TheLastRefuge Profile picture
Aug 25, 2025 9 tweets 8 min read Read on X
Most have forgotten...

Back in 2017 when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was working to reauthorize the FISA legislation, Nunes wrote a letter to ODNI Dan Coats about this specific issue:

intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/… x.com/TheLastRefuge2…Image
There is little doubt the NSA database was used by Obama-era officials, from 2012 through April 2016, as a way to spy on their political opposition. Quite simply there is no other intellectually honest explanation for the scale and volume of database abuse that was taking place.

When we reconcile what was taking place and who was involved, then the actions of the exact same principal participants take on a jaw-dropping amount of clarity.

All of the action taken by CIA Director Brennan, FBI Director Comey, ODNI Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter make sense. Including their effort to get NSA Director Mike Rogers fired.

Russia-Gate, the Steele Dossier and even the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (drawn from the dossier and signed by the above) were needed to create a cover-story and protect themselves from discovery of this four-year weaponization, political surveillance and unlawful spying.

This is why President Obama was willing to push the Russiagate story with his activity in December of 2016 after the election.  Obama wasn’t only dirtying up President Trump, Obama was using Russiagate as a cover for the spying that took place using the NSA database.

Even the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel makes sense; Mueller was FBI Director when the use of the NSA database surveillance began. Aaron Zebly was his chief-of-staff.Image
The beginning decision to use FISA (702) as a domestic surveillance and political spy mechanism appears to have started in/around 2012. Perhaps sometime shortly before the 2012 presidential election and before John Brennan left the White House and moved to CIA. However, there was an earlier version of data assembly that preceded this effort.

Political spying 1.0 was actually the weaponization of the IRS.

This is where the term “Secret Research Project” originated as a description from the Obama team. It involved the U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder and the FBI under Robert Mueller. It never made sense why Eric Holder requested over 1 million tax records via CD ROM, until overlaying the timeline of the FISA abuse:

The IRS sent the FBI “21 disks constituting a 1.1-million-page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The transaction occurred in October 2010

washingtonexaminer.com/irs-send-massi…
Why disks?

Why send a stack of DISKS to Main Justice and FBI when there’s a pre-existing financial crimes unit within the IRS.

All of the evidence within this sketchy operation came directly to the surface in early spring 2012.

The IRS scandal was never really about the IRS; it was always about the DOJ asking the IRS for the database of information.

That is why it was transparently a conflict when the same DOJ was tasked with investigating the DOJ/IRS scandal.

Additionally, Obama sent his chief-of-staff Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary; effectively placing an ally to oversee/cover-up any issues. As Treasury Secretary Lew did just that.

theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/12/04/a-t…
It would appear the Obama administration learned a lesson from attempting to gather a large opposition research database operation inside a functioning organization large enough to have some good people that might blow the whistle.

The timeline shows that a few months after realizing the “Secret Research Project” was now worthless (June 2012), the Obama administration focused more deliberately on a smaller network within the intelligence apparatus and began weaponizing the FBI/NSA database. 

If my research hunch is correct, that is what will be visible in footnote #69:Image
How this all comes together:

Fusion GPS was only not hired in April 2016 simply to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations.

The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign and were monitoring everything by exploiting the NSA database.

However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama FBI needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations.

Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier.

This is the merge of two interests. #1) Clinton's dirty oppo research trick (Trump-Russia); and #2) Cover for Obama's surveillance system.

The White House and the Clinton Campaign both had motive now to stimulate a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.

The Steele Dossier was a tool needed to get a FISA Title-1 warrant. That warrant became the cover and justification for a pre-existing surveillance operation.

The Steele Dossier (a Clinton construct) becomes the investigative virus the FBI wanted inside the system. For the White House, the subsequent Title-1 surveillance warrant served a different purpose.

To get the virus into official status, the DOJ-NSD used the FISA application as the delivery method and injected it into Carter Page.

The FBI already knew Carter Page; essentially Carter Page was irrelevant, what they needed was the FISA warrant and the Dossier in the system.

The White House wasn't watching closely because they wanted Clinton's dirty trick to succeed. The White House was watching to see if the shield for their spying operation could benefit from it.Image
Fusion GPS was hired by Hillary Clinton to research Trump; however, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations, using FBI contractors. The FBI needed Fusion GPS to give them something, a plausible justification for already existing surveillance and spy operations.

Fusion-GPS gave them the justification they needed for a FISA warrant with the Steele Dossier. Ultimately that’s why the Steele Dossier was so important; without it, the Obama administration was naked with their NSA database abuse.

Investigating ‘Russiagate’, as dirty and unseemly as it was, takes you to a place where politics infected the DOJ/FBI and every participant carries plausible deniability.  However, investigate the 2016 illegal surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign via the NSA database and all of that activity can never be justified.

If you understand the distinction above, then you start to realize why John Solomon is focusing on Russiagate.  Beware the person who picks up the flag at the front of the parade, for they are likely steering the crowd for a reason.

If DNI @TulsiGabbard focuses on the known FBI surveillance of the GOP candidates in 2016, by focusing on how FBI contractors exploited access to the NSA database to conduct political opposition research, then suddenly the entire story takes on a simpler to understand context.

The Obama administration was spying on people using their access to NSA metadata. It's a very simple narrative to understand.Image
Declassify the Rosemary Collyer 99-page FISA report and outline the FBI contractors doing the surveillance.

Stop focusing so much attention on Russiagate, it’s the shiny thing fraught with plausible deniability. 

Focus instead on declassifying and releasing the real story of how the NSA database has been used to conduct political surveillance for over a decade.

Obama conducted full spectrum political surveillance and spying operations exploiting the NSA database from 2012 to 2016.

All republican candidates, politicians and political opposition were under surveillance.

THAT is the BIG STORY that will shake up DC.Image
This also explains why FBI Public Information Officer Mike Kortan was telling @jsolomonReports there was no "there" there on Trump-Russia.

From Kortan's official FBI position, the Trump-Russia story was silly. The FBI looked at it and it was nothing. However, in the background what Kortan did not know was the alternative motive for the Trump-Russia story.

The people in the FBI who were participants in the exploitation of the NSA database for spying operations, were ultimately the same FBI people who promoted the Clinton dirty Trump-Russia story.

Two factions inside the FBI. One official faction, represented by Kortan, and one unofficial faction with a vested interest outside the parameters of official FBI duty.

x.com/realDonaldTrum…

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More from @TheLastRefuge2

Feb 2
Context for equities [fourth branch] can be found in a review of this document. The questioning of ICIG Atkinson prior to his confirmation.

intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/upl…
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I really don't want to go back into this weird thing again, but I will tell you nothing about it added up six years ago.

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With the recent reports of suitcases of cash shipped out of Minneapolis, y'all might want to go back and revisit. It wasn't a one-off then. I don't know what it all adds up to, but something very unseemly. 👇
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Interesting. 🤔 Keep in mind this is 2019, Epstein texting Rep, Democratic member of Congress, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, shortly before Epstein 'killed himself'...

Also Interesting... in 2019: JPMorgan Chase notified the Treasury Department of more than $1 billion in transactions related to “human trafficking” by Jeffrey Epstein dating back 16 years after the notorious sex predator killed himself in 2019, a lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands told a federal judge at a hearing.

“Epstein’s entire business with JPMorgan and JPMorgan’s entire business with Epstein was human trafficking,” Mimi Liu, an attorney for the Virgin Islands, told Judge Jed Rakoff in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, according to a transcript reviewed by CNBC.

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1. reuters.com/world/us/elon-…

2. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Early December 2022, USVI Attorney General Denise George announced a $105 million settlement with the estate of Jeffrey Epstein [link 1]. 

The USVI case against Epstein was based on anti-criminal enterprise, sex trafficking, child exploitation and fraud laws of the Virgin Islands.  We can assume AG George gained a lot of information in the discovery phase deep inside the Epstein finances that ultimately led to the settlement.

Following the settlement with the estate of Epstein, Attorney General George now announces a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for “knowingly” enabling the sex trafficking operation of Jeffrey Epstein. 

AG George is specifically saying JPMorgan Chase was fully aware of what Epstein was doing.

1. usvidoj.com/u-s-virgin-isl…

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Read 5 tweets
Oct 30, 2025
Judge James Boasberg signed off on the search warrants against congress.

Boasberg issued blanket orders to the cell phone companies not to reveal the search warrants.

Boasberg is a FISA Court Judge.

Boasberg authorized one of the Carter Page title-1 surveillance warrants.

Boasberg hired Mary McCord as amicus to the court.

After appointing Mary McCord to take up a defensive position for herself and the FISA Court (cover), Judge Boasberg then becomes the presiding judge in the case against the FBI agent who falsified the FISA application, Kevin Clinesmith.  Boasberg gives Clinesmith a slap on the wrist and a few months’ probation (more cover).

Boasberg told John Durham (Bill Barr) allowing a target to escape prosecution is part of the penalty upon the DOJ for wrongful assembly of the FISA application; a nice way to cover the issue.

t.co/FXXV4c89kE

This is the same Judge Boasberg gave J6 FBI agent provocateur Ray Epps a sentence of probation.

This is the same Judge Boasberg who established a horrible precedent by forcing Vice-President Mike Pence to testify before a DC grand jury about his conversations with President Trump (breaking executive privilege).

