"At least two of the FBI's surveillance applications to secretly monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page lacked probable cause, according to a newly declassified summary of a Justice Department assessment released Thursday by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

"The DOJ's admission essentially means that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant authorizations to surveil Page, when stripped of the FBI's misinformation, did not meet the necessary legal threshold and should never have been issued. Democrats, including California Rep. Adam Schiff, had previously insisted the Page FISA warrants met 'rigorous' standards for probable cause, and mocked Republicans for suggesting otherwise.

"The June 2017 Page FISA warrant renewal, which was among the two deemed invalid by the DOJ, was approved by then-Acting FBI Director (and now CNN contributor) Andrew McCabe, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The April 2017 warrant renewal was approved by then-FBI Director James Comey."

"Barely two weeks after Donald Trump took office, Eric Ciaramella -- the CIA analyst whose name was recently linked in a tweet by the president and mentioned by lawmakers as the anonymous 'whistleblower' who touched off Trump's impeachment -- was overheard in the White House discussing with another staffer how to remove the newly elected president from office, according to former colleagues.

"Sources told RealClearInvestigations the staffer with whom Ciaramella was speaking was Sean Misko. Both were Obama administration holdovers working in the Trump White House on foreign policy and national security issues. And both expressed anger over Trump's new 'America First' foreign policy, a sea change from President Obama's approach to international affairs.

"'Just days after he was sworn in they were already talking about trying to get rid of him,' said a White House colleague who overheard their conversation.

"'They weren't just bent on subverting his agenda,' the former official added. 'They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.'

"Misko left the White House last summer to join House impeachment manager Adam Schiff's committee, where sources say he offered 'guidance' to the whistleblower, who has been officially identified only as an intelligence officer in a complaint against Trump filed under whistleblower laws. Misko then helped run the impeachment inquiry based on that complaint as a top investigator for congressional Democrats."

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"Near the end of his inflammatory opening remarks Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer tried his best to scale the rhetorical heights. He declared the moment 'deep and solemn' and said, 'The eyes of the Founding Fathers are upon us.'

"If they're watching, they're probably rolling over in their graves. Day One of the Trump impeachment trial couldn't possibly be what they had in mind.

"Yes, it was that bad, as history gave way to histrionics.

"It is said that Schumer has brought the raw partisan sensibility of the House to the Senate, and that's not a compliment. His gratuitously nasty speech illustrated the point and set the tone for the dispiriting day."

"Perhaps if Democrats had not spent the last three years calling Trump a Russian stooge and traitor then they would have some credibility today. However, the special counsel investigation and the unceasing march to impeach Trump for whatever they find now makes them impossible to take seriously. Despite their best efforts there was no public outcry for impeachment and no break in the ranks by Republicans. Yet Democrats marched on to hand us a partisan impeachment simply doomed to fail.

"The true threat to our democracy is not Trump. It is leaders who are using the system to accomplish what they cannot at the ballot box. For better or worse, Trump is our president. We had the right to elect him the first time, and we have the right to decide if he keeps his job for another term. This impeachment is about taking away that right. Let us have the trial, ensure it is fair, hear from witnesses, and allow the chips to fall where they may. But let us not pretend it is principled. It is a divisive and harmful scorched earth campaign designed to prevent Americans from repeating what the ruling class believes never should have been allowed in the first place."

"If there were such egregious misconduct that the public was convinced of the need to remove Trump, such that two-thirds of the Senate would ignore partisan ties and do just that, there would be no partisan stunts. Democratic leaders would have worked cooperatively with their GOP counterparts, as was done in prior impeachments. They would have told the president: 'Sure, you can have your lawyers here, and call whatever witnesses you want.' There would be a bipartisan sense that the president had done profound wrong. There would be a sense of history, not contest. Congressional leaders would want to be remembered as statesmen, not apparatchiks.

"If there were a real impeachable offense, there would be no fretting about witnesses at the trial. Senate leaders would be contemplating that, after hearing the case extensively presented by both sides, there might well be enough votes to convict without witnesses. But if there were an appetite for witnesses, witnesses would be called . . . as they were in Watergate. And just as in Watergate, if the president withheld vital evidence of appalling lawlessness, the public would not be broadly indifferent to administration stonewalling.

"If there were an obviously impeachable offense, the garrisons of Fort Knox could not have stopped Nancy Pelosi from personally marching impeachment articles into the Senate the second the House had adopted them -- in what would have been an overwhelming bipartisan vote (of the kind that Pelosi, not long ago, said would be imperative for a legitimate impeachment effort)."

"Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing whether former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information about a possible Russian disinformation campaign to journalists, according to a bombshell New York Times report.

"The inquiry, which kicked off in recent months, appears to focus on information from documents that Dutch intelligence obtained from Russian computers and provided to the U.S. government, The NYT reported, citing people familiar with the matter. ...

"Dutch intelligence turned over a Russian analysis of a purported email exchange from 2016 between Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was chair of the DNC, and Leonard Benardo, an official with the Open Society Foundations, a left-wing activist group, according to The NYT.

"The email showed Wasserman Schultz suggested to Benardo that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch would ensure Hillary Clinton would not face prosecution over her private email server.

"Comey has publicly cited information about Lynch as one of the reasons he circumvented the Justice Department to announce that he was not recommending prosecution of Clinton in the email case."

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"Dripping with derision, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exulted that President Trump has 'been impeached forever.' 'They can never erase that,' she intoned. If Pelosi had a football nearby, she would have spiked it.

"Her celebratory remarks crystallized what the impeachment of Donald Trump is all about. Pelosi, D-Calif., doesn't care about facts, evidence or what constitutes an impeachable offense under the Constitution. She cares only about bludgeoning the president for the electoral harm it might cause him in November.

"This has been Pelosi's intent all along. Impeachment was her political cudgel. She crowed about it like a pro wrestler who body slams an opponent and then celebrates by prancing around the ring. It was all staged, of course.

"No one should be fooled by Pelosi's shameless antics. She has wanted to impeach Trump since he took office. She admitted it during a televised forum last month. It was a moment of uncommon candor for a speaker who routinely traffics in duplicity. ...

"As the Senate hurtles toward an impeachment trial that will likely conclude with an acquittal, Americans should remember that it was Nancy Pelosi who set this national nightmare in motion. It is an abuse of power driven by arrogance and for political gain.

"Pelosi bears the responsibility . . . and the blame."

"Amid a growing national drive in some 20 states to provide 'gun sanctuaries' in areas where calls are increasing for new controls, gun policy has become the second most 'extremely important' issue in the 2020 elections.

"In the latest Gallup survey, gun policy is tied at 34% with terrorism and national security as the second issue voters call 'extremely important.' Healthcare barely edges gun control out as No. 1, with 35% calling it 'extremely important.'"

"British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an interview Tuesday that he welcomed replacing the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal with a new agreement negotiated by President Trump.

"'If we're going to get rid of it, let's replace it and let's replace it with the Trump deal,' Johnson told BBC, referencing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. ...

"Johnson's remarks came amid mounting pressure from Parliament to side with Trump and abandon the nuclear deal after Iran allegedly violated international law by detaining the British ambassador in Tehran for several hours over the weekend. Iran accused British ambassador Rob McGuire of participating in anti-government demonstrations that broke out across the city after Tehran admitted 'in error' it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner last week, killing all 176 passengers and crew aboard. Of the dead, three Britons perished."

"According to an Election Data Services analysis of the Census Bureau report, 'The population projections point toward a ten [congressional] seat change over 17 states across the nation by year 2020.'

"Seven states are projected to gain one or more congressional seats after the 2020 election; 10 states are projected lose one seat.

"The red-state leader is Texas, with a projected pickup of three congressional seats following the 2020 census -- and that after gaining four congressional seats after the 2010 election. Florida will pick up two seats, and Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one, according to the analysis.

"All 10 losing states -- Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia -- lose only one seat.

"Of the seven states gaining seats, five voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Of the 10 states losing seats, five voted for Trump and five for Hillary Clinton."

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