IS THE FBI INVESTIGATING?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 5, 2017) — In an article published at Newsmax and at his Freedom Watch website on Sunday, Atty. Larry Klayman released additional information about data his client, Dennis Montgomery, claims was harvested by U.S. intelligence agencies for a number of years on both public and private citizens.
Montgomery, a former NSA and CIA contractor, has claimed since at least 2013 that agencies of the federal government have been collecting data on unsuspecting citizens, including more than 150,000 Maricopa County, AZ banking customers.
Klayman began representing Montgomery in 2015, arranging for him to testify to the FBI after presenting his claims to U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington, DC. Klayman has said that the information Montgomery possesses is “largely classified” and that he himself has therefore not viewed it.
In November 2015, Montgomery reportedly provided over 600 million pages of documentation to two FBI agents in a two and one-half-hour video-recorded interview in exchange for two immunity agreements.
In Sunday’s article, in addition to having claimed previously that personal information was harvested on Donald Trump, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and himself, Klayman said that specifically, Roberts’s “financial records” were secretly collected.
In a number of videos released by his Freedom Watch public-advocacy organization, Klayman has speculated that Roberts could have been blackmailed as a result of the data-harvesting, particularly in regard to his peculiar rulings on the Affordable Care Act in 2012 and 2015.
The Act was considered Obama’s “signature” achievement, although Republicans, who now dominate both chambers of Congress, are poised to repeal and replace it in the coming weeks.
Klayman has named former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan as those ordering the collection of the information using the considerable capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community, which consists of 17 different agencies, according to public reports.
Clapper has denied having ordered “wiretapping” Trump claimed on Saturday morning to have occurred last October in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Clapper’s denial has been refuted by some who claim that reports issued by McClatchy, The New York Times, HeatStreet, and National Review all confirmed the existence of several ongoing “investigations” into possible ties between the Trump campaign or associates and Russia.
The editor of “Catalina” magazine, Cathy Abreu, claimed on Saturday evening to have spoken with a former Obama staffer who said she had knowledge that the wiretapping of Trump Tower was, in fact, carried out with the White House’s knowledge.
The media and Democrats have demanded that Trump release the “evidence” he has to support his surprising claim made on Saturday morning on Twitter.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has requested that the Senate and House Intelligence Committees investigate Trump’s claim and said in a statement Sunday morning that the White House will offer no further comment until such probes have been completed.
In December 2013, Klayman won a landmark ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who ordered that government surveillance of citizens not suspected of criminal activity cease. Specifically, Klayman’s lawsuit sought relief for Verizon Business customers, although Edward Snowden’s revelations six months earlier pointed to blanket, mass surveillance of virtually all communications exchanged by Americans on a daily basis.
On February 15, Klayman asked Leon for an emergency hearing based on national security leaks which became evident after Trump took office and caused his first national security adviser to resign.
Klayman is currently attempting to obtain a status report from the FBI and pertinent congressional committees as to the investigation Klayman believes was launched as a result of the documentation Montgomery provided.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that a close Obama family friend confirmed that long-time family friend and senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett had moved in with the Obamas in their rented Washington, DC mansion with the alleged purpose of undermining and dismantling Trump’s presidency.
Does the “Intelligence” committee have enough intelligence to actually run an investigation? If I were Trump, I wouldn’t bank on it. But maybe that is his intent — remind the public that Congress doesn’t know how to exercise their oversight responsibilities. They didn’t know how to investigate Sheriff Joe’s findings, and they most likely will drop the ball on this as well. They call names and grandstand rather than accept any personal responsibility to independently find the truth.