Conservative watchdog sues for alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella's communications

Washington Examiner  "A conservative watchdog is suing the CIA and the Justice Department for the communications of a CIA analyst who is alleged to be the Ukraine whistleblower.
"Judicial Watch said Thursday it had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the agency and the department for the communications of Eric Ciaramella.
"The watchdog filed FOIA requests in November to the Justice Department seeking communications between Ciaramella and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and special counsel

Robert Mueller’s office. It also filed a request with the CIA for Ciaramella’s emails between June 1, 2016, and Nov. 12, 2019.
"Attorneys for the whistleblower, whose complaint prompted the impeachment investigation into President Trump, have neither confirmed nor denied whether Ciaramella is their client.

The whistleblower continues to work on issues relating to Russia and Ukraine and is driven to work by armed security officers when threats against him increase, according to the Washington Post. "Ciaramella, 33, was Ukraine director on the National Security Council at the end of the Obama administration and was the acting senior director for European and Russian affairs in the early months of the Trump administration. He is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council.
"He worked closely with Vice President Joe Biden and attended a State Department banquet at Biden’s invitation in 2016.
"Ciaramella was also cited in Mueller’s report in connection to a meeting between Trump and Russian officials in the Oval Office in May 2017, the day after James Comey was fired as FBI director.
"Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said there is “significant public interest” in Ciaramella’s actions.
“ 'CIA operative Ciaramella is documented to be involved in the Russia collusion investigation, and was a key CIA operative on Ukraine in both the Obama and Trump White Houses. Our lawsuits are designed to break through the unprecedented cover-up of his activities,” Fitton said in a statement.

[Read more: 'Bro-like': Schiff aide was White House friend of alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella]

Schiff Names Eric Ciaramella As Whistleblower  "Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee revealed the whistleblower listed on transcripts in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, as Eric Ciaramella.
"RealClear Investigations first published their suspicions about Ciaramella, who is a CIA analyst. He worked at The White House on October 30.
"Ciaramella was at the center of the impeachment probe. He was there in the White House through the Mueller Investigation, and according to multiple news sources worked in the Obama administration under Vice President Biden." . . .
"Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took the stage on at the Trump Rally on November 4 said:

“We now also know the name of the whistleblower. The whistleblower needs to come before Congress as a material witness because he worked for Joe Biden at the time Hunter Biden was getting money from corrupt alagarks. I say tonight to the media, do your job, and print his name, and I say this to my fellow colleagues in Congress and every Republican in Washington, step up and subpoena Hunter Biden and subpoena the whistleblower.” . . .

WaPo Media Critic: Maddow Has A Lot To Answer For With Steele Dossier Obsession

Hot Air

"Plenty of people need to answer for their embrace of the Steele dossier — the FBI, James Comey, Adam Schiff, Christopher Steele himself. A number of media outlets need to provide accountability, especially Buzzfeed for its inexplicable decision to publish what turned out to be a salacious package mostly consisting of rumor as misinformation. But when it comes to the worst offender, Erik Wemple* declared yesterday, no one surpasses MSNBC’s biggest prime-time host.

“Name a host on cable news who has dug more deeply into Trump-Russia than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow,” Wemple writes. And no one got it more wrong, either — and no one ran as fast from it when it fell apart. “She was there for the bunkings, absent for the debunkings,” Wemple concludes, “a pattern of misleading and dishonest asymmetry.”

"It began with the Buzzfeed publication of the dossier, fueled by the absence-of-evidence fallacy:

Sorting through the silence from the FBI and the unverified claims in the dossier, Maddow riffed on her Jan. 13, 2017, program: “I mean, had the FBI looked into what was in that dossier and found that it was all patently false, they could tell us that now, right?” said Maddow. “I mean, the dossier has now been publicly released. If the FBI looked into it and they found it was all trash, there’s no reason they can’t tell us that now. They’re not telling us that now. They’re not saying that. They’re not saying anything.”

That line of analysis has gained some important context via the Horowitz report. The FBI did, in fact, find “potentially serious problems” with Steele’s reporting as early as January 2017. A source review in March 2017 “did not make any findings that would have altered that judgment.”

"So why didn’t the FBI admit that publicly, as Maddow apparently expected?" . . . 

*So, who's Eric Wemple, you ask?

Stopping Lisa Murkowski From Playing Lady Macbeth

Issues & Insights  . . . "It can be a murky business dealing with Lady Murkowski, who in the past has been willing to magnify her one vote in the U.S. Senate, acting as a kind of RINO empress. When Barack Obama was president, she used her Senate floor votes to support his position over 70% of the time.
"This year she refused to sign a Senate resolution opposing House Democrats’ Trump impeachment inquiry. And most notably, last year Murkowski was the only Republican senator to vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, despite being recorded as voting “present” thanks to a technical maneuver on the floor. Alaska’s state GOP opposed her opposition to Kavanaugh.
"Would Murkowski play Lady Macbeth and help and encourage Democrats in their campaign to remove Donald Trump? She certainly is letting Republicans know they would be unwise to relax and expect her to fall in line and support a Republican president, and almost all of her fellow Republican senators.
"The Republican leadership would do well to take a page out of the strategy manual of Lyndon Johnson, who as Senate majority leader, and later as president, knew how to keep senators in line, using threats, flattery, a talent for reading his fellow man, and plain hard work.
“ 'I do understand power, whatever else may be said about me. I know where to look for it, and how to use it,” LBJ once reflected.
"Early this year, a Democrat explained how his party doesn’t tolerate Murkowski-style dissidence. “We are a team,” northern California Rep. John Garamendi, a Pelosi ally, said of the speaker’s willingness to punish House Democrats who opposed her too strongly or too publicly, like New York’s Kathleen Rice and Anthony Brindisi. “If 99 of us are going in one direction and the other person is going in the other direction, we’ve lost 1/100th of our potential,” he told The Hill." . . .

Democratic lawmakers insist Durham resign from Justice Department probe of Russian meddling in U.S. elections

Remember the Democrat verbal assassination of of Judge Ken Starr as he investigated Bill Clinton's impeachable? Cross the Democrats but remember what judges Bork and Kavanaugh had done to them by those same demagogues. TD

Hartford Courant

"Congressional Democrats who fear Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham may be conducting a partisan investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe into Russian meddling in U.S. elections are calling on him to resign.

"Rep. Hank Johnson*, D-Ga., has written Attorney General William Barr and Durham, saying “neither of you possess the integrity necessary to serve in the Department of Justice.”

"Signed by 10 of Johnson’s House Democratic colleagues — but none from Connecticut — the letter’s demand for Barr’s resignation is not unique.

"In May, for instance, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Barr should “probably resign” because, the senator said, the attorney general had mislead the public about the conclusions of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling." . . .  Let the reputation destruction begin.

*You may recall Rep. Hank Johnson and his fear that a military base on Guam could make that island capsize?

Sanctuary laws defy the will of the American people

Brian Lonergan  . . . "Evidence can be found in two elections last month. While Arizona is a traditional red state that is now trending purple, its second-largest city of Tucson has long been a blue stronghold. That’s why it was so surprising that its citizens soundly rejected a ballot initiative by a 71-29 margin that would have declared Tucson a sanctuary city.    

"In deep-blue Sussex County, N.J., residents similarly voted by a 2-1 margin to support an initiative that would allow law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

"What is going on here?

"It’s quite simple, really. Voters are standing up and rebelling against the propaganda they have been force-fed by politicians and the media. The dubious message has been that sanctuary laws are good for their community, that they make it safer, more welcoming and fair. It’s a classic “the emperor wears no clothes” moment. The rhetoric does not match up with what people see and hear in their own lives every day."  . . .

. . . 

"The idea that sanctuary laws are fair and compassionate to aliens has also been exposed as fraudulent. Such laws attract more aliens, and they tend to cluster in dense communities. Inevitably, that population includes drug traffickers, sexual predators and members of violent gangs like MS-13 who gravitate to the lenient law enforcement atmosphere. Those miscreants prey on the nearest available victims, most often nonviolent aliens living among them.

