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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:09:37 GMT
Latest from The NY Times…
I don’t subscribe to The NY Times so I can’t print the story.
But Rachel is talking about it now and I’m sure more will be leaked as the night goes on.
The DOJ in looking for leaks in 2017 started to investigate Democratic members of Congress.
They subpoenaed communication records from Apple.
Rachel said in all the years reporting she has never seen anything like this before.
At least not in this country.
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:10:58 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:12:06 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:12:53 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:16:30 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:17:17 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:23:41 GMT
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 11, 2021 1:30:56 GMT
Not just Schiff, but staff and at least one minor child. Also another Congressman. All the better if it was only Democrats, proves partisan.
Leaker, maybe 'double dipper', Nunes?
Maybe Garland should go directly after Barr? Would he flip on former?
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:34:58 GMT
“On CNN Thursday, anchor Chris Cuomo tore into former President Donald Trump amid the new reporting from The New York Times that his Justice Department spied on members of Congress.
"The Trump DOJ took the extraordinary step of having prosecutors subpoena Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, along with their aides, their family members, and even kids," said Cuomo. and they put a gag order on apple. so apple wasn't allowed to tell anybody about what was going on, even though they were main members of this government."
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:36:34 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 1:50:50 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 2:11:48 GMT
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 11, 2021 2:22:53 GMT
What next? On CNN Thursday, Norm Eisen, who acted as counsel for House Democrats during the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, expressed outrage at the New York Times report that the Justice Department secretly spied on members of Congress investigating Trump's ties to Russia — and predicted that former Attorney General William Barr could face the loss of his law license over the scandal. www.rawstory.com/bill-barr-law-license/
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 2:31:58 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 2:35:17 GMT
He’s such a smart ass.
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tincin
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,363
Jul 25, 2014 4:55:32 GMT
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Post by tincin on Jun 11, 2021 2:36:30 GMT
Why am I not surprised?
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 3:46:42 GMT
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 11, 2021 3:59:14 GMT
1- unknown about investigations of GOP members. 2- seem to be four listed on the report still working at DOJ. Thinking not including compliant prosecutor brought in from NJ by Barr. 3- no justification to track, spy on any kids!! 4- Barr had to have approved even if not initiated and he should face major penalties. 5- not likely with present Congress. Swalwell is one of the Democratic members who was monitored.
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 4:26:34 GMT
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 4:28:26 GMT
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Post by mollycoddle on Jun 11, 2021 10:21:40 GMT
Hunting Leaks, Trump Officials Focused on Democrats in Congress The Justice Department seized records from Apple for metadata of House Intelligence Committee members, their aides and family members.
WASHINGTON — As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor.
All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry. Representative Eric Swalwell of California said in an interview Thursday night that he had also been notified that his data had subpoenaed.
Prosecutors, under the beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry.
But William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.
The zeal in the Trump administration’s efforts to hunt leakers led to the extraordinary step of subpoenaing communications metadata from members of Congress — a nearly unheard-of move outside of corruption investigations. While Justice Department leak investigations are routine, current and former congressional officials familiar with the inquiry said they could not recall an instance in which the records of lawmakers had been seized as part of one.
Moreover, just as it did in investigating news organizations, the Justice Department secured a gag order on Apple that expired this year, according to a person familiar with the inquiry, so lawmakers did not know they were being investigated until Apple informed them last month.
Prosecutors also eventually secured subpoenas for reporters’ records to try to identify their confidential sources, a move that department policy allows only after all other avenues of inquiry are exhausted.
The subpoenas remained secret until the Justice Department disclosed them in recent weeks to the news organizations — The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN — revelations that set off criticism that the government was intruding on press freedoms.
The gag orders and records seizures show how aggressively the Trump administration pursued the inquiries while Mr. Trump declared war on the news media and perceived enemies whom he routinely accused of disclosing damaging information about him, including Mr. Schiff and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director whom prosecutors focused on in the leak inquiry involving Times records.
Former President Donald J. Trump repeatedly attacked Representative Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
“Notwithstanding whether there was sufficient predication for the leak investigation itself, including family members and minor children strikes me as extremely aggressive,” said David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who worked on leak investigations. “In combination with former President Trump’s unmistakable vendetta against Congressman Schiff, it raises serious questions about whether the manner in which this investigation was conducted was influenced by political considerations rather than purely legal ones.”
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, as did Mr. Barr and a representative for Apple.
As the years wore on, some officials argued in meetings that charges were becoming less realistic, former Justice Department officials said: They lacked strong evidence, and a jury might not care about information reported years earlier.
The Trump administration also declassified some of the information, making it harder for prosecutors to argue that publishing it had harmed the United States. And the president’s attacks on Mr. Schiff and Mr. Comey would allow defense lawyers to argue that any charges were attempts to wield the power of law enforcement against Mr. Trump’s enemies.
