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Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI “SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN IMBEDDED INFORMANT.” Andrew McCarthy says, “There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.” If so, this is bigger than Watergate! 7:56 AM - 17 May 2018

The Norwegian police said Tuesday they had closed an investigation into Donald Trump's fake Nobel Peace Prize nomination after failing to identify the person behind it. The Norwegian Nobel Institute filed a police report earlier this year after receiving a seemingly fraudulent nomination of the US president for the prestigious prize. Suspicion mounted that the nomination was submitted by a person suspected of committing identity fraud to appear legitimate, as only a select group of individuals -- including members of parliament and government, former laureates and some university professors -- are entitled to propose names.

Lawyer: Mueller indicted “the proverbial ham sandwich.” This week, on Wednesday May 9th, a hearing took place between the corrupt Mueller team and one of the Russian Companies they indicted for interfering with the 2016 US election, Concord Management. Concord Management and a sister company Concord Catering were charged by Mueller for defrauding the government. The Mueller crooks and far left hacks were embarrassed again! A week ago Friday at a hearing on this same case, Mueller’s team asked for the case to be delayed. The judge politely declined and the initial hearing on the case was held on Wednesday....

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has spoken with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, two sources familiar with the matter tell The Daily Beast. It was not immediately clear what questions Mueller’s team had or what information Prince shared with the special counsel. Prince attended a now-controversial meeting with the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in the Seychelles on Jan. 11, 2017—just over a week before Inauguration Day. The Washington Post reported that Mueller is interested in potential efforts at the Seychelles meeting to set up a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin. A spokesman for the special counsel...

A Dutch lawyer who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators examining Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election has reported to a federal prison to serve out his sentence. Alex van der Zwaan, 33, arrived at FCI Allenwood Low, a low-security federal prison near Allenwood, Pa. He was sentenced last month to a $20,000 fine and 30 days in prison, and is expected to be released on June 4, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons's website. In reporting to prison, van der Zwaan becomes the first person charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe to be incarcerated. He pleaded...

Washington, D.C. - James Baker has joined the Brookings Institution as a Visiting Fellow in Governance Studies, the Institution announced today. Baker will contribute to Brookings’s scholarship on issues related to artificial intelligence, cyber security, and national security. In addition to his role at Brookings, Baker will hold an affiliated appointment with the Lawfare Institute. Baker comes to Brookings and Lawfare from the FBI. Throughout his distinguished career, including four years as the agency’s General Counsel, Baker has worked on numerous national security matters, including in particular, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

If you’ve been following along with the legal twists and turns of the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, you know that one of the more interesting aspects was the indictment of 13 Russian citizens and three Russian businesses on crimes related to interference in the 2016 presidential election. Conventional wisdom has generally been that none of these entities would ever make an appearance or otherwise acknowledge the proceedings. However, one of the Russian businesses, Concord Management, has tapped a Biglaw firm to rep them in court. Concord Management has hired Reed Smith as their legal team. Partners Eric A....

An experienced federal judge has confirmed what I have been arguing for months, namely, that the modus operandi of special counsel Robert Mueller is to charge associates of Donald Trump with any crime he can find in order to squeeze them into turning against the president. This is what Judge T.S. Ellis III said at a hearing Friday: “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud … What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.” This tactic is as old as...

Cute how this works: Kick off the week with some “the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted” bombast from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, by which he rationalizes that his defiance of subpoenas and slow-walking document production to Congress — which is probing investigative irregularities related to the 2016 campaign — is required by DOJ policy and “the rule of law.” Then end the week with the Friday-night bad-news dump: the grudging removal of DOJ and FBI redactions from a House Intelligence Committee report on Russia’s election meddling. Now that we can see what they wanted to...

It is only now coming to light how Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein essentially appointed the Special Counsel to take over the counterintelligence investigation originally begun by the FBI in 2016. Also previously unknown: part of the initiating mandate included the special counsel being granted use of a sketchy FISA Court Title-1 surveillance warrant initially applied against Carter Page in October 2016.

One of the Russian companies indicted by Robert Mueller has called the special counsel’s bluff and is challenging Mueller’s accusations in an attempt to force the release of not-yet-public information. Now, it appears Concord Management is forcefully pushing back. Bloomberg News described the firm’s tactics as “hardball” due to the thorough and pointed nature of their questions. Politico even suggested that Concord Management’s aggressive lawyering could result in an “embarrassing dismissal.” On Friday, Mueller’s team revealed that attorneys for the company had made numerous discovery requests. Those requests were aimed at nonpublic details about the government’s case and underlying investigation....

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team was handed a small defeat Saturday when a judge rejected their request to postpone the first court hearing regarding charges against several Russian companies and Russian citizens that they charge with attempting to use social media to meddle in the 2016 election. An arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three Russian companies Mueller accused of contributing to a Russian troll farm operation to spread discord online during the presidential contest. Mueller's team asked for a delay on Friday because it was unclear whether the firm had formally accepted...

Special counsel Robert Mueller is used to getting kid-glove treatment. That changed Friday in a federal courtroom in Virginia, where Judge T.S. Ellis directed a blunt challenge to the Mueller team prosecuting former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on charges of tax and bank fraud, some of which date back to 2005. “I don’t see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate. You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” Judge Ellis told Michael Dreeben, who was representing Mr. Mueller in court. “What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort...

FBI special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case alleging Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has brought charges against three Russian companies and 13 Russians for the alleged interference. The delay comes after two attorneys representing one of the Russian entities began challenging Mueller’s evidence in the case. What are the details? According to Politico, the 13 Russians and three companies — the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering — were expected to ignore the indictments since they are outside U.S. jurisdiction. However, that’s not...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller have interviewed one of President Donald Trump’s closest friends and confidants, California real estate investor Tom Barrack, The Associated Press has learned.</p> <p>Barrack was interviewed as part of the federal investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.</p>

Special counsel Robert Mueller's office appears to be in an early stalemate in its efforts to bring a criminal case against Russians allegedly involved in Moscow's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Although one Russian company indicted by Mueller in February, Concord Management and Consulting, has US attorneys and a court hearing scheduled, the special counsel's team hasn't been able to reach the company or its co-defendants. The Russian government's top legal office wouldn't accept paperwork from US law enforcement in the case, and the company has already hit back at Mueller by demanding more evidence and information. The...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Trump, that tried to narrow the authority of the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. The judge said that Mr. Manafort’s suit, which argued that the special counsel had exceeded his authorities by investigating Mr. Manafort’s past business dealings in Ukraine, was “not the appropriate vehicle for taking issue with what a prosecutor has done in the past or where he might be headed in the future.” The ruling by the judge, Amy Berman Jackson, is a...

A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort – suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking “unfettered power” and are more interested in bringing down the president. "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Mueller’s team. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever."

It is staggering to witness the Justice Department go off the rails and barrel toward a showdown with our president over innuendo and manufactured misdeeds. From the beginning of the special counsel appointment and despite Jeff Sessions's recusal, I felt confident that Trump and Sessions had a behind-the-scenes plan to navigate this quagmire. Ridiculous was the notion that Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was not fully in his camp in light of the glaring double standards of justice demonstrated at every point from before the election to present day. I expected the A.G. to pursue other completely legitimate avenues that...

The head of a government ethics organization accused House Republican Jim Jordan of Urbana of helping President Donald Trump “thwart” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump aides in 2016 colluded with Russian officials to damage the presidential campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 in Washington, charged that by threatening articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for refusing to turn over to Congress documents about the investigation, Jordan, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-S.C., and Trump are “colluding to obstruct and potentially give” the White House control of the probe. Melika...