While on vacation, Boasberg attended the criminal indictment hearing of President Trump.

Judge Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking DHS, Customs and Border Patrol and ICE from deporting illegal aliens and narcotrafficking gang members belonging to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

There were calls for Boasberg to be impeached.

Immediately, the same day President Trump noted Boasberg should be impeached, Chief Justice John Roberts jumped to his defense:

..."“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said Tuesday in a rare and brief statement issued just hours after Trump publicly joined demands by his supporters to remove judges he called “crooked.”

politico.com/news/2025/03/1…

Fuck off with this nonsense telling me Roberts is NOT protecting Boasberg.

Keep in mind, Mary McCord operates in all three branches of government: Deputy AAG in charge of the DOJ-NSD (executive); on both impeachment committees by Schiff/Nadler and the J6 committee of Thompson (legislative); as amicus to the FISA court (judicial). That's why she is "untouchable."

Mary McCord's husband worked in the office of Justice Roberts. Mary McCord is partnered with Norm Eisen. Norm Eisen hosted John Roberts in Europe and travelled with Justice Roberts as friends.

There is no apple. It's all worms.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 24, 2025
1. Dear @jkenney, to understand President Trump’s position on Canada, you have to go back to the 2016 election and President Trump’s position on the NAFTA renegotiation. 

If you did not follow the subsequent USMCA process, this might be the ah-ha moment you need to understand Trump’s strategy.

🧵 begins....
2. During the 2016 election President Trump repeatedly said he wanted to renegotiate NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Both Canada and Mexico were reluctant to open the trade agreement to revision, but ultimately President Trump had the authority and support from an election victory to do exactly that.

In order to understand the issue, you must remember President Trump, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer each agreed the NAFTA agreement was fraught with problems and was best addressed by scrapping it and creating two seperate bilateral trade agreements. One between the USA and Mexico, and one between the USA and Canada.

In the decades that preceded the 2017 push to redo the trade pact, Canada had restructured their economy to: (1) align with progressive climate change; and (2) take advantage of the NAFTA loophole.  The Canadian government did not want to reengage in a new trade agreement.

Canada has deindustrialized much of their manufacturing base to support the ‘environmental’ aspirations of their progressive politicians.  Instead, Canada became an importer of component goods where companies then assembled those imports into finished products to enter the U.S. market without tariffs.  Working with Chinese manufacturing companies, Canada exploited the NAFTA loophole.

Justin Trudeau was strongly against renegotiating NAFTA, and stated he and Chrystia Freeland would not support reopening the trade agreement. 

President Trump didn’t care about the position of Canada and was going forward.  Trudeau said he would not support it.  Trump focused on the first bilateral trade agreement with Mexico.Image
3. When the U.S. and Mexico had agreed to terms of the new trade deal and 80% of the agreement was finished, representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce informed Trudeau that his position was weak and if the U.S. and Mexico inked their deal, Canada would be shut out.

The U.S Chamber of Commerce was upset because they were kept out of all the details of the agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.  In actuality the U.S CoC was effectively blocked from any participation.

When they went to talk to the Canadians the CoC was warning them about what was likely to happen.  NAFTA would end, the U.S. and Mexico would have a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), and then Trump was likely to turn to Trudeau and say NAFTA is dead, now we need to negotiate a separate deal for U.S-Canada.

Trudeau was told a direct bilateral trade agreement between the U.S and Canada was the worst possible scenario for the Canadian government.  Canada would lose access to the NAFTA loophole and Canada’s entire economy was no longer in a position to negotiate against the size of the USA.  Trump would win every demand.

Following the warning, Trudeau went to visit Nancy Pelosi to find out if congress was likely to ratify a new bilateral trade agreement between the U.S and Mexico.  Pelosi warned Trudeau there was enough political support for the NAFTA elimination from both parties.  Yes, the bilateral trade agreement was likely to find support.Image
Read 8 tweets
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The CBS move was easy to see coming.

Larry Ellison previously said he "would never let Elon Musk fail." Ellison is Musk's financial backstop.

Musk will never stake a position against Oracle, Google or Thiel's interests.

Ellison then began moving toward TikTok. K-Street funded to assist with lobbying. Trump circle directly part of the assist (Sacks, Lutnick, Musk).

David Ellison simultaneously begins moving toward Paramount (CBS). There is no distance between father and son. Trump circle then assists (Hollywood tariffs).

Ideologically social media and boomer media target operations complete. Now watch what happens with CNN.
At the end of this construct, AI enmeshed with govt., and Social Media data, via national security and Palantir.

L Ellison wins. D Ellison wins. Musk wins. Thiel wins. Sacks wins. Ackman wins. Alex Karp wins. Bibi wins.
The Kentucky Derby is won by horses, but it’s the owners who get the prize money.
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