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Broke this story 2 years ago next week, still remember the grief I got for it from certain DOJ beat reporters. Flores’ emails, FOIA’d by @CREWcrew, show her instructing reporters not to source the texts to DOJ even though she invited them over for viewing.
Here’s one email showing what @NatSecLisa described. s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citize…
Side note: lol
Flores got particularly tough questions/comments from @Reuters.
And this conversation Flores and Prior had amongst themselves in response to some of my later questions is redacted.
Anyway, the full set of FOIA’d documents related to this episode, obtained by @CREWcrew, is available here. It’s an interesting look at how the DOJ press shop scrambled to respond to this. citizensforethics.org/foia/expedited…
More Flores (in blue) on not being allowed to source the texts to DOJ. And also calling the release an “info dump.” s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citize…
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Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
NEW: The IG report makes identity of at least one alleged Steele "sub-source" obvious—raising q's about the motivations for DOJ's declassification decisions.
“I would LOVE a roadmap like this from the Russians or Chinese,” said one former intel official.
politico.com/news/2019/12/1…
The report includes FBI notes summarizing conversations w/sources, revealing identifying details—one sub-source was described as being subject of a YouTube video and press reports; another was said to have “direct access to a particular former senior Russian government official."
Experts said the depiction of sources and vetting in the report could pose problems for the U.S.’ information sharing relationships, and undermine the FBI’s recruitment efforts.

“Who wants to be a source if you can’t keep a secret?” said another former intelligence official.
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Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
Barr on IG saying no evidence political bias affected Russia probe: "All he said is 'people give me an explanation, and I didn't find anything to contradict it'...But he hasn't decided the issue of improper motive."
This process argument was also floated on Fox this morning.
Barr: "Durham is looking at the whole water front. He's looking at the issue of how it got started. He's looking at whether or not the narrative of Trump being involved in the Russian interference actually preceded July...He's also looking at the conduct of the investigation."
Barr also says he suggested Durham look at the "post-election period. And I did that because of some of the stuff that Horowitz has uncovered which to me is inexplicable." Barr also says he has confidence in Chris Wray.
Read 3 tweets
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Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
NEW: The timing of the IG report’s release tomorrow has irked some former officials Horowitz interviewed, who told us that the standard review period afforded in an IG probe seemed rushed so it would be released in the middle of impeachment proceedings.
politico.com/news/2019/12/0…
Witnesses were unable to provide written feedback or take notes on the report, they said, because IG didn’t wait for it to be declassified before calling them in. As result, they were asked to sign NDA’s even if portions of report that mentioned them contained no classified info.
Compared with Giuliani, Bill Barr has arguably had far more success in shielding Trump—@dsamuelsohn and I examined the lengths to which Barr has gone to protect the president: politico.com/news/2019/12/0…
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Jason Leopold
@JasonLeopold
5 years ago tomorrow, on the day the 525 page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report was released, @vicenews, where I worked at the time, dropped this bombshell that I produced.

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John Morales
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Ever since I interviewed Kerry Emanuel at the onset of the 2018 #hurricane season, I've been showing some of the results of his team's downscaling approach that, combined with model simulations, can yield projected return periods for outlier cyclone events.

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Jason Leopold
@JasonLeopold
Been a pretty shitty year for #FOIA. Govt agencies continue to thwart the release of records. But I was still able to pry loose a few gems.

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buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
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Alamo_on_the_rise
@AlamoOnTheRise
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Alamo_on_the_rise
@AlamoOnTheRise
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