ‘Doubtful’

The founders of Fusion GPS acknowledged in a book to be released Nov. 26 that a “handful” of allegations in the infamous Steele dossier “now appear to be doubtful,” according to a review of the book.

Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are still largely defensive of the dossier, according to The Atlantic, which obtained an advance copy of “Crime In Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.”

“After three years of investigations, a fair assessment of the memos would conclude that many of the allegations in the dossier have been borne out,” they wrote in the book, adding that some of dossier author Christopher Steele’s allegations have “proved remarkably prescient.”

But other details of the dossier “remain stubbornly unconfirmed, while a handful now appear to be doubtful, though not yet disproven,” they wrote.

The admission is significant because Simpson and Fritsch have not previously acknowledged flaws in the dossier, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Democrats. 

The special counsel’s report undermined several of the dossier’s bombshell claims about Trump and members of his campaign. Steele said the Trump campaign took part in a “well-developed conspiracy of coordination” with the Kremlin. The special counsel’s report said there was no evidence of a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

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Report: FBI Wants To Speak With Trump Whistleblower

The FBI reached out last month to the CIA analyst who filed a whistleblower complaint against President Trump, according to reports.

Yahoo! News reports that an FBI agent from the Washington, D.C., field office contacted the whistleblower’s lawyers, seeking an interview.

An interview has not been scheduled, and it is unclear whether the whistleblower will agree to a meeting, according to Yahoo!

CNN also reported that the FBI reached out to the whistleblower, who filed a complaint against Trump on Aug. 12 that raised concerns about a July 25 phone call that Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The whistleblower was not on the call, but relayed concerns from White House officials who were.

House Democrats and the whistleblower’s lawyers have tried to limit speculation about the identity of the whistleblower.

On Tuesday, Rep. Adam Schiff shut down Republicans when they asked Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official, about an intelligence officer he said he spoke with on July 26, a day after Trump’s call with Zelensky.

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Memo Given To Fusion GPS Described Ukrainian Lawmaker As Potential ‘Conduit’ For Publicizing Information

• A memo given to Fusion GPS in May 2016 includes information from Serhiy Leshchenko, a former journalist and Ukrainian lawmaker.
• The memo could shed light on Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr’s testimony where she said Leshchenko was a source for Fusion, which is best known for its work on the Steele dossier. 
• The author of the memo suggested Leshchenko could be used as a “conduit” to publicize information about Paul Manafort. 
• Leshchenko, who has denied being a witting source for Fusion GPS, is best known for his role in publicizing the “black ledger,” which purported to show illicit payments from Ukrainians to Paul Manafort.

A May 2016 memo provided to Fusion GPS could help settle an enduring mystery about how a Ukrainian lawmaker served as a source for the opposition research firm, which investigated Donald Trump and his campaign on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

The memo, which the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained earlier in 2019, cited information from multiple Ukrainian sources regarding Paul Manafort, the now-former Trump campaign chairman. One of the sources named in the document is Serhiy Leshchenko, a former Ukrainian journalist who served in 2016 as a member of the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.


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Senate Sets Date For FISA Abuse Hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Dec. 11 to examine the findings from a Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into the FBI’s alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during the Trump investigation, the committee said Monday.

The report of the investigation is expected to be released soon after Thanksgiving. Attorney General William Barr said on Nov. 13 that the release of the report is “imminent.”

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, has recently invited FBI and Justice Department witnesses interviewed as part of the investigation to review the report for accuracy. That is considered a final step before the report will be released.

Republicans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the report, which will look at whether the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in applications for warrants to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser. Investigators relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier to argue that there was probable cause to believe that Page was working as a Russian agent while he was on the Trump team.

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Star Witness At Roger Stone Trial Says He Feels ‘Horrible’ About Guilty Verdict

The government’s star witness in the trial against Roger Stone said he feels “horrible” that the longtime Trump confidant was convicted in federal court Friday.

“I hate to see the guy go to jail because of me,” Randy Credico told Yahoo! News’s Michael Isikoff moments after a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Stone on seven separate felony charges.

Credico, a left-wing radio host, testified earlier in November about his interactions with Stone during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as in 2017 and 2018 regarding the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election.

