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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Feb. 7, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issue the following statement in response to the release of the unclassified criminal referral for Christopher Steele by Chairmen Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.):

“The Grassley-Graham is further vindication of the House Intelligence Committee memo that alleges the FBI knowingly used a DNC and Clinton campaign-funded dossier to obtain a secret FISA court warrant against a Trump campaign official and hid that fact from the FISA court. While much of the referral is redacted, there are several key findings.

“The Senators viewed two relevant FISA applications concluding, ‘The bulk of the application consists of allegations against Page that were disclosed to the FBI by Mr. Steele and are also outlined in the Steele dossier.’ This is the same dossier former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe in Congressional testimony said no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court warrant without the Steele dossier information.

“The referral also indicates the FBI made material false statements to the FISA court. The FBI vouched for the credibility of Mr. Steele and the dossier, despite firing him for lying to the FBI, the crime the Senate Chairman are referral for. This raises the question, why hasn’t the FBI charged Steele with lying to the FBI? Could it be because charging him with lying would have put the continued FISA court warrant renewals at risk?

“And most importantly, the referral further delegitimizes the Christopher Steele dossier. Not only did former FBI Director James Comey call the dossier ‘salacious and unverified,’ but Christopher Steele refused to vouch for his own work in a U.K. court of law stating, the dossier ‘did not represent (and did not purport to represent) verified facts,’ in response to a libel suit against him.

“Why would FBI and DOJ leadership, under President Obama, put the reputation of the DOJ and FBI at risk by knowingly signing legal documents based on a dossier that the author of which refused to vouch for in the end when his own neck was on the line?”

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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Feb. 6, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting Special Counsel Robert Mueller for not sticking to the parameters that were set out for him when he was appointed last May:

“Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed last May to investigate ‘any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.’ But so far, in Mueller’s indictments of Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, there is no mention of Russian government officials, and the supposed crimes predate the election campaign of 2016. The guilty plea of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was for not correctly remembering the content of a conversation with the Russian ambassador that actually took place after the election, beyond the scope of Mueller’s probe. That leaves George Papadopoulos, who similarly has pled guilty, but not to colluding with the Russian government, but for lying with investigators. All this points to the conclusion that, actually, there was no Trump campaign-Russia collusion in 2016. If so, then what is the purpose of Mueller’s investigation?

“In the meantime, the Christopher Steele dossier, which was used to obtain at least one secret FISA court warrant against Trump campaign advisor Carter Page before the election has proven to be full of lies and turns out was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, a fact which was hidden from the FISA court.

“Since that time, former FBI Director James Comey testified that the dossier was ‘salacious and unverified.’ Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified that about the only thing they could corroborate from the Steele dossier was that Carter Page had traveled to Moscow to deliver a commencement address at a university, which was already a matter of public record, and that but for the dossier, there would not have been a FISA court warrant at all. FBI agent Peter Strzok, who had been leading the FBI’s investigation into Trump, told his mistress prior to joining the Mueller investigation that he was a afraid there was ‘no big there there’ on Trump campaign-Russia collusion. And Steele himself, in a libel suit over the dossier in the UK, said the dossier ‘did not represent (and did not purport to represent) verified facts.’ Also, per the testimony of Fusion GPS CEO Glenn Simpson, Steele never traveled to Russia himself and may not have even personally interviewed his sources, instead relying on go-betweens. In the end, nobody confirmed Steele’s sources, including apparently Steele himself. Not Simpson, not the FBI which used the dossier to get the spying warrant.

“Based on these bits of information we now know, it is clear there is little to no basis for an ongoing investigation of Trump campaign-Russia collusion in 2016 during the presidential campaign, because there was none. Special Counsel Mueller has gone far afield from his original mandate, and it’s time he lay his cards on the table.”

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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Feb. 5, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the rebuttal memo by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) Nadler called Christopher Steele, “an expert for the job—a retired British intelligence officer, experienced in Russian affairs and well-known to the FBI as a useful source of valuable intelligence in earlier investigations”:

“If we are to believe what Rep. Nadler stated in his memo, in an attempt to defend the Obama administration’s illegal spying on American citizens, then we must take Christopher Steele at his own words when he said, ‘The contents of the December memorandum did not represent (and did not purport to represent) verified facts.’ That was in response to a libel suit against Steele in the U.K. about the dossier he produced for the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Under oath in a court of law, Christopher Steele would not vouch for the validity of the dossier he produced based on his sources that were also used in the prior FISA application, so why should anyone else?

“Knowing the dossier was ‘salacious and unverified,’ former FBI Director James Comey chose to include the document in the original FISA application and two subsequent extensions. Is the former Director in the habit of entering unverified documents into evidence in a court of law? If Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, would not vouch for the validity of the dossier, why did James Comey do so three times?

“It is clear former FBI Director James Comey lied to the FISA court. When a civilian lies to law enforcement or a court, they are brought up on charges. What Comey did was the textbook example of perjury, he signed a legal document he knew to be false or misleading. In the least it violates the Woods Procedures that are supposed to govern the court, which relies on the accuracy of filings by the FBI. Clearly, Congress must continue digging to get to the bottom of this sordid affair.”

