- See Main Article: Russiagate
The Trump-Russia collusion hoax, also known as the Mueller witchhunt or Operation Crossfire Hurricane, was an illegal Obama administration FBI, DNC, Clinton campaign, British GCHQ and media effort to disrupt and overturn American democracy.[2] Because of its blatantly transparent and partisan nature, many liberal mainstream media news organizations and journalists thoroughly and permanently destroyed any credibility as reporters of fact that they once held, and the confidence and trust the American people once held in them. The Wall Street Journal summarized it as: "the Russia-Trump narrative that Mrs. Clinton sanctioned did enormous harm to the country. It disgraced the FBI, humiliated the press, and sent the country on a three-year investigation to nowhere. Vladimir Putin never came close to doing as much disinformation damage.”[3]
Four weeks after exonerating Clinton for crimes she committed, and two days after opening an investigation on Trump for crimes Trump never committed, FBI investigators exchanged these messages:
Lisa Page – He’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?! Strzok - No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it. |
The Russia collusion conspiracy theory was a conflation of a true stream of events with a fake news narrative that has never been verified by the FBI: the Russian attempted hacking of state election boards (or "U.S. election infrastructure") with the unproven allegation that "Russia hacked the DNC".
Throughout the Republican-controlled 115th Congress, the Department of Justice and FBI did not cooperate with congressional investigators, and stonewalled requests for information citing the Mueller investigation.[4] Documents were very slow in coming forth, and redactions were not to protect national security, but rather to obstruct investigators, obscure government wrongdoing, and shield high-level officials and stall past the 2018 Midterm elections.[5]
Rep. Devin Nunes noted, "After years of false accusations and McCarthyite smears, the collusion hoax now defines the Democratic Party. The hoax is what they have in place of a governing philosophy or a constructive vision for our country."[6][7]
Conflation of events
There are three distinct events that occurred in the 2016 election, all of which were merged or conflated to manufacture the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. These are:
- Russia's failed attempts to hack into state elect board voter rolls and the purchase of a few thousand dollars of Facebook advertising, mostly sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement;
- The publication of leaked DNC materials on WikiLeaks. No U.S. law enforcement agency ever investigated how DNC materials made their way to WikiLeaks.
- A disinformation campaign funded by the Democratic National Committee, the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, Obama for America, Inc., and FBI under James Comey to smear Republican candidate Donald Trump as an agent of the Russian government.
All three events were melded into a discredited Intelligence Community Assessment, written by CIA director John Brennan and Crossfire Hurricane (named for a lyric in the Rolling Stones' 1968 song "Jumpin' Jack Flash"[8]) investigator Peter Strzok during the Trump transition and presented to President Barack Hussein Obama, alleging that the Russian government actively worked to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump and subvert the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. The Obama intelligence community conspiracy theory was thoroughly discredited in numerous subsequent investigations, including notably the Special Counsel report of Robert Mueller.
Crowdstrike
- See also: Murder of Seth Rich
In 2016, CrowdStrike provided cover for their paid client, the Democrat Party, and blamed Russia for hacking DNC servers.
On April 28, 2016, DNC CEO Amy Dacy informed DNC attorney Michael Sussmann of the breach. Sussmann contacted Shawn Henry, CSO and President of Crowdstrike. Two days later the DNC hired CrowdStrike to install software that is meant to identify who gained access, when, and how. The next day, on May 1, CrowdStrike claimed the "intrusion had originated in Russia," although they would later retract.
The CrowdStrike website touts their 'revolutionary' approach and next-generation protection with their CrowdStrike Falcon services, "We Stop Breaches". As for all three public incidents, it appears they were reactionary and did not prevent an internal or external breach. What they did provide was intelligence and discover digital signatures leading to claimed sources. Some of its Falcon III equipment fell into Russian hands during Operation Denzaification.[10]
Of the 27,500 DNC emails published by Wikileaks, fewer than 7,000 pre-date April 29. A Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of the published emails shows that the majority were written between May 5 and May 25 — after CrowdStrike was brought in to respond.[11]
FusionGPS
On April 1, 2016 Hillary Clinton hired FusionGPS through various fronts, the Clinton presidential campaign and DNC, whose financial affairs the Clinton campaign controlled.[13] Clinton designated Marc E. Elias, her personal lawyer and DNC general counsel, through the law firm of Perkins Coie as payee. Additionally, Perkins Coie employed former Obama White House Chief Legal Counselor, Robert Bauer.[14][15] When Fusion founder Glenn Simpson was subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Simpson claimed attorney-client privilege to cover-up the relationships. Perkins Coie paid FusionGPS a total of $1,024,408 on behalf of Hillary Clinton for the bogus Steele dossier. The dossier was passed off to mainstream journalists as an authentic KGB document and used by the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) to secure Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against domestic opponents.[16]
Despite the Democrats' and media narrative that FusionGPS was hired by a Republican initially, former MI6 operative Christopher Steele was not hired by FusionGPS until two months after the Republican client quit and the DNC and Clinton campaign hired Fusion GPS. The Steele dossier is entirely the paid product of Democrat clients that were then put into the hands of the US foreign intelligence gathering apparatus. There is no connection whatsoever between FusionGPS's former Republican client, and the deceptive and slanderous Steele dossier.
FusionGPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British Intelligence Officer of Orbis Business Intelligence (Steele's London-based firm), to compile the Steele dossier alleging ties between Trump and Russia. Steele disclosed his role and the period of his employment with FusionGPS (12 Jun 2016 through 30 Oct 2016) in later court filings stemming from a lawsuit against him and his dossier.[17] Nellie Ohr, wife of Obama Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr and formerly of the CIA's Open Source Works group, was hired by FusionGPS to work with Steele.[18]
In late May 2016 Nellie Ohr applied for a HAM radio license, a communication tool that would allow Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele the ability to communicate outside the normal NSA electronic communication intercepts.[19] Steele filed his first report entitled Company Intelligence Report - the infamous the 'pee pee' memo - on June 20, 2016.
Throughout July, August, and September 2016 Fusion GPS was paying journalists from the New York Times, ABC, NBC, Washington Post and others to listen to Christopher Steele who was shopping the Steele dossier. Court papers confirm payments.[20] Because the material was unverified, none of them cited the dossier or its source.
Sometime around Thanksgiving 2016 Simpson met with Dep. Attn. Gen. Bruce Ohr while President-elect Trump was selecting his cabinet The two discussed the Steele dossier, the FBI's Russia meddling investigation, and what Simpson considered the distressing development of Trump's victory. The Steele dossier had been in the hands of the FBI for some five months, and FISA Title I surveillance began on Carter Page months earlier.
At the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller swore under oath to a House committee that he never heard of FusionGPS.
FusionGPS colluded with Russia
In addition to having Hillary Clinton and the DNC as clients, FusionGPS was also an agent of the Russian government.
FusionGPS was hired by the law firm of BakerHostetler to compile a dossier on Bill Browder, who renounced his U.S. citizneship and then lobbied Sen. John McCain to author the 2014 Russian sanctions bill. Rhe Magnitsky Act, named for an employee of Browder who died under suspicious circumstances in a Russian while investigating an alleged loss of Browder's money. The sanctions bill must he re-authorized every several years. Glenn Simpson, a founding partner of Fusion GPS, compiled the dossier for the Russian sponsored anti-Browder project and worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer. Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon Holdings, sought to undo and limit the impact of sanctions in the 2016 re-authorization bill. BakerHostetler, the firm representing Katsyv and Prevezon Holdings made a payment to FusionGPS on March 7, 2016, court records indicate. Through October 31, 2016 BakerHostetler paid FusionGPS $523,651.[21]
Natalie Veselnitskaya was granted special immigration parole status by Obama Attn. General Loretta Lynch to represent Prevezon Holdings in an asset forfeiture agreement for $6 million with the U.S. government over a Russia money-laundering suit on May 12, 2016. Veselnitskaya overstayed her immigration parole status to work for FusionGPS in an illegal lobbying scheme for repeal of Russian sanctions. Neither Veselnitskaya nor FusionGPS registered as Russian agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Simpson's Russian lobbying work involved passing stories to his deep network of journalism contacts in order to undermine the Magnitsky Act. Bill Browder claimed the Russians cheated out of $350 million, confirmed FusionGPS was paid by Russia through the Katsyv family. The Katsyv family is headed by Pyotr Katsyv, Vice President of ‘Russian Railways’, a huge Russian transportation company, in which the Russian government is the sole shareholder.[22] The Obama FBI and DOJ ignored Browder's Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) complaint.
FARA violations
Throughout the Trump-Russia scandal the Magnitsky Act was used as a pretext to justify the Obama administration's illegal domestic spying on domestic political opponents.
The Magnitsky Act of 2012 is the Russian Sanctions bill. Named for Serge Magnitsky, an investigator who was allegedly starved and murdered on the 357 day of a 365-day sentence while in a Russian prison. His employer, Bill Browder, is a billionaire global investor who beginning in the mid-1990s made very large investments in the Russian Federation. Browder at one time was a good friend of Vladimir Putin. Browder had invested about $230 million with Russian oligarchs, however by the 2010s suspected fraudulent accounting after sustaining massive losses. Browder sent Magnitsky to investigate, but instead was thrown in prison and accused of owing taxes for the company he represented which was trying to recover its losses.[23]
Browder contacted Sen. John McCain with the story and a list of very powerful Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin whom Browder accused of stealing his money. When the Crimean annexation occurred in 2014, McCain used Browder's list to create a "targeted sanctions" list of specific individuals, oligarchs, and businesses who now, by the Magnitsky Act, are blacklisted by all US citizens and businesses from doing business with. Among them is a company called Prevezon Holdings.
On March 31, 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley inquired of the Justice Dept. about a complaint filed in July 2016 alleging FusionGPS, authors of the Clinton-Steele dossier, acting as an unregistered agent of Russia in a lobbying campaign to rewrite and overturn the Magnitsky Act, a law named for a whistleblower who was allegedly murdered while in custody in Russia. The law imputed sanctions against certain Russian officials. Grassley wrote that when FusionGPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it simultaneously was creating the Steele dossier of unsubstantiated allegations of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The Obama Justice Dept. had done nothing since July 2016 to respond to the complaint of FusionGPS' violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The committee also sought to determine the extent to which the FBI relied on the Steele dossier in its investigation. Grassley requested documentation from Fusion GPS as to who hired and paid them, when Steele was hired, how the FBI got involved and whether Fusion GPS was aware of the FBI paying Steele.[24][25]
On July 21 Sen. Grassley subpoenaed Glenn Simpson, founder of FusionGPS in the matter of unregistered lobbying on behalf of Russian clients (FARA violations) for the repeal of sanctions (the Magnitsky Act).[26]
On July 28, 2017, Bill Browder testified before Senate Judiciary Committee on Russian employment of FusionGPS. FusionGPS simultaneously was employed by Clinton operatives and was offered cash by James Comey for corroborative evidence of the Clinton-Steele dossier which FusionGPS manufactured with the help of Russians to smear Donald Trump. Browder provide further details in August of FusionGPS being paid by Russia, through the Katsyv family, headed by Pyotr Katsyv, Vice President of ‘Russian Railways’, a huge Russian transportation company, in which the Russian government is the sole shareholder.[27]
Trump Tower sting operation
Ike Kaveladze[28] and FusionGPS operatives Natalia Veselnitskaya[29] and Rinat Akhmetshin[30] met with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner on June 9, 2016.[31] The meeting was arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone. Glenn Simpson met with Veselnitskaya immediately before and after.[32][33] Veselnitskaya told NBC News the information she used in the meeting she got from Simpson.[34][35] FusionGPS hired Christopher Steele to author the Steele dossier three days after the meeting.[36] Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller never talked to Veselnitskaya.[37]
Nearly a year later, on May 8, 2017, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. we're summoned to FBI headquarters for an emergency meeting with Dir. Comey, bureau cybersecurity agents and CIA representatives. An FBI press release said the government alerted the brothers of a cyberattack.[38] However the brothers, who were initially contacted by email for the June 9, 2016 meeting with FusionGPS operatives, were in no mood to talk.
Director Comey was fired the next day. Andrew McCabe became acting director.[39] Despite being under no less than three Inspector General investigations into the Clinton, Russia, and FusionGPS matters, McCabe still failed to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.[40][41]
During Comey's Congressional testimony three weeks later Don Jr. sent out 80 tweets critical of Comey,[42] evidently still fuming over the May 8, 2017 "emergency meeting" with Comey and CIA cyber experts.
