Category: Russiagate

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 7 Comments

With a cloth, presumeably;

Cristopher Steele told a British court last month that he no longer has documents and other information from his meetings with the main source for his Trump dossier, suggesting that the former British spy has no way of backing up his side in a dispute with the Justice Department’s inspector general (IG), according to a deposition transcript obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
 
Steele also told the court that his communications regarding the dossier, including with Fusion GPS, were “wiped” in December 2016 and January 2017, the transcript shows.

Related: “We need ALL of their names to scrub, and we should give them ours for the same purpose,” Strzok emailed Page on Nov. 10, 2016

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 13 Comments

Roger Simon;

Let’s hope for more reasons than one the CCP virus is no longer too heavily with us this summer because America is going to need its full attention, or what’s left of it, for what’s coming down the pike—the Durham Report and all that entails.
 
That means, of course, the investigation of how and why the Mueller/Russia probe happened and whether anyone will be prosecuted for it.
 
Many have been skeptical that any of the possible guilty parties in this situation would be punished, but the tide toward prosecution may be turning.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 17 Comments

Catherine_Herridge; (tweets collated)

#FISA Developing @CBSNews obtains April 2 letter responding to @SenRonJohnson and @ChuckGrassley over four key footnotes IG Horowitz FISA report. Three declassified with minimal redactions, and fourth footnote blacked out citing “unique and significant concerns.
 
Specifically, the redacted information refers to information received by a member of the Crossfire Hurricane team regarding possible previous attempts by a foreign government to penetrate and research a company or individuals associated with Christopher Steele.”
 
READ footnote 350 FBI effort to verify Steele Dossier “The (redacted) stated that it did not have high confidence in this subset of Steele’s reporting and ASSESSED that the referenced subset was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate US foreign relations”

Meaning: FBI Knew Before Mueller Probe That Hillary’s Steele Dossier Was Russian Disinformation

Update: John Solomon Confirms – Witnesses subpoenaed for Durham Spygate Grand Jury (h/t rd)

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 25 Comments

“I think the president has every right to be frustrated, because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history. Without any basis uh, they, uh, they started this investigation of his campaign; and even more concerning actually, is what happened after the campaign; a whole pattern of events while he was President. uh, So I, to sabotage the presidency; and I think that, uh, or at least had the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”

Transcript (link fixed, sorry!)

Related:

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 29 Comments

Friday afternoon pandemic dump.

Update: President Trump Removes Coup Plotter ICIG Michael Atkinson – Effective 30 Days From Today

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 9 Comments

They couldn’t help themselves. It was in their nature.

The Justice Department inspector general said it does “not have confidence” in the FBI’s FISA application process following an audit that found the Bureau was not sufficiently transparent with the court in 29 applications from 2014 to 2019, all of which included “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts.”
 
Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December which found that the FBI included “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications and many errors in the Woods Procedures” during its Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign. After releasing the report, Horowitz said that he would conduct a further investigation to see if the errors identified in the Page application were widespread.
 
“The concern is that this is such a high-profile, important case. If it happened here, is this indicative of a wider problem — and we will only know that when we complete our audit — or is it isolated to this event?” Horowitz told lawmakers during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. “Obviously, we need to do the work to understand that.”
 
Horowitz’s office said in a report released Tuesday that of the 29 applications — all of which involved U.S. citizens – that were pulled from “8 FBI field offices of varying sizes,” the FBI could not find Woods Files for four of the applications, while the other 25 all had “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts.”
 
“While our review of these issues and follow-up with case agents is still ongoing—and we have not made materiality judgments for these or other errors or concerns we identified—at this time we have identified an average of about 20 issues per application reviewed, with a high of approximately 65 issues in one application and less than 5 issues in another application,” the report reveals.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 7 Comments

This suggests the dam is about to break: The New York Times admitted on Thursday that the Obama administration deployed multiple spies against the Trump campaign in 2016, confirming recent comments by Attorney General William Barr that ‘spying did occur’ during the campaign. (Update — old article. I’m surprised it’s the first time I’ve seen it. )

This is new, however.

The Justice Department Inspector watchdog referred FBI agent Stephen Somma for disciplinary review after an investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses.
 
Somma, a counterintelligence investigator in the FBI’s New York field office, was identified only as “Case Agent 1″ in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, released in December. Sources told the New York Times that Somma is that official. The FBI did not comment for the report.
 
Somma was “primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions” during the process of obtaining FISA warrants to wiretap Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017, according to Horowitz. Horowitz confirmed the FBI relied heavily upon British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier when pursuing the secret surveillance.
 
The DOJ watchdog found 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Page, who was under suspicion of being an agent for Russia. He was never charged with any wrongdoing.

Related: What a difference a new acting Director of National Intelligence makes.

When the FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal.

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 16 Comments

Knowing what we know now…

He probably has a point.

In 2008, then-FBI Director Mueller authorized a totally unnecessary and ruthless predawn raid on then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was arrested in front of his two terrified young daughters. He supposedly conspired pay-to-play schemes to fill then-President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. The arrest and subsequent trial made national headlines. The fame-hungry federal prosecutor in the case? None other than Comey’s best friend, Fitzgerald.
 