Stone was convicted on five counts of making false statements to the House panel in September 2017. He was also convicted on an obstruction charge, and a witness tampering related to Credico.

Prosecutors said StonThey pointed to text messages that Stone sent Credico pressuring him to plead the Fifth in order to avoid testifying to Congress. Prosecutors also cited a text message that Stone sent Credico on April 9, 2018, in which he said he would “take that dog away from you” — a reference to Credico’s 12-year-old therapy dog, Bianca.

Credico testified that he did not perceive Stone’s remarks about his dog as a threat, and that he knew Stone as a “dog lover.”

“I know he wouldn’t have ever touched that dog. It was hyperbole by him,” Credico testified. He also said Stone was one many associates, including his attorneys, who urged him to plead the Fifth.e threatened Credico to prevent him from cooperating with House investigators as well as the special counsel’s team.

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MSNBC Hires Former Mueller ‘Pit Bull’ Andrew Weissmann As Legal Analyst

MSNBC added to its roster of former government officials-turned-analysts Wednesday with the hiring of Andrew Weissmann, one of the lead investigators on the special counsel’s probe.

Weissmann, who earned the nickname of Robert Mueller’s “pit bull,” made his debut as a legal analyst on the liberal network to discuss testimony given in the Trump impeachment hearings.

Weissmann, who earned the nickname of Robert Mueller’s “pit bull,” made his debut as a legal analyst on the liberal network to discuss testimony given in the Trump impeachment hearings.

Weissmann joins a stable of MSNBC analysts that includes former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI assistant director for Frank Figliuzzi, and Malcolm Nance, a former intelligence officer who has pushed the now-debunked conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 election.

On the special counsel’s team, Weissmann handled the case against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was convicted on financial crimes related to money he received while consulting for the Ukrainian government years before he joined the Trump team.

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Joseph Mifsud May Have Finally Resurfaced

• A newspaper in Italy published an audio statement provided by someone claiming to be Joseph Mifsud.
• In the seven-minute recording, the man said he did not knowingly have contact with any intelligence services in 2016. 
• Mifsud has not been heard from publicly in more than two years, since he was first linked to Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos. 
• The special counsel’s team suggested Mifsud was a possible Russian agent. Trump allies have asserted the Malta-born professor might have worked with Western intelligence agencies to set up the campaign. 

An Italian newspaper released an audio statement provided by someone claiming to be Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious Maltese professor whose contacts in 2016 with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos were a central but unresolved aspect of the special counsel’s Russia probe.

In the seven-minute recording, published by the outlet Corriere della Sera, the person cryptically said it was “extremely important that somebody somewhere decides to let me breathe again.”



The man said he had limited public contact in the two years since the special counsel revealed links between Mifsud and Papadopoulos as part of the Trump aide’s plea deal with the government.

He also denied knowingly having contact with anyone in “secret service, intelligence service, or anybody of this sort.” The statement, if it is from Mifsud, would be a rebuttal of two competing theories about what the academic was up to during the 2016 campaign.

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Schiff Rejects GOP Request For Whistleblower To Testify In Impeachment Proceedings

Rep. Adam Schiff rejected House Republicans’ request Saturday to call the

Trump whistleblower to testify publicly in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, calling the testimony “redundant and unnecessary.”

GOP California Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, listed the whistleblower, who is reported to be a CIA analyst, along with seven other potential witnesses that Republicans want to have testify publicly in the impeachment proceedings.

Along with the whistleblower, Nunes listed Hunter Biden and his business partner, Devon Archer, along with former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr and former Democratic National Committee operative Alexandra Chalupa.

Schiff shot down calling the whistleblower to testify, asserting that many of the allegations in his Aug. 12 complaint “not only confirms, but far exceeds, the initial information in the whistleblower’s complaint.”

“The whistleblower’s testimony is therefore redundant and unnecessary. In light of the President’s threats, the individual’s appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk,” Schiff wrote in a letter to Nunes.

That is a reversal for the California Democrat, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is leading the impeachment investigation for Democrats.

