Judge's 'treason' insinuation in Flynn case ‘pretty reckless’: Katie Pavlich

Some remarks by the federal judge overseeing the guilty plea of former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn were “pretty reckless,” Townhall editor Katie Pavlich said Tuesday on the “Special Report” All-Star panel.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan unleashed on Flynn, the former Trump administration official who had admitted lying to the FBI about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
“Arguably, you sold your country out!” Sullivan said to Flynn before suggesting that his wrongdoings were treasonous.
Pavlich insisted that the judge “knows” that the case before him is “one of the most high-profile cases that has been in the public atmosphere in a very long time.”
“For him to state things publically when the room is packed full of reporters and everybody is watching for things that aren’t true and then he has to walk them back, insinuating treason is pretty reckless,” Pavlich told the panel -- which also included Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
York felt similarly, calling Sullivan’s invoking of treason in the Flynn case “outrageous.”
“Before it was over, the judge had raised this question over whether Flynn had committed treason, which is outrageous especially coming from a federal judge on the bench, had suggested that maybe Flynn sold out his country and that he was an unregistered foreign agent inside the White House, which he was not,” York said. “A judge can bring up uncharged conduct in a sentencing case, but really to suggest that he was an unregistered foreign agent in the White House was false because even the prosecutor I believe corrected the judge to say that it had ended before. “
York added that it became “this weird situation” that was "almost like the craziness of the whole Trump debate moved into the courtroom for a day" and that Flynn’s future was “completely uncertain now” because his sentencing has been delayed until March.
Liasson agreed, calling some of Sullivan’s remarks “very confusing” since it seemed that he was “concerned” that Flynn was “pleading guilty to something he wasn’t guilty of” and then “suggested” that Flynn was “guilty of things he hadn’t been charged with yet.”
Pavlich also noted that White House officials seemed to be “distancing themselves” from Flynn “for the first time,” but asked whether President Trump “still stands by” his decision to ask for Flynn’s resignation after the revelation that Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence.

Alan Dershowitz: Michael Flynn now has three options to stay out of prison

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s handling of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s sentencing hearing Tuesday on Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI was anything but exemplary. The judge – who has a well-deserved reputation as both tough and fair – made several fundamental errors right at the outset.
First, Sullivan suggested that Flynn might be guilty of treason. This reflects an abysmal ignorance of the governing case law. Nothing Flynn did comes even close to satisfying the strict definition of treason.
The U.S. Constitution states: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same Overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”
Flynn admitted he represented Turkey – America’s NATO ally – before he became a federal employee as President Trump’s national security adviser, but said he failed to register until later under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not charge Flynn for failing to register – let alone with the far more serious crime of treason.
But Sullivan blundered by accusing Flynn of having been an unregistered foreign agent while he was serving in the White House, thereby having “sold your country out.” This was flat out wrong, since Flynn stopped working for any foreign government before he became President Trump’s national security adviser when Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.
During a recess, in the sentencing hearing, Judge Sullivan’s law clerks obviously set him straight on the law and the facts and the judge walked back his erroneous statements. But these statements reflect a kind of abiding bias that might well result in reversible error if Flynn’s lawyers appeal a sentence he eventually receives from Sullivan.

It is obvious that Judge Sullivan regards Flynn as guilty of far more serious crimes than he pleaded to or was even charged with committing.

