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US Attorney General Sessions Threatens ‘Leakers’ – and Journalists

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  • ‘We Will Not Allow Rogue Anonymous Sources With Security Clearances to Sell Out Our Country’ Says Jeff Sessions

  • ‘Mr. Attorney General, Do You Plan to Prosecute Journalists?’ Reporter Asks

During his Friday televised press briefing U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Justice Department is going to review its policies on issuing subpoenas to news organizations that publish leaked information. Sessions told reporters that while the Department “respects” the role of the free press, he cautioned, “it’s not unlimited.”

Sessions also said that senior Justice Department investigators, the FBI, as well as U.S. intelligence agencies will direct more resources into the investigations of government leaks and would prioritize prosecuting those that pass sensitive information along to the press or foreign officials.

With Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats nodding in agreement, the Attorney General warned the U.S. intelligence community, where the White House has alleged many of the leaks originate.

“I have this message for our friends in the intelligence community. The Department of Justice is open for business and I have, this morning, this warning: Don’t do it,” Sessions said. “For the past several months we have made changes and are seriously ramping up our efforts.”

A senior Administration official told NCRM Friday afternoon that much of the ongoing “leaks situation” was a direct result of the atmosphere of chaos that had enveloped the West Wing since the inauguration until just prior to the departure of White House Chief of Staff Reinhold Richard “Reince” Priebus who was ousted on July 27 and replaced by John F. Kelly, the former Secretary of Homeland Security and retired four-star Marine general.

The official noted that the lack of a cohesive West Wing staff structure with clearly delineated responsibilities and tasks, coupled with a president who oft times functions in a nearly perpetual rogue state and has been known to ignore advice from senior officials and staffers, both in and outside of the White House, had alienated numerous persons in government service alarmed by what they perceived as a destructive state of affairs. This led to the “leaks issue,” he said.

Standing beside the Attorney General was the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, who also warned: “If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you, we will investigate you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

“You will not be happy with the result,” Coats added. 

Sessions, who has been under pressure from the White House and President Donald Trump to act quickly to end what has been nearly a non-stop tidal wave of leaked information from administration and other government sources, on Friday characterized the leaks as a clear threat to national security.

“This nation must end this culture of leaks,” he said. “We will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice. We will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country.” 

This announcement comes less than twenty four hours after the Washington Post published verbatim written transcripts of telephone calls between the president and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and another with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this past January 27 and 28 respectively.

“One of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas,” Sessions said. “We respect the important role that the press plays and we’ll give them respect — but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance the press’s role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in the intelligence community, the armed forces and all law-abiding Americans.” 

The President maintains that the leaks are damaging to him, and has publicly complained that Sessions has not been tough enough on leaks.

“I want the attorney general to be much tougher,” Trump said last week. “I want the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies we cannot have that happen.”

During the briefing, Sessions noted, “No one is entitled to surreptitiously to fight battles in the media by leaking sensitive government information.” 

He also told reporters that the Justice Department had received as many referrals to investigate leaks in six months as in the previous three years.

Director Coats added, “I am empowered to take administrative action to deal with individuals who break the law. I will not hesitate to exercise those authorities. Anyone who engages in these criminal acts is betraying the intelligence community. We feel the pain of those betrayals intensely.”

“For those out there who may be listening or watching these announcements, or who would later learn about what is said is morning, understand this,” he said. “If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you. We will investigate you. We will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

This new push to have an in-depth investigation into the various leaks comes as the Justice Department’s Special Counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, directs a special Grand Jury investigation into allegations of collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Sessions told reporters that he has directed Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the newly confirmed FBI Director Christopher Wray, to oversee leak investigations. He also said he had authorised the Department’s national security division and U.S. attorneys to prioritize cases involving “unauthorised disclosures.”

Sessions and Coats took no questions, leaving reporters to ask at the end of the briefing, “Mr. Attorney General, do you plan to prosecute journalists?”

There was no response.

