HILLARY CLINTON TO GIVE KEYNOTE SPEECH AT CYBER SECURITY SUMMIT

Hillary Clinton, who used a private email server as secretary of state, will speak at a cyber defense summit later in 2019, it was announced Thursday.

FireEye, a cybersecurity company based in California, announced Clinton will give the keynote speech at its annual summit in Washington, D.C., in October.

“Cyber security is not any one defender’s responsibility, but a global effort — a cause championed by many for the good of all. By coming together as a community to innovate, build strategies and share knowledge on today’s threats and tomorrow’s risks, we empower ourselves as defenders with the collective wisdom to protect our way of life and the technologies that have become central to it,” FireEye said in a press release, Fox News first reported.

Clinton will have plenty to talk about at the summit.

The private email server that Clinton used while at the State Department contained thousands of emails that contained classified information, including some at the top-secret level.

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HOW DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION

Democrats are clearly very worried about President Donald Trump sailing to re-election, so much so they’re coming up with every scheme in the book to reduce his chances of winning.

Several blue states have not only passed bills that would keep President Trump off the ballot if he doesn’t release his tax returns, but some states are also pledging to give their Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote, among other things.

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REPORT: CHRISTOPHER STEELE WILL NOT COOPERATE WITH US ATTORNEY’S INVESTIGATION

Christopher Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier, will not cooperate with an investigation led by a prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William Barr to review the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, Reuters reports.

Barr appointed John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to oversee the inquiry. President Donald Trump last Thursday also granted Barr the authority to declassify documents related to the government’s investigation and surveillance of the Trump campaign.

The FBI relied heavily on Steele’s dossier to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Barr has said that he is concerned about the FBI’s use of Steele’s document, which had several of its core allegations debunked by the special counsel’s report.

Steele alleged in his dossier that the Trump campaign took part in a “well orchestrated conspiracy” with Kremlin operatives to influence the 2016 election. But special counsel Robert Mueller was unable to establish such a conspiracy, he said in a report last month.

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DOSSIER ARCHITECTS CLAIMED THEY WANTED TO PROTECT IDENTITY OF SOURCES. ONE WAS UNMASKED ANYWAY

• The architects of the Steele dossier have claimed that protecting the identity of one of the document’s main sources was a major concern.
• Despite that, a Belarus-born businessman was identified in the press as the source for some of the dossier’s most salacious allegations about President Donald Trump and the campaign.
• A review of press reports and government documents shows Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson identified the alleged source, Sergei Millian, to journalists and government officials.

Former British spy Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson claimed to have concerns about the safety and security of one of the sources for the dossier, but outed him anyway by talking to journalists.

Steele told a State Department official in October 2016 that “source protection” was a focus in his investigation of President Donald Trump, according to notes from the meeting released earlier this month.

That purported concern was also shared by Simpson, who hired Steele on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. He told Justice Department official Bruce Ohr on Jan. 20, 2017, that he was worried about the safety of a dossier source he believed was about to be identified in the media.

Sergei Millian was outed four days later.

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EX-CIA OFFICIALS FUME ABOUT DECLASSIFICATION ORDER, IGNORING PREVIOUS LEAKS OF SECRET SOURCES AND METHODS

• John Brennan and other intelligence community operatives are circling the wagons against President Donald Trump’s declassification directive, claiming that it could expose top-secret sources and methods used in the Trump-Russia probe.
• But Brennan’s complaint may be misplaced given that virtually all of the significant leaks about sources and methods used in the investigation have been given to left-leaning news outlets.
• In one case, FBI official Peter Strzok expressed concerns that the CIA was leaking inaccurate information about the intelligence gathered on Trump associates.

Former intelligence community officials, including former CIA director John Brennan, have expressed concern over President Donald Trump’s declassification order due the potential release of CIA sources and methods.

“The concern is that very, very precious source and methods of the United States intelligence community as well as our partners and allies abroad — those who share this sensitive information with us,” Brennan said on MSNBC on Friday.

But Brennan’s concern, which was echoed by other intelligence community veterans and TV pundits on Friday, may be misplaced.

Government officials who appear to not be allies of Trump have been behind countless leaks of classified information regarding sources, methods and investigative targets in the Trump-Russia probe. Some of the leaks have disclosed the existence of surveillance warrants and FBI informants used against the Trump campaign.

