The French Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen said that a judicial procedure would be established to stop the dissemination of fake news, as she introduced the anti-fake news law.

"The measures that we will be working on from now until March are to create a law about 'confidence in information' that will permit us to act very quickly when a fake news story goes viral, particularly during an election period," said Nyssen in an interview with Journal du Dimanche on February 4.

"This new law will establish new responsibilities for the different media platforms, which will have to cooperate with the state and be transparent about their sponsored content. A judicial procedure will be put in place to allow rapid blocking of the dissemination of fake news once it has become manifest."

Do you want to know why the FBI continued to insist that the Nunes' memo not be declassified and released to the public? The answer is right there on page 2, (see 1b) in the discussion about what was excluded from the application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court:

The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of - and paid by - the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

I believe that the part in bold is what the FBI wanted out of the memo because it exposes the uncomfortable fact that Christopher Steele was (and had been for some time) a paid asset of the FBI. That is huge news. In other words, Steele was not a mere consultant or sub-contractor for the FBI. He was being paid to provide information/intelligence to the FBI.

There are two classes of FBI "informants." One is serving as a "criminal informant" and the other is as an "intelligence asset." Information from "criminal informants" can be used in a U.S. judicial proceeding and the informant called as a witness. Getting money under that circumstance can be problematic because the source's credibility can be impeached by defense counsel, who can argue that the testimony is purloined.

The poor judgement of the very people who are meant to be a restraining force on Trump was shown when Tillerson made a classic blunder that may have negative results for the US for years to come...

People sitting in cafes in Baghdad under the rule of Saddam Hussein used to be nervous of accidentally spilling their cup of coffee over the front page of the newspaper spread out before them. They had a good reason for their anxiety, because Iraqi newspapers at that time always carried a picture of Saddam on their front page. Defacing his features might be interpreted as an indication of disrespect or even of a critical or treasonous attitude towards the great leader.

Saddam Hussein invariably got star billing in the Iraqi press, but he would be impressed at the astonishing way in which it has become the norm in the US media for the words and doings of President Trump to monopolise the top of the news. Day after day, the three or four lead stories in The New York Times and CNN relate directly or indirectly to Trump. And, unlike Saddam, this blanket coverage is voluntary on the part of the news outlets and overwhelmingly critical.

Trump's outrageous insults and lies have succeeded in keeping the spotlight firmly on him ever since he declared his candidacy for the presidency in 2015. Whatever else he may be, he is seldom boring, unlike so many of his defeated rivals and opponents, who believed that his obvious failings must inevitably sink him.

The House Intelligence Committee has voted to publish the memo authored by the Democrats challenging last week's majority report about the FBI and DOJ abuses of surveillance powers to spy on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

On Monday evening, the committee voted unanimously to release the Democrats' memo and sent it to the White House for final approval, following the same path the document commissioned by chairman Devin Nunes (R-California) took last week. Democrats voted against that memorandum's publication.

The Nunes memo accused the senior FBI and Justice Department officials of obtaining a FISA warrant to spy on a Trump campaign staffer chiefly on the basis of the dodgy dossier authored by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign, without disclosing the political bias behind it.

"Did we catch them in the act or what?" Trump told a crowd in Ohio on Monday, hinting at the memo's fallout in Washington.

The rebuttal memo was written by ranking member Adam Schiff (D-California), who has accused Nunes of "cherry-picking" information in his document and tried to prevent its publication. Schiff's memo was approved for distribution to House members last Monday, and has attracted more interest from Republicans than Democrats so far.

National security trumps politics with the SVR head's exemption from sanctions-imposed visa restrictions.

The sanctions levied by the United States against the Russian Federation are portrayed as stone walls, intended to isolate and pinch the government of Russia and to cow them to fulfill American demands on the geopolitical and cultural (relativist) scenes.

Taken in that context, the Tuesday release of what has come to be called the "Kremlin List", naming some 210 government officials and wealthy business leaders, was regarded by some officials in the Russian Federation as very unfriendly, though no sanctions were imposed in any connection with this list.

