FBI misses deadline to provide docs to Judiciary Committee probing whistleblower raid

The Justice Department and FBI have missed a Wednesday deadline to provide information about the government's mysterious raid on a former FBI contractor-turned-whistleblower's home last month.
Sixteen FBI agents on Nov. 19 raided the home of Dennis Nathan Cain, who reportedly gave the Justice Department's Inspector General (IG) documents related to the Uranium One controversy and potential wrongdoing by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The documents in question allegedly showed that federal officials failed to investigate possible criminal activity related to Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, a Russian nuclear company. Its subsidiary purchased Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2013.
OBAMA-ERA URANIUM ONE DEAL: WHAT TO KNOW
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose panel has oversight of the Justice Department, penned a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department IG General Michael Horowitz, requesting information on the justification for the raid. Grassley gave Wray and Horowitz until Dec. 12 to respond to his request.
That deadline has come and gone, and neither the FBI nor DOJ has produced any documents or response.
"We have not yet received answers to the chairman's questions on this matter," a Judiciary Commitee spokesperson told Fox News late Thursday.
The FBI consistently has refused Fox News' request for comment on the whistleblower raid and the Judiciary Committee's requests. On Thursday, an FBI spokesperson told Fox News the agency would respond only to inquiries from the entity that requested the documents -- in this case, the Judiciary Committee.
Questioning whether “we now live in a secret police state,” Cain took his frustration about the situation to Twitter earlier this week.
“So I blow the whistle on the FBI, get raided by the same FBI, and now they want to keep the FBI’s reasons secret? Do we now live in a secret police state? Feels a little like 1984,” Cain tweeted late Monday. The tweet eventually was deleted.
The Daily Caller requested that a court unseal the relevant search warrant materials, but the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, in a court filing, said: “the request should be denied.”
“Public disclosure of any search warrant materials would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the ongoing investigation,” the filing by the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “Continued sealing is essential in order to guard against possible tampering of witnesses and destruction of evidence, to maintain the ability of the grand jury to investigate this matter, and to prevent the disclosure of sensitive investigative techniques and methods.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur declined to comment.
Cain's lawyer, Michael Socarras, told The Daily Caller the agent who led the raid accused his client of possessing stolen federal property. In response, Cain reportedly claimed he was a protected whistleblower under federal law, and said he was recognized as such by Horowitz.
Socarras also claimed Horowitz had transmitted information on the sale of Uranium One to a Russian firm’s subsidiary to both the House and Senate intelligence committees.
A spokesperson for the inspector general declined to comment.
“As frustrating and violating as this feels to me and my family. I will continue to put my trust in God. Some day this life will pass away. I will stand before my maker with a clean concience[sic] and Jesus as my defender. Until then I continue to fight the good fight with God’s help,” Cain tweeted Monday night.
ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS' PHONES COMPLETELY WIPED AS DOJ WATCHDOG LOOKS FOR THEIR TEXT MESSAGES
On Tuesday, he added: “Thank you for the outpouring of encouragement. You all are awesome. A boxer goes into his corner to rest for a minute, refocus, and get some sideline coaching. Then the bell rings and he’s ready to go another round. This fight is spiritual and God is in our corner. Ding! Rom 8:31.”
Fox News has previously reported that Douglas Campbell, an FBI informant involved in the Uranium One deal, has testified to lawmakers that Moscow paid millions to American lobbying firm APCO Worldwide to influence Clinton and the Obama administration.
“The contract called for four payments of $750,000 over 12 months,” Campbell said in his statement this past February. “APCO was expected to give assistance free of charge to the Clinton Global Initiative as part of their effort to create a favorable environment to ensure the Obama administration made affirmative decisions on everything from Uranium One to the US-Russia Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement.”
STATE DEPT PROVIDED 'CLEARLY FALSE' DOCS TO DERAIL CLINTON PROBE, 'SHOCKED' FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS
APCO has denied Campbell's claims while Clinton called any claims of wrongdoing related to the Uranium One deal "the same baloney they’ve been peddling for years, and there’s been no credible evidence by anyone.
"In fact," Clinton told C-SPAN in October 2017, "it’s been debunked repeatedly and will continue to be debunked.”
Separately, the DOJ and Special Counsel Robert Mueller face a Friday afternoon deadline to turn over documents related to their questioning of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn's team has alleged the FBI pressured him not to have a lawyer at the White House meeting in January 2017, after which Flynn was charged on one count of lying to federal authorities.
Flynn -- who had to sell his house this year amid mounting legal bills -- later pleaded guilty to lying to agents about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador in December 2016 about sanctions that had recently been imposed by then-President Barack Obama. Flynn has since acknowledged seeking to convince Russia not to retaliate for those sanctions during the presidential transition period.
But Flynn's lawyers, in an explosive Tuesday court filing that threatens to upend his pending sentencing, charged that the FBI had not finalized their pivotal, and only, account of Flynn's statements until August 2017 -- nearly eight months after their interview with him. Fired FBI Director James Comey has since admitted the Flynn meeting broke normal agency protocol.

