Top ethics watchdog files suit against DOJ concerning those FBI texts that were made public.

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

A top ethics watchdog said Wednesday it is suing the Justice Department for all communications concerning the DOJ's decision to share with the press text messages exchanged between two FBI employees, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, during the 2016 election. 

Many of the texts were overtly critical of President Donald Trump, and Strzok and Page mocked him at various points throughout the campaign, calling him an "idiot." 

Strzok and Page also disparaged other political leaders, like the Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and former Attorney General Eric Holder. The texts concerning Trump, however, were quickly weaponized by the most vehement critics of special counsel Robert Mueller following the DOJ's decision to release them to Congress and the press. That release came just one day before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified before the House Judiciary Committee on December 13. 

The department has failed to answer a significant lingering question stemming from that release: how it chose which texts, of the more than 10,000 the department obtained over the summer, to unveil publicly. Nor has it released additional messages that could provide context to the ones that were shared with lawmakers and reporters. DOJ has also not disclosed who authorized the release. 

The lawsuit, filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the " DOJ’s senior leadership offices for all communications concerning the decision" to give the texts to a small group of reporters the day before Rosenstein's testimony. CREW filed the expedited request Wednesday after the DOJ failed to respond to their initial inquiry within 20 working days. 

Yeah I would like to see these questions answered as well.

Since when do private communications between lovers become the business of the DOJ unless one or more of the participants are under criminal investigation?

Those texts messages between the two FBI agents were not authorized for release by the DOJ, and in fact may have been the fault of Rep. Devin Nunes.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

The Department of Justice released 90 pages of text messages late Tuesday night, many harshly critical of candidate Donald Trump, that were exchanged between an FBI lawyer and an agent who was later assigned to Robert Mueller's special counsel team. 

e-mails were exchanged between Peter Strzok, one of the top FBI agents assigned to the Mueller investigation, and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer. The two were romantically involved. 

When Mueller learned of the e-mails last summer, he removed Strzok from the team.

One message sent by Page to Strzok on March 4, 2016, reads, "God trump is a loathsome human," according to a transcript obtained by NBC News.

Later that year, in August, shortly after Trump secured the Republican nomination, Page sent Strzok an article on Trump's fumbling to understand Russia's annexation of Crimea, adding: "Jesus. You should read this. And Trump should go f himself." 

Strzok responded that he liked the article "And F Trump." 

Strzok told Page on July 14, "It's clear he's capturing all the white, poor voters who the mainstream Republicans abandoned in all but name in the quest for the almighty $$$$." 

In other messages, the couple shared pro-Clinton views. Strzok told Page in March, "God Hillary should win 100,000,000-0." 

Strzok then praised Clinton's nomination in July: "Congrats on a woman nominated for President in a major party! About damn time!"

So that was the story a few days ago.

Now keep in mind that these are not emails sent back and forth on the FBI's official accounts, these  are private  texts between two people in a relationship.

Also keep in mind when Mueller learned of them he had this agent removed immediately.

But if you think that is going to placate the Right Wing, well then you have simply not been watching enough Fox News.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley demanded answers Thursday about when top Department of Justice officials became aware of anti-Donald Trump text messages sent in 2015 and 2016 by top FBI officials, including one senior agent involved in the investigation of any Trump campaign connections to Russia. 

"The limited release of 375 text messages between Mr. Peter Strzok and Ms. Lisa Page indicate a highly politicized FBI environment during both the Clinton and Russia investigations," Grassley wrote in a letter to deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead a criminal probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Right on cue.

Now Democrats have been wondering why we are seeing these texts in the first place, as they are private and should probably have remained an internal FBI matter.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Democrats pressed the Justice Department on Thursday to explain why it released salacious, anti-Donald Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI employees who are still under investigation for their work on the Russia special counsel investigation.

As it turns out the DOJ was not really behind the early  release of the texts. At least not officially:

The Department of Justice acknowledged in a statement on Thursday night that copies of private text messages exchanged between two former special-counsel investigators were disclosed to certain members of the media before they were given to Congress, even though those disclosures "were not authorized." 

