- The Steele dossier was the FBI’s roadmap for the collusion investigation, but the document is barely mentioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
- But the few references to the dossier paint an unflattering picture of the document, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC.
- Mueller’s report addresses some of the dossier’s claims about Michael Cohen, as well as the salacious claims about the Kremlin having blackmail material on President Trump.
The infamous Steele dossier, which served as the FBI’s roadmap to its investigation into Trump campaign collusion, is barely mentioned in the special counsel’s report, released on Thursday.
The word “dossier” doesn’t appear at all in the partially redacted report. Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign, is also not discussed. And Christopher Steele, a former British spy who wrote the dossier, is mentioned by name only 14 times in the 448-page document.
But the few references to the dossier contained in the report undercut many of the claims in the salacious document. And nothing in the Mueller report appears to bolster Steele’s report, which was cited heavily in the FBI’s applications to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Mueller’s report asserts that one of the dossier’s core claims about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is inaccurate. The report also cites statements from one witness who claimed that a purported blackmail tape of Donald Trump referenced in the dossier was fake.
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Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe claimed in an interview that aired Sunday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was “absolutely serious” about wearing a wire during White House meetings with President Donald Trump.
“The deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the White House,” McCabe said in an interview with “60 Minutes.”
“Now, he was not joking. He was absolutely serious. And in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had,” added McCabe.
McCabe, who was fired on March 16, 2018, also claimed Rosenstein expressed confidence he could successfully record Trump at the White House.
“I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn’t know it was there,” McCabe quoted Rosenstein as saying.
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- The FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether President Donald Trump was a Russian agent just days after he fired James Comey.
- But days after the FBI opened the probe, Peter Strzok, the bureau’s lead investigator on the Russia matter, expressed concern that “there’s no big there there” regarding the collusion investigation.
- Special counsel Robert Mueller took over the counterintelligence investigation.
A top FBI counterintelligence official expressed concern that there was “no big there there” in the Trump collusion investigation just days after the bureau formally opened an investigation into whether President Trump was acting as a foreign agent of Russia.
“You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there,” Peter Strzok, who then served as deputy chief of FBI counterintelligence, wrote to FBI lawyer Lisa Page on May 18, 2017.
The text message took on new significance Friday after The New York Times reported that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation against Trump after the May 9, 2017 firing of James Comey as FBI director.
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One day after The New York Times published an op-ed from an anonymous “senior official” in President Donald Trump’s administration who trashed the president and claimed to be secretly working against his or her wishes, five key questions remain unanswered.
1) Who wrote it?
The question everyone is asking: Who is the anonymous official? TheNYT appeared to let slip in a tweet that the author is a “he,” though the paper later claimed the gendered word was used in error. Twitter has been filled with speculation — based on the official’s sentiments and word choices — about the writer’s identity. CNN’s Chris Cillizza published 13 guesses about the official’s identity, “based on what we know about the various factions, likes, dislikes, motivations and ambitions within the Trump administration.” Denials have begun rolling in from prominent officials in the administration. (RELATED: Denials Roll In From Top Admin Officials On Op-Ed)
2) How senior is this person?
Just how senior is this anonymous “senior official”? The Trump administration has “roughly 1,200 positions” that require Senate confirmation, including 640 “key positions,” according to PolitiFact. Axios’s Mike Allen similarly noted in his newsletter that the “senior official” label could apply to “hundreds of officials.” If the person who wrote the op-ed isn’t an assistant to the president or a cabinet-level official, TheNYT would likely face a backlash for exaggerating the official’s importance in the administration.
3) Why did this official write it?
The author’s decision to remain anonymous and continue working against a president he or she is supposed to be helping has been sharply criticized in the press. “Here, I think, President Trump’s use of ‘gutless’ is apt,” wrote Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan. “The piece is an exercise in ego, although I have no doubt that the writer is thrilled with his or her own display of courage.” The Atlantic’s David Frum argued the official’s op-ed was meant to portray himself or herself as heroic but instead threw “the government of the United States into even more dangerous turmoil.” Still, until the author is identified, it will be tough to say exactly what the motive was.
