John Ratcliffe says he has filed 'crimes reports' over leaks of classified intelligence

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says he has made multiple “crimes reports” related to leaks of classified information. Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who has overseen the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies since May, also defended his decision to shift election security briefings from in-person to in writing over concerns about leaks and politicization during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News. “There are investigations” into potentially illegal leaks and that “I know that because I’ve made a number of what are called crimes reports in connection since I’ve been the DNI," Ratcliffe said. "When I become aware of intelligence community information that is disclosed unlawfully, I do what’s called a crimes report — I’ve done that now on a number of occasions, and so those investigations are moving forward.” The "timing of any prosecutions," he said, "would be something that the FBI would have to address, and I think that they will down the road.” Ratcliffe made the revelations in the context of defending his decision on how the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will brief members of Congress on the election meddling threats going forward.

“I’m going to continue to keep the promises that I made, and I’m going to continue to follow the law and continue to keep Congress informed” but arguing that there has been “a pandemic of information being leaked out of the intelligence community — and I’m going to take the measures to make sure that that stops," Ratcliffe said. “When I went through confirmation, people watched that — they heard me make a couple promises. One of them was to always follow the law. The other was that I would do everything I could to protect the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, allowing people to leak it for political purposes,” Ratcliffe said. “The action that I announced yesterday is entirely consistent with that. I reiterated to Congress, look, I’m going to keep you fully and currently informed, as required by the law, but I also said we’re not going to do a repeat of what happened a month ago. When I did more than what was required, at the request of Congress to brief not just the oversight committees but every member of Congress. When I did that, Maria, I said my only condition is that you treat this information with the respect that it deserves and you keep it private, and yet within minutes of that one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different publications, and leaked classified information, again, for political purposes, to create a narrative that simply isn’t true, that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.”

Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released a more detailed intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is actively trying to “denigrate” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The same statement also said China “prefers” that President Trump not win reelection and is "expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020.” The counterintelligence official also said Iran “seeks to undermine" Trump's presidency. A letter from Ratcliffe to congressional leaders, made public on Saturday, stated that “in order to ensure clarity and consistency across the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's engagements with Congress on elections, the ODNI will primarily meet its obligation to keep Congress fully and currently informed leading into the Presidential election through written finished intelligence products.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-ratcliffe-says-he-has-filed-crimes-reports-over-leaks-of-classified-intelligence

Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff Statement on Cancellation of Election Security Briefings by Office of the Director of National Intelligence

https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/82920

Newly introduced House bill would block convicted rioters from receiving federal unemployment aid

Republican Rep. Jim Banks introduced a bill that would block convicted rioters from receiving federal coronavirus unemployment benefits. “Antifa thugs are descending on suffering communities, disrupting peaceful protests and leaving violence, looting and vandalism in their wake. They turned Milwaukee, Seattle and Portland into warzones, and now they’re moving the chaos to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Who knows which community is next?” Banks said in a press release. “Due to enhanced federal benefits, taxpayers are giving wages to jobless rioters that are destroying our communities. We need to cut them off from their funding and make them feel the full financial consequences of their actions.” Banks introduced the Support Peaceful Protest Act last week, which would also hold convicted rioters financially accountable for the cost of federal policing during violent protests. “If you’re convicted of a crime that caused more manpower and law enforcement officers to deal with it, then perhaps you should be on the hook to pay for that,” Banks said. The Indiana congressman said he introduced the bill after an elderly couple was harassed by protesters when they left President Trump’s nomination acceptance speech on Thursday.

Riots and protests have spread across the country since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, most notably in Portland, Seattle, and New York City. Kenosha, Wisconsin, has also become a hotbed of protests and violence after the shooting of Jacob Blake last weekend. The city has seen repeated nights of looting, arson, and rioting, including the death of two people last week. Trump has denounced the violence this summer, calling for law and order and for local leaders to control the civil unrest. “Kenosha has been very quiet for the third night in a row or, since the National Guard has shown up. That’s the way it works, it’s all very simple. Portland, with a very ungifted mayor, should request help from the Federal Government. If lives are endangered, we’re going in!” Trump tweeted on Saturday before a person was shot and killed in Portland.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/newly-introduced-house-bill-would-block-convicted-rioters-from-receiving-federal-unemployment-aid

>>10479819 (You) Didnt baker get that last bread?

Baker

This one is different from the former: that one was about working with Durham to Declass Docs..

Post in this bread deals with different content…Leakers

>>10479838

Sorry meant to tag you with this >>10479915

>>10479959

Pelicans are excellent times, kek

REVOLT: Hispanics Turn on Univision, Protest Biased News Reporting

As the news media focused its attention on framing both the political conventions and the left-wing violence plaguing American cities, another important event recently took place as members of the Hispanic community in Miami turned out in protest against the nation’s largest Spanish-speaking network: Univision. Protesters made crystal clear that the reason they turned out in the Florida heat was to take Univision- and the rest of the liberal media- to task for the activist spin they put on their news coverage: PROTESTER: This is how you let the fake news media know- this is how you let them know that we're the majority- but we're not silent. We're the majority. We're here and we're here to stay

MARIO VALLEJO, UNIVISION 23: The protest was carried out, per organizers, in order to demand that Univision, as well as all other media outlets, do journalism instead of activism, says the statement.

PROTESTER: Have a sense of shame! Show what is really happening here, because we're going to put it out on social media. There are thousands of cars and people here.

VALLEJO: Those who participated in the protest issued a statement in which they say, "Our country is in urgent need of fair news and not fake news, for (the sake of) our future and of our children’s well-being.

Univision’s Miami affiliate had no choice but to cover the protest, organized by Cubans4Trump among other groups, as it happened in front of their own building. But Univision made sure the story stayed local, as the protest didn’t make it to the network’s national newscast. The march is a reflection of what has been occurring within the Hispanic community for quite some time- a loss of confidence in the news media outlets that claim to serve the community. It is only a matter of time before the events in Miami duplicate themselves in places like New York, Houston, Chicago, and even Los Angeles. The people are fed up at the onslaught of activism seeking to pass itself off as journalism. Will Spanish-language media listen?

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/latino/jorge-bonilla/2020/08/30/revolt-hispanics-turn-univision-protest-biased-news-reporting

Pressure mounts on Barr DOJ to identify funders, organizers of violent riots

Conservative pressure is mounting on Attorney General William Barr and his Justice Department to ratchet up investigations of violent rioters across the country, specifically to identify those funding and organizing the mayhem. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Calif., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, made weekend appeals for DOJ to take action to cut off funding and logistical support for the groups of rioters that have terrorized and destroyed American cities for months. “Law enforcement needs to look at the funding of violent criminal activity like this. And national Democrats need to confront it. It’s organized. It’s paid for. It’s violent. It’s not about Black lives or any lives; it’s about anarchy and destruction,” Paul wrote in a Fox News op-ed on Saturday.

The Kentucky senator’s comments came after he and his wife was confronted by an angry mob in Washington DC while leaving President Trump’s nominating convention acceptance speech Thursday night. Paul said some of activists ended up staying on the same floor of his hotel, furthering his concern for safety. Buck tweeted his concerns on Sunday, saying it was time for DOJ to follow the money. "The Justice Department needs to open an investigation into who is funding these violent riots," Buck wrote. The weekend pressure follows other GOP lawmakers urging DOJ to do more to stop the organize violence plaguing U.S. cities since June. For instance, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., earlier this month urged DOJ to prosecute the suspects caught on videotape beating and kicking a man who crashed his truck near Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Ore. "This shocking attack by a mob against a young man in the streets of Portland is beyond the pale," Graham wrote.

https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/pressure-mounts-barr-doj-identify-funders-organizers-violent-riots

U.S. intelligence won’t answer if it spies on American journalists

ODNI has rejected a FOIA request from Just the News seeking transparency on spy agency monitoring of journalists.

The Office of Director of National Intelligence is refusing to say whether U.S. spy agencies monitor American journalists' overseas phone calls or records that were collected by the National Security Agency, saying revealing the answer could jeopardize its tactics. The ODNI's answer came late last week in response to a Just the News request under the Freedom of Information Act for any records since 2015 that "show the frequency by which professional journalists' phone records were searched via the NSA database and any journalists' overseas conversations were unmasked." "ODNI can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of the requested records," the agency wrote in a letter to Just the News. "The fact of the existence or non-existence of the requested records is itself currently and properly classified, and could reveal intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure pursuant to Section 102A(i)(l) of the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, 50 U.S.C. § 3024(i)(l)." Just the News is considering appealing the decision and going to court.

It is the second such rejection by ODNI in recent weeks for FOIA requests designed to illuminate just how far-reaching U.S. intelligence community monitoring of American citizens has become. The Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability (PPSA), a nonprofit where former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) works as a senior adviser, was rejected recently for records it sought on whether U.S. intelligence has been surveilling past and current U.S. senators and House members. Specifically, the group asked ODNI whether the spy agencies it supervises unmasked the identities of current and past lawmakers known to have been caught up in foreign surveillance, and whether the names of these members were searched through what is known as the "upstream" phone database. The request covered a bipartisan group of 48 current and former lawmakers and their potential surveillance from Jan. 1, 2008 to Jan. 15, 2020. ODNI summarily denied the FOIA with what is known as a "Glomar response," saying confirming or denying such surveillance "could reveal sources and methods information." There is at least one documented instance of executive branch spying on Congress in the last decade.

The CIA inspector general concluded in 2014 that CIA officers wrongly spied on Senate Intelligence Committee investigators preparing a report on the agency's terrorist interrogation program. On Friday, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) asked U.S spy agencies if they have spied on lawmakers in the last decade, based on allegations in a recent book by journalist Barton Gellman. In addition, Eshoo asked, "Do technical safeguards exist to prevent IC employees and contractors from querying databases, without express legal authorization or as part of a court-approved investigation, for information about any Member of Congress, federal judge, Supreme Court justice, or any other employee of the legislative or judicial branches of the federal government?”

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/privacy/us-intelligence-wont-answer-if-it-spies-american-journalists

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2020-08/DF-2020-00335%20%28Solomon%29.pdf

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2020-08/Rep.%20Eshoo%20Letter%20on%20IC%20surveillance%20of%20Congress%20-%208.28.20.pdf