"For those here illegally, a sanctuary community is probably the most dangerous place to live. Those who claim to be fleeing violence in their homelands may as well stay put. The violent narco-terrorists of the Northern Triangle have already moved to the United States in large numbers and are being shielded from deportation by out-of-touch politicians." .  .  .

Respected veteran journalist calls out his profession for betraying its principles going after Trump

With John Durham empaneling a grand jury, we may soon have some stubborn facts that even the most deranged of Trump haters cannot ignore, and like Captain Dreyfus, President Trump will be vindicated not just in the eyes of historians in the distant future, but in the eyes of the vast majority his countrymen.

Byrne

Thomas Lifson  "Few are the establishment journalists willing to tell the truth about their profession, which largely has abandoned its commitment to objectivity in the cause of opposing resident Trump and, if possible, driving him from office. One brave soul with standing in the profession just did so. Dennis Byrne, who for decades was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times and now is retired, has published a remarkable call for journalists to regain their sanity. The title of his column, published on his blog, The Barbershop, tells the story: “As a one-time journalist, I'm deeply ashamed of today's media.' ” . . .

"He continues:

I once was a journalist and proud of my profession.

No longer.

Today's media are habitually violating what once were the profession's governing principles: that the news must be reported objectively, fairly and without bias. As the report of Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz reveals, the media fed the nation a  steaming pile of BS.

For years, their unrelenting hated of President Donald Trump has been their guiding principle.

"What lends [credibility] is that Byrne is no fan of the 45th president:

Not that Trump doesn't deserve to be nailed. He's his own worst enemy; one might argue credibly that he has brought the BS storm on himself.

But that's not an excuse for the media's self-satisfying, twisted practices. Only a few called their profession to task.

"Read the whole thing!" . . .

REPORT: For The First Time, More People Are Leaving California Than Moving In

And let's look at some reasons why.

The Gateway Pundit

"Progressive policies are hurting the state of California.
"It is now known for high taxes, a massive homeless problem, disease in the cities, and human waste in the streets.
"All of this combined is causing people to flee the state.
"The Associated Press reports:

California still most populous, but stalls at 39.9 millionMore people are leaving California than moving in, evidence of the toll the state’s housing crisis is taking as the world’s fifth largest economy inches toward 40 million people.An estimate released Friday by the California Department of Finance put the California’s population at 39.96 million, just shy of the 40 million milestone demographers had predicted the state would have passed by now.The report shows California added more than 180,000 people when accounting for births and deaths for the 12 month period ending July 1. But when you include people who moved in and out of the state, California lost 39,500.State officials say it is the first time since the 2010 census that more people left California than moved in over the course of a year, contributing to the state’s slowest recorded growth rate since 1900.“People won’t move here because they can’t afford to come in the door,” said Dowell Myers, professor of policy, planning and demography at the University of Southern California. “The jobs are there. The people aren’t there.”More than 158,000 people moved to California over the 12 month period that ended July 1. But more than 197,000 people left.

"The homeless crisis is definitely one of the driving factors here.

"NBC News reports:

HUD estimates 2.7 percent rise in U.S. homelessness due to California housing crisis . . .

All emphases in the original. 

Bring it on! Trump and California Governor Newsom battle over California’s homeless crisis  "California is now a national laughingstock. It’s one-party state government, totally dominated by Democrats, has so badly bungled its treatment of homelessness (not to mention its stratospheric taxes) that its major cities are becoming unlivable, notorious for sidewalks covered in excrement, open drug use by people swarming over parks, sidewalks and spare plots of land under freeway overpasses, and taxpayers fleeing. A huge portion of Californians are actively considering leaving (one in four of the total population; 82% of 18 to 19 year olds), as poignant an index of government failure as can be imagined, short of anarchy or genocide.
"Gavin Newsom, the governor, once was considered a potential future president, despite his despicable personal history (having seduced the wife of one of his best friends), but the crisis on his watch is making that a pipedream now. So what does he do? You probably already have guessed the of course, he blames Trump! Leah Barkoukis reports:
"The Office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom touted its efforts in combating the homeless crisis in the state and took shots at the Trump administration even as federal data shows it is responsible for the uptick in the U.S.'s overall homeless population." . . . 

