AG Barr wants a ‘clean’ FISA reauthorization because he won’t abuse it

February 27, 2020 — bunkerville

 

Let me be blunt. I am no fan of AG Barr. He doesn’t think he can do his job with Trump’s tweeting? Now he thinks we should trust him with FISA and make no changes? Keep it the same until 2022? We are suppose to have faith in him? Who is to say if he will be in that position, who says what the Congress will look like and who knows if Trump will be President.

We got to see his true colors of being a total swamp creature in an earlier post this month. Trump’s tweet, Barr’s response and failed Jessie Liu – the intersect

The long and the short of the previous post and a winding tale to be told was Barr’s support of a high level swamp creature and was her champion from day one. Barr wanted Liu for the top job at Treasury. Even though the Senate failed to confirm her earlier for a different position.

Why did Barr ever think Jessie Liu was worth promoting to a critical role in treasury? and worse to the DOJ #3 post before that. As soon as Barr was confirmed as AG he was her champion. She was involved with Mueller including the Stone and McCabe cases.

Check this:  Via NBC) […]

The former U.S. attorney whose office oversaw the Roger Stone prosecution resigned from the Trump administration Wednesday, two days after President Donald Trump abruptly withdrew her nomination for a top job at the Treasury Department.

But enough of that grade B novel. Check it out if you have the time. I digress.

Now back to the latest Barr fiasco.

In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020:

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William Barr told Senate Republicans on Tuesday that the Trump administration could support a clean extension of contentious surveillance laws set to expire next month. And Barr said he could make changes on his own to satisfy President Donald Trump and his allies who have railed against the use of the law to monitor his 2016 campaign, according to senators at a party briefing.

But Barr also clashed with GOP critics of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which has three key provisions set to lapse on March 15.

[…] Republicans emerged from the lunch meeting mostly supportive of a clean extension of the law to avoid a gap; doing so is a top priority of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“The attorney general just wanted to underscore again the importance of these provisions that were enacted in the wake of the 9/11 attack. They’re still relevant to our effort to go after terrorists today like they were after 9/11,” McConnell told reporters.

But Barr also sparred with skeptics, primarily libertarian-leaning Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Barr told Lee his criticisms of surveillance law are dangerous, while Paul said Americans shouldn’t be subject to secret FISA courts, one of the people said.

[…] Senate Republicans prefer kicking a broad FISA debate to as late as 2022, when other pieces of the law expire. In the interim, Barr would make administrative changes to address complaints from conservatives that surveillance authorities were abused during Trump’s campaign — something the president continues to seethe over.

“You’ve got three provisions to deal with. I think it’d be smart to keep them in place. It would give us some time to work on FISA writ large, we’ve got three years,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is preparing hearings on FISA.

[…] “A lot will happen between now and March 15. We may do a placeholder and take it past March 15. We’ve got to get this right,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “Anybody who reads the Horowitz report on misfire hurricane will understand what I’m talking about.” (read more)

Prior to the December 9, 2019, inspector general report on FISA abuse, FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons. For the past several years no corrective action taken by the intelligence community has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court.

The sketchy programs, and abuse therein, has public attention yet congressional representatives are not responding to the findings.

H./T: Conservative Tree House

A pretty damning clip knowing what we know now. Of course he slid through his confirmation hearing.

 

Check out the earlier post Trump’s tweet, Barr’s response and failed Jessie Liu – the intersect

 

Other than that, all is well in the swamp.

Posted in Deep State. Tags: , , , , . 13 Comments »

DiGenova and Toensing: ‘FBI Chris Wray has been stonewalling I.G. report’

June 1, 2019 — bunkerville

 

My favorite D.C. couple Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova appeared on the Lou Dobbs show and gave their take on the latest zinger from Robert Mueller.  The two discuss Robert Mueller’s statement on the Russia investigation. Two takeaways from the show include that they believe Mueller should be disbarred among other things, and the reminder that Mueller was the head of the FBI during the time of the Uranium deal of Hillary. A refresher:

Hillary Clinton has Mueller transfer Uranium to Russia on a tarmac

But the best comes at the last minute and a half:

“When will we see the long awaited much ballywhood Inspector General’s report? Not for some time. Christopher Wray has been stonewalling it. We know that because he retroactively classified the documents from the State Department.”