Brody Levesque is the Chief Political Correspondent for The New Civil Rights Movement.
You may contact Brody at Brody.Levesque@thenewcivilrightsmovement.com
 

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‘Probably Illegal Rumors’: Trump Calls for Investigations — to Protect His Interests

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Although his inauguration is still months away, Donald Trump, just days after winning back the White House, has already started calling for investigations aimed at safeguarding his personal financial interests.

Trump is the majority shareholder in DJT, the Trump Media & Technology Group that holds his Truth Social social media company. His stake is reportedly valued around $4 billion.

“Donald Trump has made clear that upon his return to office, he intends to sic the authorities under his control on his political enemies and critics. He’s getting started with Truth Social speculators,” Rolling Stone reports.

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“The president-elect’s revenge fantasy agenda is getting an early start with a probe into those speculating about Truth Social,” Rolling Stone noted. “Inauguration Day is still months away, but the newly minted president-elect is wasting no time adding to his list of targets – starting with people speculating that he may sell Truth Social.

DJT stock “soared Friday after President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed he has no plans to sell off his stake in the Truth Social operator, and called on authorities to investigate whoever suggested otherwise,” CNBC reports. “Trump’s announcement, posted on Truth Social, was his first personally written statement since his stunning victory against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election.”

If Trump were to sell shares from his DJT holdings, that “would likely further depress the price of Trump Media’s shares,” NPR reported in September.

In his call for an investigation, Trump on Friday wrote: “There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth. THOSE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SELLING! I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities. Truth is an important part of our historic win, and I deeply believe in it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The federal government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, Friday warned: “As a publicly traded company, Truth Social offers even more ways for foreign governments, special interests and wealthy donors to personally enrich Trump as they endeavor to curry favor with him and his administration.”

READ MORE: ‘Someone’s Got to Run the Deportation Camps’: Prison Stocks Soar as Trump Agenda Unfolds

 

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‘Inexperienced, Loyalist Clowns’: National Security Expert Slams Possible Trump CIA Picks

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A top national security specialist with expertise on Russia and nuclear weapons is warning about two individuals reportedly being considered for the role of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President-elect Donald Trump.

Richard Grenell, the former Trump acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and U.S. Ambassador to Germany, has been “suggested for a role such as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he may be urged by Trump to unearth the so-called ‘deep state,'” CNN reported Thursday.

Also in the running for Director of CIA is Kash Patel, CNN reports, “a former Trump national security official who is helping organize the next administration’s transition.”

“Patel himself has told associates that he wants to be CIA director, people briefed on the matter say. It would be a triumph after Trump contemplated in his final months in office putting Patel in key jobs at FBI or CIA. That idea was blocked by opposition from then CIA Director Gina Haspel and [Attorney General Bill] Barr.”

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“Patel and Trump,” CNN adds, “are both vowing to oust officials who played any role in investigations of Trump and his supporters. Trump has vowed to fire Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 after firing James Comey, and whose 10-year term has more than two years remaining.”

In 2022, Grenell was accused by Olivia Troye, a national security expert with decades of experience, of having “tried to get Mike Pence to attend a white supremacist gathering during one of his overseas trips.” Troye served in the Trump White House as Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Pence. Her remark was in response to a comment by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who had said Grenell “used to hang out with Nazis when he was supposed to be representing us in Germany.”

NCRM has not confirmed the allegations.

“Grenell has been acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump’s support and, at times, working against the current administration’s policies,” along with “attacking President Biden,” The Washington Post reported  in March. It also reported Trump had been calling Grenell, “my envoy.”

The paper detailed Grenell had “arrived in Guatemala in January, days before the new president was to be sworn in — and threw his support behind a right-wing campaign to undermine the election.”

“Grenell met with a hard-line group that sued to block the inauguration,” and, “defended Guatemalan officials who had seized ballot boxes in an effort to overturn a vote declared ‘free and fair’ by the United States and international observers, and he attacked the U.S. State Department’s sanctions against hundreds of anti-democratic actors.”

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“They are trying to intimidate conservatives in Guatemala,” Grenell said. “This is all wrapped into this kind of phony concern about democracy.”

The Post also reported that “Grenell’s globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump’s personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies.”

In 2020, when Grenell was serving as Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence, ProPublica reported, “Richard Grenell’s past clients could raise concerns about his access to state secrets, according to his own office’s rules.”

