Dems Tied to Obama’s Pro-Iran ‘Echo Chamber’ Spread Terror Regime’s Anti-Trump Talking Points

Seeking to drive wedge between Trump and his national security team, team Obama in lock step with Iran

A cadre of former top Obama administration figures and their allies in Congress have been working to amplify anti-Trump talking points issued by a senior Iranian regime official in what sources have described as an effort by Obama's pro-Iran echo chamber to drive a wedge between President Donald Trump and his national security team. As tensions mount between the United States and Iran, leading Democrats have become embroiled in controversy for widely repeating anti-Trump talking points first issued by Iran's hardline regime. Additionally, former top officials from the Obama administration have taken to social media and other outlets to push a narrative that Trump is at odds with his hawkish National Security Adviser John Bolton over how far to go in punishing Tehran for its global support of terrorism and continued efforts to secure contested nuclear technology.

The effort to push this narrative to the media has gained steam following a war of words between Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is said to have been in contact with top Democrats in Congress and their allies in the Obama administration, sources said. Just days after Zarif labeled Bolton and other top Trump national security officials as the "B Team," former top Obama aides Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl repeated this rhetoric online in a series of postings bashing Trump. Rhodes and Kahl are most well known as the creators of a pro-Iran "echo chamber" that was used to mislead Congress and the American public about the terms of the landmark nuclear deal, which Trump abandoned last year. It has become increasingly clear in recent days that these former officials and their Democratic allies in Congress are seeking to build support for the United States to reenter the Iran nuclear deal should a Democrat defeat Trump in the next election, as the Washington Free Beacon has reported in past weeks.

The direct line between Tehran and top Democrats spilled further into public view last week when photographs from the cellphone of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D., Calif.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, showed that she had been in contact with Zarif, a primary architect of the nuclear accord. Photographs of Feinstein's phone showed a contact page with Zarif's information, prompting her office to rebuff requests for explanation. "I can't comment on who the senator does or doesn't speak with," Feinstein's communication's director told Politico. Multiple officials involved in the Iran debate expressed shock that leading Democrats continue to boost Iran's anti-Trump threats. They view the network of former officials and their allies as doing all they can to subvert Trump, even if it means siding with the Iranian regime in the standoff between the two countries.

"Obama's echo chamber and their pro-Iran deal allies in Congress are putting partisan politics over country, and have the chutzpah to literally repeat the Iranian regime's talking points," said one senior GOP congressional official, who would speak only on background to discuss the growing divide. "The truth is that, under Obama's disgraceful and dangerous nuclear deal, Iran got access to over $100 billion in immediate sanctions and a green light to ramp up its support for terrorism and militancy in the Middle East," the source said. "Iran, under Obama's watch, joined forces with Russia to prop up the Assad regime [in Syria], which repeatedly used chemical weapons and barrel bombs on civilians and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians." "While Team Obama stood idly by as Iran-backed aggression ravaged the Middle East, President Trump is maximizing coercive economic pressure on the Iranian regime and deterring and punishing Iranian-backed aggression against American interests," the official said.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/dems-tied-to-obamas-pro-iran-echo-chamber-amplify-top-iranian-officials-talking-points/

https://twitter.com/heshmatalavi/status/1129126050317967360?s=21

https://twitter.com/brhodes/status/1129204638085918720

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/05/16/what-dianne-feinsteins-phone-told-us-437020

Hillary’s Resistance Group Has Pocketed Millions From The DCCC

Clinton's dark money nonprofit raked in $3 million for its email lists

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which works to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives, disbursed millions of its funds to Hillary Clinton's "resistance" group since late December 2017, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The DCCC made the millions in payments to Onward Together, a nonprofit founded by Clinton following her loss to President Donald Trump, for its email lists. The payments from the DCCC to Onward Together began in December 2017. Since that time, the committee reported 25 transactions to Clinton's group totaling slightly more than $3 million, the filings show. The most recent payments from the DCCC to the committee were made in February. In addition to the DCCC, the Democratic National Committee pushed $1.65 million to Clinton's group throughout 2018. The payments from the DNC, which were marked primarily as list acquisitions with one payment going towards direct mail, stopped in late October of last year.

Clinton launched Onward Together to allow her to be a "part of the resistance" against Trump and Republicans following the 2016 elections. The group was incorporated in April 2017 by Marc Elias, a partner at the Washington, D.C., office of the Perkins Coie law firm, who is involved with a number of Democratic politicians and party efforts. Elias acted as Clinton's top lawyer during her failed 2016 run and is now aiding Sen. Kamala Harris's (D., Calif.) presidential campaign. Onward Together was established to push money to other resistance groups and to assist them with strategic leadership, guidance, and exposure. The group is registered as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, or a "social welfare" organization, and does not disclose its donors.

