Joe Biden: ‘If There’s Anything I Can’t Stand It’s the Abuse of Power’
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(CNSNews.com) - Former Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech at Urbandale, Iowa, on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is “engaging in a gigantic abuse of power” as president.
“If there’s anything I can’t stand it’s the abuse of power,” said Biden. “And he is abusing it every single day.”
“He wants to build his wall by executive order. He wants to change the appropriation process by executive order. He wants to abuse the power that’s there,” said Biden.
“He is engaging in a gigantic abuse of power,” said Biden.
Here is the transcript from the part of Biden’s speech where he says President Trump is “engaging in a gigantic abuse of power”:
“And so, folks, think about the Constitution. What was it designed to do? It was designed to separate power so it couldn’t be abused. The Congress is as powerful as the president. The court’s as powerful as the Congress. The president’s as powerful as the court. And what’s this president do? He is engaging in a gigantic abuse of power. Notice: He attacks the courts repeatedly. Says the reason that court ruled against me in my for-profit college that I ripped people off on, is because his father was Mexican. Seriously. Remember that? And he constantly talks about the court that way. He also, you notice, he goes after the Congress, Democrat or Republican, makes no distinction. To try to win, he attacks them all, it doesn’t matter. Why? So, he has a rationale to say: They’re not doing it, so I have to by executive order. He wants to build his wall by executive order. He wants to change the appropriation process by executive order. He wants to abuse the power that’s there. If there’s anything I can’t stand it’s the abuse of power. And he is abusing it every single day.”
(Illustration by The Epoch Times)
Spygate: The Inside
Story Behind the Alleged Plot to Take Down Trump
March 28, 2019 Updated: March 29, 2019
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Efforts by high-ranking officials in the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice
(DOJ), and State Department to portray President Donald Trump as having
colluded with Russia were the culmination of years of bias and politicization
under the Obama administration.
The weaponization of the intelligence community and other government
agencies created an environment that allowed for obstruction in the
investigation into Hillary Clinton and the relentless pursuit of a manufactured
collusion narrative against Trump.
A willing and complicit media spread unsubstantiated leaks as facts in
an effort to promote the Russia-collusion narrative.
The Spygate scandal also raises a bigger question: Was the 2016 election
a one-time aberration, or was it symptomatic of decades of institutional
political corruption?
This article builds on dozens of congressional testimonies, court
documents, and other research to provide an inside look at the actions of Obama
administration officials in the scandal that’s become known as Spygate.
To understand this abuse of power, it helps to go back to July 2011,
when DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz was appointed.
From the very start, Horowitz found his
duties throttled by Attorney General Eric Holder, who placed limitations on the
inspector general’s right to have unobstructed access to information. Holder used this tactic to delay Horowitz’s investigation of the failed sting operation known
as Operation Fast and Furious.
“We got access to information up to 2010 in
all of these categories. No law changed in 2010. No policy changed. … It was
simply a decision by the General Counsel’s Office in 2010 that they viewed,
now, the law differently. And as a result, they weren’t going to give us that
information,” Horowitz told members
of Congress in February 2015.
On Aug. 5, 2014, Horowitz and other
inspectors general had sent a letter to Congress asking for unimpeded access to all records. Deputy Attorney
General Sally Yates responded on July 20, 2015, with a 58-page memorandum,
titled “Memorandum for Sally Quillian Yates Deputy
Attorney General,” written by Karl R.
Thompson, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Office of
Legal Counsel (OLC).
The July 20, 2015, opinion was widely criticized. But it accomplished what it was intended to do. The opinion limited IG
Horowitz’s oversight from extending to any information collected under Title
III—including intercepted communications and national security letters.
(Notably, The New York Times disclosed that national security letters were used in the surveillance of
the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.)
In response, on Aug. 3, 2015, IG Horowitz
sent a blistering letter to Congress. The letter was signed not only by Horowitz but by all
other acting inspectors general as well:
“The OLC opinion’s restrictive reading of the IG Act represents a
potentially serious challenge to the authority of every Inspector General and
our collective ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a
timely manner. Our concern is that, as a result of the OLC opinion, agencies
other than DOJ may likewise withhold crucial records from their Inspectors
General, adversely impacting their work.
Horowitz continued to push Congress for
oversight access and encouraged passage of the Inspector General Empowerment Act. Horowitz would ultimately win his battle, but only as President Barack
Obama was leaving office. On Dec. 16, 2016, Obama finally signed the Inspector General Empowerment Act into law.
It is against this backdrop of minimal oversight that Spygate took
place.
Ironically, the Clinton email server investigation, known as the
“Mid-Year Exam,” originated from a disclosure contained in a June 29, 2015,
memo sent by the inspectors general for both the State Department and the
Intelligence Community to Patrick F. Kennedy, then-undersecretary of state for
management.
The IGs’ memo included an assessment that Clinton’s email account
contained hundreds of classified emails, despite Clinton’s claims that there
was no classified information present on her server.
On July 6, 2015, the IG for the
Intelligence Community made a referral to the FBI, which resulted in the official opening of an
investigation into the Clinton email server by FBI officials Randall Coleman
and Charles Kable on July 10, 2015.
A Hand-Picked Team
At this time, Peter Strzok was an assistant
special agent in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The assistant
director in charge at the Washington Field Office during this period was Andrew
McCabe, a position he assumed on Sept. 14, 2014.
On July 30, 2015, within weeks of the FBI’s
opening of the Clinton investigation, McCabe was suddenly promoted to the No. 3 position in the FBI. With his new title of associate
deputy director, McCabe was transferred to FBI headquarters from the Washington
Field Office, and his direct involvement in the Clinton investigation began.
Strzok would follow shortly. Less than a month after McCabe was
transferred, FBI headquarters reached out to the Washington Field Office,
saying it needed greater staffing and resources “based on what they were
looking at, based on some of the investigative steps that were under
consideration,” Strzok told congressional investigators in a closed-door
hearing on June 27, 2018.
Strzok was one of the agents selected, and in late August 2015, he was
assigned to the Mid-Year Exam team and transferred to FBI headquarters. Strzok,
in his comments to lawmakers, acknowledged that the newly formed investigative
team was largely made up of hand-picked personnel from the Washington Field
Office and FBI headquarters.
Starting in October 2015 and continuing into early 2016, FBI Director
James Comey made a series of high-profile reassignments that resulted in the
complete turnover of the upper-echelon of the FBI team working on the Clinton
email investigation:
·
Oct.
12, 2015: Louis Bladel was moved to the New
York Field Office.
·
Dec.
1, 2015: Randall Coleman, assistant director
of Counterintelligence, was named as executive assistant director of the
Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, and was replaced by Bill
Priestap.
·
Dec.
9, 2015: Charles “Sandy” Kable was moved to
the Washington Field Office.
·
Feb.
1, 2016: Mark Giuliano retired as FBI deputy
director and was replaced by Andrew McCabe.
·
Feb.
11, 2016: John Giacalone retired as executive
assistant director and was replaced by Michael Steinbach.
·
March
2, 2016: Gerald Roberts, Jr. was moved to the
Washington Field Office.
Comey is the only known senior FBI leadership official who remained
involved throughout the entire Clinton email investigation. McCabe had the
second-longest tenure.
On Jan. 29, 2016, Comey appointed McCabe as FBI deputy director, replacing the retiring Giuliano,
and McCabe assumed the No. 2 position in the FBI, after having held the No. 3
position for just six months.
It was at this point that FBI lawyer Lisa Page was assigned to McCabe as
his special counsel. This was not the first time that Page worked directly for
McCabe. James Baker, the FBI’s former general counsel, told congressional
investigators that Page had worked for McCabe at various times during McCabe’s
career, going back as far as 2013.
By early 2016, the three participants in the infamous “insurance policy”
meeting—McCabe, Strzok, and Page—were now in place at the FBI.
In January 2016, Bill Priestap was named as head of the FBI’s
Counterintelligence Division, replacing Coleman and inheriting the Clinton
email investigation in the process.
According to Priestap, Coleman had “set up a reporting mechanism that
leaders of that team would report directly to him, not through the customary
other chain of command” in the Clinton email investigation. Priestap, who said
he didn’t know why Coleman had “set it up,” kept the chain of command in place
when he assumed Coleman’s position in January 2016.
This new structure resulted in some unusual reporting lines that went
outside normal chains of command. Strzok, who would not normally fall under
Priestap’s oversight, was now reporting directly to him.
As Priestap described it, the team involved in the Clinton investigation
comprised three different but intertwined elements: the primary team, the
filter team, and the senior leadership team.
The primary team was small, consisting only of Strzok, FBI analyst
Jonathan Moffa, and, to varying degrees, filter team leader Rick Mains and FBI
lawyer Sally Moyer. Mains reported to Strzok and Moffa, who in turn, along with
Moyer, provided briefings to Priestap.
Below Strzok and Moffa was the day-to-day investigative “filter” team of
approximately 15 FBI agents and analysts that was overseen by Mains, a
supervisory special agent.
The senior leadership team was more fluid, consisting of higher-level
FBI officials who provided briefings and updates to Comey and/or McCabe. In
addition to Priestap, Strzok, and Moffa, frequent attendees included Moyer,
Page, Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson, chief of staff Jim Rybicki, and
General Counsel James Baker.
While the elements of the day-to-day investigative team differed for the
Clinton email investigation and the Trump–Russia investigation, the primary
team remained the same throughout both cases—as did the lines of communication
between the FBI and the DOJ. According to testimony by Page, John Carlin, who
ran the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD), was receiving briefings on both
investigations directly from McCabe.
Priestap Left in the Dark
Priestap, who testified that he was unaware of the frequency of meetings
between McCabe, Strzok, and Lisa Page, seems to have been kept in the dark
regarding many of the actions taken by Strzok, who appeared to be exercising
significant investigative control. Priestap was asked about this by
congressional investigators during a June 5, 2018, testimony:
Rep. Meadows: “It sounds like Peter Strzok was
kind of driving the train here. Would you agree with that?”
Mr. Priestap: “Peter and Jon, yeah.”
Additionally, Page often circumvented the established chain of command,
not only with McCabe, for whom she reportedly served as a conduit for Strzok,
but also with Baker. Additionally, there were concerns that Page bypassed both
the executive assistant director for the National Security Branch—first
Giacalone, then Steinbach—and Priestap, the head of counterintelligence.
Anderson, the No. 2 lawyer, admitted in her testimony to congressional
investigators that she had been aware of these concerns, saying, “Neither
of them personally complained to me, but I was aware of their concerns.”
A report published by IG Horowitz in June
2018, which reviewed the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton email case,
included the notable statement that several witnesses had informed the IG that
Page “circumvented the official chain of command, and that Strzok communicated
important Midyear case information to her, and thus to McCabe, without
Priestap’s or Steinbach’s knowledge.” Steinbach, who was the executive
assistant director and Priestap’s direct supervisor, left the FBI in early
2017.
According to Anderson, McCabe was aware of the ongoing concerns
regarding Page’s circumventions, but it appears that nothing was done to
address them:
Mr. Baker: “Do you know if Mr. McCabe was
aware that some of his agent executives were concerned that they were being
bypassed on information on what, by all accounts, was a sensitive, critical
investigation?”
Ms. Anderson: “My understanding was that he
was aware.”
DOJ Prevents ‘Gross Negligence’ Charges
By the spring of 2016, the Clinton email investigation was already
winding down. This was due in large part to the fact that the DOJ, under
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, had decided to set an unusually high threshold
for the prosecution of Clinton, effectively ensuring from the outset that she
would not be charged.
In order for Clinton to be prosecuted, the DOJ required the FBI to
establish evidence of intent—even though the gross negligence statute
explicitly does not require this.
This meant that the FBI would have needed to find a smoking gun, such as
an email or an admission made during FBI questioning, revealing that Clinton or
her aides knowingly set up the private email server to send classified
information.
According to Page, the DOJ played a far larger role in the Clinton
investigation than previously had been known:
“Everybody talks about this as if this was the FBI investigation, and
the truth of the matter is there was not a single step, other than the July 5th
statement, there was not a single investigative step that we did not do in
consultation with or at the direction of the Justice Department,” Page told
congressional investigators on July 13, 2018.
Comey also had hinted at the influence
exerted by the DOJ over the Clinton investigation, at a July 5, 2016,press conference, in which he recommended that Clinton not be charged, stating that “there are obvious
considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding
intent.”
Notably, Comey had been convinced to remove the term “gross negligence”
to describe Clinton’s actions from his prepared statement by, among others,
Page, Strzok, Anderson, and Moffa.
CIA Director Instigates Trump Investigation
As the Clinton investigation wound down,
interest from the intelligence community in the Trump campaign was ramping up.
Sometime in 2015, it appears former CIA Director John Brennan established
himself as the point man to push for an investigation into the Trump campaign.
Using a combination of unofficial foreign intelligence compiled by contacts,
colleagues, and associates—primarily from the UK, but also from other Five Eyes members, such as Australia—Brennan then
fed this information to the FBI. Brennan stated this fact repeatedly during a
May 23, 2017, congressional testimony:
“I made sure that anything that was involving U.S. persons, including
anything involving the individuals involved in the Trump campaign, was shared
with the [FBI].”
“I was aware of intelligence and information about contacts between
Russian officials and U.S. persons that raised concerns in my mind about
whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians, either in
a witting or unwitting fashion, and it served as the basis for the FBI
investigation to determine whether such collusion [or] cooperation occurred.”
In late 2015, Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
was involved in collecting information regarding then-candidate Trump and
transmitting it to the United States. The GCHQ is the UK equivalent of the U.S.
National Security Agency (NSA).
While GCHQ was gathering intelligence, low-level Trump campaign
foreign-policy adviser George Papadopoulos appears to have been targeted, after
a series of highly coincidental meetings.
Most of these meetings with Papadopoulos—whose own background and
reasons for joining the Trump campaign remain suspicious—occurred in the first
half of 2016.
Maltese professor Josef Mifsud, Australian diplomat Alexander Downer,
FBI informant Stefan Halper, and officials from the UK’s Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO) all crossed paths with Papadopoulos—some repeatedly
so.
Mifsud, who introduced Papadopoulos to a series of Russian contacts,
appears to have more connections with Western intelligence than with Russian
intelligence.
Downer, then Australia’s high commissioner
to the UK, met with Papadopoulos in May 2016, in a meeting established through a chain of two intermediaries.
Information allegedly relayed by Papadopoulos during the Downer
meeting—that the Russians had damaging information on Clinton—appears nearly
identical to claims later contained in the first memo from former MI6 spy and
dossier author Christopher Steele that the FBI obtained in early July 2016.
Downer’s conversation with Papadopoulos was reportedly disclosed to the
FBI on July 22, 2016, through Australian government channels, although it may
have come directly from Downer himself.
Details from the conversation between Downer and Papadopoulos were then
used by the FBI to open its counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016.
In the summer of 2016, Robert Hannigan, the
head of the UK’s GCHQ, traveled to Washington to meet withBrennan regarding alleged communications between the Trump campaign and
Moscow. Around the same time, Brennan formedan inter-agency task force
comprising an estimated six agencies and/or government departments. The FBI,
Treasury, and DOJ handled the domestic inquiry into Trump and possible Russia
connections. The CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the
NSA handled foreign and intelligence aspects.
During this time, Brennan appeared to have
employed the use of reverse targeting, which refers to the targeting of a foreign individual with the intent
of capturing data on a U.S. citizen.
Mr. Brennan: “We call it incidental
collection in terms of CIA’s foreign intelligence collection authorities. Any
time we would incidentally collect information on a U.S. person, we would hand
that over to the FBI because they have the legal authority to do it. We would
not pursue that type of investigative, you know, sort of leads. We would give
it to the FBI. So, we were picking things up that was of great relevance
to the FBI, and we wanted to make sure that they were there—so they could piece
it together with whatever they were collecting domestically here.”
As this foreign intelligence—unofficial in nature and outside of any
traditional channels—was gathered, Brennan began a process of feeding his
gathered intelligence to the FBI. Repeated transfers of foreign intelligence
from the CIA director pushed the FBI toward the establishment of a formal
counterintelligence investigation.
The last major segment of Brennan’s efforts
involved a series of three reports. The first, titled the “Joint Statement from the Department Of
Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on
Election Security,” was released on Oct. 7,
2016. The second report,“GRIZZLY STEPPE —Russian Malicious Cyber
Activity,” was released on Dec. 29, 2016. The third
report, “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S.
Elections”—also known as the intelligence community
assessment (ICA)—was released on Jan. 6, 2017.
This final report was used to continue pushing the Russia-collusion
narrative following the election of President Donald Trump. Notably, Adm. Mike
Rogers of the NSA publicly dissented from the findings of the ICA, assigning it
only a moderate confidence level.
Fusion GPS and the Steele Dossier
Meanwhile, another less official effort began. Information paid for by
the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton campaign targeting
Trump made its way to the highest levels of the FBI and the State Department,
with a sophisticated strategy relying on the personal connections of hired
operatives.
At the center of the multi-pronged strategy to disseminate the
information were Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and former British spy
Steele.
In early March 2016, Fusion GPS approached
Perkins Coie—the law firm used by the Clinton campaign and the DNC—expressing
interest in an “engagement,” according to an Oct. 24, 2017, response letter by Perkins Coie. The firm hired Fusion GPS in April 2016 to
“perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle.”
Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, was retained by Fusion GPS
during the period between June and November 2016. During this time, Steele
produced 16 memos, with the last memo dated Oct. 20, 2016. There is one final
memo that Steele wrote on Dec. 13 at the request of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Steele provided Fusion GPS with something that Simpson’s firm was
lacking: access to individuals within the FBI and the State Department. These
contacts could be traced back to at least 2010, when Steele had provided
assistance in the FBI’s investigation into FIFA over concerns that Russia might
have been engaging in bribery to host the 2018 World Cup.
Sometime in the latter half of 2014, Steele
began to informally provide reports he had prepared for a private client to the State Department. One
of the recipients of the reports was Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary
of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
After Steele’s company was hired by Fusion
GPS in June 2016, he began to reach out to the FBI through Michael Gaeta, an
FBI agent and assistant legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Rome who Steele had worked with on the FIFA
case. Gaeta also headed up the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime unit, which
specializes in investigating criminal groups from Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine.
Gaeta was later identified as Steele’s FBI handler, in a July 16, 2018,
congressional testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees by
Page.
On July 5, 2016, Gaeta traveled to London and met with Steele at the
offices of Steele’s firm, Orbis. At some point in early July, Steele passed his
initial report to Nuland and the State Department. Nuland later said these
documents were passed on at some point to both the FBI and then-Secretary of
State John Kerry.
Exactly what happened with the reports that Gaeta brought back from
London, and precisely who he gave them to within the FBI, remains unknown,
although some media reports have indicated they might have been sent to the
FBI’s New York Field Office. During the period following Steele’s initial
contact with the FBI, there appears to have been no further FBI interaction or
contact with Steele.
Former CIA Contractor Worked for Fusion GPS
Notably, eight months before Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele,
Simpson had hired Nellie Ohr, the wife of then-Associate Deputy Attorney
General Bruce Ohr, to work for his firm as a researcher in October 2015. It was
at this time that Fusion GPS was retained by the Washington Free Beacon to
engage in research on the Trump campaign.
Prior to joining Fusion GPS, Nellie had worked as an independent
contractor for an internal open-source division of the CIA, Open Source Works,
from 2008 to at least June 2010; it appears likely she remained in that role
into 2014.
Nellie told congressional investigators, in her Oct. 19, 2018,
closed-door testimony, that part of her work for Fusion GPS was to research the
Trump 2016 presidential campaign, including campaign associate Carter Page,
early campaign supporter Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and campaign manager Paul
Manafort, as well as Trump’s family members, including some of his children.
Additionally, email communications between her and Bruce Ohr show that
she routinely sent her husband at the DOJ articles on Russia—most carrying a
similar negative slant. The emails continued through the duration of Nellie’s
employment with Fusion GPS and usually contained a brief, often one-line
comment from Nellie.
In her testimony, Nellie described her work as online open-source
efforts that utilized “Russian sources, media, social media, government, you
know, business registers, legal databases, all kinds of things.” Ohr said that
she would “write occasional reports based on the open-source research that I
described about Donald Trump’s relationships with various people in Russia.”
The work Nellie conducted for Fusion GPS matches the same skill set used
when she worked for Open Source Works, which is a division within the CIA that
uses open-source information to produce intelligence products.
When asked how she came to be hired by Fusion GPS and who had approached
her, Nellie responded, “Nobody approached me,” telling investigators that it
was she who had initiated contact and approached Fusion GPS after reading an
article on Simpson.
Nellie would continue to work for Fusion GPS until September 2016. By
this time, Simpson and Steele already had started working on pushing the Steele
dossier into the FBI.
Following the end of her employment with Fusion GPS, Nellie provided
Bruce with a memory stick that contained all of the research she had compiled
during her time at the firm. Bruce then gave the memory stick to the FBI,
through his handler, Joe Pientka.
Bruce Ohr Becomes a Conduit
Nearly a month after Gaeta brought back the reports that Steele provided
in London, Simpson and Steele decided to pursue a new channel into the FBI
through Bruce Ohr. Bruce had known Steele since at least 2007, when they met
during an “official meeting” while Steele was still employed by the British
government as an MI6 agent. Steele had already been in contact with Bruce via
email in early 2016. Notably, most of these prior communications appeared to
discuss Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his ongoing efforts to obtain a
U.S. visa.
On July 29, 2016, Steele wrote to Bruce, saying that he would “be in DC at short notice on
business,” and asked to meet with both Bruce and his wife. On July 30, 2016,
the Ohrs met Steele for breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel. Also present at the
breakfast meeting was a fourth individual, described by Bruce as “an associate
of Mr. Steele’s, another gentleman, younger fellow. I didn’t catch his
name.” Nellie testified that Steele’s associate had a British accent.
The timing of the July 30 breakfast meeting is of particular note, as
the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation, “Crossfire Hurricane,” was
formally opened the following day, on July 31, 2016, by FBI agent Peter Strzok.
According to a transcript of Bruce’s
testimony before Congress, Steele relayed information from his dossier at this meeting and claimed that “a former head
of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, had stated to someone …
that they had Donald Trump over a barrel.”
Steele also referenced Deripaska’s business dealings with Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort and foreign policy adviser Carter Page’s meetings in
Moscow.
Lastly, Bruce noted that Steele told him he had been in contact with the
FBI but now had additional reports. “Chris Steele had provided some reports to
the FBI, I think two, but that Glenn Simpson had more,” he said.