Ben Carson: I hoped to find more 'urgency in the leadership' in California on homelessness

Homelessness crisis: From houseboats to boulders, unconventional methods used to tackle problem in 2019

Democrat solution: blame President Trump or any Republican within arm's length.

Warren's Claim That Her Father Was A Janitor Infuriates Her Brother

Pelt the Pundits

Seems like an easy mistake to make, but I'm not Warren's brother. TD

"Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren reportedly angered her brother David Warren over the way that she has characterized what their father did for work, calling him a “janitor,” a term that David Warren says is false.

"The Boston Globe reported:  . . .

Families can also disagree on the details of a shared life. According to a family friend, David has disagreed with the way Warren calls herself the daughter of a janitor as she describes the work he found after losing a job as a salesman after his heart attack.

“When she called her dad a janitor during the early stages of this, David was furious,” said Pamela Winblood, 78, a longtime friend of David who had fallen out with him and supports Warren’s presidential bid. “He said, ‘My Dad was never a janitor.’ I said, ‘Well, he was a maintenance man.’ ” (In an interview, Warren said she had no idea why that characterization would bother her brother; she has referred to their father as a “maintenance man” in her 2014 autobiography but often as a “janitor” on the campaign trail.) . . .

. . . "Warren has repeatedly been plagued by accusations from critics that she is a phony and liar over numerous false claims that she has made about her and her family’s history.

"A couple of months ago, Warren came under fire over her claim that she was fired from a teaching job for being “visibly pregnant,” which she has repeatedly claimed on the campaign trail.

"Records obtained by The Washington Free Beacon debunk Warren’s claim:" . .  .

Sharyl Attkisson: The Six Red Flags We Missed Regarding the FBI’s Abusive FISA Witch Hunt Against the Trump Campaign

Matt Vespa  "Well, the Department of Justice Inspector General report on FISA abuses during the 2016 election is out. It revealed that the FBI made glaring errors when applying for the FISA spy warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official. Page was

viewed as a possible foreign agent and dark lord of the Sith concerning this Russian collusion allegation that turned out to be a total myth. Page was not a foreign agent. In fact, he had worked with the CIA—a piece of information that was left off of the FISA application process. It was one of 17 errors made. Michael Horowitz, the DOJ Inspector General, said that this failure was systemic regarding the omission or exclusion of exculpatory information on the Page warrant. Someone should be fired. 
"And all of this Trump-Russia nonsense was borne from the infamous Trump dossier, a politically biased opposition research project that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats. The Clinton campaign retained the services of Fusion GPS who then hired ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele to compile a document to smear Trump. It was largely unverified. It was total garbage. And it was cited as credible evidence in the process of obtaining a spy warrant against Page. The report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller debunked this dossier. And this DOJ IG report delivered the final kill shot. Yet, the damage is done. Page’s name is ruined. And the liberal media kept the Russian collusion narrative alive and well in the news cycle, despite there being zero evidence to back up any of the claims. They wanted it to be true. They peddled fake news to ensure this tall tale would get legs in the new cycle. And it all blew up in their faces." . . .More..

Six Screaming Red Govt. Surveillance Flags That Got Ignored

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has given the FBI until Jan. 10, 2020 to come up with fixes to abuses flagged by the Dept. of Justice Inspector General. In light of the revelations about FBI misbehavior in surveilling Trump campaign associates in 2016, it's clear we ignored screaming red flags that told us government abuse was not only possible-- but was happening.

Six Screaming Red Govt. Surveillance Flags That Got Ignored

Buttigieg Blasted for Christmas Tweet Claiming Jesus Was a Refugee

Leah Barkoukis

Mayor Pete and the Al Sharpton logo

"Democratic presidential candidate was blasted on Twitter or his Christmas day message claiming Jesus was a refugee. 
“ 'Today I join millions around the world in celebrating the arrival of divinity on earth, who came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee,” he wrote. “No matter where or how we celebrate, merry Christmas.”

