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Redactions, the blacked-out portions that appear in many government documents, are making it difficult for Congress to do its oversight work, says Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). In a letter [1] to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday, Grassley wrote: "Please provide unredacted copies of all text messages" between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page "to the Committee no later than June 6, 2018." Grassley said some of the redactions "may contain relevant information relating to the Committee's ongoing investigation into the manner in which the Department of Justice and FBI handled the Clinton and Russia...

Shortened title. Full title: FBI Informant Stefan Halper Accused Of Making ‘False’ And ‘Absurd’ Allegations About Russian Infiltration At Cambridge FBI informant Stefan Halper said Russians infiltrated the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar He flagged interactions between a Russian researcher and Mike Flynn People involved called Halper’s claims “false” and “absurd” The FBI informant who made contact with members of the Trump campaign has made allegations of Russian spy infiltration at the University of Cambridge that people involved in the matters have called “false” and “absurd.” A Russian academic who worked at Cambridge with the informant, Stefan Halper, said he made “false...

The Department of Justice, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General [1], has declined to prosecute a now-retired FBI special agent (SA) who mishandled classified information, gave misleading testimony, had “contacts with several individuals appeared to be designed to improperly influence their prospective testimony” and provided the IG with false information. “Criminal prosecution of the SA was declined,” the IG reported in an investigative summary of the case [1]. According to the Justice Department, the law governing inspector generals requires an IG to refer a case to a federal prosecutor when the IG discovers reasonable grounds to believe that...

Friday is the deadline for the FBI and Justice Department to give the Senate Judiciary Committee key documents in the Michael Flynn case.It won't happen, because that's not how the current FBI and Justice Department deal with congressional demands involving the Trump-Russia affair. But sooner or later, Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is likely to get his way.In a May 11 letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Grassley noted that more than a year ago, on Feb. 15, 2017, the Judiciary Committee requested a copy of the transcript of a Dec. 2016 phone...

A top Senate Republican is challenging the Justice Department over extensive redactions made in files showing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, drew particular attention to one text that suggested the Obama “White House is running this,” in reference to an unspecified investigation. But, like in so many of the files, a name was redacted and the context was unclear, though one report suggests that was related to the Russia probe. In a letter sent Wednesday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Grassley called for all redactions to...

At least 19 House Republicans are sponsoring a resolution calling for a special counsel to investigate the conduct of the Justice Department and FBI during the 2016 election campaign. For a year now, special counsel Robert Mueller and his team have investigated Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. The resolution calls for a second special counsel to look at how the Justice Department handled the probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, how the Russia investigation regarding President Donald Trump began, and potential abuse of the...

...Some questions follow: Who asked Mr. Halper to keep tabs on the Trump officials, and when and why? The answers go to the credibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s claim that it didn’t open an official counterintelligence probe into Trump-Russia collusion until July 31, 2016.... One mystery concerns Mr. Halper’s interaction with Trump aide Carter Page. The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr. Halper’s contact with Trump officials happened only after the July 31 launch of the probe. The story notes that Mr. Halper reached out to campaign adviser George Papadopoulos “late that summer” and then to...

snip If the thousands of text messages between Ms. Page and Agent Strzok are clear on anything, they are clear on the thinking of the bureau’s top brass. In its Trump antipathy, the media-Democrat complex has admonished us to ignore the Strzok-Page texts.... That’s the wrong way to look at it. Regardless of their politics (which, the texts show, are not as left-wing as some conservative-media hyperbole claims), these FBI officials are a window into how the Obama administration regarded the two investigations in which Strzok and Page were central players: Mid Year Exam and Trump-Russia — the latter eventually...

The FBI has repeatedly provided grossly inflated statistics to Congress and the public about the extent of problems posed by encrypted cellphones, claiming investigators were locked out of nearly 7,800 devices connected to crimes last year when the correct number was much smaller, probably between 1,000 and 2,000, The Washington Post has learned. Over a period of seven months, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray cited the inflated figure as the most compelling evidence for the need to address what the FBI calls “Going Dark” — the spread of encrypted software that can block investigators’ access to digital data even with...

On Friday May 11, 2018, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein stating Comey testified the FBI didn’t think General Flynn lied. Grassley also revealed Joe Pientka was the second FBI agent who joined Peter Strzok on January 24th, 2017 in an ambush style interview to take down General Flynn. Grassley demanded the FBI and DOJ produce the transcript of Flynn’s intercepted calls with Russian Ambassador Kislyak and the related 302’s by May 25th. (302’s are reports FBI agents take to summarize an interview with a subject.) The...

