The attempted Clinton-CIA coup against Donald Trump

[James Lateer]

I just heard that Trump has brought back 400,000 manufacturing jobs. O'Bama said "the jobs can't ever come back." I used to like O'Bama. But if he had the ability to bring back manufacturing jobs, why didn't he?

Unfortunatey, it looks like the "progressive" Democrats are playing Judas to the traditional Democratic base, which has existed since the New Deal. Workers should look and see on which side their bread is buttered. It looks like it is buttered on the Trump Republican side and not on the side of the "liberal" betrayal artists.

James Lateer

[Cliff Varnell]

I just heard that Trump has brought back 400,000 manufacturing jobs. O'Bama said "the jobs can't ever come back." I used to like O'Bama. But if he had the ability to bring back manufacturing jobs, why didn't he?

Unfortunatey, it looks like the "progressive" Democrats are playing Judas to the traditional Democratic base, which has existed since the New Deal. Workers should look and see on which side their bread is buttered. It looks like it is buttered on the Trump Republican side and not on the side of the "liberal" betrayal artists.

James Lateer

Guess again.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

[James Lateer]

I'm addicted to the excellent St. Louis Fed website. Probably the best value that we get from our tax money, bar none.

However, the link cited is for wages. I am talking manufacturing jobs.

According to my calculations from the graph linked below, I found the following regarding the total number of manufacturing jobs in the US:

January 2014 to November 2016= 257,000 jobs in 34 months or 7569 per month.

November 2016 to July 2018= 374,000 jobs in 21 months or 17,809 per month.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP#0

James Lateer

[Lauren Johnson]

I'm addicted to the excellent St. Louis Fed website.

I'm sorry to hear that. But have hope. There's help for people in your condition! ::

[Paul Rigby]

Christopher Steele, FBI's Confidential Human Source

by Publius Tacitus

07 AUGUST 2018

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_sempe...citus.html

The revelations from US Government records about the FBI/Intel Community plot to take out Donald Trump continue to flow thanks to the dogged efforts of Judicial Watch. The latest nugget came last Friday with the release of FBI records detailing their recruitment and management of Britain's ostensibly retired Intelligence Officer, Christopher Steele. He was an officially recruited FBI source and received at least 11 payments during the 9 month period that he was signed up as a Confidential Human Source.

You may find it strange that we can glean so much information from a document dump that is almost entirely redacted. The key is to look at the report forms; there are three types--FD-1023 (Source Reports), FD-209a (Contact Reports) and FD-794b (Payment Requests). There are 15 different 1023s, 13 209a reports and 11 794b payment requests covering the period from 2 February 2016 thru 1 November 2016. That is a total of nine months.

These reports totally destroy the existing meme that Steele only came into contact with the FBI sometime in July 2016. It is important for you to understand that a 1023 Source Report is filled out each time that the FBI source handler has contact with the source. This can be an in person meeting or a phone call. Each report lists the name of the Case Agent; the date, time and location of the meeting; any other people attending the meeting; and a summary of what was discussed.

What is clear from the new records is that Christopher Steele, a foreign intelligence officer, had frequent and extensive contacts with the FBI. Who was his FBI Case Agent?

Up to this point most folks believed, based on testimony from Fusion GPS owner Glen Simpson, that Steele only started dealing with the FBI in June or July of 2016. Simpson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he hired Steele in May or June of 2016. Steele produced his first report for Fusion GPS on 20 June 2016. Simpson's Senate testimony suggested that Steele only first met with the FBI in July 2016 :
Q. So after Mr. Steele had found out the information that he put in the very first of these memos, the one dated June 20, 2016, he approached you about taking this information to specifically the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

A. That's my recollection.

Q. So to the best of your recollection, that request or idea came directly from Mr. Steele, not anyone else?

A. That's right.

We now know that was grossly misleading. Steele was a fully signed up intelligence asset. There are very strict rules governing how such an asset is signed up. These rules were instituted in the wake of the Whitey Bulger fiasco, where FBI Agents cut corners and broke rules in handling a sensitive, compromised source. Most importantly, before the FBI can sign up a Confidential Human Source, aka CHS, the FBI must conduct a Suitability and Pertinence inquiry, aka SI. This has to be done no more than 120 days before the source is signed up. The SI starts on the date a 137 file is opened (see p. 136-6). So when was the 137 file opened on Christopher Steele?

