FBI’s Full Statement On Bureau’s After Action Review Of Flynn Case

“FBI Director Christopher Wray today ordered the Bureau’s Inspection Division to conduct an after-action review of the Michael Flynn investigation. The after-action review will have a two-fold purpose: (1) evaluate the relevant facts related to the FBI’s role in the Flynn investigation and determine whether any current employees engaged in misconduct, and (2) evaluate any FBI policies, procedures, or controls implicated by the Flynn investigation and identify any improvements that might be warranted.

The after-action review will complement the already substantial assistance the FBI has been providing to U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen in connection with his work on the Flynn case. Under Director Wray’s leadership, the FBI has been fully transparent and cooperative with Mr. Jensen, and the FBI’s help has included providing special agents to assist Mr. Jensen in the fact-finding process. Although the FBI does not have the prosecutorial authority to bring a criminal case, the Inspection Division can and will evaluate whether any current on-board employees engaged in actions that might warrant disciplinary measures. As for former employees, the FBI does not have the ability to take any disciplinary action.

Director Wray authorized this additional level of review now that the Department of Justice, through Mr. Jensen’s work, has developed sufficient information to determine how to proceed in the Flynn case. However, Mr. Jensen’s work will continue to take priority, and the Director has further ordered the Inspection Division to coordinate closely with Mr. Jensen and ensure that the review does not interfere with or impede his efforts. Relatedly, for purposes of ensuring investigative continuity across these related matters, the Inspection Division will also utilize to the extent practicable the special agents that the FBI previously assigned to assist Mr. Jensen.

Whether disrupting terrorist threats, protecting children from exploitation, or rooting out fraud and corruption, the FBI continues to uphold the three core tenets that have defined it for over 111 years as the nation’s premier law enforcement and domestic national security agency: fidelity, bravery, and integrity. The 37,000 men and women of the FBI remain laser-focused on to their mission to protect the American people and defend the Constitution.”

https://saraacarter.com/fbis-full-statement-on-bureaus-after-action-review-of-flynn-case/

The Hill's interview with Anthony Fauci

I want to start with progress on developing a vaccine. You've said that, starting in January, we were 12-18 months away from a vaccine, but now we hear some people saying there may be a vaccine by the end of the year. Is that realistic?

In January, when we first began the development of one of the candidates, one of the several candidates, I had said that we would hope by carefully but nonetheless quickly going through the various steps without compromising safety or scientific integrity, I felt that within a year to a year and a half, we very well might have a vaccine that is available for deployment. I said that in January, and a year from January is December.

I think with the way things are progressing now and the fact that we're going to be proceeding from one step to the other with risk for investment but not risk for the patients, in other words in the standard way you develop a vaccine, you do not make major investments in the next step until you are fairly sure that the prior step works and you are satisfied with it. If you jump ahead and at least prepare and make investments, for example preparing sites for trial and even beginning to produce vaccine before you even know it's safe and effective, that you're taking a risk, and the risk is a financial risk, it's not a safety risk. If you do that, you can cut down by several months the process of getting vaccines available as opposed to waiting until you're fairly sure everything works and then beginning for example manufacturing the doses. When you start manufacturing them ahead of time, then the risk is financial, because if it works, you've saved a lot of time. If it doesn't, then you've invested money you're not going to recoup. I think when you put those things together, again with good attention to safety and scientific integrity, it is conceivable that if things work out right, you could have a vaccine that could be ready to be deployed by the end of the year, the beginning of 2021.

That is assuming that the vaccine works. We're talking time tables that any time you develop a vaccine, you always remember, you always have a question that you may not get an effective vaccine. Even if you do everything right and you do everything on time, there's no guarantee you're going to have an effective vaccine. So when we talk about having a vaccine that might be available in December or January, that's assuming that the vaccine is actually effective.

What does it mean to "have" a vaccine? How many doses need to be developed, distributed or administered before we can legitimately say it's available? World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that the virus won't be defeated until everyone in the world has access to a vaccine.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/499271-read-the-hills-interview-with-anthony-fauci

NATO calling on Russia to return to full compliance with Open Skies Treaty

Earlier Friday, a diplomatic source told TASS that the US is seeking support of every NATO ally for unilateral decision to quit the treaty and wants to shift all the responsibility for the step on Russia

BRUSSELS, May 22. /TASS/. NATO believes that Russia should roll back its "flight limitations over Kaliningrad, and restricting flights in Russia near its border with Georgia" and "return to full compliance of the [Open Skies] Treaty" which would allow preserving this agreement after Washington unilaterally pulls out of it, reads statement of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg issued Friday following the alliance’s urgent summit. However, NATO countries did not unanimously approved US plans to exit the treaty.