Despite Clinton's name recognition, Onward Together collected just $3.2 million in contributions from the time of its incorporation, April 24, 2017, to March 31, 2018. While Clinton does not disclose the donors to her group, the Washington Free Beacon previously found that she had transferred $800,000 from Hillary for America, her presidential campaign committee, to the group within a week of its launch. Kelly Mehlenbacher, the treasurer for Clinton's campaign committee, is also the chief operating officer of Onward Together.

Onward Together works with 13 other resistance organizations and dished out $1.8 million to groups during its inaugural year. Onward Together currently partners with the likes of Demand Justice, a group led by Clinton's former press secretary Brian Fallon, Color of Change, co-founded by CNN contributor and activist Van Jones, and Latino Victory, co-founded by actress Eva Longoria and San Antonio-based businessman Henry R. Muñoz III, who has chaired the DNC's finance committee since 2013. The DCCC did not respond to requests for comment on the payments to Clinton's resistance group from the committee

https://freebeacon.com/politics/hillarys-resistance-group-has-pocketed-millions-from-the-dccc/

https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?two_year_transaction_period=2018&data_type=processed&committee_id=C00000935&recipient_name=onward+together&min_date=01%2F01%2F2017&max_date=12%2F31%2F2018

https://www.onwardtogether.org/organizations/

Democracy Alliance Members Fund ‘American Oversight’ Investigations of Trump

Group running FOIA op on Trump admin claims to be nonpartisan

Two members of the Democracy Alliance contributed seed money in 2017 to a new organization created to file hundreds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in hopes of unearthing scandal on the Trump administration. Recent IRS disclosures show $280,000 in combined donations from Democracy Alliance members Patricia (Pat) Stryker and Scott Wallace to the nonprofit American Oversight, which bills itself as the "top Freedom of Information Act litigator investigating the Trump administration."

IRS 990 forms show that money is just shy of ten percent of the $3.44 million assembled for the first-year launch of American Oversight, which currently claims to have lodged more than 100 FOIA lawsuits in its quest for documents on the current administration. American Oversight has portrayed itself as nonpartisan since its inception despite relying on funding from prominent members of the progressive Democracy Alliance, members of which agree to donate heavily to liberal causes, and the focus of its mission. "Corruption starts at the top," the group's website states on its "About" page. "From President Trump's failure to divest from his business empire to cabinet secretaries using their taxpayer-funded positions for their personal benefit, the Trump administration has been plagued by scandal, misconduct, and conflicts of interest."

Last year, American Oversight was in the news for its aggressive efforts to uncover documents from Brett Kavanaugh's work in the 1990s on the investigation of President Clinton, documents liberals hoped might derail his confirmation to the nation's highest court. American Oversight's efforts parallel another D.C.-based organization attacking the Trump administration, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW wasted no time in inundating the new presidential administration with ethics complaints. Memos obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon at a January 2017 meeting of elite progressive donors show that future success for CREW would mean Trump would "be afflicted by a steady flow of damaging information, new revelations, and an inability to avoid conflicts issues."

None of the documents obtained by the Free Beacon at that time mentioned American Oversight specifically, but the group was founded less than three months later. Furthermore, an analysis by the website Influence Watch, a project of the conservative leaning Capital Research Center, determined that at "the end of 2018, at least 11 of American Oversight's 17 staffers and three of its four board members have known career histories with major left-wing organizations, Democratic Party campaigns, or Democratic officials." The current senior adviser at American Oversight previously worked at CREW. "American Oversight publishes all of our records requests, lawsuits, and the documents we obtain on our website so the public can easily see our work and our priorities," the group's communications director, Clark Pettig, said in an email. "We are an independent nonprofit and we make financial disclosures consistent with the law."

https://freebeacon.com/politics/democracy-alliance-members-fund-american-oversight-investigations-of-trump/

>>6562676

I remember her doing that, but I can't remember how much she gave.

Trump lawyers, House Democrats ask federal court of appeals to expedite proceedings in subpoena suit

President Trump, his accounting firm, and House Democrats jointly requested an expedited hearing from the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in a filing submitted late Wednesday. The move speeds up a case that could reach the Supreme Court and have broad implications over congressional investigations into the president’s finances and businesses and whether he may have violated laws or a clause in the Constitution. The lawsuit could also have broader implications over setting precedent for Congress’ investigatory power.

