Deep State

Does the emerging defense of Gen. Milley cut it?

Featured image Last week, Bob Woodward alleged that in the waning days of the Trump administration, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, that the United States would not strike China or its interests. According to Woodward and his co-author Robert Costa, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert China in the event of a U.S. attack. Woodward »

The Deep State Is Rattled

Featured image I had a conversation over the weekend with a senior career lawyer (who is a Trump supporter) with a federal agency who passed along some interesting information. He said career federal officials in Washington he spoke with on Thursday and Friday are seriously rattled by last Wednesday’s events. Among other things, the fact that apparently some Capitol Police were friendly with the protestors who entered the building have federal bureaucrats wondering »

Rod Rosenstein on FISA lies: I’m accountable but not responsible

Featured image This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee called Rod Rosenstein to testify about operation “crossfire hurricane,” the Mueller investigation, and related matters. I watched as much of it as I could stomach — a little less than two hours. Rosenstein is a snake. He recommended that James Comey be fired (albeit for a different reason than the one Trump mentioned in an interview about Comey’s termination) and then made the firing »

“A chance to break the deep state”

Featured image President Trump sat for an interview with Sharyl Attkisson for her Full Measure show this past Sunday morning. The video and transcript are posted here. The good stuff is to be found in the second segment of the interview, which RealClearPolitics has now broken out and posted here. I have embedded it at the bottom of this post. This is the nub of it: I have a chance to break »

Where’s Waldo whistleblower?

Featured image In his presentation on behalf of President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial yesterday, White House Deputy Counsel Patrick Philbin raised the question of Adam Schiff and the whistleblower. Why have we not heard from him? Why has Schiff deep-sixed the testimony about him? RealClearPolitics has posted video of Philbin’s remarks along with this (lightly edited) transcript: PHILBEN: I want to touch on one last point before I yield to »

The Washington Post — message board for the Deep State

Featured image At Power Line, we sometimes refer to the Washington Post as an adjunct of the Democratic Party. To an even greater degree, the Post is an adjunct of official Washington — the cadre of career bureaucrats and former officials who consider it their God given right to set policy, regardless of what elected officials desire. (There is, of course, considerable overlap between official Washington and the Democratic Party). Thus, it’s »

Trump’s Sin: Conducting Foreign Policy Without Permission

Featured image Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds posted an interesting message from a Facebook friend who wishes to remain anonymous. Here’s the relevant part: Following the death of Soleimani, it seems like nearly the entire DC / academia / journo natsec/forpol commentariat has penned variations on exactly the same essay: the President has acted hastily, has no plan, and isn’t capable of envisioning or handling what happens next. The template was established »

Report: Judge Sullivan cancels hearing in Gen. Flynn’s case

Featured image Judge Emmet Sullivan reportedly has cancelled a November hearing he had scheduled in the case of Gen. Michael Flynn. Judge Sullivan said he is cancelling the hearing “in view of the parties’ comprehensive briefing concerning Defendant’s Motion to Compel Production of Brady Material.” In other words, he has all the argumentation he needs to rule on this motion. In this post, John discussed and embedded Flynn’s reply brief in support »

William Barr goes to Rome

Featured image Mainstream media outlets and the former members of the Deep State who supply them with information and quotes are outraged that Attorney General Barr went to Rome to obtain information about Joseph Mifsud. Mifsud is the professor who helped ignite the controversy that led to the Mueller investigation. It’s almost as if these outlets and Deep Staters are fearful of what Barr might learn. Some critics suggest that flying to »

Deep state blues

Featured image The whistleblower blowout is a funny affair. A year in advance of the 2020 presidential election we are in rerun season. We didn’t get enough of Adam Schiff the first time around. Live with it, baby. And we didn’t get enough of journalism based on misinformation supplied to friendly reporters by people “familiar with the matter.” Here it comes again. Andrew McCarthy captures a bit of the old-time quality of »

Report: Comey lied to, spied on, Trump

Featured image Real Clear Investigations reports that Inspector General Michael Horowitz will say in his upcoming report that, although James Comey told President Trump he was not a target in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Comey had actually been spying on Trump to see if the president was colluding with Russia. If an Obama-appointed Justice Department official so concludes after a lengthy investigation, it will be devastating for »

Trump signs declassification memo

Featured image From the White House comes this announcement: Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election. The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established »

Comey vs. the world

Featured image Eventually the “holier than thou” find themselves at loggerheads with the rest of the world. Call it the revenge of the “thous.” In James Comey’s mind, no one is as holy as he is. People he used to respect, like Rod Rosenstein and William Barr, certainly aren’t. President Trump ate their souls. Comey admits the same thing nearly happened to him, but he was holy enough to pull back from »

Allegation: Two cabinet members wanted to oust Trump via 25th amendment

Featured image James Baker is the former general counsel of the FBI. Last October, he was interviewed by members of the House about the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the election and related matters. Rep. Doug Collins has just released a transcript of the interview. Baker testified about the idea of Rod Rosenstein possibly wearing a wire to record President Trump, a matter that has received much attention. In addition, he »

Coup’s next

Featured image Mark Penn puts the greatest scandal of Obama administration officials — the greatest political scandal in our history — this way: The most egregious anti-democratic actions ever taken by the what can now fairly be called the Deep State are confirmed with the publication of fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s new book detailing how the FBI and Justice Department plotted to remove President Trump from office for firing FBI »

Report: FBI opened inquiry into whether Trump was working for the Russians

Featured image The New York Times reports that “in the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.” The Times cites “former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.” They say the FBI investigation ended when Robert Mueller was appointed. If »

Deep State Outed by . . . The NY Times?!?!

Featured image As if we didn’t have enough explosive material flying around this week, the New York Times has just posted the following story: Rosenstein Suggested He Secretly Record Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment By Adam Goldman and Michael Schmidt WASHINGTON — The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed »