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September 29, 2018

A Prediction and a Question

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , — Bill @ 3:40 pm

Lies-TruthPresident Trump has directed the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation to determine if Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh had any relevant involvement in the allegations raised by Christine Ford and Deborah Ramirez.  President Trump further directed the FBI to conclude its supplemental investigations by next Friday, October 5.

I predict:   Between November 28 and October 5, Christine Ford and her attorneys will try to file a criminal complaint against Brett Kavanaugh with the state of Maryland.   Fox News is reporting that “Earlier this week, a group of Maryland lawmakers, all Democrats, called for the state to conduct its own criminal investigation into decades-old sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh …”  A letter in response from the Montgomery County Police and the Montgomery County  State’s Attorney’s Office indicated they would conduct a state level investigation into such allegations if the victim filed the complaint.

If as I predict Ford files the complaint with the state of Maryland, the investigation would be difficult to complete by Friday, October 5.   Almost certainly Senate Democrats would demand under penalty of #MeToo that the Senate confirmation vote on the Kavanaugh nomination must be postponed until the Maryland state investigation has concluded and the State’s Attorney has made a charging decision.

Question:  Why did President Trump assign the Brett Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation to the FBI and not the Office of Personnel Management, National Background Investigations Bureau ?  Why were Senate Democrats and some Republicans so intent on getting the FBI involved in this?

Given the allegations of FBI and DoJ wrongdoing in connection with the 2016 presidential campaign, and particularly considering the mounting evidence that the FBI and DoJ knowingly submitted  applications which intentionally included false and misleading information to obtain a FISA warrant and three renewals to surveil Carter Page, a Trump campaign low-level staffer,  why would anyone want the FBI anywhere near the Kavenaugh mess?  The supplemental BI does not require the involvement of any criminal investigative body, certainly not the FBI.

The supplemental BI is an administrative investigation, not a criminal one.  NBIB agents would not be asking questions predicated on proving or disproving criminal allegations; they would be investigating to gather factual information which the sponsoring agency could use to determine an applicant’s suitability or fitness for federal employment.

September 28, 2018

The Swamp (ABA Division)

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , , — Bill @ 9:07 am

Lies-TruthThe Democrat-led inquisition designed and unashamedly executed to destroy the lives of US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his family goes on even after being exposed by Judiciary Committee member Senator Lindsay Graham on Thursday, September 27.  Note that at 3:17 / 4:33 of the video, Senator Graham reads from the American Bar Association’s (ABA) earlier letter favorably evaluating Judge Kavanaugh for elevation to the US Supreme Court.

Today we see that the ABA’s President Robert M. Carlson penned a letter yesterday urging that <Democrat echo chamber>”… the United States Senate Judiciary Committee (and, as appropriate, the full Senate) to conduct a confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States only after an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Professor Ford and others is completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” </Democrat echo chamber>.

I wonder if Carlson actually listened to Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony before sending the letter or if he sent it immediately after Christine Ford’s performance concluded.

The second paragraph of Carlson’s letter states the request is made “… because of the ABA’s respect for the rule of law and due process under law.  The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI.”

His request is pure, unadulterated hypocritical “bullshit.”   Carlson apparently lacks any level of understanding of the federal background investigation process.

If Carlson had been paying attention to yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, he would have heard references to sworn statements about the “accusations and facts” he demands now be re-investigated by the FBI.  I wonder if it occurred to Carlson to ask who contacted the people identified by Ford, administered the oath, and took those sworn statements before Ford gave her testimony yesterday?   I wonder if Carlson knows that even if the FBI special agents had gathered the background information, the “careful examination of the accusations and facts” would still have been done by the Senate Judiciary Committee and its staff, not by the FBI?  That’s generally how the federal background investigation program works.  Here’s a more complete description.

Is Carlson suggesting that only the FBI has the integrity and competence to conduct personnel security background investigations?  If so, he needs to contact the CIA, NSA, DoD, DHS, Congress, and other agencies as well.  They may not yet have been informed that their in-house BIs don’t measure up to The Swamp (ABA Division) standards.

