Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified Wednesday that he would not have signed a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant renewal for former Trump campaign aide Carter Page had he known about the since-revealed misconduct surrounding those warrants -- while faulting the FBI for its handling of the documents. Rosenstein confirmed that he signed a FISA warrant renewal application for Page, during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee where he was the first witness as part of the panel’s fresh investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.
"If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application?" committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Rosenstein.
"No, I would not," Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein, in his opening statement, defended his own actions related to the FISA warrant, saying that “every application I approved appeared to be justified based on the facts it alleged.” Rosenstein implicitly pointed the finger at the FBI for since-revealed problems in that process.
“The FBI was supposed to be following protocols to ensure that every fact was verified,” Rosenstein said, going on to cite Justice Department inspector general findings last year revealing that the FBI actually “was not following the written protocols, and that ‘significant errors’ appeared in applications filed in connection with the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
Is Rod Rosenstein telling the truth? I have no idea. If he is telling the truth, then he is pointing the finger at James Comey. If he is saying that it was the F.B.I.'s responsibility, the head of the F.B.I. at that time was Mr. Comey.
So is he telling the truth?
Who knows? And that is one reason we need hearings. CNN reports:
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Johnson are both launching investigations that will scrutinize FBI and Justice Department officials as well as top officials in the Obama White House -- including President Donald Trump's presumptive general election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. The two investigations, as well as another probe Johnson has started related to Biden's son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy firm, come against an election-year backdrop in which Trump has openly cheered on the probes, urging Senate Republicans to get "tough," and Trump administration officials have declassified documents related to the prosecution of Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The Justice Department has launched its own review of the FBI's Russia investigation, and Attorney General William Barr disputed the inspector general's conclusion the investigation was properly opened.
Both Graham and Johnson have said they expect to issue reports detailing their findings before the election. Graham said he's going to focus on the FBI's Russia investigation, and leaving questions about the Trump transition to Johnson.
Graham's subpoena authorization included 53 officials, most of whom served in the Obama administration, while Johnson's subpoena authorization included 35 individuals. There were 24 names on both lists.
We're not going to retry the Mueller investigation. The court has issued a stunning rebuke of the FBI. Isn't it our job to find out what happened?" Graham said Thursday.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, June 4, 2020. Iraq has a host of problems that are not being
addressed, Joe Biden continues to lack inspiration and is upstaged by
celebrities, and much more.
“It’s really hard that people are going to tear me apart. But it doesn’t change what happened. This happened in 1993. I was harassed, and I was assaulted, and history will look back on the journalism from this time and judge it,” she tells GT by phone.
Overwhelmed by threats and online harassment, Reade says she is “a poster child for why victims don’t want to come forward.”
“This is destroying my life,” says Reade, who did not speak with GT for our initial story. “I’m not suing Biden. I’m obviously not having any effect on his campaign. His campaign is fine. I tried to come forward in 1993 and in 2019 and now. I just hope it gets easier for the survivors.”
Some former acquaintances of Reade have taken calls from a private investigator and spoken with him. Hummer says the investigator wouldn’t say who his client was, although he insisted it wasn’t the Biden campaign.
Starting with Tara Reade who has made a credible allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her. Jacob Pierce (GOOD TIMES) reports:
“It’s really hard that people are going to tear me apart. But it doesn’t change what happened. This happened in 1993. I was harassed, and I was assaulted, and history will look back on the journalism from this time and judge it,” she tells GT by phone.
Overwhelmed by threats and online harassment, Reade says she is “a poster child for why victims don’t want to come forward.”
“This is destroying my life,” says Reade, who did not speak with GT for our initial story. “I’m not suing Biden. I’m obviously not having any effect on his campaign. His campaign is fine. I tried to come forward in 1993 and in 2019 and now. I just hope it gets easier for the survivors.”
Some former acquaintances of Reade have taken calls from a private investigator and spoken with him. Hummer says the investigator wouldn’t say who his client was, although he insisted it wasn’t the Biden campaign.
It's Anita Dunn, that's the
client. Her dirty work is at play just as it was for Harvey Weinstein.
Times Up will always be a dirty joke for making that dirty whore their
manager. It'll be very hard for them to blackmail donations in the
future, which, let's be honest, is what they've done and they have
nothing to show for the millions that they've extorted. They are a fake
organization pretending to help victims as the money disappears into
private pockets and is expensed under 'overhead.'
