RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
June 3 to June 9
Featured Investigation
Last week in RealClearInvestigations, Lee Smith raised doubts about one basis for the Trump-Russia collusion investigation: the role of Joseph Mifsud. Smith's reporting indicates that it's hard to pin the label Russian spy on this Maltese academic with longstanding Western intelligence connections, who supposedly told George Papadopoulos that the Russians had thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails, sparking the FBI probe.
This week in RCI, Paul Sperry raises similar doubts about another justification for investigating the Trump campaign: the claim that the feds had longstanding concerns that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was working for Russia – suspicions that eventually led to FISA warrant surveillance of the Annapolis graduate.
This version of events centers on an interview the Department of Justice arranged with Page in March 2016, the same month that Trump named him as a campaign adviser. The suggestion is that the government was so concerned that a compromised individual might be working with Trump that it immediately checked in on Page.
Sperry’s article shows that:
- The interview had nothing to do with the campaign; it concerned a 2013 case against a Russian operative.
- Far from being a target of suspicion, Page was a cooperating witness in a case that ended with Evgeny Buryakov pleading guilty to espionage-related charges on March 11, 2016.
- The government characterized Page to the court as someone who helped the FBI catch Russian spies.
- The interview took place before Trump publicly named Page as an adviser on March 21, 2016.
Sperry’s reporting suggests that Rep. Adam Schiff and other Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee may have been misleading when they argued in their 10-page memo defending the Obama Justice Department’s monitoring of Page that, “The FBI interviewed Page multiple times about his Russian intelligence contacts, including in March 2016.”
By showing that Page appeared to be in the government’s good graces before Trump named him as an adviser, Sperry’s reporting also raises questions about the basis for subsequent FISA warrants and surveillance of Page – specifically the role of election-year politics and the Steele dossier.
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
Ex-Hill Staffer Who Had Affair With Reporter Held in Leak Case, Los Angeles Times
The Astonishing Tale of the Man Mueller Calls 'Person A', Atlantic
Wife Recounts Dossier Figure's Approach to Papadopoulos, Daily Caller
Previously Unknown Evidence in Michael Flynn Case, Washington Examiner
Another Trump Aide Invited to Event at Start of 'Spygate', Daily Caller
Trump Transition Team Goes to War Over Rogue FBI Agent Strzok, Daily Beast
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
Is Uncle Sam in Horse-Racing's Stable? You Bet.
RealClearInvestigations
The sure bet in this weekend's Belmont Stakes isn't Justify, or any nag for that matter. It's Uncle Sam. In recent years the “sport of kings” has evolved into a sport of partnerships that rewards business-savvy people intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the tax code. It favors diversification as a path to profits – or at least as a way to allay risk – so that most thoroughbreds do not have owners but shareholders, giving a new meaning to the term racing stock. This trend may be turbo-charged by aspects of President Trump’s new tax law.
Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to User, Friend Data
New York Times
As Facebook sought to become the world’s dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers – including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung – access to vast amounts of its users’ personal information. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users’ friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. A separate article reports that Facebook also has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China’s government.
Chicago: Schools Fail to Protect From Sex Abuse
Chicago Tribune
Chicago public schools have failed to protect students from sexual abuse and assault, leaving lasting damage. When students reported abuse, teachers and principals often failed to alert child welfare investigators or police despite a law requiring that they do so. Even in cases where school employees acted swiftly, they subjected young victims to repeated interrogations, inflicting more psychological pain. Ineffective background checks and failures to alert other school districts further exposed students to abusers.
How America's Cellblocks Became Its Psych Wards
Esquire
Nearly 400,000 of 2.2 million prisoners nationwide have a psychiatric diagnosis. Compare that with the 38,000 patients that the country’s state-run psych hospitals can accommodate. The math might suggest that ten out of every eleven psychiatric patients housed by the government are behind bars. This article – written by a man serving 28 years to life in Attica – provides an insider’s view of not only how and why prisons have become repositories for the mentally ill but what it means for those behind the walls.
Obama Administration Skirted Sanctions to Grant Iran Billions
Washington Free Beacon
The Obama administration skirted key U.S. sanctions to grant Iran access to billions in hard currency despite public assurances the administration was engaged in no such action, according to a new congressional investigation.
Calif.: Overwhelmed Fire Inspectors Fail to Protect
Mercury News/East Bay Times
Overwhelmed and often disorganized, fire departments across the Bay Area routinely fail to perform state-required safety inspections of buildings where hundreds of thousands of Californians live and go to school. And despite the potential for tragedy, there are no consequences — and nobody paying attention — to make sure fire inspectors are getting the job done.
Inside One of Britain's Secretive Sharia Courts
Daily Mail
Sharia courts, in which Muslims can resolve civil disputes based on the Koran, are proliferating across the United Kingdom; estimates put the number at somewhere between 30 and 85 such courts. Influential voices in politics, the clergy and human rights fear sharia is becoming a "parallel legal system" that furthers social division and islolates many of Britain’s 2.8 million Muslims.
1,000 Ft. Down: Perilous Life of the Saturation Diver
Atlas Obscura
This fascinating article explores the world of “saturation divers,” folks mainly employed by the gas and oil business who work hundreds of feet under the sea. The interaction of deep water pressure and blood chemistry requires divers to ascend very slowly from the depths. To avoid that cost, divers such as those profiled here decompress only once, at the end of the job. They maintain their bodies' deep-sea status quo by living together for long stretches in the bottom of a ship in a pressurized metal tube, 20 feet long and seven feet in diameter; throughout, they are sustained by a piped-in gas cocktail—mostly helium, with sufficient oxygen and maybe a little nitrogen. Believe it or not, it’s safe and the pay is excellent – up to $1,400 a day.
Oregon: Recycling Fervently, and Incorrectly
Willamette Week
The average Portland household put 614 pounds of recycling in its blue bin last year, an amount that has nearly tripled over the past 25 years. That recycling total is a point of civic pride—only a handful of major U.S. cities recycle more. The problem? A large percentage of what Portlanders throw in their bins is actually garbage. As a result the chief buyer for Oregon's recycling says what's in the blue bins is just too filthy to accept.
