It’s Sunday.
Today, is Sunday, June 13th, 2021, and the day after I hosted a 2 year-old’s birthday party. She had the best time, but boy did she wear me out with her falling in love with swimming. She cannot swim, she didn’t like the floaties, cause she couldn’t jump right with them on, she also didn’t like the little raft thingy because again her launching into the pool was hindered. I’m hungover today in a non-booze related way (boo), but excited to teach the baby to swim so she can at will launch herself into the pool with my having to use my upper body strength to keep her from drowning.
Anyhoo, back to a topic that has been whirling in the back of my mind since Thursday; the Department of Justice and their seizing data on current members of Congress, their staff, and at least one minor.
It’s a bunch of bullshit is what it is. I tried hard to just be like Elsa and “Let it Go…”
But it won’t leave me, it’s nagging in the back of my head that Former Guy Impeached Twice 45, had 4 years in office, and what we knew or suspected is coming out, in a slow trickle sort of way, but the evidence is mounting like Mount Everest that he abused his power as President to target folks, he didn’t like.
In early May of 2021, we learned that three Washington Post reporters, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and no longer Washington Post report Adam Entous, were told by government letters and officials that the DOJ under Impeached Twice 45; notified that pursuant to legal process the United States Department of Justice received toll records associated with the following telephone numbers for the period from April 15, 2017 to July 31, 2017.”
According to the Washington Post article published on May 7th, 2021, it’s rare that the DOJ will obtain reporters records via subpoena in leak investigation and “such moves must be approved by the Attorney General.”
In mid-May, the 20th, to be exact CNN reported that they too had a reporter’s phone and email records secretly obtained.
The Justice Department informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, in a May 13 letter, that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months, between June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017. The letter listed phone numbers for Starr’s Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cell phones, as well as Starr’s work and personal email accounts.
CNN. 05/20/2021.
As CNN notes in their article; It is unclear when the investigation was opened, whether it happened under Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Attorney General William Barr, and what the Trump administration was looking for in Starr’s records. The Justice Department confirmed the records were sought through the courts last year but provided no further explanation or context.
On *June 2nd, 2021, the New York Times reported that “The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of four New York Times reporters spanning nearly four months in 2017 as part of a leak investigation, the Biden administration disclosed on Wednesday.”
The article says; Anthony Coley, a Justice Department spokesman, said that law enforcement officials obtained the records in 2020, and added that “members of the news media have now been notified in every instance” of leak investigations from the 2019-2020 period in which their records were sought. The department informed The Times that law enforcement officials had seized phone records from Jan. 14 to April 30, 2017, for four Times reporters: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt. The government also secured a court order to seize logs — but not contents — of their emails, it said, but “no records were obtained.”
8 day later the New York Times reported that “As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor.”
The time frame for the records in question was 2017 and early 2018 and included at least a dozen people tied to the Committee.
All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry. Representative Eric Swalwell of California said in an interview Thursday night that he had also been notified that his data had been subpoenaed.
New York Times. 06/10/2021.
I guess, after having my fourth or fifth cup of coffee, with only 30 minutes to go before publish, I should note that the New York Times says; Apple turned over only metadata and account information, not photos, emails or other content, according to the person familiar with the inquiry.
Former Attorney General William Barr according to Politico, on Friday said he was unaware of any “congressman’s records being sought in a leak case.” He added that Trump never encouraged him to zero in on the Democratic lawmakers who reportedly became targets of the former president’s push to unmask leakers of classified information.”
The Daily Beast on Saturday reported that Former Attorney before Lowest Barr Asshole, Jeff Sessions, is telling associates that he had no idea that the DOJ was seeking Members of Congress records.
CNN on Saturday reported that in “recent days” the Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had told people he didn’t know either.
The day after it was reported that California Democratic Rep’s. Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell, plus the staff members and a minor’s data was secretly obtained, the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced a review into the matter.
At this time I’d like to pause to share a small CNN article that was published January 20th, 2021, in where acting Attorney Jeff Rosen in a roar of silence leaves the DOJ.
Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen is resigning Wednesday at noon, ending a tenure marked by the things that didn’t happen, including no special counsels appointed despite pressure from the White House.
CNN. 01/20/2021.
In his nearly month-long tenure as acting attorney general, Rosen withstood pressure from President Donald Trump, who personally and through White House officials had pushed repeatedly for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsels to investigate matters the President wanted, a person briefed on the matter said.
We knew then, what we are now learning in documents and disclosures that Impeached Twice 45 was and is truly and holy unfit for office. We didn’t even have to be smart, all we had to do was listen to the words–still coming out of his ass–I mean mouth and Twittering thumbs.
As I concluded my self serving article–it’s a great way to hone anger, I highly recommend writing guest pieces about shit that pisses you off, as a way to channel the outrage–I want to know how come nobody is talking about the Acting POS Matt “big dick” Whitaker? Why isn’t there more about his tenure as the Orange One’s personal attorney? Because maybe it is possible Jeffy, Low-Barr, and What a Disappointing Rod, didn’t know and it was Whitaker that carried out the order of Impeached Twice 45? Just sayin’.
Happy Sunday, everyone!
This is an Open Thread.
