Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas Randy Credico, longtime friend of Trump ally Roger Stone

The Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Randy Credico, a radio host and comedian who Roger Stone — a longtime adviser to President Trump — claimed was his back-channel to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a means to get incriminating information on Hillary Clinton. The committee calls for Credico to testify on Oct. 5, and it is unclear if he will comply.

Credico was subpoenaed by the House Committee in December, and said he would assert his Fifth Amendment right unless he was given immunity. The committee then finished its investigation into Russian election interference earlier this year without interviewing him. The Senate Intelligence Committee is calling on Credico to turn over a handful of documents, including communications with or about WikiLeaks, as well as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, which have been implicated in the Russian meddling case. The committee is also seeking communications with or about Roger Stone, Assange, and Henry Greenberg, as well as any communication related to "derogatory information" about Clinton or communications about Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.

Credico testified before a federal grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this month, and the subpoena calls on him to turn over any documents he has to Mueller's team or the FBI. Federal investigators on Mueller's team predominantly focused on Credico’s relationship with Stone, he said after the testimony, declining to disclose the substance of the interview. Credico also denied he was a back-channel between Stone and WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign.

Stone told the House Intelligence Committee last year that Credico was his “intermediary” between him and Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign. Then, in a Facebook post in November, Stone confirmed that Credico was his WikiLeaks contact — but defended his hesitation to reveal his name to the House panel.''' "The Committee is wasting their time. He merely confirmed what Assange had said publicly," Stone wrote. "Credico never said he knew or had any information as to source or content of the material Mr. Credico never said he confirmed this information with Mr. Assange himself. Mr. Stone knew Credico had his own sources within WikiLeaks and is credible. Credico turned out to be 100 % accurate." Stone has denied that he knew Russia would interfere in the election, or that WikiLeaks would release thousands of emails from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-intelligence-committee-subpoenas-randy-credico-longtime-friend-of-trump-ally-roger-stone

James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates asked to testify in ongoing House investigation into FBI, DOJ

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., issued requests to interview former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Committee sources confirmed to Politico that the letters of request were sent Friday and Monday for the three high-profile witnesses. The letters request each witness to arrange a time as soon as possible to testify in the investigation into FBI and Justice Department actions in 2016 and 2017.

Co-founder of Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, former DOJ deputy counterintelligence chief Richard Scott, and former FBI official Bill Sweney are among the other witnesses who received requests to testify. Democrats claim the Republicans on the committee deceived them by arranging the interviews, saying that they were not informed about the requests until they were already sent, Politico notes. "This is more than just a bad habit," Daniel Schwarz, spokesman for Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said. "The Republican Majority are representing to potential witnesses that we are party to these communications — but, time after time, that has just proved untrue."

Republicans included Democrats in on the email requests, but sources say they were not informed before the request was already sent.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/james-comey-loretta-lynch-sally-yates-asked-to-testify-in-ongoing-house-investigation-into-fbi-doj

Trump is cracking the Mexico-Canada united front on NAFTA

The Trump administration has driven a widening crack between the united front that Mexico and Canada maintained throughout the past year during the negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexican officials are getting increasingly impatient with Canada's refusal to assent to its bilateral deal with the U.S. and appear to be warming up to the idea of separate bilateral deals with its NAFTA trading partners. "Mexicans feel like they are the ones that had to put up with more pressure from the United States, that the demands that they had to put up with were greater than the ones that the U.S. is making of Canada," said Juan Carlos Hidalgo, senior analyst for Latin American policy at the free-market Cato Institute. "Certainly there is a perception in Mexico that Canada should be more collaborative. There is a growing frustration on the Mexican side with Canada."

The U.S. is currently locked in negotiations with Canada to gain its assent as a NAFTA partner to a bilateral trade deal the administration struck with Mexico last month. Little progress has been made, with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer saying Tuesday, "There is still a fair amount of distance between us. There are very large issues. … We are sort of running out of time." The administration has until the end of the month to get the trade deal approved by Congress if it wants it to get it cleared before current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who negotiated it, steps down from office. It is not clear if incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist and NAFTA critic, would support the deal as written. The Trump administration has said it'll seek approval from Congress even if Canada doesn't sign on. "We'll take a look at the landscape" if Canada cannot be brought on board, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday.

Lopez Obrador had previously tried to steer clear of any deal that Pena Nieto negotiated. It is a delicate matter for him, since he is a NAFTA critic but the trade deal is popular in Mexico, with many there linking it to the country's recent prosperity. The current White House push to get the U.S.-Mexico deal approved by the end of the month is mainly an effort to keep Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1, out of the fray. Under the terms of Trade Promotion Authority, the law governing submitting trade deals to Congress, lawmakers must approve it 60 days before it can be signed. "Nieto has to sign it on his last day in office. That's November 30. That is acceptable to López Obrador, who takes office the next day," Lighthizer said Tuesday, adding if it doesn't happen by then, it would have to be renegotiated with with the new Mexican administration. "We don't know where that would go at all."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/trump-is-cracking-the-mexico-canada-united-front-on-nafta

Here's what Rod Rosenstein's dismissal could mean for Robert Mueller

Special counsel Robert Mueller could see significant changes to the way his Russia investigation operates if President Trump were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or if he were to resign, according to close observers of the Justice Department. The question suddenly became relevant this week after it became clear that Rosenstein offered to resign following a report said he was mulling a coup against Trump. The two men are expected to meet Thursday to clear the air about the reports that Rosenstein might be dismissed, but the possibility he might still be let go has some worried that the change could prove to be significant for Mueller's investigation.

Rosenstein oversees the Mueller investigation into whether President Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton. And while Mueller's work would continue without Rosenstein, some say it has the potential to be altered, depending on who takes over. The next person in line for that job is Solicitor General Noel Francisco, a Trump appointee confirmed last year in the Senate by a party vote. Francisco is a known conservative lawyer that worked in the George W. Bush administration, as well as in the private sector. Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, told the Washington Examiner that Francisco “is a not a fan of independent counsel type investigations," and could find ways to limit Mueller's work. "At the end of his efforts, Mueller could produce a report” to Francisco, said Cramer. “Legally, the [person overseeing Mueller] could do anything he wants with the report. There would be tremendous political pressure to make the report public to some level.” Francisco or anyone else overseeing Mueller would also continue to exert power of decisions such as indictments and search warrants, Cramer explained, so decisions to approve or not approve those actions could change.

Federal guidelines make it clear that whoever replaces Rosenstein could find ways to adjust the way Mueller works. Those guidelines say the special counsel "shall not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the department." But those same guidelines also say his replacement "may request that the Special Counsel provide an explanation for any investigative or prosecutorial step, and may after review conclude that the action is so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental practices that it should not be pursued.” The replacement can also rein in the investigation by disciplinary action for "misconduct and breach of ethical duties under the same standards and to the same extent as are other employees" of the Justice Department, according to the guidelines. If Francisco recuses himself from the Mueller investigation, Steve Engel, who heads the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, is the next in line. Engel served in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration and clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski, who stepped down from his post in December amid sexual misconduct allegations.

If it's Engel, he would have the same flexibility as Francisco to alter Mueller's work. One observer said the nature of Rosenstein's dismissal could affect how Mueller's investigation proceeds.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/heres-what-rod-rosensteins-dismissal-could-mean-for-robert-mueller

>>3188842

I agree RR will leave of his own accord.

>>3188855

I thought the same, but I also noticed the hand placement, I think he has it inside his jacket.