The judge delayed sentencing for Flynn – a retired Army lieutenant general – until next year and gave each side until March 13 to file a status report with the court.
I had a case much like this several years ago and the appellate court reversed the sentence and remanded it for resentencing before a different and unprejudiced judge. Walking back erroneous statements cannot unring the bell of a judge’s prejudice.
It is obvious that Judge Sullivan regards Flynn as guilty of far more serious crimes than he pleaded to or was even charged with committing.
Sullivan probably came into the courtroom before the recess with his mind made up about the sentence he intended to impose based on his erroneous views regarding treason and Flynn’s supposed role as an agent for a foreign government while serving in the White House. The judge may even have written out the sentence in advance, as many judges do.
Sullivan deliberately telegraphed his intention to impose a prison sentence in defiance of the joint recommendation of the Mueller and Flynn’s defense attorney, who agreed that Flynn should not serve any prison time.
The Constitution limits the role of federal judges to actual “cases and controversies,” and there was no controversy regarding the appropriate sentence of probation for Flynn.
To be sure, the courts have carved out an exception – erroneously in my view – to this constitutional restriction on the jurisdiction of judges when it comes to sentencing. But most judges abide by the spirit of the constitutional restriction by rarely, if ever, imposing their own view when the parties have agreed.
Not Judge Sullivan, who knows far less about the facts and the defendant than do the parties, as evidenced by his serious misstatements.
Now the sentencing has been postponed, giving members of Flynn’s legal team an opportunity to reconsider their strategy.
There were serious issues surrounding the circumstances of Flynn’s questioning by the FBI and of the guilty plea he submitted. But Flynn’s lawyers understandably declined to raise challenges on these issues, because they expected a sentence of probation for their client – for which Flynn needed to show remorse, not contentiousness.
But now that the judge has signaled his willingness to consider a prison sentence, Flynn has three options – none of them good.
Flynn’s first option is to ask the judge to throw out his questionable guilty plea – but it will be difficult to do so in light of his statement at the sentencing hearing that he accepts his guilty plea and knew he was doing wrong when he lied to the FBI.
Flynn’s second option is to cooperate even more, but there may not be much more he can say or do. If he admits he withheld some cooperation that would hurt him.
The former national security adviser’s third option – a nuclear one – would be to seek to recuse Judge Sullivan because of the judge’s prejudicial misstatements about treason and about Flynn being a foreign agent while working in the White House. But this, too, may backfire, because judges often punish defendants for “judge shopping”.
So the sentencing will go forward after a delay. In the meantime, President Trump has the power to pardon Flynn or commute his sentence, either now or after the sentence is imposed.
Flynn can’t count on such executive action. But he also can’t count on Judge Sullivan to do what both parties recommended.
Flynn shouldn’t have lied to the FBI. He has already paid a heavy price and will probably pay an even heavier one.

Ocasio-Cortez Cartoons

Why some conservatives don't like the ruling against ObamaCare

Conservatives who have long despised ObamaCare might be expected to rejoice now that a federal judge in Texas has ruled the law unconstitutional.
But few of them are popping champagne corks, at least in the media.
"No one opposes ObamaCare more than we do," says The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, but the ruling "is likely to be overturned on appeal and may boomerang politically on Republicans."
ObamaCare was a "misbegotten law," says National Review. "Yet we cannot applaud Judge Reed O'Connor's decision. Indeed, we deplore it. It will not lead to the replacement of Obamacare, as much as we desire that outcome. It will instead give Republicans another opportunity to dodge their responsibility to advance legislation toward that end ... it is very likely to be overturned on appeal because it deserves to be."
ObamaCare was flawed legislation, to say the least, that drove up premiums for some people and, despite the former president's promises, caused others to lose their doctors and their plans.
But there's a reason that a Republican Congress, with President Trump's backing, failed in three attempts to repeal and replace the law. Much of the GOP didn't want to take the political heat for causing millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.
The law has become more popular now that its namesake is out of office, and especially the provision that bars insurance companies from rejecting people with preexisting conditions. Many Republicans spent the campaign vowing to preserve that part of the law (even some who had voted to abolish ObamaCare or moved to weaken it at the state level).
Not everyone on the right agrees. The Federalist says the judge's ruling is overdue because "the blunt reality that Obamacare was always at heart a bad-faith proposition. The basic operation of the law, never stated or acknowledged by its authors, was to force younger, healthier people to subsidize health insurance for older, sicker people. It was a redistribution scheme, plain and simple."
By the way, it's no coincidence that the decision came from O'Connor, a controversial and conservative Bush appointee who frequently ruled against the Obama administration. Nor is it happenstance that the states that filed the suit did so in Texas, where the courts are more conservative — the flip side of Trump complaining about lawsuits in the liberal 9th District in San Francisco.
When the John Roberts court upheld the law in 2012, it said Congress couldn't force people to buy insurance through the individual mandate, but that was okay because it could tax people for not buying coverage.
Last year, as part of tax reform, Congress set the penalty tax at zero, effectively eliminating the mandate. O'Connor ruled that the whole law must be tossed out because it's based on a tax-slash-mandate that no longer exists.
It's doubtful that the Supreme Court will buy this argument, but the political impact, in the short term, is clear. Democrats see a boost in their effort to pass some version of Medicare for All, although the ruling should freeze things and the GOP Senate won't go along in any event. Republicans have to navigate a path between rhetorical opposition to ObamaCare and not taking steps that would cause a health care crisis and blow up the preexisting conditions ban.
Trump, while tweeting that the law is an "UNCONSTITUTIONAL DISASTER," was quick to add: "Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!"
But getting it done would have been easier when Nancy was minority leader. Ultimately, a divided Congress, not the courts, must figure out a way out of this mess.

