Wondering about the slow pace? What happened to that foot and a half tall stack?
According to Kash Patel, the declassified docs are being withheld by DOJ. Huge failure by Trump's people to let that happen. I suppose we need to be grateful that someone got them to Solomon, even if that someone might now face problems from Horowitz.
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) January 26, 2021
First the easy part, which takes up the major part of the Lou Dobbs interview with John Solomon: Solomon confirms that the FBI docs on the Russia Hoax have been declassified, and he's just waiting for them to be distributed. That's most of what we have for now. However, in a brief article, Solomon states that there will still be some "modest" redactions. Those redaction issues were raised by the FBI on January 17, which looks like a last ditch effort to derail the declass:
Trump revealed in a statement issued by the White House that the materials were not previously shared with Congress or the public and he received them on Dec. 30 in a binder, determining they ought to be made public. The binder is about a foot tall, according to officials who have seen it.
"I determined that the materials in that binder should be declassified to the maximum extent possible," the president said.
The effort to release the materials, however, hit a bump when the FBI objected on Sunday to a complete release of the information. The president nonetheless ordered them released but allowed for some modest redactions to be made.
"As part of the iterative process of the declassification review, under a cover letter dated January 17, 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted its continuing objection to any further declassification of the materials in the binder and also, on the basis of a review that included Intelligence Community equities, identified the passages that it believed it was most crucial to keep from public disclosure. I have determined to accept the redactions proposed for continued classification by the FBI in that January 17 submission."
The first few minutes of the interview are, if anything, more important. The FBI has built a conspiracy case against several--at least three, perhaps more--individuals who belong to the Oath Keepers. and who appear to have acted as provocateurs in the events of January 6 at the US Capitol. As Solomon explains, it is now known that--contrary to claims by Mitch McConnell and Bluto Barr, the plans by the Oath Keepers to enter the Capitol were developed well before Trump's address to the protesters--at least as early as January 1, but possibly earlier. The significance of these facts that the FBI has uncovered is that the illegal activities that took place on January 6 had nothing to do with Trump's actual address to the crowd--the entry to the Capitol was long planned. Now, Bluto Barr will maintain that Trump's claims of election fraud for the preceding two months served as incitement. But those claims are too remote from the events in terms of causation to be used as evidence of "high crimes" or "misdemeanors." Moreover, they are protected by the First Amendment.
Pretty much just breaking news. The documents should be available in 24-48 hours:
LISTEN NOW: Bombshell revelations as Trump declassifies all FBI documents in Russia probe | Just The News https://t.co/knLuUXCELF
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) January 14, 2021
Solomon is saying that the docs comprise a huge stack--a foot or foot and a half thick, and that there will be bombshell revelations. For example, having listened to his 9 minute podcast, Solomon offers some sneak previews. ...
The Steele debriefing documents will contain many bombshells. The primary revelation, however, will be that--as Steele explains--the entire Russia Hoax narrative was created and leaked to the news media specifically to neutralize Hillary Clinton’s concern that her email scandal hadn’t gone away. The whole Russia Hoax was predicated on a political dirty trick.
Here's another major revelation. As suspected, Steele didn't have any sources worth anything--that was all just BS. His "main sub source" was "delivered to Steele by Fiona Hill."
There will be "all kinds of revelations about Stefan Halper." Solomon believes that written "tasking orders" to Halper will show that the FBI fully intended to spy on the Trump campaign. Halper was codenamed "Mitch". He was instructed to join Trump campaign if possible and to target specific people, like Sam Clovis, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and others.
A final preview:
In December 2015 the FBI was warned by the CIA that Steele had too many contacts with Russian oligarchs and they ought to reevaluate their use of him as a confidential informant. The rest is history! They didn't do that. Instead, the FBI gave Steele sensitive information, despite the CIA warning that he might be compromised.
This should be interesting, and should set a certain tone for the Biden Inc. regime. Solomon promises more soon.
Meanwhile, what's-his-name promises that virtually his first act--first day--will be a Tranny EO to let boys into girls' restrooms. Which will get more attention? I'm betting on declass.
UPDATE:
Sounds to me as if she might have committed perjury. Not that anyone will pursue her. pic.twitter.com/tH1YTyLogp
— George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely) January 14, 2021
This is important. You have to bear it in mind when listening to Trump's rhetoric. As I've said, I have no particular problem with political rhetoric, but you do need to recognize it:
Catherine Herridge
@CBS_Herridge
#DeclassifyEverything NEW: Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows Court Declaration in FOIA lawsuits clarifies declassification.