The recruitment of Steele was done with the full knowledge of senior FBI and DOJ officials. We know this from the other requirements for signing up a CHS:

A CHS must be subjected to a validation process (p. 12).
FBI Agent shall document information pertaining to that Source and forward it to an appropriate FBI Supervisor for an Initial Validation (p. 13), which will include the person's motivation for providing the information.
Immediately after these instructions have been given, the FBI Agent shall require the Confidential Human Source to acknowledge his or her receipt and understanding of the instructions. The FBI Agent, and the additional Agent or other government official present as a witness, shall document that the instructions were reviewed with the Confidential HumanSource and that the Source acknowledged the instructions and his or her understanding of them. As soon as practicable thereafter, an FBI Supervisor shall ,review and, if warranted, approve the documentation. In addition, the FBI Agent handling the source is required to have the approval of senior FBI leaders

An individual becomes an informant once the supervisor certifies the individuals's suitability. (see p. 137-9)
By virtue of being a CHS, Steele's travel to other locations for meetings with the FBI (for example, he met with FBI officials in Italy in September) requires prior approval from Headquarters. He just cannot pick up and go on his own. My point is simple--the FBI decision to get into bed with Christopher Steele pre-dated what the American people had been previously told about the FBI's relations with this foreign spy.

But there is a major unanswered question surrounding the decision to recruit and rely on Steele as a Confidential Informant--the U.S. and the United Kingdom have a standing agreement to not recruit each other's intelligence personnel for clandestine activities. Why was this exception made?

Christopher Steele was terminated as a Confidential Human Source for cause. We know this because that part is not redacted in the FBI documents:

CHS confirmed to an outside third party that CHS has a confidential relationship with the FBI. CHS was used as a source for an online article. In the article, CHS revealed CHS' relationship with the FBI as well as information that CHS obtained and provided to FBI. On November 1, 2016, CHS confirmed all of this to the handling agent. At that time, handling agent advised CHS that the nature of the relationship between the FBI and CHS would change completely and that it was unlikely that the FBI would continue a relationship with the CHS. Additionally, handling agent advised that CHS was not to operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI.

Pay attention to the last item--Steele was told NOT to operate to get any info on behalf of the FBI. So what did he do? After Trump's election Steele provided one more report, which was passed directly to Senator John McCain who in turn passed it to James Comey. What did Comey swear to in the FISA renewal application in January 2017? Did he tell the judge that he was using information from a CHS that had been fired? I doubt it.

What was the precipitating incident or issue that led the FBI to recruit and sign up Steele as a Confidential Human Source? I am told by friends with knowledge of the matter that the impetus came because British Intelligence was passing information to the U.S. Intelligence Community. Did DNI Jim Clapper or CIA Director John Brennan contact the FBI and ask the FBI to bring Christopher Steele on board as an informant? The Guardian reported that this is exactly what happened (but they got the timing wrong):

. . . both US and UK intelligence sources acknowledge that GCHQ played an early, prominent role in kickstarting the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, which began in late July 2016.

One source called the British eavesdropping agency the "principal whistleblower".

According to the Guarding, GCHQ Chief Robert Hannigan spoke directly to John Brennan, who:

used GCHQ information and intelligence from other partners to launch a major inter-agency investigation. In late August and September Brennan gave a series of classified briefings to the Gang of Eight, the top-ranking Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.

This latest document dump makes it very clear that the FBI activity with respect to going after Trump on all matters Russia predates July 2016. More information needs to come out.

[James Lateer]

Finally, a posting that befits a Deep Politics Forum. I plan on reading this in detail and it looks like you have new and in-depth info.

I don't see why all people who understand what America should represent, are not irate about this Deep State abuse. And abuse is WAY too nice of an adjective.

James Lateer

[Paul Rigby]

Handwritten Notes Reveal Glenn Simpson Gave Bruce Ohr a Memory Stick' in Secret Meeting Shortly After Trump Won 2016 Election

by Cristina Laila August 10, 2018

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/08...-election/

New handwritten notes penned by twice-demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr reveal Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson handed Ohr a memory stick during a meeting at a D.C. coffee shop shortly after the election.

It is still unclear what was on the memory stick or if the FBI used the information on it for future actions.

Investigative reporter John Solomon obtained Bruce Ohr's handwritten notes and says it shows an "unmistakable effort to push the Russian investigation closer to Trump's inner circle with uncorroborated tales."

Simpson made uncorroborated claims that Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen were working in coordination with Russia to hijack the presidential election.

John Solomon notes that Simpson interestingly acknowledged that information coming from Christopher Steele wasn't coming from Moscowrather the intel was coming from a former Russian intelligence officer (? not entirely clear) who lives in the U.S." Ohr said in his notes this Russian source in the US seemed to have disappeared.


Via John Solomon of The Hill:

One notation that stands out is Simpson's account that he asked Steele to talk with Mother Jones reporter David Corn about their muckraking on Trump and Russia in the final days of the election. At the time, Steele still worked as an FBI source.

Corn's Oct. 31, 2016, story was one of the most definitive to allege possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, creating an important talking point for Democrats in the final days of the campaign.

"Glen asked Chris to speak to the Mother Jones reporter. It was Glen's Hail Mary attempt," Ohr wrote.

When Simpson testified before Congress, he said he and Steele acted out of a sense of duty. "For him it was professional obligations. I mean, for both of us it was citizenship. You know, people report crimes all the time," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Also according to Ohr's handwritten notes, Steele and Glenn Simpson were behind the false rumors that President Trump created a "secret server" with Russia-based Alfa Bank through Trump Tower New Yorkwhich of course made it into the left-wing media.

In fact, Hillary Clinton even tweeted about the "secret server" right before the 2016 electionright on cue. Coincidence? We think not.

On October 31st, 2016, Hillary Clinton linked to the Slate article spreading the hoax that Trump had a Russia-based "secret server" at the Trump Tower.

Hillary Clinton claimed in her tweet that Trump set up a "secret server" to communicate privately with the Putin-tied Russia bank Alfa bank and when a reporter asked about it, they shut it down. She then claimed Trump created another server a week later with a different name for the same purpose.

Hillary's caption read, "It's time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia."

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/statu...12/photo/1

Glenn Simpson handed Bruce Ohr a memory stick…
Ohr made clear he took possession of some evidence from Simpson, writing: "Glen gave me a memory stick."

Early on, Ohr's notes detail, the conversation focused on a theory apparently offered by Simpson that revolving Trump team members former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, followed by informal adviser Carter Page, then Cohen forged a secret channel with Moscow to hijack the election.

All three men long have been cited in the Russia investigation; each denies any coordination with Russia. But Ohr's notes are the first to quote Simpson as suggesting the three essentially were shark-tooth spies who replaced each other in a secret plot.

"He identified Michael Cohen, a lawyer in Brooklyn w. Russian (Brighton Beach) clients, as the go-between from Russia to the Trump campaign who replaced Manafort and Carter Page," Ohr's notes read, quoting Simpson's alleged narrative.

The notes suggest guilt by association, citing Cohen's wife and suggesting one of Cohen's in-laws had real estate dealings in Moscow "with ties to the Kremlin."

These Bruce Ohr notes opened up a whole new can of worms.

"What was on the memory stick? What did Ohr do with the information? Did the FBI rely on it for future court actions? Did the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court that approved surveillance warrants know Ohr was getting information from the Simpson-Steele operation after Steele had been dismissed?" John Solomon asked.

[Paul Rigby]

New Evidence Provides Additional Support that the UK Interfered with the 2016 US Election More Than Russia!

by Jim Hoft August 10, 2018

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/08...an-russia/

In May TGP reported… New evidence proves that a foreign government meddled in the 2016 US Election. But the government identified is the UK, not Russia!
We shared the following:

After more than a year of the Mueller investigation, millions of dollars and the Mainstream Media's (MSM) relentless attack on President Trump, what do we have? Nothing really.

President Trump tweeted in February that if the goal of Russia was to create discord in the US then they have succeeded. "They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/stat...-russia%2F

Since this tweet, the Russia fairy tale has fallen apart. Corrupt Mueller and his team of conflicted, biased and corrupt investigators and attorneys have found nothing related to their target, President Trump, and now their indictments are unraveling.

After discussing the status of Mueller's indictments to date we stated the following.

As the Russia meddling into the 2016 US election unwinds, the meddling by the UK, is becoming surprisingly more apparent.

Christopher Steele

We've known for over a year that the Clinton campaign and the FBI worked with former UK MI6 spy Christopher Steele, who authored a dossier of salacious statements about President Trump. Steele was reportedly paid by Fusion GPS for the document.

Steele was paid $168,000 by Glenn Simpson's company Fusion GPS for the series of memos containing information that was selectively briefed to journalists approved by Simpson and used by the FBI.

The Steele dossier was never verified and is suspected of being a total fiction. This act alone by a spy from the UK is troubling enough, but that is not it.

Joseph Mifsud

George Papadopoulos, the lower level campaign worker for the Trump campaign, appears to have been targeted by three individuals with ties to British and/or U.S. Intelligence: Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer and Stefan Halper.