Immediately following the Ohrs’ breakfast meeting with Steele, Bruce Ohr
reached out to FBI Deputy Director McCabe and the two met in McCabe’s
office—sometime between July 30 and the first days of August. Also present at
this meeting was FBI lawyer Page, who had previously worked for Bruce Ohr at
the DOJ, where he was her direct supervisor for five to six years.
Bruce Ohr would later testify that during the July/August meeting, he
told McCabe that his wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion, noting, “I wanted the FBI
to be aware of any possible bias.” FBI General Counsel Baker, who reviewed a
portion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application to spy
on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page—which relied in part on the information
from Steele—told congressional investigators that he was never told of Ohr’s
concerns regarding possible bias and conflicts of interest.
On Aug. 15, 2016, a week or two following Bruce Ohr’s meeting with
McCabe, Strzok would send the now-infamous “insurance policy” text referencing
McCabe to Lisa Page:
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s
office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take
that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before
you’re 40.”
On Aug. 22, Bruce Ohr had a meeting with Simpson. Ohr would later
discuss that meeting during his testimony:
“I don’t know exactly what Chris Steele was thinking, of course, but I
knew that Chris Steele was working for Glenn Simpson, and that Glenn might have
additional information that Chris either didn’t have or was not authorized to
prevent [present], give me, or whatever.”
It was at this meeting that Simpson first mentioned Belarusan-American
businessman Sergei Millian and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Brennan’s
Briefings to the Gang of Eight
During this same period in late August
2016, Brennan began briefing members of the Gang of Eight on the FBI’s
counterintelligence investigation, through a series of meetings in August and
September 2016. Notably, each Gang of Eight member was briefed separately,
calling into question whether each of the members received the same
information. Efforts by Democrats to block the
release of transcripts from each meeting are ongoing. Comey, however, did not
notify Congress of the FBI investigation until early March 2017, and it’s
entirely possible he was unaware of Brennan’s private briefings during the
summer of 2016.
During her testimony, FBI lawyer Lisa Page was questioned by Rep. Mark
Meadows (R-N.C.) in relation to an Aug. 25, 2016, text message that read, “What
are you doing after the CH brief?” CH almost certainly referred
to Crossfire Hurricane.
Lisa Page then was asked about an event that took place on the same day
as the “CH brief”—a briefing provided by Brennan to then-Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid:
“You give a brief on August the 25th. Director Brennan is giving a
brief. It’s not a Gang of Eight brief. It is a one-on-one, from what we can
tell, a one-on-one briefing with Harry Reid at that point.”
According to Meadows, Brennan briefed Reid on the Steele dossier:
“We have documents that would suggest that in that briefing the dossier
was mentioned to Harry Reid and then obviously we’re going to have to have
conversations. Does that surprise you that Director Brennan would be aware [of
the dossier]?”
Lisa Page appeared genuinely surprised that Brennan would have been
aware of the dossier’s existence at this early point, telling Meadows: “The FBI
got this information from our source. If the CIA had another source of that
information, I am neither aware of that nor did the CIA provide it to us if
they did.”
She elaborated further: “As of August of 2016, I don’t know who
Christopher Steele is. I don’t know that he’s an FBI source. I don’t know what
he does. I have never heard of him in all of my life.”
This claim by Page seems incongruous when viewed against Bruce Ohr’s
testimony that he met with Page and McCabe in the first days of August
following his July 30, 2016, breakfast with Steele:
“My initial meeting was with Mr. McCabe and with Lisa Page.
“I was telling them about what I was hearing from Chris Steele.”
Meanwhile, Brennan’s briefing prompted Reid to write not one but two
letters to Comey. Both demanded that Comey commence an investigation, with the
details to be made public.
Reid’s first letter, which touched on Carter Page, was sent on Aug. 27, 2016. Reid’s second letter, far angrier and declaring Comey to be in possession of material
information, was sent on Oct. 30, 2016.
There had been reports that Comey had been considering closing the FBI investigation of
Trump, something Brennan strongly opposed. Now, with Reid’s letters sent, that
avenue was effectively closed. The termination of the FBI’s Trump–Russia
investigation would be all but impossible in the face of Reid’s public demands.
Perhaps it was in response to Reid’s Aug.
27 letter that the FBI suddenly reached out to Steele in September 2016, asking
him for all the information in his possession. The team working on Crossfire
Hurricane received documents and a briefing from Steele in mid-September, reportedly at a meeting in Rome, where Gaeta also was present.
During Lisa Page’s testimony, she appeared
to corroborate this account, noting that the team received the “reports that
are known as the dossier from an FBI agent who is Christopher Steele’s handler
in September of 2016.” She would later clarify the timing, noting “we
received the reporting from Steele in mid-September.” A text sent
to her by FBI agent Peter Strzok on Oct. 12, 2016, may provide us with the
actual date:
“We got the reporting on Sept 19. Looks like [redacted] got it early
August.”
Steele had produced eight reports from June 20, 2016, through the end of
August 2016 (there also is one undated report included in the dossier). No
further reports were generated by Steele until Sept. 14, when he suddenly wrote
three separate memos in one day. One of the memos referenced a Russian bank named
Alfa Bank, misspelled as “Alpha” in his memo. Steele’s sudden burst of
productivity was likely done in preparation for his Oct. 19 meeting in Rome
with the FBI.
The impact of Brennan’s potential knowledge
of the dossier in August 2016 should not be underestimated. As Brennan testified to
Congress, his briefing to the Gang of Eight was done in consultation with the
Obama administration:
“Through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept Congress apprised
of these issues as we identified them. Again, in consultation with the White
House, I personally briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian
attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership.
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active
counter-intelligence case, involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in
our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were
shared only with those members of Congress.”
The Carter Page FISA Warrant
As the dossier was making its way into the FBI, the agency began its
preparations to obtain a FISA warrant on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page,
who was surveilled under Title I of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
According to Baker’s testimony, it appears that the FBI began to set its
sights on Carter Page in the summer of 2016. When asked how he had first gained
knowledge of the FBI’s intention to pursue a FISA warrant on Carter Page, Baker
testified that it came through his familiarity with the FBI’s investigation:
Mr. Baker: “I learned of — so I was aware
when the FBI first started to focus on Carter Page, I was aware of that because
it was part of the broader investigation that we were conducting. So I was
aware that we were investigating him. And then at some point in time –”
Rep. Meadows: “But that was many years ago. That was in 2014. Or are you
talking about 2016?”
Mr. Baker: “I am talking about 2016 in the
summer.”
Rep. Meadows: “Okay.”
Mr. Baker: “Yeah. And so I was aware of the
investigation, and then at some point in time, as part of the regular briefings
on the case, the briefers mentioned that they were going to pursue a FISA.”
It appears the FBI, and possibly the CIA, began to focus on Carter Page
earlier than Baker was aware. Carter Page had been invited some months prior to
a July 2016 symposium held at Cambridge regarding the upcoming election. The
speaker list was notable:
·
Madeleine
Albright (former U.S. secretary of state)
·
Vin
Weber (Republican Party strategist and
former congressman)
·
Peter
Ammon (German ambassador to the UK)
·
Sir
Richard Dearlove (former head of MI6 and Steele’s
former boss)
·
Bridget
Kendall (BBC diplomatic correspondent and the
next master of Peterhouse College)
·
Sir
Malcolm Rifkind (former defense and foreign
secretary)
Carter Page attended the event just four days after his July 2016 Moscow
trip, and it was during this time in the UK that he first encountered Stefan
Halper. Page’s Moscow trip would later figure prominently in the Steele
dossier.
Halper, who has been outed as an FBI informant, stayed in contact with
Carter Page for the next 14 months, severing ties exactly as the final FISA
warrant on Page expired.
Trisha Anderson, the principal deputy general counsel for the FBI and
head of the bureau’s National Security and Cyber Law Branch, approved the
application for a warrant to spy on Carter Page before it went to FBI Director
James Comey.
According to Anderson, pre-approvals for the Carter Page FISA warrant
were provided by both McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, before
the FISA application was ever presented to Anderson for review.
“[M]y boss and my boss’ boss had already reviewed and approved this
application. And, in fact, the Deputy Attorney General, who had the authority
to sign the application, to be the substantive approver on the FISA application
itself, had approved the application. And that typically would not have been
the case before I did that,” said Anderson.
The unusual preliminary reviews and approvals from both McCabe and Yates
appear to have had a substantial impact on the normal review process, leading
other individuals like Anderson to believe that the warrant application was
more vetted than it really was.
Anderson also testified that she had not read the Carter Page FISA
application prior to signing off on it and passing it along to Comey for the
final FBI signature. According to FBI lawyer Sally Moyer, the underlying Woods
file (a document that provides facts supporting the allegations made in a FISA
application) was only read by the originating agent and the supervisory special
agent in the field. Moyer also noted that the Woods file relating to the Page
FISA had not been reviewed or audited by anyone.
The Carter Page FISA application was largely reliant on the Steele
dossier, which was unverified at the time of its submission to the FISA court
and remains unverified by the FBI to this day. Circular reporting, provided by
Steele himself, was used as corroboration of the dossier. Additionally, Trump
campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, whose conversation with Australian
diplomat Alexander Downer was used to open the FBI’s July 31, 2016,
counterintelligence investigation, is referenced in the FISA, yet there “is no
evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos,”
according to a House Intelligence Committee memo.
Moyer testified that without the Steele dossier, the Carter Page
application would have had a “50/50” chance of achieving the probable cause
standard before the FISA court. Notably, the Steele dossier is generally
considered to have been largely discredited.
A Perkins Coie Partner and Alfa Bank Allegations
On Sept. 19, shortly after Steele completed his latest three memos, FBI
General Counsel James Baker met with Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann, the
lawyer the DNC turned to on April 28, 2016, after discovering the alleged
hacking of their servers.
Sussman, who sought out the meeting, presented Baker with documents that
Baker described as “a stack of material I don’t know maybe a quarter inch half
inch thick something like that clipped together, and then I believe there was
some type of electronic media, as well, a disk or something.”
The information that Sussmann gave to Baker was related to what Baker
described as “a surreptitious channel of communications” between the Trump
Organization and “a Russian organization associated with the Russian
Government.”
Baker was describing alleged communications between Alfa Bank and a
server in the Trump Tower. The allegations, which were investigated by the FBI
and proven to be false, were widely covered in the media.
Just four days earlier, on Sept. 14, Steele mentioned Alfa Bank
(misspelled as Alpha bank) in one of his memos.
According to Baker’s testimony, there appears to have been at least
three meetings with Sussmann—the first in person and at least two subsequent
meetings by phone. In either the second or third conversation, Baker came to
understand The New York Times was also in possession of Sussmann’s information.
As would become clear later, other members of the media also had this same
information.
As Baker was meeting with Sussmann, Steele was back in Washington for a
series of meetings that included his DOJ contact, Bruce Ohr.
On Sept. 23, 2016, Bruce Ohr again met with Steele for breakfast,
telling lawmakers during testimony, “Steele was in Washington, D.C., again, and
he reached out to me, and, again, we met for breakfast, and he provided some
additional information.” Ohr said this meeting concerned similar topics that
were discussed at the July 30, 2016, meeting but did not provide further
details.
Bruce Ohr would also meet either that same month or in early October
with FBI agent Peter Strzok, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, and DOJ career officials
from the criminal division, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, and Andrew Weissman
(Ohr testified that he was unsure whether Weismann was at this or a later
meeting). Both Weissman and Ahmad would later become part of the team assembled
by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Steele’s Meetings With the Media
On the same day that Bruce Ohr met with
Christopher Steele for breakfast, on Sept. 23, 2016, Yahoo News reporter
Michael Isikoff published an article about Trump campaign foreign policy
adviser Carter Page. The article, headlined “U.S. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump
Adviser and Kremlin,” was based on an
interview with Steele. Isikoff’s article would later be used by the FBI in the
FISA spy warrant application on Carter Page as corroborating information.
Following the publication of the Isikoff
article, the Hillary for America campaign released a statement on the same day that touted Isikoff’s “bombshell report,” with the full article
attached.
A second lengthy article was published on
Sept. 23, by Politico: “Who Is Carter Page? The Mystery of Trump’s Man
in Moscow,” by Julia Ioffe. This article was
particularly interesting as it appeared to highlight media efforts by Fusion
GPS:
“As I started looking into Page, I began getting calls from two separate
‘corporate investigators’ digging into what they claim are all kinds of shady
connections Page has to all kinds of shady Russians. One is working on behalf
of various unnamed Democratic donors; the other won’t say who turned him on to
Page’s scent. Both claimed to me that the FBI was investigating Page for
allegedly meeting with Igor Sechin and Sergei Ivanov, who was until recently
Putin’s chief of staff—both of whom are on the sanctions list—when Page was in
Moscow in July for that speech.”
Ioffe noted that “seemingly everyone I talked to had also talked to the
Washington Post, and then there were these corporate investigators who drew a
dark and complex web of Page’s connections.”
Her article also mentioned rumors regarding Alfa Bank:
“In the interest of due diligence, I also tried to run down the rumors
being handed me by the corporate investigators: that Russia’s Alfa Bank paid
for the trip as a favor to the Kremlin; that Page met with Sechin and Ivanov in
Moscow; that he is now being investigated by the FBI for those meetings because
Sechin and Ivanov were both sanctioned for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
It was probably during this same trip to
Washington that Steele met withJonathan Winer, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for
international law enforcement and former special envoy for Libya, whom Steele
had known since at least 2010.
Winer had received a separate dossier, very similar to Steele’s, from longtime Clinton confidant Sidney
Blumenthal. This “second dossier” had been compiled by another longtime Clinton
operative, former journalist Cody Shearer, and echoed claims made in the Steele
dossier. Winer gave Steele a copy of the “second dossier.” Steele then shared this second dossier with the FBI, which may have used it as a
means to corroborate Steele’s own dossier.
Steele also met with U.S. media during his
visit to Washington, doing so “at Fusion’s instruction.” According to UK Court documents, Steele testified that he “briefed” The New York Times, The Washington
Post, Yahoo News, The New Yorker, and CNN at the end of September 2016. Steele
would engage in a second round of media contact in mid-October 2016, meeting
again with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Yahoo News. Steele testified
that all these meetings were “conducted verbally in person.”
Alfa Bank Media Leaks
As Steele’s media meetings were going on, FBI General Counsel James
Baker learned that Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann was also speaking with
reporters from The New York Times regarding the Alfa Bank information that
Sussmann had provided to the FBI. After some internal discussion, the FBI
approached both Sussmann and The New York Times, asking that any story be held
until the FBI had time to complete an investigation into the documents provided
by Sussmann. It appears that an agreement was reached, and the FBI began to
look into the claims regarding Alfa Bank and the server at Trump Tower.
But Sussman wasn’t the only one that Baker, currently the subject of an
ongoing criminal leak investigation, was speaking with. According to
congressional investigators, beginning sometime in September 2016—before the
presidential election—Baker began having conversations with his old friend and
journalist, David Corn of Mother Jones.
According to Baker, these conversations were in relation to ongoing FBI
matters:
Rep. Jordan: “Did you talk to Mr. Corn prior
to the election about anything, anything related to FBI matters? Not — so we’re
not going to ask about the Steele dossier. Anything about FBI business, FBI
matters?”
Mr. Baker: “Yes.”
Rep. Jordan: “Yes. And do you know —
can you give me some dates or the number of times that you talked to Mr. Corn
about FBI matters leading up to the 2016 Presidential election?”
Mr. Baker: “I don’t remember, Congressman.”
By Oct. 31, 2016, the FBI had apparently wrapped up their investigation
into the Alfa Bank allegations, finding no evidence of anything untoward in the
process. It was on this day that three separate articles on Alfa Bank would be
published.
The first, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No
Clear Link to Russia” by The New York Times,
appeared to be an updated version of the article they had intended to publish
before the FBI asked them to delay their reporting. It stated the following:
“In classified sessions in August and September, intelligence officials
also briefed congressional leaders on the possibility of financial ties between
Russians and people connected to Mr. Trump. They focused particular attention
on what cyberexperts said appeared to be a mysterious computer back channel
between the Trump Organization and the Alfa Bank, which is one of Russia’s
biggest banks and whose owners have longstanding ties to Mr. Putin.”
The reference to “classified sessions in August and September” is likely
in relation to the series of Gang of Eight briefings that former CIA Director
John Brennan engaged in at that time—including his briefing to then-Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid. The article continued:
“F.B.I. officials spent weeks examining computer data showing an odd
stream of activity to a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank. Computer logs
obtained by The New York Times show that two servers at Alfa Bank sent more
than 2,700 ‘look-up’ messages—a first step for one system’s computers to talk
to another—to a Trump-connected server beginning in the spring. But the F.B.I.
ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a
marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts.”
The second article, “Was a Trump Server Communicating With
Russia?” by Slate Magazine, was solely focused
on the allegations regarding a server in the Trump Tower that had allegedly
been communicating with a server at Alfa Bank in Russia.
Immediately following the publication of
the Slate article, Clinton posted a tweet that included a statement from Jake Sullivan, a senior policy
adviser:
“Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking
the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.”
Sullivan’s statement referenced the Slate article and included the
following:
“This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow.
Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump
Organization to a Russian-based bank.
“This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s
ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something
to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was
discovered by journalists.”
The Alfa Bank story took off—despite the same-day story from The New
York Times that specifically noted the FBI had investigated that matter and
found nothing untoward.
The final article published on Oct. 31, “A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information
Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump” by Mother Jones reporter—and Baker’s friend —David Corn, also
mentioned Alfa Bank:
“In recent weeks, reporters in Washington
have pursued anonymous online reports that a
computer server related to the Trump Organization engaged in a high level of
activity with servers connected to Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in
Russia. On Monday, a Slate investigation detailed the pattern of unusual server activity but concluded, ‘We
don’t yet know what this [Trump] server was for, but it deserves further
explanation.’ In an email to Mother Jones, Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign
spokeswoman, maintains, ‘The Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any
communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no
communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.’”
More notably, Corn’s article also provided the first public reporting on
the existence of the Steele dossier:
“A former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who
specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent
months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with
Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to
co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.”
As it turns out, Corn had detailed, first-hand knowledge of the dossier.
According to testimony from Baker, Corn had been provided with parts of the
dossier by Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson. Baker knew of this fact, because
within a week of publishing his article, Corn passed these dossier parts on to
Baker personally:
Rep. Jordan: “Prior to the election Mr. Corn
had a copy of the dossier and was talking to you about giving that to you so
the FBI would have it. Is that all right? I mean all accurate.”
Mr. Baker: “My recollection is that he had
part of the dossier, that we had other parts already, and that we got still
other parts from other people, and that — and nevertheless some of the parts
that David Corn gave us were parts that we did not have from another source?”
Steele had written four memos after the FBI team received his
information in mid-September. All of the memos were written in October—on the
12th, 18th, 19th, and the 20th. It is possible that these were the memos
passed along to Baker by Corn.
Baker testified that he received elements of the dossier from Corn that
were not in the FBI’s possession at the time. He said that he immediately
turned this information over to leadership within the FBI, noting, “I think it
was Bill Priestap,” the head of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.
The use of personal relationships as a mechanism to transmit outside
information to the FBI was actually noted by Baker, who said of Corn: “Even
though he was my friend, I was also an FBI official. He knew that. And so he
wanted to somehow get that into the hands of the FBI.”
Bruce Ohr’s FBI Handler
Christopher Steele was terminated as a source by the FBI on Nov. 1,
2016, for communicating with the media. Despite this, DOJ official Bruce Ohr
and Steele communicated regularly for another full year, until November 2017.
On Nov. 21, 2016, Ohr had a meeting with
FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, and was introduced to FBI
agent Joe Pientka, who became Ohr’s FBI handler. Pientka was also present with
Strzok during the Jan. 24, 2017, interview of Trump’s national security adviser, Lt.
Gen. Michael Flynn.
The next day, Nov. 22, 2016, Ohr met alone with Pientka. Ohr would
continue to relay his communications with Steele to the FBI through Pientka,
who then recorded them in FD-302 forms. What Ohr didn’t know was that Pientka
was transmitting all the information directly to Strzok.
Ohr, in his testimony, detailed his interactions with Steele and Glenn
Simpson, as well as his communications with officials at the FBI and DOJ.
Notably, Ohr repeatedly stated that he never vetted any of the information
provided by either Steele or Simpson. He simply turned it over or relayed it to
the FBI—usually to Pientka—but Ohr also testified that “at least on two
occasions I was handed onto a new agent.”
Sometime in late 2016, his wife, Nellie Ohr, provided him with a memory
stick containing all of her research that she had compiled while employed at
Fusion GPS. Bruce Ohr testified he gave the memory stick to Pientka. Nellie Ohr
had left Fusion in September 2016. Through Pientka, Strzok now had all of
Nellie Ohr’s Fusion research in his possession.
On Dec. 10, 2016, Bruce Ohr met with Simpson, who gave him a memory
stick that Ohr believed contained a copy of the Steele dossier. Ohr also passed
this second memory stick along to Pientka.
On Jan. 20, 2017, Ohr had one final communication with Simpson, a phone
call that took place on the same day as Trump’s inauguration. Ohr testified
that Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson was concerned that one of Steele’s
sources was about to be exposed through the pending publication of an article:
Mr. Ohr: “He says something along the
lines of, I — there’s going to be some reporting in the next few days that’s
going to — could expose the source, and the source could be in personal
danger.”
Rep. Meadows: “And why was he concerned about
that source being exposed?”
Mr. Ohr: “I think he was aware of some
kind of article that was likely to come out in the next, you know, few days or
something.”
Apparently, Simpson’s information was at least
partly accurate. On Jan. 24, 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sergei Millian, a Belarusan-American businessman and
onetime Russian government translator, was both “Source D” and “Source E” in
the dossier. It remains unknown exactly how Simpson knew in advance that
Millian would be outed as a source.
But there are some questions as to the accuracy of the Journal’s
reporting. The dossier appears to conflict with the newspaper’s article in at
least one aspect. According to the dossier, Source E was used as confirmation
for Source D—meaning they can’t be the same person.
McCain, the Dossier, and a UK Connection
Simpson and Steele were carefully thorough in their dissemination
efforts. The dossier was fed into U.S. channels through several different
sources.
One such source was Sir Andrew Wood, the
former British ambassador to Russia, who had been briefed about the dossier by Steele. Wood
may have previously worked on behalf of Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence; he was
referenced in a UK court filing as an associate of Orbis. Wood was also referred to as an adviser
to Orbis in a deposition by an associate of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.),
David Kramer.
Kramer knew Wood previously from their mutual expertise on Russia.
Kramer said in his deposition, which was part of a defamation lawsuit against
BuzzFeed News, that Wood told him that “he was aware of information that he
thought I should be aware of and that Senator McCain might be interested in.”
