Grenell declassifies slew of Russia probe files, as Ratcliffe takes helm as DNI

Richard Grenell has declassified a new batch of Russia probe documents on his way out as acting director of national intelligence, leaving the decision on whether to make those files public up to newly sworn-in Director John Ratcliffe. The documents include transcripts of phone calls that then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had in December 2016, during the presidential transition period. Grenell said publicly last week that he was in the process of declassifying those files, after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asked that he do so.

Fox News has learned that the declassification review of those transcripts is now complete, and it will be left up to Ratcliffe on whether to release them publicly. Fox News has learned that Grenell also completed the declassification review of other documents related to the origins of the Russia probe — including one that a senior intelligence official told Fox News was “very significant in understanding how intelligence was manipulated to support launching the Russia investigation.” The official could not provide further details on that newly declassified document, but said that it will also be up to Ratcliffe to decide whether to make it public. The declassification comes after Grenell, who served as acting director while simultaneously serving as the U.S. ambassador to Germany, made waves with previous declassifications related to the Russia investigation, as well as other actions during his three months on the job.

Earlier this month, Grenell cleared for release more than 6,000 pages of transcripts of interviews from the House Intelligence Committee’s long-running Russia investigation. Schiff, under pressure from Grenell and House Republicans, ultimately released the transcripts which revealed, among other things, that top Obama officials acknowledged they knew of no “empirical evidence” of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. Then, Grenell declassified a list of Obama-era officials who requested to unmask the identity of Flynn in intelligence reports during the presidential transition period. The roster included top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough, among others. Flynn's calls with the former Russian ambassador during the transition were picked up in surveillance and information about them was later leaked. Flynn’s case returned to the national spotlight after the DOJ moved to dismiss charges against him of lying to the FBI about those conversations, despite a guilty plea that he later sought to withdraw.

Considering those calls raised widespread concerns about Flynn, Democrats like Schiff in turn pressed Grenell for the underlying documents. The transcripts Grenell has declassified, though, are for five phone calls Flynn had with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016. Flynn's specific call with Kislyak from Dec. 22, 2016, which was picked up in surveillance and later leaked to the press, is in the FBI's possession, a source told Fox News, noting that it was not in Grenell's jurisdiction to declassify. Meanwhile, last week Grenell moved to declassify an email that former National Security Adviser Susan Rice sent to herself on President Trump’s Inauguration Day, documenting a Jan. 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting with Obama and others, during which the former president provided guidance on how law enforcement needed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. The declassified email revealed that Comey suggested to Obama that the National Security Council might not want to pass “sensitive information related to Russia” to Flynn, due to the fact that he had been “speaking frequently” with the Russian ambassador.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/grenell-declassifies-slew-of-russia-files-as-ratcliffe-takes-helm-as-dni

Twitter Verification Purge Targets Mediaite Journalist Who Reported on Obama Spying

Twitter appears to have removed its blue “verified” checkmark from a number of users on the platform over the past few days, a purge that included Rudy Takala, a journalist for Mediaite who reported on former President Obama’s abuse of government surveillance powers. Takala reported that Twitter removed his “verified status” an hour after he tweeted out his column about the Obama spying allegations. “I tweeted this column about the Obama administration spying on journalists at 5:47 Thursday,” said Takala. “Around an hour later, my verification badge magically disappeared.”

The Mediaite column was a report on recent statements made by investigative journalist Sharyl Atkisson. Atkisson, formerly of CBS, alleges that her computer was spied upon by the Obama justice department in 2013 and 2014. She has been fighting a long-running legal battle with the Justice Department over the allegations, and recently moved to reopen the recently-dismissed case after a whistleblower provided new information, implicating Rod Rosenstein. It seems that other users on Twitter have also been deverified in recent days. Podcast host Josh Lekach reported that he lost his verified badge shortly after posting an interview with Republican congressional candidate Laura Loomer, who is running in the GOP primary for FL-21. Loomer has filed lawsuits against Twitter as well as other major tech companies over politically biased censorship. “I interviewed Laura Loomer yesterday, and today my Twitter verification badge is gone,” said Lekach.

Conservative app developer Doriano Carta, previously a writer for Mashable and GigaOm, reported that his verified badge had also disappeared. It is unclear how many others have been deverified, or why. Twitter has yet to release any public statements on the matter, and has yet to respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/05/25/twitter-verification-purge-targets-mediaite-journalist-who-reported-on-obama-spying/

>>9321094

This is aMemeall by itself, quite notable for social media

Michigan pol alleges Whitmer tried to cover up husband allegedly invoking her office for favor from marina

Michigan GOP state Sen. Tom Barrett claimed Tuesday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her staff "duped" him "into a cover-up" after the governor's office "adamantly denied" that Whitmer's husband had tried to use her position to convince a dock company to quickly get the family's boat on the water ahead of the Memorial Day weekend amid the coronavirus pandemic. Barrett, in an interview with Fox News, said that over the weekend he initially heard a story on Facebook about someone purportedly calling NorthShore Dock LLC, a company that reportedly stores the family's boat, and mentioning that he is married to Whitmer in an effort to get the boat on the water soon. (The governor's husband is Marc Mallory.) He says that Whitmer's office denied to him that the story was true and pressured him into taking down his own post on the matter, but that he later determined the story was accurate.

Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown in an earlier comment to Fox News did not deny that Mallory invoked his relationship with the governor in the alleged call, though did not confirm it, either. She said in a statement: “Our practice is not to discuss the governor’s or her family’s personal calendar/schedules. And we’re not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online. There’s been a lot of wild misinformation spreading online attacking the governor and her family, and the threats of violence against her personally are downright dangerous.” Whitmer's office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News on Barrett's allegation that it tricked Barrett into becoming a part of a "cover-up" of the story. Barrett said that he composed a Facebook post blowing the whistle on the situation on Friday after checking into the veracity of the story, which was first shared in a Facebook post by NorthShore Codk LLC's owner Tad Dowker. But late Friday night, Barrett says, a representative from the governor's office called him and the Michigan Senate Majority Leader's office to pressure him into taking down the post – saying that the story was incorrect.

"I had posted this thing and had about 500 shares already on Facebook in a few hours, and we got contacted the Senate Majority Leader's office, contacted my staff to say that the governor's office had in notified them that they were specifically requesting by name that my posts be taken down because they were insisting that wasn't true," Barrett told Fox News. "They insisted that it was a fabricated story." He continued: "I felt at that point that I had an obligation to reverify everything that I've been told… So I made the decision, out of an abundance of caution to take the post down while I worked on revalidating everything." Barrett checked the story that he had initially posted and said that it was actually correct. He didn't repost it but said that he told the governor's office that "I was extremely annoyed and frustrated and disappointed that they would lie to me like that. And that I would never ever in my life, give them the benefit of the doubt again." But by Saturday evening, the marina put out a public statement that basically backed the initial post from Dowker, Barrett said.

The Detroit News reported that the post read: "After a long day of keeping crews running, adhering to the additional safety regulations that need to be in place to operate our small business and fielding calls from customers frustrated with our lagging installation schedule I was told the governor's husband called asking for install availability… Up until this point we, as a company, had no idea we installed their dock or boat."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michigan-state-lawmaker-alleges-whitmer-tried-to-cover-up-familys-attempt-to-take-out-boat-despite-statewide-stay-at-home-order