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The former Obama administration official who admitted earlier this month that her former colleagues tried to secretly gather intelligence on President Trumps team was no low-level staffer.

Evelyn Farkas was once considered the most senior policy officer for Russia within the Pentagon, and she is now apparently defending the leaks that have been coming out of the Trump White House.

Now an MSNBC analyst and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Farkas has "advised three secretaries of defense on Russia policy," according to a senior defense official quoted in Politico. She has served on the Council on Foreign Relations and the Senate Armed Services Committee, among others, and was executive director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism in 2008-2009.

In an appearance on MSNBC earlier this month, Farkas told Mika Brezinski about her role in the efforts to collect intelligence on Trumps team, and their alleged ties with Russia, in the Obama adminstrations final days.

I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill... get as much information as you can," Farkas said, adding that her big fear was "if [Trump staffers] found out how we knew what we knew about their ... the Trump staff dealing with Russians that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.

At the end of the interview, Farkas said, "we have good intelligence on Russia... that's why you have the leaking. People are worried."

Farkas was responding to a report in The New York Times suggesting the "Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking."

Farkas notably served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia under President Obama, and parted ways with the White House in 2015 after some five years amid the ongoing debate over how to respond to Russia's role in the unfolding conflict in Ukraine. Farkas reportedly supported Ukraine's request for weapons in the fight against Russian-backed rebels. The White House opted to send millions in "nonlethal" aid.

On May 6, 2014, Farkas told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Russia's actions threatened to upend the international peace "that we and our allies have worked to build since the end of the Cold War."

News of her resignation broke just over a year later, at the end of September 2015. It was on Sept. 28, 2015, that President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

At the time, a senior U.S. defense official said Farkas departure was not related to a policy dispute and that she was leaving the job after five years for an opportunity outside of government. Her resignation also came just days after Gen. John Allen announced his departure as the point person for ISIS policy at the State Department.

Farkas would go on to serve as a foreign policy advisor for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, telling the New Yorker earlier this month that she thought Clinton "got it" when it came to issues regarding Russia.

Farkas has been calling for an independent investigation into the alleged ties between Russia and the President's team for some time. In an interview in February of this year, Farkas suggested "the White House is clearly trying to hide something, or the president would have said, on day one, that he would support the investigations that began under his predecessor."

On Twitter, Farkas has been tough on House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.,former Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort, and she also appears to support efforts by Senate Democrats to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch. "Bring back filibuster 4 democracy," Farkas wrote on March 23, the day Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged the rest of his colleagues to vote no on the nomination.

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Who is Obama administration official who spilled beans? - Fox News

The Interior Departmenton Wednesdayofficially rolled back a major Obama administration coal initiative.

Secretary Ryan Zinke formally lifted the ban on new coal leasing on federal land, a policy shift that was one of the cornerstones of the climate and energy executive order that President Trump signedon Tuesday.

Interior also suspended a review of federal coal-leasing rates that the Obama administration and environmental activists had touted as a win-win for the climate and for taxpayers.

The order, while fulfilling a key campaign promise from Trump, generated swift opposition from environmentalists and public lands supporters, who immediately sued over the order lifting the coal-leasing moratorium.

The groups say the in-depth study of the coal program was justified by science and by simple economic facts.

Those facts caused the Obama administration to believe that reforms to the federal coal leasing program were warranted, and in fact they should consider whether to continue federal coal leasing altogether, said Jenny Harbine, a staff attorney at Earthjustice, representing the groups. The plaintiffs on the suit include national organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity and local groups like the Montana Environmental Information Center.

Secretary Zinke has to confront those same facts. Rather than confront them with science and reason, the Trump administration is confronting those facts with politics.

Throughout his campaign, Trump vowed to help coal miners by lifting Obama regulations on fossil fuel production.

For industry supporters, the coal moratorium was among the most egregious examples of Obama administration overreach.

The Interior Department, then led by Sally JewellSally JewellOvernight Regulation: Trump administration lifts Obama freeze on federal coal mining Trump administration ends Obama's coal-leasing freeze Interior secretary reopens federal coal mining MORE, paused the sale of new coal leases on federal land in 2016 and launched a review of the coal program.