4) Who was the intermediary?
The anonymous senior official submitted the op-ed to TheNYT using an intermediary, according to the paper. The intermediary has not yet been identified.
5) How accurate is the op-ed?
Democrats in Congress have been eager to tout the official’s claim that “there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment.” Other claims are similarly damaging to Trump, including that “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” But it’s difficult to evaluate those claims without knowing who or how credible the author is.
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President Donald Trump considered firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller in December 2017 after the publication of news stories that turned out to be inaccurate.
Trump told advisers to fire Mueller following reports the special counsel’s office subpoenaed his bank records from Deutsche Bank, according to The New York Times. Trump believed the subpoenas crossed a “red line” he had set for the Mueller probe, which initially began as an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
Trump ordered Mueller’s firing at least one other time. Trump demanded White House counsel Don McGahn fire Mueller in June 2017 because the president believed the special counsel’s prosecutors and investigators were politically biased, The Times previously reported. But Trump backed down after McGahn threatened to resign.
The stories about the Deutsche Bank subpoenas, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg on Dec. 5, turned out to be inaccurate. The outlets issued a correction noting the subpoenas were for bank records of Trump associates.
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Secret donors are financing the lawsuit against President Donald Trump and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over who runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Deepak Gupta, the lead lawyer of a boutique law firm that launched its suit on behalf of CFPB acting director Leandra English, confirmed in a CNBC interview that English is not paying for his hourly fees, but rather unknown anonymous donors are.
Gupta refused to name who is funding the lawsuit, making it difficult to ascertain the motives, intentions, or any special interests of those underwriting the case.
The D.C. lawyer appeared caught off guard when CNBC hosts asked who was financing his effort. He stumbled over his words in his first answer and said some form of unidentified “structure” was being put in place to accept funds from anonymous donors.
“Well, uh, it’s, it’s not, um, Miss, um English, um, ah. There are ethics lawyers that we’ve consulted, and we have a structure set up that is with ethics rules and, um, we’ll and we’ll be talking about that once we have that,” he told CNBC.
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Yet another Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama donor has been picked to work on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of Russia investigators.
The latest hire is Kyle Freeny, a Justice Department attorney working in the agency’s international money laundering unit.
According to Politico, Freeny on Friday attended the grand jury testimony of Jason Maloni, the spokesman for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Politico notes that Freeny is the 17th attorney identified as a member of Mueller’s investigative team.
Mueller, a former FBI director, is conducting an expansive probe into possible campaign collusion involving the Trump team, as well as possible financial misdealings on the part of former Trump associates, such as Manafort.
Freeny, who joined DOJ in 2007, has something in common with at least eight of her Mueller team members.
According to documents maintained by the Federal Election Commission, Freeny has donated in each of the past three presidential elections to Democratic nominees, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is thwarting President Donald Trump’s foreign policy prescriptions, two former senior NSC officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Everything the president wants to do, McMaster opposes,” a former senior official said in a wide-ranging interview. “Trump wants to get us out of Afghanistan — McMaster wants to go in. Trump wants to get us out of Syria — McMaster wants to go in. Trump wants to deal with the China issue — McMaster doesn’t. Trump wants to deal with the Islam issue — McMaster doesn’t. You know, across the board, we want to get rid of the Iran deal — McMaster doesn’t. It is incredible to watch it happening right in front of your face. Absolutely stunning.”
One former official characterized McMaster as a “sycophant” of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus.
“I know that the president isn’t a big fan of what McMaster’s doing,” the former official declared. “I don’t understand why he’s allowing a guy who is subverting his foreign policy at every turn to remain in place.” he added.
The official continued that he expects a purge of “campaign Trump” loyalists to continue with particular intensity within the next two weeks.
“I just fear there is a real creeping of status quo thinking that is taking over the place. I was upset while I was there in seeing how empowered Obama holdovers under McMaster were to essentially perpetuate Obama-era policies,” another former official told TheDCNF.
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Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was correct when he said the media was the opposition party. He added that just like they took down President Richard Nixon, they are attempting to “bring down” President Donald Trump.
Buchanan said, “There is a cultural left and a political left and a media if you will, are a conglomerate. It’s not a conspiracy but it is collusion, and they were determined to break and bring down Nixon from the day he was nominated. They were determined, tried to break, and they succeeded. Tried to break and bring down Reagan over Iran-Contra. I was in the White House then. And the same forces, similar forces are trying to break and bring down Trump. And it’s transparent. It’s right in front of us. You can’t watch those briefings and things, watch TV cable TV and the rest of it without seeing there is a real animus. I mean it’s the White House correspondents’ dinner. Steve Bannon was dead right when he said one thing, the media are the opposition party.”
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FBI acting director Andrew McCabe has strong ties to Clinton ally Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
McCabe was previously the deputy FBI director and following President Trump’s dismissal of James Comey, he will be in charge of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency. The White House said Tuesday that the search for a new FBI director will begin immediately.
Until the administration finds this director, a man strongly connected to the Democratic Party will be in charge. The Democratic Virginia governor’s PAC donated $467,500 to McCabe’s wife Jill McCabe’s 2015 state Senate campaign. The Virginia Democratic Party also spent a little over $200,000 on the campaign.
The now-acting FBI director’s wife lost the campaign to the Republican incumbent. After the Wall Street Journal reported these findings, then-candidate Trump said, “We’ve never had a thing like this in the history of this country.”
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After the massacre of five Dallas cops, during a protest of police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, President Obama said, “America is not as divided as some have suggested.”
Former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, an African-American, says we are “sitting on a powder keg.”
Put me down as agreeing with the president. For when a real powder keg blew in the ’60s, I was there. And this is not it.
In 1965, the Watts area of Los Angeles exploded in the worst racial violence since the New York draft riot of 1863 when Lincoln had to send in veterans of Gettysburg. After six days of looting, shooting and arson in LA, there were 34 dead, 1,000 injured, 4,000 arrested.
In 1967, Newark, New Jersey, and Detroit exploded, bringing out not only the Guard but the 82nd Airborne. After Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, a hundred American cities burst into flame.
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Some 50 State Department officials have signed a memo calling on President Obama to launch air and missile strikes on the Damascus regime of Bashar Assad.
A “judicious use of stand-off and air weapons,” they claim, “would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”
In brief, to strengthen the hand of our diplomats and show we mean business, we should start bombing and killing Syrian soldiers.
Yet Syria has not attacked us. And Congress has not declared war on Syria, or authorized an attack. Where do these State hawks think President Obama gets the authority to launch a war on Syria?
Does State consider the Constitution to be purely advisory when it grants Congress the sole power to declare war? Was not waging aggressive war the principal charge against the Nazis at Nuremberg?
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A coalition of civil rights groups planned to hold an event Monday attacking Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his rhetoric against Mexicans and Muslims, but cancelled it after 50 people were killed and at least 53 more wounded in a reported Islamic terrorist attack Sunday.
The event was supposed to include leaders from several top rights groups including National Council of La Raza and Muslim Advocates, an advocacy group founded by American Muslim lawyers. The groups said in a press release promoting the event they planned to condemn Trump for “demonizing” certain groups and would demand an apology. The event was scheduled to be held at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C.
An email was sent out Sunday saying, “Given the tragedy in Orlando this event has been canceled. Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims.”
Shooter Omar Mateen reportedly called 911 to declare his allegiance to Islamic State before opening fire on an Orlando gay nightclub early Sunday morning.
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Before the lynching of The Donald proceeds, what exactly was it he said about that Hispanic judge?