Before the House Intelligence Committee released the whistleblower’s complaint on Sept. 26, Schiff said Congress would want to hear from the whistleblower. But he changed his tune on the matter after it was revealed that the whistleblower had contact with one of Schiff’s aides prior to filing the complaint. Schiff failed to disclose in numerous interviews leading up to the release of the complaint that his aide had contact with the whistleblower.

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Tulsi Gabbard Demands Hillary Clinton Retract Russia Remarks

Lawyers for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard are accusing Hillary Clinton of defamation over her remarks last month that the Hawaii Democrat is Russia’s preferred Democratic presidential candidate.

Gabbard’s attorneys are calling on Clinton to retract her statement publicly, including on Twitter, according to a letter released Monday by Gabbard’s campaign.

Your statement is defamatory, and we demand that you retract it immediately,” Gabbard’s lawyers said in the letter, which was first reported by The Hill.

During a podcast interview in October, Clinton called Gabbard a “favorite of the Russians.”

“And I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians, they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far,” Clinton said.

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How The Star Witness In Roger Stone’s Trial Proved ‘Difficult’ For Prosecutors

• Randy Credico, the government’s star witness in the trial of Roger Stone, undercut several key planks in the case against the longtime Trump confidant.
• Credico testified that he knew Stone to be a “dog lover,” which counters prosecutors’ allegations that Stone threatened to steal Credico’s dog, Bianca.
• A court transcript from Friday’s proceedings also shows that the judge overseeing the case privately referred to Credico as a “difficult” witness.
• Journalists who were in the courtroom reported that Credico’s testimony countered some of the government’s allegations against Stone. 

When the federal judge presiding over the trial against Roger Stone referred to the government’s star witness, Randy Credico, as “difficult” on Friday, none of the members of the jury or others in the Washington, D.C., court room overheard her pointed remarks.

District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the observation during a side bar discussion with lead government attorney Aaron Zelinsky and Stone lawyer Robert Bushchel, according to a transcript of the court proceedings obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Feinstein Reunites With Ex-Staffer Who Worked With Fusion GPS On Trump-Russia Investigation

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein reunited Tuesday with a former Senate staffer who has worked closely with Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele. 
• Feinstein and two other senators attended the premier of “The Report,” which focuses on Daniel Jones, a former Senate investigator who wrote a report about CIA torture.
• Jones is perhaps less well-known for his work with Fusion and Steele in what he described to one associate as a “shadow media operation” to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. 
• Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson was also spotted at the event. 

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein reunited with a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer who worked with Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele to continue investigating the now-debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy theory after President Donald Trump took office.

Feinstein and two of her Senate colleagues, Angus King and Sheldon Whitehouse, appeared at the premier Tuesday for “The Report,” a movie about former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer Daniel Jones’s work on a report about CIA torture during the George W. Bush administration.

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Republicans Dropped Name Of Alleged Whistleblower During Diplomat’s Deposition

The lead Republican attorney in the Trump impeachment inquiry inserted the name of the alleged CIA whistleblower during a line of questioning with Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine and a key impeachment witness for Democrats.

According to a transcript of Taylor’s deposition, which House Democrats released Wednesday, Republican counsel Steve Castor asked the diplomat whether he knew the individual who is rumored to be the whistleblower.

Taylor said he did not recognize the name mentioned to him, and does not recall having contact with the person.

The Daily Beast, which first spotted the question to Taylor, previously reported that Republicans had mentioned the name of the rumored whistleblower during depositions with impeachment witnesses.

whistleblower, whom The New York Times identified as a CIA analyst. The whistleblower filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General on Aug. 12 regarding President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.

The name of the alleged whistleblower has floated around for weeks on social media, and some news outlets, including Real Clear Investigations, Breitbart and the Washington Examiner, have published a name. The Daily Caller News Foundation has not independently verified the identity of the whistleblower and is not following suit.

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Roger Stone Judge Refuses To Strike Anti-Trumper From Jury Pool

The judge overseeing the trial of Roger Stone rejected a request from the Trump confidant’s defense lawyers Tuesday to remove a potential juror whose husband works on the Justice Department unit involved in the Russia investigation and who admitted to having negative views of President Donald Trump, according to reports.