Although some Russian officials complained about the document, President Putin was unimpressed, and simply gave one of his quiet but pointed remarks that he was "disappointed not to have been included on this list." But went on to say that the "dogs bark and then they move on," suggesting that the Russian president may be somewhat annoyed with the actions taken by his American counterparts, but they certainly do not bother him.

The Democratic Party was thrown into disarray Friday after the publication of a classified memo exposing as a factionally-motivated witch hunt the investigation by leading intelligence agencies into the Trump administration's alleged collusion with Russia.

The so-called Nunes memo, which Democratic lawmakers, US intelligence agencies and major newspapers had been seeking to block for days, alleges that the FBI under the Obama administration used discredited sources and withheld key information to initiate a wiretap of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The Democrats responded to the prospective release of the Nunes memo with undisguised hysteria, declaring that it threatened national security and was insufficiently deferential to the US intelligence agencies. Now that the memo has been released, the Democrats' claim that it contains sensitive national security secrets has been exposed as lies.

If you thought Friday's FISA abuse memo could be the sole report on FBI and Justice Department corruption, House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes may have a surprise.

According to Axios, the Committee could publish up to five more reports outlining "politically motivated "wrongdoing" across various agencies, including the FBI, the broader Justice Department, and the State Department."

Axios reports:

What we're hearing: Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of "wrongdoing." But a source on the House Intelligence Committee tells me there's no current plan to use the same extraordinary and highly controversial process they just went through, with a vote and ultimately a presidential approval to declassify sensitive information.

A Republican member briefed on Nunes' investigations told me: "There are several areas of concern where federal agencies used government resources to try to create a narrative and influence the election. Some have suggested coordination with Hillary Clinton operatives, [Sydney] Blumenthal and [Cody] Shearer, to back up the false narrative."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Monday there have been nearly "100 leaks" by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee related to the Russia investigation.

After President Trump blasted ranking Democrat Adam Schiff in a morning tweet, Nunes (R-Calif.) said Schiff is spreading a "false" narrative about him and Republicans coordinating with the White House.

"Whatever they accuse you of doing is what they're doing. We know there have been almost 100 leaks that we believe have come from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee," he said.

Nunes said Democrats have repeatedly claimed there was collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign, but "keep coming up with goose eggs" in trying to prove it. In addition, he said they have falsely accused him of leaking information.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Carter Page was on the radar of the FBI since 2013 "when Russian spies made an attempt to recruit him." However, for some undetermined reason the FBI waited until October 21st, 2016, to apply for Title I surveillance authority through the FISA court.

Additionally, according to their reporting, after FISC approval there were three more renewal applications for a total of four submissions to the FISA court. A source tells the Journal all four FBI requests were reviewed by four different judges:

[...] The memo describes the process by which the government got a secret warrant under the law that governs the secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, for Mr. Page.

[...] At least two of those renewals occurred while Mr. Trump was president and at least one was authorized by a Justice Department official he appointed. A person familiar with the matter said that four separate federal judges approved the surveillance of Mr. Page, and all of those judges were appointed by Republican presidents. (link)

If this is factually correct it raises an interesting dynamic because there are not that many FISA Court Judges in Washington DC. [FISA Court Link]

Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Air Force One Monday that President Trump's attorneys have already approved the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate the FBI and Justice Department's actions during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to White House pool reports.

Shah also said that the White House will approach further memos, including the one created by Democrats, in the same way they handled the memo authored by Devin Nunes, "which is to allow for a legal review, national security review led by the White House Counsel's Office, and then within five days the president will make a decision about declassifying it," said Shah.

Worth noting: Trump reportedly stated that he was in favor of releasing the Nunes memo before actually seeing it.

More from the gaggle:

• Will Trump approve of releasing the FISA warrant sanctioning electronic surveillance of Carter Page? Shah said again that the White House will entertain any document voted out of the House Intelligence Committee the same way.
• Trump's tweet calling Rep. Adam Schiff a leaker: "We don't really see any reason why anybody else would leak his information other than partisan political stunts by Adam Schiff and other members of the minority."