Sarah Isgur Flores, a DOJ spokeswoman, told Politico that the text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were given to key members of the House Judiciary Committee the night before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's public testimony on Wednesday. 

The DOJ's Public Affairs division shared the same messages with a group of reporters after they were shared with the lawmakers, Flores said. But some members of the media "had already received copies." 

"As we understand now, some members of the media had already received copies of the texts before that — but those disclosures were not authorized by the department," she said.

So why did these private texts even get released in the first place?

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Friday said the Justice Department was "forced" to release private text messages exchanged between former special counsel investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page because House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes "was about to subpoena them." 

During an interview, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had asked Gaetz, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee who has introduced a resolution to remove special counsel Robert Mueller from his post, what he knows about the ongoing investigation that has led him to believe it has been tainted. 

"What do you know that Rod Rosenstein does not?" Cuomo asked, referring to the deputy attorney general. 

"Well, Chris, all the American people can see the text messages that were forced to be released 'cause Devin Nunes was about to subpoena them," Gaetz said.

Nunes, and a number of the House Republicans, have been desperately searching for a way to derail Robert Mueller and his investigation,  and they are willing even to subpoena private texts between a man and his girlfriend to do it. 

Is it a smoking gun.

No, especially since this Strzok guy also made nasty remarks about Bernie Sanders and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

But the Republicans don't necessarily need a smoking gun,  they just need enough to create doubt in the minds of some Americans so that Mueller can be canned and they will believe it was completely  justified.

And they are already starting to put those wheels in motion.

Here are a handful of texts to take our mind off of Donald Trump for awhile.

So I was going through my file of texts that I received a couple of years ago and I stumbled across  a few that I thought were kind of interesting.

The first is Gino talking about Bristol's plastic surgery.

Of course DWTS refers to Dancing with the Stars.

I would imagine that it refers to Bristol's second visit in 2012, since that coincides more closely to her relationship with Gino, though of course there were rumors that she was not exactly staying faithful to any one man back then.

And then of course it was not much later that she threw Gino aside for Joey Junker.

(You know Levi Johnston also mentioned Bristol receiving plastic surgery back around the time that Trig was born. Things that make you go "Hmmm.")

Speaking of Joey Junker it appears that Gino thought that he was a possible contender for baby daddy when Bristol first revealed that she was pregnant.

Of course as we know eventually Dakota was snagged as the lucky sperm donor. Even though as the text says she hit the sheets with Junker almost the minute that she arrived back in Wasilla.

You know, so I hear.

Well now those days are all behind her, and she finally has corralled the man or her mother's her dreams.  And don't they look happy?

The question of course is for how long?

I guess only time will tell. But I'm rooting for them.

After all when you read through Dakota's Facebook page it becomes pretty clear that they deserve each other. 

Sarah Palin celebrates the fact that her oldest daughter is now hawking t-shirts to make a buck, while behind the scenes she pulls strings to keep her son from facing justice.

Courtesy of the Mat-Su Manipulator's Facebook page:

I absolutely love this!!! Bristol Palin teamed up with Lifehouse Maternity Home in Louisville, KY to create these awesome shirts. Please support this great cause, get your shirt today; boldly show how you really feel about life, God & our 2nd Amendment! 

I love seeing all my kids still smiling and thriving, despite all the false and negative crap still thrown their way by the media. From all that negativity comes good like this - their productive efforts for great causes just like this. Nothing makes me prouder!

Ah yes, one day you're teaching your little one how to get rich without lifting a finger, and the next day they are out selling t-shirts like a hippie cult member on a street corner.

And what a message these shirts send.

I mean it's not often that you see the Ammosexual, Bible thumper, and anti-abortion slogans plastered together in one seemingly incongruous message across a person's chest like this.

How incredibly disturbing.

But hey, I guess it makes a certain tragically under educated Methamphetamine fueled kind of sense. I guess.

In other Palin news it appears that Track Palin has once again allowed his mommy to rescue his warrior bodied ass.

The earlier Court View entry read like this:

Notice that bottom portion where Track was remanded to custody?

Well now that is gone and the entries are as follows:

07/11/2016 
Charge Dismissed by Prosecutor 
Charge Dismissed by Prosecutor Charge(s) 1, 2 disposed with a disposition of 
Charge Dismissed by Prosecutor Charge #1: Originating - AS11.41.230(a)(1): Assault In The 4th Degree - Recklessly Injure 

07/11/2016 Notice of: Notice of: Plea Agreement (Veterans's Court) 

07/11/2016 Motion for Initial Opt-In and Order Wellness Court Motion for Initial Opt-In and Order Anchorage Veterans's Court 
Attorney: Fitzgerald, Kevin T (8711085) 
Filing Party: Palin, Track 
Case Motion #3 

07/11/2016 Order Granting Motion Order Granting Motion 
Case Motion #3: Motion for Initial Opt-In and Order Anchorage Veterans's Court

That's right the remanded portion is missing like it never even happened.

When calls were made to the courthouse to ask what the hell happened with the remanded part this was the response:

"Accidental entry."

Radar Online has more:

Track’s attorney, Kevin T. Fitzgerald, told Radar, “We got a very favorable resolution.” 

The dismissal of the domestic violence charge is “not an insignificant dismissal,” he said, praising the veterans court option. 

The possession of a weapon while intoxicated charge “really more accurately tracks what went down,” he said.

Yeah, THAT more "accurately tracks what went down."

Except no it does not.

That text by the way was also backed up by the initial report as ADN reminds us of in its reporting on this story: 

Wasilla police arrested Palin, 27, on the night of Jan. 18 at the Palins' home on Lake Lucille. A woman at the residence said he had punched and kicked her during a dispute over her contact with an ex-boyfriend, then threw her phone and threatened to commit suicide with a rifle. 

Police said Palin, who also suffered facial injuries that evening, told officers the woman struck him with an elbow. He later provided a breath sample with an alcohol content of .189.

However now that those domestic assault charges have been subjected to "Wite-Out" this as the only justice that Track Palin will have to face: 

Track Palin will have to complete a regime of "alcohol-related" treatment under the terms of this week's agreement, Fitzgerald said. Upon successful completion of the treatment course, the weapons-misconduct charge will be expunged from his record — but if that doesn't happen, Palin will receive a 180-day suspended jail sentence and be placed under informal probation for two years. 

Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion, a military veteran who oversees the Veterans Court, said Friday the outcome of Palin's plea agreement is consistent with similar cases the court has handled. 

"Mr. Palin is getting no special treatment from the state, and I'm not treating his case any different than I would anyone under the same charges or circumstances," Campion said.

Bullshit!

You know somebody asked me just today if Sarah Palin actually still had the power to make all of this go away.

Well I guess we have our answer, don't we?

Bristol Palin's ex on her mothering skills: "She's the worst mom EVER! I'd be f**ckin' devastated if I had a kid with her."

Okay so that clip was from 2012, and in response Levi Johnston decided that he had finally had all he could take and wanted to try one more time to get his son back into his life.

So as you all know his initial attempts hit a brick wall called Bristol Palin, who at that time had all of the power, all of the money, and no reason whatsoever to give him his rights as a father.

Ultimately that led Levi to my door, and what happened next I detailed in this post.

Now let me point out that even at that time Levi was adamant about taking the high road and not attacking Bristol. And in fact he never once said that she was a bad mother.

However as we talked about all that had happened up until that point it was pretty clear that she was certainly not going to be nominated for mother of the year.

Nor was it likely that she was going to give up control without a serious, costly battle.

Courtesy of a Johnston family confidant.

Yep, a costly battle indeed.

So after two years of the back and forth filings which were designed to drain Levi's financial resources (Sorry Bristol I screwed that up for you didn't I?), finally both parties came to an agreement and everything appeared to be settled.

Note that I said, "appeared to be settled."