Flynn responses in fateful White House interview documented in witness report released by Mueller

Then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn told FBI agents at the White House on January 24, 2017 "not really" when asked if he had sought to convince Russian ambassador not to escalate a brewing fight with the U.S. over sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, according to an explosive new FD-302 witness report released just hours before Flynn is set to be sentenced.
Flynn issued other apparently equivocal responses to FBI agents' questions, and at various points suggested that such conversations might have happened or that he could not recall them if they did, according to the 302.
The heavily redacted document contained few definitive statements from Flynn, who later pleaded guilty to making false statements about his contacts with Russia's ambassador, in connection with the White House meeting.
Flynn was not charged with wrongdoing as a result of the substance of his calls with the Russian ambassador -- and a Washington Post article published one day before his White House interview with the agents, citing FBI sources, publicly revealed that the FBI had wiretapped Flynn's calls and cleared him of any criminal conduct.
ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT PETER STRZOK, WHO INTERVIEWED FLYNN, HAD 'MEDIA LEAK STRATEGY'
The 302 indicates that Flynn was apparently aware his communications had been monitored, and at several points he thanks the FBI agents for reminding him of some of his conversations with Russian officials.
Separately, a newly unsealed indictment Monday revealed that two Flynn associates had been charged with illegally lobbying for Turkey without properly registering under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), and Mueller has claimed Flynn also lied about his lobbying projects there. Flynn's guilty plea and cooperation with the Mueller probe helped him avoid similar FARA-related charges, legal analysts have said.
The newly released 302 was finalized on Feb. 15, 2017 after it was reviewed by top FBI brass, just two days following Flynn's resignation after he misled Vice President Pence about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The document stated that Flynn told agents "not really" and "I don't remember" when they asked if he had requested Kislyak and the Russians not engage in a "tit-for-tat" with the U.S. government over the Obama administration's sanctions in December 2016, or whether he had asked the Russians not to "escalate" the matter and to keep their response "reciprocal." (Trump, at the time, publicly said he wanted the U.S. to "move on" and not engage in a bitter dispute with Russia.)
Flynn -- who sold his home in Virginia this year as his legal bills mounted -- declared in his guilty plea nearly 11 months later that his comments on the issue were a knowing lie to the FBI agents.
"It wasn't, 'Don't do anything,'" Flynn told the agents when they asked him if he had requested that the Russian ambassador not retaliate against the U.S., according to the 302. Flynn intimated that the U.S. government's harsh sanctions came as a "total surprise" to him, the document states.
Separately, agents asked Flynn whether Kislyak had promised that Russia would "modulate" its response to the sanctions, which were imposed by the Obama administration in its final days in power in response to Russian election meddling.
TOP REPUBLICAN PREDICTS FLYNN GUILTY PLEA WILL BE TOSSED, CITING FBI 'MISCONDUCT'
"Flynn stated it was possible that he talked to Kislyak on the issue," the 302 stated, "but if he did, he did not remember doing so. Flynn stated he was attempting to start a good relationship with Kislyak moving forward."
The 302 continued: "Flynn remembered making four to five calls that day about this issue, but that the Dominican Republic [where he was vacationing] was a difficult place to make a call as he kept having connectivity issues. Flynn reflected and stated that he did not think he would have had a conversation with Kislyak about the matter, as he did not know the expulsions [of 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. as part of the Obama administration's sanctions] were coming."
An entire paragraph of the 302 concerning a "closed-door meeting" between Flynn and Kislyak after the presidential election was redacted.

Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, at right, meets with President Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The May 10, 2017 meeting took place the same day Trump fired James Comey as FBI Director. Trump was widely criticized during the meeting for revealing information to the Russians about intelligence obtained from Israel about an ISIS terror plot involving laptop bombs. Although the president has the authority to disclose classified information, critics charged the move was reckless and endangered Israeli sources. (AP)

The document concluded by noting that "Flynn stated he did not have a long drawn out discussion with Kislyak where he would have asked him to 'don't do something.'"
Flynn, in fact, had asked Kislyak to "refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed on Russia that same day," according to prosecutors, who said Kislyak "had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request."
Flynn also denied to investigators that he had asked Russia to vote in any particular way at the United Nations, saying his only calls to countries were requests for information as to how they planned to vote. But prosecutors said that Flynn had sought to convince Russia to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. (The Obama administration abstained in that vote, which Republicans characterized as a betrayal of a close U.S. ally.)
EX-SENATE INTEL STAFFER PLEADS GUILTY TO LYING TO FBI -- BUT DID HE LEAK FISA APPLICATION DAMAGING TO TRUMP?
Prosecutors addititonally charged that a "very senior member” of the Trump transition team directed Flynn to contact foreign governments including Russia over the U.N. vote. The Associated Press reported the “very senior” official was Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
During the interview at the White House, Flynn twice thanked agents for reminding him about his contacts with Kislyak concerning the U.N. -- an apparent indication that he was well aware that the FBI, as The Post reported, had listened to his conversations. ("Yes, good reminder," he said at one point, according to the 302.)
Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed the witness report documenting FBI agents' fateful conversation with Flynn late Monday, shortly after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued an order Monday requiring that prosecutors publicly turn over the document.
Sullivan had ordered the special counsel to turn over all government documents and “memoranda” related to the questioning of Flynn last week, after Flynn's attorneys, in a bombshell filing, claimed the FBI had discouraged him from bringing a lawyer to the White House interview and intentionally decided not to warn him of the consequences if he lied to agents.
Fired FBI Director James Comey admitted last week that the FBI's end-run around the White House Counsel -- which the FBI usually involves in any of its interviews with senior White House officials -- was not normal protocol, and that the FBI felt it could get "away with" the tactic in the early days of the Trump administration.
COMEY: WE GOT 'AWAY WITH' FLYNN INTERVIEW, BROKE PROTOCOL
Last Friday, Mueller met Sullivan’s deadline and provided some documents, some of which were heavily redacted. One memorandum produced by Mueller substantiated the claims by Flynn's lawyers that the FBI had cautioned Flynn against involving a lawyer in the interview because doing so would necessitate the Justice Department's involvement.
The memorandum, written by then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, also confirmed that agents did not want to affect their "rapport" with Flynn by suggesting he would be exposed to criminal liability if he lied.
"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."

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.  (Ruptly via AP) (The Associated Press)

However, the special counsel did not publicly provide the January 302 witness report that FBI policy dictated should have been written immediately after the Flynn interview, leading to speculation as to whether one was drafted.
Sullivan's order on Monday stated that Mueller's team had made confidential arguments under seal as to redactions it would need to make to the 302. Sullivan ruled that the redactions were appropriate and that due to "strong presumption in favor of public access to judicial records," the 302 could be made public Monday.
STRZOK'S PHONE COMPLETELY WIPED AFTER HE WAS FIRED BY MUELLER FOR ANTI-TRUMP BIAS
The Flynn 302 released Monday further claimed Flynn was advised about the "nature of the interview" before it began.
However, the McCabe memorandum released Friday apparently showed that the FBI nudged Flynn not to have an attorney present during the questioning. And FBI agents 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 Kislyak.
One of the agents who conducted the Flynn interview, Peter Strzok, was fired from the Russia probe in late July 2017 over his apparent anti-Trump bias.
Other portions of the document described apparently routine calls between Flynn and Kislyak about other matters.
On Sunday, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" it was likely Flynn pleaded guilty only because of overwhelming financial pressure and because "he was just out of money."
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, for his part, told host Maria Bartiromo that he "would not be surprised a bit if the conviction of Flynn is overturned, because of the Justice Department and FBI's misconduct."
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.
Speaking separately to "Fox News Sunday," Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani flatly charged that Flynn had been "railroaded" and "framed."
"What they did to General Flynn should result in discipline," Giuliani told host Chris Wallace. "They’re the ones who are violating the law.
Giuliani acknowledged that Flynn had misled Pence regarding his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador, but added, "that was a lie, but that’s not a crime."

Ocasio-Cortez takes time off for 'self-help,' laments loss of yoga sessions due to politics

Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t yet started her new job, but she’s already taking a break.
The Democratic Socialist said Monday that she’s taking time a week off for “self-care” after feeling burned out and lamented that her political activity changed her lifestyle.
“I am starting a week of self-care where I am taking the week off and taking care of me. I don't know how to do that though, so I would appreciate any and all self-care tips,” she said in an Instagram video.
“For working people, immigrants, & the poor, self-care is political — not because we want it to be, but bc of the inevitable shaming of someone doing a face mask while financially stressed. So I’ve decided to take others along with me on IG as I learn what self-care even means and why it’s important,” she added on Twitter.
Ocasio-Cortez, who unseated powerful New York Democrat Joe Crowley earlier this year during the primary election and easily cruised to victory in general election as she had no real opposition, went on to say that since her entry into politics and activism, she had to give up her more comfortable lifestyle.
“Before the campaign, I used to practice yoga 3-4x/week, eat nutritiously, read and write for leisure,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram. “As soon as everything kicked up, that all went out the window. I went from doing yoga and making wild rice and salmon dinners to eating fast food for dinner and falling asleep in my jeans and makeup.”

"Before the campaign, I used to practice yoga 3-4x/week, eat nutritiously, read and write for leisure. As soon as everything kicked up, that all went out the window. I went from doing yoga and making wild rice and salmon dinners to eating fast food for dinner and falling asleep in my jeans and makeup."
— Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“I keep things raw and honest on here since I believe public servants do a disservice to our communities by pretending to be perfect,” she added. “It makes things harder for others who aspire to run someday if they think they have to be superhuman before they even try.”
The New York Democrat revealed that she decided to spend “a few days in the middle of nowhere” in upstate New York.
Ocasio-Cortez, together with other newly-elected lawmakers, will start her term on Jan. 3.

Reporter who broke news of Steele dossier used to surveil ex-Trump aide calls its claims largely 'false'

The salacious and unverified opposition research dossier cited by the FBI as its main justification to surveil a top Trump aide contains many claims that are "likely false," according to the Yahoo News reporter who was among the first to break the news of the dossier's existence.
Michael Isikoff's statements on John Ziegler's Free Speech Broadcasting podcast came a day before Michael Cohen adviser Lanny Davis reiterated that Cohen has never been to Prague -- where, according to the dossier, he traveled to arrange a payment to Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The dossier was created by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the firm Fusion GPS -- which was retained by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
"In broad strokes, Christopher Steele was clearly onto something, that there was a major Kremlin effort to interfere in our elections, that they were trying to help Trump's campaign, and that there was multiple contacts between various Russian figures close to the government and various people in Trump's campaign,” Isikoff said.
But he added: “When you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them, and, in fact, there's good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false."
On four occasions, the FBI told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court that it "did not believe" Steele was the direct source for Isikoff's Sept. 23, 2016 Yahoo News article implicating former Trump aide Carter Page in Russian collusion.

Instead, the FBI suggested to the court, the article by Michael Isikoff was independent corroboration of the salacious, unverified allegations against Trump in the infamous Steele dossier. Federal authorities used both the Steele dossier and Yahoo News article to convince the FISA court to authorize a surveillance warrant for Page.
But London court records show that contrary to the FBI's assessments, Steele briefed Yahoo News and other reporters in the fall of 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS -- the opposition research firm behind the dossier. The revelations were contained heavily-redacted documents released earlier this year after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the organization Judicial Watch.
"The FBI does not believe that Source #1 [Steele] directly provided this information to the identified news organization that published the September 23rd News Article," the FBI stated in one of the released FISA documents. "Source #1 told the FBI that he/she only provided this information to the business associate and the FBI."
The documents describe Source #1 as someone "hired by a business associate to conduct research" into Trump's Russia ties -- but do not mention that Fusion GPS was funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign.
Instead, the documents say only: "The FBI speculates that the identified U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit [Trump's] campaign." Fox News believes that the U.S. person is Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS.

Senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, left, continued to communicate with former British spy Christopher Steele, right, even after the FBI cut ties with him. (AP)

Page announced in October he is filing a defamation lawsuit against the DNC over the dossier's claims. He is also suing Perkins Coie and its partners, the law firm that represented Clinton’s campaign and hired Fusion GPS.
Page told Fox News’ “Hannity” at the time that his lawsuit goes “beyond any damages or any financial aspects."
“There have been so many lies as you’re alluding to and you look at the damage it did to our Democratic systems and our institutions of government back in 2016. And I’m just trying to get some justice,” he said.
Meanwhile, ex-Cohen attorney Lanny Davis laughed off a suggestion during an MSNBC interview on Sunday that his former client had ever made a trip to Prague to pay Russian hackers.
“No, no Prague, ever, never,” Davis said.
While Cohen's team has long denied he made the trip, the latest denial comes after Cohen pleaded guilty in two separate prosecutions linked to his work for President Trump. Cohen has pledged to cooperate with federal authorities, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has said he has largely done so.
ANTI-TRUMP EX-FBI AGENT STRZOK'S PHONE WIPED AFTER HE WAS FIRED FROM MUELLER'S TEAM
Fox News reported in August that embattled Justice Department official Bruce Ohr had contact in 2016 with then-colleague Andrew Weissmann, who is now a top Mueller deputy, as well as other senior FBI officials about the controversial anti-Trump dossier and the individuals behind it.
The sources said Ohr's outreach about the dossier – as well as Steele; the opposition research firm behind it, Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS; and his wife Nellie Ohr's work for Fusion – occurred before and after the FBI fired Steele as a source over his media contacts. Ohr's network of contacts on the dossier included: anti-Trump former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI lawyer Lisa Page; former deputy director Andrew McCabe; Weissmann and at least one other DOJ official; and a current FBI agent who worked with Strzok on the Russia case.
Weissmann was kept "in the loop" on the dossier, a source said, while he was chief of the criminal fraud division. He is now assigned to Mueller’s team.
Ohr's broad circle of contacts indicates members of FBI leadership knew about his backchannel activities regarding the dossier and Steele.
Congressional Republicans are still trying to get to the bottom of Ohr's role in circulating the unverified dossier, which became a critical piece of evidence in obtaining a surveillance warrant for Page in October 2016.

2013 Obama Gov Shutdown Cartoons

Canada is looking for a way out of big Saudi arms deal, says PM

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the premiers of the ten provinces and Indigenous Leaders in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

December 16, 2018
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in an interview that aired on Sunday, said for the first time that his Liberal government was looking for a way out of a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
The comments represented a notable hardening in tone from Trudeau, who previously said there would be huge penalties for scrapping the $13 billion agreement for armored vehicles made by the Canadian unit of General Dynamics Corp.
Last month, Trudeau said Canada could freeze the relevant export permits if it concluded the weapons had been misused.
“We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” Trudeau told CTV. He did not give further details.
Political opponents, citing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Yemen war, insist Trudeau should end the General Dynamics deal, which was negotiated by the previous Conservative government.
Relations between Ottawa and Riyadh have been tense since a diplomatic dispute over human rights earlier this year. Ottawa says it has been consulting allies on what steps to take after Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“The murder of a journalist is absolutely unacceptable and that’s why Canada from the very beginning had been demanding answers and solutions on that,” said Trudeau.

Reporter’s Notebook: DC quietly preparing for shutdown, lest they disturb the Yellies

It was quiet late Friday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
Too quiet.
Precisely zero TV network cameras jutted out into the narrow “Will Rogers” corridor near the House chamber. Not a single reporter was squeezed between the columns in Statuary Hall, ready to do a live shot. A lone TV crew was set up in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. When one correspondent went on the air, the anchor in New York even remarked about how pronounced the echo sounded in the near-abandoned arcade, reverberating off the arches above.
One wonders if it will be as quiet next Friday night on Capitol Hill, as nine of 15 cabinet departments face a government shutdown at 11:59:59 p.m. ET.
What’s surprising about this potential government shutdown crisis is the silence. The dearth of information. The lack of panic and anxiety.
It’s peculiar to have everyone tiptoeing around Capitol Hill with Washington about to lurch into a holiday calamity.
Perhaps there is only one logical explanation: everyone is concerned about disturbing the Yellies.
The Yellies are a new toy taking Christmas by storm — and driving parents to their liquor cabinets. The Yellies are tiny, fuzzy arachnids. If people talk quietly, the Yellies move about slowly. But the louder people are, the faster they go.
And as you can imagine, kids love yelling and screaming, sending grown-ups into convulsions as the Yellies dart about the house, hitting Mach 2.
This is kind of what’s happening on Capitol Hill. Everyone saw the conclave with President Trump, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in the Oval Office on Tuesday. They understand the volatility of a government shutdown at Christmastime. So everyone is trying to keep quiet, lest they disturb the Yellies.
There are muted conversations. Not even major exchanges of offers between Capitol Hill and the administration. So everyone is trying to keep quiet, lest they disturb the Yellies.
There has been some chatter that the Trump Administration and Congress may consider a short-term, interim spending bill (known as a Continuing Resolution, or CR), to simply renew all funding through early January and send everyone home for Christmas.
That would fund everything through the new Congress.
A senior Democratic congressional aide tells Fox News that “the only thing a two-week CR would accomplish is that President Trump will lose twice.”
In other words, no wall on December 21. And certainly no wall in January when Democrats control the House.
DEMS, TRUMP REFUSE TO BUDGE OVER BORDER WALL AS FRIDAY SHUTDOWN LOOMS
But a CR would avoid shut down and ensure that federal workers are paid over Christmas. Democrats could be hard-pressed to oppose such an alternative. There aren’t a lot of options available. This is like going into a diner late at night and finding a sign which says “limited menu available.” There is only a limited menu of fare which they can cook up on the Congressional griddle:
1)     Congress approves a CR for the entire fiscal year covering all seven of the outstanding spending bills. That means there is no wall money.