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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Feb. 2, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court to rescind all warrants it issued based on the erroneous, DNC-funded Christopher Steele dossier:

“The FISA Court must immediately rescind all warrants that were based on the DNC-funded Christopher Steele dossier if it has not already done so. Additionally, the FISA Court needs to order that all prosecutions based upon evidence through the unlawfully gained FISA Court warrant be dismissed with prejudice as fruit of a poison tree. The Fourth Amendment requires probable cause for a warrant. Everyday criminals receive the most basic constitutional protections, and the Obama Justice Department lied and connived to deny these protections to their political enemies. One of the main remaining questions is who of these faithless Justice Department employees will be fired and prosecuted for illegal spying. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s involvement in this sordid episode disqualifies him from further employment at the Justice Department and he must be terminated if he refuses to resign. This cannot be allowed to stand.”

Attachments:

House Intelligence Committee memo detailing FISA abuses, Feb. 2, 2018 at http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/20180129/106822/HMTG-115-IG00-20180129-SD001.pdf or https://readthememo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/HMTG-115-IG00-20180129-SD001.pdf

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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Jan. 11, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to a report from Sara Carter that the DNC-funded Fusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier was used to obtain FISA Court warrants against the Trump campaign in 2016:

“Reports that the DNC and Clinton campaign-funded Fusion GPS-Steele dossier was used by the FBI and the Justice Department to obtain FISA Court warrants to spy on the Trump campaign confirms our deepest concerns. The simple fact is that even today no one at the FBI or the Justice Department who was involved in this incident have testified that the document was ever verified in any way. Discredited former FBI Director James Comey testified under oath that the dossier was ‘salacious and unverified.’ Given Comey’s sworn testimony, it is clear that he or his subordinates lied to the FISA court about the veracity of the dossier and their requests. What’s more, this revelation demonstrates that the entire premise for the Mueller investigation was based on a lie, and everything that comes from it is fruit of the poisoned tree.

“Given this knowledge, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein must put an end to the Mueller Russia collusion farce, and investigate and prosecute the Fusion GPS originators of this document.”

Attachments:

“Was the DNC/Clinton campaign-funded dossier used to obtain Trump FISA warrant?” By Sara Carter, Jan. 10, 2018 at https://saraacarter.com/2018/01/10/was-the-dnc-clinton-campaign-funded-dossier-used-to-obtain-trump-fisa-warrant/

“Was the Democrat-funded Steele dossier a basis of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation?” By Robert Romano, Jan. 3, 2018 at http://netrightdaily.com/2018/01/democrat-funded-steele-dossier-basis-fbis-trump-russia-investigation/

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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Dec. 5, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller and to end his investigation:

“Several extremely troubling revelations have become known in recent weeks about the orchestrated attempt to take down President Donald Trump before he ever took office.

“Lee Smith at the Federalist alleges that Fusion GPS has been paying reporters to publish political attack pieces based on manufactured sources to delegitimize the Trump campaign and then the official transition after he won the election in late 2016. This sheds new light on the climate in the media prior to the publication of the original story that then-President Elect Donald Trump had been briefed by the FBI on the Fusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier alleging Trump-Russia collusion, which then became the basis for reporting on it. Laura Jarret and Evan Perez CNN revealed that it was an FBI counterintelligence official, Peter Strzok, who edited an exoneration into what was supposed to be the final report on the Clinton email investigation well in advance of Hillary Clinton’s interview with the FBI that, as Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reports, he was leading. The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross also reports that Strzok was the same agent who questioned Cheryl Mills on the private Clinton email server, who along with other Clinton aides was later granted immunity. Sara Carter at Hannity.com reports that Strzok was also the same agent who questioned former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn about his conversations with multiple ambassadors, a meeting which was set up by Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe under false pretenses as a routine discussion of security procedures at the White House. Couple all this with the fact that, as reported by the Washington Post’s Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind Heldermant, the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign via law firm Perkins Coie paid for the Fusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier that originated the unsubstantiated allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to hack the DNC and put the emails on Wikileaks, which then became one of the bases for the FBI witch hunt, including in obtaining FISA court warrants. The FBI under former Director James Comey even reportedly offered to pay Steele to continue this work.

“It is anti-American to have a politically weaponized FBI and Justice Department. The evidence now available indicates that higher-ups at the FBI would pursue any measure in their attempts not only to prop up Hillary Clinton, but to take down President Trump at any cost. Since the entire Mueller investigation is the fruit of this poisonous tree, the only course Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein can pursue must be to fire Mueller and end this political coup in order to restore the rule of law.”

Attachments:

“Hillary Clinton and the DNC funded the fake Trump-Russia collusion dossier, turned it into an FBI inquisition, surveillance and then attempted coup,” By Robert Romano, Oct. 26, 2017 http://netrightdaily.com/2017/10/hillary-clinton-dnc-funded-fake-trump-russia-collusion-dossier-turned-fbi-inquisition-surveillance-attempted-coup/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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