It was around then that some misleading stories were leaked to the press saying that Levi owed over $80,000 in child support.

So Levi tried to set the record straight. Twice.

Now notice that there was still no attack on Bristol in those posts and articles.

However they resulted in this: 

Life & Style Weekly has exclusively learned that Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin’s son Tripp, 7, has been actively trying to have a fling with her. 

“He’s been texting Bristol, asking her to hook up again. He actually wrote, ‘Come cuddle me,’ and ‘Come lay that sexy a-- down right up tight next to me and watch a movie with me,” a source reveals.

For the record what's written is not exactly accurate. But it did hurt.

Ultimately Levi and Sunny's relationship grew stronger, and today they are doing very well.  Very well indeed.

So surely, I thought, now Levi would want to release me from my promise and let me do my thing.

But nope. Still wanted to be the good guy.

Pissing me off here buddy.

So I made a deal, once I revealed our friendship I would not post anything directed at Bristol specifically, and focus instead on the bigger story about his time with the Palin family and what he saw, IF Bristol did not go after either me, him, or Sunny directly.

I can't say that either he nor Sunny agreed to that, but then again it was not up for discussion. 

After some initial rumblings I even let Bristol know of my intentions.

As you now know that was not how things were going to work out.

Which brings us to this post today.

Like I said earlier I received a lot of interesting information from the Johnstons, their friends, and their family members over the last two years.

Much of it Sunny and Levi did not want to ever see on the internet.

However this is my blog, and ultimately my decision.

I thought I made myself pretty clear.

You may remember that I wrote a post where I cautioned Bristol against going after the Johnstons for talking to me.

Yeah well some people simply cannot take a hint.

Remember this?

Here is the rest that I originally was not going to post.

And trust me this attitude is nothing new.

I also learned during my many talks with Levi and Sunny that when Levi first talked about the new love in his life, and expressed a desire to have her meet his son, that Bristol responded by threatening to get a restraining order against Sunny to keep her away from Tripp.

And this happened even though Sunny was working as a pre-school teacher.

It didn't matter. All that mattered was that Bristol still had the power to keep Levi from seeing his son, and if he did not kiss her ass and do what she wanted she would make sure that never happened.

And it has been pretty much downhill from there. 

So without going into too much detail, after my last post on this topic there was a deal offered to Levi if he could get me to shut up.

Levi really wanted to pursue that deal and asked me if I could cool it.

Believe me when I say that I in no way wanted to play ball with Bristol and her new husband. (Oh yeah, Dakota is now officially a player in this little melodrama as well. In fact if you check Court View you can see that it was his lawyer, Kimberlee Colbo, who submitted the latest filings.) But this is their life after all and so I do not feel I have the right to stand in the way of any kind of arrangement which might make their situation better.

So I grudgingly agreed. Temporarily. (For those who were wondering why I was not posting about the Johnstons, well now you know.)

Since you are reading this it should be pretty obvious that the deal fell through. (Actually I am of the opinion that there was no real deal on the table and that those were simply attempts to delay the inevitable.)

Not only that but due to some strong arm tactics I am now released from my earlier promise to keep certain things quiet.

In other words kids, somebody better put the Maytag repairman on speed dial because there are some appliances which will desperately require his services any minute now.

P.S. By the way those texts up top are nothing compared to what's coming.

Radar Online has new documents that show Bristol Palin using every excuse in the book to deny Dakota Meyer his visitation rights.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

Right out of the gate, Palin’s attorneys state, “The visitation schedule proposed by [Meyer] is different from the schedule previously agreed to by the parties, and the first time Ms. Palin saw this proposed schedule is when” she saw Meyer had filed it with the court. 

Meyer’s proposed plan to visit his daughter places “undue burden and hardship on Ms. Palin and her family,” the documents claim. He asked to meet her in Anchorage at 7:30 a.m. on the days he has his daughter, but Palin complained she’d have to “leave her home in Wasilla by 6:00 a.m.” to get there. She also claimed that his proposed drop-off time of 6 p.m. was “unreasonably late.”

