Nunes Memo Reports Crimes at Top of FBI and DOJ

Exclusive: The newly released “Nunes Memo” reveals felony wrongdoing by top members of the FBI and DOJ for misrepresenting evidence to obtain a FISA warrant and may implicate other intelligence officials, writes Ray McGovern.

By Ray McGovern

The long-awaited House Intelligence Committee report made public today identifies current and former top officials of the FBI and the Department of Justice as guilty of the felony of misrepresenting evidence required to obtain a court warrant before surveilling American citizens. The target was candidate Donald Trump’s adviser Carter Page.

Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The main points of what is widely known as the “Nunes Memo,” after the House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have been nicely summarized by blogger Publius Tacitus, who noted that the following very senior officials are now liable for contempt-of-court charges; namely, the current and former members of the FBI and the Department of Justice who signed off on fraudulent applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court: James Comey, Andy McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente and Rob Rosenstein. The following is Publius Tacitus’s summary of the main points:

  • The dubious but celebrated Steele Dossier played a critical role in obtaining approval from the FISA court to carry out surveillance of Carter Page according to former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe.
  • Christopher Steele was getting paid by the DNC and the FBI for the same information.
  • No one at the FBI or the DOJ disclosed to the court that the Steele dossier was paid for by an opposition political campaign.
  • The first FISA warrant was obtained on October 21, 2016 based on a story written by Michael Isikoff for Yahoo News based on information he received directly from Christopher Steele — the FBI did not disclose in the FISA application that Steele was the original source of the information.
  • Christopher Steele was a long-standing FBI “source” but was terminated as a source after telling Mother Jones reporter David Corn that he had a relationship with the FBI.
  • The FBI signers of the FISA applications/renewals were James Comey (three times) and Andrew McCabe.
  • The DOJ signers of the FISA applications/renewals were Sally Yates, Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein.
  • Even after Steele was terminated by the FBI, he remained in contact with Deputy Attorney General Bruce Our, whose wife worked for FUSION GPS, a contractor that was deeply involved with the Steele dossier.

From what Michael Isikoff reported in September 2016 it appears that the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence (as well as the FBI) are implicated in spreading the disinformation about Trump and Russia. Isikoff wrote:

“U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials — including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue. […]

“But U.S. officials have since received intelligence reports that during that same three-day trip, Page met with Igor Sechin, a longtime Putin associate and former Russian deputy prime minister who is now the executive chairman of Rosneft, Russian’s leading oil company, a well-placed Western intelligence source tells Yahoo News.”

Who were the “intelligence officials” briefing the select members of the House and Senate? That will be one of the next shoes to drop. We are likely to learn in the coming days that John Brennan and Jim Clapper were also trying to help the FBI build a fallacious case against Trump, adds Tacitus.

Indeed, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has already indicated that his disclosures in the Nunes Memo represent just “one piece of a probably much larger mosaic of what went on.”

The Media Will Determine What Comes Next

As for Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, it is now abundantly clear why he went to ridiculous lengths, as did the entire Democratic congressional leadership, to block or impugn the House Intelligence Committee report.

Until the mid-December revelations of the text messages between FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page turned Russia-gate into FBI/DOJ-gate, Schiff had been riding high, often hiding behind what he said “he could not tell” the rest of us.

With the media, including what used to be the progressive media, fully supporting the likes of Adam Schiff, and the FBI/CIA/NSA deep state likely to pull out all the stops, the die is now cast. We are in for a highly interesting time over the next months.

Ray McGovern works with the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in inner-city Washington. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

224 comments for “Nunes Memo Reports Crimes at Top of FBI and DOJ

  1. John P
    February 7, 2018 at 21:38

    I suggest reading this article before coming to any judgement

    http://fpif.org/russiaburger-trump-russia-scandal-explained/

    Exerpts:
    “Nunes claims, for instance, that the FBI pursued surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor, Carter Page, based on faulty, politicized intelligence. Nunes argues further that this intelligence — the dossier of opposition research collected by former British spook Christopher Steele — was compromised because of its connections to the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
    —————–
    The source of the information that really prompted the FBI to open up an investigation in July 2016 came from an altogether different source.

    It came from the Australians.

    Back in May 2016, Australia’s top diplomat in the UK, former foreign minister Alexander Downer, had a late-night convo with a Trump campaign advisor about a cache of opposition research on Hillary Clinton. He relayed the info back to his colleagues, who then passed it on to the FBI.

    The Trump advisor in question was “coffee boy” George Papadopoulos, actually a foreign policy advisor with enough influence to edit Trump’s first foreign policy speech in April 2016. Papadopoulos picked up the scent of the thousands of emails that apparently contained dirt on Hillary Clinton and that, thanks to some remarkably successful hacks, were in the possession of the Russian government.”
    ———————-
    Read all about it, how Australia passed on info about the DNC hacks through Papadopoulos. Dutch intelligence picked up the Russian hacking and even got the perpetrators photos of their own security camera.

  2. rgl
    February 7, 2018 at 12:42

    The system is utterly corrupt. Remember Clapper lying to Congress? And still kept his job? There is enough dirt on the Clintons to put them in a concrete hotel for years. Yet nothing. The unwashed can bitch, drip and moan all they wish. Nothing will change until Americans get a taste of what they have been dishing out to the world, pretty much since it’s genocidal inception.

    I expect dump-trucks filled to the brim with sound and fury.

    Signifying nothing.

  3. February 7, 2018 at 03:01

    What reason did Peter Strzok give (has anyone questioned him?) for changing the wording of the Mueller report, making it appear that Hillary was merely “extremely careless” instead of “grossly negligent” in her handling of classified information? “Careless” got her a light rap on the knuckles from Mueller. “Negligent” would have gotten her serious time in a federal prison. Why did Mueller allow the change of wording? Exactly who is Strzok? What is his connection with the Clintons or the DNC? Why have the media kept so very quiet about him?

  4. February 6, 2018 at 01:41

    I seem to remember Julian Assange intimating he would release some definitive information regarding the murder of Seth Rich. This would certainly be true if Mr. Rich had been the source of the infamous leaks? The fact that Assange has allowed the rumors and speculation to fester and proliferate during all this time (considering that he does indeed know who, or what, the source was) says volumes about his integrity and his true relationship to “the truth, wherever it may lead me…”

  5. Greg Bartik
    February 6, 2018 at 00:29

    Republicans started funding the dossier. McCain was involved in a hand off. Howdy saying investigation and Meuller he supports. Senate Republicans don’t back Nunez. Nunez was a tool last year for the White House. Schiff and the Dems are filth, of course. I don’t know enough to reach your conclusions. These Republicans and Trump are an Emergency Danger to the republic and the human race, even worse then the slime Democrats. Whole deep state corrupt? Absolutely. Take the all down I’m for, not practical or timley this instant as fascism marches in.

  6. Michael Rohde
    February 5, 2018 at 20:12

    Is it coincidence this runs counter to the NYT Washington Post stories?

  7. TRUONG NGUYEN
    February 5, 2018 at 14:14

    crimes at the top FBI and DOJ need to be hold accountable. They need to pay for their wrong doing acts.

  8. Jamie
    February 4, 2018 at 13:32

    The media will not determine what is next. That is foolish. They will simply push and push whatever their handlers tell them to.

  9. February 4, 2018 at 13:24

    Robert Parry has inadvertently set a trap for the Trump Propagandists who inundate the comments sections at every venue on The Net. Robert rightfully opines that all of this betrayal, Iran-Contra for example but there are so many betrayals, should be properly investigated and the perpetrators should be held to proper account and yet that is NEVER done.

    I agree that Bill & Hillary Clinton should be in jail. Remember Trump’s taunting refrain, “Lock Her Up!!”? I do. And then what happened when he became POTUS? He preemptively pardoned her & Bill and said let’s move on just as Obama implored us all to do when he took office.

    Of course, neither Trump nor Obama move on when it comes to blaming their current failures on their predecessors. Then they look back, but when it comes to holding their predecessors to account and investigating them and jailing them, well, we have to look forward, not back. Funny, that — except it isn’t.

    I agree with Robert Parry — we need to hold ALL OF THESE CRIMINALS TO ACCOUNT and that includes Trump & Bill & Hillary & Barack & George & Dick & Rummy and a substantial passel of their enablers.

    Political Tribalism prevents this and that’s why The Deep State plays this card so often. It is its Ace in the Hole, and it is surely in a hole now but maybe it was bored and it feels it needs a challenge. Let’s dig a hole, hop in and see if we can extricate ourselves from it with our prodigious skills. If those prodigious skills don’t include the power to levitate, I don’t see how it can extricate itself from the hole it’s dug. This time.

  10. February 4, 2018 at 13:14

    This is big: A year’s worth of daily entries. 468 pages Hand-written Hillary daily diary entries. AMAZING STUFF http://www.mrsclintonsdiary.com
    #Politics #Hillary #Russia #Clinton #Leak #Wiki #Podesta #Democrats #Assange #Haiti #FBI #Trump

  11. February 4, 2018 at 12:48

    What’s incredibly gratifying is seeing the GOP and the Conservative Base in America attack, and maybe even destroy, the very Institutions who have protected their Fecalized Ideology since forever.

    They’re cutting their nose off to spite their face.

    I’ve never seen such a bizarre display of nihilism.

    Who will fill the power vacuum when it all comes tumbling down?

    The Left in Iran was used by The Mullahs to seize power. The Left used them as muscle and when the former power structure was deposed, that muscle filled the power vacuum and consequently turned on their Leftist allies against The Shah and persecuted them out of existence.

    Same thing is going to happen in America just in another form. Will The Power Vacuum be filled by Leftist Authoritarians or Fascist Authoritarians? Both are so close on the Horseshoe Political Spectrum, they’re almost Twins.

    Keep you eye on The Power Vacuum.

  12. clyde anderson
    February 4, 2018 at 05:00

    I met ray in DC at a VFP action. I love ray and everything he does !

  13. Roland Gilmore
    February 4, 2018 at 04:49

    I await disclosure of hard evidence of collusion between the UK’s GCHQ and the CIA/FBI/DOJ in this conspiracy. It will expose the “special relationship” between politicians of the US and UK as corrupt. The inference of an arms length source of “intelligence” appears to have been devised as protection of the guilty, in case of discovery.

  14. Judith Lavendar
    February 4, 2018 at 00:52

    It’s about time someone went after the fallen Democrats. Now who will have the courage to sign the warrants?

  15. Alan Atkins
    February 3, 2018 at 22:34

    I hope that arrests are announced soon. Otherwise the media will trot out one talking head after another to tell an uninformed and indoctrinated public what to believe.

  16. February 3, 2018 at 21:38

    Thanks for this, Ray. It’s always good to check reality.

  17. February 3, 2018 at 21:37

    Thanks, Ray.

  18. February 3, 2018 at 20:54

    Hello Ray, One aspect of this scandal is the missing and defective credentials for the Federal “robes” presently seated on the FISA Court. We have investigated some, but not all, to date. Each such Judge must have a SENATE CONFIRMATION, PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION, APPOINTMENT AFFIDAVITS and second OATH OF OFFICE. The COMMISSION must be co-signed by a lawful Attorney General. The APPOINTMENT AFFIDAVITS must be administered by an officer with authority to do so, and must also exhibit a valid OMB control number at the upper right-hand corner. Without displaying a valid OMB control number, that Form is a COUNTERFEIT for violating the Paperwork Reduction Act. Some otherwise valid APPOINTMENT AFFIDAVITS were “administered” by officers who, in turn, also lacked valid credentials. From now on, please take note how journalists of every persuasion are neglecting to address these missing and defective credentials. You will also want to know that The Credential Investigation has confirmed missing credentials for 33 Tax Court “robes”, and for all personnel of the Bureau of Prisons: not one single credential has been disclosed for both large groups!

  19. Tom Spanne
    February 3, 2018 at 19:27

    I am so sick of looking at the faces of these deep state mutants. Orr and Smelly Nelly are a particularly nauseating couple, but with James ” I didn’t know they could stack feces that high” Comey, now doing freelance ethics commentary, the whole thing reminds me of an autistic orgy. These subhumans should be treated with depleted uranium suppositories!

  20. February 3, 2018 at 17:57

    You are an idiot.

  21. ranney
    February 3, 2018 at 17:33

    It’s always good to see your byline Ray. This whole Nunes thing seems like a tempest in a teapot – I can’t figure out why anyone should care. What I seem to get is that Carter Page is a business man who saw a chance to do some business in Russia, including possibly an opportunity to help Trump get a Trump Tower built in Moscow, or something. Page was introduced to a number of very rich Russians, who of course knew Putin, much as our billionaire “oligarchs” have known our presidents and important senators over the years (is there really any difference?). When Trump was actually elected, the shit hit the fan and the entire Democratic party went into overdrive to correct this horrendous mistake.

    My guess is that Trump was not colluding with Putin or anyone else, nor was Page, they were working on a business deal that got interrupted by the election that went in a very different way than they or anyone expected. Am I close?

    Ray, if you are taking the time to read our comments, I’d like to ask you to maybe write an article about what you think of Russia. You are the expert and you speak Russian so you know first hand what is going on now. Is Russia really a threat to us in any way? Putin is constantly maligned as being the epitome of evil. I don’t see that. What I see, despite all the calumny thrown his way, is a man a lot like Obama – extremely bright, a thorough pragmatist, a man who wants to keep the ship of state steady without changing too much (Obama talked about change, but really didn’t act on it). Some things Putin has done are not good, other things seem to be working well (same with Obama). Am I missing something internally evil about this man?

    Please tell us what you think, because it seems to me that the lies are coming hot and heavy from our media and it scares me that so many of our citizens are engulfed in this set of massive lies. How can we extricate ourselves if we have no facts, and the few people we trust (you are one of them) won’t reinforce or explain what they know. Your take on Putin and Russia would be extremely helpful!

    Trump is a liar and a con man – we all know that. Why hasn’t Mueller subpoenaed his tax returns? That strikes me as the best way to get info to indite him and get him impeached. Why aren’t they doing that?

  22. weilunion
    February 3, 2018 at 16:38

    None of this is good for working people.

  23. Maureen
    February 3, 2018 at 16:11

    It is a long story. I’m sick of it. Go to work. Make the democrats build the wall. Schumer can be the boss. Pelosi the practicing climber. Retire her. She is too old to be in politics. Yet, both the FBI and the Democrat are crooks.

  24. rosemerry
    February 3, 2018 at 15:50

    I have already read several “reports” eg Informed Comment (Juan Cole) and other “progressives” eg alternet, assuming the lack of worth of any of the memo and of Nunes. They will continue the Russiagate evidence-free case instead of even examining the new findings. Trump’s crimes are many, but this is making the situation worse, as Trump now encourages “his generals” to prepare to tiny-nuke the enemy Russia.

  25. Dan Good
    February 3, 2018 at 15:15

    It seems that the Dems genuinely believed that Carter Page would prove to be their pièce the résistance in the Russia collusion caper. Turns out it was the one and only “lead” they had so they dug in for all it was worth and found that, besides being an American with sympathy for Russia, there was ZERO evidence of any collusion. Sure he had contacts. But they all told him politely that, sure, if he could get sanctions lifted there would lots of business opportunities. Duh. Now Team Mueller is scrambling to find some other Russia sympathizer among the Trump advisers. Will this take another year? The longer it lasts, the better for Trump.

  26. Abe
    February 3, 2018 at 15:03

    According to the memo spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, the FBI initiated formal investigation into the Trump campaign because of foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos. “The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Peter Strzok,” the Nunes memo reads.

    Papadopoulos is directly connected to the pro-Israel Lobby, right wing Israeli political interests, and Israeli government efforts to control regional energy resources. Papadopoulos’ LinkedIn page lists his association with the right wing Hudson Institute. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank part of pro-Israel Lobby web of militaristic security policy institutes that promote Israel-centric U.S. foreign policy. The Hudson Institute confirmed that Papadopoulos was an intern who left the neoconservative think tank in 2014.

    In 2014, Papadopoulos authored op-ed pieces in Israeli publications. In an op-ed published in Arutz Sheva, media organ of the right wing Religionist Zionist movement embraced by the Israeli “settler” movement, Papadopoulos argued that the U.S. should focus on its “stalwart allies” Israel, Greece, and Cyprus to “contain the newly emergent Russian fleet”. In another op-ed published in Ha’aretz, Papadopoulos contended that Israel should exploit its natural gas resources in partnership with Cyprus and Greece rather than Turkey.

    In November 2015, Papadapalous participated in a conference in Tel Aviv, discussing the export of natural gas from Israel with a panel of current and past Israeli government officials including Ron Adam, a representative of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Eran Lerman, a former Israeli Deputy National Security Adviser.

    Israel’s planned military assault on Lebanon and Syria has a lot to do with natural gas resources, both offshore from Gaza and on land in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights region. Among its numerous violations of United Nations Resolution 242, Israel annexed the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981.

  27. Cowgirl Diva
    February 3, 2018 at 13:34

    All these CRIMINALS should be in prison…..along with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder…among others…!! They should all be in prison and if they don’t go to prison, then nobody should go to prison for any crimes they committed either…!!

  28. Clifford Flath
    February 3, 2018 at 13:30

    Regarding bullet point 1:
    Was McCabe’s quote taken out of context? Many say it was. But even assuming McCabe said exactly that, playing a critical role in no way makes it the only evidence presented to the FISC.

    Regarding bullet point 2:
    So what? In no way does who paid for the report challenge the worth of the report. The FISC would demand supporting evidence.

    Regarding bullet point 3:
    Again, so what? Would the FISC take the word of a foreign spy and not insist on supporting evidence? Not if the FISC is competent, and there’s no evidence they aren’t.

    Regarding bullet point 4:
    Is Nunes so naive that he believes the FBI just trundled over to the FISC and said Mr. Isikoff wrote an article, so we want to survival Carter Page, and the court said OK?

    Regarding bullet point 5:
    So, therefore, because Steele talked to Mother Jones, Steele’s dossier contains no facts–no information of value? Silliness!

    Regarding bullet points 6 & 7:
    So what? Who should have signed them?

    Regarding bullet point 8:
    Again, so what? In no way does this connection challenge the worth of the Steele Dossier. Even if Steele were sent directly from Beelzebub, it’s possible his dossier contains useful facts that led to even more useful facts.

    Hannity does that kind of report every evening.

  29. Oleg Gark
    February 3, 2018 at 13:12

    The FISA warrant for Carter Page was just the foot in the door for the conspirators. Once they had that, they could target any of his associates, including Trump himself. Of course, they couldn’t be completely forthcoming with the judge because there was so little time left before the election.

    I suspect they were looking for evidence of an “October Surprise” type agreement between Trump and the Russians and they didn’t find it. That would have been about the only thing that could have derailed his campaign after he had survived credible accusations of sexual harassment, infidelity, crooked business deals, serial bankruptcies, draft dodging, racism, cheating on his taxes, etc., etc., etc.

  30. February 3, 2018 at 12:42

    Thank you folks who have uncovered this horrible secret that is a cancer on and in our republic nation. Because we have two different television sets in the same room (we use wireless headsets for sound) I have closely watched the main stream media’s portrayal of these events and more. Because my wife is a typical American, she watches all but FOX concerning the subject of The News … typical in that there is polarization in this nation where FOX VS the Others, especially CNN, are the “choices” generally made.

    In addition to the above, I myself, in being retired and an avid seeker of truth, spend most of my time in that pursuit. In doing so I comb the Internet’s alternative media sources for those views that put the MSM into a more healthy context overall that offsets the malicious lies behind the contrived falsehoods of the MSM which so barefacedly claims constantly to be presenting the truth and nothing but the truth.

    Because of that I can well understand where the average citizen comes up with their viewpoints and how the defenders and haters of a particular persuasion “stick to their guns” in defense of their “preferred” views. Most seem to select their truths as would a person get avidly behind a sports team or their religion. All the outcome where our “Leaders”, who really work for the same source that derives it’s power via dividing us each and all against each other.

    But in the end truth wills out and I am excited to now see that playing out thanks to the “fake news” of the alternative media.

  31. pete johnson
    February 3, 2018 at 12:28

    Which part of the Steele dossier have been discredited? “The dubious but celebrated Steele Dossier “. What is dubious?

    To his credit, Mueller is running an FBI investigation without leaks….without leaving breadcrumbs to refute Congressional/Republican leaks such as this. By doing that, he has opened himself up for spurious attacks.

    Ray McGovern certainly must know that a blind squirrel could find illegal and treasonous behavior on the part of Manafort, Page, Stone, and Gates. (Leaving Flynn in a different catagory since his involvement with these “ratfuckers” appears to be more recent.

    (from Wikipedia: Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All the President’s Men.)

    • Beard681
      February 6, 2018 at 16:55

      LOL. If they had anything they would leak it (like the did on Manafort and Flynn). Pee Gate, Trump’s lawyer’s meeting in the Czech Republic, bribe to Trump when trying to build a Trump Tower in Moscow (it never got built), Pages participation in non-existent Russia/Qatar Oil Deal, Russian Banker’s contributions to Trump (he is suing Buzzfeed) all turned out to be false. Steele hasn’t been to Russia in 16 years and although he claims to have made all his contacts over the phone, many have the suspicion that foreign intelligence agencies hostile to Trump’s “America First” platform fed him most of the information. Bill Browder (also a foreigner) is also said to be a major source, his name being mentioned multiple times in the Fusion GPS testimony leaked by Pelosi.

      There have been FOIA requests to release the entirety of the Dossier, but the FBI refuses to even officially admit it’s existence.

  32. DANIEL J WAGNER
    February 3, 2018 at 11:44

    Great article .

  33. February 3, 2018 at 08:31

    The Snowden documents posted by Wikileaks regarding the government “trolling” program manual showed the government “troll training” recommended trolls use a particular set of techniques which includes the following:

    “The 4 D’s: Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, Deceive.”

    By observing the use of “the 4 D’s” in our online comments sections one can quickly see who is quite likely a government troll, or who might be a simple idiot but “posts just like a government troll.” From my perspective the difference between trolls and idiots is rather negligible, but the “idiots” at least have an excuse for their behavior.

  34. inspector #9
    February 3, 2018 at 06:35

    Members of Yale University’s Skull & Bones Club revel in ramble rousing. Map their social networks! See who gained the most since 9/11. The swamp is dark. The swamp is deep. What Donald J. Trump finds, he can keep or incarcerate.

  35. Diana
    February 3, 2018 at 06:30

    And now, Carter Page is being “up-stooged” by Devin Nunez, according to MSNBC. Stephen F. Cohen weighs in on the dangers presented by Russiagate (and, I might add, the politicization of intelligence):

    http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21038

    • backwardsevolution
      February 3, 2018 at 11:00

      Diana – two great videos. Thanks for posting them. Devin Nunes is now a Kremlin stooge? Wow, the country has gone nuts. And like Stephen Cohen said, Trump can’t say anything positive about Russia, or else he’s vilified. I agree with Cohen, this is a dangerous situation.

      Everybody pushing this Russiagate narrative ought to have their heads checked. My kids get fried because Adam Schiff is off his rocker? I don’t think so.

  36. Diana
    February 3, 2018 at 06:02

    The Real News Network has further information from Coleen Rowley and Max Blumenthal:

    http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21049%27%20style=%27color:

  37. Obi-jonKenobi
    February 3, 2018 at 05:12

    Wow, I mean, just WOW, what happened to Ray McGovern? I used to think he knew what he was talking about but this piece is fucking shocking in it’s ignorance of what happened.

