DOJ, Trump strike murky deal in FBI informant spat

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN and KYLE CHENEY 05/21/2018 02:33 PM EDT Updated 05/21/2018 08:11 PM EDT

Under pressure from President Donald Trump, top Justice Department officials have agreed to review highly classified information with congressional leaders connected to the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The decision to share the information came after Trump met at the White House with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray and asked them to turn over to Congress and his own legal team all of the memos they have about an FBI informant who made contact with his 2016 campaign.

The White House also acknowledged that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz would review allegations by Trump allies that the president's campaign was inappropriately surveilled in 2016, though Democrats and Justice Department defenders have called the allegations cynical attempts to undermine the ongoing probe of Trump campaign contacts with Russians. DOJ announced the new investigation on Sunday, and the White House affirmed it in a statement Monday afternoon.

“Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement after the meeting.

Sanders added that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will confer with national security leaders and Congress "to review highly classified and other information they have requested.”

But the breadth of the agreement — and what information, exactly, might be provided — was not immediately clear. The Justice Department had previously indicated that sharing details about its informant could risk lives and endanger national security. It's also unclear who will be permitted to view the documents. The Justice Department typically shares its most sensitive information with the so-called "Gang of Eight" — the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the Republican and Democratic leaders of each chamber's Intelligence Committee.

On his way back into Justice Department headquarters, Rosenstein declined answer questions about the meeting.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the documents requested by Trump will "indicate what the informant found." He also said the memos "should be made available to us on a confidential basis," he added. "We should be at least allowed to read them so we know this exculpatory evidence is being preserved.” It's unclear if there were any arrangements made for the White House to view the documents.

Trump’s lawyers also want to interview the FBI officials who made the decision to connect the informant with the campaign.

“It’s the FBI who has the onus for having invaded the campaign,” Giuliani said.

READ MORE: https:// www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/trump-justice-department-fbi-informant-601572

3 Predictions for What Mueller Will Do Next

As a former prosecutor, here’s where I think the special counsel is headed.

By NELSON W. CUNNINGHAM May 21, 2018

obert Mueller’s investigation is now 1 year old. Watching the slow reveal of witnesses, search warrants and subpoenas, the president’s supporters and his opponents may despair that it will never come to an end.

But buckle your seat belts and grab the oxygen masks. It’s about to get interesting. From my vantage point as a former federal prosecutor, Senate Judiciary aide and White House lawyer, the special counsel’s path forward seems very clear—almost inevitable. With the caveat that the future is of course uncertain, here are three predictions for the dramatic weeks ahead:

Mueller will likely wrap up his investigation this summer. It is an ironclad principle that prosecutors should not take action that could influence an election. As George W. Bush’s attorney general, Michael Mukasey, told his prosecutors by written guidance in 2008, “Law enforcement officers and prosecutors may never select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.” The Hatch Act, he continued, “prohibits us from using our authority for the purpose of affecting election results.”

Mukasey’s declaration was such a clear and obvious declaration of principle that four years later, President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, reissued it in virtually identical language. That guidance still stands.

Indeed, the bipartisan reaction among legal scholars and former officials to FBI Director James Comey’s public declaration in October 2016 that he was reopening the Hillary Clinton email investigation formed the bulk of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s justification for the Comey firing one year ago.

So Mueller must act fast to finish his investigation—or he must wait until after the November 2018 elections. And if he waits, he knows every action he takes in those months leading up to the election will be scrutinized for political effect. Surely, he does not want to have to explain in his memoirs how his actions unintentionally affected the election.

How fast must he move? When does the window for action close? Kenneth Starr did not issue his report recommending the impeachment of Bill Clinton until September 11, 1998, also a midterm election year. The timing of that late move was widely criticized, and Starr argued that Clinton’s delaying tactics were to blame. In political terms, it had the unexpected consequence of boosting Clinton’s popularity and indeed, the Democrats very unusually won congressional seats in those midterm elections.

But Starr is not likely to be Mueller’s model. Here, Comey provides a positive example: In 2016, his team finished the bulk of its work on the Hillary Clinton email investigation by June, his agents interviewed the former secretary of state on July 2 and he publicly closed the investigation on July 5.

Another high-profile precedent is the indictment of former Senator Ted Stevens on corruption charges in a year when he was on the ballot. The date: July 29.

So history suggests that Mueller should act by July—bringing charges or recommendations, or declining to act. Trump’s new lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, asserted Sunday that Mueller’s team had told him its deadline was the end of August. Whether July or August, that is at most three months away.

What could happen in these three months? A lot. And that’s why it’s about to get interesting.

READ MORE: https:// www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/21/3-predictions-for-what-mueller-will-do-next-218410

Mueller team's special status could save Virginia Manafort case

By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/21/2018 06:10 AM EDT

An obscure special status obtained by several of special counsel Robert Mueller's attorneys could prevent a judge from ousting Mueller's lawyers from their role in the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in federal court in Virginia.

Several court filings indicate that when lawyers from Mueller's office appeared in federal court in Alexandria earlier this year, they did so not only as representatives of Mueller's office but as special assistant United States attorneys (SAUSAs) attached to the United States attorney's office there.

That designation gives the Mueller prosecutors a kind of dual status that could complicate any attempt by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to try to shift the case to federal prosecutors based in Alexandria — a possibility the judge mentioned on a couple of occasions during a contentious hearing earlier this month.

A spokesman for Mueller's office, Peter Carr, confirmed to POLITICO that some of the attorneys on the special counsel's team have the SAUSA status. Carr pointed to a local federal court rule that allows federal prosecutors to handle cases there when "appearing pursuant to the authority of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia."

One lawyer who has studied the use of SAUSAs said the granting of that status to lawyers on Mueller's team theoretically gives them the authority to pursue matters that aren't within the special counsel's mandate.

READ MORE: https:// www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2018/05/21/mueller-virginia-case-special-assistant-us-attorneys-600777

Bernie’s army in disarray

The Sanders-inspired grass-roots group ‘Our Revolution’ is flailing, an extensive review by POLITICO shows, fueling concerns about a potential 2020 bid.

By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 05/21/2018 05:00 AM EDT

Bernie Sanders’ top operatives formed “Our Revolution” after he lost the 2016 primaries to keep his army organized and motivated — and potentially prepare for another presidential run in 2020.

But an extensive review of the Sanders-inspired group depicts an organization in disarray — operating primarily as a promotional vehicle for its leader and sometimes even snubbing candidates aligned with Sanders. Our Revolution has shown no ability to tip a major Democratic election in its favor — despite possessing Sanders’ email list, the envy of the Democratic Party — and can claim no major wins in 2018 as its own.

The result has left many Sanders supporters disillusioned, feeling that the group that was supposed to harness the senator's grass-roots movement is failing in its mission. The problems have also fueled doubts about Sanders’ organizational ability heading into 2020, even after his out-of-nowhere near-march to the nomination two years ago. Critics of the Vermont independent had been worried he’d have a juggernaut-in-waiting to fuel a second presidential campaign, but that anxiety has faded after watching Our Revolution the past year and a half.

READ MORE: https:// www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/bernie-sanders-democrats-2018-599331

Perfect Timing – Intelligence Community Gets New Inspector General…

Posted on May 21, 2018 by sundance

Perfect timing today as Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats celebrates last Thursday’s swearing in ceremony of Michael Atkinson as Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.

Coincidentally, or not, last Thursday was the release of the IG Draft Report on the DOJ-NSD and FBI activity in the Clinton investigation; and coincidentally, or not, today DNI Dan Coats participated in planning a new investigative approach to review the Obama Intelligence Community’s engagements in political surveillance:

What part of much of what Q posts is open source. It's been pointed out time and time again, so we will go search for the documentation to build meme's on and or post story's not well covered to get them into the main stream convo

>>1499671

You see how they treat him when he goes through hoops to let the process flow through proper procedures. He's called a dictator, obstructionist, and accused of causing a constitutional crisis. It's smart to let them screw things so totally up…that even the most skeptic will probably agree it's about time he takes the reins in hand and straighten these agency's out.

A Curious Resignation at Perkins Coie

May 18, 2018

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, remember the law firm Perkins Coie? Perkins Coie was the cutout. That is who Fusion GPS paid to get Christopher Steele to write the opposition research for the Clinton campaign which became the dossier. Perkins Coie. They are hip deep in all of this, and now a resignation. “Former White House counsel Bob Bauer…” He was, I think… Yes, the White House counsel to Barack Hussein O, and he was one of the leading lights at Perkins Coie. He’s leaving the firm he founded.

“Bauer is leaving the firm whose leading political law practice he founded and shaped over decades in Washington.” Forty years at the firm. Democrat Party bigwig. White House counsel for Obama. Now he’s been there 40 years. It’s been a long time. Retirement could make sense. But then there’s also the hope that this is something else, that this resignation is the result of something, and that something would be people getting close to determining what all was going on at Perkins Coie in the effort to spy on and undermine and run a coup against Donald Trump. We shall see.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This Bob Bauer guy that just announced his resignation, he’s leaving the law firm he founded, Perkins Coie, which is the cutout firm that Hillary paid and then transferred the money to Steele to write the dossier, this guy Bauer, his wife’s Anita Dunn. She was first communications director for Obama. She got in trouble during a ceremony at the National Cathedral praising the strategies, the military strategies of Mao Tse-tung.

They’re huge libs. But this guy is the classic. If you want to face, if you want to find out who this establishment we are talking about is, this would be a couple. This guy, he’s still not the top chain, he’s not the top tier, but he’s very close to it. But these people, in their world, they’re unbeatable. They just don’t lose. Even when the Republicans win the presidency, these people don’t lose. They still run everything. You can’t intimidate them. They’re confident, arrogant. They’re unmovable.

But Trump has done it. Trump has shaken them up. George W. Bush winning, nah, they think they still run the town. But with Trump, this is the first thing that’s happened probably in their lifetimes that has sent them into feelings of fear, losing their perch, whatever, establishment, however they visualize it, and their reaction is it clear. These people are in genuine fear of what the election of Donald Trump means and what Trump personally means to them.

READ MORE: https:// www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/05/18/a-curious-resignation-at-perkins-coie/