...The next day, on December 31 , 2016, Kislyak called Flynn and told him the request had been received at the highest levels and Russia had chosen not to retaliate as a result of Flynn's request.
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Three stars as before to separate topics discussed within the Special Counsel report.
On January 6, 2017, members of the intelligence community briefed President-Elect Trump on a joint assessment-drafted and coordinated among the Central Intelligence Agency, FBI, and National Security Agency-that concluded with high confidence that Russia had intervened in the election through a variety of means to assist Trump's candidacy and harm Clinton's. A declassified version of the assessment was publicly released that same day.
Cup of tea:
Not much to say about that, except, the alarm sounded was never loud enough to reach Americans. They never realized and many that are No Information Voters don't still realize how they were manipulated by Russia and never question why Trump looked the other way, even when he realized the impact of the extent Russia was leveraging against Clinton.
Between mid-January 2017 and early February 2017, three congressional committees-the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) (Devin Nunes),...
Why does Devin Nunes, a dairy farmer, have a prominent position on the Intelligence Committee. Why hasn't he been replaced by California voters since 2003? He purposely blurs the lines between the Executive Branch and the Legislature. He even acts as a presidential spy on the US House at the very least. There has to be plenty of ethics violations he has accumulated. His constituency should know about his attack on the USA Constitution and why his activities with the President endanger the USA's government order in separation of powers. THIS IS NOT A CLUB. This is the government of the USA. If Nunes and Trump like each other's company so much they can go golfing together and travel to Marilogo together, but, Nunes should not be playing footsie with the Executive Branch for he purpose of politics. His salary is paid by the US House, not Trump.
... the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), and the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC)-announced that they would conduct inquiries, or had already been conducting inquiries, into Russian interference in the election....
There was a considerable concern by the federal government regarding the hacking of the DCCC and the Clinton campaign. Rightfully so. the same thing can occur to any US Senator or US House representative.
The entire idea the investigation into the Russian influence of the 2016 election started with the "Deep States" is nothing more than Dopey, Dirty Donald Trump's strange imagination for the purpose of his propaganda.
Noteworthy though, that in spite of the concern there is little that has passed into legislation to end the invasion by Russia to remove the USA Constitution.
Below, in italics, is a job description for the Director of the FBI. I can't believe an entire department of the USA government had to have their job descriptions carried by a news agency in hopes of clarifying the importance of their work. That illustrates to me how very concerned the information industry is with all the lies and deceptions of this administration.
FBI Director (job description) (click here)The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) manages the FBI, which describes itself as the “principal investigative arm” of the DOJ and a “full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community.” The director is appointed to a 10 year term by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The FBI says it is “an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities.”
The agency says its investigative powers are the “broadest of all federal law enforcement agencies,” with the legal authority to investigate a broad array of cases ranging from domestic and international terrorism, to cyber crime, civil rights and white collar crime.
There is no way this was drummed up by some "Deep State" within the USA government. There are too many eyes reading reports and too many ears hearing testimony to even begin to start to worry there is some kind of rogue agency at work within the federal government.
...Then-FBI Director James Corney later confirmed to Congress the existence of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference that had begun before the election. On March 20, 2017, in open-session testimony before HPSCI, Corney stated:
"I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts .... As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed."
The investigation continued under then-Director Corney for the next seven weeks until May 9, 2017, when President Trump fired Corney as FBI Director-an action which is analyzed in Volume II of the report.
Other than the impending visit by Russia to the Oval Office and Trump's own problems with existing federal authority and permanent employees, there was no reason at all to terminate the Director of the FBI. Directors are hard enough to find and Trump just threw him out of the building. Amazing.
And he did it for political purposes. His followers demand the end of the Deep State. Dopey, Dirty Donald Trump is playing games and Comey gets thrown out of the building. That is the definition of a Banana Republic. The Director of the FBI, CIA and others, including Assistant AGs should be required to impeach and not simply fired. That goes for Special Councils as well and only Congress should be able to terminate their employment.
On May 17, 2017, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed the Special Counsel and authorized him to conduct the investigation that Corney had confirmed in his congressional testimony, as well as matters arising directly from the investigation, and any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a), which generally covers efforts to interfere with or obstruct the investigation.
28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a) (click here) Section (a) defines jurisdiction.
(a)Original jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall be established by the Attorney General. The Special Counsel will be provided with a specific factual statement of the matter to be investigated. The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall also include the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel's investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses; and to conduct appeals arising out of the matter being investigated and/or prosecuted.
During the course of the Special Counsel investigation, I believe there were all those activities.
intent to interfere
Intent to interfere means that the actual interference did not have to take place. We know Trump was desperately trying to end the Special Counsel investigation regardless of the fact no one in the DOJ would end it, until Barr.
It is reported there are at least four boxes of records destroyed by orders from Trump. Evidently, those records were from the inauguration and/or campaign.
We also know both Trump and Guilliani were openly seeking to intimidate Michael Cohen through perceived death threats. They were all intent and/or actual actions in regard to the Special Counsel report. I believe they are indictable. The incidents with intimidation of Michael Cohen also included his family. If the USA government allows such acts of intimidation it will be an impediment to the future as well. I think the complaints by others regarding destroyed boxes of evidence and intimidation of Michael Cohen and his family have to be investigated and charged.
President Trump reacted negatively to the Special Counsel's appointment. He told advisors that it was the end of his presidency, sought to have Attorney General Jefferson (Jeff) Sessions unrecuse from the Russia investigation and to have the Special Counsel removed, and engaged in efforts to curtail the Special Counsel's investigation and prevent the disclosure of evidence to it, including through public and private contacts with potential witnesses. Those and related actions are described and analyzed in Volume II of the report.
It is not possible to unrecuse oneself from a legal status regarding a legal matter. The reason the recusal took place was because of FACTS leading up to recusal. The entire concept is another unreality from Trump. It is worthy to realize the two attorneys that followed Jeff Sessions never recused themselves. Acting Attorney General Whitaker stated he had spoken with ethics and it was his decision. That seems fairly lame to me. If there was a reason to speak to eithics regarding recusal, there was a basis for it.
to have the Special Counsel removed
The president frequently discussed the fact Jeff Sessions should have never recused himself. That is the corruption of this administration coming through very loudly. The only reason Trump stated he did not want Sessions to recuse was for one reason and one reason only, to have the Special Counsel removed. That is obstruction. If obstruction of justice is allowed to exist, what happens to our justice system?
...what’s behind a recusal. (click here) The reason why you recuse yourself is because you are indicating that you have some kind of interest or conflict that prevents you from being ethically being able to impartially decide whatever the issue is, particularly in law.
Barring some kind of explanation as to why that conflict or issue no longer exists, there’s no way to take that back. Additionally, *even if* the conflict or issue no longer exists, it’s still what is called the mere appearance of impropriety (i.e. it doesn’t matter whether it actually is inappropriate or potentially conflicted/unethical, merely as long as it may appear to be that way). For this reason it usually doesn’t even matter that the conflict of interest has been resolved or is no longer at issue.
That person then has no business deciding upon the issue they are or were conflicted about....
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This is the end of this section. I will continue reading in the next entry. Until later.