Then again, maybe Carlson’s idea has some merit.  There are a lot of now-former FBI agents who have plenty of time and probably still recall how to conduct BIs.  Let’s see:  How about Earl Pitts?  Or Richard Miller?  Or Robert Hanssen?  James Comey?  Peter Strzok?

Oh, and don’t forget Andrew McCabe.  In fact, he should probably have the inside track.  He is being represented by attorney Michael Bromwich, one of the attorneys engaged to represent Christine Ford during her testimony at the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

As for what Senate Judiciary Committee Rankest Member Senator Dianne Feinstein and her only slightly less rank cohorts have done to Judge Kavanaugh and his family, I suppose that’s a representative example of  “… the ABA’s respect for the rule of law and due process under law.”

September 24, 2018

09-24-2018 Kavanaugh Letter to S. Judiciary Committee

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , — Bill @ 12:13 pm

Lies-TruthHere is a link to Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee today, 09-24-2018.

Not surprisingly, you may have some difficulty finding this entire letter linked in any of the national skews media’s online sites.

The only disagreement I have with Judge Kavanaugh’s letter is his politely addressing Feinstein as “The Honorable Dianne Feinstein.”  Among all the adjectives that could be used to describe the Rankest Committee Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Honorable” is not among them.

September 23, 2018

Next …!

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , , — Bill @ 8:01 pm

Lies-TruthTo very few people’s surprise, certainly not mine, just as Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation about Brett Kavanaugh began to unravel, the Hit Team has “found” another woman to raise another aged allegation.  Next …!

This allegation goes back to 1983-84 when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale.

Notice that the time frame of Ford’s allegation was in about 1982.  Deborah Ramirez’s allegation is in 1983-84.

Ramirez’s allegation addresses many of the credibility-damaging defects in Ford’s allegation.  Imagine that!  It’s a miracle!

When, I wonder, was the first background investigation (BI) report completed on Brett Kavanaugh by the federal government?   Did his first BI include the time frame of either the alleged Ford or the alleged Ramirez incidents?  If so, were the incidents included in the BI report?  How did the adjudicator discuss and assess the “facts” surrounding these alleged incidents?

Given the time frame of both the Ford and Ramirez allegations,  it is very likely the “facts” allegedly associated with them would (or should) have shown up in the reports written as part of Kavanaugh’s first full-field BI.   If they weren’t reported in Kavanaugh’s first full-field BI, then it may mean these  alleged incidents were never officially reported to police, schools, hospitals, etc.   If the alleged incidents were reported to officials or were derived from interviews of listed and derived (spinoff) references, then they should be in the first BI reports.  So should any adjudication of any effects the information had on Kavanaugh’s suitability determination for government employment or security clearance.

In some agencies’ BI reports, the investigator who conducted the interview is permitted to separately include his or her personal observations concerning the credibility (e.g., stated biases, cooperativeness, etc.) of the reporting party.  When permitted, these are almost always under a separate, clearly marked heading such as “Agent’s Notes.”

If you’re part of a Hit Team trying to “find” witnesses who will compose credible derogatory information about an older applicant, you would try to “find” witnesses whose acquaintence with the applicant preceded the applicant’s first official BI.

The kind of allegations raised so far against Brett Kavanaugh would almost certainly have been reported and adjudicated in his first or subsequent full-field BIs if the incidents leading to the allegations occurred.

To believe that the US Senators who are screaming the loudest for another “FBI investigation” of Kavanaugh, you have to also believe the screaming Senators are too ignorant and too stupid to have security clearances themselves.

Then again, the Rankest Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, did for decades have a driver allegedly with connections to the intelligence service of the People’s Republic of China, so …

September 21, 2018

Provenance? We Don’t Need No Stinking Provenance!

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , — Bill @ 11:59 am

Lies-TruthIf you believe the national skews media, the Rankest Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, is refusing to let Committee Chairman Charles Grassley see the original Kavanaugh letter from Christine Blasey Ford.

Why not?  Supposedly that is the letter that has launched the current phase of the “intergalactic freakshow” known as the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing.  As far as we know, the letter is the best evidence of the collective thoughts of Christine Blasey Ford (and no one else) about Brett Kavanaugh’s suitability to be an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.

Why doesn’t Feinstein want to hand over the original letter to Grassley?  Very likely it’s because Grassley would want to know every detail of the letter’s provenance.    He would quite properly want the letter authenticated.  That is important because the original letter “locks in” Ford to the information in the letter.

That letter is represented to be the original work of Christine Blasey Ford, a present-day writing of her recollection of an alleged incident that occurred in 1982 involving Kavanaugh and her.   Presumably that letter contains all the relevant information in her recollection of the alleged incident.  So for her to suddenly now in September 2018 remember some highly relevant detail from 1982 that isn’t in the letter would be highly suspicious.

Among others, she should be asked these questions under oath and under penalty of perjury:

  • Did you write and send this letter on your own initiative?  With whom did you discuss writing and sending a letter concerning Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination before doing it?
  • Confirm that these were your words and and ideas only rather than the words of any second party such as attorneys Debra Katz or Lisa Banks, Representative Anna Eshoo or her staff, or Senator Dianne Feinstein or her staff.
  • Were prior versons of this letter prepared and then modified in any way or even completely rewritten after consultation with any other parties such as Eshoo, Feinstein, Katz, Banks, etc.?     Identify all persons with whom you discussed this letter before preparing and sending this (original) version.

The purpose of Grassley’s reasonable demand for truthful answers to those questions is to reassure the Judiciary Committee that Ford’s testimony is based only on her own personal knowledge and belief of the incident as it occurred in 1982.

Asking those questions of Ford under oath gives her the opportunity to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in her own words, not the words of some attorney or political hack or staffer or polygraph examiner.     If someone has applied either subtle or coercive outside influence on Ford to get her to testi-lie under oath before the Judiciary Committee, she needs to reveal that to avoid committing perjury and to keep her own and Judge Kavanaugh’s reputations intact.

September 18, 2018

And That Will Help … How Exactly?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , — Bill @ 8:41 pm

Lies-TruthIn today’s episode of the Washington, DC, soap opera entitled “As the Barstool Spins,” we learn that Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford has been receiving violent threats.  According to a post in TheHill.com,  “[Ford] has been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats. As a result of these kind of threats, her family was forced to relocate out of their home. Her email has been hacked, and she has been impersonated online.”

TheHill.com blog post goes on to say that, “Ford’s lawyers said in the letter that she would not testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing set for Monday until the FBI investigates her allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.”

I don’t get it.

Even if the FBI had the legal jurisdiction to open such an investigation (it doesn’t), how exactly would the FBI investigating her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school in 1982 make the threats stop?  The FBI would be investigating very stale 1982 leads of a crime that would never be prosecuted, not the 2018 threats reportedly being made against Ford.

Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee would be limited to matters of her own personal knowledge, not the results of any FBI (or anyone else’s) investigation.

My opinion is that the letter from Ford’s lawyers, Katz and Banks, demanding a FBI investigation in return for Ford’s testimony is nothing more than another effort  delay the vote to confirm or reject Kavanaugh’s appointment.    That strategy seems contrary to their client’s and her family’s safety interests.  It seems to me that the quicker Kavanaugh is confirmed or rejected, the sooner any threat made or posed to Ford and her family loses its potency.   Ford’s attorneys ought to be trying to expedite her testimony’s completion rather than delay its commencement.

If Ford’s lawyers, Katz and Banks, are sincerely concerned about threats against Ford and her family, they need to be coordinating with the appropriate California law enforcement agencies who do have jurisdiction over threats of violence, extortion, stalking, witness intimidation, etc.

The FBI should very politely hand attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks a bucket of sand and tell them to go pound it.

September 17, 2018

Derogatory? Yes. Credible? Not So Fast …

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , — Bill @ 8:58 pm

Lies-TruthWho among you did not expect the Democrats to produce at the very last second “someone” who would testify that Federal District Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the US Supreme Court, committed some unspeakable act upon her innocent body?

