May 7, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss all charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn:

“The Obama Department of Justice and the FBI holdovers illegally targeted Trump National Security Advisor, Lt. General Mike Flynn, in a successful attempt to remove him from that critical position, and today, finally, justice has been partially served through the dropping of charges against Flynn.

“It is criminal that politically motivated federal intelligence and law enforcement officials abused their authority so completely, with utter disregard for the truth or justice itself.  In America, Lady Justice is supposed to be blind-folded, but in Flynn’s case not only was her blind-fold off, but her sword was held against the Generals throat.  Those responsible for directing and operating this attack on the basic premises of liberty should not only be fired, but the Department of Justice should pursue criminal charges against them.  Doctoring of forms, failure to adhere to laws ensuring the accused basic protections and years of stonewalling with the goal of running the defendant out of money cannot be tolerated.

“What’s more the revelations that the FISA Court system failed completely in providing the protections against spying on Gen. Flynn and others well after the FBI knew they were innocent renews the need to make lying to that Court a criminal offense punishable by no less than 10 years in federal prison. Every person in the FBI and DOJ who signed off on, altered the records of, or failed to object to, the set up and false prosecution of Mike Flynn should face the threat of prosecution with the loss of their jobs, pensions and law licenses at the very least.  Those on the Mueller investigation team who KNEW that Flynn was innocent from the outset should also face the same kind of scrutiny and punishment for continuing this on-going lie.

“As for Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, she has distinguished herself as a fearless, tough fighter for true justice against overwhelming odds.  If not for her tenacity in defense of justice, Flynn’s complete exoneration would never have occurred and those who sought to undermine the truth of the plot to take down Flynn would never have been exposed.  Ms. Powell is a shining beacon of what an attorney should be in her pursuit for truth and justice, and America owes her a gigantic thank you for fighting unbowed against a recalcitrant, dirty Justice Department team determined to keep their malfeasance under wraps.

“It is my sincere hope that President Trump will bring General Flynn’s expertise in foreign matters back into the White House so that our nation can once again benefit from his unique skills and abilities.  Those in the intelligence cabal who ran a three year long operation to take down President Trump from today forward should understand that they will not prevail, and hopefully, they will face the consequences of putting our great nation through a dark attempt to overturn the presidency of the duly elected President of the United States.  However, the ultimate withdrawal of the charges against General Flynn do not bring the scales of justice back into balance, but instead allow for that balance to be restored when those responsible for this egregious prosecution are held to account.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 9, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the release of the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz report on abuses of the FISA process in 2016 against the Trump campaign and Attorney General William Barr’s statement that “In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source”:

“It is clear from the IG report and Attorney General’s response that there are no safeguards against the FBI abusing civil liberties protections in the Constitution. One of our greatest fears about this review was that it would find that the DOJ and agencies have unbridled discretion to conduct investigations, obtain surveillance and destroy lives based on what turns out were concocted, false allegations. Lying to the FBI is a crime. And the FBI regularly prosecutes citizens on the most tenuous grounds of a failure to be forthcoming and telling the truth. Yet it doesn’t appear FBI officials misleading the FISA court, presenting false information to the court, omitting critical exculpatory facts from the court and failing to verify their principal source are not subject to the same the letter of the law.

“Apparently none of that wrongdoing is prohibited by FISA. If anything the grave consequences of political spying based on fake information and its underlying threat to our republic should warrant treating said activity much more harshly than simply misstating a fact to an FBI agent. This just one area that the FISA system is broken.

“With FISA reauthorization pushed off until March 15, it is incumbent on Congress to stop messing around with impeachment and deal with these fundamental civil liberties questions. Political domestic surveillance by intelligence and law enforcement agencies cannot be tolerated and this should not be a partisan issue.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 4, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the House Intelligence Committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for using Congressional subpoena power to obtain phone records without a warrant to conduct such surveillance from a federal court:

“The revelation that Adam Schiff and the Democrats in control of the House Intelligence Committee using warrantless surveillance spied on the Devin Nunes, the minority ranking member, John Solomon, a member of the press, and Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal attorney, is an astonishing abuse of power. If the executive branch were to obtain such surveillance, it would be with a court order, probably from the FISA court. The Fourth Amendment is a general prohibition on the entire federal government, including the legislative branch, guarding against warrantless seizures without judicial oversight. This disclosure transforms the Schiff impeachment sham into an inquisition that would make Torquemada blush. If Nancy Pelosi as the leader of the entire House of Representatives authorized the spying of one member upon another, she should be removed from office immediately. Congress is not the FISA court. This is a gross violation of the Fourth Amendment. Should the impeachment proceed to the Senate, it is incumbent upon Senators to dismantle Adam Schiff and those behind this grotesque violation of basic rights.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.

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Sept. 27, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to former Vice President Joe Biden’s ironic tweet that “I believe our elections should be decided by the American people — not foreign governments”:

“Former Vice President Joe Biden is either the least self-aware person in modern politics, an outrageous liar or a dupe. Biden was responsible for U.S. policy in Ukraine during the Obama administration, and much of the false narrative about President Donald Trump being a Russian agent came from Ukraine, the United Kingdom and other Western intelligence agencies, which his administration put a bow on and shipped to the FISA court so they could spy on the Trump campaign in 2016. What did Joe Biden know about Russiagate and when did he know it?

“It is likely that the former Vice President both lacks self-awareness and was set up to be a not-so-innocent dupe. What is incredible is that he still doesn’t realize it. At least, when former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry was caught smoking crack in the Vista Hotel, he had the awareness to say, ‘Bitch set me up.’

“At some point, the former Vice President’s advisors need to protect him by cluing him in that he is the worst possible messenger on Ukraine as this scandal highlights his own culpability and avarice to the benefit of Democratic Party rivals. If there’s one good thing to come from this, it is that Joe Biden is being exposed as someone completely incapable of performing the most basic duties of the Presidency before a vote is ever cast. A note to Hollywood, Lee Majors is still available to play Biden in the movie.”

Attachments:

“What did Joe Biden know about the Russia collusion hoax and when did he know it?” By Robert Romano, Sept. 27, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/04/what-did-joe-biden-know-about-the-russia-collusion-hoax-and-when-did-he-know-it/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 18, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response the final report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller:

“Robert Mueller’s report is a slam dunk vindication of President Trump, who was the victim of an intelligence agency operation designed to entrap him and those around him in process crime snares, even as they knew that there was not a sufficient basis to say there was any conspiracy by Trump, his campaign or any American with Russia to interfere with the election.  Mueller himself writes that ‘the evidence was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with representatives of the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election,’ which was defined as operations to do with hacking the DNC and John Podesta emails and an inconsequential social media campaign by a Russian company.

“This is unequivocal, but not a surprise to anyone who was profiteering off of this fake news driven conspiracy theory.  Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who is no friend to President Trump, said in March 2017, ‘We had no evidence of collusion.’

“Additionally, lead FBI investigator and proven Trump hater, Peter Strzok texted his then lover, FBI agent Lisa Page, that ‘there’s no big there there’ in talking about the Russia case.

“And even former CIA Director Michael Morell is quoted in March 2017 as saying, ‘There is no fire, at all.’

“Yet our nation and those associated with the Trump campaign, transition team and administration were subjected to about a three-year long investigation, including nearly two years by a special counsel who was appointed to investigate something that everyone knew was false.

“Professional Trump critics like former CIA Director John Brennan were regulars on MSNBC stoking the collusion fires later claiming that he perhaps had ‘bad information.’ The partisan media outlets like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC along with the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting taxpayer funded hierarchy breathlessly repeated planted rumor after planted rumor promising viewers that this time, they really had Donald Trump.

“And today in the aftermath of the collapse of their delusion, they cling to their age old approach to attack the messenger, Attorney General William Barr, because the pedestal they had built for the special counsel was too high for them to tear down in time to not have egg on their faces.