But Mr. Barr directed prosecutors to continue investigating, contending that the Justice Department’s National Security Division had allowed the cases to languish, according to three people briefed on the cases. Some cases had nothing to do with leaks about Mr. Trump and involved sensitive national security information, one of the people said. But Mr. Barr’s overall view of leaks led some people in the department to eventually see the inquiries as politically motivated.
Mr. Schiff called the subpoenas for data on committee members and staff another example of Mr. Trump using the Justice Department as a “cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media.”
“It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears,” Mr. Schiff said in a statement. “The politicization of the department and the attacks on the rule of law are among the most dangerous assaults on our democracy carried out by the former president.”
He said the department informed him in May that the investigation into his committee was closed. But he called on its independent inspector general to investigate the leak case and others that “suggest the weaponization of law enforcement,” an appeal joined by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Early Hunt for Leaks
Soon after Mr. Trump took office in 2017, press reports based on sensitive or classified intelligence threw the White House into chaos. They detailed conversations between the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time and Mr. Trump’s top aides, the president’s pressuring of the F.B.I. and other matters related to the Russia investigation.
The White House was adamant that the sources be found and prosecuted, and the Justice Department began a broad look at national security officials from the Obama administration, according to five people briefed on the inquiry.
While most officials were ruled out, investigators opened cases that focused on Mr. Comey and his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe, the people said. Prosecutors also began to scrutinize the House Intelligence Committee, including Mr. Schiff, as a potential source of the leaks. As the House’s chief intelligence oversight body, the committee has regular access to sensitive government secrets.
Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director in 2017.Credit...Al Drago/The New York Times Justice Department National Security Division officials briefed the deputy attorney general’s office nearly every other week on the investigations, three former department officials said.
In 2017 and 2018, a grand jury subpoenaed Apple and another internet service provider for the records of the people associated with the Intelligence Committee. They learned about most of the subpoenas last month, when Apple informed them that their records had been shared but did not detail the extent of the request, committee officials said. A second service provider had notified one member of the committee’s staff about such a request last year.
It was not clear why family members or children were involved, but the investigators could have sought the accounts because they were linked or on the theory that parents were using their children’s phones or computers to hide contacts with journalists.
There do not appear to have been similar grand jury subpoenas for records of members or staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to another official familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee did not respond to a question about whether they were issued subpoenas. The Justice Department has declined to tell Democrats on the committee whether any Republicans were investigated.
Apple turned over only metadata and account information, not photos, emails or other content, according to the person familiar with the inquiry.
After the records provided no proof of leaks, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington discussed ending that piece of their investigation. But Mr. Barr’s decision to bring in an outside prosecutor helped keep the case alive.
A CNN report in August 2019 about another leak investigation said prosecutors did not recommend to their superiors that they charge Mr. Comey over memos that he wrote and shared about his interactions with Mr. Trump, which were not ultimately found to contain classified information.
Mr. Barr was wary of how Mr. Trump would react, according to a person familiar with the situation. Indeed, Mr. Trump berated the attorney general, who defended the department, telling the president that there was no case against Mr. Comey to be made, the person said. But an investigation remained open into whether Mr. Comey had leaked other classified information about Russia.
Revived Cases
In February 2020, Mr. Barr placed the prosecutor from New Jersey, Osmar Benvenuto, into the National Security Division. His background was in gang and health care fraud prosecutions.
Through a Justice Department spokesman, Mr. Benvenuto declined to comment.
Mr. Benvenuto’s appointment was in keeping with Mr. Barr’s desire to keep matters of great interest to the White House in the hands of a small circle of trusted aides and officials.
. William P. Barr brought a trusted prosecutor in from New Jersey to help investigate leak cases. With Mr. Benvenuto involved in the leak inquiries, the F.B.I. questioned Michael Bahar, a former House Intelligence Committee staff member who had gone into private practice in May 2017. The interview, conducted in late spring of 2020, did not yield evidence that led to charges.
Prosecutors also redoubled efforts to find out who had leaked material related to Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. Details about conversations he had in late 2016 with the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, appeared in news reports in early 2017 and eventually helped prompt both his ouster and federal charges against him. The discussions had also been considered highly classified because the F.B.I. had used a court-authorized secret wiretap of Mr. Kislyak to monitor them.
But John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence and close ally of Mr. Trump’s, seemed to damage the leak inquiry in May 2020, when he declassified transcripts of the calls. The authorized disclosure would have made it more difficult for prosecutors to argue that the news stories had hurt national security.
Separately, one of the prosecutors whom Mr. Barr had directed to re-examine the F.B.I.’s criminal case against Mr. Flynn interviewed at least one law enforcement official in the leak investigation after the transcripts were declassified, a move that a person familiar with the matter labeled politically fraught.
