All tagged president trump

Daily Beast: 'Reckless' memo names Comey, other top men in FISA probe

Daily Beast: 'Reckless' memo names Comey, other top men in FISA probe

Tatiana Prophet
Counterintelligence

ANALYSIS

By TATIANA PROPHET

Photo: In the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark," once Indiana Jones brings the Ark of the Covenant to America, the U.S. government locks it away in a crate marked "top secret." When Jones asks his government handler what will happen to it, the man says, "We've got top men working on it right now." "Who?" Jones demands. "Top men," he replies.

Top secret. That is the description we've been hearing from the top men running our counterintelligence investigations. "I'm sorry, that's classified." It's gotten to the point where everything is classified, and very little makes sense. Now It seems that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, led by co-chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), are ignoring warnings from the Department of Justice and Democrats, and are getting ready to vote to release some secrets about top men that may be potentially damaging to their reputation and the procedures they followed (or lack thereof).

D.C. awash in anonymous sources, deputy AG cautions against believing them

D.C. awash in anonymous sources, deputy AG cautions against believing them

Tatiana Prophet
Anonymous Sources

By TATIANA PROPHET

Washington -- Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who on May 17 appointed the special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, on Thursday issued a statement via his office in the Department of Justice, cautioning Americans to be wary of accepting reports from anonymous officials.

"The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations."

The majority of media reports on the release referred to the statement as "super strange" (CNN), "veiled" (Business Insider), and "cryptic" (Washington Post).

Whatever could he have been contemplating? 

Most likely, it was an article from the day before, on Wednesday in the Washington Post, which announced that the special counsel appointed by Rosenstein, Robert Mueller, was investigating possible obstruction of justice on the part of President Donald Trump.

Analysis: Comey's 'honest loyalty' Trumps 'that thing'

Analysis: Comey's 'honest loyalty' Trumps 'that thing'

Tatiana Prophet
Counterintelligence, No Filter

By TATIANA PROPHET

In written remarks submitted to the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, James Comey described a dinner between him and the President in which Trump asked him for loyalty; and also separately confirmed that he had informed Trump that he was not under criminal investigation. This was a claim Trump made in a tweet shortly after firing Comey.

 

The former FBI director wrote in his testimony: "It is important to understand that FBI counter-intelligence investigations are different than the more-commonly known criminal investigative work. The Bureau’s goal in a counter-intelligence investigation is to understand the technical and human methods that hostile foreign powers are using to influence the United States or to steal our secrets."

 

This information was confirmed at the time in articles describing the investigation into Trump campaign involvement in Russian meddling in the U.S. election as a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal one. Yet many media articles in May, after Comey's firing, expressed incredulity that Trump would assert Comey had told him that he was not under investigation.

FULL TEXT: Trump exits Paris Accord

FULL TEXT: Trump exits Paris Accord

Tatiana Prophet
Energy, Climate, No Filter

'THIS MUCH': "Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a two-tenths of one degree -- think of that; this much -- Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100."

- Donald Trump, June 1, 2017. This is from an MIT study but the lead author told the Washington Post that the amount is indeed worth pursuing and is viewed as a start, with the goal ideally being reset in 2030.