 

Joe diGenova: Mueller should be disbarred

 

Posted in Deep State. Tags: , , , . 14 Comments »

White House lawyer writes scathing letter to DOJ – ‘A Law School Exam Paper’

May 3, 2019 — bunkerville

 

The letter submitted by a Emmet Flood, Trump’s WH Attorney to the DOJ is well worth the read. Anyone who has been waiting for the screw to turn the opposite direction will find some comfort that the adults are now in control of salvaging the defense of Trump.

There is no question that Trump’s first legal team took a naive approach with Mueller. In fact they allowed Mueller unfettered access to his Chief of Staff and Legal Consul when Trump could easily have claimed Executive privilege for these two without much blow back and is causing most of the ruckus at this moment with statements they made to Mueller’s team.

See my earlier post Trump’s legal team’s epic fail – meet John Dowd

September 7, 2018.

We had the good fortune of hearing the setup this past week when Hannity dragged John Dowd out from under a rock to explain his thinking. Dowd thought he could trust Mueller and had a handshake on it? He’s disappointed?

I can’t say he is in much better shape with media hog Rudy, who never let a minute go without being noticed.

John Dowd, who has urged the President to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and resist attacking him publicly, resigned as his disagreements with Trump intensified and the President stepped up his attacks on the special counsel. His departure raises questions about the direction of Trump’s legal strategy and could signal a more aggressive posture on Trump’s part. (You think??) H/t: CNN

 

 

Now the update with WH Emmet Flood’s letter to the DOJ. Do take the time to read the excellent writing by Flood. Link embedded below:

In a five-page letter, a top White House lawyer argued that Trump should be able to stop officials from talking to Congress about the report.

A top White House lawyer slammed Robert Mueller in a letter made public Thursday, calling out the special counsel for playing politics by submitting findings to Attorney General William Barr that are “part ‘truth commission’ report and part law school exam paper.”

Emmet Flood’s blistering rebuke of Mueller’s work came in a five-page letter to Barr dated April 19, one day after the public release of a redacted version of the special counsel’s report that detailed President Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere in the Russia probe but declined to make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice.

The missive is the latest salvo in a long-running spat between the White House and the special counsel’s office over what information Mueller’s team should be allowed to release — and what Congress should see. It argues that Trump should be able to stop officials from talking to lawmakers about the report’s findings and attempts to justify the White House refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking further information about instances described in the report.

Read more

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Former FBI Mueller: I have to check to see if Obama can kill citizens on U.S. soil

July 31, 2018 — bunkerville

 

News comes that Eric Holder is considering running for President in 2020. Let’s have a refresher as to what that might mean for good red bloodied Americans. So let’s go back to circa 2012. First a short clip of Holder now:

 

 

FBI has as the Director one Robert Mueller. The Department of Justice has as the Attorney general one Eric Holder. Consider the risk of connecting these two together once again. Later let’s add a Comey to the mix.

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “three criteria” for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.

Pressed by House lawmakers about a recent speech in which Holder described the legal justification for assassination, Mueller, who was attending a hearing on his agency’s budget, did not say without qualification that the three criteria could not be applied inside the U.S.

“I have to go back. Uh, I’m not certain whether that was addressed or not,” Mueller said when asked by Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., about a distinction between domestic and foreign targeting. Graves followed up asking whether “from a historical perspective,” the federal government has “the ability to kill a U.S. citizen on United States soil or just overseas.”

“I’m going to defer.

snip….

“Holder’s new definition of ‘due process’ was perfectly Orwellian,” Turley wrote. “What Holder is describing is a model of an imperial presidency that would have made Richard Nixon blush. …

“Where due process once resided, Holder offered only an assurance that the president would kill citizens with care. While that certainly relieved any concern that Obama would hunt citizens for sport, Holder offered no assurances on how this power would be used in the future beyond the now all-too-familiar ‘trust us’ approach to civil liberties of this administration,” he wrote. More Here

 

 

Bonus former Daily Special Post:

Comey: Citizens Should Have No Secrets That The Government Can’t Access 

The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data – information the government has no automatic right to obtain.

As reported by The New American, Comey testified that he believes the government’s spy and law enforcement agencies should have unfettered access to everything Americans may store or send in electronic format: On computer hard drives, in so-called i-clouds, in email and in text messaging – for our own safety and protection. Like many in government today, Comey believes that national security is more important than constitutional privacy protections or, apparently, due process.

 

Posted in Deep State. Tags: , , , , . 23 Comments »

Robert Mueller Has Been Botching Investigations Since The Anthrax Attacks

March 22, 2018 — bunkerville

Here is some light reading for a snowy Spring day…. says it all….drain the swamp! More to follow I am sure on this fine fellow.

