February 14th, 2020

A month before the 2016 presidential election, the FBI met Christopher Steele in Rome and apparently unlawfully shared with the foreign opposition researcher some of the bureau’s most closely held secrets, according to unpublicized disclosures in the recent Justice Department Inspector General report on abuses of federal surveillance powers.

What’s more, Steele, the former British spy who compiled the “dossier” of conspiracy theories for the Hillary Clinton campaign, was promised $15,000 to attend the briefing by FBI agents eager to maintain his cooperation in their Trump-Russia collusion investigation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane...

Oregon Department of Energy officials on Thursday issued a violation notice to Chemical Waste Management for its landfill near the small town of Arlington for accepting a total of 2 million pounds of Bakken oil field waste delivered by rail in 2016, 2017 and 2019... With landfill officials’ permission, a Montana company dumped the waste, some of which registered radium at 300 times the state’s limits. On average, the waste dumped at the landfill about eight miles (13 kilometers) from the Columbia River registered radium at 140 picocuries per gram...

Mr. Barr has also installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, the people said. The team includes at least one prosecutor from the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, as well as prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CBS News that he would seek private depositions and public testimony from former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The Republican committee leader also plans to call current FBI Director Christopher Wray... McCabe approved the fourth and final FISA warrant for the FBI in June 2017...

SCOOP: Chairman Senate Judiciary formally asks AG Barr to make witnesses available for probe “Crossfire Hurricane” + #FISA @CBSNews told “former Dept employees“ cited in letter will be contacted directly, plan to call Comey McCabe Yates Rosenstein among others @LindseyGrahamSC pic.twitter.com/dtkhrK6LsZ

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) February 14, 2020

Also, many are upset at the latest news of McCabe escaping justice from "leaking", but remember, McCabe was one of the signers of the FISA docs. That is still handled by Durham.

... after a nearly two-year-long investigation into accusations brought by the agency's independent watchdog who claimed that he lacked "candor" when questioned about leaking to the media. In a letter to McCabe attorney Michael Bromwich obtained by Fox News, Justice Department attorney J.P. Cooney said the investigation is now “closed.” “We write to inform you that, after careful consideration, the Government has decided not to pursue criminal charges against your client, Andrew G. McCabe,’” Cooney wrote. The DOJ added: “Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the Government at this time, we consider the matter closed."

The personnel are being sent by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, to assist ICE officers in cities including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, these people said. Operations will also take place in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Houston, Newark, N.J., and Detroit, these people said.

🧐 Rick Wilson having lunch with Peter Strzok? Wonder what they were discussing? pic.twitter.com/xPtMy4TqdW

— Rich Higgins (@RichHiggins_DC) February 15, 2020

The proposal, one of many new tax cuts under consideration, would see a portion of household income treated as tax-free for the purposes of investing outside a traditional 401(k). Under one hypothetical scenario described by multiple officials, a household earning up to $200,000 could invest $10,000 of that income on a tax-free basis, although officials noted these numbers are fluid.

The legal motion could delay Stone’s Feb. 20 sentencing date on charges of witness tampering and lying to Congress. The basis for the request and supporting records were filed under seal Friday, the filing's existence was disclosed in a court order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson that gave U.S. prosecutors until Tuesday to respond.

Avenatti, 48, was accused in the Nike case of trying to shake down the company by threatening to expose alleged evidence of bribing amateur basketball players and their families unless the company paid up. Prosecutors said Avenatti's audacious bid was spurred by a desperate need to get out from crushing debt of more than $10 million. The bombastic attorney, who was ordered jailed last month for alleged violations of his release bond, faces upcoming trials this spring in two other federal criminal cases.

• Ten women have filed a class-action lawsuit against fashion retailer Peter Nygard
• The alleged sexual assaults allegedly went on for decades and saw the executive rape and drug girls who were as young as 14
• Girls would be lured to his Nygard Cay vacation compound under the guise that they were auditioning for modelling contracts
• After 'selecting his victims' Nygard, 77, would allegedly sodomize and rape the teens before paying them up to $10,000 in cash for them to stay silent
• Girls were asked to defecate and urinate in Nygard's mouth in a sexual fetish
• Nygard would also allegedly bribe police and Bahamian government officials in order for them to turn a blind eye to his behavior
• Prince Andrew also stayed at the Bahamas home of the fashion tycoon in 2000
• Duke of York stopped over at the sprawling estate with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson

Durham... is investigating whether Brennan’s CIA was attempting to keep other agencies in the dark as he pushed for a specific, preconceived analytic assessment about Russia’s true intentions in 2016... The top Connecticut prosecutor’s team reviewed emails from the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency analysts who came together to assess Russia’s interference, the new report revealed, and Durham’s investigators pressed for answers about why some agencies at least temporarily denied other agencies access to secretive intelligence about the Kremlin’s active-measures campaign.

Sanders received 24 percent of the vote from potential Democratic primary voters, a jump from 12 percent in the same poll in October. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the October leader in the poll, was in second place with 22 percent of the vote, which falls inside the margin of error, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) remained in third place with 15 percent. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the only other hopeful polling in double digits with 10 percent... Sanders had the closest match-up with the president, losing 47-45..

The payment provider told MarketWatch that everyone has a unique walk, and it is investigating innovative behavioral biometrics such as gait, face, heartbeat and veins for cutting edge payment systems of the future.