The Democrat’s “someone” this time is Christine Blasey Ford, a professor from Palo Alto University in California.  Ford alleges that about 35 years ago in 1982 when Kavanaugh was a junior in high school and she was a sophomore, they were at a party together at a private residence in Maryland.  She alleges Kavanaugh was drunk, held her down on a bed, tried to remove her clothing, and rubbed her through her clothing.

Ford’s information was provided in a letter to California US Representative Anna Eshoo and then on to Senator Dianne Feinstein as an allegation.   The content of the information, an allegation of wrongdoing,  qualifies it as “derogatory.”   The question is whether Ford and her information are both “credible.”   (more…)

September 5, 2018

A Snub? Or a Potential Threat Within Arms Reach?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , , — Bill @ 12:55 pm

Guttenberg-Kavanaugh-handshake-Associated-Press-640x480

You may remember seeing this photo in the skews media today.  It was taken by Associated Press Photographer Andrew Harnik.  The man on the right (blue tie) is Federal District Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to be an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.  The man on the left (hand extended) is Fred Guttenberg, the father of one of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting victims.

The photograph captures Guttenberg, an invited guest of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, approaching Judge Kavanaugh as the Judge had just arisen from the witness table after testifying in the first day of his confirmation hearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee.   The photo accompanied the Breitbart online article headlined Debunked:  Anti-Trump Parkland Dad Targets Brett Kavanaugh With Handshake Stunt lede paragraph which read:

Democrats are swooning over the accusation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh snubbed Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland, Florida mass shooting, when Guttenberg tried to shake his hand at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Regardless of what you might think of Breitbart’s credibility, the linked article’s story provides more contextual information that most of the stories which appeared in the legacy skews media.

The Breitbart story and the accompanying photo has some details that raise questions.

1.  How do you read the expression on Judge Kavanaugh’s face?

To have consciously and intentionally “snubbed Fred Guttenberg,” Judge Kavanaugh would have to have immediately recognized Guttenberg or at least have heard enough from what Guttenberg said to have arrived at a decision to “snub” Guttenberg.

My reading of Judge Kavanaugh’s expression is,  “Who the hell are you?”  The Judge, his wife, his daughters, and his mother had just been required to calmly sit and endure the infantile behavior of several Democrat Senators on the Judiciary Committee.  His wife had felt compelled to remove his two daughters from the hearing for their safety because of the admittedly choreographed disruptive and near-violent behavior by people seated behind them in the audience.

And a memory of Federal District Judge John M. Roll may have flashed across Judge Kavanaugh’s mind.

2.  Did Senator Diane Feinstein of California suggest or otherwise encourage Guttenberg to approach Judge Kavanaugh when she invited him to be her guest at the hearing? If so, was it her intent and hope Kavanaugh might react to Guttenberg in some way that the legacy media could twist into an embarrassing accusation to jeopardize his nomination?

3.  Had Senator Feinstein,  Protest Choreographer Senator Chuck Schumer and his Assistant Protest Choreographer Senator Dick (appropriately named!) Durbin forewarned Judge Kavanaugh or his security detail that Guttenberg was going to be in the audience and that he might try to speak with Judge Kavanaugh?

4.  Who was responsible for providing personal security and protection for Judge Kavanaugh and his family inside the hearing room?  If it was the US Capitol Police, why did they allow Guttenberg (or anyone else not known to them) to approach him as Guttenberg did?

Assuming he was surprised at the presence of a person unknown to him and approaching and already in arm’s reach of him, Judge Kavanaugh did exactly the right thing by not shaking hands with Guttenberg, not saying anything to him, and then quickly turning and walking away.

I wish whoever was responsible for Judge Kavanaugh’s and his family’s personal security inside the Judiciary Committee hearing room had reacted more quickly and as appropriately as the Judge did.

September 1, 2018

Ignore the Gorilla at Your Own Peril

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , — Bill @ 8:38 pm

800 pound gorillaSince immediately after the lawful election of Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States on November 8, 2016, there has been an organized effort by anti-American Democrats and Republicans and other dregs of society to prevent him from taking office.  That effort failed, so they turned their efforts to removing him from office.

