[FoxNews] Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, declaring "This is only the first salvo."
Page first filed a defamation suit on his own against the parties in October 2018 in federal court in Oklahoma, but that suit was dismissed in January 2019 after the judge ruled the court lacked jurisdiction over the case because neither Page nor the DNC had strong enough ties to the state.
Page is now represented by Pierce, the global managing partner of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP. They filed in Illinois because they allege the relationship with the firm behind the dossier, Fusion GPS, was "orchestrated" through law firm Perkins Coie's Chicago office. The suit also claims the DNC "has a historical pattern" of making Chicago its principal place of business. ...
The suit alleges that the DNC, Perkins Coie and partners Marc Elias and Michael Sussman "used false information, misrepresentations and other misconduct to direct the power of the international intelligence apparatus and the media industry against" Page "to further their political agenda."
The dossier in question was filled with salacious claims about Trump and his associates and has been the subject of fierce controversy ever since its public emergence around the time of President Trump's inauguration. The document was authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, and funded by the DNC and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign through law firm Perkins Coie. Discovery, discovery, discovery, dig deep into the working files of the DNC, Perkins Coie (corrupt law firm that should be subject to a RICO investigation) and Fusion GPS.
You look up in the sky, see a constellation, and you point upwards to show your kids. Along comes a park ranger demanding to see your Stargazing Permit, and issues you a citation because you didn’t know you needed such a permit.
That’s right, the state of New York is now demanding us peasants give them money so we can look up at the sky. Sounds silly but think of it as training the riff-raff to not raise their eyes to their betters.
You didn't pay your oxygen permit we will need to terminate you.
[PJMedia] On Friday afternoon, the Senate voted against compelling more witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. The final vote was 49-51.
The vote went as expected, with every Democrat voting for more witnesses and documents and every Republican voting against extending the trial, with the exceptions of Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
"The House chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed. I carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents, to cure the shortcomings of its process, but ultimately decided that I will vote against considering motions to subpoena," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tweeted in a statement explaining why she would vote against extending the trial.
Without more witnesses and documents, the Senate impeachment trial will conclude next week. Axios reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has planned to delay the vote to convict Trump until Wednesday, after the Iowa caucuses on Monday and Trump's state of the union address on Tuesday.
Even if the vote does not take place until Wednesday, the trial is effectively over. The Senate will almost certainly vote to acquit Trump, leaving him in office and allowing him to run for re-election.
#8
Final vote Wednesday, because mean girls who've been smacked don't want Trump to do the SOTU Tuesday without their illegitimate cloud
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2020 19:34 Comments ||
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#9
OK, that’s it. I’m tired of all the winning.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/31/2020 19:44 Comments ||
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#10
Officious turd John Kelly is whining now too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/31/2020 20:47 Comments ||
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#11
That's just great. A total waste of time and millions dollars for a sham impeachment and trial (I use the term trial very loosely). And a useless congress that ran up a $1 trillion dollar debt this year. They are useless and have made a trajectory of government collapse due to future insolvency.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/31/2020 21:18 Comments ||
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[Politico] Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial nominee whose name has been floated as a possible Democratic vice presidential nominee, predicted in an interview published Friday that she will become president within the next two decades.
After Abrams said she "absolutely" believed Americans would send a black woman to the Oval Office in the next 20 years, journalist Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight asked: "Do you think they’ll elect you?"
"Yes. I do," Abrams responded. "That’s my plan. And I’m very pragmatic."
The prediction from Abrams, a former Georgia state representative, adds to the political intrigue and professional speculation around one of the Democratic Party’s most rapidly ascending stars. Abrams, who lost a close 2018 race to be governor of Georgia, has been mentioned by several White House hopefuls as a potential running mate.
Prior to her declaration Friday that she will seek the presidency before 2040, Abrams said in a March interview that 2028 "would be the earliest I would be ready to stand for president." In a subsequent tweet, however, she wrote that "2020 is definitely on the table," a run she has since ruled out.
In August, Abrams announced she would not enter the current Democratic primary and would instead focus her efforts on combating voter suppression and boosting participation in the 2020 census. But she also said in an interview that same month that she would be "honored to be considered by any nominee" as a vice presidential pick.
[Deseret News] SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah lawmaker has filed a bill to allow Utahns to recall an elected United States senator.
The lawmaker, Rep. Tim Quinn, R-Heber City, told the Deseret News in an interview Wednesday shortly after the bill was made public that it’s not meant to target any specific sitting Utah senator — but it comes amid heightened national attention on Sen. Mitt Romney, who has been among the few Republican senators publicly critical of President Donald Trump.
Romney in recent days has ignited simmering controversy over whether to bring additional witnesses and documents into the impeachment trial against Trump. Yet Quinn said his bill isn’t aimed at Romney or any specific senator — though he acknowledged his bill comes at a time that people will likely construe it that way.
“I know that’s what’s going to be the narrative,” Quinn said. “If it were, then it might make sense to have a sunset on it. That would not be the case.”