"According to the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph were traveling due to a census."2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)  . . .

Comments included:
 Allie Beth Stuckey

‏Verified account @conservmillen 20h20 hours ago

If the person politicizing Christmas doesn’t believe faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation, if they don’t view the Bible as authoritative, if they can’t even articulate the gospel message, their insistence upon Jesus being a refugee should be the least of their worries—& ours

toddstarnes

✔@toddstarnes

Mayor Pete needs to go to Sunday School. https://twitter.com/petebuttigieg/status/1209833386459750400 …

Lisa Murkowski 'disturbed' by McConnell promise for 'total coordination' with White House; CNN likes this

Voting Female

Washington Examiner  . . .  “And in fairness, when I heard that, I was disturbed,” Murkowski explained to KTUU News Tuesday. “To me, it means that we have to take that step back from being hand-in-glove with the defense, and so I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process.”

“ 'How we will deal with witnesses remains to be seen,” she 
added, referencing one of the main reasons the impeachment is at an "impasse."
"Democrats have urged Senate Republicans to agree to call new witnesses, while the White House and many in the GOP want no additional witnesses and a speedy trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far refused to pass the articles of impeachment along to the Senate until an agreement on terms for a fair trial comes to fruition.While Murkowski called for a “full and fair process,” the Alaska Republican also ridiculed Pelosi's handling of the House impeachment process, saying, “Speaker Pelosi was very clear, very direct that her goal was to get this done before Christmas.”
"Murkowski, who has split from her party on at least one key vote in the past, also made clear she was uncertain as to whether or not she will vote to remove Trump from office." . . .

This from National Review:

The maverick senator, known for breaking with her party on significant issues such as Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court and repealing the Affordable Care Act, said she has not yet decided how she will vote on impeachment.  . . .

McConnell Dismisses Dem Claim That He’s Uniquely Biased: ‘You Think Chuck Schumer Is Impartial?

CNN Analyst Appears to Lobby Lisa Murkowski With Dem Talking Point, but Steps in It in the Process

Elie Honig

Great @lisamurkowski. Now: will you support having key witnesses testify, or do you favor an evidence-free trial?

The 28th Anniversary of the Fall of the USSR is a Time to Remember the Victims of Communism

Daniel Greenfield

"The Soviet Union was dissolved on the 26th of December.
"An empire that once seemed unbeatable and threatened the very survival of the human race with its nuclear arsenal collapsed after popular protests brought down a failing and corrupt regime. 
"Leftists around the world had worshiped at its feet. They had spied for it, conspired on its behalf, and undermined their home countries for it. And when it died, it left behind their detritus in the form of aging Marxists like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, and their wider circles, who no doubt sigh as the anniversary comes once more.
"The anniversary of the fall of the USSR should be a time to remember the many millions who were murdered in pursuit of the great socialist dream. And the fact that these murders were covered up by the media. The mass murders in the Soviet Union, in Communist China, by Pol Pot and by Che, could not have happened without the active collusion of Western leftists who labored to suppress the stories, discredit political dissidents, and, toward the end, push fake peace efforts meant to help keep failing Communist regimes going.
"All these efforts failed.
"The old Communist regimes collapsed into oligarchies, some, as in China, retained their Communist brand, others, as in Russia, took on a more explicitly nationalist brand, but none of them could sustain the purity of the ideals for which they had massacred, starved, and imprisoned countless millions whose full numbers will never be known. The Black Book of Communism can only tell us so much. Even to this day, Putin's regime continues suppressing efforts to find mass graves from the Stalin era. China censors its own massacres from its internet.
"And our media continues to glamorize Communism while promoting activists who want to see America go down the same path again.
"Leftist theories are unworkable and innately destructive. Their idealism is a hollow shell for narcissism and a lust for power. When they are implemented, millions die."