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TRUMP GIVES ATTORNEY GENERAL AUTHORITY TO DECLASSIFY RUSSIA PROBE DOCUMENTS

President Donald Trump has directed the heads of several government agencies to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr’s investigation of the origins of the Russia probe.

In a memo sent out Thursday, Trump also authorized Barr to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation.

The memo grants Barr the authority to “declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence” related to the Russia probe as he sees fit.

Barr has said that he is investigating whether government agencies improperly surveilled members of the Trump campaign. In testimony to Congress, Barr has asserted that the FBI and other agencies spied on the campaign by using informants and surveillance warrants. 

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NUNES TO TRUMP: ASK THERESA MAY ABOUT BRITS’ HANDLING OF STEELE DOSSIER

The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee is calling on President Donald Trump to press British Prime Minister Theresa May about the British government’s handling of the Steele dossier.

California Rep. Devin Nunes also called on Trump in a letter to ask May whether the British government was aware of or took part in surveillance efforts against members of the Trump campaign.

Trump is expected to make a state visit to the U.K. in June.

The trigger for Nunes’s letter was a report published in the British press Sunday that Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, briefed high-level British government officials about his investigation into possible ties between Trump and the Russian government.

The U.K. Telegraph reported that a week after Trump’s election win, Steele briefed Sir Charles Farr, who then chaired Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee, about his investigation of Trump’s possible ties to Russia.

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COHEN ADMITTED IT WAS ‘PLAUSIBLE’ THAT TRUMP WASN’T TELLING HIM TO LIE TO CONGRESS

• Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen acknowledged he might have misinterpreted what he’s claimed were instructions from President Donald Trump to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
• Cohen testified in March that he believed Trump was instructing him to lie by telling him to “cooperate” with House investigators in 2017.
• Cohen said he believed Trump was telling him in coded language to lie, but he admitted it was “plausible” he had misinterpreted Trump’s comments.
• The testimony, released Monday, further undercuts a BuzzFeed report that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress.

Michael Cohen acknowledged in congressional testimony it was “plausible” that President Donald Trump had not instructed him through coded language to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, as the former Trump lawyer has claimed.

Cohen has testified he believed Trump implicitly directed him to make false statements about the duration of his negotiations during the 2016 presidential campaign on a failed Trump Tower project in Moscow.

Cohen told the House and Senate Intelligence Committees in 2017 negotiations to build the Trump skyscraper ended in January 2016. In fact, Cohen pursued the ill-fated deal through June 2016. He pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s probe to making false statement to Congress, and is serving a three-year prison term for that and other charges.

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MICHAEL COHEN ISSUED BLANKET DENIALS OF STEELE DOSSIER CLAIMS IN PRIVATE CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY

• In sworn congressional testimony earlier this year, Michael Cohen denied all of the salacious claims made about him in the infamous Steele dossier, as well as allegations that President Donald Trump cavorted with prostitutes in Moscow
• Cohen revealed in the testimony that as many as “half a dozen” people had approached him over the years regarding rumors of a blackmail tape of Trump. But Cohen said that after investigating the rumors and discussed them with Trump, he determined they were false.
• Transcripts of Cohen’s two-day testimony were released by the House Intelligence Committee on Monday. 

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen issued blanket denials of key allegations made in the infamous Steele dossier in two interviews with the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year.

Cohen told lawmakers that he had heard rumors for several years about a blackmail tape of President Donald Trump that is mentioned in the dossier, but that he came to doubt the footage existed. He also offered a line-by-line rebuttal of the dossier’s claims that he visited Prague in August 2016 to pay off Russian hackers.

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GOWDY: FBI HAS PAPADOPOULOS TRANSCRIPTS THAT ARE POTENTIAL ‘GAME-CHANGER’

Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said he is aware of potentially game-changing evidence in the FBI’s Russia probe regarding George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser.

During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Gowdy indicated he has seen FBI transcripts related to Papadopoulos that contain potentially exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

“If the bureau’s going to send in an informant in, the informant’s going to be wired, and if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there’s going to be a transcript of that,” Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo.