On July 8, 2017, Mark Corallo, attorney for Donald Trump, Jr. revealed that FusionGPS, a firm employed by the Clinton campaign and the DNC, had misrepresented themselves to arrange a meeting between Donald Trump Jr, and a Russian lawyer in the Summer of 2016 in an effort to compromise the Trump organization.[43] Reports also indicate Natalia Veselnitskaya, the FusionGPS operative and Russian lawyer who lobbied for repeal of Russian sanctions (the Magnitsky Act), was granted special immigration parole status by Attorney General Loretta Lynch's office, so she could represent her Russian client Denis Katsyv and his company, Prevezon Holdings Ltd.,[44]
President Trump said firing Comey was one of the great honors of his life.
The hoax exposed
On June 24, 2017, the mainstream media began reporting on FBI collusion with the Democratic party opposition research firm, FusionGPS, to smear Donald Trump.[46] The next day CNN was reported to have imposed new rules on its irresponsible fake news coverage of the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory.[47]
FEC records show Hillary For America paid just under $5.1 million and the DNC paid nearly $5.4 million to the law firm of Perkins Coie in 2016. FEC records show Obama for America also paid $972,000 to Perkins Coie beginning in April 2016, the same time Hillary for America & DNC hired FusionGPS through Perkins Coie.[48] The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC alleging the DNC and the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign committee violated campaign finance law. They failed to accurately disclose the purpose and recipient of payments for the Steele dossier alleging connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia, effectively hiding these payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law.[49]
FusionGPS refused to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee's question as to who in the Clinton machine hired them. The Clinton-Steele dossier formed much of the basis for the Obama administration's attacks on Donald Trump and their authorization to use the US Intelligence Community to harass and violate the civil rights of domestic political opponents.[50][51]
On August 22 Glenn Simpson, FusionGPS founder refused to identify who hired FusionGPS to produce the Clinton-Steele dossier in a closed session with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators.[52] FusionGPS had in the past sheltered its clients’ true identities by filtering money through law firms or shell companies (Bean LLC and Kernel LLC).[53]
CNN reported that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was asked by Congressional investigators in his September "whether the Clinton campaign had a contractual agreement with Fusion GPS, and he said he was not aware of one, according to one of the sources. Sitting next to Podesta during the interview: his attorney Marc Elias, who worked for the law firm that hired Fusion GPS" to write the Clinton-Steele dossier for the Clinton campaign and DNC.[54][55]
On October 18, 2017, Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan, co-founders of FusionGPS, refused to identify the Clinton campaign and the DNC as the sponsors of Clinton-Steele dossier. The FusionGPS founders plead the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination “to every question asked of them" in the House Intelligence Committee investigation.[56]
The Washington Post finally admitted on October 24 that the "Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded the research that resulted in the now-infamous Clinton-Steele dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin. The Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in “legal and compliance consulting" since November 2015.[57][58] WaPo published an Oped claiming the "Steele's dossier does include information it says was obtained from 'a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure and a former top level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin.' In other words, the Clinton camp and the DNC colluded with the Russian government."[59] Former Obama CIA Dir. Leon Panetta called for the Senate Intelligence Committee to look into the Clinton campaign and DNC funding of the Steele dossier.[60] The Daily Caller reported on CNN's undisclosed ties to FusionGPS.[61] The New York Post reported How team Hillary hoaxed the press.[62]
In November 2017 FusionGPS payments to mainstream journalists[63][64] and Russian sources became public.[65]
The Washington Times questioned the motives of the Deep state coup:It was a watershed moment: the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI challenging the legitimacy of a U.S. presidential victory. The conclusions in the Jan. 6 [2017 Intelligence Community Assessment] document were sharp, but the findings unraveled 10 months later, raising questions about the basis for the evidence and the motives of the Obama appointees leading the nation’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies.[66]
The Atlantic reported during the Obama administration Russian oligarchs owned 5% of Facebook and Twitter.[67] Prof. Mifsud, an alleged Christopher Steele contact, disappeared.[68] Steve Mostyn,[69] Democrat mega donor to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Mostyn was a co-founder of the Ready for Hillary PAC and the 10th largest donor in the United States.[70][71] Calls for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor mounted.[72][73][74][75][76][77][78]
In January 2018 Sen. Diane Feinstein posted the transcript of Glenn Simpson's Senate Intelligence Committee testimony.[79] Simpson said that the FBI paid for Steele's travels to Rome. The FBI was sharing information with Steele. Strzok shared FBI intelligence with someone paid by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. Steele said of the FBI, “they want everything I have.” Simpson admitted the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was hired by Simpson to lobby on behalf of Russia against U.S. interests for the removal of sanctions.[80] Simpson acknowledged that he either worked with or knows of four attendees at the Trump Tower meeting: Irakle Kaveladze, Veselnitskaya, Rinat Akhmetshin, and Anatoli Samochornov. Samochornov also worked on the Prevezon case. Simpson perjured himself in denying that the Democratic party and their nominee Hillary Clinton were his clients.[81]
FBI complicit
Main article: FBI scandal On March 6, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Charles Grassley inquired of the FBI's plan to pay FusionGPS operative Christopher Steele for spying on Trump during the campaign, sparking questions of the Obama administration's use of federal authorities for political gain.[82][83] The next day Cause of Action Institute, a watchdog group, filed a FOIA request with the FBI regarding money paid to Christopher Steele, author of the Steele dossier.[84]
“If a former spy who was being paid to do opposition research on a U.S. presidential nominee was also on the FBI’s payroll, there are serious concerns about the agency’s independence. We need to better understand this financial relationship to ensure the FBI was not misusing taxpayer money to interfere in a presidential election on behalf of one of the candidates.” |
The House Intelligence Committee asked the FBI for information about the illegal unmasking of Michael Flynn's identity while the Obama administration had the Trump transition team under surveillance. Sen. Lindsey Graham commented: "If there is no warrant than the only way to surveil would have clearly been illegal."[87]
In sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20, 2017, Dir. Comey testified that Barack Obama, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, John Brennan, and James Clapper all had access to sensitive wiretap information which contained the name of Gen. Mike Flynn. Comey was uncertain if Ben Rhodes, brother of CBS President David Rhodes and an Obama National Security Council aide, had access. Leaking to the press the identity of Flynn is a felony because the information was part of a confidential intelligence gathering operation and the information had been “masked” to protect Flynn's identity.[88] Comey's FBI investigation included Breitbart, InfoWars, and other news sites.[89]
Dir. Comey was further asked about purported claims Russia hacked into DNC severs: “Well, we never got direct access to the machines themselves...The DNC in the spring of 2016 hired a firm [ CrowdStrike ] that ultimately shared with us their forensics from their review of the system.”[90] NSA Dir. Mike Rogers also stated the NSA never asked for access to the DNC hardware: “The NSA didn’t ask for access. That’s not in our job.” Comey acknowledged classified leaks to the media were "unusually active" of late.[91] Comey said Obama's White House had the ability to "unmask" American citizens.[92]
President Trump took to Twitter using the White House @POTUS account unlike the March 4 tweets made from his personal user account. The President tweeted: FBI Director Comey refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Flynn to Russia.[93]
On March 22 an attorney for Freedom Watch representing a whistleblower[94] sent a letter to Chairman Nunes imploring the Intelligence Committee to investigate evidence his client presented that
"spy agencies were engaged for years in systematic illegal surveillance on prominent Americans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen such as Donald Trump... Working side by side with Obama's former DNI, James Clapper, and Obama's former Director of the CIA, John Brennan," his client "witnessed 'up close and personal' this 'Orwellian Big Brother' intrusion on privacy, likely for potential coercion, blackmail or other nefarious purposes."[95] Further, that "the FBI director recently claimed publicly, I believe falsely, that there is ‘no evidence’ of surveillance on President Trump and those around him by the Obama administration." |
After briefing the President on new whistleblower information, the House Intelligence Committee chairman confirmed
"on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition. Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value, were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting. None of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities."[96][97] |
On March 23 Rep. Nunes revealed that some of the Trump Team's conversations had been spied upon.[98] National Security expert and journalist Bill Gertz who has lectured on defense, national security, and media issues at the Defense Department's National Security Leadership Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, the FBI National Academy, the National Defense University, and the CIA reported it is possible "Nunes himself was among those whose communications were improperly monitored."[99] Nunes said he will recall Dirs. Comey and Rogers for a private hearing after concern is raised over their public testimony.[100] Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich called for Comey's recusal from investigation.[101]
US Justice Dept. was sued under Freedom of Information Act to disclose all documents related to Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch's secret meeting with Bill Clinton on board the Attn. Gen.'s plane at the Phoenix airport prior to the wiretapping of Trump campaign associates.[102] Russian collusion claims were further discredited.[103]
On March 24 Sen. Grassley demanded more information on the funding of the Steele dossier.
"When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics."[104] |
On April 28 an NSA press release announced suspension of President Obama's illegal 4th Amendment civil rights violations of American citizens.[105]
FISA abuse
- Main article: FISA abuse
In late June 2016, after former President Bill Clinton's secret meeting with Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac in Phoenix, the Justice Department sought FISA warrants to eavesdrop on Michael T. Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos (earlier reports listed Donald Trump, Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Boris Epshteyn). The FISA court denied the initial request.[106] It is improbable that the Attorney General would act on her own against a presidential nominee of another party without consulting President Obama.[107] Simultaneously Peter Strzok of the Obama FBI Counterintelligence Division met with Steele and received a preliminary draft of Steele dossier.[108]
Former Trump campaign associate Carter Page flew to Moscow in early July to deliver the graduation commencement speech at the New Economic School, an honor President Obama held in 2009.[109] The FBI and DOJ used Carter Page's trip as pretext to seek a FISA warrant which initially was rejected.[110] After whitewashing the Hillary Clinton investigation, Strzok signed the documents initiating an FBI counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.
On March 6, 2017 Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential election campaign manager told Fox News he knew of electronic surveillance on Trump during the campaign and was told by US intelligence. Mook is not a government employee and had no right to access of that information.[111]
On May 12, 2017 Jack Posobiec reported Comey scuttled the Susan Rice unmasking investigation because it implicated Comey himself.[112]
By December 2017 outrage towards the Obama FBI abuses was omnipresent; in seven hours of testimony before House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) Dep. Dir. Andrew McCabe made statements that contradicted evidence and was unable to provide any substantive examples of verified allegations in the Clinton-Steele dossier. When pushed for examples of what was verified in the Clinton-Steele dossier, McCabe was only able to cite the fact that Trump campaign advisor Carter Page traveled to Moscow — McCabe could not verify anything about the meetings that Page supposedly had. McCabe claimed he could not recall — despite documents with McCabe's own signature on them establishing the fact of his knowledge of the dossier's financing and provenance.[113][114]
FBI Chief Counselor James Baker was fired two hours after McCabe's testimony.[115] Associate Dep. Attn. Gen. Bruce Ohr withheld from his boss, Rod Rosenstein, his secret meetings with Steele and Simpson and the fact his wife Nellie Ohr helped author the phony dossier.[116] Ohr was demoted, and there were calls for McCabe's firing.[117] The House Committees began investigating possible criminal activity among Obama holdovers in DOJ & FBI.[118]
Comey's lack of candor under oath
In September 28, 2016 prior to the election FBI Dir. James Comey seemed to perjure himself before the House Governmental Affairs Oversight Committee. In response to a question from Rep. Ratcliffe, Comey testified his decision not to recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton came after her 2 July interview with the FBI. Subsequent internal FBI documents reveal Comey decided against recommending prosecution more than six weeks earlier, while the investigation was still in progress.[119]
Mr. RATCLIFFE. ...If there was ever any possibility that something Hillary Clinton might have said on July 2 could have possibly resulted in criminal charges that might possibly have resulted in a trial against her relating to this classified information, well, then, to use your words, Director, I don’t think that there is any reasonable prosecutor out there who would have allowed two immunized witnesses central to the prosecution proving the case against her to sit in the room with the interview, the FBI interview, of the subject of that investigation. And if I heard you earlier today, in your long career, I heard you say that you have never had that circumstance. Is that—did I hear you correctly? Mr. COMEY. That is correct, but—— Mr. RATCLIFFE. Okay. And I never have either, and I have never met a prosecutor that has ever had that. So, to me, the only way that an interview takes place with the two central witnesses and the subject of the investigation is if the decision has already been made that all three people in that room are not going to be charged. Mr. COMEY. Can I respond? Mr. RATCLIFFE. Yes. Please. Mr. COMEY. I know in our political lives sometimes people casually accuse each other of being dishonest, but if colleagues of ours believe I am lying about when I made this decision, please urge them to contact me privately so we can have a conversation about this. All I can do is to tell you again, the decision was made after that, because I didn’t know what was going to happen in that interview...[120] |
On August 30, 2017, it was reported that FBI documents reveal Dir. James Comey decided not to prosecute Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over.[121] This contradicts Comey's earlier sworn Congressional testimony that a decision on Hillary Clinton's intent or mens rea was not made until after her personal FBI interview.[122] The facts surrounding this report of Comey's activities could bear further scrutiny, scrutiny relevant to showing the bigger picture in determining whether or not Comey did in fact perjure himself in his Sept. 28, 2016 Congressional testimony.