Thanks to the diligent  and costly efforts of a handful of members of Congress and to a private organization known as Judicial Watch who have remained loyal to the Constitution and the principle of the rule of law, we are getting a clearer picture, albeit a frightening one, indicating that named persons in the very top echelons of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have committed federal felonies to conceal exonerating evidence and fabricate incriminating evidence that would support the impeachment and removal from office of President Donald J. Trump.  Some private authors, notably Peter Schweitzer and Gregg Jarrett, have written excellent books summarizing the evidence docuented in Congressional hearings and FOIA responses to Judicial Watch.

Some time ago the documented evidence showed beyond any reasonable doubt that secret interception warrants and renewals sought by the FBI and DoJ from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) were approved and signed by FISC judges.  One particular FISA warrant and three 90-day renewals of it authorized the FBI and DoJ to intercept a US citizen, Carter Page.

The FISC hearings are held in secret and are ex parte proceedings.  The FBI and DoJ present evidence supporting their FISA application directly to the FISC judge in a closed proceeding.  Because of the secrecy and the ex parte nature of the proceedings, it is the judge’s duty to ensure that the stringent requirements of the FISA law are strictly obeyed.  It is well within the FISC judge’s discretion and authority to require the DoJ and FBI to present evidence supporting their sworn statements in the affidavit before issuing the order.

A few honest members of Congress and Judicial Watch who have been analyzing the evidence derived from hearings and investigations and FOIA responses long ago determined that the FBI and DoJ very likely knowingly and intentionally misled the FISC in the Page FISA warrant and renewal applications.   That is serious by itself, but it is not the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

The 800-pound gorilla showed up in the Judicial Watch offices in the form of an FOIA response last week to Judicial Watch.  This Washington Times article today was headlined FISA court didn’t hold hearings before granting warrants on Carter Page, Trump notes in tweet clearly and succintly states that the FISC judges issued FISA warrants to surveil a US citizen, Carter Page, without even holding a required proceeding and creating a transcript of it.  The DoJ has acknowledged that.

How does an honest and competent Federal District Court judge serving as a FISC judge issue a warrant without even conducting a proceeding to have the affiants present to answer the questions the FISC judge is supposed to be asking before issuing the secret search warrant?  How is the affiant’s oath sworn?

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton answered that question very succinctly.  The FISC “rubber-stamped the Carter Page spy warrants and held not one hearing on these extraordinary requests to spy on the Trump [campaign] team.”

Are the FISC judges lazy?  Cowards?  Corrupt?  All the preceding?

Where are the supposed freedom fighters for civil liberties, the defenders of the First Amendment?  Where are the skews media like the New York Times and the Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC,  CNN and NPR?  Where is the American Civil Liberties Union?

This is not “politics as usual”.   It is nothing short of an effort by agencies, officials,  and employees of the US government to unlawfully remove the President of the United States from office by fabricating or falsifying evidence which could never be admitted in a criminal trial but would happily be accepted in the political impeachment and removal proceedings of Congress.  By underreporting or completely ignoring these illegal actions, the “free press” skews media become witting accomplices.

If the FISC or any other federal district court judge is so corrupt as to issue invalid secret warrants against a private citizen like Carter Page, he or she may well be rubber-stamping federal law enforcement agency affidavits and approving other illegal search warrants without appropriate judicial oversight against other private citizens like you or me.

The further erosion of the rule of law, this time by the judicial branch of government, is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

August 24, 2018

Three Worth Reading

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , , , — Bill @ 11:51 am

Hoax+Comp+AO

When the 2016 Republican National Convention delegates nominated Donald J. Trump to be the party’s presidential nominee on July 19, 2016, it generated more of a shock inside the Republican Party than it did with the Democrats.   After all,  “everyone” including many Republicans knew and accepted that 2016 was going to be the year of the first woman President of the United States.  She was to be Hillary Clinton.  (more…)

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