Gowdy continued:

“Some of us have been fortunate enough to know whether or not those transcripts exist. But they haven’t been made public, and I think one in particular is going — it has the potential to actually persuade people. Very little in this Russia probe I’m afraid is going to persuade people who hate Trump or love Trump. But there is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game-changer if it’s ever made public.”

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STEELE IDENTIFIED RUSSIAN DOSSIER SOURCES, NOTES REVEAL

• Christopher Steele told a State Department official a former Russian spy chief and a top Kremlin adviser were involved in an operation to collect compromising information on Donald Trump.
• The State Department official’s notes also indicate Steele claimed the Russians, Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Vladislav Surkov, were “sources” for the dossier.
• There is no evidence the compromising material mentioned in the dossier actually exists, raising questions about whether Steele was given disinformation.
• Trubnikov, the former head of the SVR, also has links to Stefan Halper, an FBI informant who had contact with the Trump campaign.

Dossier author Christopher Steele identified a former Russian spy chief and a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin as being involved in handling potentially compromising information about President Donald Trump, State Department notes show.

In her notes, State Department official Kathleen Kavalec also referred to the two Russians — former Russian foreign intelligence chief Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Putin aide Vladislav Surkov — as “sources.”

The references to Trubnikov and Surkov, which have not previously been reported, are not definitive proof that either were sources for Steele’s dossier or that they were involved in an effort to collect blackmail material on Trump.

But the notes are significant because they are the first government documents that show Steele discussing potential sources for the information in his dossier, which the former MI6 officer provided to the FBI.

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COMEY AND BRENNAN APPEAR AT ODDS OVER WHO PUSHED TO INCLUDE DOSSIER IN INTEL REPORT

• A dispute is emerging between former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan over who pushed to include information from the Steele dossier in an intelligence community assessment of Russian meddling.
• Comey sent an email to FBI staff in December 2016 indicating that Brennan wanted to include dossier information, Fox News reported.
• A former CIA official is disputing that claim, telling Fox News that it was Comey who wanted to cite the unverified Steele information.

A potential rift is emerging between James Comey and John Brennan over who pushed to include information from the unverified Steele dossier in an intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Comey, a former FBI director, sent an email to subordinates in late 2016 indicating Brennan, a former CIA director, wanted to include materials from the dossier in the intelligence community assessment, known as the ICA, Fox News reported.

A former CIA official speaking on Brennan’s behalf is disputing the assertion. The former official told Fox that Brennan and James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence, opposed Comey’s push to include Steele dossier information in the ICA.

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BARR REPORTEDLY WORKING CLOSELY WITH CIA TO REVIEW RUSSIA PROBE ORIGINS

Attorney General William Barr is reportedly working closely with the directors of the CIA, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, as well as surveillance efforts against the Trump campaign.

According to CNN, Barr is working with CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and ODNI Director Dan Coats on the interagency review.

Barr told Congress in April that he planned to form a team within the Justice Department to investigate whether the U.S. government improperly surveilled the Trump campaign.

“I think spying did occur,” Barr told the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 10.

“Yes, I think spying did occur,” Barr repeated, adding, “but the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated.”

“I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”

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RUSSIA PROBE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE? BARR REPORTEDLY TAPS US ATTORNEY KNOWN FOR INVESTIGATING OFFICIALS

Attorney General William Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham on Monday to dig into the origins of the Russian collusion probe.

The New York Times and Associated Press both reported Monday evening that Barr had tapped Durham to “determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate.'”

As several sources noted, Durham had a history of investigating the investigators.

The Associated Press noted that “Durham has previously investigated law enforcement corruption, the destruction of CIA videotapes and the Boston FBI office’s relationship with mobsters.”

Durham, who currently serves as the chief federal prosecutor for the state of Connecticut, will continue in that position, in addition to his role in the new investigation.

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OBAMA WHITE HOUSE TRACKED FOIA REQUEST FOR HILLARY EMAILS THAT WAS IMPROPERLY DENIED

• Emails released to Judicial Watch show for the first time that the Obama White House kept tabs on a FOIA request for information on Hillary Clinton’s emails that was improperly rejected by the State Department.
• The State Department claimed in May 2013 in response to the FOIA request that no responsive records existed. The agency’s internal watchdog later determined that denial to be ‘inaccurate and incomplete’ since Clinton used a personal email account to conduct State Department business.
• “These documents suggest the Obama White House knew about the Clinton email lies being told to the public at least as early as December 2012,” says Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

The Obama White House kept tabs on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email accounts that the State Department improperly denied, according to newly released emails.

