Bruce Ohr's Testimony Contradicts Testimony Provided By Rosenstein And Simpson

Department of Justice senior official Bruce Ohr’s testimony contradicts testimony given by other senior government officials and key witnesses who testified before Congress regarding the FBI’s investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign and alleged collusion with the Russian government, according to the full transcripts released Friday.

Ohr’s 268-page testimony, released by Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, reveals inconsistency and contradiction in testimony given by Glenn Simpson, founder of embattled research firm Fusion GPS and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is set to leave his post sometime this month.

It also reveals that many questions are still left unanswered.

The Contradictions and The Revelations

1. Glenn Simpson suggests in his testimony to the Senate that he never spoke to anyone at the FBI about Christopher Steele, the former British spy he hired to investigate the Trump campaign during the election. However, Ohr suggests otherwise telling former Rep.Trey Gowdy under questioning “As I recall, and this is after checking with my notes, Mr. Simpson and I spoke in August of 2016. I met with him, and he provided some information on possible intermediaries between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.”

1. In another instance, Simpson’s testimony also contradicts notes taken by Ohr after a meeting they had in December, 2016. Unverified allegations were decimated among the media that the Trump campaign had a computer server that was linked to a Russian bank in Moscow: Alpha Bank. Simpson suggested to the Senate that he knew very little about the Trump -Alpha Bank server story and couldn’t provide information. But Bruce Ohr’s own handwritten notes state that when he met with Simpson in December 2016, Simpson was concerned over the Alpha Bank story in the New York Times. “The New York Times story on Oct. 31 downplaying the connection between Alfa servers and the Trump campaign was incorrect. There was communication and it wasn’t spam,” stated Ohr’s notes. This suggests that Simpson was well aware of the story, which was believed by congressional investigators to have started from his research firm.

1. Ohr testified to lawmakers that Simpson provided information to federal officials that was false regarding Cleta Mitchell, a well-known Republican campaign finance lawyer, and information regarding the National Rifle Association. Sean Davis, with the Federalist pointed this out in a tweet today. Read one of those stories here.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-09/bruce-ohrs-testimony-contradicts-testimony-provided-rosenstein-and-simpson

Social Media Giants Tank in Reputation, Poll Shows

Companies dominating the social media realm have lost esteem among Americans, dropping dramatically in the reputation rankings of the 100 most visible companies, according to the lastest annual release by the Harris/Axios pollster (pdf).

Google used to be no. 3 on the list back in 2016, but sunk to no. 41 in the 2019 ranking. Facebook, never quite a darling of the public, debuted as no. 31 in 2011 and was still no. 51 in 2018. It then plummeted to no. 94 in 2019, as indicated in a summary report (pdf).

For the first time, Twitter made it on the list, but ended up no. 89.

The list was put together using two surveys. The first, in November, asked over 6,100 people to name two companies with the best and the worst reputations. In the second survey, in January, over 18,200 are asked to rate two companies with which they are “very” or “somewhat” familiar on nine attributes, including trustworthiness, vision, growth prospect, shared values, ethics, innovation, and product quality.

“If a company is not on our list, it does not suggest that they have either good or bad reputation, but rather they didn’t reach a critical level of visibility to be measured,” the pollster stated in the recently released report.

Facebook Craters

Facebook was the biggest loser of the list, tarred by data privacy scandals, including multiple allegations of improperly sharing user data with other companies.

Only 15 percent of Americans agreed that Facebook securely protects its customers’ personal information and data. For Google, 37 percent agreed.

Bias and Privacy

Google, Facebook, and Twitter had their executives grilled in congressional hearings in 2018, getting heat from both sides of the aisle.

Democrats have largely focused on the companies’ troubles in purging from their platforms foreign actors meddling in U.S. elections, and stopping user data from getting hacked or improperly shared.

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have accused the companies of political bias as a lineup of influential right-leaning users have been booted from the platforms. The companies have also been expanding their censorship of politically incorrect content, prominently “hate speech”—a category even the companies themselves acknowledge isn’t clearly defined and, some experts warned, may not be definable at all.

Light and Shade on Amazon

Amazon was dethroned as the most reputed company by Wegmans, an East Coast supermarket chain. It was only the second time Amazon was pushed to second place since 2013. Americans gave the company good grades for growth, vision, services, and innovation, but poorer for shared values and ethics, including employee treatment.

“America still loves its smiling boxes, but are beginning to grow uneasy with Amazon’s reach and power,” the pollster said.

Also, the survey was conducted before Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos had his marriage apparently fall apart over an affair.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/social-media-giants-tank-in-reputation-poll-shows_2831388.html