Rob Reiner's conversation with former DNI James Clapper and former CIA chief John Brennan is a must see.

At 22 plus minutes this is a little longer than most videos that I post here, but it is well worth your time to watch.

Donald Trump decided to spend the morning going after Adam Schiff and everybody formerly connected to intelligence gathering or the Justice Department.

Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018

"Little Adam Schiff?" What a fucking toddler.

And he is also smearing James Comey, former DNI James Clapper, Senator Mark Warner, and former CIA Director John Brennan, who came out yesterday to chastise Devin Nunes for abusing his office.

And get a load of Trump's revisionist history:

Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018

"A lie told often enough becomes truth."

Adam Schiff had a great response to this.

Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. https://t.co/lVqQRu2Gjl

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 5, 2018

And that is the state of politics in the year 2018 folks.

Former DNI James Clapper literally calls Donald Trump a "Russian asset."

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: Vladimir Putin "knows how to handle an asset and that's what he's doing with the President" https://t.co/1bOnWU9hVI

— CNN (@CNN) December 18, 2017

Damn!

James Clapper is done pussy footing around this issue. 

Former DNI James Clapper makes it clear that when he said there was no evidence of Trump colluding with Russia, he did NOT know about many of the things that have been revealed since he made the statement.

(I am focused on only one portion of this interview with James Clapper and John Brennan, but there is much more to learn by watching the entire clip.)

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN on Sunday that he did not know about the meeting top Trump campaign advisers took with a Russian lawyer last year at Trump Tower to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton when he said in January that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Moscow. 

Clapper was also not aware that a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, was told about the Russian "dirt" on Clinton last April and had been trying for months to arrange a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former top intelligence official told CNN's Jake Tapper. 

"You said in January 2017 that you knew of no collusion," Tapper said. "Did you know of those two events?" 

"No, I did not," Clapper replied. 

"The statement I made at the time was true," he continued. "I had no direct evidence of collusion. We had lots of concerns, because we were aware of multiple meetings that were going on." 

Clapper said that, for his part, he was "not directly aware of the content of these meetings." 

"But we were certainly concerned," he said. "The dashboard warning lights were clearly on about what was going on. To say specifically that we had smoking gun evidence of collusion, no. But, of course, a lot more has come out that raises, I think, circumstantial questions if nothing else."

If you think about it we have learned an enormous amount since January, and it seems clear to me by how James Clapper and John Brennan phrased their responses that their assessment of Trump's involvement with the Russian interference may have changed dramatically since they were on the job.

Personally I am fairly convinced that Robert Mueller has plenty of evidence to tie Trump to Putin's hijacking of our election, and look forward to watching how he presents this evidence and Trump's reaction when he realizes the jig is up.

James Clapper states publicly that intelligence community assessment of Russian interference serves to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Trump's victory.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

On CNN last night, Erin Burnett questioned former Defense Intelligence Agency director James Clapper about Russian interference in the election. 

She asked him about Trump's reaction to those intelligence briefings. 

"When we briefed him, if you're speak of the briefing on the 6th of January, he was very curious, complimentary and he did listen," Clapper said. 

"And frankly, the evidence that we provided in detail --which of course we couldn't expose publicly-- was pretty overwhelming. It's why we had such a high confidence level in what we said in that assessment. And so I thought it was a good discussion. He had some doubts about some things, but that's fine to be skeptical about some things. But on balance, I thought we successfully conveyed the message because the substantiating evidence was quite compelling and we didn't hear anything about the 400 pound guy in his bed in New Jersey." 

"Which is and I think very important, as you said, because I think obviously when he says publicly is different than what you're describing, which is sort of the way you want an incoming president to respond, courteous and receptive and listen," Burnett said.

"I have to say, Erin, I think what this was maybe the first or early harbinger of what I think really motivated him is, our intelligence community assessment did, I think, serve to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his victory in the election and I think that, above all else, is what concerned him. I think that transcends, unfortunately, the real concern here, which is Russian interference in our political process, which by the way, is going to continue," Clapper said.

And there you have it.

This is why Trump is desperate to shut down these investigations.

He KNOWS they will ultimately de-legitimize his victory and that is what terrifies him to his core.

Kremlin goes all in on with attempt to discredit actor Morgan Freeman.

Courtesy of BBC: 

Russia has aimed its entire media arsenal at the veteran Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman over his appearance in a video accusing the Kremlin of waging "war" on America during last year's presidential election. 

The video shows the Oscar winner accusing President Vladimir Putin, a "former KGB spy", of launching cyber attacks and spreading false information in order to avenge the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

He urges President Donald Trump to tell the nation that "during this past election, we came under attack by the Russian government". 

The clip was produced by The Committee to Investigate Russia, a group set up by Hollywood director Rob Reiner to expose what it calls Russia's "aggressive effort to subvert the American democratic process". 

The committee includes former National Intelligence Agency director James Clapper on its advisory board.

The Russian media claims that Morgan was "duped" and compared him to Colin Powell who famously made the case to attack Iraq based on fake and inadequate data.

Clearly that is not the case with Mr. Freeman, who seems to be well informed as to what Russia did during the 2016 election, and whose opinion falls right in line with the folks currently investigating the Kremlin's interference.

Also keep in mind who else the Russians tried desperately to smear.

For those who forgot what all of the hoopla was about here is that Morgan Freeman video again.

By the way, the group that made this video, Committee to Investigate Russia, is in no way stopping with just this one video. And you can ascertain that for yourself simply by visiting their website.

Buzzfeed requests FOIA of the Federal Government for access to information and testimony pertaining to that Russian dossier.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Add this surprising entry to the growing list of those issuing subpoenas for insight into the imbroglio involving President Donald Trump and the Russians: BuzzFeed. 

The online media outlet sent formal demands Thursday to the CIA, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, seeking details on the distribution of an unverified intelligence dossier about Trump said to have been in the possession of Russian intelligence during last year’s presidential campaign, POLITICO has learned.

BuzzFeed is also seeking testimony from fired FBI Director James Comey, as well as former DNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, said a source familiar with the subpoenas.

Now the reason that Buzzfeed is requesting this FOIA is to bolster their claim that publishing the dossier was protected by  the fair report privilege in order to fight a lawsuit against them from one Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian technology executive whose name happened to be included in that dossier.

Whatever the reason this could prove quite interesting as Buzzfeed will surely report on the progress of the subpoenas as well as share what they can of the testimony from Comey, Clapper, Brennan, and whoever else gets caught in their net.

I am also curious as to exactly how much of that dossier has been confirmed by the various intelligence agencies.

And this could be one way to find that out.

According to former DNI James Clapper, Watergate "pales" when compared to the Trump/Russia investigation.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The Watergate scandal pales in comparison to events in Washington surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump and alleged links between his campaign and Russia, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Wednesday. 

Clapper questioned Trump's continued pro-Russian stance, saying his sharing of intelligence with Russia "reflect either ignorance or disrespect, and either is very problematic". 

"I think if you compare the two that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we're confronting now," Clapper told reporters in Canberra, Australia's capital.

You know when a regular person says this is worse than Watergate you can dismiss that fairly easily.

When a reporter suggests that this is worse than Watergate you might think they are simply trying to be provocative in order to get more interest in an article.

But when the former DNI says that this is worse than Watergate, well....that is something else entirely.

Former DNI James Clapper says that our institutions are under assault internally. Under assault by Donald Trump.

Former DNI James Clapper: Our institutions are "under assault" internally by President Trump https://t.co/sDW8NzuwDq https://t.co/sVWYdol733

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 14, 2017

Courtesy of CNN: 

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a stern warning Sunday about the state of the US government after President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey last week, saying he thinks US institutions are "under assault." 

"I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally -- and that's the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system -- and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally," Clapper said on CNN's "State of the Union." 

Pressed by anchor Jake Tapper if he meant US institutions were under assault internally from the President, Clapper responded, "Exactly." 

Clapper called on the other branches of the federal government to step up in their roles as a check on the executive. "The founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances," Clapper said. "I feel as though that is under assault and is eroding."

There is really no way to argue with this.

And that is why we need to appoint that special prosecutor and start taking steps to have this orange cancerous tumor removed from the White House.

Donald Trump uses former DNI James Clapper's statements as proof there is no collusion with Russia, Clapper refuses to let him get away with that.

Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion w/ Russia and Trump.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

So the tweets up above are what Trump has been using to convince the public that he is in the clear and there is no evidence of wrongdoing on his part.

However that is highly inaccurate as Vox points out in their article yesterday.

First off here is what James Clapper actually said to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee:

In our intelligence community assessment, we made the point that we could not make that call. The intelligence community has neither the authority, the expertise or the resources to make that judgment. The only thing we said was we saw no evidence of influencing voter tallies at any of the 50 states. But we were not in a position to judge whether — what actual outcome on the election.

You will notice that this is specifically talking about the Russians affecting the voter tallies directly, NOT whether they influenced the outcome through their use of propaganda, and says nothing about collusion.

So yesterday Clapper goes on MSNBC and gets a little more specific.

Here is the transcript of his remarks: 

Well, it might be useful, first, to explain the unique position that the FBI occupies in that it straddles both intelligence, as a part of the intelligence community and law enforcement. 

My practice during the six and a half years that I was at DNI was always to defer to the director of the FBI, be it Director Bob Mueller or Director Jim Comey on whether, when, and what to tell me about a counterintelligence investigation when the possibility was there that this could devolve into some sort of a criminal investigation. 

So I left it to the judgment of the FBI and that was certainly the practice I followed here. But that was consistent with what I did during the whole six and a half years. 

So it's not surprising or out of — or abnormal that I would not have known about the investigation, or, even more importantly, the content of that investigation. 

So I don't know if there was collusion or not. I don't know if there is evidence of collusion or not, nor should I have in this particular context.

Clapper goes on to say, quite definitively, that though there was no evidence of collusion that found it's way into that Intelligence Community Assessment which was released confirming that the Russians meddled in our election, that it does not mean there wasn't any evidence.

So essentially Clapper kneecapped Trump's argument that Clapper's words had vindicated him that all of this is nothing but a witch hunt.

Donald Trump's Twitter response to the testimony from Sally Yates was...you know...predictable.

Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion w/ Russia and Trump.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

Yes but Sally Yates said she could not answer this question due to the information being classified.

Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today --- she said nothing but old news!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

Did he even watch the same testimony we watched yesterday?

The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

I'm guessing when you are in jail.

Biggest story today between Clapper & Yates is on surveillance. Why doesn't the media report on this? #FakeNews!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

Incorrect again. If anything Clapper put to rest any notion that there was any illegal or politically motivated surveillance directed at Trump and his associates.

The surveillance that was done was for the safety of the country.

By the way there is now some concern that Trump attempted to threaten Sally Yates with this tweet before the hearing:

Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

No I think that every day we are getting closer and closer to proving that the Trump-Russia collusion story is anything but "a total hoax."

FBI Director James Comey, and others, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee.

Courtesy of Bloomberg News:  

FBI Director James Comey has been asked to testify along with several former Obama administration officials before the House Intelligence Committee for its first public hearing on its investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Committee chairman Devin Nunes said Tuesday that he has also invited National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers, former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, former acting attorney general Sally Yates and two executives from CrowdStrike Inc., a cybersecurity company, to the March 20 hearing. The California Republican added that none of invitees have been issued subpoenas, and that additional witnesses may be added. 

The hearing will likely be the first in-depth public inquiry into allegations of connections between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, as well as Russia’s efforts to influence the U.S. election.

I really do want to be excited by this prospect and to hope that it will lead to some actionable evidence.

However that becomes a little difficult knowing that this asshole is the chairman:  

Nunes told reporters Tuesday that he doesn’t believe the Russians conspired to help elect Trump, but that his committee will do "a full assessment" of that assertion.

Gee, I am just filled with confidence. 

Former DNI James Clapper definitively states that there was NO FISA warrant to tap Donald Trump's phones. Update!

James Clapper: "There was no such wire tap activity amounted against" Donald Trump. #MTP pic.twitter.com/eNGFKe0vxY

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 5, 2017

Of course earlier the President's spokesman also denied that he had any involvement in any such action against the Trump campaign: 

"A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement Saturday. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

Which of course now leaves Donald Trump revealed as a conspiracy theory spouting madman.

Louise Mensch, who I identified as being the likely original source of the FISA story, tweeted this in response to Clapper's statement.

My own FISA story nowhere mentions a wiretap. Nor does @julianborger story nor does BBC story - but Trump "just learned" he was taped

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 5, 2017

There is a FISA warrant issued on the Alfa Bank server in Trump Tower and all comms between two Russian banks, any US persons involved. https://t.co/7FefUAiGlP

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 5, 2017

It should be noted that though it is likely that Mensch's initial reporting was the impetus for all of this, that it was the Right Wing exaggerations which fired Trump up and sent him on that Twitter tantrum.

And those exaggerations were based on a misreading of the initial story, and of course a desire to put blame on the Obama Administration.

You can see that for yourself in this insane rant from Mark Levin on Fox News earlier today.

And now we have this.

Statement from @PressSec pic.twitter.com/WeSnymiyDB

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 5, 2017

I swear every day is just a little bit more insane than the day before.

Update: Comey chimes in!

Courtesy of the New York Times:

The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

Well that just left Trump to dangle in the wind all on his own.

In Senate hearing FBI's James Comey reiterates that the Republicans WERE hacked, but that their information was not released by the Russians. Update: Trump warned that Russians have compromising information about him

Courtesy of CNN: 

FBI director James Comey told a Senate panel that there was "penetration on the Republican side of the aisle and old Republican National Committee domains" no longer in use. 

He later added that "there was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organizations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC, meaning old emails they weren't using. None of that was released." 

Comey said there was no sign "that the Trump campaign or the current RNC was successfully hacked." 

Asked by Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, whether the hacker had the ability to selectively leak that old information, Comey indicated that they did. 

Comey also assesssed that "they got far deeper and wider into the (Democratic National Committee) than the RNC," adding that "similar techniques were used in both cases." 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate committee, examining the cyber breaches, that the intelligence community concluded with "high confidence" that Russia hacked the election to "denigrate" Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and contrast her unfavorably to Republican Donald Trump.

So older Republican e-mail accounts WERE hacked, but not the current RNC or the Trump campaign. Hmm.

Does ANYBODY not think that those older GOP e-mail accounts would have yielded a treasure trove of useful data?

Depending on how old they are they could contain information about the John McCain campaign, the lead up to the Iraq War, evidence of corruption among lawmakers, possible inter office affairs, the possibilities are endless.

And why would the Russians even bother hacking into the current Republican e-mails or the Trump campaign when everything was already going according to plan?

Earlier in the hearing there was also this exchange:

Comey refused to comment on whether the FBI is investigating connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

But Sen. Angus King of Maine, an Independent, alluded tartly to Comey's very public statements about investigations into Clinton during the election campaign -- "the irony of you making that statement I cannot avoid." 

Comey said that there was a difference between open and closed investigations. He pushed back on King, saying, "You asked me if you have any pending investigations and we're not going to talk about that."

That's funny because we were told repeatedly that the Clinton investigation was not entirely closed before Comey sent that letter which played such a large part in costing Hillary the presidency.

And to my mind by saying that he cannot comment on any investigations that might be ongoing concerning Trump, that means there are ongoing investigations concerning Trump.

I think THAT should be announced to the American people BEFORE he gets sworn into office.

I am not the only one who thinks that.

I suspect this big news will not get full coverage: intel committee member says Comey should tell public what FBI knows of Trump-Russia ties

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 10, 2017

And there also clearly needs to be an independent non-partisan commission to investigate Russia's influence on this election, and the ties between them and the Trump campaign.

We also need to stop saying that the hacks had no impact on the outcome of the election when Donald Trump cited information leaked by Wikileaks over 100 times.

He did that because he knew it would have an impact, the only question left unanswered is when did he know he was citing information obtained by Russian hackers?

Update: Well as it turns out Trump himself may very well have been hacked by the Russians.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. 

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. 

Sources tell CNN that these same allegations about communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians, mentioned in classified briefings for congressional leaders last year, prompted then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to send a letter to FBI Director Comey in October, in which he wrote, "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States." 

CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs. 

The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment.

Okay help me out here, is this the right time to say "We told you so?"

Well I think we now know why the Russians worked so hard to get Trump elected.

"Not a puppet, not a puppet."

Yes, yes you are.

Update 2: Trump r

FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

Well since just about everything this guy says is a lie, you make the call.

During Senate hearing, intelligence community says they are more convinced than ever that the Russians hacked our election. Update!

(I am including Claire McCaskill's questioning of CIA Director Clapper because I found it to be one of the more entertaining exchanges. Though to be fair Lindsey Graham was a hoot to watch as well.)

Courtesy of CNN: 

In his opening questions to Clapper, Committee Chairman John McCain noted the Intelligence Community's conclusion that the cyberthefts and disclosures were intended to interfere with the US election process and could only have been authorized by Russia's most senior levels. 

"We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement that we made on the seventh of October," Clapper said. After the election, the Intelligence Community concluded that at least one Russian motive had been to help Trump win. 

Clapper said that the hacking did not succeed in changing any vote tallies, but that it was impossible for intelligence to assess how the information released from the breaches affected voters' attitudes. 

McCain emphasized the Russian role and delivered an implicit rebuke to Trump, who has urged people to "move on" from the issue of Moscow-directed hacking.

I actually disagree that there is no evidence that the Russian hacks impacted the vote tallies.

In fact if you go through this timeline presented by ABC News you can see for yourself how the leaked information, carefully disseminated by Wikileaks over a period of four months, slowly eroded the trust for the DNC and later for Clinton herself.

I think without that, and the help of FBI Director Comey, Donald Trump would have had no way in hell of winning this election.

Wikileaks, which I now consider to be a propaganda outlet for Russia, also fed into conspiracy theories about a Clinton earpiece, and even diagnosed her with a fake disease. 

You do not get to hold yourself out as a paragon of truth and justice once you engage in that kind of conspiratorial nonsense.

Clapper and McCain also have little use for Julian Assange:  

McCain asked Clapper whether Assange had endangered men and women serving the US with his earlier release of State Department cables. 

"Yes, he has," Clapper said. 

McCain then asked whether Assange should be accorded any credibility -- another implicit rebuke of Trump. Clapper responded, "No, he should not."

And yet this is the guy that Donald Trump thinks the American people should listen to and consider as reputable as our own intelligence agencies.

I have to admit that I was really fascinated by the hearing, and watched the entire thing from start to finish.

At one point Director Clapper was asked by Lindsey Graham if he was prepared to be challenged by Donald Trump tomorrow when he provides a briefing, and he smiled and said yes and that he welcomes the exchange.

In other words Clapper, and the other intelligence professionals, are confident that the information that they have to share will be more than enough to convince even someone as dimwitted as Donald Trump.

It will be interesting to see if tomorrow's Trump tweets don't have a completely different tenor than the ones before the briefing.

For example:

How did NBC get "an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented?" Who gave them this report and why? Politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

By the way considering what James Comey did to sabotage Hillary's chances of winning the election, I do not blame the DNC for keeping the FBI away from their hard drives.

If in fact that's what happened. 

Update: Former CIA Director, James Wolsey, has just quit as a Trump advisor. 

I am not sure what that means, but I bet it means something.