Russia Probe Documents Remain in the Air

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

The manufactured hate by the liberal left Democrats of President Donald J. Trump was allegedly confirmed as being worth it when a dossier paid for by the Clinton's that was supposed the show the billionaire's love for Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, emerged on the scene.  The thing is, the whole thing was a fake, and full of fiction.

Now, it has gotten to the point where it is beginning to sound like the Democrats actually believe their own lies.  They are investigating the crime of Russian Collusion, and they are sure there is evidence out there, somewhere, even though there is no evidence, and if anything, what's popping up is proof that the Democrats were in collusion with each other in their desperate aim to criminalize Trump because they couldn't figure out any other reason Hillary Clinton would lose.  From their point of view, it couldn't possibly be because voters preferred the billionaire businessman.  That would be, well, just plain nuts.

As the attacks, both propaganda and legal, against Trump continues to fail, and his approval numbers keep inching upward, it's turning out that Trump is beginning to expose the Democrats for the frauds they truly are.  So, when he said he wanted to declassify the Russia-probe documents, which should show the unlawfulness surrounding the dossier, and the unlawfulness that ushered a FISA warrant, the Democrats went into meltdown.  Their fear of being exposed for who they are took front and center.

So, as expected, when Trump called for the Russia-probe documents, the Democrat leadership said, "No way!"  They demanded that no Russia-probe documents be released until their deep-state allies, the director of national intelligence and the heads of the FBI and the Justice Department, meet with the “Gang of Eight.”

According to the Epoch Times, "In a letter sent one day after Trump ordered the declassifications, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also called Sept. 18 on the three agencies to cease the declassification review process and halt all communications with the White House related to the president’s order until meeting in person with the Gang of Eight. 

"Trump ordered Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats on Sept. 17 to declassify specific pages of the secret court warrant application to surveil former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, FBI interviews related to the application, and text messages related to the Russia probe sent by James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr. 

"Trump specified that the documents be declassified “immediately.” The Democrats’ move could at best delay the process, since Trump holds the ultimate authority to declassify documents. 

"The Democrats argue that the White House shouldn’t be given access to the documents because the Russia investigation is still ongoing and may “implicate the President himself or those around him.” According to the letter, the Democrats had sought to restrict the president’s access to information at least three times since June."

If the documents may implicate the President, why would they be so against the declassification?  I think it's the opposite.  They are fearful that the documents will implicate the Democrats for their role in not only communicating with Russian personnel, but collusion among themselves, and their minions in the deep-state.

At the requested meeting, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, and Warner demand to know how much the White House will get to see as part of the review process, the White House staff who are involved, what information the agencies propose to redact, how they plan to protect sources and methods, and if there is a plan to “mitigate harm” that may result from the release of the documents. 

“The action he has taken, to direct your agencies to selectively disclose classified information that he believes he can manipulate publicly, to undermine the legitimacy and credibility of the Special Counsel’s investigation, is a brazen abuse of power,” the Democrats’ letter states. 

Spokespeople from the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told The Epoch Times that those agencies are cooperating with the FBI to comply with Trump’s order.

The President has ultimate authority over declassification.  His order should have begun a review process being conducted by his agencies in the intelligence community.

The fears of the Democrats is the fact that the documents Trump ordered focuses on the fake research dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and the intense anti-Trump bias expressed by Lisa Page and Strzok, among others.

They don't want the cat completely out of the bag.

They don't want the country to know that members of the FBI were working with the Democrats.  Trump, if he exposes the FBI’s scheme against him, said that doing so would be a “crowning achievement” of his presidency.

“I hope to be able to call this, along with tax cuts and regulation and all the things I’ve done … in its own way, this might be the most important thing because this was corrupt,” Trump said.

Trump said that he hasn’t read the material he ordered to be declassified, but that he believes they will expose that the probe of his campaign was a “hoax, beyond a witch hunt.” 

The president was specifically concerned with the secret court judges who approved the warrant to spy on Carter Page. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved the initial application to surveil Page in October 2016. The court then approved three renewals in three-month increments. 

“One of the things I’m disappointed in is that the judges in FISA didn’t, don’t seem to have done anything about it. I’m very disappointed in that,” Trump said. “No 

w, I may be wrong because, maybe as we sit here and talk, maybe they’re well into it. We just don’t know that because I purposely have not chosen to get involved.” 

Trump noted that many people had asked him to declassify the documents, but said he waited to see “where it was all going.” 

“All I want to do is be transparent,” he said. “I hope to be able put this up as one of my crowning achievements that I was able to … expose something that is truly a cancer in our country.”

Then, once exposed, maybe we could then start properly investigating the crimes of the Democrats.  For example, not only did Obama and Hillary Clinton allow the deaths of our heroes in Benghazi, but they fired the surviving heroes when they landed in Germany, making them figure out their own way back home.

Former Secretary of State and long-time protester against the United States John Kerry (see Jane Fonda/Vietnam image with John Kerry to the right) has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif three or four times since leaving office and their talks touched on the international nuclear agreement which Kerry negotiated and President Trump withdrew from.  Kerry has admitted to this Logan Act violation.  And, last May, the Boston Globe reported that he had been secretly meeting with the Iranian foreign minister and European leaders, advising them on how to save the flawed JCPOA.  Again, a Logan Act violation.

How about the corruption of Democrats on our Caribbean territory?  The Democrats' claim Puerto Rico's problems are the fault of Trump and the GOP.  Do you remember San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz attacking Trump for allegedly mishandling the disaster response, despite the fact that emergency management experts praised the president and FEMA’s actions?  She made her anti-Trump claims that they were getting no supplies in Puerto Rico as she stood in front of pallets of supplies.  It shocked us to even see such a thing.  As it turns out, she's not the only dishonest liberal left Democrat mayor in Puerto Rico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwBHk_UuWvo

Puerto Rican Mayor Miguel Ortiz Velez of Sabana Grande, and two additional island officials who were directors of finance for the town of Toa Baja, are being investigated for a wide array of crimes.  They allegedly misused government funds, using nearly $5 million worth of federal funds to pay the town’s public employees and municipal contractors.

The political group these folks belong to, by the way, is the very same one that San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz belongs to.  So, in a nut shell, the Democrats in Puerto Rico were blaming Trump for hurricane deaths while her own party was defrauding taxpayers and laundering aid money.

Then there's Hillary's emails, Obama's dealings with enemies of America, and so on, and so on.

And we are supposed to believe them when they scream "Russia, Russia, Russia"?

That all said, when it comes to the release of the Russia-probe documents, Trump may have sort of given in.

Today, President Trump agreed to delay the release of key files related to the Russia investigation, asking the inspector general to review the documents on an “expedited basis” amid Justice Department concerns their publication may have a “negative impact” on the probe.

“I met with the DOJ concerning the declassification of various UNREDACTED documents. They agreed to release them but stated that so doing may have a perceived negative impact on the Russia probe. Also, key Allies’ called to ask not to release,” Trump tweeted Friday.

The documents Trump ordered declassified include a renewed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against former campaign aide Carter Page and text messages from former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The president, for months, has blasted Strzok and Page for the bias revealed in their text messages first found by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

The president also ordered the release of unredacted text messages from former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

What amazes me about all of this is that the Democrats have stuck to their Russia Russia Russia story, claiming that Trump is a Russian puppet.  Yet, Trump has hammered Russia with sanctions, has been in Ukraine's corner (which includes sending them aid), has stood tough against Russia in the Middle East, is hurting Russia economically with our increase in domestic oil production, and we've stood up to Russia militarily as we build up our military strength.

If Trump is Putin's puppet, he sure has a weird way of showing it.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary