Thread: Trump's document dump leaves national security experts fuming

Trump's document dump leaves national security experts fuming

by Kelly Cohen
September 19, 2018 12:00 AM

National security experts acknowledge that President Trump has every right to tell his government to declassify selective portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, as well as "all FBI reports" prepared in connection with the wiretap warrant request.

But that doesn't mean they have to like it.

"The release of FISAs like this is totally unprecedented. It is especially unprecedented considering that the FISAs have already gone through declassification review, and he is overruling the judgments of his subordinates to require expanded disclosure,” said David Kris, former assistant attorney general for national security during the Obama administration and the founder of Culper Partners consulting firm.

Kris told the Washington Examiner that though Trump does have the legal authority to declassify what he wants, he is doing it for the wrong reasons.

“His exercise of authority is tainted by a severe conflict of interest, as he is a subject of the investigation to which these FISAs pertain,” said Kris. “This is perhaps the signal feature of all of his worst actions — he seems assiduously to view and engage with everything through the straw-sized aperture of his own self-interest instead of the country’s best interest."

Trump told his Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to initiate the "immediate declassification" of the documents last week. The order appeased Republican lawmakers who are trying to uncover bias in the government against Trump's campaign.

The order upset the president's opponents who say he is trying to undermine and distract from the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia, which is being led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

On Twitter, Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that's exactly why Trump wants them released.

"The President shouldn't be declassifying documents in order to undermine an investigation into his campaign or pursue vendettas against political enemies," said Warner. "He especially shouldn't be releasing documents with the potential to reveal intelligence sources."

He told reporters Tuesday morning about the declassification: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Dan Metcalfe, who worked as the Justice Department’s director of the Office of Information and Privacy under both Republican and Democratic presidents, also told the Washington Examiner the move is “unprecedented,” and predicted political repercussions.

“It’s hard to imagine that there won’t be. This entire presidential action is unprecedented, and ironically quite transparent,” said Metcalfe, adding that career staffers in the Justice Department’s National Security Division are likely “screaming bloody murder about this.”

The Justice Department and FBI “virtually never disclose any part of a FISA application. The Republican position is that this particular FISA information is needed to support its trumped up Mueller narrative,” said Metcalfe.

“I think he is thinking that if release this information it will support his narrative. I think the president definitely has the authority to do it under the law, but I think he is completely abusing that authority by doing it the way he is doing it,” said Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, a public interest law firm specializing in national security law and information and privacy law.

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, told the Washington Examiner that Trump is using the documents in a damaging and political manner — and believes it is a possible set up for his own government.

“This episode highlights the unfortunate fact that classification, which is supposed to be about national security, has instead become a political battleground in which opposing sides jostle for advantage. So it will feed the familiar cycle of mutual vituperation,” said Aftergood,

And if the agencies do not immediately and fully declassify what he wants, “it looks like they are ‘resisting’ the president, even if they have valid national security concerns," he said.

Speaking to Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, former CIA Director John Brennan, who served under President Barack Obama, said it was "highly inappropriate and unethical for Mr. Trump to the take any action that pertains to the FBI criminal investigation of Russian collusion and cooperation with Russia during the election, of which Mr. Trump and close associates are subjects."

"He certainly has the authority to do it, but I do think it's highly inappropriate, and I think everybody who knows these issues feels similarly,” added Brennan, whose security clearance has been revoked by Trump.

Trump said on Twitter that the documents would show there Page was inappropriately wiretapped. "Really bad things were happening, but they are now being exposed," Trump wrote. "Big stuff!"

On Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump said he ordered the declassification because he wants “total transparency.”

"This is a witch hunt," he said of the Russia investigation. "It's a terrible witch hunt, and it's hurt our country, and the things that have been found over the last couple of weeks about text messages back and forth are a disgrace to our nation. And I want transparency, and so does everybody else."

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency was already working with the ODNI to comply with the order.

"When the president issues such an order, it triggers a declassification review process that is conducted by various agencies within the intelligence community, in conjunction with the White House Counsel, to seek to ensure the safety of America's national security interests," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of Trump, applauded the move.

"It's time to get the full truth on the table so the American people can decide for themselves on what happened at the highest levels of their FBI and Justice Department," he tweeted.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...experts-fuming

As long as Commie Brennan is unhappy, then you know you're doing it right. You go, Mr. President, and don't stop with this batch, make sure to get to that CIA and Brennan's stuff. He is rotten to the core.

Let 'em fume. Expose them. Let their own words and actions reveal the truth of who they are and what they have done to hurt our country terribly.

Hopefully, the light will be turned on and the mess they have made will be visible. The American people are punished for their mistakes and wrongdoings. Why should the swamp be exempt.

Congressional Sources Fear Intel Agencies Will Slow-Roll Release of Carter Page FISA Docs to Frustrate Trump

September 18, 2018, 5:54 pm by Cristina Laila 216 Comments

I would like Barry Sotero's records UNSEALED too!!! And Pelosi's hand in that!

Report: FBI and DOJ Officials “Scrambling to Respond” To Declassification Directives…

Posted on September 18, 2018 by sundance

Beyond the narrative engineering, NBC’s Ken Dilanian is reporting from his mutually aligned sources inside the DOJ and FBI. The basic outline is the embed officials within the DOJ, FBI and larger intelligence community, are not happy about the White House declassification directive. Why would they be?….
These are the same DOJ and FBI officials who, without justification, redacted the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.