Mifsud and Papadopoulos obtained positions at an organization named the Centre for International Energy and Natural Resources Law & Security. Papadopoulos was a nobody' and the Centre sketchy at best. Mifsud vanished in early November 2017, shortly after Papadopoulos was in the news and indicted. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Although the common story is that Mifsud is a Russian Agent, many ties seem to lead [him] back to UK Intelligence. Julian Assange put out a Twitter Thread noting the connection between Mifsud and UK Intelligence.

Alexander Downer

Although, not a Brit, Alexander Downer is the Australian individual who apparently overheard Papadopoulos talk about Trump and Russia in a bar which alerted the FBI to the story and their eventual spy program on Trump. This story has been refuted for months.

The Papadopoulos/Downer meeting has been portrayed as a chance encounter in a bar. That does not appear to be the case….Downer has direct ties to UK Intelligence firm Hakluyt where he served on the Advisory Board from 2008-2014.

Shortly after the Papadopoulos and Downer chance encounter, Peter Strzok was in London per texts released by the FBI. "Strzok texts suggest he was in London on August 3, 2016." The corrupt FBI's investigation into Trump officially started a few days earlier.

Stefan Halper

One individual all over the Internet and social media by the name of Stefan Halper has been identified as a potential FBI spy into the Trump campaign. (Note that some believe that Obama may have had more than one spy on the Trump campaign). The most intriguing individual related to Papadopoulos is Halper.

According to Jeff Carlson at theMarketswork

My guess is Papadopoulos never knew what hit him. A young man, suddenly thrust into a position beyond his experience, Papadopoulos made for an easy intelligence target.

Carter Page almost certainly discussed the just completed Moscow trip with his host, Stefan Halper, during the London symposium.

It's now being reported that Devin Nunes has learned the identity of a "top secret intelligence source" that was part of the FBI's Counterintelligence Investigation.

I think there's a decent chance that source is Stefan Halper.

Halper had contact with both Papadopulos and Carter Page. Halper has connections to UK Intelligence and US Intelligence. Halper met with Carter Page just days after Page's Moscow trip.

Other Internet sleuths tied Halper to the Obama team of crooks. Halper was paid more than $400,000 in 2016 for his efforts to set Papadopulos up and get him to sing to the Australia diplomat about Hillary's emails being held by Russia. Halper and others planted this information on Papadopulos before he shared this with the Aussie in a drunken London pub discussion.

Additional research shows that Halper was a classmate of impeached President Bill Clinton. Halper apparently knew Bill Clinton well in their days at Oxford. He later worked as an Advisor to the Clinton Administration.

Robert Hannigan

Hannigan had been Head of the GCHQ and he suddenly resigned in January [2017]

Hannigan only took over at the UK's surveillance agency in November 2014 to oversee a more open approach after revelations by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden put GCHQ on the defensive in 2013.

His sudden resignation he informed staff just hours before making this decision public prompted speculation that it might be related to British concerns over shared intelligence with the US in the wake of Donald Trump becoming president.

But the GCHQ press release stressed his decision was exclusively for family reasons. As well as his ill wife, Hannigan has two elderly parents to look after. He will remain in post until a successor is appointed.

It's still not known, what, if any connection to the Trump Russia collusion fantasy, Hannigan may have had.

Now we know that we were absolutely on to something ->

Over the past couple of days information about Christopher Steele's relationship with demoted FBI attorney Bruce Ohr has been released. Ohr's wife worked for Fusion GPS, the firm that also worked with Steele in the creation and dissemination of the famous fake and unsupported dossier used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on President Trump.

Yesterday we reported that investigative reporter John Solomon obtained text messages between twice-demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr and dossier author Christopher Steele that are very damning to the Russia witch hunt.

Bruce Ohr, who worked directly under Rod Rosenstein, was discussing getting Christopher Steele back into the FBI in the summer of 2017after he was deemed "not suitable" and terminated' for leaking to the media in November of 2016.

Via John Solomon of The Hill, beginning in July of 2017, Christopher Steele was sending urgent text messages to Bruce Ohr desperate to assist Robert Mueller in the Russia witch hunt.

"Hi Bruce, hope you're enjoying the summer," Steele wrote Ohr on July 16, 2017. "I spoke to my old colleagues last week and they assured me they would not stand in the way of our re-engagement with the Bureau."

Solomon continues

Whatever the case, the text messages portray Steele as increasingly aggravated that his return to informant's work on the Russia case was going so slowly.

