#intelligence committee

Avoid The Truth at All Costs

This post is about the newly released transcripts by the House Intelligence Committee. In this post I want to focus on how Republican law makes worked to cover Trump’s tracks and how conservative media grossly misinforms the public. If you have any specific questions about what is contained in the transcripts, please send me an ask. 

I’ve linked the press release on the transcripts by Fox News above. It’s very brief and uninformative. Other than a quote by Adam Schiff, only one sentence mentions the actual contents of the transcripts. Whether Rep or Dem, very few people will gander at the transcripts themselves, and I don’t really blame anyone for that. That’s why we have journalists, right? But those who are convinced that Fox is a trustworthy source are pretty much being told “there’s nothing to see here.” People are acting on the presumption that if there was anything significant to report that Fox employees would have the integrity to tell them. Therefore, they will write off anything said by liberals. 

The technique that Fox News is using if very purposeful. There is no way you could read through these transcripts and not see anything of controversy that is worth reporting. So, instead of reporting the contents they simply refer to public comments already made that assures the public of no collusion. This is not small bias, this is very thoughtful avoidance of facts to push a desired belief. 

Republican Lawmakers Are Twice as Bad

The transcripts that were released are the text print outs of some 60 different interviews held by the House Intelligence Committee while investigating Russia. This also includes summary reports by the House Republicans and House Democrats. The information is not exactly new, because we received the findings from these interviews in the way of the Mueller Report(read my summary here). After doing some browsing for key highlights, I realized that all of these documents collectively show what was reported in the Mueller Report, but back it up with some extra detail. For anyone who read the Mueller Report, you’ll find a little more depth and detail in these transcripts. I still have a lot more exploring to do. 

However, it’s clear these documents only back up what was in the Mueller report. This is chiefly that the Russians made a cyber attack on our nation, and then approached the Trump campaign to offer a quid pro quo deal from their attack, and the Trump campaign welcomed, sought after, and took this help in all it’s forms. 

It was clear from public statements and actions of the House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee that they refused to acknowledge any wrong doing by Trump’s campaign and never supported in the purpose of the investigation. What the Minority Report shows it that House Republicans refused to fully investigate matters or seek answers to questions on virtually every issue. 

If you had read my summary of the Mueller Report in the past, I mentioned that the main reason the report did not definitively determine collusion to be proven was that the investigation was incomplete and had not discovered the answers to many details. 

Take the Trump Tower for example. This is something most people should have some recollection of. Don Jr. admits that the purpose of the meeting was to receive harmful information about Hillary Clinton. He also admits that the Russians lobbied for the removal of key sanctions. He admits that he would not have taken the meetings if he did not believe he was going to receive dirt on Hillary. The Majority Report downplays the significance of this meeting, and the Minority accuses the Majority of never trying to answer the larger questions, such as: What dirt did Russia have? Why are they so interested in Trump and his admin? What did Russia want out of this relationship? 

While investigating George Papadopoulos, House Republicans claimed that the emails connected to his attempts to link Trump and Russia were not verified, but they refused to take the next step in interviewing/investigating ancillary characters which Papadopoulos was in contact with. Basically, they discovered Papadopoulos made contact with a Russian agent about linking the Trump admin and the Kremlin, but they refused to explore the links and witnesses to find out how far his actions went or to confirm they even happened. 

Russians also made contact with the Trump admin through the NRA, this is related to the Butina scandal in the news. Unfortunately, the House Reps refused to dig deeper into the how, why, and who of Russia’s back channel through the NRA. 

To this date, for every major plot point we know about, there are many questions left unanswered and details unconfirmed. This is directly because the Intelligence Committee regularly ended it’s interest in matters at the surface level. That is a fact that’s bore out by the actions on record and public statements through out the investigation, which culminates in the Minority report as a refusal to act by the Reps.   

According to unnamed Russian intelligence sources quoted by Veterans Today, the downed plane was the mobile CIA command for Michael D’Andrea, head of The Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran Mission Center. And all of the equipment and documents were now allegedly in Taliban hands.

Don’t start partying too hard yet but if this indeed did happen and D’Andrea was on board? fucking lmao

Flash back to May 17, 2016: Republicans KNEW

US Intelligence Committees shared info with McCarthy and Ryan. Later, we would learn from the FBI, the DNC server(s) was hacked by Russians in Sept. 2015.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in June 2016 that he thought Vladimir Putin had paid then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The problem is that even sarcasm is almost always laced with truth. And when it came to Trump colluding with Russia, June 2016 was early even for sarcasm.