Rather, Quinn said he started drafting the bill “weeks and weeks ago” after some constituents came to him raising ideas of how Utah could return to a “pre-17th Amendment” time, or when U.S. senators were appointed rather than elected.
To Quinn, a six-year term for a senator is a lengthy term, and his bill would be a “good mechanism in place to make any senator, current or future, a little more accountable to those who elected him or her.”
#2
I think the idea of the Founding Fathers when they created the Senate with six year terms was to make the Senate less volatile than the House, less affected by the current passions of the mob. I don't think it was meant to make the Senators totally unaccountable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/31/2020 11:06 Comments ||
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#3
The need to have Senators and Representatives live and work in DC was because of the time it took to get anywhere in the 1800s. These people should be doing most of their work in their home states and only visiting DC for short periods of time.
[The Federalist] During the Senate impeachment trial Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question submitted by Sen. Rand Paul which included the name of Eric Ciaramella, the man RealClear Investigations has identified as the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
The Kentucky Republican submitted the question card, and after reading it, Roberts replied, "The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted." Paul’s question did not use the term whistleblower or identify Ciaramella as the whistleblower.
Paul then took to Twitter, disclosing his question. "My exact question was: Are you aware that House intelligence committee staffer Shawn Misko had a close relationship with Eric Ciaramella while at the National Security Council together," Paul stated, "and are you aware and how do you respond to reports that Ciaramella and Misko may have worked together to plot impeaching the President before there were formal house impeachment proceedings."
Emphasis added.
#2
The fact that they're trying to censor it is reason enough for us to know it. Share this far and wide.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/31/2020 4:56 Comments ||
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#3
Seven Days in May - the (tragi)comic version.
With not generals and Burt Lancaster but junior analysts and LTC Flounder.
And BS lawfare / PR concoctions about a made-up weaselblower.
And allegations that have shifted half a dozen times before finally landing - after being tested by political consultants with likely-voter focus groups! - on a ridiculous non-crime charge that represents a complete mockery of process.
And that, unbelievably, tries to turn the tables and accuse Republicans of the very same corruption that their own idiot candidate and his cokehead grifter son are guilty of!
Seven Days in May wasore plausible and dignified than this farce.
#10
If there was ever a doubt about Roberts being a charter member of the Deep State, it should be gone by now. Anybody pretending that Ciaramella's name is classified / secret / whatever just proves it.
#20
Kudos to the Senator from Alaska. She gets this exactly right:
“Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.
“It has also become clear some of my colleagues intend to further politicize this process, and drag the Supreme Court into the fray, while attacking the chief justice. I will not stand for nor support that effort. We have already degraded this institution for partisan political benefit, and I will not enable those who wish to pull down another.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/31/2020 17:48 Comments ||
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#26
Pierre wanted Hillary to win in 2016 and now this. If he has the nerve to show up at the convention this summer I hope he is booed loudly and with all the contempt he deserves.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/31/2020 17:51 Comments ||
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#27
Droopy and Willard will have to change parties next week.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/31/2020 18:03 Comments ||
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[Washington Examiner] Questions about House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s dealings with the anonymous Ukraine whistleblower are not "disgraceful," as Schiff tried to claim on Thursday, nor are they baseless. These questions are relevant and necessary insofar as they inform the impeachment of President Trump, why this impeachment was launched, and how it came about.
During Thursday’s question period in the impeachment trial, Schiff was asked why the House Intelligence Committee hired two Obama-era National Security Council aides, Abigail Grace and Sean Misko, who had worked with the alleged whistleblower, and what role Grace and Misko had played in the House’s impeachment investigation.
Instead of addressing this potential conflict of interest, Schiff once again lied. He says he does not know who the whistleblower is, despite multiple reports to the contrary. He also dismissed the question as a "gratuitous attack" that insults his staff and the whistleblower.
This is ridiculous. Schiff's plethora of falsehoods has made it quite clear that he is not telling the American people the full story about why the whistleblower complaint was filed. The complaint was perfectly legitimate, but the motivations of the whistleblower are also important. And if his staff actively advised the whistleblower, those motivations deserve to be questioned as well.
By dismissing reasonable criticism and on-point questions, Schiff is trying to absolve himself of the irresponsibility and carelessness that defined the House’s impeachment investigation. If there was nothing wrong with his committee’s dealings, then Schiff should open up about them. These are important questions, and the public needs answers.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren questioned the legitimacy of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts presiding over President Trump's Senate impeachment trial.
Roberts read the Massachusetts Democrat's question, which asked, "At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial In which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution?"
The Senate is fighting over whether to call witnesses, and some Senate Democrats argue that Roberts could step in and be the final arbiter in case of a tie vote. Most senators, however, do not want him to break a tie, and there is no modern precedent for him to do so.
Lead House impeachment manager Adam Schiff disagreed with Warren's contention about Roberts, responding in part, "I would not say that it contributes to a loss of confidence in the chief justice. I think the chief justice has presided admirably."