Comey fired
- See also: Deep state coup
At the request of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein prepared a memorandum to review the conduct of FBI Director James Comey and the status of bureau under leadership:[123]
the FBI's reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice. That is deeply troubling to many Department employees and veterans, legislators and citizens. ... I cannot defend the Director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton's emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.... The director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General's authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution. It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement. At most, the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors. The Director now defends his decision by asserting that he believed attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict. But the FBI Director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department. There is a well-established process for other officials to step in when a conflict requires the recusal of the Attorney General. On July 5, however, the Director announced his own conclusions about the nation's most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders. Compounding the error, the Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation. Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously. The Director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial. It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do. In response to skeptical question at a congressional hearing, the Director defended his remarks by saying that his "goal was to say what is true. What did we do, what did we find, what do we think about it." But the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference. The goal is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a federal criminal prosecution, then allow a federal prosecutor who exercises authority delegated by the Attorney General to make a prosecutorial decision, and then - if prosecution is warranted - let the judge and jury determine the facts. We sometimes release information about closed investigations in appropriate ways, but the FBI does not do it sua sponte (Latin for “of one’s own accord; voluntarily).” |
Dir. Comey was fired immediately. Andrew McCabe assumed the position as acting FBI Director. McCabe was already under DOJ Inspector General's investigation for mishandling the Clinton email scandal at the time. McCabe also is implicated in the bogus Steele dossier and the FBI's offer to pay Christopher Steele for more fabricated information. McCabe did not recuse himself from the Russia investigation either, despite failing to act on a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) complaint against FusionGPS, Christopher Steele's employer, being an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian government. McCabe is compromised by serious conflict of interest.[126]
Deep State informant Eric Ciaramella worked with Democratic National Committee operative Alexandra Chalupa to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Ciaramella was detailed to the White House by Russia collusion hoax mastermind John Brennan in the Summer of 2016. In May 2017, Ciaramella was instrumental in helping generate the “Putin fired Comey” narrative. A Ciaramella email the day after Comey's firing ended up in the media, which is reported to have allegedly called Comey “crazy, a real nut job.”
Ciaramella is said to have argued that “President Putin suggested that President Trump fire Comey.” In the days after Comey's firing, this presidential action was used to further political and media calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate supposed ‘Russia collusion.’[127]
On June 8 in sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee Comey implicated Loretta Lynch in the Justice Dept. cover-up of the Hillary Clinton criminal investigation. Comey further stated, "I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason or for no reason at all."[128]
On July 27 Rep. Bob Goodlatte, House Judiciary Committee Chairman and members wrote to Attn. Gen. Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attn. Gen. Rod Rosenstein to request appointment of a Special Counsel to
1.Investigate, consistent with appropriate regulations, the following questions, many of which were previously posed by this Committee and remain unanswered: |
Two days after Comey's firing Sen. Grassley called on the FBI to end ‘wild speculation’ surrounding President Trump; insinuations that the President is the target of a probe are nothing more than “unsubstantiated statements” from political opposition and media. Grassley said in context that the intelligence community stated one of the Russians’ primary objectives is to undermine the American public's faith in our democratic institutions and leadership. With the goal of scoring political points, Democratic allegations and wild rhetoric have given Vladimir Putin exactly what Putin wanted.[130]
On August 25 Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's Grand Jury subpeaona's Tony and John Podesta lobbying group in probe of Russian interference in 2016 Presidential election.
Comey leaks
Immediately after being fired, Comey began leaking the substance of private confidential information shared with the president to the New York Times.[131] Five days later more appeared.[132] Jake Novak of CNBC commented the latest Trump-Russia leaks sounded like a coup attempt. Novak noted "Someone at the highest levels of government has leaked information to the news media about President Trump's discussions with Russian officials...candidate Donald Trump indeed insulted the intelligence community during the election, and many have concluded that this is their plotted revenge...we have some very powerful people in Washington who really don't like how democracy played out this time around and what they do to attack it next isn't going to be any better than what they're doing now."[133]
On June 8, 2017, in sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, disgraced former FBI Dir. Comey admitted to leaking information relevant to an FBI investigation to the media.[134] Comey claimed he was motivated by Trump tweets, although the first leak was published on May 11, 2017, before Trump tweeted, raising the possibility Comey may have misled Congress in his testimony.
On July 26, 2017, the House Judiciary Committee launched a probe into FBI Dir. James Comey's leaking activities and mishandling of a federal investigation by Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch. It will inspect Comey's knowledge of Fusion GPS, the firm that produced the Steele dossier. The investigation will dig into Comey's decision to “usurp the authority” of Lynch by making an “unusual announcement” that Hillary Clinton would not face criminal charges. It will investigate the infamous tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch in Phoenix at Sky Harbor International Airport. It will look into matters related to the Clinton Foundation's influence from foreign governments, specifically the Uranium One deal exposed in Clinton Cash—whereby the Clintons personally profited from Russians gaining ownership in U.S. uranium assets. The probe will dig into immunity deals given to “co-conspirators” in the Hillary Clinton email scandal, including Cheryl Mills, Heather Samuelson, and John Bentel. The probe will look at any “collusion” between Comey and Mueller—the special counsel leading the Russia probe—especially regarding Comey's leak through Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman to the media. The probe will press for document production regarding Comey's communication with Richman, Comey's friend, of conversations Comey had with President Trump. Richman was the vessel through which Comey leaked to the media details of those conversations with the president after his firing, with an apparent intent of using media pressure from said leaks to spark the launching of the special counsel investigation of Russian involvement. That special counsel investigation is led by Comey's longtime friend Robert Mueller, another former FBI director. The probe, too, will look into Comey's knowledge of “unmasking” of intelligence and surveillance collected on Donald Trump's campaign or transition teamse—and specifically any role that former National Security Adviser Susan Rice played in that.
Reports further confirmed FBI General Counsel James A. Baker under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for leaking classified national security information to the media.[135] it was reported Baker colluded with Dir. Comey on handle confidential information Comey later confessed to leaking.
According to one of Comey's memos, on January 6, 2017, at the very first meeting the Director of the FBI had had with then-President-elect Trump after the election, he briefed Trump that CNN and other sources had possession of US intelligence information which Comey described as "salacious" and damaging to the perception of Trump's incoming administration. The daughter of Obama's close confidante Valerie Jarrett, Laura Jarrett, had joined CNN in the fall of 2016 and her assignment to cover the Department of Justice was revealed on January 18, 2017. This assignment placed her in a conspicuous position by her job and by her loyalty to her mother to potentially collude with Comey to unfairly politicize news reports of the dossier's reliability in order to pressure Trump to become more dependent on the intelligence community.[136]
On January 26, 2017, after the inauguration, Comey had another meeting with Trump where he iterated that Trump needed to be shielded from media reports like those brought up by the Steele dossier through being informed by intelligence briefings. On April 15, 2018, Comey admitted to Clinton crony George Stephanopoulos that during that meeting, he hadn't revealed that the Steele dossier had been funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democrats.[137] Political commentator Rush Limbaugh remarked on the omission by Comey as a disloyalty:
- "Now, I am told reliably that the documents that [Devin] Nunes [of the House Intelligence Committee] sought contained the, quote-unquote, “proof” or evidence that Comey knew that the Steele dossier was Clinton work product long before January. For crying out loud, they had an ongoing relationship with Christopher Steele. The fix was in from the get-go getting Trump even before the election."[138]
By late July 2017 there were calls all around for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to look into Comey and the FBI's reliance on FusionGPS in its investigation of the Trump campaign, including the creation of the Steele dossier, that dossier's commission and dissemination in the months before and after the 2016 presidential election, whether the FBI paid anyone connected to the dossier, and the intelligence sources of FusionGPS or any person or company working for FusionGPS and its affiliates.[139]
John Brennan
“On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians, there is smoke, but there is no fire, at all. There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.”[140]
Papadopolous operation
False claims of intelligence sharing
Brennan claimed sources from allied intelligence agencies under longstanding intelligence sharing agreements informed him Trump was in cahoots with the Russians; however after an exhaustive Congressional investigation into the matter no evidence can be found to corroborate Brennan's off repeated claim.[143] In reality, Brennan's source was Christopher Steele.[144]
Illegal investigation
Brennan passed false information to the FBI, who then opened an FBI counterintelligence investigation on Donald Trump and the Trump campaign.[145] The investigation was wholly illegal,[146] having no sound legal basis. Brennan also formed an interagency task force targeting Trump.
CIA under John Brennan then leaked to the press that this investigation was happening. Brennan's hope was to cause as much political damage to Trump's campaign as possible.[147] An official within the intelligence community explained that Brennan's entourage of radicals didn't even try to hide what they were doing.[148] The FBI began an investigation into Paul Manafort's associations. This investigation led to the wiretapping of at least three Trump associates, Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Roger Stone.[149]
Targeting Obama's enemies
A September 21, 2010 internal email entitled “Obama Leak Investigations” at “global intelligence” company Stratfor claims Obama's then-White House adviser John Brennan was put in charge of targeting journalists critical of Obama:[150][151]
"Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources,” writes one Stratfor official to another. The email continues: “Note — There is specific tasker from the [White House] to go after anyone printing materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode…”
"The Wonder Boys” refers to the National Security Agency (NSA).[152]
Four days before the 2016 election Blackwater founder Erik Prince appeared on radio and outlined discoveries within the Huma Abedin/Anthony Weiner laptop that was being blocked by AG Loretta Lynch. Prince had insider knowledge from New York police and prosecutors of the investigation to explain why Dir. James Comey had to announce he was reopening the investigation into Clinton's email server:
“Because of Weiner-gate and the sexting scandal, the NYPD started investigating it. Through a subpoena, through a warrant, they searched his laptop, and sure enough, found those 650,000 emails. They found way more stuff than just more information pertaining to the inappropriate sexting the guy was doing,” Prince claimed. “They found State Department emails. They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times. Hillary Clinton went there at least six times,” he said. “The amount of garbage that they found in these emails, of criminal activity by Hillary, by her immediate circle, and even by other Democratic members of Congress was so disgusting they gave it to the FBI, and they said, ‘We’re going to go public with this if you don’t reopen the investigation and you don’t do the right thing with timely indictments,’” Prince explained. “I believe – I know, and this is from a very well-placed source of mine at 1PP, One Police Plaza in New York – the NYPD wanted to do a press conference announcing the warrants and the additional arrests they were making in this investigation, and they’ve gotten huge pushback, to the point of coercion, from the Justice Department, with the Justice Department threatening to charge someone that had been unrelated in the accidental heart attack death of Eric Garner almost two years ago. That’s the level of pushback the Obama Justice Department is doing against actually seeking justice in the email and other related criminal matters,” Prince said.[153] |
As a reprisal Brennan targeted Erik Prince between the election on November 8 and the inauguration in January 2017, according to White House and House Intelligence Committee sources.[154] In his book Comey cited a “development still unknown to the American public to this day” as his reason for going public with reopening the Clinton email investigation.[155] That development was threatening NYPD with federal civil rights violations in the Erik Garner case if they didn't back-off the Weiner laptop (Garner was a black man accused of selling cigarettes who died in police custody while in a choke hold).[156] Prince has long criticized the CIA's incompetence, including the Brennan's handling of the drone program and its failure to target terrorists properly and the collateral damage done to Afghan civilians.
Sean Hannity was reportedly unmasked by Susan Rice at Brennan's behest because of a perceived relationship with Trump and Julian Assange.