Under terms agreed upon by the three parties, Trump’s legal team would submit a brief by June 12, while House Democrats and the accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, would be expected to submit their own briefs by July 3, and a final reply brief from Trump’s team submitted by July 12. The three parties request that the court hold oral arguments as soon as possible. If the court denies the motion to expedite, then Trump’s legal team plans to file an emergency motion to stay a lower court’s decision on Monday to allow the subpoena to move forward.

The accounting firm said if the motion to expedite is not granted by the court, it would not provide documents until the court decides on the Trump legal team’s emergency motion. Democrats agreed to suspend the deadline set by the subpoena while the appeal is argued in court. Mazars agreed to continue preparing material for a response to the subpoena in case Trump’s legal team loses its appeal of Monday’s lower court decision to uphold the congressional subpoena.

The case began when Trump sued the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and his accounting firm to prevent a subpoena of his financial records with that firm. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., subpoenaed the firm after Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified earlier this year that Trump misrepresented his finances in business dealings and possibly with the IRS.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/trump-lawyers-house-democrats-ask-federal-court-of-appeals-to-expedite-proceedings-in-subpoena-suit

Democrats carp about suspicious curtains, chair placement after Trump infrastructure blowout

Democratic leaders fixated on the decor of the room after President Trump abruptly shut down an infrastructure meeting at the White House on Wednesday. Two lawmakers — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. — noted how the Cabinet Room was set up in an uninviting fashion when they arrived.

"It's clear that this was not a spontaneous move on the president's part. It was planned," Schumer told reporters. "When we got in the room, the curtains were closed. The president — there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldn't do infrastructure. And of course then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting." In an interview with MSNBC, Hoyer also mentioned the curtains, as well as the lack of a certain chair. "When we walked into the Cabinet Room, it was different," Hoyer said. "And what was different was the curtains were drawn on the windows looking out on the Rose Garden. So — which I said, 'That's kind of funny. I wonder if somebody was taking pictures or something and made a mistake and didn't put the curtains back in place.' So we could not see outside of the room." While they waited for the president, whom Hoyer said was 10 minutes late, he also noticed there was no chair where he usually sits. "So there is no doubt in my mind this was a show with no go on infrastructure," he added.

After a brief three-minute encounter, Trump left the room and addressed reporters in the Rose Garden. He said he was particularly upset about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggesting he engaged in a "cover-up." "Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to look at people that have just said that I was doing a cover-up. I don't do cover-ups," Trump said. Trump said Democrats would have to drop investigations before he could work with them. Pelosi told reporters after the scrapped meeting that Trump "wasn't really respectful of the reason — of the Congress and the White House working together." "He just took a pass," she added. "And it just makes me wonder why he did that."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democrats-carp-about-suspicious-curtains-chair-placement-after-trump-infrastructure-blowout

Roger Stone contacts John Durham about FBI surveillance

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone sent a letter to U.S. Attorney John Durham this week seeking answers about whether he was a subject of surveillance by the U.S. government. "We have strong reason to believe that Mr. Stone was among three advisors to candidate Trump who was under surveillance by the FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign," Stone's lawyer Paul Jensen wrote in the letter obtained by The Hill. Jensen also said Stone's Fourth Amendment rights may have been violated.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/roger-stone-contacts-john-durham-about-fbi-surveillance

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html

Durham has been tasked by Attorney General William Barr with reviewing the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into President Trump's campaign. Jensen cited a January 2017 New York Times article titled "Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates," which names Stone as one of at least three Trump campaign associates under scrutiny by American law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The other two were Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Jensen also sent letters, dated May 20, to House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The correspondence said Stone has reached out to the White House counsel to urge Trump to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation. If these records from the Justice Department and FBI are not released, Jensen said he would resort to suing the federal government.

According to Rep. Mark Meadows, a close ally of Trump, the declassification of Russia investigation documents are "right around the corner." In what appeared to be a nod of approval, Trump retweeted a Washington Examiner article of Meadows' comment on Wednesday.

Stone was arrested at his Florida home on Jan. 25 in a pre-dawn raid by the FBI. He was later charged by special counsel Robert Mueller with lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing justice. Stone was released on a $250,000 bond and has pleaded not guilty. He is set to go on trial starting Nov. 5.

>>6563103

Apparently some of these foreign countries don't mind listening to his false promises. I don't think it will be long now before he claims that citizenship.

>>6563128

Indeed, he is, Like a Stone this will go down hard and fast.