Government Shutdown Cartoons

Trump may own the shutdown, but it's unlikely despite TV drama Howard Kurtz By Howard Kurtz | Fox News Facebook Twitter Flipboard Comments Print Email

For all the drama of the televised confrontation in the Oval Office, the odds are overwhelming that there won't be a government shutdown. The plain fact is that neither party wants one.
So what happened between Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer during those tense 17 minutes on Tuesday was more about political theater and blame-shifting.
The amount of money — Trump wants $4 billion more for his wall than the Democrats are willing to provide — is almost negligible. And the House Democrats aren't going to budge when they take over next month. What's at stake is the symbolism surrounding the president's signature issue.
The media verdict is that Pelosi and Schumer embarrassed Trump and boxed him into a damaging declaration: He now owns any shutdown.
As The New York Times put it, "The trick in Washington has always been to make sure a government shutdown is pinned on the other guy. President Trump is the first to ever pin one on himself."
With the Times saying Pelosi and Schumer "essentially goaded" the president into saying he'd proudly close the government for border security, The Washington Post says the Democratic duo "called out Trump's falsehoods. They exposed him as malleable about his promised border wall. They lectured him about the legislative process and reiterated to him that he lacked the votes to secure the $5 billion he seeks for the wall."
But there's another view, as these and other accounts acknowledged.
The border wall, and the broader issue of illegal immigration, is immensely important to Trump's core supporters. He wanted to send them an unmistakable signal that he's fighting for them and understands their concerns. And then, if he falls short, he can blame the Dems. Or, with his recent comments that some of the wall is already being built, Trump can try to cobble something together and claim victory.
The incoming House speaker seized upon Trump's tactic of brutally personal insults. Democratic allies leaked to reporters that Pelosi later told party colleagues that she felt like she'd been in a "tinkle contest with a skunk," adding: "It's a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him." So much for the high road.
What the president may not have fully appreciated is that the party seen as triggering a partial government shutdown always pays a stiff price. The Republicans were hurt when they tried the tactic during the Clinton years and again during the Obama administration. But when Democrats were seen as precipitating a shutdown at the end of last year, they quickly backed off and made a deal within hours.
When real people are hurt — furloughs, delayed paychecks, national parks and monuments closed — the underlying issues get lost in the backlash. Of course, that may not be a factor if Trump doesn't really plan to take things past the brink.
I think it's great to watch our leaders debating serious issues on TV. Trump did that with lawmakers last year on gun control but never followed through, leading to criticism it was all about the show.
But let's face it, the process only goes so far. Pelosi and Schumer were right when they told Trump that a deal needed to be made behind closed doors. There's too much posturing, by everyone, when the cameras are on.
The frenzy over the meeting will quickly fade unless there's actually a Christmas-season shutdown. But the one clear loser was Mike Pence. The media mockery of a stiff and stone-faced vice president may have been unfair, but the images will stick to him like tarpaper.

California Dem Ted Lieu say he would 'love to regulate' speech, bemoans US Constitution that prohibits him

California Democrat Ted Lieu bemoaned on Wednesday that though he would “love to be able to regulate the content of speech,” including that on Fox News, he can’t do it because of the U.S. Constitution.
Lieu made the comments during an interview about the testimony of Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, where he dismissed the allegations that the tech giant amplifies negative stories about Republican lawmakers, saying “if you want positive search results, do positive things."
CNN host Brianna Keilar praised Lieu for his performance but asked whether other Democrats should have used the committee to press Google on conspiracy theories that spread on their platforms.
“It's a very good point you make. I would love if I could have more than five minutes to question witnesses. Unfortunately, I don't get that opportunity,” Lieu said of the committee hearings.
“However, I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech. The First Amendment prevents me from doing so, and that's simply a function of the First Amendment, but I think over the long run, it's better the government does not regulate the content of speech,” he continued.