“The President indicated to me that his statements on Twitter (Oct 6) ... do not require the declassification or release of any particular documents including ... interviews prepared by FBI in connection with the (Special Counsel) ... the President's statements related to the authorization he had provided the AG to declassify documents as part of his ongoing review of intelligence activities relating to the 2016 President election..”
This is a clear acknowledgment by President Trump that he recognizes the importance of the ongoing Barr/Durham investigation--that documents that date after the election cannot be readily declassified ... yet. Nor does Trump want those documents declassified--that's the clear implication of the tweet from Mark Meadows. How many times have we heard bloggers complaining, for example, that the Mueller "scope memos" hadn't been declassified? All of that came after the election and Trump is now saying that the "authorization" he gave to Barr doesn't even pertain to those matters. Some "authorization," right? Nothing is as simple as we'd like it to be.
Sean Davis is confirming, through "sources," that, yes, Gina Haspel at CIA is almost certainly the roadblock to declass that Mark Meadows had in mind:
Intel Sources: CIA Director Gina Haspel Banking On Trump Loss To Keep Russiagate Documents Hidden
Haspel is hoping Trump loses his re-election bid so she can run out the clock on Russiagate document declassifications, multiple intelligence community officials told The Federalist.
I get so tired of knuckleheads--and you know who you are--who blame AG Barr for these problems. Was Bill Barr responsible for Haspel being placed at the top of CIA? Chris Wray at the FBI? Dan Coats at DNI?
Davis' account makes it clear the lengths the Deep State continues to go to thwart revelation of the whole truth about the Russia Hoax coup. Note, too, that the president himself as well as "the White House" is portrayed as having been involved in all this declass business. That's as I suggested in the prior post (Trump Back, Pushing For Declass), that Barr has had to repeatedly ask for Trump to get involved because Barr alone does not possess the full authority that the president has:
“Haspel and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray both want Trump to lose, because it’s the only chance they have of keeping their jobs,” one senior intelligence official told The Federalist. “They’re banking on Biden winning and keeping them where they are.”
...
“Haspel has repeatedly lied to the president about the status of documents to be declassified,” one intelligence community source said. “She will claim they don’t know where they are, or which agency technically owns them, and then we’ll find out she had them the entire time and just didn’t want them to see the light of day.”
“The frustration with Haspel is reaching nuclear levels,” one official said, noting that White House and top U.S. intelligence community officials have been taken aback by the ferocity of Haspel’s refusal to release documents.
COS Mark Meadows spoke with Fox News this morning and indicated that President Trump is already getting close to returning to a pretty normal work schedule. In welcome news, and as an example of Trump's involvement with ongoing matters, Meadows stated:
He [Trump] has already tasked me with getting some *declassification rolling* in a followup to some of the requests that Devin Nunes and some others have made.
So, we don't know the specifics of what may be involved, but the declassifications will be made in response to requests by Devin Nunes and others. The reference to Devin Nunes almost certainly is a reference to the Igor Danchenko interview, which debunked the entire Steele "dossier," but we can only speculate as to who "some other" requesting declass--and what documents are involved. There's plenty of possibilities.
Presumably this will be happening before the election, so we'll be following the news closely.
ADDENDUM: What I find so interesting about this is the fact that the President is directing his COS to get involved. We all know--or in the case of some, think they know--that Trump put AG Barr in charge of declassification for the Russia Hoax investigation. The reality isn't so simple as some think.
Contrary to those who seem to think that Barr was made a sort of dictator for declassification, that isn't really the case. Barr was made the ultimate authority for purposes of the investigation, but he still needs to go through normal processes. You can see that from the terms of Trump's executive order, which I will append below. Crucially, agency heads retain a voice in the process and can--as in the case of the FBI's Wray and CIA's Haspel, throw up barriers and slow things down. Thus the need for the president to get involved, because only the president can issue direct orders to agency heads when the agency head retains authorities.
For example. What does "promptly" mean? As in "promptly provide such assistance and information as the Attorney General may request"? COB today? Tomorrow? Next week? As soon as the agency head deems it practicable? Note, too, that Barr must follow certain standards and is required to "consult with the head of the originating intelligence community element or department." And those agency heads retain their lawful authorities. The AG, then, is more a coordinator than a head cracking dictator.
Therefore, I read Meadows' remark to mean that, most likely, AG Barr himself has requested the President to get involved because of roadblocks that he's having difficulty overcoming.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following:
Section 1. Agency Cooperation. The Attorney General is currently conducting a review of intelligence activities relating to the campaigns in the 2016 Presidential election and certain related matters. The heads of elements of the intelligence community, as defined in 50 U.S.C. 3003(4), and the heads of each department or agency that includes an element of the intelligence community shall promptly provide such assistance and information as the Attorney General may request in connection with that review.