Apparently Bristol told told the court that her job, you know the one that she leaves any damn time she pleases, us "unpredictable" and she is never sure when she might have the day off or even at what time she might need to be at work.

First a non-existent breastfeeding schedule and now this?

Bristol also shared text messages with the court to show that her relationship with Meyer has become strained over this.

In the messages, obtained by Radar, she repeatedly badgers Meyer to settle visitation dates with her, as he refers her to his attorney and the court. 

“I’m not fighting with you,” Palin insists, but can’t totally restrain her emotions. Told that Meyer filed a proposed schedule with the court, she resounded “That’s news to me…Why can’t you send me the dates directly.” 

“I am busy with work and two kids, I’m not fully up to date on emails,” she rants. “Like I told you months ago, it’s easiest to connect with me directly, so I know what’s going on. Not legal documents that have tons of attachments. … I have to get up everyday at 4:30.”

Clearly Bristol is trying to trick Dakota into working this whole thing out without the court's involvement, because she knows they will protect his interests and call her out on her manipulative bullshit. 

However clearly he is getting good advice about keeping the communication about the visitation between the lawyers, and is now going to Radar Online to embarrass her in public. and pressure her to play by the rules.

That is EXACTLY the right way to deal with the Palins.

Trust me if Dakota caved and started to negotiate with Bristol in private she would do everything she could think of to make him feel guilty, use her "job" and her fantasy breastfeeding schedule to manipulate him, and in the end lie to the media about things he supposedly agreed to and that he in some way threatened, harassed, or attempted to intimidate her.

If I were Dakota I would have NO communications with that were not through his attorney or witnessed by a third party.

Bristol Palin releases text between herself and Dakota Meyer which paint him as an absentee father. Update!

The day the trap was sprung.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

According to the court papers, Palin has 'repeatedly invited Mr. Meyer to see his daughter' but stipulated that the grounds be set so as not to disrupt her breastfeeding schedule. 

Her response to his emergency custody motion explains: 'Ms. Palin is currently breastfeeding their two-month old daughter and plans to continue doing so until she is at least a year old. 

 'It is in Sailor's best interest that breastfeeding continue and that Mr. Meyer's visitation be fashioned so that he may begin bonding with Sailor without disrupting her breastfeeding schedule.' 

Meyer had originally sought to see Sailor for four consecutive days, between March 19 and 22, away from Palin from noon to 6pm on March 19 and then from 8am until 6pm on every other day. 

He also argued that a decision needed to be made quickly to allow him to make travel plans from his native Kentucky to Alaska where Palin and his child live. 

But Palin's lawyers asserted: 'Sailor's best interests trump Mr. Meyer's interest in prearranging his travel plans.'

Dakota better get his head out of his ass, because he is being manipulated by a woman who learned from the best.

The article goes on to say that Dakota will start to have visitation with Sailor every two weeks starting on March 18.

Gee I wonder if he would like to go hunting while he is up here? If only there were an experienced hunter in Wasilla willing to take him.

Any ideas?

Update: So I just received some texts from my friends in Wasilla, and the scuttlebutt is that Bristol has been spotted NUMEROUS times bottle feeding Sailor in public.

In fact at least one person is adamant that she has NEVER breastfed either Sailor OR Tripp.

So the entire Daily Mail post is full of shit and clearly an attempt to manipulate Dakota and make herself seem like the better parent.

Update 2: So if Bristol's breastfeeding schedule is so important, and cannot be altered, then is that Piper's bottle then?

What WOULD Hillary Clinton say to Sarah Palin in a text?

Personally I have to laugh out loud when I even consider the idea of Palin trying to communicate with Hillary.

Hillary would destroy her in any kind of policy disagreement, and afterward it would leave Palin rolled up in the fetal position too devastated to even get a good enough grip on a can of peaches to hurl it at her refrigerator.

And oh how I would pay to see that!

(You can see more Texts From Hillary Clinton by clicking here.)

Update: Oops!  I missed this one.

Okay THAT one is better than the first one!