"I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech. The First Amendment prevents me from doing so, and that's simply a function of the First Amendment, but I think over the long run, it's better the government does not regulate the content of speech."
— California Democrat Ted Lieu

Lieu added that private companies should self-regulate their platforms and said the government shouldn’t interfere.
After his remarks aired, Lieu came under fire on social media, prompting him to go on a Twitter spree to clarify his views, including that he would like to regulate Fox News.
One Twitter user had accused him of being “a poster child for the tyranny.”
Lieu insisted that he’s actually defending the First Amendment rather than showing his desire to regulate speech.
“My whole point is that government officials always want to regulate speech, see e.g. the Republican Judiciary hearing alleging Google is biased against Republicans,” he wrote in another tweet. “But thank goodness the First Amendment prevents me, @POTUS and Republicans from doing so.”
“I agree there are serious issues, but the speech issues are protected by the First Amendment,” the Democrat added. “Would I like to regulate Fox News? Yes, but I can't because the First Amendment stops me. And that's ultimately a good thing in the long run.”
Lieu has become somewhat a foe of President Trump following his election, often taking to social media to throw jabs at the president.
He’s among the Democrats who’s been flirting with the idea of impeaching Trump over the perceived collusion between Russia and the campaign. He also tried to kick-start earlier this year the impeachment process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
CA DEM: TRUMP 'TRULY AN EVIL MAN' WHO LIKELY VIOLATED HIS OATH OF OFFICE
Lieu also raised eyebrows in summer after playing on House floor an audio recording of the crying migrant children separated from their families as part of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
Last year, Lieu was slammed for walking out of a moment of silence for victims of a mass shooting at a Texas church.

Trump lawyer Giuliani calls on Mueller to end Russia probe: 'Wrap the damn thing up'

Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H. (Associated Press)

Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump’s lawyers, said Wednesday that the president’s legal team is focused on encouraging special counsel Robert Mueller to end his Russia investigation.
“Our strategy is … to do everything we can to try to convince Mueller to wrap the damn thing up, and if he’s got anything, show us,” Giuliani told Yahoo News in a phone interview. “If he doesn’t have anything, you know, write your report, tell us what you have, and we’ll deal with it. He can’t prosecute him [Trump]. All he can do is write a report about him, so write the g--damned thing and get it over with now.”
Giuliani said he believes there is no further reason to probe into Russian efforts to influence the election in Trump's favor.
“I’ve seen their questions. There’s nothing to look at. They could look at collusion for the next 30 years and, unless they get somebody to lie, they’re not going to find any evidence of it because it didn’t happen,” Giuliani said.
“I think he’s desperately trying to come up with some smoke and mirrors so he can say there’s some form of collusion. I don’t think he can do it,” Giuliani said of Mueller. “I saw a prosecutor that was on a fishing expedition as opposed to somebody that has a solid piece of evidence and wants to nail you with it. It’s like something you’d do at a beginning of a case, not the end.”

“I saw a prosecutor that was on a fishing expedition as opposed to somebody that has a solid piece of evidence and wants to nail you with it."
— Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump

READ: MICHAEL COHEN SENTENCING MEMO FILED BY PROSECUTORS
He suggested a crime could have taken place only if Trump was directly involved in efforts by Russia to hack Democrats’ emails during the 2016 campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies have said the Kremlin orchestrated hacking efforts to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
Giuliani’s comments came hours after Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in relation to several charges, including lying to Congress about a tower Trump sought to build in Moscow, tax evasion and making payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
“The president’s not a lawyer. The simple fact is that it’s not a criminal violation of the campaign finance law,” said Giuliani of the alleged payments.
During FBI raids, agents seized tapes made by Cohen of conversations with Trump and others.
“Cohen is a completely dishonorable person. … I’ve never heard of a lawyer that tape-recorded their client without the client’s permission, and I’ve known some pretty scummy lawyers,” Giuliani said. “You don’t exist very long in the legal profession if you go around taping your client.”

"I’ve never heard of a lawyer that tape-recorded their client without the client’s permission, and I’ve known some pretty scummy lawyers."
— Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump

He also chimed in on Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, though Manafort was accused by Mueller last month of violating the terms of the agreement by lying about contacts he had with the Trump administration.
MUELLER FILING: MANAFORT LIED ABOUT CONTACTS WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
“In Manafort’s case, they really should give up at this point. I mean, how much do you want to do to the guy? Do you want to waterboard him? I mean, come on, you have him in solitary confinement," Giuliani said. "They take him out every other day. He knows exactly what he has to say to get out, but he says, you know, ‘I’m not going to say it because it’s not true.’ Gee, is it possible maybe he’s right — it isn’t true?”