McCain, Wood, and Kramer would meet later that afternoon, on Nov. 19,
2016, in a private meeting room at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova
Scotia, Canada.
Wood told both Kramer and McCain that “he was aware of this information
that had been gathered that raised the possibility of collusion and
compromising material on the president-elect. And he explained that he knew the
person who gathered the information and felt that the person was of the utmost
credibility,” Kramer said.
Kramer ascribed the word “collusion” three times to Wood in his
deposition. He also said that Wood mentioned the possible existence of a
video “of a sexual nature” that might have “shown the president-elect in a
compromising situation.” According to Kramer, Wood said that “if it existed,
that it was from a hotel in Moscow when president-elect, before he was
president-elect, had been in Moscow.”
No such video was ever uncovered or given to Kramer.
Kramer testified that following the description of the video, “the
senator turned to me and asked if I would go to London to meet with what turned
out to be Mr. Steele.”
Kramer traveled to London to meet with Steele on Nov. 28, 2016. Kramer
reviewed all the memos during his meeting with Steele but wasn’t provided with
a physical copy of the dossier.
When Kramer returned to Washington, he was provided with a copy of the
dossier—which, at that point, consisted of 16 memos—during a meeting with
Simpson on Nov. 29, 2016. Kramer also testified that there was another
individual, “a male,” present at the meeting.
Interestingly, Kramer testified that Simpson gave him two copies of the
dossier, noting that Simpson told him that “one had more things blacked out
than the other.” Kramer said, “It wasn’t entirely clear to me why there were
two versions of this, so but I took both versions.”
Kramer noted that Simpson, who was aware the dossier was being given to
McCain, said the dossier “was a very sensitive document and needed to be
handled very carefully.”
Despite that warning, Kramer showed the dossier to a number of
journalists and had discussions with at least 14 members of the media, along
with some individuals in the U.S. government.
Kramer testified that he gave a physical copy of the dossier to
reporters Peter Stone and Greg Gordon of McClatchy; to Fred Hiatt, the editor
of the Washington Post editorial page; Alan Cullison of The Wall Street
Journal; Bob Little at NPR; Carl Bernstein at CNN; and Ken Bensinger at
BuzzFeed. It’s possible that Kramer gave copies to other reporters as well.
Kramer said that Simpson and Steele were aware of most of these
contacts, but that Kramer hadn’t told either of them that he gave the dossier
to NPR. He also noted that Steele had been in contact with Bernstein at CNN and
that the CNN and BuzzFeed meetings occurred at Steele’s request. Steele told
Kramer that he and Bensinger “had been in touch during the FIFA investigation;
they got to know each other that way.”
According to Kramer, he didn’t believe that Fusion GPS and Simpson were
aware of these two meetings with CNN and BuzzFeed.
Kramer testified that he, McCain, and McCain’s chief of staff,
Christopher Brose, met to review the dossier on Nov. 30, 2016. Kramer suggested
that McCain “provide a copy of [the dossier] to the director of the FBI and the
director of the CIA.” McCain later passed a copy of the dossier to James Comey
on Dec. 9, 2016. It isn’t known whether McCain also provided a copy to then-CIA
Director John Brennan. Notably, Brennan did attach a two-page summary of the
dossier to the intelligence community assessment that he delivered to outgoing
President Barack Obama on Jan. 5, 2017.
Kramer said that he wasn’t aware of the content of McCain’s Dec. 9
discussion with Comey, noting that he “did not get any readout from the senator
on the meeting, but just that it had happened.”
Kramer did, however, provide updates to both Steele and Simpson
regarding the status of McCain’s meeting with Comey, in subsequent discussions
with Simpson and Steele:
“It was mostly just to inform him about whether or not the senator had
transfer — transmitted the document to the FBI. Both he and Mr. Steele were — I
kept them apprised of whether the senator was — where the senator was in terms
of his contact with the FBI.”
The implications of this statement are significant. Kramer, a private
citizen, was providing updates to a former British spy as to what a sitting
senator, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, was saying to
the director of the FBI.
Other members of the media also had advance knowledge of McCain’s
intention to meet with Comey. Kramer testified that both Mother Jones reporter
David Corn and Guardian reporter Julian Borger came to meet with him. According
to Kramer, “They were mostly interested in Senator McCain and his, whether he
had given it to Director Comey or not.”
Several days after McCain, Brose, and Kramer met to discuss the dossier,
Kramer said that McCain instructed him to meet with Victoria Nuland, the
assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, and Celeste
Wallander, the senior director for Russia and Central Asia on the National
Security Council.
The purpose of the meeting was to verify whether the dossier “was being
taken seriously.” Both Nuland and Wallander were previously aware of the
dossier’s existence, and both officials previously knew Steele, whom “they
believed to be credible.” Kramer said he didn’t physically share the dossier
with them at this point, but met again with Wallander “around New Years” and
“gave her a copy of the document”
Steele produced a final memo dated Dec. 13,
2016. According to UK court documents, Kramer, on behalf of McCain, had asked Steele to provide any further
intelligence that he had gathered relating to “alleged Russian interference in
the US presidential election.” Notably, it appears it was this request from
McCain that led Steele to produce his Dec. 13 memo.
Although Kramer didn’t provide a date, he said he received the final
Steele memo sometime after “Senator McCain had provided the copy to Director
Comey.” We know that Kramer received the final memo prior to Dec. 29—when
Kramer met with BuzzFeed’s Bensinger.
Kramer testified that Bensinger “said he wanted to read them, he asked
me if he could take photos of them on his—I assume it was an iPhone. I asked
him not to. He said he was a slow reader, he wanted to read it. And so I said,
you know, I got a phone call to make, and I had to go to the bathroom…” Kramer
said that he “left him to read it for 20, 30 minutes.”
Kramer also testified that besides the reporters, he gave a final copy
of the dossier to two other people in early January 2017: Rep. Adam Kinzinger
(R-Il.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan’s chief of staff, Jonathan Burks.
James Clapper Leaks Details of Obama–Trump Briefings
The ICA on alleged Russian
hacking was released internally on Jan. 5, 2017. On this same day, outgoing
president Obama held an undisclosed White House meeting to discuss the
assessment—and the attached summation of the dossier—with national security
adviser Susan Rice, FBI Director James Comey, and Deputy Attorney General Sally
Yates. Rice would later send herself an email documenting
the meeting.
The following day, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, and Comey attached a written summary of the Steele
dossier to the classified briefing they gave Obama. Comey then met with
President-elect Trump to inform him of the dossier. This meeting took place
just hours after Comey, Brennan, and Clapper formally briefed Obama on both the
ICA and the Steele dossier.
Comey would only inform Trump of the
“salacious” details contained within the dossier. He laterexplained on CNN
in an April 2018 interview that he had done so at the request of Clapper and
Brennan, “because that was the part that the leaders of the intelligence
community agreed he needed to be told about.”
Shortly after Comey’s meeting with Trump,
both the Trump–Comey meeting and the existence of the dossier were leaked to
CNN. The significance of the meeting was material, as Comey noted in a Jan. 7 memo:
“Media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook. I said it was
important that we not give them the excuse to write that the FBI has the
material.”
The media had widely dismissed the dossier
as unsubstantiated and, therefore, unreportable. It was only after learning
that Comey briefed Trump on it that CNN reported on the dossier. The House Intelligence Committee report on Russian
election interference confirmed that Clapper personally leaked confirmation of
the dossier, along with Comey’s meeting with Trump, to CNN:
“The Committee’s investigation revealed that President-elect Trump was
indeed briefed on the contents of the Steele dossier and when questioned by the
Committee, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted that
he confirmed the existence of the dossier to the media.”
Additionally, the House intelligence report shows Clapper appears to
have been the direct source for CNN’s Jake Tapper and his Jan. 10 story that
disclosed the existence of the dossier:
“When initially asked about leaks related to the ICA in July 2017,
former DNI Clapper flatly denied ‘discuss[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele]
or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with
journalists.’ Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with
CNN journalist Jake Tapper,’ and admitted that he might have spoken with other
journalists about the same topic.
“Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place in early January 2017,
around the time IC leaders briefed President Obama and President-elect Trump,
on ‘the Christopher Steele information,’ a two-page summary of which was
‘enclosed in’ the highly-classified version of the ICA.”
On Jan. 10, 2017, CNN published the article “Intel Chiefs Presented Trump With
Claims of Russian Efforts to Compromise Him” by Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper, and Carl Bernstein. (The
article would later be updated and have a Jan. 12, 2017, date.)
The allegations within the dossier were made public, and with reporting
of the briefings by intelligence community leaders, instant credibility was
given to the dossier’s assertions.
Immediately following the CNN story, BuzzFeed published the Steele dossier, and the Trump–Russia conspiracy was pushed
into the mainstream.
David Kramer was asked about his reaction when CNN broke the story on
the dossier. According to his deposition, Kramer stated, “I believe my words
were ‘Holy [expletive].’”
Kramer, who was actually meeting with The Guardian’s Julian Borger when
CNN reported on the dossier, said that he quickly spoke with Steele, who “was
shocked.”
On the following day, Jan. 11, 2017, Clapper issued a statement condemning
the leaks—without revealing the fact that he was the source of the leak.
On Nov. 17, 2016, Clapper submitted his resignation as director of
national intelligence; his resignation became effective on Jan. 20, 2017. Later
that year, CNN hired Clapper as its national security analyst.
The Effort to Remove General Flynn
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then-national
security adviser to President Donald Trump, was interviewed on Jan. 24, 2017, by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka about
two December 2016 conversations that Flynn had had with Russian Ambassador
Sergei Kislyak.
Details of the phone conversation had leaked to the media. Flynn
ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI regarding his
conversations with Kislyak. It remains unknown to this day who leaked Flynn’s
classified call—a far more serious felony violation.
The Washington Post reported in January
2017 that the FBI had found no evidence of wrongdoing in Flynn’s actual call with the Russian ambassador. The call, and
the matters discussed in it, broke no laws.
Flynn has been portrayed in the media as being suspiciously close to
Russia; a dinner in Moscow that occurred in late 2015 is frequently cited as
evidence of this.
On Dec. 10, 2015, Flynn attended an event in Moscow to celebrate the
10th anniversary of Russian television network RT. Flynn, who was seated next
to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the culminating dinner, was also
interviewed on national security matters by an RT correspondent. Flynn’s
speaker’s bureau, Leading Authorities Inc., was paid $45,000 for the event and
Flynn received $33,000 of the total amount.
Seated at the same table with Flynn was
Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate in the 2016 election. By all accounts,
including Stein’s, Flynn and Putin didn’t engage in any real conversation. At the time,
Flynn’s trip didn’t garner significant attention. But it would later be used by
the media and the Clinton campaign to push the Russia-collusion narrative.
Notably, as stated by lawyer Robert Kelner, Flynn disclosed his Moscow trip to the
Defense Intelligence Agency before he traveled there and provided a full
briefing upon his return:
“As has previously been reported, General Flynn briefed the Defense
Intelligence Agency, a component agency of the DoD, extensively regarding the
RT speaking event trip both before and after the trip, and he answered any
questions that were posed by the DIA concerning the trip during those
briefings.”
Flynn’s trip to Russia was first brought to
broader attention on July 18, 2016, during a live interview at the Republican National Convention with Yahoo News reporter
Michael Isikoff.
The Isikoff interview took place on July 18, 2016. Unknown at the time,
the matter had also captured the attention of Christopher Steele, who had begun
publishing his dossier memos on June 20, 2016.
“Kremlin engaging with several high profile US players, including STEIN,
PAGE and (former DIA Director Michael Flynn) and funding their recent visits to
Moscow.”
In addition to the obvious questions raised by the timing of Flynn’s
name appearing in Steele’s Aug. 10 memo, is the manner in which Flynn is
denoted. All other names are capitalized, in the manner of intelligence briefings.
Flynn’s name isn’t capitalized and, in one case, appears within parentheses.
Steele met with Yahoo News’ Isikoff in
September 2016 and gave him information from the dossier. The resulting Sept.
23, 2016, article from Isikoff was then cited by the FBI as validating Steele’s
claims and was featured in the original FISA application, and its
three subsequent renewals, for a
warrant to spy on Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
Steele wasn’t the only person Isikoff was
working with. On April 26, 2016, Isikoff published a story on Yahoo News about Paul Manafort’s business dealings with
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. It was later learned from a Democratic
National Committee (DNC) email leaked by Wikileaks that
Isikoff had been working with Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American operative
who was doing consulting work for the DNC. Chalupa met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose
alleged ties between Trump, Manafort, and Russia.
The obvious question remains: How did the information on Flynn make its
way into the dossier at the time it did, and who provided the information to
Steele?
Flynn’s 2015 dinner in Moscow was initially
used to implicate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. It was then used as a means to cast doubts on Flynn’s ability as Trump’s national
security adviser. Following Flynn’s resignation, it was then used as a means to
pursue the ongoing collusion narrative that gained full strength in the early
days of the Trump administration.
A Jan. 10, 2017, article in The New York
Times, “Trump’s National Security Pick Sees Ally in
Fight Against Islamists: Russia,” highlighted
the efforts:
“In an extraordinary report released last
week, the agencies bluntly accusedthe Russian government of having worked to undermine American democracy
and promote the candidacy of Mr. Trump. The report is likely to renew questions
about Mr. Flynn’s avowed eagerness to work with Russia, and his dismissal of
concerns about President Vladimir V. Putin.”
Flynn would resign from his position as national security adviser in
February 2017. The sequence of events leading to his resignation were both
coordinated and orchestrated, with acting Attorney General Sally Yates playing
a leading role.
On Jan. 12, 2017, Flynn’s Dec. 29, 2016,
call with Kislyak was leaked to The Washington Post. The article portrayed Flynn as undermining
Obama’s Russia sanctions that had been imposed on the same day as Flynn’s call
with the Russian ambassador.
On Jan. 15, five days before Trump’s
inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence appeared on “Face the Nation” to defend Flynn’s calls.
A few days later, on Jan. 19, Obama
officials—Yates, Clapper, Brennan and Comey—met to discuss Flynn’s situation.
The concern they reportedlydiscussed was that Flynn might have misled Trump administration
officials regarding the nature of his call with Kislyak.
Yates, Clapper, and Brennan supported informing the Trump administration
of their concerns. Comey took a dissenting view. On Jan 23, Yates again
pressured Comey, telling the FBI director that she believed Flynn could be
vulnerable to blackmail. At this point, according to media reports, Comey
relented, despite the FBI finding nothing unlawful in the content of Flynn’s
calls.
Strzok and Pientka, at the instruction of McCabe, interviewed Flynn the
following day. According to court documents, McCabe and other FBI officials
“decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an
FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed.” It was during this
interview that Flynn reportedly lied to the FBI.
The DOJ was provided with a detailed briefing of the Flynn interview on
the following day. On Jan. 26, Yates contacted White House counsel Don McGahn,
who agreed to meet to discuss the matter. Yates arrived at McGahn’s office,
bringing Mary McCord, John Carlin’s acting replacement as head of the DOJ’s
National Security Division.
Yates later testified before
Congress that the meeting surrounded Flynn’s phone calls and his FBI interview.
She also testified that Flynn’s call and subsequent interview “was a topic of a
whole lot of discussion in DOJ and with other members of the intel community.”
McGahn reportedly asked Yates, “Why does it matter to the DOJ if one White
House official lies to another official?”
McGahn called Yates the following day and asked her to return for a
second meeting. Yates returned to the White House without McCord. McGahn asked
to examine the FBI’s evidence on Flynn. Yates said she would respond by the
following Monday.
Yates failed to provide McGahn with the FBI’s evidence on Flynn. From
that point, the pressure on Flynn and the Trump administration escalated—with
help from media reporting.
Flynn resigned on Feb. 13, after it was reported that he had misled
Pence about phone conversations he’d had with Kislyak.
The following day, The New York Times reported that “phone records and intercepted calls show that members of
Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had
repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before
the election, according to four current and former American officials.”
With Flynn gone and the Russian narrative
firmly established, the conspirators then turned their attention to Trump’s
newly confirmed attorney general, Jeff Sessions. On March 1, 2017, The
Washington Postreported that Sessions had twice had contact with the Russian ambassador,
Kislyak. The following day, March 2, Sessions recused himself from the Russia
investigation.
On the same day that Sessions recused
himself, Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense,
detailed efforts at hampering the newly installed Trump administration, during
a March 2, 2017, interview with MSNBC, in which she
described how the Obama administration gathered and disseminated intelligence
on the Trump team:
“I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on
the Hill … ‘Get as much information as you can. Get as much intelligence as you
can before President Obama leaves the administration.’
“The Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about the
Trump staff’s dealing with Russians, [they] would try to compromise those
sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that
intelligence. … That’s why you have the leaking.”
Note that Farkas said “how we knew,” not just “what we knew.”
Obama Officials Used Unmasking to Target the Trump Campaign
On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, the chair of
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Devin Nunes
(R-Calif.), met a classified source who showed him “dozens” of intelligence
reports. Contained within these reports was evidence of surveillance on the
Trump campaign. Nunes held a press conference on March 22 highlighting what he had found:
“I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence
community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in
the Trump transition. Details about persons associated with the incoming
administration, details with little apparent foreign intelligence value were
widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.”
In a series of rapid-fire questions and answers, Nunes attempted to
elaborate on what he had been shown:
“From what I know right now, it looks like incidental collection. We
don’t know exactly how that was picked up but we’re trying to get to the bottom
of it…I think the NSA’s going to comply. I am concerned – we don’t know whether
or not the FBI is going to comply. I have placed a call, I’m waiting to talk to
Director Comey, hopefully later today.
“I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show the President-elect
and his team were at least monitored and disseminated out in intelligence, in
what appears to be raw—well I shouldn’t say raw—but intelligence reporting
channels.
“It looks to me like it was all legally collected, but it was
essentially a lot of information on the President-elect and his transition team
and what they were doing.”
The documents Nunes had been shown highlighted the unmasking activities
of the FBI, the Obama administration, and CIA Director Brennan in relation to
the Trump campaign. Although March 2017 would prove chaotic, the Trump
administration had survived the first crucial months, and would now begin to
slowly assert its administrative authority.
Comey Testifies No Obstruction by Trump Administration
On May 3, 2017, James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Under oath, Comey stated
that his agency—and the FBI’s investigation—had not been pressured by the Trump
administration:
Sen. Hirono: “So if the attorney general or
senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation,
can they halt that FBI investigation?”
Mr. Comey: “In theory, yes.”
Sen. Hirono: “Has it happened?”
Mr. Comey: “Not in my experience. Because
it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that – without
an appropriate purpose. I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we
don’t see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But
I’m talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a
political reason. That would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my
experience.”
Less than a week later, on May 9, Trump fired Comey based on a May 8
recommendation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein would later tell members
of Congress: “In one of my first meetings with then-Sen. Jeff Sessions last
winter, we discussed the need for new leadership at the FBI. Among the concerns
that I recall were to restore the credibility of the FBI, respect the
established authority of the Department of Justice, limit public statements and
eliminate leaks.”
Regarding the recommendation, Rosenstein said: “I wrote it. I believe
it. I stand by it.”
McCabe’s FBI Reaches Out Again to Steele
Within days of Trump’s firing of Comey, the FBI, now under the
leadership of acting-FBI Director Andrew McCabe, suddenly decided to
reestablish direct contact with Christopher Steele through DOJ official Bruce
Ohr.
The re-engagement attempt came six months after Steele had been formally
terminated by the FBI on Nov. 1, 2016.
The FBI’s re-engagement of Ohr was highlighted during a congressional
review of some text messages between Ohr and Steele:
Mr. Ohr: “The FBI had asked me a few
days before, when
I reported to them my latest conversation with Chris Steele, they had had would
he—next time you talk with him, could you ask him if he would be willing to
meet again.”
Rep. Jordan: “So this is the re-engagement?”
Mr. Ohr: “Yes.”
The texts being referenced were sent on May 15, 2017, and refer to a
request that Ohr received from the FBI to ask Steele to re-engage with the FBI
in the days after Comey had been fired on May 9.
This was the only time the FBI used Ohr to reach out to Steele.
The Battle Between McCabe and Rosenstein
Two days after Comey was fired, on May 11,
2017, McCabe testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. While the hearing’s
original intent had been to focus on national security threats, Trump’s firing
of Comey completely altered the topic of the hearing.
McCabe, who agreed that he would notify the committee “of any effort to interfere
with the FBI’s ongoing investigation into links between Russia and the Trump
campaign,” told members of Congress that there had been “no effort to impede
our investigation to date.” In other words, McCabe testified that he was
unaware of any evidence of obstruction from Trump or his administration. Notably,
Comey’s May 3 testimony may have left McCabe with little choice other than to
confirm there had been no obstruction.
McCabe, however, failed to inform the committee that he was actively
considering opening an obstruction-of-justice probe of Trump—a path he would
initiate in a meeting with Rosenstein just five days later.
On the morning of May 16, 2017, Rosenstein
allegedly suggested to McCabe that he could secretly record Trump. It was at this meeting that McCabe was “pushing for the Justice Department to open an
investigation into the president,” according to witness accounts reported by
The Washington Post.
In addition to McCabe, Rosenstein, and
McCabe’s special counsel, Lisa Page, there were one or two others present,
including Rosenstein’s chief of staff, James Crowley, and possibly Scott Schools, the senior-most career
attorney at the DOJ and a top aide to Rosenstein.
An unnamed participant at the meeting, in
comments to The Washington Post, framed the conversation between McCabe and Rosenstein in an entirely
different light, noting that Rosenstein had responded with angry sarcasm to
McCabe, saying, “What do you want to do, Andy, wire the president?”
This was just five days after McCabe had publicly testified that there
was no obstruction on the part of the Trump administration.
Sometime later that same day, both Rosenstein and Trump met with former
FBI Director Robert Mueller in the Oval Office. The meeting was reported as
being for the FBI director position, but the idea that Mueller would be
considered for the FBI director role seems highly unlikely.
Mueller had previously served as the FBI
director from 2001 to 2013—two years beyond the normal 10-year tenure for an
FBI director. In 2011, Obama requested that Mueller stay on as FBI director for
an additional two years, which required special congressional approval.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel the following day, on
May 17, 2017, and in doing so, Rosenstein removed control of the Trump–Russia
investigation from McCabe and put it in the hands of Mueller.
This was confirmed in a recent statement by a DOJ spokesperson, who
said, “The deputy attorney general in fact appointed special counsel Robert
Mueller, and directed that Mr. McCabe be removed from any participation in that
investigation.”
Following the appointment of Mueller as special counsel, it also appears
the FBI’s efforts to re-engage with Steele abruptly ended.
‘There’s No Big There There’
We know the FBI hadn’t found any evidence of collusion in the May 2017
timeframe. While McCabe was attempting to open an obstruction investigation,
Peter Strzok—who played a key role in the counterintelligence investigation of
the Trump campaign—texted Lisa Page about lacking evidence of collusion:
“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.”
Page, who was asked about this text during her July 2018 testimony,
said, “So I think this represents that even as far as May of 2017, we still
couldn’t answer the question.”
James Baker, who was questioned about the Strzok text, was then asked if
he’d seen any evidence to the contrary. He stumbled a bit in his reply:
Rep. Meadows: “Do you have any evidence to the
contrary that you observed personally in your official capacity?”
Mr. Baker: “So the difficulty I’m having
with your question is, what does ‘collusion’ mean, and what does ‘prove’ mean?
And so I don’t know how to respond to that.”
FBI Leadership Speculates on New Trump–Russia Collusion Narrative
In his testimony, Baker disclosed the actual substance of discussions
taking place at the upper echelons of the FBI immediately following Comey’s
firing—that Vladimir Putin had ordered Trump to fire Comey:
Mr. Baker: “We discussed, so to the best of
my recollection, with the same people I described earlier: Mr. McCabe, possibly
Mr. Gattis [Carl Ghattas, executive assistant director of the National Security
Branch], Mr. Priestap, possibly Lisa Page, possibly Pete Strzok. I don’t
remember that specifically.”
Rep. Ratcliffe: “So there was—there was a
discussion between those folks, possibly all of the folks that you’ve
identified, about whether or not President Trump had been ordered to fire Jim
Comey by the Russian Government?”
Mr. Baker: “I wouldn’t say ordered. I guess
I would say the words I sort of used earlier, acting at the behest of and
somehow following directions, somehow executing their will, whether—and so
literally an order or not, I don’t know. But—”
Rep. Ratcliffe: “And so—”
Mr. Baker: “As a—it was discussed as a
theoretical possibility.”
Rep. Ratcliffe: “When was it discussed?”
Mr. Baker: “After the firing, like in the aftermath of the firing.”
The FBI, with no actual evidence of collusion after 10 months of
investigating, began discussing a complete hypothetical at the highest levels
of leadership as a means to possibly open an obstruction-of-justice
investigation of the president of the United States.
During his testimony, Baker told lawmakers: “I had a jaundiced eye about
everything, yes. I had skepticism about all this stuff. I was concerned about
all of this. This whole situation was horrible, and it was novel and we were
trying to figure out what to do, and it was highly unusual.”
McCabe was later fired for lying to the DOJ inspector general and is
currently the subject of a criminal grand jury investigation.
The Fixer
Despite the ongoing assault from the intelligence community and
holdovers from the Obama administration, Trump was not entirely without allies.
Dana Boente, one of the nation’s highest-profile federal prosecutors,
served in a series of critical shifting roles within the Trump administration.
Boente, who remained the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
until early 2018, concurrently became the acting attorney general following the
firing of Sally Yates. Boente, who was specifically appointed by Trump, was not
directly in the line of succession that had been previously laid out under an
unusual executive order from the Obama administration.
Upon the confirmation of Sessions as
attorney general, Boente next served as acting deputy attorney general until
the confirmation of Rod Rosenstein as deputy attorney general on April 25,
2017. Boente then became the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division on April
28, 2017, following the sudden resignation of Mary McCord.
Boente was appointed as FBI general counsel on Jan. 23, 2018, replacing
Baker, who was demoted and reassigned. Baker is currently the subject of a
criminal leak investigation. Boente remains in his position as FBI general
counsel.
On March 31, 2017, the Trump administration asked for the resignations
all 46 holdover U.S. attorneys from the Obama administration. Trump refused to
accept the resignations of just three of them—Boente, Rosenstein, and John
Huber.
As Sessions noted in a March 29, 2018, letter to congressional chairmen Chuck Grassley, Bob Goodlatte, and Trey
Gowdy, Huber was assigned by Sessions to lead a prosecution team and is currently
working with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz:
“I already have directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain
issues previously raised by the Committee. … Specifically, I asked United
States Attorney John W. Huber to lead this effort.”
John Carlin’s Race With Admiral Rogers
The Carter Page FISA application has been the subject of significant
media attention, but there’s another element to the story that, although
largely ignored, is equally important. It involved what amounted to a
surreptitious race between then-NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers and DOJ National
Security Division (NSD) head John Carlin.
Following a March 9, 2016, discovery that
outside contractors for the FBI had been accessing raw FISA data since at least
2015, Rogers directed the NSA’s Office of Compliance to conduct a “fundamental
baseline review of compliance associated with 702” at some point in early April
2016 (Senate testimony & pages 83–84 of court ruling).
On April 18, 2016, Rogers moved aggressively in response to the
disclosures. He abruptly shut down all FBI outside-contractor access. At this
point, both the FBI and the DOJ’s NSD became aware of Rogers’s compliance
review. They may have known earlier, but they were certainly aware after
outside-contractor access was halted.
The DOJ’s NSD maintains oversight of the intelligence agencies’ use of
Section 702 authority. The NSD and the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI) jointly conduct reviews of the intelligence agencies’
Section 702 activities every 60 days. The NSD—with notice to the ODNI—is
required to report any incidents of agency noncompliance or misconduct to the
FISA court.
Instead of issuing individual court orders,
the attorney general and the director of national intelligence (DNI) are
required by Section 702 to provide the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) with
annual certifications that specify categories of foreign intelligence
information the government is authorized to acquire, pursuant to Section 702.
The attorney general and the DNI also must
certify that Intelligence Community agencies will follow targeting procedures
and minimization procedures that are approved by the FISC as part of the certification.
Carlin filed the government’s
proposed 2016 Section 702 certifications on Sept. 26, 2016. Carlin knew the general status of the
compliance review by Rogers. The NSD was part of the review. Carlin failed to
disclose a critical Jan. 7, 2016, report by the NSA inspector general and associated FISA abuse to the FISA court in his 2016
certification. Carlin also failed to disclose Rogers’s ongoing Section
702-compliance review.
On Sept. 27, 2016, the day after he filed
the annual certifications, Carlin announced his resignation, which would become effective on Oct. 15, 2016.
On Oct. 4, 2016, a standard follow-up court
hearing was held (Page 19), with Carlin present. Again, he made no disclosure of FISA abuse or
other related issues. This lack of disclosure would be noted by the court later
in the April 2017 ruling:
“The government’s failure to disclose those IG and OCO reviews at the
October 4, 2016 hearing [was ascribed] to an institutional ‘lack of candor.’”
On Oct. 15, 2016, Carlin formally left the NSD.
On Oct. 20, 2016, Rogers was briefed by the
NSA compliance officer on findings from the 702 NSA compliance audit. The audit
had uncovered a large number of issues, including numerous “about query”
violations (Senate testimony).
Rogers shut down all “about query” activity on Oct. 21, 2016. “About
queries” are particularly worrisome, since they occur when the target is
neither the sender nor the recipient of the collected communication; rather,
the target’s “query,” such as an email address, is being passed between two
other communicants.
On the same day, the DOJ and FBI sought and received a Title I FISA
warrant on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. At this point, the FISA court
still was unaware of the Section 702 violations.
On Oct. 24, 2016, Rogers verbally informed the FISA court of his
findings:
“On October 24, 2016, the government orally apprised the Court of
significant non-compliance with the NSA’s minimization procedures involving
queries of data acquired under Section 702 using U.S. person identifiers. The
full scope of non-compliant querying practices had not been previously
disclosed to the Court.”
Rogers appeared formally before the FISA court on Oct. 26, 2016, and
presented the written findings of his audit:
“Two days later, on the day the Court otherwise would have had to
complete its review of the certifications and procedures, the government made a
written submission regarding those compliance problems … and the Court held a
hearing to address them.
“The government reported that the NSA IG and OCO were conducting other
reviews covering different time periods, with preliminary results suggesting
that the problem was widespread during all periods under review.”
The FISA court was unaware of the FISA “query” violations until they
were presented to the court by then-NSA Director Rogers.
Carlin didn’t disclose his knowledge of FISA abuse in the annual Section
702 certifications, apparently in order to avoid raising suspicions at the FISA
court ahead of receiving the Carter Page FISA warrant.
The FBI and the NSD were literally racing against Rogers’s investigation
in order to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page.
FISA Abuse & the FISC
Rogers presented his findings directly to the FISA court’s presiding
judge, Rosemary Collyer. Collyer and Rogers would work together for the next
six months, addressing the issues that Rogers had uncovered.
It was Collyer who wrote the April 26, 2017, FISA court ruling on the entire episode. It also was Collyer who signed the original
FISA warrant on Carter Page on Oct. 21, 2016, before being apprised of the many
issues by Rogers.
The litany of abuses described in the April 26, 2017, ruling was
shocking and detailed the use of private contractors by the FBI in relation to
Section 702 data. Collyer referred to it as “a very serious Fourth Amendment
issue.” The FBI was specifically singled out by the court numerous times in the
ruling:
“The improper access previously afforded the contractors has been
discontinued. The Court is nonetheless concerned about the FBI’s apparent
disregard of minimization rules and whether the FBI may be engaging in similar
disclosures of raw Section 702 information that have not been reported.”
Rogers informed Collyer of the ongoing FISA abuses by the FBI and NSD
just three days after she personally signed the Carter Page FISA warrant.
Virtually every FBI and NSD official with material involvement in the
original Carter Page FISA application would later be removed—either through
firing or resignation.
Judicial Watch: Only Crimes in Russia Scandal
Are from ‘Obama Gang’
Katie Pavlich's Latest Books, Fast
and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up are
available on Amazon
FOR EIGHT YEARS BARACK OBAMA AND ERIC
HOLDER SABOTAGED HOMELAND SECURITY TO EASE MORE MEXICANS OVER OUR BORDERS AND
INTO OUR JOBS AND VOTING BOOTHS.
OBAMA NEEDED THESE ILLEGALS TO FINISH OFF THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS, WHAT WAS LEFT OF THEM AFTER OBAMA'S CRONY BANKSTERS' PLUNDER.
“The watchdogs at
Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama administration's
close coordination with the Mexican government entices Mexicans to hop over the
fence and on to the American dole.” Washington Times
(Obama communist dem party)
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE DICTATOR
Barack Obama’s Russia Connection
https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2019/06/barack-obamas-russian-connection-who.html
If Obama was a fully recruited agent
of Moscow, tasked with giving Russia a significant military advantage over the
United States, and economically weakening and socially dividing the nation, how
would he have conducted his presidency (or his post-presidency) any
differently? TREVOR LOUDON
*
We are all victims of the Obama
cabal’s collusion with Russia – President Trump’s voters and all Americans who
believe in our free and fair election process.
///
Democrats
Allow Communists to Infiltrate Their Party Across the Nation
“Obama’s
new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the
anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said
that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the
“resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
*
“Professor
Paul Kengor has extensively researched the Chicago communists whose progeny
include David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Barack Hussein Obama. Add the
openly Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and you have many of the key players who
put Obama into power.”
*
We are all victims of the Obama cabal’s
collusion with Russia – President Trump’s voters and all Americans who believe
in our free and fair election process.
///
OPERATION OBOMB:
DESTABILIZE AMERICA TO LAY
GROUNDS FOR A MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/seth-barron-obama-and-building-of.html
*
“Obama’s new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve
center” of the anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder
has said that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with
the “resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with
a variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
///
BARACK OBAMA: Was he America’s first closet Communist
president?
Obama choose
Communists and Marxists for the highest, most powerful positions in our land,
including his closest political advisors, and his head of the CIA. These
facts are not in dispute. Most are openly admitted by the people in
question, as necessary damage control. Our press chooses not to report
them.
*
Professor Paul Kengor has extensively researched the
Chicago communists whose progeny include David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and
Barack Hussein Obama. Add the openly Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and
you have many of the key players who put Obama into power.
(OBAMA THIRD TERM)
WAS THE RUSSIAN HOAX ONLY OBAMA’S ATTEMPT TO PUT
ASIDE TRUMP FOR AN OBAMA THIRD TERM FOR LIFE???
*
*
They Destroyed Our
Country
“They knew Obama
was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train
wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac,
and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps
irreparable.)”
*
These
people were engaged in a massive political conspiracy. The Democrats made a
decision from the outset—beginning with the election campaign of the favored
candidate of Wall Street and the CIA, Hillary Clinton—that they would not
oppose Trump on his anti-working-class social policy or his authoritarian
hostility to democratic rights and promotion of anti-immigrant racism, but on
issues of imperialist foreign policy.
*
“Obama’s new home in Washington has
been described as the “nerve center” of the anti-Trump opposition.
Former attorney general Eric Holder has said that Obama is “ready to roll”
and has aligned himself with the “resistance.” Former
high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing.”
///
Barack Obama’s plot
for a third term for life
A Muslim dictatorship
like his crony paymasters, the 9-11 invading Saudis who have financed him for decades.
“Obama has the totalitarian impulse. After all, he went around saying he
didn't have Constitutional authority to legalize the illegals, and then he
tried anyway. The courts stopped him.”
*
What was
Obama’s motive? Simple, he knew if he did that for Hillary, he’d own the next
President of the United States, and could blackmail her with the truth till the
end of time. It literally would have given him a 3rd and 4th term.
///
THE OBAMA – CLINTON RUSSIAN
CONNECTION
*
WITH THESE TRAITORS, JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY!
*
How President Barack Obama and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aided Russia’s quest for global nuclear
dominance.
///
OBAMA’S WAR ON THE JEWS
The Democrats are now officially the party of Jew-hatred. This is largely
due to the disastrous presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. PAMELA GELLER
*
*
Abunimah’s
piece -- and Obama’s numerous anti-Semitic associations -- got little
attention. Throughout his life Barack Obama has been close friends with
numerous virulent anti-Semites: Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Khalid al-Mansour,
Rashid Khalidi and others. PAMELA
GELLER
(HARVARD – SAUDIS)
OBAMA AND HIS SAUDIS PAYMASTERS… Did he serve them well?
Malia, Michelle, Barack and the College
Admissions Scandal https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2019/03/malia-michelle-barack-and-college.html
*
Michelle was the next to
attend Harvard, in her case Harvard Law School. “Told by counselors that her
SAT scores and her grades weren’t good enough for an Ivy League school,” writes
Christopher Andersen in Barack and Michelle, “Michelle applied to Princeton and
Harvard anyway.”
*
Barack Obama’s back door,
however, was unique to him. Before prosecutors send some of the dimmer
Hollywood stars to the slammer for their dimness, they might want to ask just
how much influence a Saudi billionaire peddled to get Obama into Harvard.
///
CRONY CAPITALISM
Barack Obama created more debt
for the middle class than any president in US
history, and also had the
only huge QE programs: $4.2 Trillion.
OXFAM reported that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created
went to
the top 1% of the world’s
wealthy.
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But
Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United
Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase
from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies
that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics,
investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media
ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and
Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming
he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory
robbery—it’s OBAMANOMICS TO SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
PATHOLOGICAL LIAR BARACK
OBAMA MOCKS TRUMP
Obama orchestrated the
greatest transfer of wealth to the rich in U.S. history!
THE WALL STREET BOUGHT AND
OWNED DEMOCRAT PARTY
SERVING BANKSTERS,
BILLIONAIRES and INVADING ILLEGALS
THE
CRONY CLASS:
Income inequality grows
FOUR TIMES FASTER under Obama than Bush.
“By
the time of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, the Democratic Party had
completely repudiated its association with the reforms of the New Deal and
Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare programs to provide an ample
supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW MEANS OPEN BORDERS AND NO
E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black capitalists, and passed the 1994
Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three strikes” provision that has
helped create the largest prison population in the world.”
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and
Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests”
Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely
from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses,
and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P.
Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes
you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate
socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s
corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s OBAMANOMICS TO SERVE THE RICH AND
GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA AND HIS WALL
STREET CRONIES (THERE'S A REASON WHY GEORGE S OROS RUNS OBAMA'S BID FOR A
THIRD TERM FOR LIFE).
///
MICHELLE OBAMA ANNOUNCES SHE WILL RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE AND
BE BARACK’S THIRD TERM FOR LIFE.
MEXICO WILL ELECT HER!
https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2019/01/michelle-obama-ill-be-baracks-third.html
The main objective of “political
animals” like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to fix a
broken America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there are
people who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at the
huge Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing that
Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people who
have brought it down.
“Of course, one of the main reasons the nation is now “divided, resentful and angry” is because race-baiting, Islamist, class warrior Barack Hussein Obama was president for eight long years. MATTHEW VADUM
“Of course, one of the main reasons the nation is now “divided, resentful and angry” is because race-baiting, Islamist, class warrior Barack Hussein Obama was president for eight long years. MATTHEW VADUM
Editorial Reviews: Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s
Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same
“special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are
profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers,
small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. TIMOTHY P CARNEY
*
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and
Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special
interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting
handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small
businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter
Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White
House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering
corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate
America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s OBAMANOMICS TO
SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
BARACK Hussein OBAMA: THE CLOSET MUSLIM
PSYCHOPATH WHO HATED AMERICA!
"But the Obamas are
the center of the most delusional cult of personality that the media has yet
spawned. And so we get bizarre pieces like these."
The mullahs
rolled in cash as a result of rolling Obama and his gullible team over the
deal, knowing that Obama was desperate for some sort of
legacy. MONICA SHOWALTER
MUSLIM
DICTATORS, INCLUDING THE 9-11 INVADING SAUDIS, FUNDED THE PRESIDENTIAL
LIBRARIES OF BUSH, CLINTON and OBAMA!
(FARRAKHAN MUSLIM)
ISLAMIST BARACK OBAMA
*
“Of course, one of the main reasons the nation
is now “divided, resentful and
angry” is because race-baiting, Islamist, class warrior Barack
Hussein Obama was president for eight long years." MATTHEW VADUM
*
"But
the Obamas are the center of the most delusional cult of personality that the
media has yet spawned. And so we get bizarre pieces like these."
MONICA SHOWALTER
*
"Along
with Obama, Pelosi and Schumer are responsible for incalculable damage done to
this country over the eight years of that administration." PATRICIA
McCARTHY
GLOBALIST BARACK OBAMA AND NANCY
PELOSI’S CONSPIRACY TO SABOTAGE HOMELAND SECURITY AND KEEP AMERICA FLOODED WITH DEM VOTING
ILLEGALS
"Along with Obama, Pelosi and
Schumer are responsible for incalculable damage done to this country over the
eight years of that administration." PATRICIA McCARTHY
One of the most disgusting things to come out
of the Obama administration was "Operation Fast and Furious," where
members of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
allowed illegal gun sales to go through – commonly referred to as "gun
walking" – in order to track buyers and sellers they believed were
connected to the Mexican drug cartels. Nearly 2,000 firearms were sold and were
eventually found throughout the United States and Mexico. Two of them were used
to k ill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. BETH BAUMANN
*
The Democrat Party’s secret agenda for wider open borders,
more welfare for invading illegals, more jobs and free anything they illegally
vote for…. All to destroy the two-party system and build the GLOBALISTS’
DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/11/frontpage-hidden-agenda-of-pueblo-sin.html
Demonstrably and irrefutably the Democrat Party became the
party whose principle objective is to thoroughly transform the nature of the
American electorate by means of open borders and the mass, unchecked
importation of illiterate third world peasants who will vote in overwhelming
numbers for Democrats and their La Raza welfare state. FRONTPAGE MAG
(JEWISH –
ANTI-SEMITICISM)
Anti-Semitic,
open borders for cheaper labor and funded by criminal banksters… and these pols
are making vast fortunes sucking the blood of America!
We must not let
them cheat their way to power over the rest of us. Their ongoing
vote fraud must be stopped and the Democrats need to take a look at themselves
and at what they have become. It's not a pretty picture. What they
have become threatens to destroy the greatest nation on the planet and they are
doing it on purpose. They have nothing but contempt for the US as
founded and for those of us who love this country. PATRICIA McCARTHY – AMERICAN
THINKER
“Then we suffered
the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-,
Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the
electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of
his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no
secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was
out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world.” ALAN BERGSTEIN
“There is a deep
racist and anti-Semitic disease in the leadership of the Democrats. As Senator
Cory Booker brings his hatred for the Jewish State to the Senate, he should be
asked whether he agrees with his hero, “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist
we must take a lesson from Hitler”. DANIEL GREENFIELD
February
16, 2016
The United States at the Point of No Return
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/the_united_states_at_the_point_of_no_return.html#.VsOT8DBA5Nc.blogger
There
is an unquestioned disconnect between the vast majority of the American people
and the so-called elites or ruling class. Whenever I am in the company of
those that are members of this exclusive fraternity, and when the conversation
inevitably turns to the subject of the irascible mood of the electorate, I
offer what I consider to be a valid theory as to one of the primary reasons
why. That is: a plurality of the populace, myself included, firmly
believe the United States is approaching the point of no return to its founding
as a nation of individual freedom and opportunity, and that the 2016 election
is the most significant in 150 years insofar as determining the long term fate
of the country.
More
often than not these acquaintances react as if Chicken Little had just escaped
the asylum and was running amok claiming the sky is falling.
However, in an effort to be kind to the loon in their midst, I have been
told, as a figurative pat on the head, because of my personal background as
displaced war orphan from World War II that I am hypersensitive and what is
going on in America really isn’t as bad as I claim.
Not
as bad as I claim?
Not
since the presidential election of 1932 has the American electorate been so
mired in discontent. Despite the best efforts of the media to portray
this discontentment as limited to the Republican base, a variety of polls have
confirmed a vast majority of the populace shares this same sense of disgruntlement.
Innumerable polls taken over the past seven years are consistent in showing
nearly 7 in 10 Americans believing the nation is headed in the wrong
direction.
Further,
nearly 60% think that the next generation will be worse off than they are. And
few have any faith that the economic outlook for the country will improve in
the near or distant future.
Beginning
in the late 1980’s, the cognoscenti declared that expansive government
spending, globalization and free trade, combined with a comprehensive and
overarching regulatory regime determined to root out so-called corruption and
inequality as well as save the planet from the over blown evils of global
warming, would be the course the nation should pursue. The result of this
foolhardy and myopic scheme:
1.
In 1988 the national debt of the United States stood at $2.6
Trillion, today it is over $19.0 Trillion-- an increase of 635% (and projected
to reach $29.0 Trillion by 2026). On the other hand the debt of all the
nations on earth has grown by only 135% since 1988.
2.