That study looked to ensure that leasing royalty rates properly account for the climate impact of burning the coal mined on federal lands. Officials said the review was a matter of fairness for taxpayers: The rates havent gone up in three decades, even though mining on federal lands accounts for 40 percent of all coal produced in the United States.

Mining groups and Republicans slammed Obama for the coal review, saying it would hamstring an industry that has already suffered from declining demand on the open market.

Lifting the moratorium, industry supporters say, will help miners in Western states where there are large tracts of recoverable coal on public land.

Its providing some certainty, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said. These regulations continue to just compound and further exacerbate a difficult situation with low natural gas prices for the coal industry. Now theres new hope.

Opponents of Zinkes action say lifting the moratorium undermines the goals of Obamas review by allowing the payment of royalty rates that are decades out of date.

In lifting the moratorium now, theyre opening the door to new leases that will lock in the royalty rates that have already been found to be unfair to U.S. taxpayers, Harbine said.

They are locking in those really disastrous leases before theyve even completed that consideration.

Zinke vowedWednesdayto continue researching royalty and rent rates for federal coal mining. His office established a royalty policy committee to weigh in on rates for federal energy production and didnt preclude the possibility of raising those rates in the future.

I want to make sure how we value [coal] and our rents are transparent and the taxpayer is getting fair value from assets that are on public lands, Zinke said.

Anti-fossil fuel activists dispute the Trump administrations argument that his order will be a boon for coal mining.

They say Trumps order doesnt change the underlying market challenges facing the coal sector, and even Zinke acknowledged leasing decisions would have to follow demand from mining firms themselves.

There has been, I would say, not a rush in the last few years for coal leases, Zinke saidWednesday, blaming both the energy market and federal regulations.

Well see where the market goes, and well be prepared to process them as we open up the areas for lease, and well see.

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Trump administration ends Obama's coal-leasing freeze - The Hill

President Donald Trump plans to sign a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules as a bigger fight looms over rules governing the openness of the Internet, the White House said on Wednesday.

Republicans in Congress on Tuesday narrowly passed the repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections of privacy advocates.

The fight over privacy sets the stage for an even larger battle later this year over Republican plans to overturn the net neutrality provisions adopted by the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2015.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know when Trump would sign the bill.

The privacy bill would repeal regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring Internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet 's Google ( googl ) or Facebook ( fb ) .

Under the rules, Internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children's information, and web browsing history for advertising and marketing.

The reversal is a win for AT&T ( t ) , Comcast ( cmcsa ) , and Verizon Communications ( vz ) . Websites are governed by a less restrictive set of privacy rules overseen by the Federal Trade Commission.

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Republican commissioners have said the rules would unfairly give websites the ability to harvest more data than Internet service providers.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a tweet the vote was "Terrible for American ppl, great for big biz."

Republicans next plan to overturn net neutrality provisions that in 2015 reclassified broadband providers and treated them like a public utility.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, in December said he believes that net neutrality's days are numbered.

The rules bar Internet providers from obstructing or slowing down consumer access to web content and prohibit giving or selling access to speedy Internet, essentially a "fast lane" on the web's information superhighway, to certain Internet services.

Critics say the rules opened the door to potential government rate regulation, tighter oversight and would provide fewer incentives to invest billions in broadband infrastructure.

Pai told Reuters in February be backs "a free and open Internet and the only question is what regulatory framework best secures that" but has steadfastly declined to disclose his plans.

Trump has not talked as president about net neutrality but in 2014 tweeted he opposed net neutrality.

Continued here:
Trump Will Sign the Bill Repealing Obama-Era Internet Privacy Rules - Fortune

Senator Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerSenate seen as starting point for Trumps infrastructure plan Dems wait for GOP olive branch after ObamaCare debacle How Obama's White House weaponized media against Trump MORE and Congressman Adam SchiffAdam SchiffHow Obama's White House weaponized media against Trump Intel Dem: 'What's the holdup' on Yates testimony? Nunes won't reveal sources to Intel Committee members MORE have both castigated Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for his handling of the inquiry into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election. They should think twice. The issue that has recently seized Nunes is of vital importance to anyone who cares about fundamental civil liberties.

The trail that Nunes is following will inevitably lead back to a particularly significant leak. On Jan. 12, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that according to a senior U.S. government official, (General Mike) Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29.

Regardless of how the government collected on Flynn, the leak was a felony and a violation of his civil rights. But it was also a severe breach of the public trust. When I worked as an NSC staffer in the White House, 2005-2007, I read dozens of NSA surveillance reports every day. On the basis of my familiarity with this system, I strongly suspect that someone in the Obama White House blew a hole in the thin wall that prevents the government from using information collected from surveillance to destroy the lives of the citizens whose privacy it is pledged to protect.

The leaking of Flynns name was part of what can only be described as a White House campaign to hype the Russian threat and, at the same time, to depict Trump as Vladimir Putins Manchurian candidate. On Dec. 29, Obama announced sanctions against Russia as retribution for its hacking activities. From that date until Trumps inauguration, the White House aggressively pumped into the media two streams of information: one about Russian hacking; the other about Trumps Russia connection. In the hands of sympathetic reporters, the two streams blended into one.

A report that appeared the day after Obama announced the sanctions shows how. On Dec. 30, the Washington Post reported on a Russian effort to penetrate the electricity grid by hacking into a Vermont utility, Burlington Electric Department. After noting the breach, the reporters offered a senior administration official to speculate on the Russians motives. Did they seek to crash the system, or just to probe it?

This infrastructure hack, the story continued, was part of a broader hacking campaign that included intervention in the election. The story then moved to Trump: Hehas spoken highly of Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite President Obamas suggestion that the approval for hacking came from the highest levels of the Kremlin.

The national media mimicked the Posts reporting. But there was a problem: the hack never happened. It was a false alarm triggered, it eventually became clear, by Obamas hype.

On Dec. 29, the DHS and FBI published a report on Russian hacking, which showed the telltale signs of having been rushed to publication. At every level this report is a failure, said cyber security expert Robert M. Lee. It didnt do what it set out to do, and it didnt provide useful data. Theyre handing out bad information.

Especially damaging were the hundreds of Internet addresses, supposedly linked to Russian hacking, that the report contained. The FBI and DHS urged network administrators to load the addresses into their system defenses. Some of the addresses, however, belong to platforms that are widely used by the public, including Yahoo servers. At Burlington Electric, an unsuspecting network administrator dutifully loaded the addresses into the monitoring system of the utilitys network. When an employee checked his email, it registered on the system as if Russian hackers were trying to break in.

While the White House was hyping the Russia threat, elements of the press showed a sudden interest in the infamous Steele dossier, which claimed that Russian intelligence services had caught Trump in Moscow in highly compromising situations. The dossier was opposition research paid for by Trumps political opponents, and it had circulated for months among reporters covering the election. Because it was based on anonymous sources and entirely unverifiable, however, no reputable news organization had dared to touch it.

With a little help from the Obama White House, the dossier became fair game for reporters. A government leak let it be known that the intelligence community had briefed Trump on the dossier. If the president-elect was discussing it with his intelligence briefers, so the reasoning went, perhaps there was something to it after all.

By turning the dossier into hard news, that leak weaponized malicious gossip. The same is true of the Flynn-Kislyak leak. Ignatius used the leak to deepen speculation about collusion between Putin and Trump: What did Flynn say (to Kislyak), Ignatius asked, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The mere fact that Flynns conversations were being monitored deepened his appearance of guilt. If he was innocent, why was the government monitoring him?

It should not have been. He had the right to talk to in private even to a Russian ambassador. Regardless of what one thinks about him or Trump or Putin, this leak should concern anyone who believes that we must erect a firewall between the national security state and our domestic politics. The system that allowed it to happen must be reformed. At stake is a core principle of our democracy: that elected representatives control the government, and not vice versa.

Michael Doran is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., specializing in Middle East security issues. In the administration of President George W. Bush, Doran served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council. Follow him on Twitter at @Doranimated.

The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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How Obama's White House weaponized media against Trump - The Hill (blog)

By Krissah Thompson and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The first cocktail party at Barack Obama's new office last month was certainly more casual than any he had hosted in recent years. The wine bore a random assortment of labels, as if assembled potluck-style. The self-serve appetizers were set out in the narrow hallway. The host, tieless, eschewed formal remarks, as a few dozen of his old administration officials Joe Biden and former chief of staff Denis McDonough, as well as more junior ones - mingled in a minimalist wood-paneled suite that could be mistaken for a boutique law firm.

"It was a bit of a shock to the system," said Peter Velz, who used to work in the White House communications office. "You're bumping up right against the vice president as he's getting cheese from the cheese plate."

As the dinner hour drew near, the former president exited with a familiar excuse, Velz recalled: "He was joking if he doesn't get back to Michelle, he's going to be in trouble."

So far, Obama is trying to approach his post-presidency in the same way as his cocktail-hosting duties keeping things low-key, despite clamoring from Democrats for him to do more. "He is enjoying a lower profile where he can relax, reflect and enjoy his family and friends," said his former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

But the unprecedented nature of this particular post-presidency means his respite could be brief. Even while taking some downtime at a luxurious resort in the South Pacific last week, Obama put out a statement urging Republicans not to unilaterally dismantle his signature health care law.

Not only are the Obamas still young and unusually popular for a post-White House couple, their decision to stay in Washington while their younger daughter finishes high school has combined with the compulsion of the new Trump administration to keep pulling them back into the spotlight.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly invoked his predecessor to blame him for the "mess" he says he inherited: "jobs pouring out of the country," "major problems" in the Middle East and North Korea. A post-election show of camaraderie has ended; the two have not spoken since Trump took office.

Trump dropped any remaining veneer of politeness this month with a series of tweets accusing Obama without offering evidence of illegally surveilling Trump Tower during the campaign. Obama was privately irritated at the allegation, which the director of the FBI and lawmakers from both parties dismissed as unfounded.

He has attempted to stay above the fray, watching from the sidelines as Republicans have pressed to unravel a slew of his initiatives and emphasizing the need for a new generation of political leaders to step up in his place.

And yet, while other recent ex-presidents have devoted their retirement years to apolitical, do-gooder causes, Obama is gearing up to throw himself into the wonky and highly partisan issue of redistricting, with the goal of reversing the electoral declines Democrats experienced under his watch.

Both the continued interest in Obama and his desire to remain engaged in civic life place him in an unusual position for a former president. George W. Bush left office with low approval rates, retreating to Dallas to write a memoir and take up painting. Bill Clinton decamped for New York on a somewhat higher note politically but downshifted to a mission of building his family's foundation and supporting his wife's political career.

Can the Obamas put their heads down and build their ambitious presidential center while living only blocks from the White House? Or is it inevitable that he will get pulled back into the political swamp?

Happy Valentine's Day to the love of my life and favorite island mate,@BarackObama.#valentinespic.twitter.com/n3tEmSAJRT

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In February, Obama attended a Broadway performance of Arthur Miller's "The Price" along with his older daughter, Malia, and Jarrett. They slipped into the theater after the lights went down and left before they came up, most of the audience unaware of his presence until a New York Times reporter sitting in front of him tweeted about it. By the time Obama left, a crowd had gathered outside.

Paparazzi wait outside of the D.C. SoulCycle exercise studio that Michelle Obama frequents, though she clearly does not appear interested in being photographed.

"They are still decompressing from an extremely intense period. It actually started not just eight years ago but really since his 2004 convention speech and it never let up," said a former senior West Wing staffer. "It's like 12 years of extremely intense stress, political activity, scrutiny, responsibility as a national leader, and for the first lady as the surrogate in chief. ... That's been a big load for the both of them."

To escape the spotlight, the Obamas have taken multiple vacations since leaving the White House to Palm Springs, the Caribbean and Hawaii. After meeting with tech executives about his presidential center recently, Obama headed to Oahu, where he golfed with friends and dined at Buzz's Lanikai steakhouse in Kailua.

Three days later he jetted off in a Gulfstream G550 to Tetiaroa, a South Pacific island once owned by Marlon Brando. He plans an extended stay there to start writing his White House memoir, according to a person familiar with his plans who asked for anonymity to discuss them.

His whereabouts have been obsessively scrutinized. The conservative Independent Journal Review hinted at some murky connection between Obama's Oahu visit and a Hawaii federal court ruling putting a temporary stay on Trump's latest travel ban; the conspiratorial story was later retracted. At a GOP dinner, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., declared that Obama stayed in Washington "to run the shadow government that is going to totally upset the new agenda." (Kelly later played down his claim.)