Judge in Flynn case orders Mueller to turn over interview docs after bombshell claim of FBI pressure

One day after former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's legal team made the bombshell allegation that the FBI had pushed him not to bring a lawyer to his fateful Jan. 24, 2017 interview with agents at the White House, the federal judge overseeing Flynn's criminal case late Wednesday ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller to turn over all of the government's documents and "memoranda" related to the questioning.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan -- who overturned the 2008 conviction of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens after government misconduct came to light -- is weighing how to sentence Flynn, who pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities in the Russia probe during that interview in the West Wing. Flynn faced mounting legal bills that forced him to sell his home amid the prosecution, and Mueller has already recommended he receive no prison time.
Sullivan's extraordinary demand puts Mueller under the microscope and sets a 3:00 p.m. EST Friday deadline for the special counsel's office to turn over the sensitive FBI documents. Sullivan's brief order states that Mueller can choose to file the materials under seal.
Sullivan also ordered the Flynn team to turn over the documents backing up its assertions. The judge could determine why the FBI apparently took a significantly more aggressive tack in handling the Flynn interview than it did during other similar matters, including the agency's sit-downs with Hillary Clinton and ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos.
Flynn is set to be sentenced next Tuesday -- but Sullivan's move might delay that date, or lead to other dramatic and unexpected changes in the case. Sullivan even has the authority to toss Flynn's guilty plea and the charge against him if he concludes that the FBI interfered with Flynn's constitutional right to counsel, although he has given no indications that he intends to do so.
Federal authorities undertaking a national security probe are ordinarily under no obligation to inform interviewees of their right to an attorney unless they are in custody, as long as agents do not act coercively. Flynn's lawyers claimed in Tuesday's filing that FBI brass had threatened to escalate the matter to involve the Justice Department if Flynn sought the advice of the White House Counsel before talking with agents.
Sullivan, first appointed a judge by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and then to the D.C. federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994, could also assess why the two FBI agents who interviewed Flynn -- including fired anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok -- would have provided an Aug. 22, 2017 date on their so-called "302" report documenting what Flynn told them during their conversation at the White House.
The August date on the FBI 302 cited by the Flynn team is nearly seven months after the Flynn interview took place, and about a week after reports surfaced that Strzok had been summarily removed from Mueller's Russia probe because his persistent anti-Trump communications had surfaced.
So-called 302 reports are ostensibly contemporaneous accounts by agents of what is said during their interviews with witnesses and subjects, as well as other critical details like interviewees' demeanor and descriptions of where the interview took place. They are often critical pieces of evidence in false statements cases where, as in the Flynn case, the FBI typically does not audio- or video-record interviews.
FEDERAL JUDGE 'SHOCKED' AND 'DUMBFOUNDED' BY FBI ACTIONS IN HILLARY PROBE, SAYS STATE DEPT LIED TO COVER FOR CLINTONS
In June, Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C, charged that the FBI may have "edited and changed" key witness reports in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations. Meadows also raised the possibility that the FBI misled the Department of Justice watchdog in an attempt to hide the identities of FBI employees who were caught sending anti-Trump messages along with Strzok.

In this image made from a video taken on Dec. 10, 2015 and made available on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, US President Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow.  (The Associated Press)

Flynn "clearly saw the FBI agents as allies," according to the 302 prepared by Strzok and another agent.
In a lengthy court filing Tuesday, Flynn's attorneys alleged that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe pushed Flynn not to have an attorney present during the questioning that ultimately led to his guilty plea on a single charge of lying to federal authorities.
The document outlines, with striking new details, the rapid sequence of events that led to Flynn's sudden fall from the Trump administration.
While Flynn is among several Trump associates to have been charged with making false statements as part of the Russia probe, no one interviewed during the FBI’s Clinton email investigation was hit with false statement charges – though investigators believed some witnesses, including Clinton herself, were untruthful.
FALSE STATEMENT CHARGES ABOUND IN MUELLER PROBE, IN CONTRAST TO CLINTON CASE
According to Flynn's legal team, FBI agents in his case deliberately did not instruct Flynn that any false statements he made could constitute a crime, and decided not to "confront" him directly about anything he said that contradicted their knowledge of his wiretapped communications with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
If “Flynn said he did not remember something they knew he said, they would use the exact words Flynn used, ... to try to refresh his recollection," FBI agents wrote in the 302 report cited by the filing, which Sullivan has ordered both the Flynn team and the FBI to produce by Friday. "If Flynn still would not confirm what he said, ... they would not confront him or talk him through it.”
According to the 302 as described in the filing, Flynn was “relaxed and jocular” as he gave the agents a "little tour" of his West Wing office.
McCabe -- who was fired earlier this year for making unauthorized media leaks and violating FBI policy -- wrote in a memorandum that shortly after noon on Jan. 24, 2017, he called Flynn on his secure line at the White House, and the two briefly discussed an unrelated FBI training session at the White House. Quickly, the conversation turned to a potential interview, according to an account provided by McCabe cited in the Tuesday filing.
McCabe reportedly testified later that the agents, after speaking with Flynn, “didn’t think he was lying" at the time.
HOW THE FBI MADE INCORRECT ASSURANCES TO THE FISA COURT TO OBTAIN A SECRET WARRANT TO SURVEIL TRUMP AIDE CARTER PAGE
In his order, Sullivan requested Mueller turn over not only the Flynn 302, but also a memo written by McCabe and any similar documents in the FBI's possession. Sullivan similarly demanded that Flynn's lawyers produce the McCabe memorandum and 302 they used to make their assertions.

Mueller has signaled he is wrapping up his probe into the Trump campaign's communications with Russians. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

(Separately, Sullivan ruled last month that Clinton must answer more questions under oath about her use of a private email server to store classified documents. But the hard-charging judge has not been easy on the Trump administration: In August, he threatened to hold then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of court when he learned that authorities were in the process of deporting a woman and her child while a court heard her legal appeal, calling immigration officials' actions "pretty outrageous.")
JEROME CORSI: MUELLER WANTED ME TO LIE
McCabe purportedly said in the memo that he told Flynn he “felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down” to discuss his contacts with Russian officials.
“I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between [Flynn] and the agents only," McCabe wrote, according to the Flynn filing. "I further stated that if LTG Flynn wished to include anyone else in the meeting, like the White House Counsel for instance, that I would need to involve the Department of Justice. [General Flynn] stated that this would not be necessary and agreed to meet with the agents without any additional participants."

Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page and fired FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok exchanged anti-Trump text messages during their time at the bureau. (AP, File)

Explaining why Flynn was not warned about the possible consequences of making false statements, one of the agents wrote in the 302 cited by Flynn's lawyers that FBI brass had "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, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport."
FBI OFFICIALS IMPROPERLY RECEIVED SPORTS TICKETS FROM REPORTERS, DOJ WATCHDOG FINDS
The tactics were apparently in sharp contrast to the FBI's approach to interviewing former Trump aide George Papadopoulos, who also pleaded guilty to making false statements and was recently released from prison. In a court filing last year, Special Counsel Mueller's team took pains to note that FBI agents who interviewed Papadopoulos on Jan. 27, 2017 -- just days after the Flynn interview -- had advised Papadopoulos that "lying to them 'is a federal offense'" and that he could get "in trouble" if he did not tell the truth.
The revelations in the court filing, if accurate, would also sharply differ from the FBI's handling of its interview with then-presidential candidate Clinton in 2016, during the height of the presidential campaign. Clinton brought a total of nine lawyers to her interview -- a number that fired FBI Director James Comey said was "unusual ... but not unprecedented" in House testimony in September.
A scathing report released earlier this year by the Department of Justice's inspector general (IG) found that the FBI had taken actions "inconsistent with typical investigative strategy" by allowing former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson to sit in on the Clinton interview -- even though "they had also both served as lawyers for Clinton after they left the State Department."
FLYNN HAS PROVIDED 'SUBSTANTIAL ASSISTANCE' ON CRIMINAL PROBE, MUELLER WRITES
In fact, the IG wrote, FBI officials fretted about how many FBI representatives should be at the interview, for fear of prejudicing Clinton against the agency if, as expected, she went on to become president.
“[S]he might be our next president," FBI attorney Lisa Page wrote, in urging that the number of people at the interview be limited to four or six. "The last thing you need us going in there loaded for bear. You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?”
The IG report further noted: “Witnesses told us, and contemporaneous emails show, that the FBI and Department officials who attended Clinton’s interview found that her claim that she did not understand the significance of the ‘(C)’ marking strained credulity. (FBI) Agent 1 stated, ‘I filed that in the bucket of hard to impossible to believe.’"
FBI MAY HAVE MODIFIED 302 REPORTS AFTER-THE-FACT, GOP REP SAYS
Strzok, who was one of the two agents who interviewed Flynn and who was later also fired for violating FBI policies, had compromised the FBI's appearance of impartiality by sending a slew of anti-Trump texts on his government-issued phone, the IG concluded.
“In particular, we were concerned about text messages exchanged by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Special Counsel to the Deputy Director, that potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” the IG report said.
In one of those texts, Strzok wrote to Page in 2016 that Trump would not become president because "we'll stop" it from happening.
SEVEN BOMBSHELL REVELATIONS IN SCATHING IG REPORT INTO FBI, DOJ MISCONDUCT DURING CLINTON, RUSSIA PROBES
"Even when circumstances later came to light that prompted extensive public debate about the investigation of General Flynn, including revelations that certain FBI officials involved in the January 24 interview of General Flynn were themselves being investigated for misconduct, General Flynn did not back away from accepting responsibility for his actions," Flynn's lawyers wrote in the filing Tuesday.