Under Mueller’s management, the FBI launched an investigation lasting ten years. They now brag about spending “hundreds of thousands of investigator hours on this case.” Let’s take a closer look at Mueller’s response to understand the context of the investigation — who his people investigated, targeted, and found guilty.

Posted in Government. Tags: , , . 8 Comments »

Grassley to hold hearings on ‘Russian interference’ no mention of sins of Obama clan for review

August 8, 2017 — bunkerville

Interesting isn’t it. The GOP can’t get themselves together to repeal Obamacare, but they sure can pull themselves together to beat on Trump. We have the usual suspects. But let’s pile on. Senators prepare bill to block firing of special counsel – Chicago Tribune

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is working on legislation that would block the firing of special counsels without judicial review. DemocratsSheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday they are among the senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are working with Graham on the effort.

Oh, but that’s not enough. Grassley will pull out the Bazooka and hold hearings to try to nail Trump et al. No time for hearings on the zillions of illegal activity by the Obama clan, but plenty of time for Trump. Just wait until 2018. In one big last hooray, let us primary these sad representations of the GOP back to their home towns for keeps:

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is amping up the panel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, weighing whether to issue subpoenas for Donald Trump Jr. and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Bloomberg News first reported Monday.

Grassley’s committee is conducting its probe in addition to the Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations, which some– including Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn — have said they feel is inappropriate.

While the move has received some pushback, Grassley stands by his decision to push forward with the investigation alongside Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, arguing it’s their duty to look into whether there was any sort of obstruction of justice.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham praised Grassley’s efforts, saying he is loyal to the party but concerned with the greater good of the country.

More at Daily Caller

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FBI Special Counsel Mueller: ‘I Have to Check to See If Obama Has the Right to Kill Americans On U S Soil’

May 18, 2017 — bunkerville

While we once again will hear how another “White Knight” comes before us in the form of Mueller to dig about the swamp, looking for some heads to claim, I suggest he is anything but that very special person. You can read elsewhere how he and Comey saved our Constitution at a hospital bedside. This is the real Mueller, another political hack. You see, Obama had a kill list. He had a peculiar taste for it.

It’s been well reported that Obama and his top minions have a so-called “kill list” of which he takes a particular interest. The question is where does it start and where does it stop? The issue of his killing Americans abroad brought a fire storm, and does he have the authority to kill Americans. Here. On U.S. soil?

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “three criteria” for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.

“Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process,” Holder said.

But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine on Wednesday that Holder’s remarks not only would be seen by the framers of the Constitution as “the very definition of authoritarian power,” but were met “not with outcry but muted applause.”

“Holder’s new definition of ‘due process’ was perfectly Orwellian,” Turley wrote. “What Holder is describing is a model of an imperial presidency that would have made Richard Nixon blush. …

“Where due process once resided, Holder offered only an assurance that the president would kill citizens with care. While that certainly relieved any concern that Obama would hunt citizens for sport, Holder offered no assurances on how this power would be used in the future beyond the now all-too-familiar ‘trust us’ approach to civil liberties of this administration,” he wrote.

Full story at Fox News back in 2012 by Catherine Herridge. Does the name Seth Rich come to mind for anyone else?

Posted in Government. Tags: , , , , . 18 Comments »

New FBI Director has agents visiting MLK monument

October 29, 2013 — bunkerville

I could not resist a revisit of James Comey, the new FBI Director, when I read that he now has new agents visiting MLK’s monument. Two posts today. First a refresher on Comfey:

What you will not hear from the Obama-friendly media, and our somnolent members of Congress, is this: Not only was the Patriot Act expanded under the supervision of Comey, Mueller and Ashcroft, when Comey left the AG’s office in 2005 he went to work as the top lawyer for…wait for it…”Big Brother” himself – Lockheed Martin.

When most people hear Lockheed Martin they think military contracts. Well, welcome to 1984. “Big Brother” is another name for Lockheed Martin, and security and surveillance is their game. They’ve been working closely with the National Security Agency (AKA: NSA, as in No Such Agency) for many years.

So ask yourself: Why would the Obama regime appoint a new FBI Director who works for a prime contractor that sells NSA the technology to spy on Americans? Would PETA hire a fur coat distributor?

Oh, by the way, where’s John Ashcroft today? Why he’s on the Board of Directors of Blackwater USA, which now goes by the harmless sounding name – Academi – conjuring up images of ivy-covered buildings and lounging intellectuals.