"I am presuming you've heard nothing back from your SC colleagues on the issues you kindly put to them from me," Steele texted Ohr on Nov. 18, 2017. "We have heard nothing from them either.

"To say this is disappointing would be an understatement! Certain people have been willing to risk everything to engage with them in an effort to help them reach the truth."

Was Steele referring to his former boss Hannigan when he noted that "certain people have been willing to risk everything" and was he referring to the UK intelligence community when he mentioned his "old colleagues"? If this is the case then was the top of the UK intelligence network involved with Steele and Spygate'? Why were they trying to prevent President Trump from winning the election?

In Summary

As we noted in May: Based on information to date, the UK had more to do with interfering with the US 2016 Presidential election than Russia. The Obama team and the Clinton campaign spied on the Trump team and used the entire government apparatus, including the CIA, FBI, the DOJ and others, to do so.

It appears, they also had help from the UK.

These crooks were willing to risk World War III with Russia rather than face a Trump Presidency. This all leads to the question What is so damn damning that these many individuals would go to such brazen lengths to remove President Trump from office?

This is clearly 100 times worse than Watergate! We were right time to keep our eyes on the real country interfering with our election the UK!

[Paul Rigby]

Trump Strikes Back at Ringleader' Brennan

"Brennan will fight hard to avoid being put on trial but will need united support from from his Deep State co-conspiratorsa dubious proposition"

Ray McGovern

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/15/tr...r-brennan/

There's more than meets the eye to President Donald Trump's decision to revoke the security clearances that ex-CIA Director John Brennan enjoyed as a courtesy customarily afforded former directors. The President's move is the second major sign that Brennan is about to be hoisted on his own petard. It is one embroidered with rhetoric charging Trump with treason and, far more important, with documents now in the hands of congressional investigators showing Brennan's ringleader role in the so-far unsuccessful attempts to derail Trump both before and after the 2016 election.

Brennan will fight hard to avoid being put on trial but will need united support from from his Deep State co-conspiratorsa dubious proposition. One of Brennan's major concerns at this point has to be whether the "honor-among-thieves" ethos will prevail, or whether some or all of his former partners in crime will latch onto the opportunity to "confess" to investigators: "Brennan made me do it."

Well before Monday night, when Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani let a small bomb drop on Brennan, there was strong evidence that Brennan had been quarterbacking illegal operations against Trump. Giuliani added fuel to the fire when he told Sean Hannity of Fox news:

"I'm going to tell you who orchestrated, who was the quarterback for all this. … The guy running it is Brennan, and he should be in front of a grand jury. Brennan took … a dossier that, unless he's the biggest idiot intelligence agent that ever lived … it's false; you can look at it and laugh at it. And he peddled it to [then Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid, and that led to the request for the investigation. So you take a false dossier, get senators involved, and you get a couple of Republican senators, and they demand an investigationa totally phony investigation."

The Fix Brennan Finds Himself In

After eight years of enjoying President Barack Obama's solid support and defense to do pretty much anything he choseincluding hacking into the computers of the Senate Intelligence CommitteeBrennan now lacks what, here in Washington, we refer to as a "Rabbi" with strong incentive to advance and protect you. He expected Hillary Clinton to play that role (were it ever to be needed), and that seemed to be solidly in the cards. But, oops, she lost.

What needs to be borne in mind in all this is, as former FBI Director James Comey himself has admitted: "I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president." Comey, Brennan, and co-conspirators, who decidedin that "environment"to play fast and loose with the Constitution and the law, were supremely confident they would not only keep their jobs, but also receive plaudits, not indictments.

Unless one understands and remembers this, it is understandably difficult to believe that the very top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials did what documentary evidence has now demonstrated they did.

So, unlike his predecessors, most of whom also left under a dark cloud, Brennan is bereft of anyone to protect him. He lacks even a PR person to help him avoid holding himself up to ridiculeand now retaliationfor unprecedentedly hostile tweets and other gaffes. Brennan's mentor, ex-CIA Director George Tenet, for example, had powerful Rabbis in President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as a bizarrely empathetic establishment media, when Tenet quit in disgrace 2004.

The main question now is whether the chairs of the House oversight committees will chose to face down the Deep State. They almost never do, and the smart money says that, if they do, they will loselargely because of the virtually total support of the establishment media for the Deep State. This often takes bizarre forms. The title of a recent column by Washington Post "liberal" commentator Eugene Robinson speaks volumes: "God Bless the Deep State."

[Lauren Johnson]

Eugene Robinson says:

In this emergency, the loyal and honorable deep state has a higher duty. It's called patriotism.

::facepalm::