First, the article:

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials, blindsided by President Donald Trump’s order that they make public highly sensitive files in the Russia investigation, are hoping the White House will allow them to conduct a formal declassification review and damage assessment before they are forced to release the documents, current and former officials tell NBC News.
Senior executives at the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of National intelligence were scrambling Tuesday to respond after being taken by surprise by a White House press release Monday directing them to release classified material they had previously determined should not be made public. (more)

The biggest mistake people make is not accepting the influence of the worker-bee career officials, operating under the leadership structure, within the bureaucracy.
Because many people do not take this into account, a tremendous amount of false-theory is cited. “Trust the plan” is perhaps the most well-known proclamation that flows as an outcropping.

There is no “plan”; there are only “goals”.

Many of the corrupt lower-level officials within the administrative state have goals in conflict with with sunlight and truthful discovery. Other officials, like FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, have more specific goals to protect their institutions. Because the preservation of the institution is the primary focus, their goals may therefore align with the more openly corrupt officials.
This is the nature of political bureaucracy. It is not a grand conspiracy, it is more often ordinary corruption. However, failure to accept this simple truism leads to cognitive dissonance, intellectual dishonesty and, even worse, creates a false perception of what is possible.
Absorb information without rational and logical discernment long enough, and you get ridiculous “Q Theories” and proclamations about grand “Stealth Jeff Sessions” plans.
AG Jeff Sessions is recused from anything to do with corruption within the 2016 election, operation ‘spygate’, operation ‘crossfire hurricane’, and the Russia investigation. The same career OLC lawyers within the system convinced Sessions of his conflicts, and have carved the Attorney General out of the investigative processes within the DOJ.
AG Sessions did not plan with President Trump for the declassification directive. Sessions is recused:



Tashina “Tash” Gauhar – Yes, the DOJ/FBI lawyer at the heart of the Clinton-email investigation; the DOJ/FBI lawyer hired by Eric Holder at his firm and later at the DOJ; the DOJ/FBI lawyer who was transferred to the Clinton probe; the DOJ/FBI lawyer at the epicenter of the Weiner laptop issues, the only one from MYE who spoke to New York; the DOJ/FBI lawyer who constructs the FISA applications on behalf of Main Justice;…. just happens to be the same DOJ/FBI lawyer recommending to AG Jeff Sessions that he recuse himself….
But wait, do you notice how Dana Boente (former interim head of DOJ-NSD) was participating with Peter Strzok’s lead DOJ aide “Tash” Gauhar in the discussion which recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions should be recused? Sessions’ official announcement came immediately after this meeting on March 2nd, 2017.
Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente retired from the DOJ in October 2017. In January 2018, amid the beginning of the sunlight furor upon the FBI, Director Christopher Wray re-hired Dana Boente as Chief Legal Counsel for the FBI.
When all those FBI lawyers are showing up with Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr during committee hearings, and telling them not to answer questions about their contacts with the media etc. who is in charge of those FBI lawyers? The same Dana Boente.
The officials within the system of the administrative state are protecting the administrative state from scrutiny. This protectionist outlook transfers to the Inspector General, and was evidenced in how the “summary of findings” within the IG reports did not match the details of fact within 600+ pages of evidence.



Rational discernment and the application of common sense logic is important when evaluating the battle inside the executive branch of government. The institutions of the FBI and DOJ appear to have been thoroughly corrupted by political operatives; and more extreme ideologues were rewarded and promoted during the prior administration.
Many of those politicized officials within the system are still present. The election changes the leadership, but the underlying organizational corruption remains, albeit under new management.
If the goal of management to save the institution is stronger than the goal to take the institution down to brass-tacks, eliminate corruption and rebuild, then the corrupt elements are able to survive the leadership change. By all measures, this is the current status of the FBI and DOJ.
Because the corruption happened during their tenure, current officials within the FBI, DOJ and much of the larger intelligence apparatus, are not in alignment with the reform goals demanded by change-agent President Trump. Their goal is to fight Trump’s goals.

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”
~Niccolo Machiavelli

Throughout a period from June 2017 through May 2018, CTH was optimistic the Cabinet Leadership within the DOJ and FBI would accept the scale of corruption within their institutions and embrace reform. However, as more and more tripwires were crossed; and with the scale of the corruption even more visible; and with the calendar moving forward without any action; we were forced to accept the goals of AG Sessions, DAG Rosenstein and Director Wray were not reform goals – they are preservation goals.
The lack of action from the release of the prior two IG reports; the inability of the FBI to even acknowledge the severity within the May 2018 report on FBI misconduct; and the compounded issues surrounding the DOJ and FBI approach toward admitted classified intelligence leaker James Wolfe; leads only to one possible conclusion. The downstream consequences of the corruption are so entirely devastating, the sunlight is actually a risk – and must therefore be ‘managed’.
Conversely, outside the executive branch there are voices in congress holding no vested interest in the systemic corruption, and therefore they are in alignment with President Trump’s demands.
The executive branch is holding Trump hostage and trying to wait out the election hopeful to have a change in congressional power. This preserves their institutions and executes their goals. It is the legislative branch who are trying to help the President and force the officials within the cabinet to admit the corruption.

(Reminder Link pdf)

(Reminder Link pdf)


https://theconservativetreehouse.com...s/#more-154223