Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released a report on former FBI Director James Comey’s leaking of personal memos to his attorneys, a personal friend, and the media.

Comey had told the IG that he believed the memos shared with his attorneys did not contain any classified information.

However, the IG noted that specifically: “Memos 1 and 3 contained information classified at the ‘SECRET’ level, and that Memos 2 and 7 contained small amounts of information classified at the ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ level—although Comey redacted all classified information in Memo 7 before sending to his attorneys.”Continue Reading

More than 2 1/2 years after President Donald Trump assumed office, focus on actions taken during the 2016 presidential campaign is starting to shift toward the CIA and its former director, John Brennan.

While some observers, including this publication, have pointed out for more than a year that Brennan appears to have played a key role in the scandal that’s become known as Spygate, actions taken by Brennan and the CIA now appear to have become a central focus of investigators.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz was “doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application” and “the behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation.”Continue Reading

FBI agents raid Epstein’s Little St. James Island

Attorney General William Barr said on Monday during a police conference in New Orleans that there were “serious irregularities” at the Manhattan federal facility where the accused sex trafficker apparently killed himself over the weekend.

Barr, who said he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death, said the case would continue and noted that “any co-conspirators should not rest easy.”

“This sex-trafficking case was very important to the Department of Justice and to me personally, Barr said. It was important to the dedicated prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and to our FBI agents who investigated the case and were preparing it for trial. Most importantly, this case was important to the victims who had the courage to come forward and deserve the opportunity to confront the accused in the courtroom.”Continue Reading

Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire who had recently been indicted on charges of sex trafficking, has been found dead of an apparent suicide in his jail cell. According to a statement from the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons, “Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell in the Special Housing Unit from an apparent suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center” in New York City at 6:30 a.m.

The Associated Press reported that “Fire officials received a call at 6:39 a.m. Saturday that Epstein was in cardiac arrest, and he was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital.”

The FBI is now investigating the incident.Continue Reading

While media focus on Trump, larger questions remain about Epstein’s finances and ties to Bill Clinton

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 after landing at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey upon his return from a trip to France. Epstein was previously indicted in 2007 on charges he abused underage girls, but reached a controversial plea deal, in which he served only 13 months in a low-security facility that allowed him to work from his office each day.

Epstein now faces federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking that may lead to him spending the rest of his life in prison. DOJ officials have indicated that they expect the charges against Epstein to expand as they delve further into the case. Attorney General William Barr has said he will not recuse himself from the newly opened Epstein case, although he “will remain recused from any retrospective review” of Epstein’s earlier case in Florida.

Questions surrounding Epstein have existed for a long time, including the source of his wealth and his relationship to former President Bill Clinton, who, according to flight logs, flew on Epstein’s personal jet 26 times.Continue Reading

Crucial questions that should be asked when former special counsel testifies before House committees on July 17

Robert Mueller, who investigated allegations of Russia collusion and obstruction of justice for nearly two years as special counsel, will be testifying before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on July 17.

Mueller’s investigation, which concluded there was no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that there was insufficient evidence to support obstruction charges, has been criticized for attempting to inflict political damage on President Donald Trump.

Specifically, Volume II of the Mueller report contained sections that were selectively edited, apparently in order to provide damaging portrayals. Examples include the representation of the transcript of a phone call between the president’s attorney, John Dowd, and the attorney for former national security adviser Michael Flynn; a letter from the attorney of an individual referenced in the Mueller report; and a sequence of dates concerning the meeting between Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Australian diplomat Alexander Downer. There are also disturbing details surrounding a heavily used witness in the Mueller report, George Nader.Continue Reading

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the Mueller report during a June 12 hearing, saying the report failed to address key players and irregularities in the FBI’s investigation, and selectively edited certain information.

Nunes also called out his Democratic counterparts, saying that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report did debunk many of the false claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that had been perpetuated by Democrats, including members of the House Intelligence Committee.

Witnesses at the hearing—titled “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Counterintelligence Implications of Volume 1″—included Robert Anderson and Stephanie Douglas, described by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as former executives from the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Left out of Schiff’s description of Anderson and Douglas was that both witnesses had worked under former FBI Director Mueller prior to his role as special counsel.Continue Reading