In the latest sign of how today’s politics is dividing support for major Washington institutions, the latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows more people than not view the FBI as the punishing political arm of President Joe Biden.
Picking up on a comment from former Trump adviser Roger Stone, long caught in the wandering FBI Russia probe, the pollster found that likely voters, by a 46%-38% margin, believe “there is a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.”
In discussing the Jan. 6 probe and the FBI’s investigation of whistleblower Project Veritas, Stone used that phrase.
“Here Comes The Limited Hangout”
Since Watergate, conventional Washington wisdom holds that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) tasked former intelligence operatives to break into Democratic National Committee headquarters to wiretap the opposition. To cover up his involvement in the Watergate break-in, Nixon lied about what he knew and when he knew it, resulting in his resignation from office.
Whether Hillary Clinton was aware of the crimes committed between 2016 and 2020 to further her political ambitions is a question that may never be answered. What has been proved beyond any shadow of doubt by the U.S. Justice Department over the past few months is that top operatives in her 2016 campaign used concocted falsehoods to leverage active law enforcement officials who in turn used U.S. government programs and resources to spy on the Trump campaign — a violation of American political norms whose only real parallel is Watergate. We also know that under the pretext of “investigating collusion,” at least 40 Obama officials, including then-Vice President Joe Biden, spied on the Trump team. There is circumstantial evidence that Barack Obama knew what was going on, but since, miraculously, no one has ever publicly asked him about Russiagate, not even once, he hasn’t had the opportunity to either lie or come clean.
But with Trump now safely out of office, it appears that the cover-up is now cracking wide open. […]
Now the media is scrambling to distance itself from the dossier, with the New York Times “explaining” that just because the prestige press poisoned the public sphere with Clinton-funded smears doesn’t mean that the larger Russiagate story they peddled is also fake. That is, the press has taken another page from the Watergate playbook. As that scandal started to unfold, Nixon’s White House aides discussed strategies to deal with the looming disaster. They talked about a standard spy service ploy called a “limited hangout.” When it’s no longer possible to sustain a phony cover story, dangle some partial truths in public and acknowledge some small, albeit honest, miscues in order to keep the most damning parts of the truth under wraps. Just as this strategy failed to protect Richard Nixon and his men, chances are it won’t help culpable reporters and news organizations avoid responsibility for their active role in the country’s biggest political crime of the past half-century. But it does show quite plainly what the American press has become.
Grab a coffee. It’s first rate.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
It’s an issue within the Trump operation that we have highlighted for years {Go Deep}. The media reports on media reports of media reports. Now, the collective system of the Washington Post writing about a New York Times article that is based on CNN reporting (using anonymous planted leaks from the DOJ/FBI) starts to collapse in reverse. CNN does a stealth deletion, causing the New York Times to stealth edit, creating a need for the Washington Post to rewrite their participation.
We asked years ago: “Think about a New York Times, CNN or Washington Post journalist now having to accept that every column inch they have written in the past [four years] was built upon a foundation of lies. Do we really think such a catastrophic level of flawed ideology could ever reconstitute into genuine reporting of fact-based information?” Of course not.
These guys are so corrupt, and they participated so completely in the willful distribution of false information, they are beyond redemption. They don’t even attempt to apologize, admit their errors or accept responsibility. Instead, they just start deleting the trail of their involvement. Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along. […]
So Christopher Steele was meeting with journalists, the journalists were writing articles; the FBI was leaking to media and simultaneously citing those same articles as underlying evidence to support their counterintelligence investigations; and all of this was used to validate the investigative documents the FBI was receiving from Christopher Steele; who, along with the leaking FBI officials was also the source of the media articles.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Another arrest in the Clinton-FBI Russiagate conspiracy;
The office of Special Counsel John Durham has confirmed that Igor Danchenko, a key source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele, has been arrested. This is the third arrest by Durham who is moving toward the prosecution stage of his investigation into the origins of the Russian collusion scandal. Durham is variously described as either painfully methodical or positively glacial as a prosecutor. But he is widely credited with being a dogged and absolutely apolitical prosecutor. Danchenko’s arrest is a seismic development and confirmed Durham is far from done with his investigation.
Another Person Of Interest: Woman Who Testified Against Trump Also Introduced Authors of Fake Russian ‘Dossier’ to Each Other. Gee, What Are the Odds … ?
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal.
The special counsel tasked with chasing down the origins of the Russia collusion conspiracy perpetrated against candidate and President Donald Trump reportedly has issued more criminal indictments in federal court. […]
Techno Fog has been connecting dots between this additional reported indictment and the reporting from the New York Times alleging that “Tech Executive-1” is Rodney Joffe, who’s also a Perkins Coie client. Joffe tried to frame Trump with DNS data he allegedly lifted from the Defense Department.
Ready to get into the weeds a bit?
Good.
Reporter Chuck Ross of the Washington Free Beacon opined on Twitter that these new additional indictments, which are still under wraps, could explain why another Democrat attorney, Marc Elias, quit Perkins Coie right before Sussman’s indictment prompted his ouster from the same law firm.
Elias is the Clinton lawyer who hired Fusion GPS, which then hired former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, to create “evidence” of the Russia collusion scandal “dossier” and shop it to reporters and intelligence operatives.
Some believe the plan to smear Trump with the fake Russia scandal was hatched to distract from the Hillary Clinton email and server scandal, which was huge in the months leading to the election. Clinton deleted thousands of emails against the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s legal order to preserve them. Clinton destroyed the emails and used a service to “bleach bit” her computers and server.
And don’t forget the alleged DNC server “hack,” which also fueled the Russia collusion story line. Former Perkins Coie attorney Sussmann was also the attorney for the company CrowdStrike, which was brought in by Sussmann to check the DNC servers. The same day the company was hired to look at the DNC servers, CrowdStrike proclaimed the Russians were responsible. The FBI, which was never allowed to look at the computers at the DNC, took their word for it.
At Substack, Techno Fog provides some additional background on what surely looks like a conspiracy.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Never-Trumper Ed Morrissey, via Instapundit;
Over the weekend, I spoke with a senior Trump administration official with access to intelligence regarding the significance of the Sussmann indictment. He pointed to House Intelligence Committee transcripts declassified in a fight between the White House and Adam Schiff last year. Pay attention to those transcripts, the former official advised, because those made it clear that the FBI knew the Alfa Bank theory was nonsense — but used it to push forward nonetheless on the Russia-collusion theory. That was one reason Schiff tried to stop declassification of the transcripts, and those are the reason that Durham could get the grand jury indictment on Sussmann at all. Some of the agents that worked with Sussmann remain in the bureau, he also said, and that will go to McCarthy’s larger point about the “deep state” and the effort to push Trump out of office. There may also be a broader scope involving former officials in the Obama administration regarding politicization of intelligence, a few of whom have returned in the Biden administration — notably in the State Department. Stay tuned.
Clearly, more is happening than a mop-up for Durham.
More: Jonathan Turley thinks one person in the White House should be very, very worried.
Another good summary by Glenn Greenwald here.
The lie that Sussman allegedly told the FBI occurred in the context of his mid-2016 attempt to spread a completely fictitious story: that there was a “secret server” discovered by unnamed internet experts that allowed the Trump organization to communicate with Russia-based Alfa Bank. In the context of the 2016 election, in which the Clinton campaign had elevated Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin to center stage, this secret communication channel was peddled by Sussman — both to the FBI and to Clinton-friendly journalists — as smoking-gun proof of nefarious activities between Trump and the Russians. Less than two months prior to the 2016 election, Sussman secured a meeting at the FBI’s headquarters with the Bureau’s top lawyer, James Baker, and provided him data which he claimed proved this communication channel.
It was in the course of trying to lure the FBI into investigating this scam conspiracy theory when Sussman allegedly lied to Baker, by concealing the fact — outright denying — that he was peddling the story in his role as lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign as well as a lawyer for a “tech executive” hoping to be appointed as the top cybersecurity official in the soon-to-be-inaugurated Clinton administration. Sussman’s claims that he was just acting as a concerned private citizen were negated by numerous documents obtained by Durham’s investigation, including billing records where he charged the Clinton campaign for his work in trying to disseminate this story, including his meeting with Baker at FBI’s headquarters.
Related: The FBI’s Incurable Rot
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Jonathan Turley, for The Hill;
The 26-page indictment of former cybersecurity attorney and Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann by special counsel John Durham is as detailed as it is damning on the alleged effort to push a false Russia collusion claim before the 2016 presidential campaign. One line, however, seems to reverberate for those of us who have followed this scandal for years now: “You do realize that we will have to expose every trick we have in our bag.”
That warning from an unnamed “university researcher” captures the most fascinating aspect of the indictment in describing a type of Nixonian dirty tricks operation run by — or at least billed to — the Clinton campaign. With Nixon, his personal attorney and the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) paid for operatives to engage in disruptive and ultimately criminal conduct targeting his opponents. With Clinton, the indictment and prior disclosures suggest that Clinton campaign lawyers at the law firm of Perkins Coie helped organize an effort to spread Russia collusion stories and trigger an investigation.