Trump, meanwhile, has kept his distance. Before he took office, the new president said he intended to seek Obama's counsel in the future, but he has not. Trump called once to thank Obama for the letter left in his desk, a pleasant tradition among presidents, but Obama was traveling at the time, according to an individual familiar with the exchange. When Obama returned the call, Trump conveyed his thanks through an aide but said there was no need to get Obama on the phone.

Few believe the Obamas plan to stay in Washington beyond their daughter Sasha's 2019 graduation from Sidwell Friends School. "People admire and respect the decision that Barack and Michelle Obama made as parents to minimize the disruption to their children," former vice president Al Gore told The Washington Post. "When I left my job in the White House, my kids were out of high school. If they had still been in grade school or high school, I might have well made the decision to stay in the city."

When Obama has been in town, he has not been much of a public presence. Both he and the former first lady have entertained friends in their Kalorama home, newly redecorated to suit their modern style; and both frequently go into in their new West End office space.

About 15 staffers work there, with the framed flag that the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden presented to the former president displayed in the entryway. One floor of the new office houses aides, including Jarrett, who are helping to build Obama's foundation, which is headquartered in Chicago.

For now, Obama is delegating political work to associates - notably former attorney general Eric Holder, whom he has tapped to lead the redistricting project that aims to help Democrats redraw legislative maps that many see as tilted toward the GOP. He also endorsed Tom Perez, his former secretary of labor, in a successful bid to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. His first major speech as a private citizen will come in May, where he will be awarded a Medal of Courage as part of a celebration of President John F. Kennedy's centennial.

Michelle Obama, who has a team of four staffers in the office, is spending more time than her husband in Washington, working on her own post-White House book while remaining focused on the home front.

"She's got one daughter to get off to college, another is a (sophomore) in high school. All of that comes first," said Tina Tchen, her White House chief of staff. "Now she will also be working on the book and still keeping up her engagement with the community as she always has."

Her first forays back into public have been visits to D.C. public schools in predominantly minority neighborhoods. These visits have drawn extra attention, perhaps because Melania Trump has held very few public events so far.

Michelle Obama marked International Women's Day this month by visiting the Cardozo Education Campus and praising its program for recent immigrants. Without mentioning Trump by name, it seemed to be a swipe at his immigration policies.

"She's deliberate. She likes to be strategic," said Jocelyn Frye, who attended Harvard Law with the former first lady and served as her first White House policy director. "She doesn't just do stuff by the seat of her pants."

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Unlike other former first couples, the Obamas do not necessarily have to take to a podium to make a statement. They know their every public movement is plumbed for meaning.

Caught in glimpses over the past few weeks, they appeared relatively rested and refreshed, even as they continue to decompress.

They joined their close friends Anita Blanchard and Marty Nesbitt at the National Gallery of Art to see an exhibit of Chicago artist Theaster Gates's unique work - installations constructed from pieces of demolished buildings from African American communities.

Gallery director Earl "Rusty" Powell Powell described it as a "casual Sunday afternoon visit" but someone alerted the Associated Press, which stationed a photographer outside to capture them as they emerged. The former president's leather jacket and dark-washed blue jeans drew much approval from outlets that had showered the Obamas with attention for years: "Chic and serene," opined a Vogue writer.

Obama was similarly "relaxed and calm" when he dropped in on a Chicago meeting with community organizers planning his future presidential library, according to participant Torrey Barrett.

"When he saw me, it wasn't a traditional handshake," said Barrett, founder and CEO of the KLEO Community Family Life Center, which sits near the library site. "It was actually a dap, where we shook hands and patted on the back at the same time. ... He said he and Michelle's main priority now is to make sure the library happens."

When the group posed for a photo with Obama, the Rev. Richard Tolliver, who has known him since his days in the Illinois legislature, stood to his old friend's right.

"I had my arm around his back and he had his arm around mine," Tolliver recalled. "I reminded him that the last time I tried to hug him, the Secret Service snatched my arm away. We laughed. He didn't come off as stiff and formal, projecting the authority of his former office."

But even in retirement, Obama was in a hurry. After 15 minutes, he rushed off to another engagement.

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2 months out of office, Barack Obama is having a post-presidency like no other - News Chief