Tag: NSA

TRUMP ON BANNON ARREST: ‘Sad’ But ‘Nothing To Do With Me’

by Breck Worsham, posted in Uncategorized

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday reacted to the arrest of Steve Bannon, who once served as one of the president’s closest advisors.

“I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time as most of the people in the room know,” Trump told reporters. “He was involved in our campaign. He worked for a lot of companies, but he was involved likewise in our campaign and for a small part of the administration, very early on. I haven’t been dealing with him at all.”

Bannon and three other individuals, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shaw, were arrested early Thursday on charges that they had “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars” in connection with the “We Build The Wall” online fundraising campaign.

Authorities allege the foursome used hundreds of thousands of dollars from a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the U.S. southern border for their own purposes.

“I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it, I didn’t like it,” Trump said. “I said this is for government, this isn’t for private people. It sounded to me like showboating. I think I let my opinion be very strongly stated at the time I didn’t like it. It was showboating and maybe looking for funds…I don’t know that he was in charge. I don’t know any of the other people either.”

“I don’t think that should be a privately financed wall,” the president added. “It’s too complex and too big.

When asked by reporters about others from his 2016 presidential campaign who have since been arrested and convicted, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign manager Paul Manafort, attorney Michael Cohen and confidant Roger Stone, Trump lashed back.

“They spied on our campaign illegally and if you look at all of the things and all of the scandals they had, they had tremendous lawlessness.”

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LEAKER EXPOSED: NSA CONTRACTOR ACCUSED OF LEAKING CLASSIFIED RUSSIAN DOCS IDENTIFIED AS ANTI-TRUMP ACTIVIST

by Breck Worsham, posted in Uncategorized

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An NSA contractor accused of leaking a “top secret” level classified report on Russia to online news agency “The Intercept” has been identified as 25-year-old Reality Leigh Winner.

Winner, who worked for Pluribus International Corporation at a government facility in Georgia, is the first to be charged in connection with a series of leaks that have rocked the administration in recent months.

In the criminal complaint filed against Winner (https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/971331/download), the Justice Department alleged that Winner admitted to printing a classified intelligence document without authorization and with knowledge the report was classified. The complaint further alleges that Winner admitted removing the report from her office space and mailing it to the news outlet.

Not shy in her hatred toward Trump, Winner made her feelings toward the president clear on social media in the months leading up to her arrest.

During one particular rant during which she spoke out against the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines (which president Trump has recently ordered revived), Winner wrote on her Facebook page:

“Repeat after me: In the United States of America, in the year 2017, access to clean, fresh, water is not a right, but a privilege based off one’s socio-economic status. If that didn’t feel good to say aloud, contact your senators today and tell them those exact words as to why the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines cannot be built on American soil. Let’s fix the pipes meant to bring water, sans lead or pollutants, to our citizens before we build pipes meant to benefit big oil and poison the land. #NoDAPL.”

In a statement on Monday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said of the criminal complaint failed against Winner,”“Exceptional law enforcement efforts allowed us to quickly identify and arrest the defendant. Releasing classified material without authorization threatens our nation’s security and undermines public faith in government.”

“People who are trusted with classified information and pledge to protect it must be held accountable when they violate that obligation,” Rosenstein added.

The Intercept on Tuesday released a statement saying they did not know the identity of the person who provided them with the classified documents (https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/statement-on-justice-department-allegations/).

“While the FBI’s allegations against Winner have been made public through the release of an affidavit and search warrant, which were unsealed at the government’s request, it is important to keep in mind that these documents contain unproven assertions and speculation designed to serve the government’s agenda and as such warrant skepticism,” the statement reads. “Winner faces allegations that have not been proven. The same is true of the FBI’s claims about how it came to arrest Winner.”

realitywinner

 

 

NUNES ON TRUMP SPYING SCANDAL: ‘THERE’S SOME INFORMATION IN THOSE DOCUMENTS THAT CONCERNED ME’

by Breck Worsham, posted in Uncategorized

WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who came forward this week with information that the Obama administration collected and shared information from surveillance of President Trump’s transition team told a waiting throng of reporters that documents he’s been shown “concerned” him.

“There’s some information in those documents that concerned me and I don’t think belonged in there,” Nunes, (R-Calif.), told the press.

While Nunes said it appeared the information obtained on Trump and his associates was collected legally through a FISA order, the real concern, he said, was that the names of some of the people surveiled were unmasked.

“It appears like this was all legal survillance from what I can tell,” he said, but then added: “You have to ask why were names unmasked. Maybe someone has a good reason for it but not from what I’ve been able to read.”

When asked how many individuals names had been unmasked Nunes said that remains to be seen.

“There was additional unmasking that was done in the documents I read the other day. I don’t know who asked for them to be unmasked, i just know there are more,” he said.

Nunes also addressed president Trump’s concerns that Trump Tower had been wiretapped, saying that those allegations appeared unfounded.

“There was no wiretapping of Trump Tower — that didn’t happen,” he said.

Nunes caused an uproar in D.C. on Wednesday when he told reporters that he had been provided with information that seemed to support president Trump’s allegations that he and members of his administration had been surveiled without their knowledge at some point just prior to and after Trump’s election.

Meanwhile, Fox News’ James Rosen reported on Friday that the National Security Agency is expected to produce more documents to the committee on the matter, including what a source described as a potential “smoking gun” to substantiate Trump’s spy claims.

King, a member of the Intelligence Committee, told Ed Henry on “America’s Newsroom” (http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/24/its-scandalous-rep-king-says-nunes-had-tell-trump-about-obama-surveillance) that the details emerging could only be described in one word: “scandalous.”

Noting that the intelligence obtained had nothing to do with Russia, a claim highly touted Democrat leaders, King said the fact that names were revealed was a blatant violation of law.

“Much of this information was then unmasked and sent throughout the intelligence community and it looks as if, to me, this is surveillance. … This goes against the law and regulations,” said King.

Additional intelligence is expected to be released by the NSA by Friday.

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