RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
August 26 to September 1 Featured Investigation President Trump has largely rebuffed allies urging him to declassify documents withheld by the Department of Justice that they believe will support his claim that the Russian investigation is a "witch hunt." Those supporters are especially frustrated because Trump benefited enormously when he did declassify information revealing that the FISA warrant application used to spy on campaign adviser Carter Page relied on unverified opposition research funded by the Democrats. Why isn't Trump pulling the trigger on declassification? As Lee Smith reports forRealClearInvestigations, people with knowledge of the situation believe that Trump, known his inflammatory Tweets on the Russia investigation, is taking a cool, deliberative approach in this instance ‒ inclined to keep his powder dry now for possible detonation later. Smith reports: Trump's Twitter broadsides come across as intemperate, but remember Shakespeare on the methods in madness. The tweets are partly intended to galvanize his supporters for a struggle to come. Trump uses the platform to attack "elite" media narratives and reveal to his supporters how a "deep state" operation is directed not only against him but also the people who elected him. … His base is on board. "Enough has emerged of late to give many Americans—certainly most Republicans and a lot of independents ‒ considerable doubts about the legality of what's been done to Trump, from the election to the appointment of the special counsel," former DOJ official David Rivkin told RCI. "Trump is being smart. "The more they ‘resist,' the more they look like the bad guys." Even as the president stokes his base with strong rhetoric, Rivkin said, he is holding back on actions that would anger the very officials he is attacking. The DOJ and others in the intelligence community are jealous of their institutional prerogatives ‒ including the authority to classify documents ‒ and could rebel if he challenged that directly on a large scale. "Trump may be worried that an order to declassify might be disobeyed," Rivkin told RCI. "It might instead prompt resignations." Read Full Article The Trump Investigations: Top Articles Ohr to House: I Told FBI of Bias of FISA-Linchpin Steele, Wall Street Journal
No FISA Court Hearings Held on Carter Page Warrants, DOJ Says
Emailing by Clintonite, GPS, Russians Before Tower Meeting, Breitbart
'Sleeper' Case Could Muzzle Mueller Report, Politico
Whistleblower: Russia-Tied Halper Key to Trump 'Setup', saraacarter.com
Lanny Davis, Ukrainian Oligarch and the Russian Mafia, Rolling Stone
Professor Disputes FBI's Sinister Spin on Papadapoulos Meeting, The Hill
FBI Mum on U.S. Spooks' Warnings of Hack of Clinton Server, Daily Caller
Glenn Greenwald, Bane of the Left's Resistance, New Yorker Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Sources: China Hacked Clinton's Private Email Server,
Daily Caller
A Chinese-owned company operating in the Washington, D.C., area hacked Hillary Clinton's private server throughout her term as secretary of state and obtained nearly all her emails, two sources briefed on the matter told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese firm obtained Clinton's emails in real time as she sent and received communications and documents through her personal server, according to the sources, who said the hacking was conducted as part of an intelligence operation. Chinese Communist Party Funds DC Think Tanks
Washington Free Beacon
While many national leaders and much of the media continues to pretend Russia is the only threat to America's political system, the China's Communist Party, for one, continues to engage in covert operations within the United States. These include funding a host of influential think tanks - including Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the Brookings Institution, Atlantic Council, Center for American Progress, EastWest Institute, Carter Center, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A congressional report sys the Chinese Communist Party "has sought to influence academic discourse on China and in certain instances has infringed upon—and potentially criminally violated—rights to freedoms of speech and association that are guaranteed to Americans and those protected by U.S. laws." Ronan Farrow's Ex-Producer: NBC Impeded Weinstein Reporting
New York Times
Officials from "the very highest levels of NBC" put a stop to Ronan Farrow's story accusing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, according to a producer on the story who recently left the network. NBC has been criticized for not airing Farrow's reporting - which later appeared in The New Yorker, won a Pulitzer Prize and helped launch the #MeToomovement. Abuse, Death at Hands of Nuns at Vermont Orphanage
BuzzFeed
As the Catholic Church reels from more allegations of sexual abuse by priests, this story details the cruelty inflicted by nuns at Catholic orphanages. "It is the history of unrelenting physical and psychological abuse of captive children. Across thousands of miles and decades, the abuse took eerily similar forms: People who grew up in orphanages said they were made to kneel or stand for hours, sometimes with their arms straight out, sometimes holding their boots or some other item. They were forced to eat their own vomit. They were dangled upside down out windows, over wells, or in laundry chutes. Children were locked in cabinets, in closets, in attics, sometimes for days, sometimes so long they were forgotten. They were told their relatives didn't want them, or they were permanently separated from their siblings. They were sexually abused. They were mutilated." Conservative Vatican Journo Helped Cleric Who Took On Pope
New York Times
This article portrays Archbishop Carlo MariaViganò- who wrote a letter accusing Pope Francis of covering up sexual misconduct and calling for his resignation - as a disgruntled conservative acting out of spite rather than principle. "The letter exposed deep ideological clashes, with conservatives taking up arms against Francis' inclusive vision of a church that is less focused on divisive issues like abortion and homosexuality. But ArchbishopViganò— who himself has been accused of hindering a sexual misconduct investigation in Minnesota — also seems to be settling old scores." California: Inflation, Delays Add Billions to Bullet Train Cost
Los Angeles Times
The California bullet train project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year — a construction spending rate higher than that for the Bay Bridge, Boston's Big Dig or any U.S. transportation project in recent history. But still it's not enough, planners say. In order to hit its 2033 deadline and $77-billion budget, the California High Speed Rail Authority will have to increase daily spending by up to nine times over the next four years or risk putting the already-delayed system further behind. Education Dept. Releases Error-Riddled School Shooting Stats
National Public Radio
This spring the Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, "nearly 240 schools ... reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting." The number is far higher than most other estimates. But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. It was able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports. Hard-Partying Rep. Duncan Hunter's Life Unravels
New York Times
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California is, evidently, a fun and generous man, known for picking bar tabs - including more than $400 for 30 tequila shots - and paying for lavish dinners. But a recent indictment charges he was using campaign funds to pay the bills. Hunter appears to have an excuse - it's all his wife's fault, saying she was responsible for the couple's finances. "Whatever she did, that will be looked at, too, I'm sure," Mr. Hunter told Fox News. "I didn't do it. I didn't spend any money illegally." NYC Housing Workers Accused of Wild Orgies at Projects
New York Post
Giving a new meaning to the old saw "nice work if you can get," some employees of the New York City Housing Authority are being accused of engaging in drunken orgies at work. The Post reports that "at any given time, staff members were known to find up to a dozen people taking part in the orgies, according to sources." It is not clear if they squeezed this into their regular shift or needed to file for overtime. | 