“No conspiracy with Russia by Trump is great news for America.  One could hope that the left-wing corporate media machines will learn a lesson and return to journalism, but that is not what they are — instead they are advocates getting paid to culturally transform America. If anything good is to come out of this national embarrassment, it is my hope that the media emperors who have been running around with no clothes are finally seen for the frauds that they are, and as a result, the public denies them the one thing they need — viewers and listeners.  In doing so those who have perpetuated this Russian collusion fraud through hours upon hours of anti-Trump coverage will be denied the dollars from selling soap to those very viewers who they colluded to trick into believing that Donald Trump was a traitor to his country.

“Now, the Attorney General needs to get to work to determine who abused the legal protections in place to stop this kind of intelligence abuse and take all available measures against them to make certain that this never happens again, as well as recommend reforms to ensure that the FISA Court ceases to be a rubber stamp for spying.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.

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March 25, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to hold a vote to appoint a select committee to investigate to perpetrated the Russia collusion hoax on the American people:

“Senate Majority Leader McConnell needs to empanel a special select committee to fully investigate the intelligence agency abuses within the Obama administration that carried over into 2017 and beyond to perpetrate the Russia collusion hoax on the American people. We need a new Church committee. The FISA court system was set up as a result of intelligence agency abuses in the 1960s and 1970s as a means to prevent this sort of thing from happening. It failed. The Obama administration’s politicization of the career foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations, spying on the opposition party in an election year, has effectively destroyed public confidence in these institutions. The American people need to know who perpetrated this hoax, whoever they are, and make certain this never happens again.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.

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March 19, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Attorney General William Barr to follow through on the investigation of FBI misconduct during the 2016 presidential campaign, during the transition and during the Trump administration:

“Then Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed the U.S. Attorney of Little Rock, Arkansas to investigate various corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation and the U.S. Attorney of Salt Lake City to investigate the malfeasance within the Justice Department related to the attempt to undo the results of the 2016 presidential election.

“It has been almost a full year since it was learned that the investigation into potential Justice Department misdeeds was being conducted by U.S. Attorney John Huber, and it is time that new Attorney General William Barr follow through on the investigation and prosecute any wrongdoers to the fullest extent of the law.  One of the reasons that the investigation was housed in Salt Lake City was to take it out of the glare of the D.C. media and allow a thorough job to be done.  However, it would be a disservice to the nation if the current AG did not aggressively push this investigation with those responsible for abusing their authority brought to justice.

“One simple example is the abuse of the Christopher Steele dossier paid for by the DNC and the Clinton campaign as the basis for obtaining FISA court warrants against Trump campaign, transition and political appointees, when Steele himself testified under oath that he used unverified Internet rumors in the report.  At the same time former FBI Director James Comey was testifying to Congress that the Steele dossier was ‘salacious and unverified,’ Comey was signing documents using that same report to obtain warrants. Either he was lying to the FISA Court or he was lying to Congress, either way perjury was committed, and the former FBI Director should be subjected to the full weight of the law as a result.

“The United States is a nation of laws, and the revelation that the Obama Administration’s Justice Department sought to tip the scales toward their own partisan ends should chill every American regardless of partisan affiliation.  If those responsible are not prosecuted, then it will be clear to future Administrations that there is no personal downside to election tampering and abuse of power and this current dark moment of abuse by our intelligence agencies will be viewed as an acceptable risk in the quest for power.  This can never be allowed again, and it is time for the new Attorney General to begin bringing light onto the initial finding of the investigations in Little Rock and Salt Lake City.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview.

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Sept. 21, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in support of President Donald Trump’s declassification of the June 2017 FISA Court application against Carter Page, 302 reports from Bruce Ohr connected to the Carter Page FISA and all text messages from James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr:

“It has been long said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. For the two and a half years, Obama era Justice Department officials and their allies have controlled information leaking to the press when it suited them as it put both candidate and then President Donald Trump in the worst possible light. Now those same leakers are claiming that full disclosure around the facts surrounding the FISA surveillance warrants that launched the broader Russia investigation for all to see would do harm to our national security. I cannot imagine more harm to our nation being done than the despicable actions of the Obama holdovers in their clear attempts to influence the U.S. election against Trump and then after to continue to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency under the false Russia collusion pretense.