Stated succinctly, Donald Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a class-action suit against Trump University, is sticking it to him. And the judge’s bias is likely rooted in the fact that he is of Mexican descent.
Can there be any defense of a statement so horrific?
Just this. First, Trump has a perfect right to be angry about the judge’s rulings and to question his motives. Second, there are grounds for believing Trump is right.
On May 27, Curiel, at the request of The Washington Post, made public plaintiff accusations against Trump University — that the whole thing was a scam. The Post, which Bob Woodward tells us has 20 reporters digging for dirt in Trump’s past, had a field day.
And who is Curiel?
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Donald Trump has brought out the largest crowds in the history of primaries. He has won the most victories, the most delegates, the most votes. He is poised to sweep three of the five largest states in the nation — New York, Pennsylvania and California.
If he does, and the nomination is taken from him, the Republican Party will be seen by the American people as a glorified Chinese tong.
Last week, Ted Cruz swept 34 delegates at the Colorado party convention. Attendees were not allowed to vote on whom they wanted as the party’s nominee.
This weekend, Cruz shut out Trump in Wyoming the same way.
What does this tell us? Cruz has a better “ground game.” His operatives work the system better. Ted Cruz is the king of small ball.
But having gone head-to-head in some 30 primaries and caucuses, Cruz has fallen millions of votes behind Trump, and will fall millions further behind after New York, Pennsylvania and California.
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After winning only six delegates in Wisconsin, and with Ted Cruz poaching delegates in states he has won, like Louisiana, Donald Trump either wins on the first ballot at Cleveland, or Trump does not win.
Yet, as that huge, roaring reception he received in his first post-Wisconsin appearance in Bethpage, N.Y., testifies, the Donald remains not only the front-runner, but the most exciting figure in the race.
Moreover, after the New York, New England, mid-Atlantic and California primaries, Trump should be within striking distance of the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination.
He will then have to persuade uncommitted delegates to back him, and perhaps do a deal with one of the defeated candidates, Marco Rubio or John Kasich, to win the remaining few needed to go over the top.
In 1976, Ronald Reagan, shy of the delegates he needed to defeat President Ford, offered second place on his ticket to Sen. Richard Schweiker, a moderate from Pennsylvania.
This brainstorm of Reagan campaign manager John Sears did not produce the required delegates, and Reagan received an envelope from a conservative Congressman with 30 dimes in it — 30 pieces of silver.
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“If his poll numbers hold, Trump will be there six months from now when the Sweet 16 is cut to the Final Four, and he will likely be in the finals.”
My prediction, in July of 2015, looks pretty good right now.
Herewith, a second prediction. Republican wailing over his prospective nomination aside, Donald Trump could beat Hillary Clinton like a drum in November.
Indeed, only the fear that Trump can win explains the hysteria in this city.
Here is The Washington Post of March 18: “As a moral question it is straightforward. The mission of any responsible Republican should be to block a Trump nomination and election.”
The Orwellian headline over that editorial: “To defend our democracy, the GOP must aim for a brokered convention.”
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Buchanan explained that the American people are rejecting the trade globalism of Bush Republicans that “carted off what was once the greatest manufacturing base the world had ever seen…”
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Pat Buchanan declared that Trump’s rise represents a rejection of 25 years of Bush Republicanism— an ideology which Buchanan says has destroyed America’s once-great manufacturing core, flooded the country with low-skilled workers, and drained the treasury with ill-advised foreign adventures in the Middle East.
“In the GOP nomination race, the chickens of a quarter century of Bush Republicanism have come home to roost,” Buchanan told Breitbart. “Trump’s triumphs to date are due to his recognition of, and identification with, the Middle American revolt against Bush family ideology and policy, and what it has produced.”
Buchanan explained that “America is rejecting the Bush immigration policy,” which has “proffered amnesty” to “12 million illegals… because it said the United States is helpless to do anything about their presence here.”
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