Obama Administration Scandals
November 29, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Lee Smith is the author of The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in US History. Lee’s book is an invaluable companion to Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency; it adds to and amplifies the case McCarthy makes. One of Lee’s principal themes is the role played by the media
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November 28, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In The Plot Against the President, Lee Smith makes the case that the New York Times and the Washington Post have turned themselves into arms of the Resistance to the Trump administration that manifested in the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign undertaken by the FBI. The FISA warrant taken out on Carter Page by the FBI in October 2016 constituted a key element of the investigation. The warrant was
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November 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are the principals of Fusion GPS. In April 2016 the Clinton presidential campaign and Democratic National Commmittee hired Fusion GPS “to build a Trump-Russia echo chamber,” as Lee Smith puts it in The Plot Agains the President. Simpson promptly circulated allegations of corrupt Russian ties to the Trump campaign to the mainstream media. At the same time, Simpson and Fusion worked for Russian authorities to
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November 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
A leak filtered through the friends of the Resistance at CNN afforded us our initial glimpse of the pending findings made by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz; John summarized the leak here. The findings set forth in Horowitz’s long-awaited report address possible FISA abuse in the Russia hoax perpetrated by John Brennan, James Comey et al. in the 2016 election and the first months of the Trump administration.
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November 21, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Imagine how it must have pained CNN to report this: “FBI official under investigation after allegedly altering document in 2016 Russia probe.” Who is the official? We don’t know. Nor does the CNN report makes clear the context, although, given the scope of the DOJ Inspector General’s investigation, obtaining the FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page is the obvious candidate. An FBI official is under criminal investigation after allegedly
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November 16, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We await the administration of justice to the wrongdoers who perpetrated and peddled the Obama administration’s Russia hoax. RealClearInvestigations continues to chronicle the wrongdoing in an important series of studies, of which Aaron Maté’s “The Brennan Dossier: All About a Prime Mover of Russiagate” is only the most recent. Maté has written for a variety of left-wing outlets, but this is nevertheless a first-rate column consistent with the high level
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November 9, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I take it as a given that Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma paid the Biden family a $3 million bribe. That follows from the facts that 1) Hunter Biden doesn’t speak Ukrainian or have any experience in Ukrainian business, 2) Hunter Biden has no experience in the natural gas industry, 3) Burisma nevertheless paid Biden more than $83,000 a month (!) for three years to serve on its board of
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November 4, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Lee Smith is the journalist and author of The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History. Published this past Tuesday, it is currently ranked number 5 on Amazon’s best-seller list. It was already back-ordered on its publication date. Given the fact that Lee is not a famous author, that Lee’s book is nonfiction, and that Lee has
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October 30, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Obama national security team including James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Susan Rice, Samantha Power and others comes ever more sharply into focus as an utterly repulsive crew. Clapper may be excused by his stupidity, but a special shame attaches to Comey and Brennan. I hope it’s not wishful thinking to detect sweaty desperation in Brennan’s tweet yesterday encouraging what Kim Strassel calls Resistance (At All Costs). I’m thinking
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October 25, 2019 — John Hinderaker
General Michael Flynn still awaits sentencing. Meanwhile his new lawyer, Sidney Powell, is tormenting the prosecutors and the FBI, uncovering corruption in the FBI and the Department of Justice that, she credibly alleges, included the framing of General Flynn. Is that too strong? I don’t think so. Yesterday Powell filed a reply brief in support of her motion to compel the production of more exculpating material by the prosecution, and
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October 24, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times reports that Attorney General Barr’s review of the Obama administrations spying on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign has turned into a criminal investigation. The linked article is an editorial in the guise of a story. Some might say — I would — that it is about time for a criminal investigation of the spying. Others (such as the authors of the laughable Times story) are breaking
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October 3, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The whistleblower complaint and impeachment frenzy find a context in the investigation of United States Attorney John Durham into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign. Durham has been appointed by Attorney General Barr to conduct the investigation on behalf of the United States. Those who are its subject are sweating it. Lee Smith takes up the context of the impeachment frenzy in the New York Post
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September 13, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Several months ago, General Michael Flynn replaced his original defense team with Sidney Powell, a Texas lawyer who is a veteran of the Department of Justice and author of Licensed To Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice. Powell is a self-promoter, but she also appears to be a very good lawyer. She certainly is aggressive. Powell has launched an all-out attack against Flynn’s prosecutors, whom she regards as
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September 2, 2019 — John Hinderaker
We have gotten to the point where, when the Department of Justice’s Inspector General releases a harshly critical report on former FBI Director James Comey, finding repeated instances of Comey violating FBI regulations and his own employment agreement to advance a political agenda, but the Attorney General decides not to press criminal charges, Comey declares victory and demands apologies from his critics. “I am not a crook!” is the proudest
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September 2, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In my notes on Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion in “All the president’s men, Obama style” and “Trump was FBI target,” I asserted that the Obama administration’s “collusion” caper constitutes “the biggest scandal by far in American political history.” McCarthy himself does not make this point, but he does something more valuable. He proves the elements of the scandal beyond a reasonable doubt and furnishes the reader with the means
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August 16, 2019 — John Hinderaker
On Wednesday, senators released the transcript of an interview with an investigator for the Intelligence Community Inspector General that included new revelations about Hillary Clinton’s illegal, off-the-books email system. The Daily Caller headlines: “Clinton IT Aide Who Defied Subpoena Says He Created A Cryptic Gmail Account And Sent It Nearly All Of Hillary’s Emails.” I won’t attempt an exhaustive summary; for the details, which remain obscure, follow the link. These
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August 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I posted my comments on Andrew McCarthy’s new book — Ball of Collusion: he Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency — here on Power Line yesterday morning. I read an advance copy of the book in a few sittings last week. Although we all know the outline of the story and many of the details, I found the book to present a gripping narrative. I didn’t want
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