The “Sensitive Matter Team”

Newly-examined emails among high-ranking U.S. intel officials at the time—including then-Director James Comey and his chief of staff James Rybicki—reference a “sensitive matter team.”

Based on the context of the emails, the “sensitive matter” appears to be the Trump-Russia narrative, and political opposition research funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The research— known as the “Steele dossier”— was peddled to the press and secretly used, in part, to justify controversial FBI wiretaps against at least one Trump associate.

The emails were first obtained by the Justice Department Inspector General and recently turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday asking for the identity of all members of the “sensitive matter team.”

According to Sen. Johnson’s letter, Comey chief of staff Rybicki emailed unidentified recipients on the morning of Jan. 6, 2017 stating, “[Director Comey] is coming to HQ briefly now for an update on the sensitive matter team.”

Later in the day, Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a few of the salacious, unverified allegations in the Steele dossier. The next day, Comey reported on his briefing in an email to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI General Counsel James Baker and Chief of Staff Rybicki. (All four men have since resigned or been fired from the FBI.)

“I said there was something [Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper wanted me to speak to [President Elect Trump] about alone or in a very small group,” Comey wrote in the email. “I then executed the session exactly as I had planned…I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook.” (Clapper now works as a CNN contributor.)

“Flood is Coming”

A day later, Jan. 8, FBI Deputy Director McCabe emailed Comey and Rybicki with the subject title: “Flood is coming.”

“CNN is close to going forward with the sensitive story,” McCabe wrote. “The trigger for them is they know the material was discussed in the [presidential] brief and presented in an attachment.”

Also included on that email were FBI associate deputy director David Bowdich and FBI assistant director for public affairs Michael Kortan. (Bowdich was recently appointed FBI Deputy Director. Kortan retired in February and had also served as an aide to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s investigating alleged Trump-Russia collusion.)

Within an hour of the “Flood is coming” email, McCabe emailed then-Deputy General Sally Yates and her top aide, Principal Deputy Attorney General Matthew Axelrod, with the subject title “News.” (Yates has since been fired and Axelrod resigned.)

“Just an FYI, and as expected, it seems CNN is close to running a story about the sensitive reporting.”

On Jan. 10, CNN published a story headlined, “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.” The same day, BuzzFeed News published the contents of the “Steele dossier.”

Sen. Johnson’s letter to FBI Director Wray about all of this also asks for details about President-elect Trump’s briefing and communications between Comey and Clapper.

Clapper reportedly told Congress he never discussed the Steele dossier or any other intelligence related to Russia election interference with journalists. However, Clapper subsequently reportedly acknowledged discussing the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper, and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about it.”

https:// sharylattkisson.com/2018/05/22/the-sensitive-matter-team/

Bad news for Dems: Trump’s rating is rising where it counts in California

All that talk of a Democratic blue wave sweeping congressional races in California could be for naught if a new poll is on target: It shows President Trump’s approval rating surging to 50 percent in Orange County, site of four tight races that could determine if Republicans hold the House.

A more popular Trump is bad news for Democrats, who are trying to grab seven GOP-held congressional districts statewide that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, including the four in Orange County. That would give Democrats a big jump on their goal of flipping 23 seats nationally to regain the House.

Democrats are banking on the president’s unpopularity to help them win those seats. In April, the nonpartisan Berkeley IGS Poll indicated that Trump had just 38 percent support in Orange County. A March poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California indicated that a mere 36 percent of all adults in Orange and San Diego counties approved of the president.

Two months ago, Republican pollster John Thomas did a survey in Orange County that found Trump’s approval rating at 43 percent. But last week, his poll of 450 likely voters in the county showed that 50 percent of respondents viewed the president favorably. The margin of error was three percentage points.

One reason for the Trump uptick in the OC is that the number of voters who believe the country is on the right track has grown 10 percentage points over the past two months, Thomas said. He is advising Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who is running for the House seat held by soon-to-be retiring Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton.

“If that holds and the trend line continues, ” Thomas said, “then it’s buh-bye blue wave.”

Other surveys have found high approval for Trump’s handling of the economy, which historically is a good indicator of overall satisfaction with a president’s performance. A CBS News poll released Sunday showed that 68 percent of the adults surveyed thought Trump’s policies “were responsible for the current state of the economy.”

But organizers for NextGen America, a progressive organization funded by billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, believe a Democratic sweep in November is still possible. The group is spending $350,000 to try to turn out 200,000 voters ages 18 to 35 in the four targeted Orange County districts.

NextGen America is focusing on turning out people who don’t typically vote in midterm elections. Statewide, only 3.7 percent of voters between ages 18 and 25 voted in the 2014 California primary, according to a UC Davis study.

“There’s nowhere to go but up,” said Ben Wessel, NextGen’s deputy political director.

While Thomas’ poll may have shown Trump’s popularity rising among likely voters, Wessel said, “we don’t spend a lot of time talking to likely voters. And among the people we’re talking to, I can tell you anecdotally that his approval rating is more like 5 percent.”

Wessel says the group is trying to convert young adults’ concerns over issues such as high student debt, soaring housing costs and school violence into votes for Democratic candidates.

“We’re having a November-level effort and it’s June,” Wessel said. “It’s a life-or-death situation for progressives and we’re treating it like such.”

https:// www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Bad-news-for-Dems-Trump-s-rating-is-rising-12932492.php

>>1511198

I think it will be fine per Q crumb I have just added

>>1511224

>>1511198

U.S. Moves to Shutter All Iranian Nuclear Enrichment Sites in Major Reversal of Obama Policy

The Trump administration, in a major reversal of Obama administration policy, is seeking to shutter every Iranian nuclear enrichment site, including its heavy water reactors, which could provide Iran with a second, plutonium-based pathway to a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the policy shift.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his first major policy address, called on Iran to shutdown its heavy water nuclear power plants, which were allowed by the Obama administration under the landmark nuclear agreement and laid the groundwork for Tehran and Russia to ink multi-billion dollar deals to build new nuclear reactors throughout the country, construction that is already underway.

Pompeo's demand is being met with support within the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill. Opponents of the nuclear agreement told the Washington Free Beacon it jibes with ongoing efforts by Congress to strangle Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities.

Iran's nuclear reactors have been a tension point since the nuclear deal was put in place due to the Islamic Republic's production of heavy water—a nuclear enriched byproduct—beyond the amounts allowable under the agreement. In order to ensure Iran was not caught breaching restrictions on heavy water under the deal, the Obama administration used taxpayer money to purchase Iran's excess heavy water, a policy that was immediately reversed by the Trump administration.

In response to Pompeo's speech, Iranian officials have again threatened to abandon the nuclear deal and restart high-level uranium enrichment to levels that cold be used to fuel a nuclear weapon.

"Iran must declare to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] a full account of the prior military dimensions of its nuclear program, and permanently and verifiably abandon such work in perpetuity," Pompeo said in his Monday morning speech.

"Iran must stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing," Pompeo said. "This includes closing its heavy water reactor."

Pompeo's speech sets the stage for the United States to reimpose harsh economic sanctions on Iran that could cripple its already ailing economy and force the Islamic Republic to negotiate a better deal or face regime collapse, according to one senior administration official familiar with the White House's strategy.

"In his refreshingly direct and fact-based speech, Secretary Pompeo formalized President Trump's historic announcement that the United States was leaving the JCPOA two weeks ago." "Rather than the willful blindness that characterized the old policy of trying to cajole Tehran into pursuing a nuclear weapon slowly, the secretary clarified that our policy is now to prevent them from getting one altogether."

Pompeo "also made a strong statement of solidarity with the Iranian people, who are the traditional friends of the American people, and who have suffered too long under this autocratic theocracy that is preventing Iran from a secure and prosperous future as a welcomed member of the international community," the official said.

While the Obama administration worked to implement a scheme in which it would pay Iran with taxpayer dollars for its excess heavy water, GOP leaders on Capitol Hill worked to outlaw any further deals.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who led efforts to expose these Obama-era payments to Iran, the Trump administration's new efforts to shutter Iran's nuclear enrichment sites represents a policy more in line with reality.