The biweekly updates on the leak investigations between top officials continued. Julie Edelstein, the deputy chief of counterintelligence and export control, and Matt Blue, the head of the department’s counterterrorism section, briefed John C. Demers, the head of the National Security Division, and Seth DuCharme, an official in the deputy attorney general’s office, on their progress. Mr. Benvenuto was involved in briefings with Mr. Barr.
Mr. Demers, Ms. Edelstein, Mr. Blue and Mr. Benvenuto are still at the Justice Department. Their continued presence and leadership roles would seem to ensure that Mr. Biden’s appointees, including Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, would have a full understanding of the investigations.
Katie Benner covers the Justice Department. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues. @ktbenner
Nicholas Fandos is congressional correspondent, based in Washington. He has covered Capitol Hill since 2017, chronicling two Supreme Court confirmation fights, two historic impeachments of Donald J. Trump, and countless bills in between. @npfandos
Michael S. Schmidt is a Washington correspondent covering national security and federal investigations. He was part of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 — one for reporting on workplace sexual harassment and the other for coverage of President Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia. @nytmike
Adam Goldman reports on the F.B.I. from Washington and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. @adamgoldmannyt
Sign up for The Morning Newsletter Make sense of the day’s news and ideas. David Leonhardt and Times journalists guide you through what’s happening — and why it matters.
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Post by mollycoddle on Jun 11, 2021 10:34:34 GMT
But while the Trump administration liked to ISSUE subpoenas, it did not like to respond to them.
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 14:49:06 GMT
If you watch what is going on in Russia you see Putin either killing or jailing those who he sees as his “enemies” when all they do is disagree with him.
What we are finding out about trump is he is basically doing the same thing as Putin. Instead of poisoning them or throwing them in jail on fake harges, he is spying on them using the DOJ which is suppose to be independent from the Executive Branch. But I suspect if trump thought he could get away with poisoning or tossing his “enemies “ in jail he would.
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 15:54:59 GMT
Yeah good luck with that.
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Post by onelasttime on Jun 11, 2021 17:08:07 GMT
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 11, 2021 17:32:55 GMT
Surely. We need to remember his reaction to the killing of Jamal Khashogg.
Former pardoned his buddies!
Backing Gallagher killing civilians. Allowing more then any other putting prisoners to death.
There are many more!!
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 11, 2021 19:55:35 GMT
Barr.. no knowledge? Barr said that while he was attorney general, he was 'not aware of any congressman's records being sought in a leak case.' He added that Trump never encouraged him to zero in on the Democratic lawmakers who reportedly became targets of the former president's push to unmask leakers of classified information," Politico reported. "Trump 'was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases,' Barr said. 'I never discussed the leak cases with Trump. He didn't really ask me any of the specifics.'" www.rawstory.com/heres-why-bill-barrs-denial-is-so-noteworthy/
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 26, 2024 2:55:33 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2021 0:03:53 GMT
AS ALWAYS W/THESE MOBSTERS......
They accuse their enemies of that of which THEY ARE GUILTY!
There was a Deep State and it was Trump's DOJ, Barr, Sessions.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 12, 2021 0:55:55 GMT
Barr knows nothing, now Sessions knows nothing .. may be dumping it all on Rosenstein? Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday afternoon announced that he too, just like former Attorney General Bill Barr, had no idea the Dept. of Justice was spying on at least two top House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. The scandal has shaken both the DOJ and the general public so broadly the Inspector General – less than 24 hours after The New York Times bombshell dropped – announced a wide-ranging internal investigation. The track records of both Barr and Sessions when it comes to telling the truth – even under oath – are questionable at best and subject to interpretation. Are they setting former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein up to take the fall? Or was it Rosenstein all along? Or both – were they all in on spying on Democrats? www.rawstory.com/doj-spying-2653341194/
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 12, 2021 1:38:57 GMT
Trump's DOJ subpoenaed info on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses: Apple Bob Brigham June 11, 2021 More information is coming out about the Trump-era Department of Justice subpoenaing information on Democratic members of Congress. "DOJ under Trump demanded metadata on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses from Apple, the company said tonight. The Dept sent a broad request in February 2018 as part of its investigation that collected data on members of Congress, staffers and their families," CNN's Jim Scuitto reported Friday. Zack Wittaker of TechCrunch reported further details. "The grand jury subpoena sought metadata for 109 identifiers, specifically 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses. Apple said it assumes ISPs [Internet Service Providers] and other tech companies were also sent similar requests," Wittaker reported. CNN is also reporting Microsoft received a subpoena in 2017. www.rawstory.com/trump-doj-spying/
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