Tara
told her story. She has been attacked for it. People pretend that the
slurs and smears means she wasn't assaulted when that's not what they
mean at all.
Her character has no bearing on
whether or not she was assaulted. What we do have is what in every
other cases is consider corroborating evidence. We have her mother's
phone call to Larry King. I like Larry and I've known him for years.
If you missed it, he took time out this week to talk about his friends
(Joe Biden and Donald Trump) and to say he didn't believe Tara.
You know what I didn't hear, Larry?
I didn't hear you apologize.
For years, you've maintained that you do the work you do for your audiences.
In
1993, Tara's mother called into your show and asked for help. Neither
you nor your guests offered her any. You just moved right on.
If you don't believe Tara today, well that's on you, now isn't it?
You
had her mother call in and explain her daughter was having difficulty
and had just stopped working for a senator. You didn't have any
questions, did you, Larry? That was a viewer you failed. So don't ever
tell me again how you do what you do because you're there for your
audience. And how dare you, having failed Tara's mother -- one of your
viewers, how dare you now smear her daughter.
Shame
on you, Larry. I've defended you many, many times. I'm not interested
in defending you right now and I think you deserve huge push back --
which I hope you get.
Not done with the press.
I stayed silent on Ryan Grimm for over 24 hours. I wanted to be in a
calm place. He gave an interview to THE WASHINGTON POST -- not linking
to the garbage, you can Google it if you want.
I really am not in the mood for these journalists who try to make it about them.
I'm
not in the mood for these circle the wagons circle jerks. It happens
all the time. Barbara Walters should have been called out for her
involvement in Iran-Contra but thanks to the circle the wagons aspect of
journalism, she was barely in a 24 hour news cycle.
More energy, similarly, was put into defending Ronan Farrow than defending Tara Reade.
Ronan's journalism is questionable. It is not beyond critique.
But you saw RISING and various others nearly have a heart attack over the questioning of Ronan's work.
Ryan Grim? No one forced him to write the article he did -- about Times Up not supporting Tara.
He
wrote it. He was a lousy journalist for not informing Tara of the
connection Times Up had to the Biden campaign -- she learned of it when
she read his report.
Now he wants to back off
to THE WASHINGTON POST. Maybe she's telling the truth, maybe she's
not, he just reported on Times Up and . . .
No.
He
went on various programs discussing Tara Reade the allegation she made
and he did so after his report was published, he did so amplifying the
work of others.
So don't pretend you filed one report and that's all you did.
And
if you're not sure of what she's saying, maybe you get off your cushy
ass and do the damn job you should have done in the first place: report.
I
don't mean use the names on the list the Biden campaign's handing out
to the press. I mean actually report -- don't wait for a listener of
Katie Halper's show to hear you on it and do the research -- that's who
uncovered the call made by Tara's mother to Larry King -- that you
should have done yourself.
If you made stronger
comments than what THE POST ran, you've got a Twitter account. You
didn't note that you were misquoted or that important statements were
left out. In fact, while you Tweeted THE NEW YORK TIMES smear job on
Tara, you didn't even note your interview with THE POST -- nor did you
call out THE TIMES smear job.
You aren't
someone who's a journalist, not a good one, not a bad one, you shouldn't
even be called a working journalist. You are a joke and you will
always be that.
You put a woman out in public
and now you want to try to save face. Have the guts to say one way or
the other whether you believe her. And stop hiding and pretending that
all you did was one story in March. You used her name to get on
programs and that's another thing.
You stupid
idiot, learn from your betters. Ellen Goodman walked away from the chat
and chews because she knew she couldn't be an insta-expert. She had her
area of expertise but the chat and chews want you to be an expert on
every topic. You clearly are not so stop talking about every topic in
the news cycle. Judging by your remarks to THE POST, you're not even an
expert on what you report on (Tara Reade).
I
never respected you and I never liked you. You are part of the circle
jerk involving some of the worst men around. I count three men who have
assaulted women that you've reTweeted since May 31st. Did you not know
-- is that going to be your story like Meryl Streep's lie about not
knowing about Harvey Weinstein?
Well you need to know. You present as an investigative journalist so why are you hanging with rapists?