[…]
 
As Blagojevich’s lawyers wrote in their appeal to the Supreme Court, in McCormick v. United States, it was decided that “extortion based on soliciting campaign contributions requires a quid pro quo in the explicit promise or undertaking by a public official.” In Evans v. United States, the Supreme Court “blurred the relative clarity of the McCormick ruling.” And because of these two rulings, there is confusion at the lower courts.
 
Former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, once a rising star in the Republican Party, was found guilty of accepting more than $130,000 in gifts from a donor-friend who needed the governor’s office and influence to help to save his struggling company. The gifts made national headlines, with pictures of McDonnell driving around in a Ferrari, a $20,000 shopping spree in New York, and a $6,000 Rolex. In the end, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
 
Time spent in prison? Zero days.
 
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., accepted donations and gifts from his wealthy friend Salomon Melgen in exchange for political influence. Melgen provided Menendez with trips on private jets, hotel rooms, and contributed nearly $75,000 to his political campaign. In the end, his trial concluded with a hung jury, and the Justice Department then filed to dismiss all remaining charges. And last Thursday, the Senate Ethics Committee “severely admonished” the senator for accepting gifts over a six-year period.
 
Time spent in prison? Zero days.
 
Unlike the cases of McDonnell and Menendez, Blagojevich never accepted lavish gifts, flew on private jets, took luxurious vacations, drove around in a Ferrari, or wore Rolexes in exchange for his political influence. And yet he is serving 14 years in prison as a first-time offender.

I wonder what the hell he knew about Obama.

Related.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 11 Comments

The Roger Stone case is coming apart at the seams.

Bookmark March 31st: … this is the biggest briar patch in recent congressional history & AG Barr is one big rabbit proclaiming: ‘don’t throw me in’.

Update.

@Barnes_Law — it appears the #RogerStone judge already denied a new trial despite evidence of the juror bias, demanded the motions be filed under seal to keep key details hidden from the public, and implicitly threatened Stone with prison if he talked about it.

More at Fox News;

Meanwhile, it emerged that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had denied a defense request to strike a potential juror who was Obama-era press official with admitted anti-Trump views — and whose husband worked at the same Justice Department division that handled the probe leading to Stone’s arrest. And, another Stone juror, Seth Cousins, donated to former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke and other progressive causes, federal election records reviewed by Fox News show.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 10 Comments

Sometimes you drain the swamp. Sometimes the swamp drains itself.

Related: Flynn sentencing delayed (again)

Update.

Make haste, lay waste.

Another update. Prosecutors in charge of the federal case against Roger Stone may have lied to the Department of Justice about their lengthy prison sentence recommendation for Stone, according to a new report.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 20 Comments

Gen.Michael Flynn has withdrawn his guilty plea.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday denied lying to the FBI during a Jan. 24, 2017, White House meeting, and said he regrets pleading guilty in the special counsel’s probe.
 
“I am innocent of this crime, and I request to withdraw my guilty plea,” Flynn said in a declaration submitted Wednesday in his case.

Read the Flynn Declaration here.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 34 Comments

WSJ;

The Justice Department now believes it should have discontinued its secret surveillance of one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page far earlier than it did, according to a new court filing unsealed Thursday.
 
The Justice Department made that determination in a December letter to the secret court that oversees surveillance of suspected foreign spies, acknowledging it may have lacked probable cause to continue wiretapping in the last two of the four surveillance applications it sought against Mr. Page.
 
The government began the surveillance in late 2016, after he left the Trump campaign, and continued monitoring him until late 2017—ultimately obtaining a warrant and three subsequent renewals. The last two applications were submitted in April and June of 2017. It now has concluded there was “insufficient predication to establish probable cause” in the last two renewals, which authorized about six months of surveillance on the former adviser.
 
Probable cause is the legal standard to obtain a secret warrant against suspected agents of a foreign power from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret judicial panel that approves such warrants.
 
The Justice Department letter is classified, but is referenced in a new order declassified by the judge that heads the FISA court, James Boasberg, on Thursday. The Justice Department said it would sequester all the material it collected against Mr. Page pending further internal review of the matter.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 17 Comments

“Mistakes”

The FBI apologized to the secret court that handles national security investigations for the way it conducted surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser during the 2016 election, according to a court filing made public on Saturday.
 
FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined steps the bureau is taking to ensure it doesn’t make the same mistakes again. He wrote in the filing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the FBI will tighten procedures governing wiretapping applications to the court, which oversees intelligence gathering under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

 
The FBI response comes after a report last month from the Justice Department inspector general that revealed serious issues with the bureau’s applications to the court to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI suspected Page had possible ties to Russia.

 
That report prompted the court to take the highly unusual step of publicly rebuking the FBI and ordering the bureau to revalidate its work.

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

Drain The Swamp Russiagate 41 Comments

The FBI’s Darkest Hour.

It’s the greatest scandal in U.S. legal history. Most chilling of all is that the current FBI chief, Christopher Wray, recently shrugged-off FBI agents lying to the FISA court. He said of the damning Horowitz report that, in his mind, what was “important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.”
 
If that’s what he believes and thinks is important, then the FBI is truly constitutionally bankrupt. Russia is ruled by an alumnus of the FBI’s Russian counterpart. Our Constitution won’t protect us unless our own cops with guns respect it. After 2016, one wonders whether the FBI looks upon Vladimir Putin with fear—or envy.

I’m perplexed that no one has stolen my post title by now.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation