Category: Russiagate

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Roger Simon;

[The] current scandal is far, far worse than Watergate, which, bad as it was, was the coverup of a completely unnecessary buffoon-like break-in during an election that was already won in a landslide. What is being exposed now is an attempt by our highest law enforcement agency working in concert with our intelligence agencies and, evidently, the blessing of the former administration itself to block the candidate of the opposing party, even to defraud and spy on him, that is to, as others have said, “set him up.” And then, if they were unsuccessful, make it impossible for him to govern. In addition, in all probability, the same players conspired to make certain Hillary Clinton was not indicted for a crime for which virtually any other American would have done jail time.

h/t Warren K Smith

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Via Glenn Reynolds;

The question Mr. Nunes’s committee seems to be investigating is what other moments—if any—were engineered in the spring, summer or fall of 2016 to cast suspicion on Team Trump. The conservative press has produced some intriguing stories about a handful of odd invitations and meetings that were arranged for Messrs. Page and Papadopoulos starting in the spring—all emanating from the United Kingdom. On one hand, that country is home to the well-connected Mr. Steele, which could mean the political actors with whom he was working were involved. On the other hand, the Justice Department has admitted it was spying on both men, which could mean government was involved. Or maybe . . . both.

 

Which brings us to timing. It’s long been known that Mr. Steele went to the FBI in early July to talk about the dossier, and that’s the first known intersection of the strands. But given the oddity and timing of those U.K. interactions concerning Messrs. Page and Papadopoulos, and given the history of some of the people involved in arranging them, some wonder if the two strands were converging earlier than anyone has admitted. The Intelligence Committee subpoena is designed to sort all this out: Who was pulling the strings, and what was the goal? Information? Or entrapment?

More, from Mollie Hemingway…

 It’s reasonable to assume that much of the new information in the New York Times report relates to leakers’ fears about information that will be coming out in the inspector general report.

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Maybe they were talking about a different “insurance policy” …

The Department of Justice lost its latest battle with Congress Thursday when it allowed House Intelligence Committee members to view classified documents about a top-secret intelligence source that was part of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. Even without official confirmation of that source’s name, the news so far holds some stunning implications.

More…

I don’t think the FBI is being straight. I’m speculating, of course, but I think it’s going to turn out that they were spying on Trump from surprisingly early on, and that they didn’t expect him to win, and that when he did win, the Russian “collusion” thing was hyped up as a smokescreen.

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Explosives require careful handling. Sometimes they blow up in your face.

Give it credit, the Washington apparat quite imaginatively pulled out all the stops: implanting Obama holdover appointees all over the Trump executive branch; filing lawsuits and judge shopping; organizing the Resistance; pursuing impeachment writs; warping the FISA courts; weaponizing the DOJ and FBI; attempting to disrupt the Electoral College; angling for enactment of the 25th Amendment or the emoluments clause; and unleashing Hollywood celebrities, Silicon Valley, and many in Wall Street to suffocate the Trump presidency in its infancy.

Related:  Mueller’s Tough Week in Court

 

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

This is very good.

An Updated Review of Details Within Lisa Page and Peter Strzok Text Messaging…

Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr and James Baker have all been clearly identified by investigative releases as participating in gross misconduct at the DOJ and FBI.  All four of them have been removed from their responsibilities, yet each of them remains employed within the FBI or DOJ.

It is highly likely all four of them are cooperating with INSD and OIG investigators.

Related: Three Scary FBI Scandal Factors You Must Know

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

I previously wrote that President Donald Trump has the curious skill of bringing out the worst in his critics.  In the last two weeks, two of Trump’s greatest critics have not only faced their own investigations into leaks by the Inspector General (and McCabe is now the subject of a criminal referral for prosecution), they are increasingly at odds with one another. It is clear that either Comey or McCabe is offering a false account of leaks from the Justice Department.  With McCabe now promising defamation lawsuits and the possibility of a prosecution, this could get much worse before it gets better.

Update:

@SaraCarterDC BREAKING: DOJ will make the 6 months of missing texts that were eventually located by IG between Strzok and Page available to Congress sometime tonight or tomorrow, according to sources…developing

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

THREAD.

More at Daily Beast: Rudy Giuliani joins Trump’s personal legal team

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Related:

Nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress on Wednesday sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department and FBI seeking an investigation of former bureau boss James Comey, his deputy Andrew McCabe, ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton in connection with 2016 campaign controversies.

 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions already announced last month he had assigned a federal prosecutor to review some of those broader issues, while resisting calls for a second special counsel. But the referral represents an escalation of Republican pressure to probe top Democrats and Trump critics.

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

THREAD.

And this too.

And finally,  there’s this:   Loretta Lynch drops the hammer on James Comey. 

 

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

“Boom”. And on the same day poor Jim Comey launches his book tour…

@TheLastRefuge2Worth noting the IG report on McCabe clearly goes out of the way to inform reader that McCabe was audio recorded during his false statements to FBI investigators.

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Not just the botched anthrax investigation — there’s more in Mueller’s long history;

When did you find out that the FBI office in Boston was in the business of framing innocent men on behalf of their serial-­killing, cocaine-dealing underworld paymasters? And what exactly did you do about it when you ran that agency for eight years?”

 

Related:

When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal

Related: Former Trump National Security Council official Ezra Cohen-Watnick is joining the Department of Justice as a national security adviser to Attorney General Jeff Sessions

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