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump accompanied by, from second from left, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer and then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (The Associated Press)

Flynn was fired as national security adviser in February 2017 for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his contacts with Russian officials. In arguing that Flynn should receive no more than a year of probation and 200 hours of community service for making false statements to federal investigators, his lawyers Tuesday emphasized his service in the U.S. Army and lack of criminal record.
In a sentencing memo earlier this month, Mueller recommended a lenient sentence -- with the possibility of no prison time -- for Flynn, stating he has offered "substantial" help to investigators about "several ongoing investigations."
Meanwhile, Comey revealed in closed-door testimony with House Republicans on Friday that he deliberately concealed an explosive memorandum about his one-on-one Oval Office meeting with President Trump in February 2017 from top Department of Justice officials.
The former FBI head also acknowledged that when the agency initiated its counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators "didn't know whether we had anything" and that "in fact, when I was fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn't know whether there was anything to it."
His remarks square with testimony this summer from former FBI lawyer Page, whose anti-Trump texts became a focus of House GOP oversight efforts. Page told Congress in a closed-door deposition that "even as far as May 2017" -- more than nine months after the counterintelligence probe commenced -- "we still couldn't answer the question" as to whether Trump staff had improperly colluded with Russia.

Crying Democrat Cartoons

 

Fantasy land: Trump's not resigning and Beto is still a long shot

 

'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz weighs in on the large amount of wishful thinking going on in the media where too many people have convinced themselves of the outcomes they want to see, such as Donald Trump resigning and Beto O'Rourke's potential political future.

There's a whole lot of wishful thinking going on these days.
Too many people, perhaps living in their own bubbles, have convinced themselves of the outcomes they want to see. And the phenomenon cuts across political and cultural lines.
Their instinct is that they must be right because it just seems so obvious to all thinking persons.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, the celebrated historian, writes terrific books about past presidents. But Goodwin, who was close to LBJ, went off on Donald Trump yesterday in a rather odd way.
On "Morning Joe," Goodwin said the situation in America "hasn't been this bad since the 1850s, and that didn't end up too well, with a Civil War that 600,000 people died in."
Okay, that's quite a comparison.
She did have a reasonable point in talking about "the miserableness of these people — there's no joy in that White House." Many have had to lawyer up, and there's been a record level of turnover, with some being trashed after their departure. And, said Goodwin, "the top guy doesn't have any joy."
Then came the wish-upon-a-star: "I think at some point he might resign. If this thing gets so bad."
Anyone who believes that Donald Trump is going to voluntarily give up the job that almost nobody thought he could win simply doesn't understand the man.
Then there are some of the Democrats who see an involuntary exit for Trump. I wrote yesterday about how some of them are now talking up indictment, rather than impeachment, as the media shift their focus from Russia to paying off alleged paramours. But some senior Democratic lawmakers are still talking up impeachment.
The Federalist puts it bluntly: "Why Democrats Would Be Insane to Impeach Donald Trump." Writer David Marcus notes that after Bill Clinton was acquitted by the Senate, his approval rating hit 73 percent:
"The thrice-married Trump, who has been known to boast about adultery like a suburban dad who won the best lawn in the neighborhood award, apparently had sex with a porn star and a Playboy playmate. That seems about par for his course. But wait! He lied about it! Well, yeah, also pretty much behavior we knew about and expected. But there's more! He might have violated campaign finance law! Okay, but so do a lot of campaigns. Usually they pay a fine and we all move along."
The piece argues that House Democrats, knowing there was no chance of a Republican Senate convicting Trump, "would presumably bring up articles of impeachment to hurt the president politically." But, he says, "Counterpunching Trump would like nothing more than to tell crowd after crowd at rally after rally that the angry Democrats on the elitist coasts and their friends in the deep state are attempting a coup."
Unless more evidence emerges in the Mueller probe, it remains a liberal fantasy.
Another object of fantasy is Beto O'Rourke. The media are so in love with this guy that they provide breathless updates about his 2020 prospects: He met with Al Sharpton! He spoke to Elizabeth Warren's former campaign manager. He "appears to have frozen the Dem field," says NBC.
The New York Times the other day pronounced him the "wild card" of the presidential campaign, "rousing activists" in early-voting states and drawing the interest of former Obama aides.
Now I get that O'Rourke raised record-shattering amounts of money in his 3-point loss to Ted Cruz. But he still lost — not exactly the usual launching pad for a White House bid. But some of his media boosters were talking him up during the campaign as a strong contender even if he lost the Senate race — because, well, he's Beto.
The Times does point out the downside:
"Mr. O’Rourke would surely have vulnerabilities in a primary, including an absence of signature policy feats or a centerpiece issue to date. In his Senate race, he was often disinclined to go negative, frustrating some Democrats who believe he wasted a chance to defeat Mr. Cruz, and he struggled at times in some traditional formats like televised debates. He is, by admission and design, not the political brawler some Democrats might crave against a president they loathe. And his candidacy would not be history-making like Mr. Obama's nor many of his likely peers' in the field, in an election when many activists may want a female or nonwhite nominee."
O'Rourke could always catch fire and win the nomination, I suppose. But for now, it's wishful thinking.
Finally, it pains me to write this because I'm a huge admirer of Steph Curry, the Golden State Warriors star who has a fabulous work ethic and whose three-point shooting transformed the game.
I don't expect athletes to be well informed on anything other than the mechanics of their sport. But Curry is buying into the fantasy that the American moon landings were faked.
This, a half-century since Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, apparently remains a popular conspiracy theory.
And when two hosts on a podcast said the landings never happened, Curry responded: "I don't think so either."
"You don't think so?" he was asked.
"Nuh uh," Curry replied. One of the hosts then brought up the theory that the government hired Stanley Kubrick to produce the phony show.
NASA has now invited Curry to visit its lunar lab at the Johnson Space Center and examine the lunar rocks brought back by Apollo 11.
Maybe Curry will be too busy nailing threes to go. Wishful thinking can be much more fun.