Durham accuses Sussmann of lying to the general counsel of the FBI in September 2016 when Sussmann delivered documents and data to the FBI supposedly supporting a claim that Russia’s Alpha Bank was used as a direct conduit between former President Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin. According to Durham, Sussman told the FBI general counsel that he was not delivering the information on behalf of any client. The indictment not only details multiple billings to the Clinton campaign as the data was collected and the documents created; it claims Sussman billed the campaign for the actual meeting with the FBI. At the time, Perkins Coie attorney Marc Elias was general counsel for the Clinton campaign. Both men have since left the firm.
The big trick in 2016 was the general effort to create a Russia collusion scandal with the help of Justice Department insiders and an eager, enabling media.
It was only last October, for instance, that we learned that then-President Obama was briefed by his CIA director, John Brennan, on an intelligence report that Clinton planned to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” That was on July 28, 2016 — three days before the Russia investigation was initiated.
On a local note, I’ve heard nothing about this indictment on Rawlco news-talk radio, despite their moment-by-moment coverage of the Russian collusion hoax at the time. But maybe they haven’t heard.
Help them out by emailing the story to their alleged news department here. Click early, click often.
Russia, Russia, Russia
The Biden administration on Thursday walked back one of the biggest bombshell campaign-season revelations of last year: that the Russian government had put bounties on the heads of US troops in Afghanistan.
Oh, how convenient.
A senior official told The Daily Beast that the administration had only “low to moderate” confidence in a story Team Biden was more than happy to use against former President Donald Trump for months. Candidate Joe Biden cited the Russian bounties on the campaign trail, calling Trump’s failure to act a “dereliction of duty.” […]
The easy marks who fell for it on the Republican side are a little harder to forgive, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. Dan Crenshaw and the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul.
“We need answers,” Crenshaw said at the time, retweeting Liz Cheney.
McCaul, during the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the bounties story, admitted that the intelligence community was still doing a “deep dive” but nevertheless treated the allegation as if it was true, calling for further sanctions against Moscow and asking if the likely untrue story called into question the good-faith negotiating of the Taliban.
One more detail is worth considering here: The New York Times reported days after its initial story that the bounties intelligence had been inserted into President Trump’s written briefing on Feb. 27. Two days later, the peace deal with the Taliban was signed.
Given the Biden administration’s disavowal, this now looks like an effort to sabotage the peace process. The most charitable reading is someone let low-quality intelligence rise up the chain of command much too quickly. At worst, someone put it in there intending to damage Trump. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Related: How To Start A War
Biden vs Putin
This sounds fun!
Russian President Vladimir Putin challenged President Biden to an on-air conversation to discuss Biden’s latest warning that Putin would “pay a price,” following a report containing evidence of attempted Russian-interference in the 2020 election.
“I’ve just thought of this now,” Putin told a reporter in Moscow Thursday. “I want to invite President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it actually live. But with no delays, directly in an open, direct discussion.”
Although it looks like he might have to get in line.
Elections have consequences. Fortified elections more so.
Update- Things are escalating.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Last nail in the coverup coffin: Garland refuses to tell Senate if he will continue Special Counsel Durham’s investigation
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
And here’s the proof: Government Agent Whose Altered Email Enabled the Russia Hoax Won’t Spend a Day in Jail or Pay Any Fine
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
For the past year, defenders of the FBI have consistently downplayed the significance of an FBI staff lawyer falsifying evidence in the government’s investigation into Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia. They argue Kevin Clinesmith’s crime of altering a CIA document to obscure the fact that former Trump campaign aide Carter Page worked for U.S., not Russian, intelligence was a rare lapse in judgment by an overworked bureaucrat. It was not, his apologists say, part of any broader conspiracy to conceal exculpatory information from surveillance court judges, who never learned of Page’s history with the CIA before approving FBI warrants to wiretap him as a suspected Russian agent.
But such explanations are challenged by new revelations from court papers filed in the case, which some civil libertarians call the most egregious violation and abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) since it was enacted more than 40 years ago.
The little-noticed documents, which include never-before-seen exhibits, were submitted by Special Counsel John Durham and lawyers for Page, who has been granted time to address the court as a victim when it sentences Clinesmith Jan. 29 as part of a plea agreement. Page and his attorneys argue that the FBI obtained his electronic communications, both written and oral, based on fraudulent warrants in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. He is suing Clinesmith and the FBI for $75 million in damages.
The court filings reveal, among other things, that Clinesmith knew much earlier than has been reported about Page’s cooperation with the U.S. government, and was not alone in knowing that he had provided information on the Russians to the CIA — or in covering up that knowledge.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
The real foreign election interference: Christopher Steele’s 2017 confession to the FBI
Dossier author Christopher Steele admitted to the FBI that he leaked the Russia collusion story during the height of the 2016 election to help Hillary Clinton overcome her lingering email scandal and because he believed Donald Trump’s election would be bad for U.S. relations with his home country of Britain, according to documents declassified by the president in his final full day in office.
The FBI report of an interview agents conducted with Steele in September 2017, nearly a year after he had been terminated as an informant, provided explosive information about his motives in working simultaneously for the FBI and the opposition research firm for Clinton’s campaign. The document was obtained by Just the News and at times reads like a confession from the now-infamous former MI6 agent and author of the anti-Trump dossier.
Steele told agents that then-FBI Director James Comey’s decision to reopen the Clinton email investigation in fall of 2016 became his tipping point for leaking the anti-Trump collusion research that his company Orbis Intelligence had gathered and given to the FBI.
Yes, we will continue to follow this story as the facts are unraveled. It’s the fundamental purpose of the blogosphere — to help document that which the mainstream refuses to.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Report President Trump Schedules Extensive Declassification Prior To Departure – Chris Steele Interview Likely Included
According to the London Financial Times, the former MI6 intelligence operative was willing to talk to U.S. investigators regarding his contact with corrupt DOJ and FBI officials during the 2016 campaign and seditious aftermath. It appears a key part of the declassification “trove” will be records from these Steele statements to Durham investigators. […]
Steele’s testimony could be a key issue to expose corruption within the FBI that was previously identified by Senator Chuck Grassley. The FBI said Christopher Steele never told them he was shopping his dossier to the media; however, Christopher Steele told a British court the FBI was fully aware of all his media contacts, and they used the dossier anyway.
Christopher Steele had no motive to lie to the FBI about his media contacts; the FBI had tons of motive to lie about their knowing Steele talked to the media. It’s just common sense.
Christopher Steele wasn’t meeting in secret with the media, it was well known. He was traveling around to meet them in August and September 2016. Why would he lie to the FBI about such transparently well known action in October? Answer: He wouldn’t.
Update: Chairman Graham released 11 transcripts of interviews conducted during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry into the origins and aftermath of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.
Katie Pavich at Townhall has a summary.
When The FBI Does It, Trump Is Going To Make Damned Sure Everyone Knows It
Washington Post reports that Devin Nunes is expected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Monday, and Jim Jordan next week.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Barr has resigned. It seems, amicably.
Barr touted Trump’s achievements, saying that he is “proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people.” He also referenced the president’s fight against the Democrats’ Russiagate hoax.
“The nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia,” he wrote. “Few could have weathered these attacks, much less forge ahead with a positive program for the country.”
More: Durham Expands Russian Collusion Hoax Investigation
When The FBI Does it, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
FBI Has Files From Seth Rich’s Laptop Computer;
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has files from the laptop computer belonging to Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) employee who was killed in 2016, according to a new email.
The bureau also has tens of thousands of documents mentioning Rich.
The FBI originally claimed they’d searched but couldn’t find any.
The first sign that the testimony was erroneous came earlier this year when the nonprofit watchdog Judicial Watch received emails exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok and Department of Justice lawyer Lisa Page. The production included several emails mentioning Rich.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
The Flynn case is finally over. Sullivan should be removed from the bench.
NEW #FLYNN More than 7 months after DOJ motion to dismiss @GenFlynn + a more recent FULL pardon from POTUS, Judge Sullivan dismissed case as “moot” + 43 page opinion @ClareHymes22 @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/eEz4mXja5L
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) December 8, 2020
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
What to make of this?
Whoa…
Declassified texts to FBI's Jen Boone (oversaw Carter Page investigation):
"so on Friday there were a bunch of DNC emails posted on Wikileaks, that was our guys"
"That was our guys" 🤔 pic.twitter.com/FbMKQh7QrG
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) December 3, 2020
More: Grassley and Johnson release a trove of FBI/DOJ/State Dept documents related to Crossfire Hurricane, the dossier, etc.
They may be referencing the Awan IT scammers who were working for Wasserman-Schultz.