I believe Tara. If you don't, have the guts to say so. If you do, do your damn job.
Nothing
that's been said of Tara discredits her allegation. It's amazing all
these 'expert' pieces written and televised and we're the ones who have
to point out that assault experts are not part of the conversation? And
after I hit on that repeatedly with Dean, THE TIMES finally sees fit to
include them in a report?
Tara told her story
and the media at large didn't want to deal with it. That's evidenced
not only by them ignoring it -- until they were provide the oppo
research Anita Dunn had overseen for the Biden campaign. It's also
evidenced by the fact that the charge is assault.
It's
not whether Joe Biden paid Tara's bills or not. Her finances are not
now and never were the issue. But that's who the press went to time and
again, not experts on assault. We didn't need one sentence in a CNN
broadcast of MJ Lee speaking as though she's an expert on assault, for
example, we needed experts on assault discussing the issue, addressing
the realities.
Her story changed!
Which means nothing.
Well it means one thing, it means the people screaming that nonsense are stupid and willing to flaunt their stupidity.
Experts
on assault would have spoken to how it is not at all uncommon for
assault to be a slow reveal with the victim revealing more details as
her/his comfort level rises.
Experts on assault could have addressed so much and educated the public.
But
they didn't want education, the corporate media's been in the tank for
Joe Biden all along. You saw it with their efforts to undermine Bernie
Sanders. You saw it with their attacks on Kamala Harris, Cory Booker
and Julian Castro when they dared to question Joe in debates.
Smears
were attached to the story, smears that let rape culture thrive. The
media needs to take accountability for what they have done. They
won't. Ryan Grim's only one example of someone who will not take
accountability.
And if he no longer knows --
or feels he does -- what happened maybe it's time for him to realize
that he doesn't need to be on RISING every week or all the other
programs, he needs to be doing the job of journalism. If he wants to be
gas bag pundit, have at it but stop pretending you're a reporter
because you aren't. And, again, heed the wisdom of Ellen Goodman and
grasp that you can't be an expert on every issue under the sun just
because you happened to reTweet on a few topics you've never reported
on.
At THE GUARDIAN, Lauren Gambino asks, "Can Joe Biden convince protesters he would be a 'transformational' president?"
That's why another brainless and braless celebrity was out front
yesterday trying to build excitement for Joe (and trying to stop people
from protesting). I'm referring, of course, to Miss Barack Obama.
You
know what, at least Hillary Clinton has the good sense to dial her own
presence down right now. She's not trying to steal focus from the
nominee. She realizes Joe needs to be the headline. But Barack, who
did nothing to stop police violence in his eight years as president and
whose best known effort at racial healing was the laughable beer summit,
needs some attention so Miss Barack Obama holds a virtual town hall and
the corporate media goes into overdrive.
Is Barack the nominee?
No.
Joe can't excite voters and he can't connect with them.
Which
is why the media continues to play the who-will-he-pick game to gin up
excitement and interest in a flaccid campaign. Joe has stated it will
be August when he announces his running mate. But both he and his
campaign are so boring and uninspiring that the media daily rushes to
the closet to pull down their board game and play Mystery Date.
Gretch
The Wretch has a husband who looks corrupt with his lunacy around
Memorial Day (the whole yacht thing) and that's not going to play well.
Amy's got major racial issues that aren't going to play well. Stacey
Abrams isn't experienced or competent enough to serve as vice president
to a healthy person let alone to Joe who would require a v.p. who could
step in at any moment due to his poor health and cognitive decline.
The media's not addressing those realities, it's just playing Mystery
Date and that game has not aged well.
By the way, Joe's promise to make a woman his v.p. pick was stupid from the beginning.
There's nothing wrong with picking a woman.
But promising to pick one?
That's nonsense.
It's one thing to pick a woman because she brings something to the ticket that other candidates do not.
It's wrong, however, to pick a woman just because you said you were going to.
There's a desperation to it right now as a result.
And,
at the end of the day, the pick will not be seen as the best but
instead as the best Biden could settle for after making his public
promise.
In other news, Emily Jacobs (NY POST) reports:
Charlamagne tha God isn’t joining Team Biden just yet.
The radio personality, speaking to CNN on Tuesday evening, discussed his assessment of how the presumptive Democratic nominee was performing as the country reels over the death of George Floyd and the protests and riots that ensued as a result.
Despite offering praise for former Vice President Joe Biden’s address to the nation from Philadelphia, the host of “The Breakfast Club” radio program said he needed more from the 2020 hopeful.
[. . .]
The radio personality, speaking to CNN on Tuesday evening, discussed his assessment of how the presumptive Democratic nominee was performing as the country reels over the death of George Floyd and the protests and riots that ensued as a result.
Despite offering praise for former Vice President Joe Biden’s address to the nation from Philadelphia, the host of “The Breakfast Club” radio program said he needed more from the 2020 hopeful.
[. . .]
The African American influencer, who boasts over 2.1 million Twitter
followers and has interviewed almost every major presidential candidate
this election cycle, went on to say that Biden had a “racist”
legislative history in the Senate.
“To me it’s like this: If Barack Obama was JFK, then Joe Biden needs to be Lyndon B. Johnson. You know, he has the opportunity to be as progressive as Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson may have been labeled a racist but his record doesn’t reflect that. LBJ’s record showed that he had, like, the most effective progressive record on race and class of any Democratic president of the past 80 years.
“I think, you know, Biden’s record in the Senate actually reflects very racist legislation, but he has a chance to correct that by doing right by black people,” Charlamagne said.
“To me it’s like this: If Barack Obama was JFK, then Joe Biden needs to be Lyndon B. Johnson. You know, he has the opportunity to be as progressive as Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson may have been labeled a racist but his record doesn’t reflect that. LBJ’s record showed that he had, like, the most effective progressive record on race and class of any Democratic president of the past 80 years.
“I think, you know, Biden’s record in the Senate actually reflects very racist legislation, but he has a chance to correct that by doing right by black people,” Charlamagne said.
Turning to Iraq . . .
That
was April, and Mustafa al-Kadhim wasn't yet prime minister -- he would
become prime minister on May 7th. It needs to be noted that as he
prattled on about Iraq's sovereignty and the need to protect it, the
Turkish government was bombing Iraq and killing people. That's
terrorism. Does Mustafa plan to address that? Does he plan to ask the
international community for help with that? Will he ask the United
Nations -- which just extended its own mandate in Iraq -- for help in
stopping the Turkish bombings?
In other problems that need to be resolved, Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) reports:
The Iraqi government must submit its 2020 draft budget to the Iraqi
parliament by June 30, parliamentarians decided during the legislative
body’s Wednesday session.
Already six months into 2020, Baghdad is currently still operating its financial affairs based on the country’s 2019 budget law, after the government was paralyzed in political deadlock for most of the year.
Until Mustafa Kadhimi was approved as prime minister alongside his cabinet in early May, Iraq had not had a fully-functioning government since December, when Adil Abdul-Mahdi resigned from the post in the face of mass protests over unemployment, corruption, and the lack of basic services.
Both the previous caretaker and newly-established governments have failed to submit the 2020 draft budget to parliament to be turned into a bill and finally a law. This comes at a time of great financial distress for Iraq, which is simultaneously battling an economic slowdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive drop in oil prices, an increase in Islamic State (ISIS) attack, as well as budgetary disagreements between Erbil and Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament held a session on Wednesday in the presence of 184 MPs to review a drafted loans bill, and discuss financial support for impoverished Iraqis, according to a statement from the parliament.
Already six months into 2020, Baghdad is currently still operating its financial affairs based on the country’s 2019 budget law, after the government was paralyzed in political deadlock for most of the year.
Until Mustafa Kadhimi was approved as prime minister alongside his cabinet in early May, Iraq had not had a fully-functioning government since December, when Adil Abdul-Mahdi resigned from the post in the face of mass protests over unemployment, corruption, and the lack of basic services.
Both the previous caretaker and newly-established governments have failed to submit the 2020 draft budget to parliament to be turned into a bill and finally a law. This comes at a time of great financial distress for Iraq, which is simultaneously battling an economic slowdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive drop in oil prices, an increase in Islamic State (ISIS) attack, as well as budgetary disagreements between Erbil and Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament held a session on Wednesday in the presence of 184 MPs to review a drafted loans bill, and discuss financial support for impoverished Iraqis, according to a statement from the parliament.
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