“If foreign governments colluded with the Justice Department, the CIA, the State Department and other agencies in an attempt to spy on the Trump campaign, influence our elections and then interfere with our political processes, then the American people have a right to know the truth. We know that the author of the infamous dossier that was used to justify spying on the Trump campaign was a former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.  We know that the person who intercepted George Papadopoulos was an Australian diplomat.  These are facts in the public domain, and it is important for the public to have the full record of the rest of it so the rotten roots of the poisoned tree that brought us the Mueller probe can be exposed.  Most importantly, these facts need to be fully disclosed so that in the future, the temptation to abuse power within our intelligence agencies is tempered by the reality of exposure.

“On a different note, it is mildly amusing to watch major media outlets who have thrived on releasing classified information under the rubric of the public’s right to know now twist themselves into knots arguing against transparency. Apparently, when they are getting leaks, it is okay, but when the entire documents get released it is somehow a threat.  This is just one more proof point that the controlled national media are nothing more than partisan frauds.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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July 23, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging President Donald Trump to declassify all documents that originated the Russia collusion probe after Judicial Watch revealed the Oct. 2016 FISA application by the FBI against the Trump campaign:

“The release of the heavily redacted FISA application by the FBI against Carter Page in Oct. 2016 through June 2017 proves that the Trump campaign was subjected to an intelligence operation and surveillance that looked back through records and communications before the election in violation of the Constitution. What is shocking is that such a violation of the understood separation of the intelligence services and domestic politics appeared to be routinely rubberstamped, clearly demonstrating current legal safeguards are insufficient and merit Congress revisiting the authorizing of the FISA court in its entirety. Hats off to Judicial Watch for getting this via FOIA.

“The big loser in all this is James Comey, who signed a FISA application that he declared to be ‘verified’ and then testified three months later to Congress under oath that the evidence the FBI relied on was in fact ‘salacious and unverified.’ Either he lied to the court or he lied to Congress. There is no ambiguity.

“This makes it all the more important that President Donald Trump grant House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devein Nunes’ request to declassify the documents that originated the Obama administration’s Russia collusion investigation. The charade being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the left needs the disinfectant of transparency in order to be fully exposed. This must never be allowed to happen again.”

Attachments:

“Carter Page FISA proves Obama administration and FBI relied on Christopher Steele dossier to spy on Trump campaign,” By Robert Romano, July 23, 2018 at http://dailytorch.com/2018/07/carter-page-fisa-proves-obama-administration-and-fbi-relied-on-christopher-steele-dossier-to-spy-on-trump-campaign/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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April 3, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ approach to investigating Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court abuses with the combination of the Office of Inspector General and a dedicated U.S. Attorney:

“At the end of the day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions never needed another special counsel to investigate FISA court abuses when a U.S. attorney could be tasked to look into the matter, in tandem with the Office of Inspector General. There is nothing a special counsel can do that a U.S. attorney cannot do. The difference is accountability and oversight. Whereas a special counsel would operate independently, the U.S. attorney and the Inspector General answer directly to the Attorney General. The other critical point is that the Inspector General and the Sessions-appointed U.S. attorney have been working together for a while as potential criminal activity was uncovered. Appointment of another special counsel would set back any potential investigation by at least three months without any additional value. The fact that this investigation has been ongoing outside of the public eye is proof why Sessions’ course is the right one.

“Our system of justice demands that people be treated as innocent until proven guilty. The current special counsel operates with the presumption that everybody who ever worked for President Trump is guilty until he says they are innocent, and he runs people’s good names through the mud in an attempt to extort guilty pleas. That is not justice, that is an agenda, and it has no place in America’s constitutional legal system.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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