At the beginning of jury selection, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said that she would not remove potential jurors solely on the basis that they work for the federal government or because of their views of Trump.

That position was tested at the very start of jury selection at Stone’s trial, which recessed early after the longtime political operative fell ill.

The potential juror served as a press secretary in the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, according to Politico and Reuters. She also admitted to having a negative view of Trump

The potential juror’s husband also currently works in the Justice Department’s national security division, which was involved in the investigation of the Trump campaign and other Trump associates, including Stone

A grand jury indicted Stone, 67, on Jan. 24 on five counts of making false statements to Congress, one count of witness intimidation and one count of obstructing an official proceeding.

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DOJ Requests Information That Could Identify Trump Official Behind ‘Anonymous’ Op-Ed

The Justice Department is asking a publishing company for information that could identify a senior Trump administration official who blasted President Donald Trump in an anonymous New York Times op-ed last year, according to a letter released on Monday.

Joseph Hunt, the assistant attorney general for the civil division, sent the letter, published by the Times, to Hachette Book Group, and Javelin, the author’s literary agency. Hunt asks in the letter whether the administration official signed a non-disclosure agreement before joining the government, and whether they had access to classified information.

The official promises to provide “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency” in the book, “A Warning,” which is scheduled for release on Nov. 19. The book is a continuation of the author’s op-ed, entitled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.”

Hunt does not ask for the name of the author, but does seek information about the author’s employing agency, and their dates of employment.

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Whistleblower Is Willing To Submit Written Answers To House Republicans, Lawyer Says

The intelligence community whistleblower who filed a complaint against President Donald Trump is willing to answer questions from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee in writing, his lawyer said Sunday.

The attorney, Mark Zaid, said he reached out Saturday to GOP California Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, to offer to provide written answers under oath to Republicans.


The proposal would allow Republicans to circumvent the intelligence panel’s Democratic majority, led by California Rep. Adam Schiff, who has unilateral power to call witnesses as part of the impeachment inquiry of Trump. (RELATED: House Democrats Vote To Open Impeachment Inquiry)

Zaid said that the whistleblower, who is reported to be a CIA analyst, will not respond to questions about his identity.

Trump and a handful of House Republicans have called for the whistleblower to be identified. Democrats and the whistleblower’s lawyers argue that the identity of the analyst is irrelevant given testimony given by other witnesses in the impeachment inquiry.

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White House Official Testifies He Was ‘Not Concerned That Anything Illegal Was Discussed’ On Ukraine Call

• Timothy Morrison, the White House’s senior director for European affairs, told Congress on Thursday that he did not believe ‘anything illegal’ transpired in a phone call between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Morrison is the second White House official who listened in on the July 25 phone call to testify as part of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
• According to Morrison’s prepared opening statement, he was concerned that a transcript of the phone call would be leaked, and damage U.S.-Ukraine relations.

The White House’s top official for European affairs told Congress on Thursday that he was not concerned that “anything illegal” was discussed during the July 25 phone call between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart that is at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

“I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed,” the official, Timothy Morrison, said in an opening statement reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Morrison, who served as senior director for European affairs at White House and National Security Council, was one of several officials who listened in on the phone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.

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ealClear Investigations Suggests ‘Whistleblower’ Likely 33-Year-Old CIA Analyst Eric Ciaramella

RealClearInvestigations on Wednesday published the name of the person they believe is most likely the “whistleblower” against President Trump: Eric Ciaramella, an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. The outlet reported that Ciaramella’s name has been raised privately in impeachment depositions, as well as at least one open hearing held by a House committee not involved in the impeachment inquiry. RealClearInvestigations also reported that House Democrats this week blocked Republicans from asking questions about Ciaramella and “intend to redact his name from all deposition transcripts.” RealClearInvestigations is disclosing the name because of the public’s interest in learning details of an effort to remove a sitting president from office. Further, the official’s status as a ‘whistleblower’ is complicated by his being a hearsay reporter of accusations against the president, one who has ‘some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate’ — as the Intelligence Community Inspector General phrased it circumspectly in originally fielding his complaint. It said Ciaramella is 33-years-old, a registered Democrat who began working at the White House during the Obama administration and previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan. Ciaramella left the Trump administration’s National Security Council in mid-2017 over concerns about negative leaks to the media and then returned to the CIA, the outlet reported. “He was accused of working against Trump and leaking against Trump,” a former NSC official told RealClearInvestigiations. The outlet also reported that Ciaramella huddled for “guidance” with the staff of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), including former NSC colleagues who now work for Schiff. Ciaramella also worked with a Democratic National Committee operative, Alexandra Chalupa, who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, and he invited her into the White House for meetings, former White House colleagues told RealClearInvestigations. “He knows her. He had her in the White House,” one former co-worker told the outlet. Read the entire article