Since November of 2008 the working age population has increased by
over 18 million. However, the number of those employed has increased just 5.5
million. Meanwhile those unemployed or no longer in the work force has
ballooned by 12.4 million to a staggering total of 102 million or 40.4% of the working age population.
3.
Another factor impacting on the economic health of the American
people is immigration. In 1988 there were 16 million immigrants
(including less than a million illegal aliens) living in the United
States. Today that number has skyrocketed to 42.4 million (including an
estimated 12 million illegal aliens). This enormous increase (165%) in
the immigrant population has not only put pressure on a stagnant job market but
it has also been a major factor in the decline of median income in the country.
4.
The upshot of all the above is that since 1988 the income of the
top 5% has risen 39.3% (adjusted for inflation) and the income of the bottom 50% has fallen by 1.9%.
5.
Since 2008 the Obama cabal has added
over 18,000 pages to the Code of Federal Regulations. It is estimated that
complying with federal regulations costs the economy nearly $2 Trillion per
year and is, along with taxes and innumerable mandates, one of the principle
reasons for the lack of new business start-ups and loss of jobs to other
countries.
One
of the primary hallmarks of the United States had been that of a classless
society wherein economic factors allowed the citizenry to take advantage of the
marketplace in order to move up or down based on their efforts and willingness
to work. However, this scenario is disappearing as the opportunities for
upward mobility cease to exist. In its place a class driven society,
similar to all other quasi-socialist nations past and present, is now becoming
inevitable as even the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits that the level of
Americans working and in the labor force will continue to decrease over the next 8
years.
Another
of the primary factors in the decline of the United States is that the nation’s
elites, rather than view education as the means for the people to attain
success in a competitive world, have recast it into a vehicle for their pet
theories and political views. Whether it is the promulgation of faux
self-esteem, the obsession with the so-called evils of capitalism and the
nation’s past, and the theoretical joys of socialism among other inane
curricula, the education establishment has assured that the American people are
rapidly becoming among the least well-educated populations in the world.
In
2013 American 15 year olds ranked 32nd among
industrialized countries in math, 20th in reading and 24th in
science. In 1988 this same age group ranked among the top 5-10 nations in
the world in these same categories. Further, recent polls have indicated that
as a byproduct of the radicalized education establishment, nearly 7 out of 10 between the ages of
18 and 29 would vote for an avowed socialist. Thus it is clear that the
future of the country is on very shaky ground.
As
for the issue of freedom: in a recent analysis it was determined that the
United States now ranks 12th among the nations of the world in
economic freedom (6thin 2008) but a dismal 31st in
personal freedom (17th in 2008). The authors of the study commented:
The
decline reflects the long-term drop in every category of economic freedom and
its rule of law indicators. The US performance is worrisome and shows that the
US can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world.
In addition to the expansion of the regulatory state and drop in economic
freedom, the war on terror, the war on drugs and the erosion of property rights
due to a greater use of eminent domain all likely contributed to the US
decline.
Using
the cudgel of the mainstream media, the entertainment complex and the education
establishment, the Left and its surrogate, the Democratic Party, have
successfully inculcated into a plurality of the American people a belief that
there are no moral absolutes and that the state can grant any rights that it so
chooses to whomever it chooses. Further, the nation’s founding documents
are arcane, racially insensitive, and unsuitable for today. Thus
religious liberty, property rights and freedom of speech are under aggressive
assault. The Judiciary is now almost under the complete control of these
same statists, and with the death of Justice Scalia the last line of defense,
the Supreme Court, is in peril.
The
vast majority of the American people sense that the future of the nation and
that of their progeny is in serious jeopardy. However, one of the most
troubling aspects of the current unease and angst among the general public is
what this portends: when anger and frustration evolve into deep seated passion,
reason is too often a casualty. As Thomas Sowell recently wrote:
Too
many nations, in desperate times, especially after the authorities have
discredited themselves and forfeited the trust of the people, have turned to
some new and charismatic leader, who ended up turning a dire situation into an
utter catastrophe,
This
has been true throughout history whether in England in the 1650’s, France in
the 1790’s, or Russia, Italy and Germany in the 20th century.
In
the current campaign for the next president, there are candidates attempting to
tap into the ire of the citizenry by either promising that a purer form of
socialism will magically solve the problems or by claiming that they, by sheer
force of their will and personality, will part the seas and save the nation.
Unfortunately, due to the ill-education of the populace as well as their angst,
far too many seeds of this demagoguery are falling on fertile ground. The
election of any of these candidates will only exacerbate and make permanent the
nations woes.
So
to my ruling class friends safely ensconced in Washington, New York and other
enclaves among the like-minded and wealthy, this nation is at the point of no
return to the country of freedom and opportunity that allowed you to be where
you are. The folks in fly-over country know it and so should you.
*
AMERICA AT THE POINT OF NO RETURN
THE LEGACY OF CORRUPTION OF BARACK OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON
more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/the_united_states_at_the_point_of_no_return.html#ixzz40Mw7Fxf8
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
An old joke I heard during my brief time in the opera business went something like this: There are four types of tenors: leggiero, lyric, spinto, and heldentenor. The leggiero tenor has no balls. The lyric tenor has one ball. The spinto tenor has two...
The main objective of “political animals” like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to fix a broken America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there are people who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at the huge Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing that Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people who have brought it down.
Inequality, class and life expectancy in America
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
An old joke I heard during my brief time in the opera business went something like this: There are four types of tenors: leggiero, lyric, spinto, and heldentenor. The leggiero tenor has no balls. The lyric tenor has one ball. The spinto tenor has two...
The main objective of “political animals” like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to fix a broken America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there are people who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at the huge Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing that Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people who have brought it down.
Inequality, class and life expectancy in America
Inequality, class and life expectancy in America
15 February
2016
A study by Brookings
Institution economists released Friday documents a sharp increase in life span
divergences between the rich and the poor in America. The report, based on an
analysis of Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data, concludes
that for men born in 1950, the gap in life expectancy between the top 10
percent of wage earners and the bottom 10 percent is more than double the gap
for their counterparts born in 1920.
For those born in 1920, there was a six-year differential between rich and poor. For those born in 1950, that difference had reached 14 years. For women, the gap grew from 4.7 years to 13 years, almost tripling.
Overall, life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent improved by just 3 percent for men born in 1950 over those born in 1920. For the top 10 percent, it soared by about 28 percent.
Life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent of male wage earners born in 1950 rose by less than one year compared to that for male workers born 40 years earlier—to 73.6 from 72.9. But for the top 10 percent, life expectancy leapt to 87.2 from 79.1.
The United States ranks among the worst so-called rich countries when it comes to life expectancy. But its low ranking is entirely due to the poor health and high mortality of low-income Americans. According to the Social Security Administration, life expectancy for the wealthiest US men at age 60 was just below the rates for Iceland and Japan, two countries with the highest levels. Americans in the bottom quarter of the wage scale, on the other hand, ranked just above Poland and the Czech Republic.
Life-expectancy is the most basic indicator of social well-being. The minimal increase for low-income workers and the widening disparity between the poor and the rich is a stark commentary on the immense growth of social inequality and class polarization in the United States. It underscores the fact that socioeconomic class is the fundamental category of social life under capitalism—one that conditions every aspect of life, including its length.
The Brookings Institution findings shed further light on the catastrophic decline in the social position of the American working class. They follow recent reports showing a sharp rise in death rates for both young and middle-aged white workers, primarily due to drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide. Other recent reports have shown a dramatic decline in life expectancy for poorer middle-aged Americans and a reversal of decades of declining infant mortality.
It is no mystery what is behind this vast social retrogression. It is the product of the decay of American capitalism and a four-decade-long offensive by the ruling elite against the working class. From Reagan to the Obama administration, Democrats and Republicans alike have overseen a corporate-government assault on the jobs, wages, pensions and health benefits of working people.
The ruling elite has dismantled the bulk of the country’s industrial infrastructure, destroying decent-paying jobs by the millions, and turned to the most parasitic and criminal forms of financial speculation as the main source of its profit and private wealth. Untold trillions have been squandered to finance perpetual war and the maniacal self-enrichment of the top 1 percent and 0.1 percent.
The basic infrastructure of the country has been starved of funds and left to rot, to the point where uncounted millions of people are being poisoned with lead and other toxins from corroded water systems. Flint, Michigan is just the tip of the iceberg.
Under Obama, this social counterrevolution has been intensified. The financial meltdown of 2008 has been utilized by the same forces that precipitated the crash to carry through a reordering of social relations aimed at reversing every social gain won by the working class in the course of a century of struggle. A central target of the attack is health care for working people.
Obamacare is the spearhead of a worked-out strategy to reduce the quantity and quality of health care available to workers and reorganize the health care system directly on a class basis. Corporate and government costs are to be slashed by gutting employer-paid health care, forcing workers individually to buy expensive, bare-bones plans from the insurance monopolies, and rationing drugs, tests and medical procedures to make them inaccessible to workers.
The rise in mortality for workers and the widening of the life span gap between rich and poor are not simply the outcome of impersonal economic forces. In corporate boardrooms, think tanks and state agencies, the ruling class is working to lower working class life expectancy. In late 2013, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank with the closest ties to the Pentagon and the CIA, published two policy papers decrying the “waste” of money on health care for the elderly. The clear message was that ordinary people were living much too long and diverting resources needed by the military to wage war around the world.
The social and economic chasm in America finds a political expression in the vast disconnect between the entire political establishment and the masses of working people. Neither party nor any of their presidential candidates, the self-described “socialist” Bernie Sanders included, can seriously address the real state of social conditions or offer a serious program to address the crisis.
In his final State of the Union Address last month, Obama presented an absurd picture of a resurgent economy. “The United States of America, right now,” he declared, “has the strongest, most durable economy in the world… Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Sanders are seeking to outdo one another in seizing the mantle of the Obama administration and praising its supposed social and economic achievements.
They cannot address the real conditions facing the masses of working people because they defend the capitalist system, which is the source of the social disaster. The remedy must be based on an understanding of the disease. It is the building of an independent socialist and revolutionary movement uniting the entire working class, in the US and around the world.
Barry Grey
For those born in 1920, there was a six-year differential between rich and poor. For those born in 1950, that difference had reached 14 years. For women, the gap grew from 4.7 years to 13 years, almost tripling.
Overall, life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent improved by just 3 percent for men born in 1950 over those born in 1920. For the top 10 percent, it soared by about 28 percent.
Life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent of male wage earners born in 1950 rose by less than one year compared to that for male workers born 40 years earlier—to 73.6 from 72.9. But for the top 10 percent, life expectancy leapt to 87.2 from 79.1.
The United States ranks among the worst so-called rich countries when it comes to life expectancy. But its low ranking is entirely due to the poor health and high mortality of low-income Americans. According to the Social Security Administration, life expectancy for the wealthiest US men at age 60 was just below the rates for Iceland and Japan, two countries with the highest levels. Americans in the bottom quarter of the wage scale, on the other hand, ranked just above Poland and the Czech Republic.
Life-expectancy is the most basic indicator of social well-being. The minimal increase for low-income workers and the widening disparity between the poor and the rich is a stark commentary on the immense growth of social inequality and class polarization in the United States. It underscores the fact that socioeconomic class is the fundamental category of social life under capitalism—one that conditions every aspect of life, including its length.
The Brookings Institution findings shed further light on the catastrophic decline in the social position of the American working class. They follow recent reports showing a sharp rise in death rates for both young and middle-aged white workers, primarily due to drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide. Other recent reports have shown a dramatic decline in life expectancy for poorer middle-aged Americans and a reversal of decades of declining infant mortality.
It is no mystery what is behind this vast social retrogression. It is the product of the decay of American capitalism and a four-decade-long offensive by the ruling elite against the working class. From Reagan to the Obama administration, Democrats and Republicans alike have overseen a corporate-government assault on the jobs, wages, pensions and health benefits of working people.
The ruling elite has dismantled the bulk of the country’s industrial infrastructure, destroying decent-paying jobs by the millions, and turned to the most parasitic and criminal forms of financial speculation as the main source of its profit and private wealth. Untold trillions have been squandered to finance perpetual war and the maniacal self-enrichment of the top 1 percent and 0.1 percent.
The basic infrastructure of the country has been starved of funds and left to rot, to the point where uncounted millions of people are being poisoned with lead and other toxins from corroded water systems. Flint, Michigan is just the tip of the iceberg.
Under Obama, this social counterrevolution has been intensified. The financial meltdown of 2008 has been utilized by the same forces that precipitated the crash to carry through a reordering of social relations aimed at reversing every social gain won by the working class in the course of a century of struggle. A central target of the attack is health care for working people.
Obamacare is the spearhead of a worked-out strategy to reduce the quantity and quality of health care available to workers and reorganize the health care system directly on a class basis. Corporate and government costs are to be slashed by gutting employer-paid health care, forcing workers individually to buy expensive, bare-bones plans from the insurance monopolies, and rationing drugs, tests and medical procedures to make them inaccessible to workers.
The rise in mortality for workers and the widening of the life span gap between rich and poor are not simply the outcome of impersonal economic forces. In corporate boardrooms, think tanks and state agencies, the ruling class is working to lower working class life expectancy. In late 2013, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank with the closest ties to the Pentagon and the CIA, published two policy papers decrying the “waste” of money on health care for the elderly. The clear message was that ordinary people were living much too long and diverting resources needed by the military to wage war around the world.
The social and economic chasm in America finds a political expression in the vast disconnect between the entire political establishment and the masses of working people. Neither party nor any of their presidential candidates, the self-described “socialist” Bernie Sanders included, can seriously address the real state of social conditions or offer a serious program to address the crisis.
In his final State of the Union Address last month, Obama presented an absurd picture of a resurgent economy. “The United States of America, right now,” he declared, “has the strongest, most durable economy in the world… Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Sanders are seeking to outdo one another in seizing the mantle of the Obama administration and praising its supposed social and economic achievements.
They cannot address the real conditions facing the masses of working people because they defend the capitalist system, which is the source of the social disaster. The remedy must be based on an understanding of the disease. It is the building of an independent socialist and revolutionary movement uniting the entire working class, in the US and around the world.
Barry Grey
February 13, 2016
More 'legacy lies' from
outgoing Obama on economy
Here is what President
Obama said on the Ellen show on Abe Lincoln's birthday:
Since I came into office,
we reduced the deficit by two-thirds, but if you ask the average person,
they're sure that spending has shot up. And the reason is because there are a
bunch of folks who say that we're wildly overspending, even though we aren't.
Here are some actual
numbers: in FY 2007, the last year President Bush and Republicans had 100%
control of Congress, federal spending including both wars was $2.7 trillion.
The budget President Obama just submitted is $4.1 trillion. That is
up over 50% despite record-low interest rates and his continually bragging that
he has ended the wars. Median family income around the country is
actually down or flat, so I do not understand how the president could pretend
that they aren't overspending and taxing.
The deficit was down to $161 billion in FY 2007, including the spending on the wars and because of President Bush's across-the-board tax cuts in the summer of 2003. In FY 2003, federal income tax receipts had decreased to around $900 billion prior to the tax cuts, due to a recession and a collapsed stock market. By FY 2007, due to the stimulus of the tax cuts, the economy rebounded, economic growth was substantial, unemployment was way down (not because of a lower labor participation rate), and income tax receipts had climbed to over $1.5 trillion. The tax rate cuts did not cause receipts to go down, as Democrats and CBO had projected; they actually skyrocketed by over 60%. The tax cuts obviously did not cause the deficit.
The projected deficit for FY 2016 is projected to be over $500 billion. Think how high it would be if the Federal Reserve weren't keeping the interest rates artificially low.
Despite the record-low interest rates and massive increases in federal spending, economic growth has been some of the slowest on record after a recession. Keynesian economics is obviously not that stimulating.
The president also continually says that his policies brought us out of the great recession. The recession actually ended by June 2009, four months and ten days after he took office. This is obviously before any of his policies could have had any effect.
On February 10, in Springfield, Illinois, he gave a speech where he said his opponents are not entitled to their own facts. It would be nice if he paid attention to that lecture, and it would be great if the media would call him out on his many false statements.
The deficit was down to $161 billion in FY 2007, including the spending on the wars and because of President Bush's across-the-board tax cuts in the summer of 2003. In FY 2003, federal income tax receipts had decreased to around $900 billion prior to the tax cuts, due to a recession and a collapsed stock market. By FY 2007, due to the stimulus of the tax cuts, the economy rebounded, economic growth was substantial, unemployment was way down (not because of a lower labor participation rate), and income tax receipts had climbed to over $1.5 trillion. The tax rate cuts did not cause receipts to go down, as Democrats and CBO had projected; they actually skyrocketed by over 60%. The tax cuts obviously did not cause the deficit.
The projected deficit for FY 2016 is projected to be over $500 billion. Think how high it would be if the Federal Reserve weren't keeping the interest rates artificially low.
Despite the record-low interest rates and massive increases in federal spending, economic growth has been some of the slowest on record after a recession. Keynesian economics is obviously not that stimulating.
The president also continually says that his policies brought us out of the great recession. The recession actually ended by June 2009, four months and ten days after he took office. This is obviously before any of his policies could have had any effect.
On February 10, in Springfield, Illinois, he gave a speech where he said his opponents are not entitled to their own facts. It would be nice if he paid attention to that lecture, and it would be great if the media would call him out on his many false statements.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/more_legacy_lies_from_outgoing_obama_on_economy.html#ixzz404dvRyAl
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http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/a_day_in_the_life_of_central_americans_crossing_mexico.html
February 2, 2016
The ‘Right Stuff’ for the
Presidency
By Jon N. Hall
An old joke I heard during my brief time in the opera business went something like this: There are four types of tenors: leggiero, lyric, spinto, and heldentenor. The leggiero tenor has no balls. The lyric tenor has one ball. The spinto tenor has two balls. And the heldentenor has two balls, and he’s standing on one of them.
An old joke I heard during my brief time in the opera business went something like this: There are four types of tenors: leggiero, lyric, spinto, and heldentenor. The leggiero tenor has no balls. The lyric tenor has one ball. The spinto tenor has two balls. And the heldentenor has two balls, and he’s standing on one of them.
The joke might be funny
only to opera goers, especially those who attend the Bayreuth Festival. But
allow me to add that the recently-departed Canadian heldentenor Jon Vickers had
three or four balls and never needed to stand on any of them. (As you might
guess, I’m a fan of that late, great singer.)
In any event, balls bring us to Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the U.K. Some might think it rude to say that the “Iron Lady” had more balls than the men of her day leading other European nations -- rude, that is, to Lady Thatcher, who was every inch a woman. However, it could be said that compared to some of her male counterparts, Mrs. Thatcher certainly had no fewer balls.
What is meant by “balls” is: guts, grit, courage, will, determination, and resolve. But those attributes can also work in the service of evil; Hitler certainly had “will,” didn’t he? So there must be other qualities that are needed in the leader of a nation besides balls. Just what are those other qualities that make a person fit to be the prime minister or the president of a great nation?
At a recent rally in New Hampshire, former president Clinton spoke of his wife Hillary: “I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I do not believe in my lifetime anybody has run for this job at a moment of great importance who was better qualified by knowledge, experience, and temperament to do what needs to be done now to restore prosperity, to deal with these human issues, to make us as safe as possible. Thank you very much [short video].”
Okay, but why believe him? After all, the former president has a record of lying, even under oath in a grand jury. Perhaps Bill’s just trying to get himself back in the White House. And I’d like to remind the former president that he was alive in 1946. So his “lifetime” includes the runs for president of Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and Reagan. Hillary’s more qualified than those guys? C’mon, Bill.
“Going the Distance,” a January 2014 article in The New Yorker, is often cited for Pres. Obama’s reference to ISIS as a junior varsity basketball team: “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” (And getting elected president doesn’t mean one is fit to be president, Mr. President.)
Another Obama quote from that same article is germane to our issue of what are the essentials, the “right stuff,” for being president: “I have strengths and I have weaknesses, like every president, like every person. I do think one of my strengths is temperament.”
Is that a fact? Does Obama have the correct temperament for the presidency? When Bill Clinton spoke in New Hampshire about his wife, he stressed the word “temperament.” So, what exactly is theideal presidential temperament?
One important aspect of temperament is the ability and willingness to be collegial. “Collegiality” involves respecting one’s colleagues and listening to their ideas; it involves being open to others’ input. So many of the monumental achievements of the modern age, like going to the Moon, were massive collegial efforts, where folks pool their knowledge and expertise. Together, we’re smarter.
Barack Obama demonstrated a lack of collegiality at the Healthcare Summit in 2010. Senator McCain had just presented a very respectful call to revisit certain issues in the healthcare legislation that would become ObamaCare, and finished his comments saying, “I thank you, Mr. President.” Obama responded thus: “Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore; the election’s over.” Some might have wished that McCain had responded in kind: Yes, Barry, I know, and I can’t explain the electorate’s bad judgment.
Fortunately, Sen. McCain was a gentleman and refrained from payback. Had he done so, it would have further poisoned the summit, (and he would have lowered himself to Obama’s level). There was nothing in Sen. McCain’s comments that was unreasonable, but the president couldn’t resist putting McCain in his place. What would possess someone to be so rude to a genuine American patriot? Was it that Sen. McCain wouldn’t let Obama cut him off: “Can I just finish, please?” Maybe that ticked off our little princeling. (You can watch McCain’s entire presentation by starting at the 2:21:10 mark of this C-SPAN video, or you can watch just the end, or this split-screen version positioned at Obama’s snark.)
Throughout his presidency, Obama has demonstrated a singular deficiency at collegiality. When Obama encounters questions he doesn’t like, he tries to shut down the questioner and end the discussion. When asked if the healthcare bill’s “individual mandate” were actually a tax, Obama would have none of it, and laughed at his questioner dismissively. Obama’s belief in his own pet ideas is so absolute that he is even comfortable overriding the best advice of his generals. Obama seems not to have an ability to work with others; it’s all “my way or the highway.” But there’s no need for collegiality if you already know everything. In “The Confident Ignorance of Barack Obama,” Thomas Sowell writes:
In any event, balls bring us to Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the U.K. Some might think it rude to say that the “Iron Lady” had more balls than the men of her day leading other European nations -- rude, that is, to Lady Thatcher, who was every inch a woman. However, it could be said that compared to some of her male counterparts, Mrs. Thatcher certainly had no fewer balls.
What is meant by “balls” is: guts, grit, courage, will, determination, and resolve. But those attributes can also work in the service of evil; Hitler certainly had “will,” didn’t he? So there must be other qualities that are needed in the leader of a nation besides balls. Just what are those other qualities that make a person fit to be the prime minister or the president of a great nation?