Sec. 2. Declassification and Downgrading. With respect to any matter classified under Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009 (Classified National Security Information), the Attorney General may, by applying the standard set forth in either section 3.1(a) or section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526, declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence that relates to the Attorney General’s review referred to in section 1 of this memorandum. Before exercising this authority, the Attorney General should, to the extent he deems it practicable, consult with the head of the originating intelligence community element or department. This authority is not delegable and applies notwithstanding any other authorization or limitation set forth in Executive Order 13526.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) The authority in this memorandum shall terminate upon a vacancy in the office of Attorney General, unless expressly extended by the President.
(d) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(e) The Attorney General is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
This, I believe, is what's behind Nunes' call to "shut down" the intel agencies until they proceed with declassification. Obviously, Barr can't shut them down. Only Trump can take the kind of drastic action that may be required. I'm quite sure Barr has communicated that to the president.
UPDATE: Apologies for not getting this complete the first time through. To properly understand where Barr stands in all this, note that the executive order has three sections.
The first section requires agency cooperation with Barr's review. That means the agencies are required to promptly provide the materials that Barr needs to conduct his review. As far as that goes, I have no doubt at all that Barr has had whatever access he needs. So, for example, I don't doubt that Barr and his investigators have seen the unredacted original of Neil Eggleston's 1/19/2017 TOP SECRET letter to James Comey. However, access to those documents emphatically does NOT involved declassification. Barr and his investigators will all have the clearances to view such documents, but the documents remain agency property.
Thus, section 2 addresses the question of declassification--which is totally separate from the question of investigative access. And it's in this area that the limits of Barr's authorities become apparent. His right to view the documents he needs doesn't give him unilateral authority to declassify those documents--as section 2 makes clear. The documents still remain agency property and Barr is required to consult before the documents can be declassified.
This is the point at which we are now. Notice that neither Nunes nor anyone else that I'm aware of are pointing fingers at Barr over declassification matters. Barr may well want to control the flow of declassification for prosecutorial or investigative reasons. But that's not the real problem--which lies with the intel agencies delaying. This is why Barr needs Trump to be involved.
Whitaker: This is what Bill Barr's biggest challenge is--is restoring the trust in the Department of Justice ...
Dobbs: You can't do it unless you're fully transparent ...
Dobbs: It's time to raise hell and raise the roof!
Behind the scenes, some major events were set in motion last autumn that could soon change the tenor in Washington, at least as it relates to the debunked Russia collusion narrative that distracted America for nearly three years.
It was in September 2018 that President Trump told my Hill.TV colleague Buck Sexton and me that he would order the release of all classified documents showing what the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other U.S. intelligence agencies may have done wrong in the Russia probe.
About the same time, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), voted unanimously to send 53 nonpublic transcripts of witnesses in its Russia review to the director of national intelligence (DNI) for declassification. The transcripts were officially delivered in November.
Now, nearly a year later, neither release has happened.
To put that into perspective, it took just a couple of months in 2004 to declassify the final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks after a presidential commission finished its work, which contained some of the nation’s most secretive intelligence revelations.
But the long wait for transparency may soon end.
The foot-dragging inside the intelligence community (IC) that occurred under now-departed DNI Dan Coats and his deputy, Sue Gordon, could halt abruptly. That’s particularly true if Trump appoints a new IC sheriff, such as former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the current ambassador to the Netherlands, or longtime national security expert Fred Fleitz.
Likewise, the president has an opportunity to speed up and organize the release of declassified information by simply creating an Office of Transparency and Accountability inside his own White House, run by a staffer empowered at the level of a formal assistant to the president. That would prevent intelligence agencies from continuing their game of public keep-away.
...
Here are the documents that have the greatest chance of rocking Washington, if declassified:
Every minute spent outraged at what Comey, McCabe or Muller did yesterday, is one minute less that Bill Barr is being held accountable for what he is not doing today
diGenova: The reason Barr was given declassification authority was because Coats was in the way--as was Chris Wray, the FBI Director. They were fighting tooth and nail--phony coverups, allegedly to protect sources and methods, when Chris Wray was simply trying to protect the FBI from just HUGELY embarrassing details that are gonna come out now. By the way, the declassification process will start this week. There are going to be documents released, I think by Wednesday. The Attorney General, as I understand it, is in the process of getting those ready to come out. There are gonna be some of the Devin Nunes documents that he requested and then a series of other releases will come after that, because Durham is progressing VERY, very quickly in his criminal investigation. This is not a "review," quote unquote, of what went on. This is a criminal investigation of senior DoJ and FBI officials from the Obama administration and Intelligence Community people--including John Brennan. This is a Federal Grand Jury. This is not a review, this is not an IG audit, this is not some Congressional Research Service look at history. This is a criminal investigation of a bunch of people who tried to seditiously overthrow the President of the United States. So, the stuff is gonna start coming out this week.
