From the very left wing "The Nation." https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-is-more-fiction-than-fact/ Russiagate Is More Fiction Than Fact From accusations of Trump campaign collusion to Russian Facebook ad buys, the media has substituted hype for evidence. ByAaron Maté The same holds for the question of collusion. Officialsacknowledged to Reutersin May that “they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia in the communications reviewed so far.” Well-placed critics of Trump—including former DNI chiefJames Clapper, former CIA directorMichael Morrell, RepresentativeMaxine Waters, and SenatorDianne Feinstein—concur to date. Recognizing this absence of evidence helps examine what has been substituted in its place.Shattered, the insider account of the Clinton campaign, reports that “in the days after the election, Hillary declined to take responsibility for her own loss.” Instead, one source recounted, aides were ordered “to make sure all these narratives get spun the right way.” Within 24 hours of Clinton’s concession speech, top officials gathered “to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up.… Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.”
... These imperatives have incentivized a compromised set of journalistic and evidentiary standards. In Russiagate, unverified claims are reported with little to no skepticism. Comporting developments are cherry-picked and overhyped, while countervailing ones are minimized or ignored. Front-page headlines advertise explosive and incriminating developments, only to often be undermined by the article’s content, or retracted entirely. Qualified language—likely,suspected,apparent—appears next to “Russians” to account for the absence of concrete links. As a result, Russiagate has enlarged into a storm of innuendo that engulfs issues far beyond its original scope.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...n-cohen-unmasking-requests-obama-trio-n766861 House Subpoenas Flynn, Cohen and Unmasking Requests by Obama Trio
Oh, so back to 'unmasking', hmm? That seems to have gone the way of 'unskewing'. It's odd how your standards of proof vary so dramatically depending on whether the charge fits your biases or not. barfo
Triggered is not the word. Disgusting is a better fit. But I do agree, we are near the Constitutional Crisis. I think that is/was the goal of the Democrats all along.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/372421-house-intel-votes-to-release-dem-countermemo House Intel votes to release Dem countermemo The House Intelligence Committeeon Mondayvoted unanimously to release a memo drafted by Democrats to rebut a GOP-crafted document alleging surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The 10-page classified document now goes to President Trump, who has five days to block its release if he so chooses. It remains an open question whether he will.
Senate Judiciary Committee issues Criminal Referral against Steele. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/im...to DOJ FBI (Unclassified Steele Referral).pdf
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...details-on-trump-dossier-author-grassley-says FBI Blocking Details on Trump Dossier Author, Grassley Says
Declassified FISA order: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/51117/2016_Cert_FISC_Memo_Opin_Order_Apr_2017.pdf On October 24, 2016, the government orally apprised the Court of significant non-compliance with the NSA’s minimization procedures involving queries of data acquired under Section 702 using U.S. person identifiers. The full scope of non-compliant querying practices had not been previously disclosed to the Court
On January 3, 2017, the government made a further submission describing its efforts to ascertain the scope and causes of those compliance problems and discussing potential solutions to them. See January 3, 2017, Supplemental Notice of Compliance Incidents Regarding the Querying of Section 701-Acquired Data (“January 3, 2017 Notice”). The Court was not satisfied that the government had sufficiently ascertained the scope of the compliance problems or developed and implemented adequate solutions for them and communicated a number of questions and concerns to the government.
The Grassley thing seems rather petty, although it's hard to know exactly what the allegation is. Even if it were actually true that Steele lied about something to the FBI, it would hardly be the first time an FBI source lied, and it wouldn't invalidate any of the information he provided which has or will be confirmed by other methods. It smells a lot like shooting the messenger. barfo