The emails, which were provided to Judicial Watch, show for the first time that the Obama White House was aware of the Clinton-related FOIA request, which the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) submitted to the State Department in December 2012.

The State Department denied the request in May 2013, claiming that no responsive records existed. That despite officials at the State Department, the White House and even President Obama himself knowing that Clinton used a personal email account for government business.

The State Department’s inspector general determined in a report released on Jan. 7, 2016 that the State Department’s denial of the CREW request was “inaccurate and incomplete.”

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ALEXANDER DOWNER DEFENDS FBI TIPOFF THAT SPARKED TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE

• In his most detailed remarks on the topic so far, former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer defended the tip he gave the FBI regarding George Papadopoulos.
• Downer said that as a “warrior the Western alliance,” he provided the FBI with a memo he wrote after a May 10, 2016 meeting in which he says Papadopoulos mentioned that Russia might release information about Hillary Clinton close to the election.
• “I don’t know why he told me this,” said Downer, dismissing Papadopoulos’s claims that the diplomat was sent to elicit damaging information about him.

Calling himself a “warrior for the Western alliance,” former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer defended sending in the tip that sparked the FBI’s investigation of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign.

In his most extensive interview on the topic to date, Downer gave his version of a conversation he had with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos in London in May 2016 that would serve as the catalyst for the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.

Downer, who served as Australia’s top diplomat to the U.K. at the time, provided a memo he wrote following the meeting to the FBI more than two months later. According to Downer, Papadopoulos mentioned that Russia might have information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that they could release before the 2016 election.

Downer disputed claims that the ex-diplomat was part of a conspiracy to entrap the campaign adviser.

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SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE REPORTEDLY SUBPOENAS DON JR.

The Republican-controlled Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. as part of its Russia investigation, Axios reports.

The subpoena is the first believed to have been issued in any of the Russia investigations for one of President Donald Trump’s children.

According to Axios, the committee wants Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous Senate testimony.

It is not clear what parts of Trump Jr.’s previous testimony the committee wants to review. The real estate executive has faced scrutiny over his involvement in the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a group of Russians who had offered to provide information about Hillary Clinton. He was also involved in negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s investigation on Nov. 29 to lying to the Senate Intelligence and House Intelligence Committees about the extent of his negotiations on the Trump Tower skyscraper.

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PAPADOPOULOS SUSPECTS OTHER 2016 GOP CAMPAIGNS WERE SPIED ON

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that he suspects the Obama administration spied on other 2016 presidential primary campaigns.

Papadopoulos, whose meeting with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer was used to open the FBI’s July 31, 2016 counterintelligence probe, says he believes he was being monitored long before he joined the Trump campaign.

“In November of 2015, upon the same month that I was going to the Ben Carson campaign—because people forget that I was on Carson’s campaign before I joined Trump’s campaign—I was living in London and I had been approached by high-level State Department officials and even the CIA in London,” Papadopoulos said.

He continued, “They invited me to the U.S. embassy to meet with me and to basically probe me and to get to know why I’m joining the Ben Carson campaign and what the Ben Carson campaign was really all about. And the man who invited me was David Kovatch, who still works at the U.S. embassy in London. I think he’s directing the Energy Department over there. So clearly, by November 2015, I don’t think that Trump’s campaign was the only one that was under surveillance, quite frankly.”

“I think many of the Republican candidates probably had some sort of illicit surveillance upon their own campaigns, because it wasn’t just Donald Trump who was running for the presidency against Clinton…”

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PETER STRZOK SUSPECTED CIA WAS BEHIND INACCURATE MEDIA LEAKS

Peter Strzok suspected CIA employees were behind inaccurate leaks to the press regarding possible Trump campaign contacts with Russia, according to an email the former FBI counterintelligence official sent to colleagues in April 2017.