At a recent rally in New Hampshire, former president Clinton spoke of his wife Hillary: “I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I do not believe in my lifetime anybody has run for this job at a moment of great importance who was better qualified by knowledge, experience, and temperament to do what needs to be done now to restore prosperity, to deal with these human issues, to make us as safe as possible. Thank you very much [short video].”
Okay, but why believe him? After all, the former president has a record of lying, even under oath in a grand jury. Perhaps Bill’s just trying to get himself back in the White House. And I’d like to remind the former president that he was alive in 1946. So his “lifetime” includes the runs for president of Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and Reagan. Hillary’s more qualified than those guys? C’mon, Bill.
“Going the Distance,” a January 2014 article in The New Yorker, is often cited for Pres. Obama’s reference to ISIS as a junior varsity basketball team: “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” (And getting elected president doesn’t mean one is fit to be president, Mr. President.)
Another Obama quote from that same article is germane to our issue of what are the essentials, the “right stuff,” for being president: “I have strengths and I have weaknesses, like every president, like every person. I do think one of my strengths is temperament.”
Is that a fact? Does Obama have the correct temperament for the presidency? When Bill Clinton spoke in New Hampshire about his wife, he stressed the word “temperament.” So, what exactly is theideal presidential temperament?
One important aspect of temperament is the ability and willingness to be collegial. “Collegiality” involves respecting one’s colleagues and listening to their ideas; it involves being open to others’ input. So many of the monumental achievements of the modern age, like going to the Moon, were massive collegial efforts, where folks pool their knowledge and expertise. Together, we’re smarter.
Barack Obama demonstrated a lack of collegiality at the Healthcare Summit in 2010. Senator McCain had just presented a very respectful call to revisit certain issues in the healthcare legislation that would become ObamaCare, and finished his comments saying, “I thank you, Mr. President.” Obama responded thus: “Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore; the election’s over.” Some might have wished that McCain had responded in kind: Yes, Barry, I know, and I can’t explain the electorate’s bad judgment.
Fortunately, Sen. McCain was a gentleman and refrained from payback. Had he done so, it would have further poisoned the summit, (and he would have lowered himself to Obama’s level). There was nothing in Sen. McCain’s comments that was unreasonable, but the president couldn’t resist putting McCain in his place. What would possess someone to be so rude to a genuine American patriot? Was it that Sen. McCain wouldn’t let Obama cut him off: “Can I just finish, please?” Maybe that ticked off our little princeling. (You can watch McCain’s entire presentation by starting at the 2:21:10 mark of this C-SPAN video, or you can watch just the end, or this split-screen version positioned at Obama’s snark.)
Throughout his presidency, Obama has demonstrated a singular deficiency at collegiality. When Obama encounters questions he doesn’t like, he tries to shut down the questioner and end the discussion. When asked if the healthcare bill’s “individual mandate” were actually a tax, Obama would have none of it, and laughed at his questioner dismissively. Obama’s belief in his own pet ideas is so absolute that he is even comfortable overriding the best advice of his generals. Obama seems not to have an ability to work with others; it’s all “my way or the highway.” But there’s no need for collegiality if you already know everything. In “The Confident Ignorance of Barack Obama,” Thomas Sowell writes:
As Professor Richard
Epstein of the University of Chicago Law School has pointed out, Obama
made no effort to take part in the marketplace of ideas with other
faculty members when he was teaching a law course there. What would be the
point, if he already knew the truth and knew that they were wrong? [Italics
added.]
The main objective of
“political animals” like Obama and the Clintons is to get elected; it’s not to
fix a broken America, nor to protect her. There are people who govern and there
are people who campaign; Obama and the Clintons are the latter. Just look at
the huge Republican electoral gains under Obama and the Clintons. It’s amazing
that Democrats who still care about their party still support the very people
who have brought it down.
America is so beaten up and broken right now that she needs a “savior,” like a Lincoln. If Obama doesn’t do the right thing and proceed with an indictment of Mrs. Clinton, then Republicans should “fight fire with oil” and nominate a woman. And they should also insist on a minority for running mate. Just to be sure, they probably ought to do those two things anyway. Carly Fiorina might just have the right temperament to be president, but there are other terrific conservative women that convention delegates could draft.
America needs a collegial president, not a “lyrical” one.
America is so beaten up and broken right now that she needs a “savior,” like a Lincoln. If Obama doesn’t do the right thing and proceed with an indictment of Mrs. Clinton, then Republicans should “fight fire with oil” and nominate a woman. And they should also insist on a minority for running mate. Just to be sure, they probably ought to do those two things anyway. Carly Fiorina might just have the right temperament to be president, but there are other terrific conservative women that convention delegates could draft.
America needs a collegial president, not a “lyrical” one.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/the_right_stuff_for_the_presidency.html#ixzz3z2cbt8Me
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Another Surge of Illegal Immigrants Along the Southwest Border: Is this the Obama Administration’s New Normal?
House Committee on the Judiciary
9:00 a.m., Thursday, February 4, 2016
2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/hearings?ID=9AC016C4-D7CD-44D7-8172-9B81E587D2BD
Witnesses:
Brandon Judd, U.S. Border Patrol Agent and the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Border Patrol Council
Steven McCraw, Director, Texas Department of Public Safety
Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for immigration Studies
RASMUSSEN:
Republican Debate Shows Where Comprehensive Immigration Is Headed: Nowhere
House Appropriations Boss Initiates
Crackdown on Sanctuaries
Today the chairman of the
House appropriations subcommittee in charge of funding the Department of
Justice, John Culberson (R-Texas), put the Obama administration on notice that
it must take steps to rein in sanctuary jurisdictions or risk problems getting
approval for its own budget requests. In addition, Culberson announced that he
will begin requiring local jurisdictions to follow federal law and stop
obstructing communication with immigration agencies as a condition for
receiving certain federal law enforcement funding.
BLOG: LIKE ALL OF OBAMA'S CABINET, ONE MUST FIRST BE CONNECTED TO THE BANKSTER SECTOR AND SECONDLY BE AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS, SABOTAGE E-VERIFY AND PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF LA RAZA ABOVE LEGALS. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT LORETTA LYNCH HAS AND WILL DO.
In a sternly worded letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Culberson said that he has a responsibility to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies are following federal law before they can get federal grants. He said that sanctuary policies restricting communication between local and federal officials are a clear violation of Section 1373 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Among the jurisdictions that have imposed such policies are San Francisco, Cook County, Ill., and New York City. In addition to prohibiting local officers from communicating with immigration authorities, these jurisdictions bar federal officers from coming into jails to interview or arrest deportable criminals.
BLOG: LIKE ALL OF OBAMA'S CABINET, ONE MUST FIRST BE CONNECTED TO THE BANKSTER SECTOR AND SECONDLY BE AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS, SABOTAGE E-VERIFY AND PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF LA RAZA ABOVE LEGALS. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT LORETTA LYNCH HAS AND WILL DO.
In a sternly worded letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Culberson said that he has a responsibility to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies are following federal law before they can get federal grants. He said that sanctuary policies restricting communication between local and federal officials are a clear violation of Section 1373 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Among the jurisdictions that have imposed such policies are San Francisco, Cook County, Ill., and New York City. In addition to prohibiting local officers from communicating with immigration authorities, these jurisdictions bar federal officers from coming into jails to interview or arrest deportable criminals.
State and local sanctuary policies obstruct immigration
enforcement and cause the release of criminal aliens back to the streets of
American communities. According to ICE records that the Center obtained in a
FOIA request, in 2014 more than 9,000 criminal aliens that ICE was seeking to
deport were instead released. More than 2,300 of these criminal aliens went on
to commit additional crimes within just a few months.
The three law enforcement funding programs that could become off-limits to sanctuaries currently dispense more than $1 billion a year to state and local agencies.
Mr. Culberson contacted the Center shortly after the publication of this information in July, saying that he had long sought concrete information on the extent of this problem and that he was determined to use his authority to address it. The Center has compiled a list of over 300 cities, counties, and states that have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that protect criminal aliens from deportation — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, or otherwise impeding open communication and information exchanges between their employees or officers and federal immigration officers. These jurisdictions are noted on a map here.
Culberson's letter outlines several steps he expects the Justice Department to take:
The three law enforcement funding programs that could become off-limits to sanctuaries currently dispense more than $1 billion a year to state and local agencies.
Mr. Culberson contacted the Center shortly after the publication of this information in July, saying that he had long sought concrete information on the extent of this problem and that he was determined to use his authority to address it. The Center has compiled a list of over 300 cities, counties, and states that have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that protect criminal aliens from deportation — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, or otherwise impeding open communication and information exchanges between their employees or officers and federal immigration officers. These jurisdictions are noted on a map here.
Culberson's letter outlines several steps he expects the Justice Department to take:
1.
Beginning this year, amend the grant application forms for the
Byrne/Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS) grants, and State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)
reimbursement program to require agencies seeking these funds to swear that
they do not have policies that violate Section 1373; and
2.
Work with sanctuary jurisdictions to change their policies, and
if they do not, take legal action to compel their compliance with federal law;
3.
Deny funding to any non-compliant sanctuary jurisdictions.
In addition, he
asks the attorney general to look at whether jurisdictions that release
criminal aliens sought by ICE are in violation of 8 USC 1324, the federal felony statute
that prohibits anyone from shielding illegal aliens from detection. After all,
these jurisdictions have been notified in writing by the detainers (federal
Form I-247) that the aliens' identities and status have been confirmed by
biometric fingerprint matching, and that federal agents wish to take custody of
the aliens, and/or to be notified of the date, time, and place of release — so
the sanctuaries are knowingly releasing deportable aliens sought by ICE. He
said that he will consider applying this section of the law next year to block
funding to jurisdictions that release criminal aliens sought by ICE. This
action could affect the hundreds of agencies that fail to comply with or accept
ICE detainers, for example.
Culberson warned that if the administration stubbornly continues to tolerate sanctuaries, he will find it hard to look favorably on any spending requests from DOJ in the coming appropriations season: "I hope the attorney general will do the right thing here so that I am not compelled to object to relevant portions of the Department's spending plan and reprogramming requests. Any refusal by the Department to comply with these reasonable and timely requests will factor heavily in my consideration of their 2017 budget requests."
Even following public outcry over a series of cases of murders committed by criminal aliens after release by sanctuaries, including the killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, the Obama administration has resisted calls for action to discourage or punish the jurisdictions that obstruct immigration enforcement. Instead, it has pressed ahead in implementing the so-called Priority Enforcement Program, which explicitly allows sanctuary policies that violate federal law. It's clear that the administration is more interested in protecting criminal aliens than in protecting the public from their acts; now we'll see if the Department of Justice is willing to jeopardize its own funding to spare sanctuaries from being sanctioned, and if the sanctuaries are willing to sacrifice federal funding in order to protect criminal aliens.
Culberson warned that if the administration stubbornly continues to tolerate sanctuaries, he will find it hard to look favorably on any spending requests from DOJ in the coming appropriations season: "I hope the attorney general will do the right thing here so that I am not compelled to object to relevant portions of the Department's spending plan and reprogramming requests. Any refusal by the Department to comply with these reasonable and timely requests will factor heavily in my consideration of their 2017 budget requests."
Even following public outcry over a series of cases of murders committed by criminal aliens after release by sanctuaries, including the killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, the Obama administration has resisted calls for action to discourage or punish the jurisdictions that obstruct immigration enforcement. Instead, it has pressed ahead in implementing the so-called Priority Enforcement Program, which explicitly allows sanctuary policies that violate federal law. It's clear that the administration is more interested in protecting criminal aliens than in protecting the public from their acts; now we'll see if the Department of Justice is willing to jeopardize its own funding to spare sanctuaries from being sanctioned, and if the sanctuaries are willing to sacrifice federal funding in order to protect criminal aliens.
Surge in Illegal Aliens,
500% Increase in Some U.S. Ports of Entry
Judicial Watch
Corruption Chronicles, December 30, 2015
The agency’s own statistics certainly contradict that, showing that the southern border region is as porous and vulnerable as ever. Other entry ports that saw large hikes in Central American illegal immigrants during the first two months of this fiscal year include Del Rio, Texas (269%), El Centro, California (216%) and Rio Grande Valley, Texas (154%). The Border Patrol breaks the stats down by “family unit” and illegal immigrants under the age of 18, referred to as “Unaccompanied Alien Children” or UAC. The Rio Grande Valley port of entry topped the list in both categories with 8,537 family units and 6,465 UACs during the two-month period. In all, the nation’s nine southern border crossings saw an average of 173% increase in family units and a 106% increase in minors during the short period considered.
Some of the illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals, but the overwhelming majority comes from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The government records show that somehow 4,450 family units from El Salvador evaded our topnotch border security and entered the United States in a period of only two months. Guatemala and Honduras had 3,934 and 3,203 respectively. Mexico had 538 family units. Of interesting note is that, during this period, the Border Patrol reports 35,234 apprehensions in the region of foreigners labeled by the government as “Other Than Mexican” or OTM. This is a term used by federal authorities to refer to nationals of countries that represent a terrorist threat to the U.S.
. . .
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/12/surge-in-illegal-aliens-500-increase-in-some-u-s-ports-of-entry/
The agency’s own statistics certainly contradict that, showing that the southern border region is as porous and vulnerable as ever. Other entry ports that saw large hikes in Central American illegal immigrants during the first two months of this fiscal year include Del Rio, Texas (269%), El Centro, California (216%) and Rio Grande Valley, Texas (154%). The Border Patrol breaks the stats down by “family unit” and illegal immigrants under the age of 18, referred to as “Unaccompanied Alien Children” or UAC. The Rio Grande Valley port of entry topped the list in both categories with 8,537 family units and 6,465 UACs during the two-month period. In all, the nation’s nine southern border crossings saw an average of 173% increase in family units and a 106% increase in minors during the short period considered.
Some of the illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals, but the overwhelming majority comes from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The government records show that somehow 4,450 family units from El Salvador evaded our topnotch border security and entered the United States in a period of only two months. Guatemala and Honduras had 3,934 and 3,203 respectively. Mexico had 538 family units. Of interesting note is that, during this period, the Border Patrol reports 35,234 apprehensions in the region of foreigners labeled by the government as “Other Than Mexican” or OTM. This is a term used by federal authorities to refer to nationals of countries that represent a terrorist threat to the U.S.
. . .
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/12/surge-in-illegal-aliens-500-increase-in-some-u-s-ports-of-entry/
Houston Slayings Fueled
Border Security Debate
·
Jan. 31, 2016
Enlarge Photo by Michael Stravato
Dan Golvach, father of Spencer Golvach, at his son's grave in
Houston Tuesday, October 20, 2015.
HOUSTON — Julie Golvach remembers that something felt “off” the
night she lost her only child.
It was exactly one year ago today, a few minutes before 1 a.m. Standing in the driveway of her Houston home, waving goodbye to her sister under a clear winter sky, something didn't feel right. The stars didn’t look the same.
Golvach tossed and turned in bed for a while but was sound asleep when a knock on the door came at 6 a.m.
“I jumped up and I knew,” she said.
She stopped by her son’s boyhood bedroom, the one with the window looking out onto the driveway. He’d slept there a week earlier, the evening they went to see "American Sniper" together. She slipped past the picture of him and his best childhood friend on the wall, skirting the bed with the stuffed toy lamb — a baby shower relic — lying on top.
Out the window, Golvach saw three people — two uniformed police officers and a woman wearing a shirt that read “chaplain.” Her chest pounded as she made her way to the front door and opened it.
“Is it Spencer?” she asked.
The second those words tumbled out of her mouth, she knew the answer, just as she had known when she uttered that exact phrase the day he was born, before anyone told her if the baby was a boy or a girl. She just knew.
It was Spencer.
One night off
Spencer Golvach grew up in the sprawl of northwest Houston, surrounded by guitars and destined for a career in music, his father’s passion.
When he turned 16 in 2005 and got his driver’s license, the easygoing musician started working at a local guitar store in a strip mall not far from Jersey Village High School, where he excelled in shop class and anything he could do with his hands.
He had always fiddled with his dad’s guitars, and he developed a knack for fixing and rebuilding them at the store. A few years later, when the shop owner announced his retirement, Spencer decided to buy the Cy-Fair area business.
It was exactly one year ago today, a few minutes before 1 a.m. Standing in the driveway of her Houston home, waving goodbye to her sister under a clear winter sky, something didn't feel right. The stars didn’t look the same.
Golvach tossed and turned in bed for a while but was sound asleep when a knock on the door came at 6 a.m.
“I jumped up and I knew,” she said.
She stopped by her son’s boyhood bedroom, the one with the window looking out onto the driveway. He’d slept there a week earlier, the evening they went to see "American Sniper" together. She slipped past the picture of him and his best childhood friend on the wall, skirting the bed with the stuffed toy lamb — a baby shower relic — lying on top.
Out the window, Golvach saw three people — two uniformed police officers and a woman wearing a shirt that read “chaplain.” Her chest pounded as she made her way to the front door and opened it.
“Is it Spencer?” she asked.
The second those words tumbled out of her mouth, she knew the answer, just as she had known when she uttered that exact phrase the day he was born, before anyone told her if the baby was a boy or a girl. She just knew.
It was Spencer.
One night off
Spencer Golvach grew up in the sprawl of northwest Houston, surrounded by guitars and destined for a career in music, his father’s passion.
When he turned 16 in 2005 and got his driver’s license, the easygoing musician started working at a local guitar store in a strip mall not far from Jersey Village High School, where he excelled in shop class and anything he could do with his hands.
He had always fiddled with his dad’s guitars, and he developed a knack for fixing and rebuilding them at the store. A few years later, when the shop owner announced his retirement, Spencer decided to buy the Cy-Fair area business.
Enlarge Photo courtesy of Golvach family
Spencer Golvach, at the age of three, pictured with a guitar.
Authorities say Golvach was killed by Victor Reyes, an undocumented immigrant,
during a random shooting spree in January 2015.
With nine employees and a soft economy, life as an entrepreneur
proved tough sledding. He struggled to turn a profit, and he took a second
full-time job as a receiving lead and forklift operator at a local warehouse.
Even that wasn’t enough to cover the bills. By early 2015, Spencer was preparing to move into a smaller — and cheaper — space in the same shopping mall. He could hardly wait for Saturday, Jan. 31 to arrive, the day the slimmed-down version of Spencer’s Guitar Shop was set to open. Between giving guitar lessons, working an 8-to-5 day job, building out the new store and playing bass in his band — The Dead Revolt — Spencer needed a break.
“The guy was burning the candle at both ends for a long time,” recalled Dan Golvach, his father. “He takes one night off, to go take his girlfriend out for her birthday. That was Jan. 30. And he drops her off ... and 15 minutes later he pulls up to that red light.”
Less than a mile from his apartment, Spencer steered into the left turn lane at 18th Street and Mangum Road and waited for the green light. The details of what happened next are captured in the records of two police agencies, more than a dozen news articles and the unceasing nightmares of Spencer’s parents and loved ones.
An undocumented Mexican national named Victor Reyes, a native of Reynosa along the Texas-Mexico border, pulled up next to Spencer's beloved white Toyota pickup. He pointed a pistol at Spencer’s head and pulled the trigger.
The bullet went through the passenger side window and into Spencer’s skull, at the top of his right ear.
“I choose to believe it killed him instantly,” his father said in an interview months later. “I think he was just there and then it’s like someone turned the lights off. I don’t think he suffered.”
But the Golvach family’s suffering — compounded by the feeling that Spencer’s death could have been prevented — was just beginning.
Houston police, their report indicates, found 25-year-old Spencer dead in his truck at 12:56 a.m. — right around the moment Julie Golvach, waving goodbye to her sister, couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
A few hours later, she was phoning her ex-husband to break the news.
Even that wasn’t enough to cover the bills. By early 2015, Spencer was preparing to move into a smaller — and cheaper — space in the same shopping mall. He could hardly wait for Saturday, Jan. 31 to arrive, the day the slimmed-down version of Spencer’s Guitar Shop was set to open. Between giving guitar lessons, working an 8-to-5 day job, building out the new store and playing bass in his band — The Dead Revolt — Spencer needed a break.
“The guy was burning the candle at both ends for a long time,” recalled Dan Golvach, his father. “He takes one night off, to go take his girlfriend out for her birthday. That was Jan. 30. And he drops her off ... and 15 minutes later he pulls up to that red light.”
Less than a mile from his apartment, Spencer steered into the left turn lane at 18th Street and Mangum Road and waited for the green light. The details of what happened next are captured in the records of two police agencies, more than a dozen news articles and the unceasing nightmares of Spencer’s parents and loved ones.
An undocumented Mexican national named Victor Reyes, a native of Reynosa along the Texas-Mexico border, pulled up next to Spencer's beloved white Toyota pickup. He pointed a pistol at Spencer’s head and pulled the trigger.
The bullet went through the passenger side window and into Spencer’s skull, at the top of his right ear.
“I choose to believe it killed him instantly,” his father said in an interview months later. “I think he was just there and then it’s like someone turned the lights off. I don’t think he suffered.”
But the Golvach family’s suffering — compounded by the feeling that Spencer’s death could have been prevented — was just beginning.
Houston police, their report indicates, found 25-year-old Spencer dead in his truck at 12:56 a.m. — right around the moment Julie Golvach, waving goodbye to her sister, couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
A few hours later, she was phoning her ex-husband to break the news.
“I couldn’t make out
what she was saying and I finally just said, ‘is my son dead?’”— Dan Golvach
“She was just inconsolable,”
he recalled. “I couldn’t make out what she was saying and I finally just said,
‘is my son dead?’ She said, ‘yes.’ Then of course I started. I joined the
chorus.”
More than a thousand people attended Spencer’s memorial service, a tribute to his fun-loving nature and penchant for making friends across generational, ethnic and gender lines.
Those who knew Spencer universally describe him as fun-loving and strikingly calm. After he died, a family friend ordered up a batch of commemorative rubber bracelets emblazoned with his laid-back motto: “Chill Don’t Freeze."
A bloody rampage
More than once since the funeral, Julie Golvach has found herself wishing that her son’s attacker had gotten to know Spencer. She’s convinced he never would have pulled the trigger. But the official evidence of the crime, while scant, suggests Spencer was chosen randomly. And he wasn’t the only victim.
Police say Reyes shot a man in the face, wounding him, in the suburban city of Jersey Village minutes before killing Spencer, and they connected him to at least two more random shootings shortly thereafter. All told, Reyes shot two dead and wounded three others before a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy took him down after a violent shootout, officials say.
John Weston, 67, says he’s lucky to be alive after encountering Reyes on the Hempstead Highway near Pinemont, about 10 minutes north of where Spencer had just been killed. He remembers seeing a big, dark truck driving aggressively behind him. When he got to the stoplight, it pulled up alongside him.
“All of a sudden I hear this ungodly noise,” Weston recalled. “I don’t know if you can imagine how fast your mind works, but I saw a shattered window and I saw a bullet hole in my window. My mind is thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, somebody’s shooting at me and this guy at this light.’”
He pressed his foot to the accelerator to get out of the line of fire, but not soon enough. He heard the second shot, and its impact felt like someone “hauled off and hit you upside the head,” he said.
Weston realized the truck's driver was the gunman. “I saw blood everywhere,” he said. His hands were covered in it, so he could only manage to re-dial on his cell phone. He finally reached his wife, who told him to go to the nearest toll booth. An ambulance was called. Doctors found that a bullet had entered his left cheek and stuck in the other side of his mouth.
A year later, after reconstructive surgery to replace a badly shattered jaw, his mouth remains completely numb below the tongue. With his health woes and lost time at work, he’s struggling to keep his printing business afloat.
“Everything I do now is a little more difficult, but considering I’m here talking, I’m blessed to be here,” Weston said. “It’s scarred me forever. I don’t break down and cry, but I think about it all the time.”
Had Reyes been a homegrown criminal, the story might have ended in the empty field where the deputy shot him — chalked up as another random act of violence in a city and nation all too used to them.
But as word spread about Reyes’ long criminal record and multiple deportations, the case was thrust into the volatile debate over illegal immigration and control of the southern border: first in local news stories, then at the Capitol in Austin and most recently on the presidential campaign trail — on a stage in mid-November with GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Beaumont, where Dan Golvach spoke out and held up a poster of Spencer along with others killed by undocumented immigrants.
Gunman's long record
According to the Houston office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Reyes had been removed from the country four times between 2003 and 2010, but little is publicly known about what he was doing in Houston prior to terrorizing its northwest environs — or why he did it.
His criminal and illegal entry records stretch back at least to 2002 when, at age 18, he was convicted of burglarizing a building in Hidalgo County, across the border from Reynosa, which he told police was his place of birth. He spent a month and a half in jail before a state court sentenced him to three years' probation, ordered him to pay an $850 fine and mandated 120 hours of community service.
More than a thousand people attended Spencer’s memorial service, a tribute to his fun-loving nature and penchant for making friends across generational, ethnic and gender lines.
Those who knew Spencer universally describe him as fun-loving and strikingly calm. After he died, a family friend ordered up a batch of commemorative rubber bracelets emblazoned with his laid-back motto: “Chill Don’t Freeze."
A bloody rampage
More than once since the funeral, Julie Golvach has found herself wishing that her son’s attacker had gotten to know Spencer. She’s convinced he never would have pulled the trigger. But the official evidence of the crime, while scant, suggests Spencer was chosen randomly. And he wasn’t the only victim.
Police say Reyes shot a man in the face, wounding him, in the suburban city of Jersey Village minutes before killing Spencer, and they connected him to at least two more random shootings shortly thereafter. All told, Reyes shot two dead and wounded three others before a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy took him down after a violent shootout, officials say.
John Weston, 67, says he’s lucky to be alive after encountering Reyes on the Hempstead Highway near Pinemont, about 10 minutes north of where Spencer had just been killed. He remembers seeing a big, dark truck driving aggressively behind him. When he got to the stoplight, it pulled up alongside him.
“All of a sudden I hear this ungodly noise,” Weston recalled. “I don’t know if you can imagine how fast your mind works, but I saw a shattered window and I saw a bullet hole in my window. My mind is thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, somebody’s shooting at me and this guy at this light.’”
He pressed his foot to the accelerator to get out of the line of fire, but not soon enough. He heard the second shot, and its impact felt like someone “hauled off and hit you upside the head,” he said.
Weston realized the truck's driver was the gunman. “I saw blood everywhere,” he said. His hands were covered in it, so he could only manage to re-dial on his cell phone. He finally reached his wife, who told him to go to the nearest toll booth. An ambulance was called. Doctors found that a bullet had entered his left cheek and stuck in the other side of his mouth.
A year later, after reconstructive surgery to replace a badly shattered jaw, his mouth remains completely numb below the tongue. With his health woes and lost time at work, he’s struggling to keep his printing business afloat.
“Everything I do now is a little more difficult, but considering I’m here talking, I’m blessed to be here,” Weston said. “It’s scarred me forever. I don’t break down and cry, but I think about it all the time.”
Had Reyes been a homegrown criminal, the story might have ended in the empty field where the deputy shot him — chalked up as another random act of violence in a city and nation all too used to them.
But as word spread about Reyes’ long criminal record and multiple deportations, the case was thrust into the volatile debate over illegal immigration and control of the southern border: first in local news stories, then at the Capitol in Austin and most recently on the presidential campaign trail — on a stage in mid-November with GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Beaumont, where Dan Golvach spoke out and held up a poster of Spencer along with others killed by undocumented immigrants.
Gunman's long record
According to the Houston office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Reyes had been removed from the country four times between 2003 and 2010, but little is publicly known about what he was doing in Houston prior to terrorizing its northwest environs — or why he did it.
His criminal and illegal entry records stretch back at least to 2002 when, at age 18, he was convicted of burglarizing a building in Hidalgo County, across the border from Reynosa, which he told police was his place of birth. He spent a month and a half in jail before a state court sentenced him to three years' probation, ordered him to pay an $850 fine and mandated 120 hours of community service.
Victor Reyes,
shown in 2001 jail mug shot from Hidalgo County. Authorities say Reyes, an
undocumented immigrant, went on a January 2015 shooting spree in Harris County
that killed two and wounded three.
A year later, he
was back in the Hidalgo County Jail for breaking a beer bottle over a man’s
head at the Tejano Saloon in Pharr. He was sent back to Mexico after serving
about a month in the local jail, but he came back. By then, his previous
probation had been revoked, and he served several months in a state jail in
Raymondville.
Deported again on Jan. 20, 2004, Reyes was caught trying to cross the border the next day, triggering a 90-day sentence in federal prison and yet another deportation — his third.
A few months later, on Aug. 10, he was caught again, in McAllen, and received a one-year federal prison sentence for his fourth known illegal re-entry. His crimes didn’t end there. A few weeks before his prison release date, Reyes beat up a fellow inmate — described by his lawyer as a rival gang member — cutting and fracturing his face, according to federal court records.
Two new assault charges made Reyes eligible for 20 years behind bars. Despite his history of violence, burglary and repeat illegal crossings, federal prosecutors offered Reyes a deal: In exchange for a guilty plea on one of the counts, and in recognition of his “truthful testimony” and “acceptance of responsibility,” they promised to give him a sentence “at the lowest end of the applicable guidelines” on a single charge, court papers show. Under the plea bargain, Reyes' sentence was 63 months, a quarter of the maximum he faced under the two counts.
That’s a few more spoonfuls of salt in the wound for Dan and Julie Golvach. Had Reyes been given even half of his possible sentence on the two assault counts, he would have been in prison instead of at that traffic light killing their son.
“The people who agreed to this deal need to be held accountable,” Julie Golvach said. “The result was the horrific murder of my son.”
The prosecutor who signed the plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Hammer, declined to talk about the case, referring questions to U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Angela Dodge in Houston.
Dodge sent The Texas Tribune a boilerplate description of plea deals, saying they “ensure a resolution of the case and that someone is convicted of the crime(s) we believe they committed without going through the time and expense of a trial,” while providing “justice for all.” She declined to say whether prosecutors took Reyes' previous crimes into account, or if they frequently offer plea deals to convicted criminals who commit additional crimes behind bars.
It’s another official secret in a case with no shortage of them.
Family still seeking answers
The Houston Police Department, using its own discretion under the Public Information Act, blocked release of all but a few details on the Golvach and Weston shootings. The department cited a provision allowing it to withhold criminal records absent a final disposition, such as a conviction or deferred adjudication. Since Reyes is dead and the city’s case is otherwise closed, that means Houston police likely can withhold the information indefinitely.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office declined to release its investigative files, but for an entirely different reason: After every officer-involved shooting — in this case, a deputy ended Reyes’ deadly rampage — the Harris County district attorney’s office presents the case to a grand jury even if no one complains. That happened last week, just days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting spree.
The federal government holds onto its files with a tight grip, too, citing the 1974 U.S. Privacy Act. The act covers only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decreed that its protections apply to federal immigration detention records, even those related to undocumented immigrants convicted of horrific crimes. The agency voluntarily released a narrative of its multiple encounters with Reyes, but the Tribune has not yet heard back from ICE or U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services on its written request for his entire immigration file.
The secrecy across local and federal agencies that came into contact with Reyes confounded and frustrated the people touched by his violence. Weston said his wife became “very disillusioned” about their quest for even the simplest answers.
Deported again on Jan. 20, 2004, Reyes was caught trying to cross the border the next day, triggering a 90-day sentence in federal prison and yet another deportation — his third.
A few months later, on Aug. 10, he was caught again, in McAllen, and received a one-year federal prison sentence for his fourth known illegal re-entry. His crimes didn’t end there. A few weeks before his prison release date, Reyes beat up a fellow inmate — described by his lawyer as a rival gang member — cutting and fracturing his face, according to federal court records.
Two new assault charges made Reyes eligible for 20 years behind bars. Despite his history of violence, burglary and repeat illegal crossings, federal prosecutors offered Reyes a deal: In exchange for a guilty plea on one of the counts, and in recognition of his “truthful testimony” and “acceptance of responsibility,” they promised to give him a sentence “at the lowest end of the applicable guidelines” on a single charge, court papers show. Under the plea bargain, Reyes' sentence was 63 months, a quarter of the maximum he faced under the two counts.
That’s a few more spoonfuls of salt in the wound for Dan and Julie Golvach. Had Reyes been given even half of his possible sentence on the two assault counts, he would have been in prison instead of at that traffic light killing their son.
“The people who agreed to this deal need to be held accountable,” Julie Golvach said. “The result was the horrific murder of my son.”
The prosecutor who signed the plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Hammer, declined to talk about the case, referring questions to U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Angela Dodge in Houston.
Dodge sent The Texas Tribune a boilerplate description of plea deals, saying they “ensure a resolution of the case and that someone is convicted of the crime(s) we believe they committed without going through the time and expense of a trial,” while providing “justice for all.” She declined to say whether prosecutors took Reyes' previous crimes into account, or if they frequently offer plea deals to convicted criminals who commit additional crimes behind bars.
It’s another official secret in a case with no shortage of them.
Family still seeking answers
The Houston Police Department, using its own discretion under the Public Information Act, blocked release of all but a few details on the Golvach and Weston shootings. The department cited a provision allowing it to withhold criminal records absent a final disposition, such as a conviction or deferred adjudication. Since Reyes is dead and the city’s case is otherwise closed, that means Houston police likely can withhold the information indefinitely.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office declined to release its investigative files, but for an entirely different reason: After every officer-involved shooting — in this case, a deputy ended Reyes’ deadly rampage — the Harris County district attorney’s office presents the case to a grand jury even if no one complains. That happened last week, just days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting spree.
The federal government holds onto its files with a tight grip, too, citing the 1974 U.S. Privacy Act. The act covers only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decreed that its protections apply to federal immigration detention records, even those related to undocumented immigrants convicted of horrific crimes. The agency voluntarily released a narrative of its multiple encounters with Reyes, but the Tribune has not yet heard back from ICE or U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services on its written request for his entire immigration file.
The secrecy across local and federal agencies that came into contact with Reyes confounded and frustrated the people touched by his violence. Weston said his wife became “very disillusioned” about their quest for even the simplest answers.
Enlarge Photo by: Michael Stravato
Dan Golvach, father of Spencer Golvach, in Houston Tuesday,
October 20, 2015 at the intersection where his son was killed by an
undocumented immigrant in January.
“I mean, we asked them, ‘Who was the guy?’” Weston said. “We had
to fill out paperwork and all that kind of stuff, but we never got any
satisfactory answer. It was almost like it was top secret information.”
Hoping to break through the bureaucratic walls and get some answers about who killed their son and why, the Golvaches eventually hired a former investigative reporter, ex-KTRK-TV newsman Wayne Dolcefino. In a letter last year to then-Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Dolcefino said the sheriff’s office was “doing a disservice to this crime victim by not responding to this request in a proper manner.” The local investigative files remained sealed as of late last week, but the Harris County Sheriff's Office asked the Tribune to resubmit its request for the records and promised a quick turnaround.
Even with new information beginning to trickle out, the victims and their families still don't know where Reyes lived or if he had a job, who owned the truck he was driving that night or — least of all — the motive for his deadly rampage.
According to Harris County Assistant District Attorney Heyward Carter, some elements of the senseless crime may never be known.
Carter, who handled a single aspect of the case — the officer-involved shooting — was able to speak about the case for the first time last week. He revealed that Reyes was "extremely intoxicated" and had a "significant amount of cocaine" in his system. He also identified the weapon, a .380 caliber pistol, that he said was legally purchased at one point, but authorities haven't determined how a convicted felon and undocumented immigrant, barred from buying or possessing firearms, obtained it.
Hoping to break through the bureaucratic walls and get some answers about who killed their son and why, the Golvaches eventually hired a former investigative reporter, ex-KTRK-TV newsman Wayne Dolcefino. In a letter last year to then-Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Dolcefino said the sheriff’s office was “doing a disservice to this crime victim by not responding to this request in a proper manner.” The local investigative files remained sealed as of late last week, but the Harris County Sheriff's Office asked the Tribune to resubmit its request for the records and promised a quick turnaround.
Even with new information beginning to trickle out, the victims and their families still don't know where Reyes lived or if he had a job, who owned the truck he was driving that night or — least of all — the motive for his deadly rampage.
According to Harris County Assistant District Attorney Heyward Carter, some elements of the senseless crime may never be known.
Carter, who handled a single aspect of the case — the officer-involved shooting — was able to speak about the case for the first time last week. He revealed that Reyes was "extremely intoxicated" and had a "significant amount of cocaine" in his system. He also identified the weapon, a .380 caliber pistol, that he said was legally purchased at one point, but authorities haven't determined how a convicted felon and undocumented immigrant, barred from buying or possessing firearms, obtained it.
“We live in an age of mass shootings,
and even though this one didn’t get a whole lot of publicity, that’s what this
is."
— Heyward Carter, Harris County Assistant District Attorney
Carter also provided details
about the actions of the Harris County deputy sheriff, Javier Rojas, who
finally put an end to the deadly rampage. By chance, Rojas was patrolling the
area and heard shots being fired. He saw the truck of Reyes' final victim,
identified by police as Juan Garcia, in obvious distress, weaving randomly at
an intersection. Garcia later died from his wounds, and a woman in the car with
him was slightly injured from the broken glass.
Rojas chased after Reyes, who crashed his truck through a barrier at the end of a dead end street and went another 200 yards or so into an empty field. Rojas continued the pursuit on foot and found Reyes crouching behind the truck. He ordered the suspect to drop his weapon but Reyes stood and fired at the officer instead. Rojas returned fire and struck him in the chest. When authorities photographed the body his hand was still gripping the pistol "with his finger on the trigger," Carter said.
In terms of a motive, authorities can only speculate based on a conversation Reyes had with a supposed girlfriend about three hours before the shooting spree began. He wanted her to go out to a bar or nightclub with him, and she turned him down. Authorities speculate he may have been taking out his rage on couples: It's possible he saw Spencer Golvach dropping off his girlfriend shortly before shooting him at the red light and then targeted Garcia after seeing he had a woman in his vehicle.
But it's just a theory.
“We live in an age of mass shootings, and even though this one didn’t get a whole lot of publicity, that’s what this is," Carter said. "I don’t understand why he was doing it.”
Carter did confirm what the families had learned from detectives in the immediate aftermath of the shootings: Reyes still had plenty of ammunition left in his truck — suggesting that he was planning a more extensive shooting spree. There were at least 20 live rounds left in the vehicle, and he appeared to be reloading while driving near the scene of his final attack.
“Had this officer not been there just coincidentally ... there were plenty of roads for him to go down. He had plenty of ammo, and it didn't seem like he was stopping, that's for sure," Carter said. "As horrible as this situation was, it could have been way worse.”
After the facts were presented to grand jury last Wednesday, the panel decided not to proceed with any further action related to the incident. The Golvach family calls Rojas' response heroic.
"Why was he allowed to be here?"
Julie Golvach burst out into tears again last week after hearing for the first time some of the details of the crime that took her son's life.
“I really feel I deserve to know what brought them together at that point in time, what caused him to shoot my son,” she said. “I think we deserve to know why he was even here — why he was allowed to be here.”
It’s a common refrain among those who have been victimized by people in the country illegally. They weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, and the government's inability to keep them from crossing the southern border after they’ve been deported — and prevent them from committing crimes — provokes a unique brand of helplessness and outrage.
Even Weston, a lifelong Democrat who attended both of Barack Obama’s inaugurations and favors allowing otherwise law-abiding immigrants into the United States to work and seek a better life, said he had to fight the urge to call Donald Trump and tell him he was “dead-on” with his focus on foreigners who commit crimes here.
“Somebody’s got to do something about it,” he said. In the same breath, Weston emphasized that he doesn’t support Trump for president and said keeping dangerous felons from crossing the border or entering the vast illegal workforce defied simplistic solutions.
“If there’s some way to filter out the ones that intend to harm people, I would be in support of that,” he said. “It may prevent something like this from happening to somebody else.”
Dan Golvach is more blunt and outspoken. A few weeks after his son’s murder, he was at the state Capitol testifying in favor of 2015 state legislation — ultimately doomed — that would have prohibited local law enforcement authorities in Texas from adopting “sanctuary” policies that keep police out of immigration matters.
Then late last year, he appeared with Trump at a campaign rally in Beaumont, saying his son died as “the result of politically correct politics” — namely, bipartisan policies that he believes go too easy on undocumented immigrants and the people who hire them.
“When you lose the thing you love the most, you’re not that worried about being PC,” Golvach said in an interview. “If you’re going to come here, you need to do it legally on our terms, not your terms.”
Golvach readily admits that anger over his son’s killing sometimes hits “toxic” levels. He says he’s still haunted by the image of Spencer in a hastily chosen coffin, still upset he was killed right next to the stadium where he used to watch baseball as a kid, still mad as hell that the government won’t cough up the records they have on his son’s killer.
It would be worse without all the good memories of his son, and without the certainty that if Spencer were alive today he would say to him: “chill don’t freeze.”
“He’d tell me, ‘Don’t have a heart attack. You know, clear your mind and keep it cool,'” he said. “He would tell me not to hate anybody.”
Rojas chased after Reyes, who crashed his truck through a barrier at the end of a dead end street and went another 200 yards or so into an empty field. Rojas continued the pursuit on foot and found Reyes crouching behind the truck. He ordered the suspect to drop his weapon but Reyes stood and fired at the officer instead. Rojas returned fire and struck him in the chest. When authorities photographed the body his hand was still gripping the pistol "with his finger on the trigger," Carter said.
In terms of a motive, authorities can only speculate based on a conversation Reyes had with a supposed girlfriend about three hours before the shooting spree began. He wanted her to go out to a bar or nightclub with him, and she turned him down. Authorities speculate he may have been taking out his rage on couples: It's possible he saw Spencer Golvach dropping off his girlfriend shortly before shooting him at the red light and then targeted Garcia after seeing he had a woman in his vehicle.
But it's just a theory.
“We live in an age of mass shootings, and even though this one didn’t get a whole lot of publicity, that’s what this is," Carter said. "I don’t understand why he was doing it.”
Carter did confirm what the families had learned from detectives in the immediate aftermath of the shootings: Reyes still had plenty of ammunition left in his truck — suggesting that he was planning a more extensive shooting spree. There were at least 20 live rounds left in the vehicle, and he appeared to be reloading while driving near the scene of his final attack.
“Had this officer not been there just coincidentally ... there were plenty of roads for him to go down. He had plenty of ammo, and it didn't seem like he was stopping, that's for sure," Carter said. "As horrible as this situation was, it could have been way worse.”
After the facts were presented to grand jury last Wednesday, the panel decided not to proceed with any further action related to the incident. The Golvach family calls Rojas' response heroic.
"Why was he allowed to be here?"
Julie Golvach burst out into tears again last week after hearing for the first time some of the details of the crime that took her son's life.
“I really feel I deserve to know what brought them together at that point in time, what caused him to shoot my son,” she said. “I think we deserve to know why he was even here — why he was allowed to be here.”
It’s a common refrain among those who have been victimized by people in the country illegally. They weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, and the government's inability to keep them from crossing the southern border after they’ve been deported — and prevent them from committing crimes — provokes a unique brand of helplessness and outrage.
Even Weston, a lifelong Democrat who attended both of Barack Obama’s inaugurations and favors allowing otherwise law-abiding immigrants into the United States to work and seek a better life, said he had to fight the urge to call Donald Trump and tell him he was “dead-on” with his focus on foreigners who commit crimes here.
“Somebody’s got to do something about it,” he said. In the same breath, Weston emphasized that he doesn’t support Trump for president and said keeping dangerous felons from crossing the border or entering the vast illegal workforce defied simplistic solutions.
“If there’s some way to filter out the ones that intend to harm people, I would be in support of that,” he said. “It may prevent something like this from happening to somebody else.”
Dan Golvach is more blunt and outspoken. A few weeks after his son’s murder, he was at the state Capitol testifying in favor of 2015 state legislation — ultimately doomed — that would have prohibited local law enforcement authorities in Texas from adopting “sanctuary” policies that keep police out of immigration matters.
Then late last year, he appeared with Trump at a campaign rally in Beaumont, saying his son died as “the result of politically correct politics” — namely, bipartisan policies that he believes go too easy on undocumented immigrants and the people who hire them.
“When you lose the thing you love the most, you’re not that worried about being PC,” Golvach said in an interview. “If you’re going to come here, you need to do it legally on our terms, not your terms.”
Golvach readily admits that anger over his son’s killing sometimes hits “toxic” levels. He says he’s still haunted by the image of Spencer in a hastily chosen coffin, still upset he was killed right next to the stadium where he used to watch baseball as a kid, still mad as hell that the government won’t cough up the records they have on his son’s killer.
It would be worse without all the good memories of his son, and without the certainty that if Spencer were alive today he would say to him: “chill don’t freeze.”
“He’d tell me, ‘Don’t have a heart attack. You know, clear your mind and keep it cool,'” he said. “He would tell me not to hate anybody.”
Concrete Evidence of the Continuing Plunge in Both Civil and
Criminal Immigration Enforcement
By Dan Cadman
CIS Immigration Blog, January 23, 2016
Two recent reports from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reflect the continued erosion of immigration enforcement under the Obama administration.