William Barr Says US Attorney Investigating Trump-Russia Probe Origins Is Making ‘Great Progress’

Attorney General William Barr said Monday that the federal prosecutor leading an investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe has made “great progress.”

Barr defended the prosecutor, John Durham, as having a “great reputation for non-partisanship” in an interview with Fox News.

He’s a by-the-book kind of guy. He’s thorough and fair, and I’m confident he’s going to get to the bottom of things,” Barr said of Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut.

Barr tapped Durham in May to lead an administrative review of U.S. agencies’ activities in the Trump-Russia probe. Little is known about the investigation, other than that Durham is looking at the activities of the FBI, CIA and foreign intelligence services related to the Trump campaign. Barr said earlier in 2019 that he believes “spying” occurred against the Trump campaign

Democrats have criticized the so-called “investigation of the investigators,” and accused Barr of acting as Trump’s personal lawyer.

But Barr denied acting on behalf of Trump, and said Durham is “in charge of the investigation.”

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Judge Orders DOJ To Give Mueller Grand Jury Material To House Democrats

The need for continued secrecy is minimal and thus easily outweighed by [House Judiciary Committee’s] compelling need for the material,” Howell said in the ruling.

“Tipping the scale even further toward disclosure is the public’s interest in a diligent and thorough investigation into, and in a final determination about, potentially impeachable conduct by the President described in the Mueller

The special counsel’s report was separated into two volumes: one that dealt with an investigation into whether Trump associates conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election, and the other that focused on whether Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation.

The first volume of the report contained 240 redactions for grand jury material, according to Howell. The second volume contained far fewer redactions, largely because the obstruction portion of the special counsel’s investigation did not rely on grand jury proceedings.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, said prosecutors were unable to establish the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, or that any Trump associates acted as agents of Russia.

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John Ratcliffe: Change In Status Of Durham Investigation Is ‘Not A Coincidence’

Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said Sunday that it “is not a coincidence” the investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation morphed into a criminal matter just as the Justice Department’s inspector general is set to release a report of FBI surveillance abuse against the Trump campaign.

Ratcliffe was responding to reports that John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, is conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.

I don’t believe in coincidences, and the end of the inspector general’s investigation and his impending report coming at the same time as the start of John Durham announcing that this is now a criminal probe is not a coincidence,” Ratcliffe, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Attorney General William Barr tasked Durham in May with conducting an administrative review of the matter. The pair traveled to Italy together in September to meet with Italian intelligence officials as part of the investigation

The shift in Durham’s investigation was reported Thursday, the same day Michael Horowitz, the DOJ inspector general, informed Congress that he is putting the finishing touches on a report of possible FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the investigation of the Trump campaign.

Horowitz said the report is “lengthy” and will be released with few redactions.

Republicans believe a lengthy report signals that the investigation has turned up wrongdoing.

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DOJ Has Quietly Been Publishing Documents Related To Trump-Russia Probe

• The Justice Department has quietly ramped up its release of documents related to the Trump-Russia probe.
• The agency in recent weeks has started publishing documents related to an array of topics, including Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr, and Peter Strzok.
• One document released Wednesday shows that former Trump lawyer John Dowd asked Rod Rosenstein to help investigate Fusion GPS.

The Justice Department has for weeks been quietly releasing internal agency emails and documents related to the Trump-Russia probe.

The documents include correspondence related to the Steele dossier, internal discussions about news coverage of the investigation, and even an email that a lawyer for President Donald Trump sent then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein urging an investigation of Fusion GPS.