He added, "This trial is part of our constitutional heritage, that we were given a power to impeach the president. I don't think a trial without witnesses reflects adversely on the chief justice. I do think it reflects adversely on us. I think it diminishes the power of this example to the rest of the world."
#7
In other news: Babylon Bee goes out of existence, can't compete with Elizabeth Warren.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/31/2020 12:38 Comments ||
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#8
My already low opinion of Roberts was lowered further when I saw this. He was obviously screening Republican questions but read this one out loud without looking at it first. What a maroon.
Aside: to answer g(r)om's confusion, I think #2 was meant to read "...more than me..." Preview is your friend.
[DAILYWIRE] Carter Page, the former adviser for President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s 2016 campaign, is suing the Democratic National Committee and those who helped pay for the salacious dossier that formed the basis for multiple surveillance warrants used to spy on Page and the campaign.
Fox News exclusively reported that the lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division. The 23-page lawsuit names the DNC, law firm Perkins Coie and its partners, who paid Ex-British Intelligence officer Remington Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Trump. The "dirt" Steele found was nothing but rumors and innuendo. Steele himself said at least one of his sources was a "boaster" and an "egoist" who likely engaged "in some embellishment."
The FBI used that dubious dossier, however, to obtain warrants to surveil Page and the Trump campaign. Even then, the FBI had to omit information in order to obtain the warrants. In early December, the Department of Justice Inspector General determined that the FBI violated numerous policies by omitting information and including repeated errors when obtaining the warrants against Page.
Page’s lawsuit states that the defendants "used false information, misrepresentations and other misconduct to direct the power of the international intelligence apparatus and the media industry against a private individual, Plaintiff Carter Page, to further their political agenda."
The Department of Justice backed down from seeking jail time Wednesday and made clear that prosecutors would accept mere probation in the case of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn ‐ a shift that comes as Flynn moves to withdraw his guilty plea leveraging accusations of government misconduct.
Just weeks ago, the DOJ said it would seek up to six months of prison time for the retired Army lieutenant general who spent just 24 days at his post in the Trump administration. Represented by an aggressive new attorney, Flynn days later had moved to withdraw his guilty plea for making false statements to two FBI agents in 2017 ‐ statements that eventually wrapped him up in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"In truth, I never lied," Flynn wrote in a new supplemental motion to withdraw his guilty plea filed Wednesday. "My guilty plea has rankled me throughout this process, and while I allowed myself to succumb to the threats from the government to save my family, I believe I was grossly misled about what really happened." Flynn needs to join forces with Page and sue all these criminal hacks back to the stone age.
#1
Excerpt from the PJ article. Hat tip to attorney Powell.
The filing on Flynn's behalf was possible in part due to the Inspector General's report on FISA abuse. Powell claimed that the IG report is "replete with information that is exculpatory to Mr. Flynn and damning of the conduct the FBI used against him. Flynn is one of the four original targeted by Crossfire Hurricane and unmasked by previous administration because of 'his puported ties to Russia.'" Furthermore, the FBI got access to Flynn's information because of the Carter Page FISA warrant, at least two of which we now know were illegally obtained.
Powell believes that the original "302" report on the Flynn meeting, in which FBI agents believed that Flynn was telling the truth, have been lost or worse.
#4
Destroying a political opponent with false accusations concocted out of nothing.
Destroying evidence produced by your own investigators who concluded there was nothing to these bizarre, stupid, scurrilous accusations.
And up until a few weeks ago, refusing to admit any responsibility at all for these actual crimes, this actual corruption, on their own part -- instead, unbelievably, arguing for MORE prison time for this man whom they vilified, slandered, bankrupted, and tried to totally destroy.
Because he was selected by Trump.
We are once again through the looking glass and into the land of inversion, the insane realm where the accused are the victims and the accusers are the criminals.
F--- these morons. We need prison terms for the people who ginned up these ridiculous accusations and for whoever destroyed the FBI's own 302 report that demolished them.
Those who accused these blameless men and this completely harmless, innocent schoolboy are beneath contempt.
Blowsey Ford, Swetnick and their handlers, Schifferbrains, McCabe and Strzok, the howling jackals who tried to get Sandmann doxxed, assaulted or even killed: ALL of these f---ers deserve prison time, every one of them.
#10
Electric chair set to "slow roast." Clapper can sit in Brennan's lap to save time and electricity.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/31/2020 9:40 Comments ||
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#11
I've been throught he court system alot in my lifetime. When they offer up probation they don't have or don't have enough for it to be worth going through a trial for.
Posted by: Chris ||
01/31/2020 9:58 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FoxNews] Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, declaring "This is only the first salvo."
[Gateway Pundit via Lucianne]
[PJMedia] On Friday afternoon, the Senate voted against compelling more witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. The final vote was 49-51.
[Politico] Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial nominee whose name has been floated as a possible Democratic vice presidential nominee, predicted in an interview published Friday that she will become president within the next two decades.
[The Federalist] During the Senate impeachment trial Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts declined to read a question submitted by Sen. Rand Paul which included the name of Eric Ciaramella, the man RealClear Investigations has identified as the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
[FoxNews] They're now backing down?