“I’m beginning to think the agency got info a lot earlier than we thought and hasn’t shared it completely with us. Might explain all these weird/seemingly incorrect leads all these media folks have. Would also highlight agency as source of some of the leaks,” Strzok wrote in an email to FBI colleagues on April 13, 2017.

The email is highlighted in a letter that two Republican senators sent Monday to Michael K. Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community.

In the letter, Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked Atkinson if he has investigated whether the CIA or other intelligence community agencies leaked information to the press.

They pointed to a Dec. 15, 2016 text message that Strzok, the lead investigator on the Trump-Russia probe, sent to then-FBI attorney Lisa Page.

“Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking in to overdrive,” Strzok wrote Page.

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MUELLER AGREES TO ‘TENTATIVE’ DATE TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE JUDICIARY, DEMOCRAT SAYS

Special counsel Robert Mueller has set a “tentative” date of May 15 to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline told “Fox News Sunday.”

Democrats have ramped up calls for Mueller to testify to Congress in the wake of Attorney General William Barr’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1 about his interactions with the special counsel’s office regarding the release of the Russia report.

Mueller, a former FBI director, was unable to establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. He declined to make a decision on whether President Donald Trump should be charged with obstructing the investigation. That left the decision up to Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who decided against pursuing an obstruction case.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, offered Mueller a chance Thursday to testify before that panel if he feels the need to correct any statements made by Barr.

Mueller sent Barr a letter on March 27 raising concerns about a four-page memo that Barr sent Congress summarizing the main conclusions of the special counsel’s probe. Mueller claimed that Barr’s letter lacked “context” and had led to misinterpretations in the press. 

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STEFAN HALPER’S ‘ASSISTANT’ IN PAPADOPOULOS SPY OPERATION HAS BEEN OUTED

• A woman who met alongside Stefan Halper in September 2016 with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been identified in a press report as an FBI investigator.
• Azra Turk, an alias for the investigator, was tasked by the FBI to accompany Halper during his meetings in London with Papadopoulos.
• Halper also made contact during the campaign with Trump aides Carter Page and Sam Clovis.

A woman who posed as an assistant to former Cambridge professor Stefan Halper has been identified as an FBI investigator who worked on an intelligence-gathering operation against George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser.

The New York Times reports that the woman, who used the alias Azra Turk, was tasked by the FBI to work alongside Halper during a series of meetings with Papadopoulos in London in September 2016.

The operation, which The Times says yielded little information from Papadopoulos, adds a new wrinkle to “Spygate,” the term that President Donald Trump began using after it was reported in May 2018 that Halper was a longtime CIA and FBI informant.

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AG BARR ‘CONCERNED’ THAT STEELE DOSSIER WAS RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION

Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday he is reviewing whether the infamous Steele dossier was a product of Russian disinformation.

Barr made the explosive revelation during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding the results of the special counsel’s probe. The investigation severely undercut the Democrat-funded Steele dossier, which alleged a “well-developed conspiracy” between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

Barr was asked about the origins of the dossier during an exchange with Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

“Can we state with confidence that the Steele dossier was not part of the Russian disinformation campaign?” asked Cornyn, a Republican.

Barr replied: “No, I can’t state that with confidence and that is one of the areas that I’m reviewing. I’m concerned about it, and I don’t think it’s entirely speculative.”

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NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY ‘UNMASKINGS’ SKYROCKETED LAST YEAR

The National Security Agency (NSA) disclosed the identities of nearly 17,000 U.S. residents and businesses to American intelligence officials last year through a legal — but controversial — practice known as “unmasking,” according to a report released Tuesday.

The number of unmaskings — 16,721 to be exact — marks a 75 percent increase from 2017, which saw the NSA make 9,529 disclosures to intelligence agencies. Between September 2015 and August 2016, the first 12-month period in which NSA statistics were gathered, only 9,215 unmaskings occurred.

The unmasking process has become controversial over the past two years. Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials abused foreign surveillance laws by making unnecessary unmasking requests of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as during the presidential transition period.

Susan Rice, who served as President Obama’s national security adviser, told Congress in 2017 that she unmasked the identities of Trump associates who took part in a meeting with officials from the United Arab Emirates in December 2016. Samantha Power, who served as ambassador to the United Nations, said that an associate submitted 260 unmasking requests under her name in 2016.

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