So in the days ahead, when the media and politicians tell you that James B. Comey will stand up for your civil liberties as FBI Director (citing a hospital room performance over the Patriot Act), remember: If Comey didn’t support spying on Americans, why would he work for a leading company that sells the government the tools to spy on Americans?

Are the manufacturers of hunting rifles against hunting?

Comey and Ashcroft – Lockheed Martin and Blackwater: Defenders of our civil liberties?

Do you think that Comey will be one wit different than the former Director? Recall:

FBI Director: I have to check to see if Obama can kill citizens on U.S. soil

January 26, 2013

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “three criteria” for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.
Pressed by House lawmakers about a recent speech in which Holder described the legal justification for assassination, Mueller, who was attending a hearing on his agency’s budget, did not say without qualification that the three criteria could not be applied inside the U.S.
“I have to go back. Uh, I’m not certain whether that was addressed or not,” Mueller said when asked by Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., about a distinction between domestic and foreign targeting. Graves followed up asking whether “from a historical perspective,” the federal government has “the ability to kill a U.S. citizen on United States soil or just overseas.”
“I’m going to defer.

Here we have Mueller telling us its Drones away here in the United States. Connect the dots folks

Via Daily Caller:

New FBI Director James Comey will tell all the Bureau’s new agents and analysts to visit the monument to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C.

“I’m going to direct that all new agents and analysts also visit the Martin Luther King Memorial here in Washington,” said Comey, whose term runs for 10 years.

Keep reading…

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American Citizen Indefinite Detention NDAA (S.1867) 1031

February 6, 2013 — bunkerville

Many of us bloggers have been posting about the secret “Kill List” of Obama which includes the killing of U.S. citizens. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Finally it is getting attention. You might want to check out first FBI Director “I have to check and see if Obama can kill Citizens on U.S. soil

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “three criteria” for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.

 From August, 2012 post: Obama fights injunction against unlawful detention of U.S. citizens

Obama fights the preliminary injunction granted to American Citizens against unlawful imprisonment. But Obama is not through with us yet. They are fighting it big time, and the rationale gets even more creepy. The argument goes something like this, if we are thrown in jail, we can always appeal, even though it may take years to prove our innocence. Guilty until proven otherwise, typical Marxist justice.

On May 16th,federal judge Kathleen Forrest granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Barack Obama and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA),striking down those sections of the Act that provide the president the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without benefit of their 5th and 6th Amendment rights. As a reminder, keep in mind it was Obama that insisted that the language in the NDAA bill include Citizens:Obama lies-he insisted that detention of Americans be in defense bill

“But… It was his administration that insisted that the language be included in the bill”.

From the video: Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told Congress recently that under the original wording of the National Defense Authorization Act, American citizens were excluded from the provision that allowed for detention. Once Obama’s officials saw the text though, says Levin, “the administration asked us to remove the language which says that US citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section.”

Under the terms of the Act,Obama had been given exclusive authority to direct members of the US military to arrest and imprison anyone he believed to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda,the Taliban,or “associated forces.” When pressed by plaintiff’s attorneys about the practical extent of this authority,government lawyers admitted “…the NDAA does give the president the power to lock up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists,” admitting that “…even war correspondents could be locked up indefinitely under the NDAA.”

Yet incredibly,when pressed on the issue,this Obama mouthpiece suggested to Judge Forrest that concerns about the president’s detention powers were excessive as American citizens would,after all,have the ability to file a writ of habeas corpus should they be illegally or improperly jailed! “How long does [such a] petition take,” asked Forrest? When Torrance refused to answer,the Judge continued,“Several years,right”?

 

So not only did Obama’s attorney lie about his Marxist boss’s corrupt intentions;he actually claimed that the abuse of American citizens was somehow acceptable because those unconstitutionally imprisoned might ask that the charges against them be produced after ONLY a few years behind bars!

Script from Video: Senator Levin told Congress recently that under the original wording of the National Defense Authorization Act, American citizens were excluded from the provision that allowed for detention. Once Obama’s officials saw the text though, says Levin, “the administration asked us to remove the language which says that US citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section.”

Specifically, the section that Obama asked to be reworded was Section 1031 of the NDAA FY2012, which says that “any person who has committed a belligerent act” could be held indefinitely.

“It was the administration that asked us to remove the very language which we had in the bill which passed the committee…we removed it at the request of the administration,” said Levin. “It was the administration which asked us to remove the very language the absence of which is now objected to.”

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