    For starters, the FBI investigation was triggered by an conversation Trump “foreign advisor George Papadopoulos had with Australian high commissioner Alexander Downer at London bar in May 2016 where Papadopoulos bragged about a promise of dirt on Clinton provided by the Russians. So the FBI was already investigating what was going on with the Trump/Russia connection long before the dossier surfaced. The dossier just confirmed some of what they already knew so, yes, it had credibility as did Steele, a former British intelligence agent with deep connections with and experience in Russia.

    Meanwhile Carter Page had been on their radar for years so the dossier was only one factor in this warrant. And the warrant was taken before a judge THREE more times and renewed, each renewal requiring MORE evidence showing that there is a need to continue, i.e. the dossier would have maybe been Ok for the October, 2016 warrant but from then on there would have had to be evidence that the wiretap was acquiring information that justified a renewal.

    And what about the faction within the FBI that was working to undermine Clinton, how does that fit into this laughable “conspiracy” to take down Trump? How come we’re not investigating how the FBI undermined Clinton. Remember the last-minute letter to Congress by Comey? The New York FBI office that was rumored to have been sharpening their knives to take out Clinton? And the fact that the whole Clinton email “scandal” was a completely fabricated bit of nonsense just like Benghazi? How does that fit into this specious conspiracy?

    Or the fact that the FBI told Steele and Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS that they were taking seriously the dossier and investigating what was behind it but then told the NY Times that they had cleared Trump of any unsavory Russian connections. That story ran just days before the election clearing up any clouds of suspicion around Trump on that matter. That was a one-two punch: take down Clinton with reopening the email investigation while exonerating Trump of any untoward Russian involvement. This is a “Deep State” conspiracy to hurt Trump??? What the fuck are you smoking?

    And we’ve just barely scratch the surface about how completely dishonest this whole thing is, I could go on for pages. But let’s end on this note: the person that co-wrote the letter to Congress that almost single-handedly ended Clinton’s chance to be president was Peter Strzok. Yes Strzok of the “Trump-hating”, “secret-society” plotting couple that the reich-wing echo chamber has been spewing spittle about for weeks. That Strzok. Are you starting to get what a ginned up, faux conspiracy this is?

    I’m done with you, Ray, this is an unforgivable fail.

    • backwardsevolution
      February 3, 2018 at 10:00

      Obi-jonKenobi – you’re not from around these parts, and you were never “with” Ray to begin with. You are fooling none of the regulars here.

      • Obi-jonKenobi
        February 3, 2018 at 13:13

        You don’t have a clue how long I’ve been reading Mcgovern, do you?

        That’s what I thought.

        • BobS
          February 4, 2018 at 11:02

          I hear you.
          I’ve been reading Robert Parry since him (and Danny Sheehan) were about the only two reliable sources of US meddling in Central America.
          Started with Ray McGovern in early 2000s.
          And I’m a newcomer to a circus full of clowns who first heard about the “DEEP STATE!!!!” from Trump’s execrable lips.
          Nice synopsis, by the way.

    • Joe Tedesky
      February 3, 2018 at 11:07

      The questions you raise doesn’t seem to let the FBI/ DOJ off the hook in so far as their pursue to bring down Trump, but their on again off again investigations of Hillary Clinton leaves me to wonder to what was the FBI/DOJ doing. Were these legal spooks trying to game the system? Could it be that they the FBI/DOJ people were confronting both presidential candidates with their presence? J Edgar is no doubt rolling over in his grave at how bad his FBI has bungled this affair…it should have been easy to blackmail a president, so WTF happened?

    • Beard681
      February 6, 2018 at 16:38

      The FBI sat on the Wiener Laptop classified emails for at least two months. They only became an issue that had to be cleaned up before the election when the NYPD had wind of them and were leaking it to the Press. Strzok saved HRC by changing Comey’s initial findings on her secret email server from “Grossly Negligent” and hence saving her from possible prosecution. If there was no conspiracy, the FBI and DOJ would arrest J. Edgar Comey just as they did Reality Winner for unauthorized leaking of a government document.

  38. keg
    February 3, 2018 at 04:42

    Bonjour,
    Excusez le côté hors sujet…mais je rebondis sur votre invite faites à “les Crises” au sujet de Décodex.
    Je suis aux prises avec un décodex de particulier, très particulier, qui s’amusait à copy-rater des “pigeons” à qui il réclamait (sans jugement) de l’argent…..
    Pour avoir osé dénoncer, nominativement ces pratiques je suis l’objet d’une assignation en Justice, à Paris (France) en attente du délibéré qui doit se faite ce 20/02/2018. Ce particulier avait devancé le monde puisque les faits remontent à 2010… dans le leu “juge et partie”

    Désolé je ne parle ni n’écrit l’anglais (ni l’américain)
    J’ai beaucoup de lecteurs aux states (environ 80%) Certainement expatriés Français….

    https://wp.me/p4Im0Q-2gQ

  39. Tim
    February 3, 2018 at 04:17

    Justice and accoutability of those wrongdoers, especially James Clapper and Comey, and some in the DNC, would be the crown jewels to demonstrate to Americans that these two are still applicable to our legal system. We can hope and pray. Robert Parry’s spirit would shine out over this. Perhaps he’s inspiring, along with Ray M, Binney, and a host of other courageous folks, a new generation of the advance guard of writers and thinkers that know the power of the word.

    • February 3, 2018 at 19:33

      Justice will come not only for John Brennan, Clapper and even their friends in the counter-intelligence departments but also for the “authorities” of the past decades both in the U. S. and Britain when the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan open up their archives going back to the days of Pres. George H. W. Bush forming alliances with such international operators as “Bandar Bush” and the continuing alliances with the Muslim Brotherhood during the Obama Adm., all a continuation of the intrigues of British intelligence operations managed by “aristocrats”, the status aspired to by some of the U. S. political families. Thinking of the strange alliances against the plan of the Trump alliance to not allow a demographic change (Obama/Holder/Soros plan) resulting in the lack of a majority race in the U. S. coupled with the anger of the British and U. S. intelligence “masters” (with think tanks such as the Brookings Institute) about the dynastic changes in Saudi Arabia taking away the corner stone of the “intelligence managed” power centers, events taking place within the Beltway and the U. S. Justice System could be considered minor to what “events” could be staged by the “Masters of the Universe”, whether in the banking centers or in the caves where the intelligence operatives hide with their lethal weapons. The role of “gatekeepers” in maintaining the balance between the opposing forces would be worthy of discussion among those with “inside knowledge”, which I do not and never had during my long years of studying history. Are people such as Mueller, Trey Gowdy, Paul Ryan and even high officials in the Trump Adm. serving as “gatekeepers”? Has anyone heard what John P. Carlin is doing to calm the waters? How is the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York going to implement the Presidential Executive Order of Dec. 21, 2016?

      • February 3, 2018 at 19:41

        Sorry, the Presidential Executive Order of Dec. 21, 2017!

  40. February 3, 2018 at 04:08

    No, it must NOT be left for the media to determine what happens next.
    The apparent conspirators need to be prosecuted DESPITE the media.
    The likes of the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN etc were hysterical in their efforts to block the memo because they are implicated in the Fusion GPS misinformation plot.
    They have zero credibility.

  41. Zachary Smith
    February 3, 2018 at 02:13

    As for Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, it is now abundantly clear why he went to ridiculous lengths, as did the entire Democratic congressional leadership, to block or impugn the House Intelligence Committee report.

    The “memo” was obviously composed by Republican rightwingnuts, but even ‘nuts aren’t always wrong. Adam Schiff and his neocon buddies are every bit as ugly as any of the Republicans, and their behavior in this matter makes a person like myself suspect that they are very worried about something.

    I want Trump gone as badly as most anyone, but I want the job done legally. Not by means of a Democratic/Big Intelligence coup. Schiff would be VERY pleased to install Pence in the White House, for his Israeli Masters would just love such an outcome.

    I’d spend some time dumping on the idiots in California who put Schiff in office and keep him there – except for the slight problem that Indiana politicians in DC aren’t very much better. This fall I’m going to have a choice between a monster with a big “R” on his sweatshirt vs another dope wearing a “D”. Either one will work to do whatever it is Israel wants, whatever it is Big Everything Wants, and always looking out for a way to leave office with a fatter pocketbook/retirement account than when they came in.

    And the likes of “Dan Maguire” declares I’m despicable if I don’t vote for one or the other of the corrupt and fanatical hacks.

    • bill
      February 3, 2018 at 03:52

      no other candidates??

    • backwardsevolution
      February 3, 2018 at 11:04

      Zachary – “The “memo” was obviously composed by Republican rightwingnuts…..”

      I believe that the memo was composed by Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy. Hardly rightwingnuts.

      The people with bolts and nuts missing are the friggin’ leftwingnuts. Seriously, Schiff should be in a padded room.

      • AshenLight
        February 3, 2018 at 19:06

        What about Schiff is at all left wing?

  42. February 3, 2018 at 01:20

    I regret that I never met him, but I came to rely on him to be a voice of reason and sanity,
    and accuracy. I first discovered his work over the Malaysia Flight shoot down. And I read everything he wrote ever since. Whenever there was something by hm in my in-box, I usually read it before reading anything else.

    My sincere condolences to his family.

    We shall certainly miss him, but my support for the web-site will not change.

    Elias Kulukundis

    • Zachary Smith
      February 3, 2018 at 02:21

      The web site is necessarily going to change – that can’t be avoided. I do hope that whatever Robert Parry was doing to rein in the trolls will be continued, and even boosted. That’s because I’m already seeing bolder and uglier behavior by those berserkers. Their objectives (whether for themselves or their paymasters) is to disrupt orderly discussion.

      • glitch
        February 3, 2018 at 11:18

        Yes, and to degrade the comment section so much that reasonable people abandon excellent sites.
        Old trick, I think they call it ‘poisoning the well’.
        Some of the posts in this thread look like Correct The Record. Obvious and ineffective but CTRolls do expose what reporting they want to bury, which is useful.

  43. Wm. Boyce
    February 3, 2018 at 01:10

    Wait for it… Mueller’s next move.

    The rest is blow.

  44. Michael Keenan
    February 3, 2018 at 00:58
  45. D.H. Fabian
    February 3, 2018 at 00:19

    Yes, the Russian Tale grows more convoluted with each week’s “bombshell,” going back to shortly after the 2016 elections…

  46. John Kauai
    February 3, 2018 at 00:05

    Wow, so many different conspiracy theories in such a short span of comments! I wonder if someone could put together some kind of a diagram to connect all the players with some kind of ranking on each connection that might show truth from lie. That such a nebulous short memo as this could have been elevated to determination of the start of WWIII leaves me breathless.

    Maybe we should all go back and concentrate on who killed Kennedy. It might be more productive.

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 04:24

      Your hyperbole replaces clear thinking.

    • Beard681
      February 6, 2018 at 16:16

      LOL. Funny you mention it but after 54 years they still won’t release ALL the documents and still redact a lot of the ones they did.

  47. February 2, 2018 at 23:16

    Shit, Ray, a REPUBLICAN strategerizer like Rick Wilson called the Nunes memo

    “A fart in a hurricane.”

    And even Breitbart posted that.

    http://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/02/02/rick-wilson-memo-fart-hurricane-people-laughing-devin-nunes-like-hes-tommy-wiseau/

    • Zachary Smith
      February 2, 2018 at 23:58

      I’d never heard the name “Rick Wilson” before, but a few moments of googling found that he is a Trump hater, and has been for a LONG time. So I’d say the man is hardly an ideal person to use as any kind of impartial authority.

      GOP Strategist Under Fire After Giving This Vulgar Description of Trump’s ‘Alt-Right’ Fans on MSNBC
      Jan 20, 2016 2:41 am

      Wilson, a strong critic of Trump, noted that many of the billionaire’s alternate right fans have “Hitler iconography in their Twitter icons.”

      He added, “Most of them are childless single men who masturbate to anime. They’re not real political players. These are not people who matter in the overall course of humanity.”

    • D.H. Fabian
      February 3, 2018 at 00:22

      I’m well to the left, and share that opinion. After over a year of allegations (a few of which were actually rather creative, but all of which ultimately fell flat under the weight of the facts), there’s still no “there” there. But this doesn’t stop the spinners from weaving new threads.

    • backwardsevolution
      February 3, 2018 at 11:13

      Rick Wilson is a non-entity.

      • February 3, 2018 at 14:23

        Trolls flock to a great site like “CN” as do mosquitoes to a waterway.

  48. Tom
    February 2, 2018 at 22:04

    I’d love to see Ray address the connection of Bill Kristol to the “Trump Dossier”. Yes, we know about Hillary, the Clinton Foundation and the DNC. What few people realize is it was Bill Kristol and his son-in-law at the “Washington Free Beacon” that set the “Trump Dossier” in motion to begin with.

    • BobS
      February 2, 2018 at 23:37

      Or better yet, let’s have Ray connect the Trump Dossier to the damn kids Ray has to yell at to stay off his damn lawn, and how it’s the vaccinations and flouride in the damn drinking water that’s making those damn kids behave like little devils.
      That would be a helluva article.

      I call DEEP STATE!!!!!!!!!!!

  49. BobS
    February 2, 2018 at 20:52

    Sorry to see someone I once had respect for doubling-down on the foolishness, Mr. McGovern. How long now till you wake the neighbors with your yelling at the clouds?

    Oh, sorry- I almost forgot: DEEP STATE!!!!

    • Anon
      February 2, 2018 at 21:51

      Troll alert, please do not reply.

      • Zachary Smith
        February 3, 2018 at 00:01

        I have him down as a “troll +”

        Either he/she is half grown, or is a paid disruptor of some kind for somebody. That’s the way to bet, anyhow.

    • backwardsevolution
      February 3, 2018 at 11:14

      BobS – is that you, Schiff?

  50. elmerfudzie
    February 2, 2018 at 20:41

    James Comey left Lockheed Martin a very rich man and then, through a a mysterious process, hidden from the common voter, joined the board of directors of HSBC Holdings, a British bank. The bank is a long-time partner of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton’s rewarded Comey again when he was suddenly “appointed” by Barack Obama. Mr McGovern, it’s important to closely examine Obama’s presidential records. Sift through the details of the James Comey posting on the HSBC’s Board of Directors. To lift up the hood and examine the corporate architecture of HSBC. CONSORTIUMNEWS readers, be advised that the most powerful men in the world, such as Tung Shun Wong JP, Stuart Gulliver both board members of the The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation who have over-site of this subsidiary? banking corporation and thus control all the high rollers at HSBC. HSBC’s Physical address, you may be wondering? 8 Canada Square London, Greater London. Ah Ha! the City-of-London clique! with powers that reign far above any sitting US President…ASIDE: Even dear old Queen Elizabeth cannot waltz in without permission-in advance! I suspect that the board members simply made their approvals known to Obama (precise mechanism unknown) in regards to Mr Comey and presto! appointed top gun at the FBI. Again, pray tell why Comey? because the Clinton Foundation monies are directly linked to both Comey and HSBC. Oh! my fellow American’s, when will we ever get that Divorce from the British Imperial Empire? This U.S. political quagmire of corruption has been repeatedly stated and articulated by Lyndon LaRouche and his mouth piece, Lew Rockwell. The next step is to create a great high wall, not between Mexico and the USA but between London bankers and Washington politics!

    • Hugh O'Neill
      February 2, 2018 at 21:09

      What superb digging on Comey, HSBC and Clintons! What news of Robert Mueller, who was newly appointed head of FBI during 9/11 and of whom Collen Rowley was very critical? One suspects that he too is very much part of the Deep State too.

    • February 2, 2018 at 23:53

      HSBC oversees Hermitage Capital, the hedge fund of William Browder, the con man of the 21st century and corrupt financier convicted in absentia by Russian tax authorities for major league tax evasion. Consortium News readers will likely know Browder as the man behind the infamous – and highly confrontational to Russia – Magnitsky Act, based on Browder’s lies about what happened leading to the tragic death of Sergei Magnitsky in a Russian prison.

      “Fault Lines” co-hosts Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan (interested researchers – go to “populist.tv” channel on YouTube) have done excellent work in exposing the fraud William Browder, including the posting of Browder’s 7-hour videotaped deposition taken on April 15, 2015 – where facts confirming Browder’s historic fraud are on full display. Nixon and Stranahan have also interviewed Andrei Nekrasov, the director of the U.S.-Europe blacklisted documentary “Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes”, which destroys Browder’s false narrative – as well as Alex Krainer, author of “The Killing of William Browder”, the book removed, deleted, censored or otherwise taken down from Amazon after legal threats from Browder’s legal team.

      Nixon and Stranahan have done outstanding journalistic work on this extremely important matter. Stranahan has rightly described Browder-Magnitsky Act as the most important story in the world which nobody is covering. Please visit populist.tv channel at YouTube and disseminate the truth as widely as possible to family, friends, associates, media, trusted political representatives, etc., and everyone (repeat: everyone) on your email list. The William Browder fraud must become exposed and the unimaginably dangerous Magnitsky Act overturned and/or abolished. It is impossible to overstate how important this scandalous story is at this historic moment, nor is it possible to over-emphasize the absolute need for swift, powerful and effective action.

      Thank you.

      • Joe Tedesky
        February 3, 2018 at 10:56

        Jerry here is something to go with your comment. If you already read it, well it may be read by others who didn’t, but it supports your commented remarks. Joe

        https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/02/a-blacklisted-film-and-the-new-cold-war/

      • elmerfudzie
        February 3, 2018 at 11:29

        Jerry Alatalo, great commentary. I’ll have a peak at populist.tv

      • Dave P.
        February 3, 2018 at 18:48

        Jerry Alatalo –

        Excellent post. But it is apparent that William Browder fraud is not going to be exposed or any powerful, effective action taken against him. William Browder is the part of the Power Structure who really wields all power in the country. The very passing of Magnitsky Act pedalled by this Fraudster William Browder shows who has the real power.

        Even President Carter said in some interview not too long ago that U.S. is not a democracy; it is a Plutocracy now. But we still keep on pretending that it is a democracy. We are way beyond George Orwell’s “1984” now.

    • geeyp
      February 3, 2018 at 00:13

      Just like the last President, Comey is a slick operator, devoid of sine qua non, ignorant of the Constitution.

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 04:35

      If true, it’s the unveiling of the power behind the puppets.

    • Virginia
      February 3, 2018 at 04:37

      Elmerfudzie, I never knew of these intricate relationships nor Comey’s previous profession with high finance rollers. This needs to be more widely known. Thanks for referring to Lyndon LaRouche as well.

  51. PNM
    February 2, 2018 at 20:32

    Memo is definitely overstated hype seeking to redirect attention away from what is really important.
    Greatly saddened to see Ray Mc Govern put his name to this article. –Page who the Russians described as an ”idiot”and someone who was fortune seeking was on the Intelligence/FBI radar since 2013 —–long before Steels input.

    • February 2, 2018 at 20:50

      if they had probable cause already, they would not have needed to use the Steele document period….it is a very foolish undertaking to play fast and loose with a judge on a warrant matter…when he discovers that you played him…the results of his anger can be IMMEDIATE and severe…he can charge you, arrest you and have you brought, in handcuffs, before his bench to answer on the same day!!!

      regards
      D

      • Beard681
        February 6, 2018 at 16:10

        FISA is nothing but a fig leaf for 1984 style spying on everything and everybody. Do you really think that any judge who would stoop to sitting on the rubber stamp FISA court, would do any such thing?

        I will check back later for an answer.

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 04:45

      Ray is an analyst so I await for the pieces of the puzzle to be revealed. When people like Page carry out a task, do you think they they are not expendable? They all have a potential negative profile so they, their contacts, and their information can be made to appear flimsy or untrue. When operations are successful you would never hear about this man.

  52. Desert Dave
    February 2, 2018 at 20:30

    I’ll leave it to the many smarter commenters at CN to discuss the relative import of the memo.

    But one thing I note is that it DOES NOT reveal any sources or methods, which was one of the strident warnings shouted from rooftops about why the memo should not be released. Next time the usual suspects cry wolf about protecting national security, we can remember that they are just protecting themselves from embarrassment.

    • BobS
      February 2, 2018 at 20:56

      “…smarter commenters at CN…”
      Oxymoron.

      • February 2, 2018 at 21:13

        if insults are all you have to offer…why dont you go twitter with your co-workers at ProporNOT…this site is for adults…

        • Blue Pilgrim
          February 2, 2018 at 21:51

          I’ve seen a number of Bobs’s comments — he is just a troll which should be ignored.

          The importance of the memo is that it is an official congressional document affirming what many have been saying for some time, and can be cited as a source.

          Also, as you say, the reaction from the Democrats is noteworthy (“methinks the lady doth protest too much”).

          Perhaps if the government is sufficiently divided and conquers each other it will miss it’s chance to start a war with Russia, DPRK, or otherwise set of WW3, or create another ‘Libya catastrophe’ — perhaps buy us some time.
          Recall Gandalf’s strategy to save the dwarves and Bilbo by getting the trolls to argue with each other until the sunlight rose and turned them to stone. We need the sunlight.

          • February 2, 2018 at 22:38

            we so wish…:>)

            we need a break from the remorseless lies….

      • ML
        February 3, 2018 at 01:17

        Bully be gone.

  53. leon anderson
    February 2, 2018 at 20:26

    FISA is well known for being a rubber stamp when it comes to getting a warant. So why would the FBI need to lie? Suggesting some crime has been committed based on a warrant application seems like a stretch. And while it is upsetting that the B
    FBI wants to bug an American’s phone, that isn’t new. They did that with Martin Luther King and no seemed to mind. So, what’s new?

    • Brad Smith
      February 2, 2018 at 20:41

      Well it’s new that the Republicans care about the process. That’s new. It’s also new that suddenly so many people on the left are against transparency and for the spying agencies along with the warmongers pushing us into a new cold war. It’s a bit of a flip flop on positions, almost all rhetoric though, that hasn’t changed.

    • Anon
      February 2, 2018 at 21:47

      So why would you not be concerned?

  54. February 2, 2018 at 20:25

    ‘Bruce Our’ should be Bruce Ohr, no?

  55. February 2, 2018 at 20:23

    Ray, I trust and respect you and your work. This seems overboard though.
    Trump has been money laundering for the Russian mafia 30+ yrs. He has Mafia ties. Cohn was his lawyer.
    He hired Coney Rosenstien Sessions and now they are enemies he’s against he insults in public .
    In addition to what you’re saying there is certainly additional info which changes the narrative.
    Trump is a dictator on the rise. These institutions are dirty.
    Trump and his supllicants inn Congress and the media are the most dangerous and criminal and surreal.

    • Andrew
      February 2, 2018 at 20:36

      I share more or less your sentiment. Money laundering and obstruction of justice is modus operandi for Trump. Russia and other corrupt government (Turkey) are natural places where Trump and his friends (Manafort) would funnel money through.

      Plus, Steele was first paid by GOP, which no one seems to mention.

      While Obama/FBI/CIA may have taken advantage of the corruption already in motion, there is nothing unnatural about Trump being investigated (though I must agree that collusion is the wrong charge).

      • Beard681
        February 6, 2018 at 16:04

        Paid first not by the GOP, but by Oligarch never Trumper Peter Singer from over at the Free Beacon. Also the crime is not making up fiction, but using your friends over in the government to leak it around and shopping it to a judge for a warrant,

        As for corrupt places, there is no place more corrupt than the United Scams of America. Little people like Reality Winner go to jail for leaking a government document, J. Edgar Comey is the toast of the town for the same. Just one Pentagon Agency “lost track” of $800M in the first audit ever. The US never has any trouble funding “color revolutions” or arming terrorists of every stripe out of “black fund” appropriations kept secret from the American People. Public works here cost several times more than elsewhere in the world (even Russia) due to all the corrupt padding for MBWB contracts, “impact statements” and “compliance costs” all paid out to politically connected contractors and “consultants” of every type.

    • February 2, 2018 at 20:41

      i agree,,,,the problem is they are not investigating Trump for these sins….mostly because most of Washington is just as corrupt as he is, and cannot let the notion of corruption investigations enter anyones mind…russiagate is a DNC and MIC cooperative venture…period…a false flag disinformation extravaganda…

      • BobS
        February 2, 2018 at 21:01

        “…the problem is they are not investigating Trump for these sins”
        Uh, dumbass- you don’t know what Mueller is investigating.
        (you aren’t Carter Page, are you?)

        • February 2, 2018 at 21:09

          are personal insults all you have to offer little man?…they could have had Trump on corruption charges before he was inaugurated if that was there agenda…Trump has been dirty for years…

          regards

          D

          • BobS
            February 2, 2018 at 21:17

            So the answer is Carter Page’s idiot brother.
            Thanks.

        • Anon
          February 2, 2018 at 21:45

          Troll alert, please do not respond.

    • Anna
      February 2, 2018 at 21:23

      You sound so innocent, so defenseless… Now, could you tell us a thing or two about Uranium One (did not First Husband received $500.000 from Russians and the Clintons family got enriched by $145.000.000?) and about Bill Browder (from the family of the First Communist), a tax dodger and fraudster who made his fortunate with Russian mafia and who became the main educator about Russia for the US Congress? https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/clinton-inc-only-got-145-million-in-uranium-deal-linked-cash/

      • Joe Tedesky
        February 3, 2018 at 02:43

        The shame of it is either way, Uranium One or Russia-Gate, the Russians come out of it (in the American version) looking pretty bad.

        Remember, always stay the course, don’t look but to what we put in front of you, and always stay the course. These creeps think of everything, don’t they?

  56. Karl Sanchez
    February 2, 2018 at 20:22

    I see the Troll Army is on the rampage spreading their FUD as they drown in the toxic sludge of their own creation.

  57. Karl Sanchez
    February 2, 2018 at 20:16

    “The Media Will Determine What Comes Next.”

    This conclusion cannot be allowed to occur. Now I dislike Trump and the Republicans, but the rampant lies and deep corruption that’s marked US politics for decades I deplore far more, and we finally have an opportunity to actually drain some of the swamp and send some of its denizens to prison where they belong.

  58. Aurora
    February 2, 2018 at 20:15

    During the long months when we were subjected to the incessant “Russia hacked” mantra, along with the dinner table battles, how often were we informed about the very real and vicious issue of voter suppression in this country?

  59. February 2, 2018 at 20:10

    There is no there there in the Nunes memo. Bob is missed, but I have been astonished by the one-side, knee-jerk, pro-Trump-Putin palaver consistently flowing out of Con. News. over the last year. Makes on one wonder about who is paying for it. Maybe it is time to see a list of donors.

    • Mark McCarty
      February 2, 2018 at 21:11

      That comment is beyond disgraceful. Most of us here actually give a damn about the Rule of Law and our constitutional rights – yes, and the rights of those foolish enough to support Trump. And we know that every bit of Russiagate is an outright HOAX concocted by affiliates of the DNC and eagerly spread by the Deep State war criminals who desperately want another Cold War.

      • Mattnyc
        February 3, 2018 at 04:09

        Agreed, and it doubles my confidence in McGovern’s analysis. Methinks only a guileless idiot or a cog of the deep state–with all the cynicism and lack of patriotism that implies–could leave such a deplorable comment.

        Let the FBI release the intel the memo is based on, and then we can see whats what. I would self-styled liberals who defend the sanctity of FISA intel hilarious if it wasn’t so damn hypocritical.

      • Tim
        February 3, 2018 at 05:01

        Cheers on that comment.

    • Anna
      February 2, 2018 at 21:16

      Are you worrying about the Lobby that is deeply enmeshed int he anti-American activities? It seems that you are surprised that Americans have loyalty for the US and the US Constitution.
      Who are Schumer donors? – ” During a January 2017 interview on reliably statist and Left-wing MSNBC, Schumer said the president-elect was being “really dumb” in ‘picking a fight’ with the intelligence community. “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you…” Schumer was tacitly admitting that the intelligence community was more powerful than Congress, which is supposed to have oversight responsibility.” https://newstarget.com/2018-01-22-deep-state-war-with-trump-proves-the-people-have-lost-control-of-their-government.html

      • Broompilot
        February 3, 2018 at 01:21

        Anna, please keep shouting that from the rooftops. I have never understood how Schumer got a pass on that very public statement.

      • Tim
        February 3, 2018 at 04:59

        Good to highlight that as there is still a future possibility during an interview, that he will be made accountable for this statement.

    • Anon
      February 2, 2018 at 21:42

      Troll alert, please do not respond.

    • Ames Gilbert
      February 3, 2018 at 03:05

      I am one of the donors. Although I agree that there is nothing much NEW in the Nunes memo, it refers to the FISA court findings of April 27, 2017. The FISA court document, declassified and released, “contains confessions from both the FBI and DOJ that the agencies misled the court and falsely acquired surveillance permission. The FBI and DOJ mischaracterize their deception of the court as “mistakes.” The agencies provide the court with improvements in their procedures so as not to make “mistakes” in the future.
      Why did the FBI and DOJ rush to confess to the FISA court? The reason is that NSA Director Adm. Rodgers discovered their illicit spying, investigated it, and let it be known that he was reporting the FBI and DOJ malfeasence to the FISA court. Adm. Rodgers also informed President Trump.”
      It is rather amazing that the MSM (and presumably, yourself) did not pick up on this report when it was released, and in general have ignored it to this day. Yet it makes clear that the FBI and Obama DOJ materially misled the court when they were applying for permission to surveil Page Carter (and his 40 closest contacts, and their closest 40 contacts in turn, etc.). Rodgers found out about this and reported his findings to the court, which led to the report. So, you should give many thanks to Admiral Rodgers for doing his duty!
      When you have done your due diligence and read the actual FISA report for yourself, I suggest you man up and write an apology. But I won’t hold my breath.

    • Virginia
      February 3, 2018 at 04:12

      Peter, If the commentators here seem one sided to you, maybe it’s because those who got fed up with the one-sided mainstream Elite-controlled media flocked to CN to seek out facts. Real facts! Not fake news, so-called facts.

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 05:10

      Distraction away from the ball (IC players, Clapper, Comey, DNC figures), not about Trump, would show astuteness. Have you seen Ray arguing for the brilliance of Trump? Not.

    • Beard681
      February 6, 2018 at 15:49

      Oh-Oh. I gave money – should I be afraid of a knock on the door in the middle of the night? Nah – they will probably just keep a list of all the porn sites I visit….

  60. Kelli
    February 2, 2018 at 20:08

    Ray,
    Excellent coverage. Your posts are being banned by Facebook. There was an excellent article done at Global Research this morning called, “From Facebook to Police Book”. It is frightening. I’m being heavily censored, from the articles I post from Global, Consortium, Glenn Greenwald, Mintpress and Worldwide Socialist Website, to my own posts challenging the establishment Russia gate narrative to comments on others posts. I’m reduced to highlighting and copying pasting your words to FB and then checking my FB posts on my son’s FB to see if they are seeing the light of day. And they are for now
    Zuckerberg appears to be part of the Democratic ZIONIST party and the deep state apparatus. A year ago I could post anything.

    Today, people are posting McCain statement regarding the memo with Democratic voters flocking to it as if it were the words of Jesus as McCain props up the Russia gate narrative. But Dem voters don’t understand that McCain has a vested interest in WAR upon Russia, via his involvement in the Ukraine issue. One of the biggest neocon warhawks around.
    And hence why Russia gate is so dangerous: initially a cover up for primary rigging and election fraud, its morphed into another WMD. And WAR is something Democrats fully support and have all throughout the Obama regime. But so do Republicans. Another strange comment comes from Paul Ryan who warned Republicans not to tie the investigation to the memo. What??? We have this investigation because of this phony dossier paid for by Clinton and the DNC. The Mueller investigation should be immediately STOPPED.

    Mueller knows this is a fraud, for he too is part of it and it’s not his first cover up either. .

    Please, PLEASE keep writing about this as often as you can. So few voices for truth, I’m very grateful.

    I do admit, I miss Mr. Parry and often think about what he might write. …

  61. February 2, 2018 at 20:07

    If it can be determined that the Steele dossier was the principle information used to obtain this warrant…those parties judgement and objectivity will be suspect…and their motives for attempting it will be suspect as well…

    they should assign Trey Gowdy to be the special prosecutor before he leaves Washington…that would be a true spectacle!

    regards

    D

    • evelync
      February 2, 2018 at 20:46

      yes, the FISA court seems way too secretive for me – although it was established in 1978 by the Church Cttee – so it must have been seen as a protection against unjustified surveillance. But everything, it seems, eventually becomes politicized……

      The pro Hillary team narrative at the moment (i.e. the MSNBC et all talking points) is questioning whether the Steele “dossier” was the KEY DETERMINANT in securing the FISA warrant, or just ancillary – who’s watching out over all this secrecy? Which even handed, fair minded, apolitical overseer is protecting the country from the politicization of the institutions, especially when they are so secretive?

      We need truth not witch hunts. We need fairness and openness, not behind the scenes political warfare.

  62. E Wright
    February 2, 2018 at 19:57

    Intelligence agencies and police have always used compliant judges to sign off on warrants. The neatest trick is to get them just before they are heading out to play golf. The judges always assume the legal fiction that they are not being lied to, and seldom cross examine applicants. The whole warrant system is corrupt at every level and provides few safeguards against scheming careerists or those on a holy mission.

    • Kelli
      February 2, 2018 at 20:15

      What’s interesting about the Judge who signed those warrants: he recently recused himself…

    • backwardsevolution
      February 2, 2018 at 21:54

      Tucker Carlson just interviewed Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept who is knowledgeable about the FISA Court. He said the FISA Court is a joke and that they basically rubber stamp every warrant (98% of the time) that comes to them.

      • Clifford Flath
        February 3, 2018 at 15:14

        “Not true,” says former US Representative Mike Rodgers, Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committe 2011-2015.

        • backwardsevolution
          February 3, 2018 at 17:31

          Clifford Flath – I’m going to have to look into it some more, I guess. Maybe it’s the case that a judge asks questions re the warrant, but fully expects the FBI to be telling him the truth. Leaving out the fact that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for the dossier that the warrant relied on is tantamount to deceit.

          Thanks, Clifford.

      • Sam F
        February 3, 2018 at 19:19

        As I recall it is more than 99% of FISA requests that are approved without question.
        They do not accept the purpose of their public office, and simply do not do it.
        Similar to the 99% of Supreme Court cases that are never taken.
        And they are selected to ensure that attitude.

      • February 4, 2018 at 16:03

        Yes Greenwald is right. They have a low hurdle for probable cause.

        That is one reason why the furor of this memo is so contrived.

        The Congress just renewed the power of this program for the Trump Admin, but when it goes against them they pick on a technicality that is not even relevant to try to undermine the same system they have just renewed.

        The memo was footnoted as ‘politically motivated’ but that is not relevant. Motives for submitting cause for a FISA warrant are not a disqualifying factor. It is the information itself.

        And the warrant was targeting Carter Page, and not Trump. And Page had plenty of things that were of concern.

        I was disappointed in the way Ray took this one on. There are much bigger issues here that are being overshadowed. And he is playing into what looks like a pure propaganda hit piece by some fairly shameless propagandists.

        The enemy of your enemy may seem like a friend. But evil is still evil.

        Sorry Ray. I am a huge fan. But the case you make is pretty poorly constructed.

        • Beard681
          February 6, 2018 at 15:46

          Yes, FISA is a fig leaf for 1984 style spying on everybody and everything. Page was targeted from way back in 2013 for having and expressing an opinion different from the establishment. I guess for you that is a good enough reason for “concern”?

          If this was about anybody else but Trump it would lead to Church Committee style hearings – which we desperately need.