Talk about ungrateful — for some reason President Trump doesn’t appreciate how the FBI tried to help him out in 2016 by inserting a spy, I mean informant, into his campaign. As the Washington Post headline explained this charitable deed: “The FBI didn’t use an informant to go after Trump. They used one to protect him.” Of course they did. The crooked G-men are there to protect you, Mr. President. I should know, because they’ve been “protecting” me, off and on, since 1975. And they’re such good people — the feds prefer to remain anonymous. They want no credit for...

President Trump on Wednesday demanded that federal law enforcement officials show "total transparency" about sensitive information related to the earliest days of the Russia probe."What I want from Rod, from the FBI, from everybody — we want transparency," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, referring to his embattled deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. The president spoke one day before senior law enforcement and intelligence leaders are set to meet with Republican lawmakers to discuss classified information related to a confidential source who helped advance the probe into Trump's campaign. No Democrats were invited to the...

President Trump demanded "total transparency" Wednesday ahead of a meeting between top law enforcement officials and congressional Republicans demanding Russia probe documents. "They'll all be in the room tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I want total transparency," Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House. "You have to have transparency." On Monday, Trump tasked chief of staff John Kelly with organizing a meeting between FBI, Justice Department, and intelligence community representatives to provide congressional Republicans documents on an FBI informant linked to the Trump campaign.

SNIP Here are eight signs pointing to a counterintelligence operation deployed against Trump for political reasons. Code name Wiretap fever National Security Letters Unmasking Changing the rules Media strategy Leaks Friends, informants and snoops These eight features of a counterintelligence operation are only the pieces we know. It can be assumed there’s much we don’t yet know. And it may help explain why there’s so much material that the Department of Justice hasn’t easily handed over to congressional investigators.

Testimony from expert witnesses in the case of FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita that his lawyers don't want on the stand at trial was reported to have concluded today. Astarita is charged with lying five times about firing two shots in the direction of LaVoy Finicum moments before Finicum was killed by Oregon State Police on January 26, 2016 in Harney County, Oregon during the Oregon Standoff protest. The two experts who are part of the prosecution's case were questioned about their methods by the defense. One of them worked for the Oregon State Police in the initial shooting investigation...

Former FBI director James Comey on Wednesday slammed President Trump's recent claims about the FBI, accusing him of “lying” about the bureau's work. Comey’s tweets comes as Trump has intensified his attacks on the agency in recent days, claiming without evidence that the FBI placed an informant within his campaign for political purposes. "Facts matter. The FBI’s use of Confidential Human Sources (the actual term) is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country. How will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?""Dangerous time when...

Former FBI Director James Comey came to the agency’s defense this morning as President Trump continues to attack it over the informant used during the election. This morning alone Trump has tweeted that the FBI may “end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before” and that “SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!” Republicans in Congress have expressed their agreement with the President on this issue, but now the man who led the FBI at the time is responding. Comey took to Twitter this...

House Republicans Press Conference Demanding Second Special Counsel 5/22/18 A group of Republicans in Congress have come together to demand a second special counsel to look into the crimes of Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, and others in the FBI and DOJ. Things talks about include Hillary Clinton's illegal private email server, the FBI officials and Former FBI director James Comey handling of the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, high Officials in Obama's DOJ forcing the FBI to shut down investigation into the Hillary Clinton Foundation and the Pay to Play Activities, the Russian Uranium...

Do you who believe that the evidence suggests that the FBI under Obama and James Comey sought to obtain damaging information on Donald Trump? If so, Josh Campbell thinks you’re a “wingnut” who might not be “playing with a full deck.” Campbell is a former FBI agent and assistant to Comey who quit the FBI to join the anti-Trump Resistance and sign on with CNN—which could be considered the same thing. Appearing on the network this morning, Campbell said: “The challenge in dealing with conspiracy theories is that you never win by calling them for what they are. No one...

Sources tell The Daily Caller several FBI agents want congressional subpoenas to testify about the agency’s problems. The sources claim there is a demand within the agency to prosecute former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. They also say the bureau has become totally politicized. The subpoenas are desired by the FBI agents because it requires Congress to pay for their legal fees and protects them from agency retribution. Many agents in the FBI want Congress to subpoena them so they can reveal problems caused by former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, three people in...