Flynn says FBI pushed him not to have lawyer present during interview

In a lengthy court filing Tuesday, attorneys for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn alleged that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe pushed Flynn not to have an attorney present during the questioning that ultimately led to his guilty plea on a single charge of lying to federal authorities.
The document outlines, with striking new details, the rapid sequence of events that led to Flynn's sudden fall from the Trump administration. The filing also seemingly demonstrates that the FBI took a significantly more aggressive and subversive tack in handling the Flynn interview than it did during other similar matters, including the agency's sit-downs with Hillary Clinton and ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos.
According to Flynn's legal team, FBI agents deliberately refused to instruct Flynn that any false statements he made could constitute a crime, and decided not to "confront" him directly about anything he said that contradicted their knowledge of his wiretapped communications with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
FBI AGENT STRZOK, WHO INTERVIEWED FLYNN, DISCUSSED 'MEDIA LEAK STRATEGY' 
If “Flynn said he did not remember something they knew he said, they would use the exact words Flynn used, . . . to try to refresh his recollection," FBI agents wrote in a so-called "302" witness interview report cited by the filing. "If Flynn still would not confirm what he said, . . . they would not confront him or talk him through it.”
McCabe -- who was fired earlier this year for making unauthorized media leaks and violating FBI policy -- wrote in a memorandum that shortly after noon on Jan. 24, 2017, he called Flynn on his secure line at the White House, and the two briefly discussed an unrelated FBI training session at the White House. Quickly, the conversation turned to a potential interview, according to an account provided by McCabe that was also cited in the Tuesday filing.
McCabe said that he told Flynn he “felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down” to discuss his contacts with Russian officials.
“I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between [Flynn] and the agents only," McCabe wrote. "I further stated that if LTG Flynn wished to include anyone else in the meeting, like the White House Counsel for instance, that I would need to involve the Department of Justice. [General Flynn] stated that this would not be necessary and agreed to meet with the agents without any additional participants."
Explaining why Flynn was not warned about the possible consequences of making false statements, one of the agents wrote in the 302 that FBI brass had "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, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport."
FBI INCORRECTLY SUGGESTED TO FISA COURT IN WARRANT TO SURVEIL TRUMP AIDE THAT YAHOO STORY WASN'T BASED ON DISCREDITED SPY'S REPORT
That tactics were apparently in sharp contrast to the FBI's approach to interviewing former Trump aide George Papadopoulos, who also pleaded guilty to making false statements and was recently released from prison. In a court filing last year, Special Counsel Mueller's team took pains to note that FBI agents who interviewed Papadopoulos on January 27, 2017 -- just days after the Flynn interview -- had advised Papadopoulos that "lying to them 'is a federal offense'" and that he could get "in trouble" if he did not tell the truth.
The revelations in the court filing, if accurate, would also sharply differ from the FBI's handling of its interview with then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, during the height of the presidential campaign. Clinton brought a total of nine lawyers to her interview -- a number that fired FBI Director James Comey said was "unusual ... but not unprecedented" in House testimony in September.

FILE - In this June 7, 2017 file photo, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

A scathing report released earlier this year by the Department of Justice's Inspector General (IG) found that the FBI had taken actions "inconsistent with typical investigative strategy" by allowing former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson to sit in on the Clinton interview -- even though "they had also both served as lawyers for Clinton after they left the State Department."
In fact, the IG wrote, FBI officials fretted about how many FBI representatives should be at the interview, for fear of prejudicing Clinton against the agency if, as expected, she went on to become president.
“[S]he might be our next president," FBI attorney Lisa Page wrote, in urging that the number of people at the interview be limited to four or six. "The last thing you need us going in there loaded for bear. You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?”
The IG report further noted: “Witnesses told us, and contemporaneous emails show, that the FBI and Department officials who attended Clinton’s interview found that her claim that she did not understand the significance of the ‘(C)’ marking strained credulity. (FBI) Agent 1 stated, ‘I filed that in the bucket of hard to impossible to believe.’"