The Justice Department published email correspondence Tuesday between Peter Strzok, the FBI official who opened the Trump-Russia probe, and Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official who played a key role as middleman between the FBI and dossier author Christopher Steele.

DOJ published 140 pages of documents on its website Wednesday related to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired dossier author Christopher Steele on behalf of Democrats.

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Republicans Call Out Schiff For Flip-Flopping On Whistleblower Testimony

The top Republicans on three congressional committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump called out Rep. Adam Schiff Wednesday for reversing course on calling a CIA whistleblower to testify before Congress, according to a letter the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained.

The Republicans also asked Schiff to arrange public testimony from the whistleblower and any other individuals he relied on as part of an Aug. 12 complaint filed with the intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) regarding Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.

“We are surprised by your announcement that the Committees will not receive testimony from the anonymous intelligence community employee whose complaint initiated the so-called impeachment inquiry,” wrote Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Devin Nunes of California and Michael McCaul of Texas in the letter to Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

They noted that before the House Intelligence Committee released the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 26, Schiff had committed to “very soon” calling the whistleblower to provide “unfiltered” testimony.

The Republicans said that Schiff, a California Democrat, reversed course “following revelations that the employee had a bias against President Donald Trump and that you had received a secret, early account of the allegations.”

The whistleblower, an unidentified CIA analyst, met with a staffer working for Schiff prior to filing his complaint with the ICIG, The New York Times reported on Oct. 2.

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Grassley Suspects ‘Deep State’ Is Responsible For Delay In FISA Abuse Report

Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley expressed frustration Monday at a months long delay in the release of the Justice Department Inspector General’s report on possible FBI surveillance abuse against the Trump campaign, questioning whether the “deep state” has somehow slowed the release of the document.

“All of the delays and excuses why the Horowitz IG FISA report isn’t public yet after several months of anticipation of its issues leads me to the suspicion it’s going to be ‘deep six’ by the deep state,” Grassley wrote on Twitter.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, began in March 2018 investigating whether the FBI complied with legal requirements in applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The bureau relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier in applications for the warrants, as well as for the main investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, dug up dirt on the Trump campaign on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign. In the dossier, he alleged that Trump aides, including Page, worked with Kremlin operatives to influence the 2016 election. Steele also claimed that there was a “well-developed conspiracy of coordination” between the Trump team and Russians.

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Brennan And Clapper To Be Interviewed As Part Of Investigation Into Russia Probe Origins

U.S. Attorney John Durham intends to interview former CIA Director John Brennan as part of his investigation into U.S. intelligence agencies’ activities in the Trump-Russia probe, according to NBC News.

Brennan told NBC News, where he is an analyst, that both he and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, are sought for interviews with Durham’s investigators. The interviews, should they occur, would signal that Durham is expanding his investigation.

Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham to oversee an inquiry into U.S. agencies’ Trump-related intelligence-gathering activities earlier this year. Barr said he was not satisfied with official explanations about the origins of the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

The FBI opened an investigation on July 31, 2016 into whether Trump associates were colluding with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. The special counsel’s investigation found no evidence of a conspiracy or that any Trump associates acted as agents of Russia.

But Brennan, a staunch critic of President Donald Trump and Barr, has fiercely defended the investigation of the Trump campaign. He is also questioning the legal basis for the Durham probe, which he called “bizarre.”

“I don’t know what the legal basis for this is,” he told NBC News.

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State Department Concludes Clinton Email Review, Says It Found Nearly 600 Security Violations

State Department investigators probing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state discovered nearly 600 security incidents that violated agency policy, according to a report the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained.

The investigation, conducted by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, found 38 individuals were culpable for 91 security violations. Another 497 violations were found, but no individuals were found culpable in those incidents.

The investigation concluded Sept. 6, and the report was issued Sept. 13.

The investigation sought to determine if the exchange of emails on Clinton’s server “represented failure to properly safeguard classified information” and whether any individuals at State were culpable for any of the failures.

Clinton exchanged more than 60,000 emails on a private email account hosted on a server that she kept at her residence in New York. She emailed frequently with longtime aides Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, and an outside adviser, Sidney Blumenthal.

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