“I’ll guarantee you that’s what it is. … The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp [opposition] research that they had on Trump,” McCarthy said with a laugh.

Ryan asked who the Russians “delivered” the opposition research to.

“There’s … there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, drawing some laughter. “Swear to God,” McCarthy added.

Then Paul Ryan shut it down

“This is an off the record,” Ryan said.

Some lawmakers laughed at that.

“No leaks, all right?” Ryan said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Steve Scalise said.

“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan added.

Here’s why the comments from McCarthy, Ryan and other Republicans are relevant. One month later, on June 14, 2016, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC“

At the time, U.S. intelligence agencies knew that the Russians had hacked the DNC and other institutions, but Moscow had yet to start publicly releasing damaging emails through WikiLeaks to undermine Trump’s Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. An FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the presidential election would open the following month, in late July, [FBI Director James B.] Comey has said in testimony to Congress.

Members of US House Intelligence Committee

Republican Devin Nunes, Chairman, 22nd District of California

Republican Trey Gowdy, 4th District of South Carolina

Republican Mike Conaway, 11th District of Texas

Republican Peter King, 2nd District of New York

Republican Frank LoBiondo, 2nd District of New Jersey

Republican Tom Rooney, 17th District of Florida

Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, 27th District of Florida

Republican Michael Turner, 10th District of Ohio

Republican Brad Wenstrup, 2nd District of Ohio

Republican Chris Stewart, 2nd District of Utah

Republican Rick Crawford, 1st District of Arkansas

Republican Elise Stefanik, 21st District of New York

Republican Will Hurd, 23rd District of Texas

“I could go on with this litany, but suffice to say that we live in a complex, dangerous world. And the statements for the record that we’ve submitted, particularly the classified version, provide a comprehensive review of these and other daunting challenges.  “My second topic is what had consumed extraordinary time and energy for much of the past year in the Intelligence Community and the Congress and the White House, and, of course, in the public square. I’m speaking, of course, about the most massive and most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history by Edward Snowden and the ensuing avalanche of revelations published and broadcast around the world” (p. 5). 

James Clapper, speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee

BREAKING: The House Intelligence Committee just voted to release all witness transcripts from our Russia investigation to the Department of Justice and Special Counsel Mueller.

— Adam Schiff‏ @RepAdamSchiff - Feb 6, 2019

Inaction is Complicity! #RussiaCoverUp

Revelation after revelation from US, British and Danish intelligence agencies, the Carter Page FISA warrant and especially investigative journalists prove that the Republican and Trump conspiracy theories were and continue to be OUTRIGHT LIES. 

AND YET Republicans and supporters continue to Hail Trump even after the WORLD witnessed Trump’s treason at Helsinki + one-on-one meeting with Putin.

There will be more damning evidence from those co-operating with Mueller and those identified but not named in the latest DOJ indictments: Roger Stone, Paul Erickson and Aaron Nevins. What will Republicans DO then?

“There’s nothing you can do to stop a president, let alone this president, from saying what he thinks or what he wants to say,” said Representative Ryan Costello, Republican of Pennsylvania, who broke with party leaders to endorse proposed legislation protecting Mr. Mueller’s job.

“I think a lot of Republicans feel it’s not worth engaging because all you do is upset a lot of Republican voters.”,  Ryan Costello  #RussiaGate

“The road to the Helsinki disaster was paved by Republican inaction every time Trump overstepped,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. “Their silence, their acquiescence to things they know are wrong have given Trump the extra jolt he needed.” 

Devin Nunes “He’s focusing on keeping our country safe, focused on national security,”, Paul Ryan

“What’s been allowed to happen on the House Intelligence Committee is shameful, disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful,” said Mark Salter, a longtime adviser to Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

FISA Warrant for Trump’s former campaign adviser, Carter Page:

"The FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government," the October 2016 application to the court states.

"the FBI believes that the Russian government's efforts are being co-ordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with" Mr Trump's presidential campaign.

Page "has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers".

TRE45ON has invited Putin for another #TreasonSummit in the White House. Republicans Why?

Putin answering in his own words. Republicans?