Grenell had “worked as a paid publicist for a foundation funded by Hungary’s increasingly authoritarian government — his second former client to prompt scrutiny because Grenell did not disclose the work.”

“In 2016, the Magyar Foundation of North America paid Grenell’s consulting firm, Capitol Media Partners, $103,750 for ‘public relations’ services, according to the foundation’s tax filing. The foundation was funded and supervised by Hungary’s government, according to records obtained by the Hungarian nonprofit news organization Atlatszo. The foundation’s director, Jo Anne Barnhart, had been a registered lobbyist for Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” ProPublica revealed.

“Grenell, however, did not register, even though public relations work on behalf of a foreign government falls squarely under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to lawyers specializing in the matter. FARA is the same law that Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, were convicted of violating.”

Tom Nichols, the retired Naval War College professor who has a PhD in government from Georgetown University and is now a writer at The Atlantic, on Thursday weighed in on news Grenell and Patel are potential picks to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

“During a crisis – say, a nuclear crisis – the DCIA [Director of the Central Intelligence Agency] is supposed to be one of the key people with a firm grip on data and solid judgment to advise the President on what to do next. Appointing inexperienced, loyalist clowns is not a big deal at some agencies. Not this one.”

Asked, what “Defcon level are we at now?” Nichols replied, “Well, I referred to this time as a national emergency, just as the last Trump administration was.”

Dr. Norman Ornstein, Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, responded to Nichols: “Not just inexperienced and clowns, people who cannot be trusted with secrets, especially our most significant ones.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

 

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‘Someone’s Got to Run the Deportation Camps’: Prison Stocks Soar as Trump Agenda Unfolds

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Several private prison stocks have been skyrocketing since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Trump has vowed mass deportations, and his campaign spokesperson on Wednesday said “millions” would be deported on day one.

“One HUGE winner from Trump’s win: Private prison companies GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc.,” observed Bloomberg News reporter Steven Dennis on Wednesday. “Their stocks, which could benefit from Trump’s plans for rounding up millions of immigrants, rocketed higher today 41% and 29% respectively.”

Thomson Reuters Foundation journalist Avi Asher-Schapiro also on Wednesday, posted the stock’s performance over the past five days, which shows it jumped over 26%. He writes: “Private prison giant Geo Group —which already has over a billion dollars in ICE contracts to manage immigration detention facilities—sees its stock soar on Trump’s win.”

Pointing to an earnings call transcript from August, he notes the company “also administers the ‘Intensive Supervision Appearance Program’ which is GPS monitoring of migrants.”

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“Now, it’s 175,000 people. If the GOP-backed House Bill becomes law, that could expand to 7 million.”

Ohio Capitol Journal Editor-in-Chief David DeWitt noted, “To deport 20 million people [a number Trump has claimed], they need to build massive camps – deportation, detention…camps where people are concentrated… to handle such massive numbers. Brokers are speculating a nice windfall for a private prison giant on the backs of millions of families being put in camps”

At Thompson Reuters’ Context, Asher-Schapiro co-wrote an article last week explaining how Geo has donated over a half-million dollars to support Trump’s re-election efforts.

“GEO Group’s political action committee moved early this year to donate a maximum $5,000 to the Trump campaign, in addition to a $500,000 donation from a GEO subsidiary to a pro-Trump group, according to an analysis from CREW’s [Robert] Maguire and Lauren White.”

CREW is the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

“The company also not only donated to his 2017 inauguration, but moved its annual corporate event to one of his properties, White said.”

“They have not only been fuelling Trump’s political aspirations, but they have been putting money directly in Trump’s pocket by using his businesses in a pretty conspicuous way,” White also said.

The Atlantic’s David Frum is a Never-Trump Republican who announced Wednesday he “De-registered as a Republican today.”

Responding to the chart of Geo Group’s stock skyrocketing, he remarked sardonically: “Someone’s got to run the deportation camps.”

On Wednesday, NBC News explored how Trump may execute his deportation plan, and highlight one of his recent quotes about immigrants: “We’re like a garbage can for the world.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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