On January 20, TRAC reported that criminal prosecution for immigration offenses fell 22.3 percent from November 2014 to November 2015, and more than 36 percent over the course of five years, excluding magistrate court (which deals exclusively with petty offenses).
The following day, TRAC announced that "ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detainer Use Stabilizes Under Priority Enforcement Program". The Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) is the replacement to the Secure Communities Program mandated by Homeland Security Security Jeh Johnson as a part of the president's "executive actions" on immigration. It significantly restricts the ability of immigration agents to file detainers against aliens arrested by police on criminal charges.
I have no idea what TRAC means by "stabilizes". A quick look at Figure 1a of their report shows a more accurate state of affairs, if one considers the number of detainers being filed over the course of five years, from a high in April 2011, when Secure Communities became fully effective nationwide and kicked into high gear, versus October 2015. I would use other phrases: "plummeted" or "Dropped like a stone". Or, as my colleague Jessica Vaughan has noted, particularly in relation to detainers filed at county jails, where the lion's share of criminals of any stripes are held after being booked for offenses small and large: "a stunning free fall".
http://www.cis.org/cadman/concrete-evidence-continuing-plunge-both-civil-and-criminal-immigration-enforcement
By Dan Cadman
CIS Immigration Blog, January 23, 2016
Two recent reports from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reflect the continued erosion of immigration enforcement under the Obama administration.
On January 20, TRAC reported that criminal prosecution for immigration offenses fell 22.3 percent from November 2014 to November 2015, and more than 36 percent over the course of five years, excluding magistrate court (which deals exclusively with petty offenses).
The following day, TRAC announced that "ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detainer Use Stabilizes Under Priority Enforcement Program". The Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) is the replacement to the Secure Communities Program mandated by Homeland Security Security Jeh Johnson as a part of the president's "executive actions" on immigration. It significantly restricts the ability of immigration agents to file detainers against aliens arrested by police on criminal charges.
I have no idea what TRAC means by "stabilizes". A quick look at Figure 1a of their report shows a more accurate state of affairs, if one considers the number of detainers being filed over the course of five years, from a high in April 2011, when Secure Communities became fully effective nationwide and kicked into high gear, versus October 2015. I would use other phrases: "plummeted" or "Dropped like a stone". Or, as my colleague Jessica Vaughan has noted, particularly in relation to detainers filed at county jails, where the lion's share of criminals of any stripes are held after being booked for offenses small and large: "a stunning free fall".
http://www.cis.org/cadman/concrete-evidence-continuing-plunge-both-civil-and-criminal-immigration-enforcement
BARACK OBAMA and his SAUDIS PAYMASTERS: Did they build his Muslim tower
in Chicago?
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS:
STILL SUCKING THE BLOOD OUT OF AMERICA
This manufactured crisis has, in turn, been exploited by the Obama
administration and both big business parties to hand over trillions in pension
funds and other public assets to the financial kleptocracy that rules America.
“Our
entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become
a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This
is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen
McQuillan THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
“This was not because of
difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the contrary, Attorney
General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013 that the Obama
administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their CEOs because to do
so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
OBAMANOMICS
TO SERVE BANKSTERS
AND
GLOBAL BILLIONAIRES
"One of the premier institutions of
big business, JP Morgan Chase, issued an internal report on the
eve of the 10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, which warned that
another “great liquidity crisis” was possible, and that a
government bailout on the scale of that effected by Bush and Obama
will produce social unrest, “in light of the potential impact
of central bank actions in driving inequality between
asset owners and labor."
CLOSET MUSLIM BARACK OBAMA’S CONSPIRACY FOR A THIRD TERM FOR LIFE
First, destroy Trump and put Hillary away if she doesn’t end up in
jail.
HE PARTNERS WITH ZUCKERBERG, SOROS AND LOUIS FARRAKHAN
“Obama would declare himself president for life with Soros
really running the show, as he did for the entire Obama presidency.”
“Hillary was always
small potatoes, a placeholder as it were. Her health was always suspect. And do
you think the plotters would have let a doofus like Tim Kaine take office in
the event that Hillary became disabled?”
“Obama has the
totalitarian impulse. After all, he went around saying he didn't have
Constitutional authority to legalize the illegals, and then he tried anyway.
The courts stopped him.”
“The bottom line 2 is
this: Barack Obama is a Communist. This was all an Obama operation. Why is
anyone surprised that a communist (Obama) tried to subvert an election. That is
what Communists do. It is Barack Obama and his people like Brennan and Clapper
behaving to type. That's what Maduro does in Venezuela. That's what the Castro
brothers did. That's what every communist and socialist nation does. THEY FIX ELECTIONS!!”
“Hillary
kept a secret server overflowing with national security info which, more than
likely, was hacked. June 28, 2016, on a Phoenix tarmac, Bill Clinton met with
Attorney General Loretta Lynch to seal a deal insuring Hillary would not be
prosecuted.”
“Obama, of course, covered
up his own role, depicting his presidency as eight years of heroic
efforts to repair the damage caused by the 2008 financial crash. At
the end of those eight years, however, Wall Street and the financial
oligarchy were fully recovered, enjoying record wealth, while working people
were poorer than before, a widening social chasm that made possible the
election of the billionaire con man and Demagogue in November 2016.”
David Bernstein & The Heritage Foundation - “Lawless: The
Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule
of Law.”
“The Lawlessness of the Obama Administration: A
never-ending story.” Michael
Barone – American Historian – Washington Examiner
*
Obama Quietly Erasing Borders (Article)
GET THIS BOOK!
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews: Obama
Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE,
Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was
supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big
Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.
In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up
the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t
see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to
America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate
welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
*
OBOMB for
BRIBES:
BARACK OBAMA
AGAIN TALKS THIRD TERM.
President
Barack Obama: During
his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and
transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President
has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption
to the White House. JUDICIAL WATCH
“They knew Obama
was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train
wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac,
and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps
irreparable.)” ALLAN ERICKSON
"We know that
Obama and his inner circle have set up a war room in his D.C. home to plan
and execute resistance to the Trump administration and
his legislative agenda. None of these people care about the
American people, or the fact thatTrump won the election because
millions of people voted for him." Patricia McCarthy / AMERICAN THINKER.com
Obamanomics: How Barack
Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate
Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You
Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same
“special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are
profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers,
small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics.
BARACK OBAMA’S NOT SO
SECRET PRO-MU$LIM, ANTI-SEMITIC MOVE FOR A THIRD TERM FOR LIFE.
"When former president
Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton and Eric Holder, a top DOJ official
in both administrations, have been caught hanging around with Farrakhan,
there’s a racism problem." DANIEL GREENFIELD
"Then we suffered the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-, Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world." ALAN BERGSTEIN
Attorney General Eric Holder: Tim Geithner can be sure he
won't be hounded about his tax-dodging by his colleague Eric Holder, US
Attorney General. Judicial Watch strongly opposed Holder because of his
terrible ethics record, which includes: obstructing an FBI investigation of the
theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory; rejecting multiple
requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses
by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House; undermining the
criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of
the Lewinsky investigation; and planning the violent raid to seize
then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro's
Cuba. JUDICIAL WATCH
BARCK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S MUSLIM HERITAGE
Earlier this month, jihadists of the
Al-Shabaab terror group hijacked a bus heading to Garissa and ordered all the
passengers to exit the vehicle. The assailants asked for identification cards,
then proceeded to separate the Muslims from the Christians.
When two Christians refused to recite
the Islamic statement of faith, or Shahada, they were executed.
THE RISE of
BARACK OBAMA, sociopath huckster from Chicago, and the FALL of AMERICA
http://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2018/09/sociopath-barack-obama-gets-award-for.html
“My guess is that the students and employees at the
U of I who listened to Obama's self-righteous speech believe that Obama is
ethical because most of the media intentionally hid the mass corruption, or if
they reported on it, they downplayed it. The corruption and unethical
behavior started as soon as Obama took office.” JACK HELLNER / AMERICAN THINKER.com
“They knew Obama
was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train
wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac,
and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps
irreparable.)” ALLAN ERICKSON
JUDICIAL WATCH TEN MOST
CORRUPT
President Barack Obama: During
his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and
transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President
has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political
corruption to the White House. JUDICIAL WATCH
BARACK OBAMA
POSITIONS MARK ZUCKERBERG of FAKEBOOK to be his global controller of propaganda
for the Obama bankster-funded third term for life.
http://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2018/09/fakebooks-mark-zuckerberg-will-be.html
“They knew Obama
was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train
wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac,
and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps
irreparable.)” ALLAN ERICKSON
FAKEBOOK and
GOOBLE ASSAULT FREE SPEECH TO BUILD THE GLOBALISTS’ BILLIONAIRES’ DICTATORSHIP
FOR THE RICH
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/10/facebook-and-google-assault-free-speech.html
*
*
TRAITOR
BARACK OBAMA and the MEX FASCIST MOVEMENT of LA RAZA “The Race”
Reconquistas
Muñoz, Solis present at Obama sovereignty sellout session ...Obama was joined
at the meeting [about a push to amnesty millions of border-hopping job thieves]
by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Senior Advisor Valerie
Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro,
and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs [and former 'Tan Klan'
minion] Cecilia Muñoz...
*
"Of course none of this comes as any surprise considering that Obama's point person on illegal immigration, Cecilia Munoz, once worked for the ultra-radical National Council of La Raza [aka the Tan Klan], a racist group that is committed to staging a takeover of the American Southwest and returning it to Mexico...."
"Of course none of this comes as any surprise considering that Obama's point person on illegal immigration, Cecilia Munoz, once worked for the ultra-radical National Council of La Raza [aka the Tan Klan], a racist group that is committed to staging a takeover of the American Southwest and returning it to Mexico...."
GLOBALIST FOR BANKSTERS, THE SUPER RICH and
OPEN BORDERS
ADVOCATES TO FINISH OFF THE AMERICAN
MIDDLE-CLASS.
There’s a reason why Soros, Bezos, Zuckerberg,
Bloomberg, Gates and the Koch Brothers love the Obomb!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/09/barack-obama-and-his-muslim-style.html
“Democrats Move Towards ‘Oligarchical
Socialism,’ Says Forecaster Joel Kotkin.”
JUDICIAL WATCH’S TEN MOST
CORRUPT LIST
President Barack Obama: During
his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and
transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President
has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political
corruption to the White House. JUDICIAL WATCH
Obamanomics: How
Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends,
Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making You
Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same
“special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are
profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers,
small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics.
MULTI-CULTURALISM and the
creation of a one-party globalist country to serve the rich in America’s open
borders.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/12/em-cadwaladr-impending-death-of.html
“Open border advocates, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal
aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an
assertion. As the CIS has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor,
uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens
and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit
California’s economy? If illegals were contributing to the economy in any
meaningful way, CA, with its 2.6 million illegals, would be booming.” STEVE
BALDWIN – AMERICAN SPECTATOR
GEORGE SOROS PARTNERS WITH BARACK OBAMA and ERIC
HOLDER TO CREATE A GLOBALIST REGIME FOR THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS and CRONY
BANKSTERS…. Open borders and endless hordes of illegals will make it happen!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/04/monica-showalter-soros-banksters-and.html
YOU WONDERED WHY OBAMA-HOLDER WORKED SO HARD TO SABOTAGE
AMERICAN VOTING FOR MORE ILLEGALS???
Those
are the subliterate, low-skill, non-English-speaking indigents whose own
societies are unable or unwilling to usefully educate and employ them. Bring
these people here and they not only need a lot of services, they are putty in
the hands of leftist demogogues as Hugo Chavez demonstrated - and they are very
useful as leftist voters who will support the Soros agenda.
Banksters’ rent boy Eric Holder declares that Obama is ready
to roll for a third term!
BARACK OBAMA and ERIC HOLDER: BUILDING OBAMA’S MUSLIM-STYLE
DICTATORSHIP requires destroying white middle class first.
(BANKSTERS)
NO POLITICIAN
IN HISTORY SUCKED IN MORE BRIBES FROM BANKSTERS THAN BARACK OBAMA, AND HE DID
IT BEFORE HIS FIRST DAY IN OFFICE.
What did the
Wall Street banksters know that took us so long to find out???
"One of the premier institutions of big business,
JP Morgan Chase, issued an internal report on the eve of the
10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, which warned that
another “great liquidity crisis” was possible, and that a
government bailout on the scale of that effected by Bush and Obama
will produce social unrest, “in light of the potential impact
of central bank actions in driving inequality between
asset owners and labor."
Obama, of course, covered up his own role, depicting
his presidency as eight years of heroic efforts to repair the damage caused
by the 2008 financial crash. At the end of those eight years,
however, Wall Street and the financial oligarchy were fully
recovered, enjoying record wealth, while working people were poorer
than before, a widening social chasm that made possible the election of
the billionaire con man and Demagogue in November 2016.
“The
response of the administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even
before coming to power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the
bailouts, which he subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration
dominated
by the interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser
Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
Trump criticized
Dimon in
2013 for supposedly contributing to the country’s economic downturn. “I’m not
Jamie Dimon, who pays $13 billion to settle a case and then pays $11 billion to
settle a case and who I think is the worst banker in the United States,” he
told reporters.
(END
BANKSTERS)
*
(BANKS
DEPRESSED WAGES)
Crony Capitalism, Economic plunder by Wall Street, Bottomless Bailouts
and Wider Open Borders to Keep Wages Depressed and Profits up.
The stupendous run-up on the global
stock exchanges and vast increase in the personal fortunes of the
financial oligarchy have depended on the relentless downward pressure on
workers’ wages and conditions.
This is a class-conscious decision by the central bank
executives, who understand that investors tend to make far more money when the
sword of mass unemployment and poverty is kept swinging over the heads of
workers.
*
VIDEO:
JUDICIAL WATCH GOES AFTER CLINTON AND OBOMB… will they see
prison time?
THE OBAMA-CLINTON SWAMP…. How close they came to destroying
American democracy…. It’ what happens when two psychopath lawyers are permitted
to run for office!
“If the Constitution did not forbid cruel
and unusual punishment, the sentence I would like to see imposed would place
both Bill and Hillary Clinton in the same 8-by-12
cell.” ROBERT ARVAY – AMERICAN THINKER com
“They knew Obama
was an unqualified crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train
wreck waiting to happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac,
and a liar; yet they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps
irreparable.)” ALLAN ERICKSON
They Destroyed Our Country
“They knew Obama was an unqualified
crook; yet they promoted him. They knew Obama was a train wreck waiting to
happen; yet they made him president, to the great injury of America and the
world. They understood he was only a figurehead, an egomaniac, and a liar; yet
they made him king, doing great harm to our republic (perhaps irreparable.)”
THE RISE TO POWER OF BANKSTER-OWNED
BARACK OBAMA
'Incompetent' and 'liar' among most
frequently used words to describe the president: Pew Research Center
The larger fear is that Obama might be just another corporatist, punking
voters much as the Republicans do when they claim to be all for the common guy.
OBAMA'S ASSAULT ON AMERICA -WHY WALL STREET, ILLEGALS, CRIMINAL BANKSTERS
and the 1% LOVE HIM, AND THE MIDDLE CLASS GETS THE SHAFT TO PAY FOR HIS CRONY
CAPITALISM
CEO pay is higher than ever, as is the chasm separating the rich and
super-rich from everyone else. The incomes of the top 1 percent grew more than
11 percent between 2009 and 2011—the first two years of the Obama
“recovery”—while the incomes of the bottom 99 percent actually shrank.
Meanwhile, Obama is pressing forward
with his proposal, outlined in his budget for the next fiscal year, to slash
$400 billion from Medicare and $130 billion from Social Security… AS WELL AS
WIDER OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY, NO LEGAL NEED APPLY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA AND HIS WALL STREET CRONIES
WELFARE
CHEAT BARACK OBAMA FUNDS HIS EGO TOWER off tax payers backs!
I am sure
that Obama and his friend and former chief of staff Rahm would not like to see
pols running for mayor on a platform of halting the giveaway."
But that halt to lawlessness hasn't stopped the
Windy City's politicians rushing to hand over almost 20 acres of precious
lakefront park land to the private foundation controlled by Barack and Michelle
Obama. The Obama Foundation (Obama.org) promises to build a monument
to his presidency, called the Obama Presidential Center (OPC). It
has to be called the OPC because it will not be an actual presidential library,
under the control of the National Archives, but rather a privately controlled
entity, free to focus on whatever pleases the 44th president.”
*
NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY SUCKED IN
MORE BRIBES FROM CRIMINAL BANKSTERS THAN BARACK OBAMA!
This was not because of
difficulties in securing indictments or convictions. On the contrary, Attorney
General Eric Holder told a Senate committee in March of 2013 that the Obama
administration chose not to prosecute the big banks or their CEOs because to do
so might “have a negative impact on the national economy.”
*
BARACK OBAMA and
the RISE OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA ‘The Race’, now calling itself
UNIDOSus.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/03/traitor-barack-obama-and-rise-of.html
“The watchdogs
at Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama
administration's close coordination with the Mexican government entices
Mexicans to hop over the fence and on to the American dole.” Washington
Times
Obama Funds the Mexican Fascist Party of
LA RAZA “The Race”… now calling itself UNIDOSus.
"This is country belongs to Mexico" is said by the
Mexican Militant. This is a common teaching that the U.S. is really AZTLAN,
belonging to Mexicans, which is taught to Mexican kids in Arizona and
California through a LA Raza educational program funded by American Tax Payers
via President Obama, when he gave LA RAZA $800,000.00 in March of 2009!
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERISM destroyed a 11 TRILLION
DOLLARS in home equity… and they’re still plundering us!
Barack Obama created more
debt for the middle class than any president in US
history, and also had
the only huge QE programs: $4.2 Trillion.
OXFAM reported that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the
wealth created went to
the top 1% of the world’s wealthy.
PATHOLOGICAL LIAR BARACK OBAMA MOCKS TRUMP
Obama orchestrated the greatest transfer of
wealth to the rich in U.S. history!
THE WALL STREET BOUGHT AND OWNED DEMOCRAT PARTY
SERVING BANKSTERS, BILLIONAIRES and INVADING ILLEGALS
THE CRONY CLASS:
Income inequality grows FOUR TIMES FASTER under
Obama than Bush.
“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election
in 1992, the Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with
the reforms of the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare
programs to provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW
MEANS OPEN BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black
capitalists, and passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three
strikes” provision that has helped create the largest prison population in the
world.”
(TOP - THIRD TERM, PAY-TO-PLAY – BIDEN)
JOE BIDEN DOES NOT WANT YOU TO
KNOW THIS!
THE SECRET LIFE OF A BANKSTERS’
RENT BOY.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/03/obamas-marxism-still-hankering-for.html
*
THE OBAMA MARXIST-MUSLIM
BANKSTER-FUNDED THIRD TERM for life:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/03/obamas-marxism-still-hankering-for.html
"Cold War historian Paul Kengor
goes deeply into Obama's communist background in an article in
American Spectator, "Our First Red Diaper Baby President," and in an
excellent Mark Levin interview. Another Kengor article describes the Chicago communists whose
younger generation include David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Barack Hussein
Obama. Add the openly Marxist, pro-communist Ayers, and you have many of the key players who put Obama into
power." Karin
McQuillan
*
"We know
that Obama and his inner circle have set up a war room in his D.C.
home to plan
and execute resistance to the Trump administration and his legislative
agenda.
None of these people care about the American people, or the fact that
Trump won
the election because millions of people voted for him."
Patricia McCarthy / AMERICAN THINKER.com
THE RISE OF
BARACK OBAMA an American Traitor
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/03/traitor-barack-obama-and-rise-of.html
LOOKING LIKE 30 YEARS FOR HILLARY CLINTON …. OBAMA MAY FOLLOW
HER!
MICHAEL BARONE
“The Lawlessness of the Obama
Administration: A never-ending story.”
GLOBLIST BARACK OBAMA,
AND HIS GLOBALIST CRONIES WANT WIDER OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED.
OBAMA’S ASSAULT ON
ARIZONA
SENATOR JEFF FLAKE’S STATE of MEX-OCCUPIED ARIZONA:
1.
SECOND ONLY TO MEXICO CITY IN MEX KIDNAPPING.
2.
PHOENIX IS U.S. FIRST PLACE FOR MEX HOME INVASION
3.
PHOENIX IS U.S. FIRST PLACE FOR MEX CAR THEFT.
4.
MILLIONS PAID OUT TO MEX ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS
The
Mexican fascist separatist movement of M.E.Ch.A's goal is even more radical: an
independent ''Aztlan,'' the collective name this organization gives to the seven states of the U.S.
Southwest – Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah."
*
The “zero tolerance” program was dismantled by Attorney
General Erc Holder once it had successfully cut the transit of
migrants by roughly 95 percent. Initially, officials made 140,000 arrests per
year in the mid-2000s, but the northward flow dropped so much that officials
only had to make 6,000 arrests in 2013, according to a 2014 letter by two
pro-migration Senators, Sen. Jeff Flake and John McCain.
*
More than half a million
illegal immigrants of several dozen nationalities have been apprehended on John
Ladd’s sprawling cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. Ladd has also found 14
dead bodies on his 16,500-acre farm, which has been in his family for well over
a century and sits between the Mexican border and historic State Route 92.
*
We’ve got an even more ominous enemy within
our borders that promotes “Reconquista of Aztlan” or the reconquest of
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into the country of Mexico.
*
“While the Obama Administration downplays violence along
the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities in Texas reveal that Mexican have
transformed parts of the state into a war zone where shootings, beheadings,
kidnappings and murders are common.
FIFTEEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LA RAZA “THE RACE”
by Michelle Malkin
Only in America could critics of a group
called "The Race" be labeled racists. Such is the triumph of
left-wing identity chauvinists, whose aggressive activists and supine abettors
have succeeded in redefining all opposition as "hate."
JUDICIAL WATCH
OBAMA HANDS TAX DOLLARS TO LA RAZA MEXICAN SUPREMACIST:
Previous
generations of immigrants did not believe they were racially superior to
Americans. That is the view of La Raza Cosmica, by Jose Vasconcelos,
Mexico’s former education minister and a presidential candidate. According to
this book, republished in 1979 by the Department of Chicano Studies at Cal
State LA, students of Scandinavian, Dutch and English background are dullards,
blacks are ugly and inferior, and those “Mongols” with the slanted eyes lack
enterprise. The superior new “cosmic” race of Spaniards and Indians is
replacing them, and all Yankee “Anglos.” LLOYD
BILLINGSLEY/ FRONTPAGE mag
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