Russians to blame

"Russia has for many years imposed flight restrictions inconsistent with the Treaty, including flight limitations over Kaliningrad, and restricting flights in Russia near its border with Georgia. Russia’s ongoing selective implementation of its obligations under the Open Skies Treaty has undermined the contribution of this important Treaty to security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region," the statement reads. "The United States has declared Russia in violation of the Treaty, and has now announced its intention to withdraw from the Treaty in six months, consistent with Treaty provisions. The US has declared that it may, however, reconsider its withdrawal should Russia return to full compliance with the Treaty."

"NATO Allies and partner nations have engaged with Russia, both in capitals and at the OSCE in Vienna, to seek Russia’s return to compliance at the earliest date possible. Russia’s return to compliance is the best way to preserve the benefits of the Treaty," the statement adds.

Stoltenberg also emphasized that NATO allies raised this issue at the alliance summits in Wales in 2014, Warsaw in 2016 and Brussels in 2018.

What will NATO comply with?

The statement also noted that NATO countries "will continue to uphold, support, and further strengthen arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation, as a key element of Euro-Atlantic security." How this idea correlates with the US withdrawal from the treaty is not specified in the statement.

At the same time, the document stressed that NATO allies "remain open to dialogue in the NATO-Russia Council on risk reduction and transparency" and "continue to aspire to a constructive relationship with Russia, when Russia’s actions make that possible."

https://tass.com/world/1159497

Coronavirus and the Constitution

Two months have passed since the lockdown began, and statistics indicate that the coronavirus death toll hasn’t risen as high as we might have supposed. Yet already we hear rhetoric of a “post-COVID world,” hauntingly reminiscent of the “post-9/11 world.” However, unlike the tangible event of 9/11, COVID is a threat of an entirely different nature, an “invisible enemy.”

The enemy isn’t “out there” to defeat in the old-fashioned way, with bombs and machine guns. But all the same, its pervasiveness renders us into a constant state of paranoia. Even our loved ones become potential threats; we all pose a risk to those around us, therefore perpetrating the omnipresent danger.

To use the post-9/11 term, we are all terrorists. That’s why we must stay under house arrest until a treatment is produced to save us from ourselves. The alphabet agencies even gave us a script: we’re supposed to play the part of Sleeping Beauty as we await Prince Charming’s cure for our mysterious ailment.

But the problem with fairytales is they fall apart under scrutiny; we struggle to believe in the knight in shining armor because experience has taught us again and again that he doesn’t exist.

So it is with tales spun by government officials. The real Sleeping Beauty still needs to pay the bills, and a check of $1200 simply won’t do. She doesn’t have time to wait around for Bill Gates to unveil the miracle vaccine.

And by the time he does, who will still believe the fairytale? As fatalities continue not to skyrocket and hospitals are underwhelmed, life goes on….Everyday events begin to overshadow media induced hysteria. The spell breaks; the masquerade ends.

Yet the question remains: will the sociopolitical climate restabilize after the invisible enemy’s defeat? We’ve entered a Brave New Normal, we are repeatedly told. Life so eerily resembles the flick Contagion that we might be tempted to fast-forward and spoil the ending.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/05/coronavirus-and-the-constitution.html

‘Do Not Trust Him, He Let Our Country Down’ – President Trump Hammers Jeff Sessions, Praises Tommy Tuberville

President Trump tore into former Attorney General Jeff Sessions Friday evening.

Sessions is running for his old Alabama Senate seat against Tommy Tuberville.

The President took a shot at turncoat Sessions and told the people of Alabama not to trust the former AG.

TRUMP: 3 years ago, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, the Fraudulent Mueller Scam began. Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions. He let our Country down. That’s why I endorsed Coach Tommy Tuberville, the true supporter of our MAGA agenda!

After recusing himself like a coward and allowing Rosenstein and Mueller to hijack the Justice Department for two years – which ended in a bloodbath of Trump associates, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had the nerve to run for his old Alabama senate seat and say he has Trump’s back and supports his agenda.

Sessions cited the wrong law when he recused himself from the Russia investigation and all things Hillary Clinton the first day on the job.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein became the de facto Attorney General and quickly appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller and gave him permission to rove around unchecked in a massive, $35 million witch hunt.

Mueller, Rosenstein, Weissmann and over a dozen angry, crooked Democrat donors on the special counsel’s team ruined many lives and reputations over the past two years with perjury traps and damaging leaks to the media.

General Mike Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Carter Page were targeted for ruin — Manafort ended up in solitary confinement and sentenced to over 10 years in prison.

Flynn is STILL battling a crooked judge even though the DOJ dropped the case against him after it was revealed the FBI framed Flynn!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/not-trust-let-country-president-trump-hammers-jeff-sessions-praises-tommy-tuberville/