"As someone who has passed amendments to prohibit American taxpayers from reimbursing Iran for its heavy water, I believe Secretary Pompeo is right on target in demanding that Iran cease plutonium processing and enrichment activities," DeSantis said. "A militant Islamist regime cannot be permitted to have any nuclear capacity."

Iran has vowed to leave the deal if economic assurances are not given by the Europeans, who have already been examining plans to skirt new U.S. sanctions.

Other Iranian leaders have begun calling for the full-scale suspension of the deal, which would pave the way for Iran to restart its most sensitive nuclear enrichment work.

"We are not necessitated to declare that we have withdrawn from the nuclear deal but we'd better suspend (implementation of) our nuclear-deal undertakings because the agreement is not in trouble," Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council, told the country's state-controlled press organs late Monday.

More here: http:// freebeacon.com/

Rubio, Diaz-Balart Call for U.S. Authorities to Indict Raul Castro

Lawmakers want justice for downing of ‘Brothers to the Rescue’ planes, which killed three Americans.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.) are urging President Trump to direct the Justice Department to review whether to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro for the illegal shoot down in 1996 of two American civilian aircraft that killed three Americans and a U.S. legal resident.

Rubio and Diaz-Balart on Tuesday sent a letter to Trump commending him on his "expressions of solidarity with courageous pro-democracy activists" in Cuba and asking him "within all applicable rules and regulations" to direct the DOJ to look into the Cuban government’s alleged downing of the two U.S. aircraft in 1996 and determine whether to indict Castro.

"In the spirit of Cuban Independence Day, we urge to consider new additional actions to hold the Castro regime accountable for its crimes," Rubio and Diaz-Balart said in the letter, referring to the independence Cuba won from Spain on May 20, 1902.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The civilian aircraft were flown by the Miami-based nonprofit, Brothers to the Rescue, a group formed by Cuban exiles opposed to the Castro regime who aimed to help Cuban people trying to flee the communist island nation by raft and make it the United States. The group’s planes at least once dropped leaflets on Cuba advocating for dissident resistance against the Castro dictatorship.

The Cuban Air Force shot down the planes in international airspace on February 24, 1996, as they were returning to Florida, killing the three Americans and one U.S. legal resident. The U.N. Security Council and other international powers condemned the incident while the Castro regime argued it was justified because the planes were trying to destabilize the Cuban government.

Rubio and Diaz-Balart recalled in their letter to Trump how after the incident the U.S. federal court indicted the head of the Cuban Air Force and the two MiG pilots responsible for the planes’ downing on charges of murder.

U.S. courts ultimately convicted a member of a Cuban spy ring operating in the United States for conspiracy to commit murder for his role in planning the shootdown; he was sentenced to life in federal prison.

Rubio and Diaz-Balart then slammed the Obama administration for "shamefully" commuting the spy’s sentence and allowing him to return to Cuba for a "hero’s welcome" as part of its "appeasement policy" with the Castros.

"However, the Cuban operative ultimately responsible, then-Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Raul Castro, was never indicted," the lawmakers wrote.

In addition, the lawmakers pressed Trump to direct "the appropriate agencies to assess whether INTERPOL ‘red notices’ should be issued for the arrest and extradition to the United States of all Cuban operatives responsible for the deaths" of the four members of the Brothers to the Rescue.

"Taking these bold actions would demonstrate to our adversaries that they cannot act with impunity against Americans, and that human rights abusers and criminals will be held accountable for their crimes," Rubio and Diaz-Balart wrote in their letter. "Most importantly, it would send a signal to the Cuban people that the United States will not permit their oppressors to operate without consequences."

http:// freebeacon.com/national-security/rubio-diaz-balart-call-u-s-authorities-indict-raul-castro/

>>1511126

Clapper naturally, How do you think they decided to hire him as a commentator, he probably still has security clearance as well.

>>1511669

Now that looks painful:(