HANNITY: Mr. President, you have the power to literally release the FISA applications and the 302's and the gang made information and you made a decision to hand it over to the Attorney General and let him decide. And I'm curious as to why?
TRUMP: Well, we have a very respected gentleman, very high quality person named William Barr and he is doing - I can tell you he's working so hard and rather than just doing a total release, I gave him a total release, in other words he's got everything anything he needs, he's got it.
He is the Attorney General of the United States. He's got a lot of very good people under him that I guess are involved and I gave them a total release. So all of it has been released and he has all of it. I've also given him authorization to release it to whoever he wants. Whether it's his people or, frankly, perhaps people like Devin Nunes who is a star, what he has done and the amount of suffering he has gone through, you know what they did with him where they tried to drive him right out of politics and probably worse than that. He has done an incredible job.
1) Coats is obstructing declass, and
2) Trump regards the DNI as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
President Trump has told confidants he's eager to remove Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, according to five sources who have discussed the matter directly with the president.
The state of play: Trump hasn't told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen "sooner rather than later."
* The director of national intelligence serves as an overseer of the U.S. intelligence community and a close adviser to the president and National Security Council, producing each day's top-secret Presidential Daily Brief.
* A source with direct knowledge told me that Trump has privately said he thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence represents an unnecessary bureaucratic layer and that he would like to get rid of it. He has been told that eliminating the ODNI is not politically possible, but still would like to "downsize" the office, the source said.
Dan Coats is a Deep State stooge and is causing a bottleneck for Barr and Durham in the declassification process in their Spygate investigation.
Recall, in May of this year, Dan Coats warned Attorney General Bill Barr against releasing “highly-sensitive classified information” would imperil national security after President Trump ordered a declassification of Spygate documents.
“As part of that process, I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the IC in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk,” Coats previously said.
Remind yourself what happened: James Comey, on his sole initiative, held a press conference to announce that, though Mrs. Clinton had behaved improperly, she did not merit prosecution. Except it wasn’t his decision to make: It was the Justice Department’s.
A little color from the President's cabinet meeting today. Sources tell John Roberts from FOX News that Attorney General William Barr walked into the room to a standing ovation. Barr said he was surprised and then smiled.
With his memo giving Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify any documents related to the investigation of the 2016 campaign, Trump made good on a longstanding promise. Most important, his decision signaled that the War of Washington is entering a crucial new phase.
The president is going nuclear.
Democrats who thought control of the House gave them control of the agenda now will face stiff competition. Their expressions of outrage will seem tired next to the sensational revelations about the actions of Jim Comey, John Brennan and others.
Based on what we already know, it is highly likely those revelations will prove the White House, FBI and CIA engineered the greatest scandal in American political history by unjustified spying on Trump and by trying to tip the election to Hillary Clinton.
Adam Schiff
✔
@RepAdamSchiff
While Trump stonewalls the public from learning the truth about his obstruction of justice, Trump and Barr conspire to weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.
The coverup has entered a new and dangerous phase.
This is un-American.
9:57 PM - May 23, 2019
How does it feel?
To be on your own?
Like a complete unknown?
President Trump: “Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election. The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information. Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.”
I strongly suspect that AG Barr and his staff will be working through the holiday, as will those commanded in the presidential memorandum (see below) to “promptly provide” the assistance and information Barr will demand.
... Barr almost certainly has seen or will see the IG Report before it is released. He can declassify information that the IG Report needs to reveal, even before the report is released.
[Trump has put] Barr fully in charge, as the language “shall promptly provide…” requires their cooperation and information. Barr, not the DNI, is in charge.
Clearly, Trump and Barr have an understanding of where this going. And it is going very far.
In a new Hill-HarrisX survey, a majority of registered voters said they support a new Department of Justice inquiry into whether official procedures were followed when the FBI began examining allegations of connections between Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Sixty-two percent of respondents to the May 17-18 survey said they support Attorney General William Barr's decision to name a U.S. attorney to determine whether law enforcement officers had obeyed regulations governing surveillance of U.S. citizens while 38 percent said they opposed the new inquiry.
The poll found broad agreement across age groups in favor of the probe led by Connecticut-based U.S. attorney John H. Durham with more than 58 percent of voters under 35, between 35 and 49, between 50 and 64, and older than 64 saying that they supported it.