  63. Jim
    February 2, 2018 at 19:52

    My dog what great work you’re doing for the American Nazi’s now steering the ship of state. Have they sent you a starched brownshirt yet? What do your new masters have on you? https://www.commondreams.org/further/2011/02/16/so-america-veteran-ray-mcgovern-bloodied-and-arrested-clinton-speech

    • Kelli
      February 2, 2018 at 20:21

      Secretary Clinton is a sociopath. Like her cackle at the news of the death of Qadaffi, so is her indifference to a man who is a voice of truth to power.

    • February 2, 2018 at 20:27

      That.s our Ray!!! he walks the walk

      D

    • Anon
      February 2, 2018 at 21:56

      You would need evidence to make such a point, but I see only the extremist accusation.
      Clearly you know that the situation would be far worse if the zionist Clintonites replaced Trump with Pence.

    • Oakland Pete
      February 2, 2018 at 22:31

      Even apart from the logic of Bruce/Drew, which is impeccable to me, versus the lack of any from Jim, the tone of Jim’s response should disclose how incapable of a coherent response he is.

      • Jim
        February 3, 2018 at 16:50

        That would be the orange turd trump and his goons, to state the obvious to the ignorant, who’s the target of the investigations Rayban has totally failed to undermine either in principle or practice. He’s accomplishing nothing but carrying water for the 4th Reich and entertaining brownshirts as he burns his legacy…

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 05:18

      See my comments below. There will be a quickie quiz in 10 minutes.

  64. February 2, 2018 at 19:41

    My first impression is that this memo is overstated hype.

    • Kelli
      February 2, 2018 at 20:17

      My first impression is ALARM.
      Recently both parties voted to keep warrantless spying on the American people in place. The memo just highlights the abuse of those powers. Something we should all more than be concerned about

    • David G
      February 2, 2018 at 23:03

      I think I agree, and that goes for both partisan sides. Isn’t this just a shiny object to look at instead of the real horror of the total surveillance, secret state?

      I give as little credit to “Russia-gate” as many here, but I’m having trouble getting exercised about FBI or CIA counterintelligence watching Carter Page, who actually was hanging around with real Russian agents of some sort. I mean, I wouldn’t care if the FBI/CIA had *not* been doing so: I consider Russian “attacks” somewhere below killer bees on my list of pressing problems facing the U.S. But if the counterespionage people are going to do something, I suppose it might as well have been this.

      As for the memo, I don’t see why I should buy a nakedly partisan hit job by Repub House staffers in general, or the vital importance of any of its specific allegations, even if they end up having some basis in truth.

      I may be wrong about the memo: I honestly haven’t been interested enough to master all the relevant facts and arguments. But I’ve been pretty disappointed in Ray McGovern’s recent pieces on the topic. I don’t feel they offer very much to the critical reader just trying to figure out what to make of all this.

  65. Drew Hunkins
    February 2, 2018 at 18:50

    Since we all know — at least the few of us who haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid and are astute observers of the politico-economic scene — that there’s absolutely no credible evidence whatsoever pointing to the Kremlin hacking or interfering in the 2016 presidential election to favor Trump, this indicates there must be a faction of our elites that’s wholly intent on propagating all this group think about Russia-gate.

    I believe I’ve identified two of the key elements of our ruling class that are committed to this alarming Russophobic narrative:

    1) The biggest purveyors and prevaricators are the establishment DNC along with Rachel Maddow, Masha Gessen (the nauseating intellectual muscle behind much of this. I do give Gessen begrudging credit though for questioning Russia-gate, but she’s otherwise an insufferable and incessant Russophobe and Putin basher.) and the DNC sycophants at MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, NPR and WaPo. They simply cannot accept that they ran a repellent Wall Street warmongering candidate who lost to the deplorable Trump, of all people. Ergo, they must discredit and delegitimize the Trump election and presidency at all costs.

    2) The careerist Washington militarists (both public and private entities) who make their promotions, budgets and contracts off the vilification of Putin and Moscow. These dangerous sociopaths were genuinely terrified when Trump advocated a rapprochement of sorts with Russia. One of the very, very few issues Trump actually got right.

    That these two groups are coalescing on this fraudulent Russiagate baloney is putting the world on the brink of nuclear war. How long will Moscow continue to be a stoic punching bag in the face of all the Western disinformation and provocations?

    • ,
      February 2, 2018 at 18:57

      The Russian chess masters are waiting for the US to punch itself out – an old story for empires in decline. The US is way crazy overextended.

      • ,
        February 2, 2018 at 19:00

        Maybe Putin is taking a page from Mohamed Ali, “dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

      • jeff montanye
        February 3, 2018 at 06:12

        one might mention the neocons and neolibs and the mossad/likud if one wanted to really analyze motive in the u.s. government since 2001, or 1993, or 1963. it’s what made sense of ralph nader’s statement that it is not what the parties disagree about that’s the problem, it’s what they agree about.

        and why trump, unvetted by aipac, is such an existential danger to the rnc and the deep state, for all his buffoonery and standard republican theft by and for the rich.

    • Bruce
      February 2, 2018 at 19:14

      Excellent comment. I would add that the Russians and Chinese have been moving against the US petrodollar for a while now, and the US is increasingly desperate to confront them one way or the other. Expect more stories about dollar weakness.

      • Drew Hunkins
        February 2, 2018 at 19:27

        Thanks for the kind words Bruce. I actually had that comment of mine published in my local newspaper this morning. So I figured I’d just copy it and paste it on CN.

        Yes, you’re correct, the competing BRICS and the New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative) of which China and Moscow are major cogs are major perceived threats by the Wall Streeters and Fortune 500 crowd.

        • evelync
          February 2, 2018 at 20:20

          Good for you, Drew! To actually have your local newspaper accept and publish what I agree with Bruce is an excellent comment.

          It gives one a little hope for our democracy that your local paper published your LTTE given all the wild politically motivated contrivances flying around.Thanks!

          • Virginia
            February 2, 2018 at 20:49

            Bravo, Drew! Like Evelync, I agree that, “To actually have your local newspaper accept and publish, what I agree with Bruce is an excellent comment, … gives one a little hope for our democracy”

    • Anna
      February 2, 2018 at 21:06

      Masha Gessen is just one among many ziocons with acute Russophobia. Another case is Dmitri Alperovitch, an “analytic” from CrowdStrike, a treasonous scoundrel who had made the “expert” conclusion that the DNC was hacked; the conclusion was followed by death of Seth Rich, the most likely leaker of the DNC dirty emails to the Wikileaks. Note that Rosenstein (DOJ) has been seemingly not interested in the murder of Seth Rich, as well as in Wiener emails, and in Awan affair (see Debbie Wasserman-Schultz).
      There are also two cherries on the top of the stinky “pie” — Schumer and Pelosi. Schumer has openly warned Trump that the security apparatus would find ways to get him if Trump attempts to clean the house: “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you…” Think about that for a moment. Here was an establishment politician admitting that the Deep State was more powerful than the president of the United States, the person to which the intelligence community is supposed to answer (as well as the American people). Schumer was also tacitly admitting that the intelligence community — part and parcel of the Deep State — was also more powerful than Congress, which is supposed to have oversight responsibility.” https://newstarget.com/2018-01-22-deep-state-war-with-trump-proves-the-people-have-lost-control-of-their-government.html
      Schumer, an Israel-firster, has lost his mind due to his arrogance and unaccountability.
      What a mess.

      • Dorsey Gardner
        February 2, 2018 at 23:49

        Schumer is a subversive for Israel. Don’t take about “dual loyalty,” he is loyal only to Israel.

        • February 3, 2018 at 13:34

          I’ve always referred to C.S. as Sen.,IS.

    • Mark McCarty
      February 2, 2018 at 21:15

      You NAILED it!!

    • alley cat
      February 2, 2018 at 23:06

      Surprise, surprise, once again Hillary’s name magically pops up as a ringleader behind more felonies and dirty tricks. She was never more than a female Nixon with a gender card and a dirty trick up her sleeve. Tricky Dicky was always playing some dirty trick on his political opponents. Sometimes they were nasty pranks, sometimes crimes. He even had a team dedicated to dirty tricks. Had she won the election, Hillary would have made Nixon look like an amateur.

      Getting a FISA warrant based on false information is a serious crime, but hey, once you’ve deliberately and repeatedly mishandled classified documents, operated a racketeering ring out of your basement, and brazenly obstructed justice by destroying incriminating evidence, what difference can one more little felony make?

      These criminal conspirators swore out false affidavits because they had no evidence to justify wiretaps. They were just fishing for something, anything, they could use against Trump. What Strzok would call “an insurance policy.”

      All the illegal surveillance and a partisan political witch-hunt orchestrated by the president’s most tenacious enemies has turned up exactly zero evidence of any collusion between Trump and the Russians. Russiagate was never more than an evidence-free smear ginned-up to overturn the election and divert attention from the real malefactors at the DNC. Oh yeah, and kill any hopes of détente with Russia.

      Now John Heilemann, on MSNBC, has tried to tar Nunes himself as a Russian agent. Enough of this insanity, Russiagaters. Time to put up or shut up. And for some of you, time to go to jail, if the other inmates will put up with you.

      • Beard681
        February 6, 2018 at 15:25

        LOL, you have to be kidding. Jail? HRC has skated off of way more serious crimes way back to her Whitewater days. Reality Winner releases a government document and goes to jail. J Edgar Comey does the same and is the toast of the town. Jail is for the “little people”.

        Nothing will happen, nobody goes to jail, and the military budget goes up. USA! USA! USA!

    • Litchfield
      February 2, 2018 at 23:22

      “) The biggest purveyors and prevaricators are the establishment DNC along with Rachel Maddow, Masha Gessen (the nauseating intellectual muscle behind much of this. I do give Gessen begrudging credit though for questioning Russia-gate, but she’s otherwise an insufferable and incessant Russophobe and Putin basher.) and the DNC sycophants at MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, NPR and WaPo. ”

      You got it right, there.
      And thanks for calling out the nauseating Masha Gessen. And don’t forget her brother.
      They seem to be Ukrainian nationalists.

    • Michael Keenan
      February 3, 2018 at 01:04

      Ian Masters has fallen in with the Russia Bear crowd too.

    • Mattnyc
      February 3, 2018 at 04:02

      The MIC and the Wall-Street financed wing of the democratic party obviously have the most to gain by the big lie of Russian collusion in altering the outcome of the election, and that Russia is a threat (militarily or otherwise) to Europe. The MIC needs a conventional enemy so the gravy train for big ticket military items goes on forever. The reality that Russia has an economy the size of Italy with 1/10th of our military expenditure is nicely brushed aside.

      The corp. democrats get a cudgel with which to beat Trump allowing them to forego creating a populist economic plan that would hurt their donors. The DLC is happy with being the more powerful wing of the political condominium that represents the deep state.

      The entertainers like Colbert, Maddow, Williams and AC are essentially employees of this current alliance. The networks and legacy publications that propagate Russiagate, as always, are mouthpieces of the MIC, the better writers that work for them are blinded by Trump’s sociopathic buffoonery to look at his adversaries and have virtually no reason to look at the situation squarely. Combine them with ignoramuses easily swayed by patriotism and Russophobes and there is a ready army to crank out the lies that are needed to impugn Russia daily.

      But when Russiagate is finally and irrevocably exposed for the red herring it is, it will be the Dems not the all powerful military that suffers. What will they do then?

      • Litchfield
        February 3, 2018 at 12:34

        “the better writers that work for them are blinded by Trump’s sociopathic buffoonery to look at his adversaries and have virtually no reason to look at the situation squarely. Combine them with ignoramuses easily swayed by patriotism and Russophobes and there is a ready army to crank out the lies that are needed to impugn Russia daily. ”

        Very well put.

    • Dave P.
      February 3, 2018 at 04:19

      Drew Hunkins –

      Excellent post. You have summarized very well the scenario behind this Russia-Gate nonsense which is going on non-stop for almost two years now. It is sickening to watch these Democratic legislators – and some Republicans too – in Washington spitting out this garbage of lies and misinformation day in and day out. I am amazed how this very frighteningly strongest Power ever on Earth which U.S. is has all these intellectually diminished political figures with no honesty, and integrity elected to the Congress. And same applies to the Corporate owned media people and the high government functionaries. The future does not bode well for the humanity on the Earth.

      • February 3, 2018 at 16:31

        How prescient considering we are approaching the 4th and 6th seals of the book God wrote. Day 666 of this administration may be day 1 of Daniel’s 70th week. It’s not about Trump. 2018 shall be a busy year.

    • Tim
      February 3, 2018 at 05:24

      Cheers on your astute comments.

    • Zim
      February 3, 2018 at 10:31

      Spot on!

    • rosemerry
      February 3, 2018 at 16:03

      Precisely so. All the pretence about Trump and Putin, and now Trump’s baby-nuke arrangement for use against the wicked Russkies is the latest and perhaps so far most dangerous step.

    • Rob Roy
      February 4, 2018 at 13:49

      Thank you, Drew Hunkins. Well said.
      I might add that we would not have wound up with Trump, if Obama had done his job at which he failed miserably…no healthcare for all, no stopping the wars, no education for all guarantee, no thorough gun laws, no support for public education, no fixing our infrastructure, no strengthening financial regulations, no ceasing of drone murders, re-signing the horrid Patriot Act, authorization for presidential new war attacks, no calling out war criminals, no cutting of the insane MIC funds, no cutting off Israel funding, etc. He was a phony. “Yes, we can” meant “no, we can’t.” Now we have Trump as a result, a pathological liar and sociopath who is such a bully he can’t wait to show his power with a nuclear hit on another country that is no threat to us.
      As for Russia-gate, there’s no there there and this will all go nowhere because there’s no where to go. The ONLY good thing about Trump is he hasn’t wanted to make a regime change in Russia a la Hilary.

  66. Billy
    February 2, 2018 at 18:44

    It’s obvious that the FBI and DOJ officials don’t care. Rosenstein needs fired and a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the whole bunch.

    • geeyp
      February 3, 2018 at 00:28

      Exactly what I said three columns preceding Ray’s in the comments section (Andrew Spannaus piece). Also, to that I would add certain “media” figures.

      • geeyp
        February 3, 2018 at 01:10

        Read the six page memo for yourself and you will see, if you know the the ins and outs of Watergate, that this is on another level and so much worse.

        • jeff montanye
          February 3, 2018 at 06:02

          and while we are at it, why didn’t the fbi investigate the “hacked” dnc email servers instead of depending on crowdstrike?

          and exactly who, what, where, when and how was guccifer 2.0?

          and explain why the fbi never looked at seth rich’s phone or computer. that’s one i really want explicated because even if it was a mugging (not in the hospital as well though?) it certainly could have been something different. and rich was, with near certainty, the source for wikileaks, which was what the fbi was investigating.

          oh what a tangled web we weave.

          • Zim
            February 3, 2018 at 10:27

            My thoughts exactly. Whole lot of people need perp walking.

          • Anon
            February 3, 2018 at 15:05

            Absolutely! Listen to Seymour Hersh about the Seth Rich investigation. How do you let Crowdstrike investigate when you have some of the best computer forensics people at the NSA? Total BS.

            As to Implosion versus Explosion I have to agree that we are witnessing the Implosion of corrupt institutions.

          • Dave P.
            February 3, 2018 at 19:05

            Yes, jeff montayne. These are the steps which a real investigation should have followed to find out who leaked those Hillary- Podesta emails.

  67. Virginia
    February 2, 2018 at 18:41

    For those of you who saw the movie “Snowden,” you will recall that he exposed how the surveillance doesn’t stop with just one person. This FISA warrant would have resulted in something like this: Carter Page’s every call bugged; then 40 contacts of each person he talked with; then 40 contacts of each of those individuals, and so on.

    • Merline2
      February 3, 2018 at 03:35

      Indeed, but it’s worse than that. A FISA warrant allows sifting through all past communications not just the forthcoming ones. Which the NSA would surely have and likely provided access to. Just imagine how many people could have been snared through the surveillance. Like you said, Snowden revealed just how deep and wide the chain can be. Even completely innocuous contacts can be snared, to who knows what nefarious purpose.

      Which then begs the question: if the surveillance was so wide, that on top of everything the NSA knows (and it knows a lot), it boggles the imagination to think that with all this effort they could not come up with a single incriminating evidence so far against Trump. Mueller must be running into the same brick wall.

      Why, that Trump fellow just might have had fewer contacts with Russkies than I did over the years!

      • david thurman
        February 5, 2018 at 12:31

        Ok, but Carter Page was initially FISA’d in 2013, not this warrant, but long before Trump and his campaign was in the picture. This 2016 FISA was begun in October, AFTER he’d been dismissed by the trump campaign; it is alleged that was to keep it out of the campaign. Page by his own account was an informal advisor to the Kremlin. Should someone in trump campaign have run his bona fides?

        • Beard681
          February 6, 2018 at 15:13

          Yes, heaven forbid that Trump hire an adviser who actually worked in Russia and had an opinion different from the establishment. Yes, Page was FISAed in 2013 for opposing US foreign policy, publicly sating so in public and also to Russians (where he worked for years). Since when is a policy difference BY A PRIVATE CITIZEN the reason for a warrant? How was Trump supposed to know? FISA is supposed to be “secret” – except when it suits someone to leak it.

          Even if Trump spoke to Putin about the election, the only illegality would be if he received anything of material value from Putin as it can be construed as an illegal campaign contribution from a foreigner. In comparison, HRC and the DNC laundered money to Fusion GPS (i.e. they fraudulently show up in the books as “legal fees”) who then contacted Russians for campaign information. In addition, much of the information came via contacts with Bill Browder whose fingerprints are all over the “Dossier”. (Browder renounced US citizenship to avoid taxes on money he appropriated from Russia.) Why no investigation of foreign influence here? Or with the Ukrainians who passed information to Blumenthal and got Manafort kicked off the Trump campaign? Or on virtually every other entity from AIPAC to the German Marshal Fund that takes foreign money to influence US foreign policy?

          Welcome to the United Scams of America….

  68. Shiv
    February 2, 2018 at 18:40

    This site for “investigative journalism” has really gone off the rails now. For all the good work that Parry did back in the day..in the end he was a hack. There is very little..close to zero.. “investigative reporting” and a whole lot of weak analysis and opinion here at “CNN”. Tell me how this is better than what the MSM does? It isn’t…it’s not even in the league.

    Now it’s up to Ray McGovern to ratchet up the BS?

    Waiting for the super-clowns to start descending here. Pizzagate, sure! I remember.

    Sorry Robert…I would wish you’d have a chance to turn it around before it was too late. RIP.

    • Virginia
      February 2, 2018 at 18:46

      Shiv, Yes — better to leave opinions and one’s own mental battles and ruminating to the commentators, and adhere to “news worthy quality and information” in the articles. Let’s keep CN informed of what we’re used to and hope to continue reading here.

      Thanks, Ray, as always for your good contributions.

    • ,
      February 2, 2018 at 18:52

      Did you get that sneaky shiv in the Big House?

      • February 2, 2018 at 21:04

        shiv….a cheap, dirty little knife in the back…pretty appropriate monniker, really!!!

        regards

        D

    • GM
      February 2, 2018 at 19:28

      Not what you wanted to hear, was it?

    • Kelli
      February 2, 2018 at 20:35

      As with most who swallowed the Iraq has WMD, so are those swallowing the Russia did it campaign..
      And just as the same intelligence agencies that lied us into Iraq are lying us into Russia. Will you be there cheering the establishment nuclear bomb ‘shock and awe’ too?

      You said absolutely nothing coherent that puts a dent into the facts presented here. And that does not surprise me because there are ZERO facts that back up Russia gate BS.

    • Oakland Pete
      February 2, 2018 at 20:55

      Your “RIP” sounds disingenuous when you call Bob “a hack”. All I can say in response is that you’re “a prick”.

      • Annie
        February 3, 2018 at 03:31

        Good for you Pete, and so inappropriate so soon after Mr. Parry’s death. He must know his son is trying to maintain this site in honor of his father. Some people are truly callous, and indifferent to the feelings of others, narcissism applies here.

    • February 2, 2018 at 20:56

      Unlike Shiv, I won’t claim late-life Parry himself was a hack.

      But, this is the second straight semi-hack piece by McGovern.

      I find it a mix of amazing and frustrating that neither Ray himself, nor a single commenter here, can note how the Papadopoulos mention undercuts the Nunes Memo.

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-gop-memo-papadopoulos-20180202-story.html

      And, that’s not to mention Nunes throwing Rosenstein under the bus, too.

      Add in that CJ from Oz is now apparently going to be a regular poster here, and I may wind up removing Consortium News from my blog roll.

      And, no, I’m not a Democrat. Haven’t voted Dem for president this century.

      • Mark McCarty
        February 2, 2018 at 21:43

        So an Australian diplomat claims that Papadopoulos claims that a Maltese professor he knows claims that he has heard that Russia has some of Hillary’s emails (which any number of former U.S. intelligence agents were then speculating was the case). And the pertinence of this to Carter Page and collusion is what?!!!

        Caity “from Oz” is now one of the most inspired political essayists extant, and I was delighted to see her posting on CN, which in my opinion is the best site for informed commentary on world affairs on the entire web.

        And I’m not a Democrat either, having surrendered my 43-year membership when the national party shoved the world-class war criminal, grifting serial liar, and totally phony servant of plutocracy Hillary down our throats..

      • Tobin Paz
        February 2, 2018 at 21:45

        From the link you provided:

        “The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok,” the memo noted in its final paragraph.

        Papadopoulos was not interviewed until January 2017. Steele in comparison was interviewed in October in 2016. It is not believable that a drunk Papadopoulos running his mouth in front of an Australian diplomat would be the event to start the investigation without having talkked to him for six months.

      • Anon
        February 2, 2018 at 22:04

        So far you have been seconding the trolls, attacking the excellent writers and commenters here without any useful observations. A mass media link as evidence? More gadfly than Socratic there. Looks to me like your old gambit of pretending to be a disaffected former supporter. Fools no one. So are you BobS or Shiv seconding yourself, or just paid by the same source to attack your superiors?

    • Dorsey Gardner
      February 2, 2018 at 23:45

      Robert Parry and Ray McGovern rule!

      • geeyp
        February 3, 2018 at 01:52

        I happen to agree with you, Dorsey. Mr. Parry I have already discussed. Ray McGovern had a distinguished career years ago that has carried him well these last few years. He clearly has repented for any things he regrets during that time. He has expressed as much. He strikes me as an honest man who is modest and kindly; not afraid to put himself on the line. He was treated severely once for silently standing at attention facing away from HRC giving a speech…manhandled roughly and unnecessarily. Another time, he stood outside in line to attend a David Petraeus talk and was attacked and not allowed inside. An attempt to intimidate Americans that is sick and evil does not work against true patriots.

      • February 3, 2018 at 13:10

        Spoken like a true Gardner!

    • Bob Loblaw
      February 3, 2018 at 08:14

      Seriously?
      What precisely is bullshit in Ray’s synopsis of the facts? All he did was repeat what is known, then point at the unknowns allowing for an interesting unfolding of the aftermath.

      Oh maybe it exposes bad behavior of Democratic operatives thus discrediting the Russia Russia Russia narrative? Is this the parameter that deems Ray and the CN community bullshit?

    • Brad Owen
      February 4, 2018 at 08:17

      Shiv; in the end, Robert was not a hack. He was concerned for his reputation as a journalist with integrity. Sadly; THAT concern produces its own sort of groupthink, rendering sites like this as a “controlled opposition”. I too, have left the site behind. Even Alex Jones produces better results with his scatter-gun approach, getting some things right occasionally.

  69. February 2, 2018 at 18:38

    Uncharted political territory is where we are. How long will Democrat grandstanding go on? Until the poles flip?

    • tina
      February 2, 2018 at 23:21

      What is this Democrat grandstanding you speak of? Evidence please

      • Joe Tedesky
        February 3, 2018 at 02:33

        Bingo tina, you said the magic word ‘evidence’, and now with the introduction of the Nunes Memo both the Dem’s & Repub’s can demand, ‘where’s the evidence’ until the cows come home, or cable news goes off the air. It’s now a wash tina. Joe

        • Kiza
          February 3, 2018 at 03:48

          Hello Joe, I am really sorry that you fell for that one. It is the evidence for the this memo which is secret not the memo itself, but the Schiff & The Gang, including the new director of FBI, have been trying to suppress the release of this memo on the basis of it revealing the state secrets. Therefore, I do not think you will see the “evidence” that would convince you.

          It is just funny to watch all the lefties squirm and invent BS, including Mr McGovern. It is a memo of the Intelligence Committee, not a “Nunes Memo”, except as a propaganda meme created in the heads of the lefties by the owners of the left. The stupidity of the “US left” is only matched by the boundless corruption of its owners.

          The only way to start restoring the rule of law in US is for those six people to find themselves behind bars and some for a very long time: Comey, McCabe, Yates, Boente, Rosenstein, Brennan and Clapper.

          But it looks to me that the stupidos of the US Democrats would rather man the barricades then resolve this matter lawfully.

          Now I know that nobody is going to jail, this will turn only into another election ploy for the Republicans and the horribly corrupt and declining US nation will be happy with such compromise: nobody in jail but a few more Congress votes for the Republicans. But the real payback to all of you will come in the form of the Republicans using a similar approach in the future, once they stack up DoJ, FBI, CIA etc etc with their own corrupt partisans (do not get angry, get even). And they could always up the ante of lawlessness by another couple of notches and make US a dictatorship – one party forever.

          I have said it before and I keep repeating – the race is on between the US financial (moral, political etc etc) collapse – IMPLOSION and US destruction of the whole World and our species – EXPLOSION. Spying on electoral competition, with or without your denial, points towards implosion thus it makes me happy.

          • jeff montanye
            February 3, 2018 at 05:50

            whether anyone is tried seems to depend a good deal on the inspector general’s report, due out around the ides of march. people from high government office go to jail on occasion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes

            a lot depends on president trump and he seems inclined to let the chips fall where they may, unlike earlier presidents who were essentially protecting their own team (nixon the exception since they kind of “got” him as well.

            social mood is a big influence too and it is as hostile as i have seen it. when will the democrats realize they might need to attack the george w. bush administration on 9-11 and the initiation (quite falsely particularly in the case of iraq) of “seven countries in five years” in order to show they are not uniquely corrupted?

          • February 3, 2018 at 06:00

            “The stupidity of the “US left” is only matched by the boundless corruption of its owners”
            I fully subscribe to that..

          • Peter the painter
            February 3, 2018 at 07:29

            There is no U.S. Left.

          • Joe Tedesky
            February 3, 2018 at 10:49

            So far no one is talking about Admiral Mike Rodgers who discovered the FBI/DOJ doing their spying stuff on the Trump staff. This ‘Memo’ was crafted by Nunes, and this will be rebutted by the Dem’s with their own version of the events. Sorry, but I see this being spun into a very complicated ball of confusion, which by the time the average person off the street is confronted with all this the controversy is but only one more wedge to deepen the divide.

            I see the Dem’s as now being behind the eight ball, the same way the Trump Administration has been held there for over this past year by the Mueller investigation. Talking about Mueller, if the exposure of Mueller signing off on the Uranium One Deal becomes known, then I will start believing this house of cards is coming down.

            Kiza, I see this whole crazy affair becoming a back room negotiating session between the Deep State characters with oh I don’t know call the other side the Shadow Government, the Pentagon, but who, and whatever makes up the other side. Drew Carey should be so lucky to host an episode of ‘Lets Make a Deal’ that is so exciting.

            In the end, I probably sound stupid, but I seriously don’t see this becoming an event where real justice is served, and the people are the better for it. This will be a great ending to the first season of President Donald Trump’s Reality TV Show. It’s not that none of this is real, but it is that all of this is contrived, and scripted in a way as to protect the untouchables, and let the lower echelons fall on their swords for where else may they fall…that’s all. Joe

          • February 3, 2018 at 13:01

            Excellent analysis, Kiza, [though I believe there may be ” A New Era” for the World blowing in from the East.” Thank you for fingering “the owners” o the left. As an Old Lefty myself, I deeply resent that this new “left” is bought and paid for by the same Elite that owns both “Partys.”

          • Kiza
            February 3, 2018 at 13:57

            Thank you floyd gardiner and others, my point is truly about both parties, not about the Democrats only – both have owners and are terribly corrupt. But people refuse to acknowledge this about their preferred team of crooks, it is always the other side which is to blame. Also, it is so amazingly easy to confuse things when people want to be confused.

            US is stuck in the same deja vu all over again.

          • Anon
            February 3, 2018 at 14:57

            Yes, there is no Left according to CIA historian Douglas Valentine. There is only the Right and the Ultra-Right. Have to agree.

          • Dave P.
            February 3, 2018 at 16:11

            Kiza , Joe –

            Kiza your stunningly correct and perceptive observations/comments have lifted some of the curtain to see this charade going on behind the curtain. It seems like that this memo written by Nunes and Co. has been arrived at jointly by the Powers who rule to mollify the public and to deceive the World beyond. Forget about the justice. The public will not see the real memos and the truth. Trump is also a part of this charade going on there in Washington and elsewhere in the Nation. He has no other choice. He never had any strong convictions anyhow; he has to save himself. He knows the consequences if he does not go along. The whole foreign policy is also a part of this charade. All the declarations by Trump, Tillerson, and others are to alternately confuse, deceive and also to frighten the World beyond The West. It is a part of the process to destabilize the perceived adversaries.

            Wall Street Finance and Media are the real powers who rule the country. MIC, Deep State, other Government entities, and now even the Academia are simply their subsidiaries. The Congress, and other Politicians are the puppets in their hands – the subsidiaries of the Real Powers who rule. So are the media mouth pieces, their invited guests, and other pundits put on the podiums.The moral degradation and corruption of the entire structure of Power is complete. And it is taking the whole World along that path, because CNN, MSNBC, and other Western media are all over the World, in just about all the countries. The Western Media and Influence predominates the World.

            We should ask ourselves this question: May be the Empire this big can not be run by a real democracy?

          • Kiza
            February 3, 2018 at 19:57

            Thanks Dave P, as usual you raise some great discussion points.

            But, what I find most interesting is how short was the road from universal surveillance to using this as a tool to stay in power, not that this was not oh so predictable. Considering how much of a temptation it is, the universal surveillance should have never been undertaken, even if all the checks and balances have been implemented, which they have not – FISC is a total joke. The ball is in the Republican court now – they have those tools at their disposal, they are in power and they have the precedent set by the opposition. If the US was not so terribly divided and if they had a suitable Caesar (Trump is neither smart enough nor uniting enough) they could quickly turn the plutocratic quasi-republic into some populist dictatorship. Instead, a civil war is more likely at least at first, till a suitably unifying leader/dictator pops out.

            Even if it does not pan out like this, the fact that these historically unique tools of control are now available will remain ominous and US politics will never be the same. Whoever applies the tools next will certainly up the ante and will not let be caught as the Magnificent Six just did by losing the election – amateurish crooks are they not, job only half done?

            But US people are too preoccupied with the MSM swill, such as the “evidence”, my team is better than the other team, and blah blah to notice the big picture: some people are getting too rich and too powerful and they are putting on the old bread and circuses show for the dumb masses.

          • Joe Tedesky
            February 3, 2018 at 20:38

            Dave, do you recall the summer before the 2016 presidential election, of how the Democrates were so mad at James Comey, for his bringing up Hillary’s computer breach? Funny, how time heals all wounds, isn’t it? Comey’s Hillary investigation makes me wonder to if Comey & Co. were out to box Hillary into a corner. In other words no matter who the winner of the 2016 presidential election was going to be, the new president would be fair bate for FBI intrigue.

            I would love nothing better than to see the slimy critters who belong to the swamp, be flushed out and made to suffer a consequence for their past actions. The only thing is, is what critters are we looking for, when everything that moves in DC looks like a creepy critter? I’m afraid it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad critters.

            The rebuttals to the Nunes Memo are coming fast, and furious. Here’s an article which actually links to Ray McGovern’s article here. It is a rebuttal by a former FBI agent.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-03/cia-fbi-agents-respond-nunes-memo

            The tv ratings are going through the roof, because of this Memo, and that is how in America issues of this kind make money for commercial advertisers. Mostly so far, I think this craziness in our nation’s capital is theater, and that in the end nothing of any great importance will come of it.

            Possibly we should be talking about our countries stand on nuclear war, or on the trade agreements we have so much angst over. With that I hope my feelings are wrong on this Nunes Memo and Russia-Gate to where they collide. Joe

          • Brad Owen
            February 4, 2018 at 08:07

            Liza, Dave P.; it’s a mistake to overlook the “other players” on the World stage, guiding and directing the takedown of this wicked global Establishment. The ancient Greeks understood better this phenomenon better than do we moderns.

      • Chad
        February 4, 2018 at 06:33

        Cue CNN in 3…2…1…

  70. Dr. Ibrahim Soudy
    February 2, 2018 at 18:26

    Washington, D.C. is a corrupt culture…….no solution……..

  71. ,
    February 2, 2018 at 18:24

    It’s about time Trump called the McCarthyite witch hunters out with solid evidence of their dirty game. It would be nice if they could follow up with a real investigation of Seth Rich’s murder. The democratic party is now going to be fully revealed for what it truly is – a bunch of phony crooks.

    • ,
      February 2, 2018 at 18:26

      And the supposedly pristine “intelligence” community? Shown up for the scum vermin they are.

    • February 2, 2018 at 20:44

      Random event, IMO. And in the opinion of a Sy Hersh, too.

      • Zachary Smith
        February 2, 2018 at 21:26

        Do you have a link to demonstrate the validity of that claim?

        • jeff montanye
          February 3, 2018 at 05:34

          s/he’s right regarding sy hersh thinking seth rich was mugged not hit: http://archive.is/lD4BV

          however his actual death in the hospital, given the low severity of his wounds, is an entirely separate chance for the arkanciders to strike at seth rich. sy hersh did not pronounce on that in his famous rant, just the original street shooting, it seems.

          just to let us know about the least famous of the faked fisa warrants signers, “in December 2012, Dana Boente was appointed by United States Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a position he held until September 2013. He became the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia by virtue of the Vacancy Reform Act on September 23, 2013, and served in that position until December 15, 2015. In this role, he was involved in the sentencing of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell. He stated that, “No one is above the law… not a high public official, not even the highest public official [in Virginia].

      • Mark McCarty
        February 2, 2018 at 21:32

        The DNC affiliates who concocted the Guccifer 2.0 fraud to incriminate Russia as the source of the WikiLeaks DNC releases would have every reason to want the real leaker dead. And if they were willing to trigger a new Cold War to excuse Hillary, snuffing some low-level functionary like Seth would be a mere triviality.

    • February 2, 2018 at 21:05

      AMEN!

    • Keir Knight
      February 2, 2018 at 22:54

      Agreed!
      Justice for Seth Rich!

    • tina
      February 2, 2018 at 23:18

      what is the definition of a phony crook? Would a phony crook be an honest person? How is that even possible , to be a phony crook, telling the truth?

      • February 3, 2018 at 12:39

        “Phony” is used here, I believe, as a noun, rather than an adjective. One may be both a phony and a crook.

      • Mike Sabre
        February 4, 2018 at 09:42

        Missing the point, aren’t you? Or are you just obfuscating ?

    • Cowgirl Diva
      February 3, 2018 at 13:38

      YES…!! Seth Rich’s assassination needs to be investigated…!!

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