In his fateful interview at the White House with since-fired anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok and another FBI agent, Flynn "clearly saw the FBI agents as allies," according to the 302, which was dated Aug. 22, 2017 -- nearly seven months after the actual interview.
It was unclear why the document, with is ostensibly a contemporaneous account of the interview, was dated in August.
According to the 302, Flynn was “relaxed and jocular” as he gave the agents a "little tour" of his West Wing office. (McCabe reportedly testified later that the agents, after speaking with Flynn, “didn’t think he was lying" at the time.)
In his report on FBI and DOJ misconduct during the Russia and Clinton probes, the IG additionally noted that Strzok, who was one of the two agents who interviewed Flynn and who was later also fired for violating FBI policies, had compromised the FBI's appearance of impartiality by sending a slew of anti-Trump texts on his government-issued phone.
“In particular, we were concerned about text messages exchanged by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Special Counsel to the Deputy Director, that potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” the IG report said.
In one of those texts, Strzok wrote to Page in 2016 that Trump would not become president because "we'll stop" it from happening.

Flynn was fired as national security adviser in February 2017 or misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his contacts with Russian officials. In arguing that Flynn should receive no more than a year of probation and 200 hours of community service for making false statements to federal investigators, his lawyers Tuesday emphasized his service in the United States Army and lack of criminal record.
In a sentencing memo earlier this month, Special Counsel Robert Mueller recommended a lenient sentence -- with the possibility of no prison time -- for Flynn, stating he has offered "substantial" help to investigators about "several ongoing investigations."
Meanwhile, Comey revealed in closed-door testimony with House Republicans on Friday that he deliberately concealed an explosive memorandum about his one-on-one Oval Office meeting with President Trump in February 2017 from top Department of Justice officials.
The former FBI head also acknowledged that when the agency initiated its counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators "didn't know whether we had anything" and that "in fact, when I was fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn't know whether there was anything to it."
His remarks square with testimony this summer from former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whose anti-Trump texts became a focus of House GOP oversight efforts. Page told Congress in a closed-door deposition that "even as far as May 2017" -- more than nine months after the counterintelligence probe commenced -- "we still couldn't answer the question" as to whether Trump staff had improperly colluded with Russia.

Sarah Sanders slams press corps, calls Trump a 'fighter' who treats female, male journalists equally

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday defended President Trump's often combative style with the press, saying the president is a “fighter” who “hits back” at unfair criticism.
“I don’t always find the behavior of the press to be appropriate, either,” Sanders said during a conversation with Politico at the sixth annual Women Rule Summit. “I think that the president is somebody who’s a fighter. When he gets hit, he always hits back.”

"I think that the president is somebody who’s a fighter. When he gets hit, he always hits back."
— Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary

Her answer came after she was asked whether Trump’s behavior toward reporters, in general, has been appropriate. Sanders said she hopes that both the journalists and the president will tone down their rhetoric during future exchanges.
She said that when she's no longer press secretary she hopes she will be known for her transparency and honesty -- and for making America a better country.
“I hope that it will be that I showed up every day and I did the very best job that I could to put forward the president’s message, to do the best job that I could to answer questions, to be transparent and honest throughout that process and do everything I could to make America a little better that day than it was the day before,” she said.

"I hope that it will be that I showed up every day and I did the very best job that I could to put forward the president’s message, to do the best job that I could to answer questions, to be transparent and honest throughout that process and do everything I could to make America a little better that day than it was the day before."
— Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary

Sanders also rebuffed the suggestion that Trump targets female reporters with his criticism, saying the president clashes with male journalists on a frequent basis as well.
“The president’s had an equal number of contentious conversations with your male colleagues,” told interviewer Eliana Johnson. “Women wanted to be treated equally, and we have a president that certainly does that.”
In recent months, Trump was criticized after he made several disparaging remarks toward female reporters, including ABC’s Cecilia Vega, whom he said was “not thinking,” and April Ryan, a White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, whom he said was a “loser” who “doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.”
At the same time, Trump clashed with CNN’s Jim Acosta, prompting the White House to temporarily remove the reporter’s access. Acosta's press credentials were reinstated following a lawsuit that was supported by all major news organizations.
Finally, Sanders denied reports that she will be leaving the administration.
“Not that I know about,” she said. “I take things one day at a time. As long as I feel like I’ve been called to the place that I am and I feel I’m an effective messenger for the president — and frankly, he feels like I’m an effective messenger for him — I’d like to continue doing what I do. I love my job.”