2)     Congress passes brand-new bills for six of the spending areas and does a CR for only the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. This scenario also lacks wall money.
3)     Congress okays all seven bills and includes wall money in the Homeland Security measure.
4)     Congress approves a stopgap measure which runs until January or so.
5)     Congress and the president agree on nothing and the government shuts down on December 22.
Something has to give. Either Democrats cave and agree to a package with wall money or Trump caves and accepts measures lacking wall money. It may all be about semantics, too. Can the sides draft a proposal where it appears Democrats didn’t give in on the wall, yet Trump can tout the fact that he in fact did get funding for the wall?
Such a political duckbilled platypus isn’t rare in Washington — especially if everyone can leave the compromise open to interpretation and tell the public they got what they wanted and stood their ground.
Trump has a lot to lose here.
There was much introspection two weeks ago when President George H.W. Bush died and lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Historians noted how Bush reneged on his storied campaign promise of “no new taxes.” The government shut down for a few days in early October 1990. To reopen the government and stimulate the struggling economy, Bush backtracked on his “no new taxes” pledge. The tax increase bolstered the economy. But giving in on the campaign promise forever damaged the president and hurt his chances in the 1992 presidential election.
No other campaign promise endears Trump to his loyalists more than the pledge to build the wall. On one hand, failing to go to the mat and not secure the wall could damage Trump. But as one senior Republican observed to Fox News, it doesn’t matter to Trump. His approval rating will always lag in the 30-40 percent range. Anything Trump does won’t move the meter much one way or the other.
“He simply doesn’t care,” observed the lawmaker.
LIBERAL RADIO HOST: DEMS SHOULDN'T TRY TO IMPEACH TRUMP
By the same token, Republicans have tried to say that Pelosi needs to go toe-to-toe with Trump to secure the support of her base. That’s an old argument now. Not long after the election, Trump declared that he’d be willing to help Pelosi secure the necessary votes to become speaker. Well, Trump in fact did help Pelosi in that quest — perhaps unwittingly — during that extraordinary council in the Oval Office Tuesday. Pelosi appeared strong and in control. The exchange certainly bolstered Pelosi standing among House Democrats who were skeptical of her returning to the speaker’s suite. Meantime, the president said he’d take credit for a shutdown.
On Friday night, the President tapped Budget Director and House Freedom Caucus founder Mick Mulvaney to serve as “acting” Chief of Staff. Mulvaney came to Congress in 2010 amid the tea party wave of 2010. Mulvaney backed the push for the two-and-a-half week government shutdown over funding ObamaCare in 2013. He opposed a budget compromise later that year authored by current House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., On Capitol Hill, Mulvaney long advocated slashing federal spending and opposed lifting the debt ceiling. Mulvaney detractors bequeathed him the chairman of the “shutdown caucus” on Capitol Hill.
Bipartisan Congressional sources signaled that the appointment of Mulvaney could increase the chances of a government shutdown because of his hardline stances on spending. In Mulvaney, the president has a loyal warrior to wage his battles on Capitol Hill. The president also scored the best of both worlds: Mulvaney at his side at the White House and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who was considered for the Chief of Staff position, remaining on Capitol Hill, influencing the Freedom Caucus.
How a potential shutdown goes could be an audition for Mulvaney. “Acting” could be stripped from Mulvaney’s title if Trump likes what he sees.
Meantime, things are quiet on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives doesn’t even meet again for legislative business until late in the day Wednesday. No Yellies there. Congressional leaders sometimes squeeze rank-and-file members close to the holidays, threatening to keep them in Washington over Christmas unless they vote for whatever is the subject du jour. However, the tactic of reducing the time available to solve a deal may not be directed at lawmakers this year. The president may be the target of that gambit — an effort to force Trump to take-it-or-leave it, whatever the “it” may ultimately be.
And that’s partly why things are so quiet now on Capitol Hill. No one wants to disturb the Yellies. And expect things to remain quiet until mid-week when the government shutdown is just a few days away.