Brennan was behind the removal of Mike Flynn. The motivations for Brennan's intense dislike of Michael Flynn date back years to when Flynn was producing intel documents that showed how the supposed 'Syrian moderates' were funded by persons and groups in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.[157] Brennan also brought in to the CIA disgraced Syria analyst Elizabeth O’Bagy. O’Bagy was outed for manufacturing her credentials and for being paid by the Syrian rebels.[158]
Obama's approval
"In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections," the New York Times reported.[159] The expansion of the order makes it difficult to narrow in on leaks. This constituted Obama's amending Executive Order 12333.[160] DNI James Clapper previously signed off on 15 December 2016.
On January 3, 2017, Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch signed off on the new rules permitting the NSA to disseminate “raw signals intelligence information.”[161] The new rules were specifically crafted for widespread dissemination and leaking of the Joint Analysis Report, which contained two pages of the most salacious allegations from the Steele dossier - the infamous 'pee-pee memo'.
Joint Analysis Report
During the Trump transition on January 5, 2017 DNI James Clapper, DCI John Brennan, FBI Dir. James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, President Obama, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and Vice President Biden met in the Oval Office. The Clinton-Steele dossier was discussed.[162][163][164] Susan Rice made a note of the discussion.
President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the intelligence and law enforcement communities "by the book". The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book. From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia. [Redacted section] The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would."[165] |
The next morning CIA Director Brennan released an unclassified version of the Joint Analysis Report (also referred to as the Intelligence Community Assessment or ICA), a joint Comey, Clapper and Brennan document consisting of recycled reports on Russia Today (RT) with 2 pages of sexual innuendo from the Clinton-Steele dossier. NSA Dir. Adm. Mike Rogers dissented from the report.[167] The Washington Post was assured that "the sources involved in the [Clinton-Steele dossier's] reporting were credible enough to warrant inclusion in the highly classified [presidential] report.”[168] Brennan however in later public testimony said the dossier and its sources were not credible enough to incorporate in the Joint Analysis Report on Russian election interference. Brennan swore the Clinton-Steele dossier did not “in any way” factor into the CIA's assessment that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump. The classified version of Comey, Clapper and Brennan's Joint Analysis Report congressional investigators found contradicts Brennan's sworn testimony.
Anatomy of a smear
The same day of the release Comey, Clapper, Brennan, and Adm. Rogers traveled to New York to brief President-elect Trump on the Joint Analysis Report. Comey asked for a one-on-one briefing with Trump at the end of the meeting. Without informing Trump of the true origins which Comey knew was Democrat and Clinton opposition talking points, Comey represented the "salacious" allegations to Trump as some sort of official US government intelligence report. It fundamentally was an effort by Comey to blackmail the new president, as J. Edgar Hoover had done with the seven president's Hoover served under over his 47-year career, which is why Congress limited the term of future directors and created judicial oversight of the FBI by the FISA court.
In his Congressional testimony Comey swore the dossier was "salacious and unverifed" although the FBI/DOJ used it to obtain FISA surveillance warrants on the Trump campaign in October 2016.
The Obama administration for the first time since the Watergate reforms of the 1970s successfully carried out what Richard Nixon attempted but failed to do - use the FBI and CIA to spy on, harass, and violate the civil rights of domestic political opponents. Comey did not inform Trump that the FBI suspected members of the Trump campaign were targets of Russian requirement, only the manufactured sexual innuendo by Hillary Clinton's hirelings. According to Comey, he acted on the instructions of Brennan and Clapper, [173][174] "[T]he leaders of the intelligence community agreed [Trump] needed to be told about because we knew it and thought it was about to become public."[175]
Clapper leaks
James Clapper leaked details of the Clinton-Steele dossier to CNN’s Jake Tapper on or before January 6, 2017. Clapper briefed CNN on the dossier before FBI director James Comey briefed President-elect Trump.
Clapper then directed Comey to brief President-elect Trump on the dossier on January 6, 2017. From Comey’s Memos: "I said there was something that Clapper wanted me to speak to the PE [President-Elect] about alone or in a very small group. I then executed the session exactly as I had planned." Comey specifically told President-elect Trump that “CNN had them and were looking for a news hook.” That CNN already had the dossier – and specifically wanted a rationale to publish – was Comey and Clapper's entire reasoning in briefing President-elect Trump.
Comey's briefing of President-elect Trump created the very excuse for CNN to run the story.
Clapper briefed CNN on the dossier before Comey briefed President-elect Trump. Clapper specifically instructed Comey to only brief President Trump on the “salacious details”.
On January 10, 2017, Obama DNI Clapper leaked to Jake Tapper the briefing on the Clinton campaign's allegations that Trump consorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel, creating the "news hook" CNN was looking for to justify reporting details.[176] An hour later CNN linked to BuzzFeed making the Clinton-Steele dossier public.[177] The Clinton opposition research was broadcast to the public as some sort of official "intelligence report" with mysterious origins that the Obama administration was acting on. Simultaneously Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was meeting secretly with FusionGPS boss Glenn Simpson. FusionGPS was paid $1,024,408 to create the false allegations.[178] Trump responded "I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state! ... Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”[179] Trump stated that he was not briefed on the full contents the Clinton-Steele dossier or its origins. NBC News independently verified Trump's account,[180] as did FOX News.[181] Clapper issued a press release moments later stating that he only now, that evening, not four days earlier on January 6, discussed the Clinton-Steele dossier with Trump.[182]
Trump responded the next day to the Obama administration's slanders on twitter: "I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state! ... Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”[183]
Jake Tapper reported that government sources confirmed it was the wrong "Michael Cohen" who allegedly travelled to Prague to pay the KGB to hack into the DNC as the Democrat talking points contend, further debunking the Steele dossier.[184]
When WaPo speaks, the CIA's lips are moving
On January 12, 2017, former NSA official John Schindler tweeted, "When @IgnatiusPost speaks, Langley's 7th floor lips are moving. They are taking traitor Trump out now."[185] Langley's 7th floor is a reference to CIA headquarters.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post published unmasked information of Michael Flynn's phone call with the Russian Ambassador obtained by FISA warrant. Susan Rice, an Obama White House official, “unmasked” Flynn's name and it was leaked to Ignatius.[186] The leaking of the unmasked identity of a US citizen's name gathered in a foreign intelligence operation is a criminal civil rights violation.[187]
On January 13 Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller identified the group Hillary Clinton hired - FusionGPS, Christopher Steele's employer, and Glenn Simpson its founder - as the same group that colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign to repeal Russian sanctions, the Magnitsky Act.[188][189] Ross stated that part of Simpson's work involved passing stories to his deep network of journalism contacts in order to undermine the Magnitsky Act.
Journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame labeled Obama's actions a gross violation and possibly criminal. Under the rules, the name of a US citizen who is wiretaped during a foreign intelligence surveillance operation must be 'minimized', and in transcripts their identity is to be 'masked'. Only 20 persons in the Intelligence Community have the ability to 'unmask' a US citizen's name who in incidentally caught up in a foreign intelligence gathering operation.[190]
On February 21, 2017, it became evident John McCain had access to the content of President Trump's private, classified telephone calls with world leaders. Analysis of McCain's public statements by White House officials shows that the senator had inside knowledge of a number of President Trump's telephone conversations. Officials believe McCain is sharing this sensitive information with colleagues and mainstream media journalists in a clandestine campaign to damage Trump's presidency before it had a chance to get started.[191]
McCain, like John Brennan, was deeply involved in Obama's covert weapons transfers from Libya to jihadis who formed the Islamic State.[192][193][194] McCain made Obama's covert aid to al Qaeda and the Islamic State 'legal' by fulfilling the advise and consent clause required for presidential covert action.[195][196] A McCain staffer quit two weeks before the weapons transfer supply chain began in order to run his own private arms supply company that was directly involved in arming the jihadis.[197][198] Obama, Brennan, and McCain had much to hide considering former Obama DIA chief Michael Flynn knew all the details of covert aid to ISIS,[199][200] and was fired by Obama for opposing it after some of the weapons made their way to Afghanistan to kill American soldiers.[201] The Pentagon was cut out of the loop of Obama, Brennan, McCain, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's covert weapons support for Islamic groups to destroy Gaddafi and Assad, counter Iran after US pullout of Iraq, and form the Islamic State.[202]
On March 29, 2017 Evelyn Farkas admitted again that the Obama Administration attempted to gather as much intelligence as possible on Trump's alleged ties to Russia after the 2016 election and that it tried to hide their intelligence sources from the incoming Trump Administration.[203][204] The next day Farkas was questioned on CNBC: "you actually said that “I knew that there was more. I became very worried because not enough was coming out into the open, and I knew that there was more.” And then, you actually said that that's why you have all the leaking, to make sure we get it out. I mean, people are accusing you, Evelyn, of admitting that was surveillance, admitting that there was unmasking, and urging people, or, at least, saying that intelligence leaking, which could be a felony, is the way that it should get out. And you weren't even part of the government at that point."[205]
On May 10, 2017 Accuracy in Media said the Washington Post wants desperately to divert attention away from the fact that its reporter, David Ignatius, can be prosecuted under the law, and called for an investigation of Ignatius and Washington Post owner and CIA contractor Jeff Bezos.[206]
Unmasking
Chairman Devin Nunes accused top Obama political aides of making hundreds of requests during the 2016 presidential race to unmask the names of Americans in intelligence reports, including Trump transition officials. In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Junes disclosed the requests were made without specific justifications on why the information was needed. “We have found evidence that current and former government officials had easy access to U.S. person information and that it is possible that they used this information to achieve partisan political purposes, including the selective, anonymous leaking of such information. The committee has learned that one official [Samantha Power], whose position had no apparent intelligence related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration,” UN Amb. Samantha Powers is said to be the one making requests.[207]
Fox News reported both a Senate and House committee were investigating the FBI for leaks.[208] Adam Housley reports "The person who did the unmasking is "very well known, very high up, very senior, in the intelligence world & is not in the FBI,"[209] and that "unmasking the names and then spreading the names was for political purposes that have nothing to do with national security."[210][211]
By April 2017 both House and Senate expanded their investigation into the Obama administration's political spying on domestic opponents.[212] Subpoenas were issued to the FBI, CIA and NSA for information on the unmasking activities of Susan Rice, John Brennan, and Samantha Power.[213]
Sen. Tom Cotton of the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that Gen. Mike Flynn was wiretapped and revealed the Senate knew which agency surveiled Flynn, and Cotton knew which agency leaked the transcript of the phone call between Mike Flynn and Russian Amb. Sergei Kislyak, suggesting it was the Department of Justice.[214]
On June 5, 2017 James Comey was sued by Dennis Montgomery, alleging Comey and other government officials covered up evidence[215] showing widespread illegal spying on 20 million Americans.[216] Montgomery presented evidence that “[t]his domestic surveillance was all being done on computers supplied by the FBI...these supercomputers, which are FBI computers, the CIA is using them to do domestic surveillance." More than 20 million American identities were illegally unmasked - credit reports, emails, phone conversations and Internet traffic, were some of the items the NSA and CIA collected. The suit divulges evidence that the FBI has a ”pattern and practice of conducting illegal, unconstitutional surveillance against millions of Americans, including prominent Americans such as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen, and others such as Donald J. Trump."[217][218] The suit also named other defendants as well, including current NSA Dir. Mike Rogers, former CIA Dir. John Brennan and Barack Obama.[219][220][221]
The insurance policy
- Main article: 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign
"If the election had been on Oct. 27, I would be your president," Hillary mournfully repeated in hundreds of interviews for months and years to come. So confident was the Hillary camp, they dropped FusionGPS, but the FBI showed immediate interest now that the prospects of a Trump victory was a distinct possibility. The FBI offered Steele money to continue work on the dossier. But the New York Times had a source on initial reviews and published a headline, "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link To Russia";[222]
Comey's surprise letter to Congress about reopening Hillary's email investigation threw the Clinton campaign into a tailspin. Contingencies became operational: allegations of collusion between Trump and Russia. The first hint of the Steele dossier itself was penned by DNC operative David Corn and appeared in Mother Jones magazine under the headline,[223] "A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump: Has the bureau investigated this material?".
On October 31, 2016, Hillary Clinton retweeted the company line about a webserver in Trump Tower and a Russian bank, "computer scientists" being being government surveilors.[224] The information was gathered under authority granted by the Oct. 15 FISA warrant.[225] The "insurance policy" is now being cashed in.
SSCI complicit
- See also: Deep State coup 1.0
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence became complicit in the plot to overthrow President Trump in March 2017 when its director of security, James Wolfe, leaked the Carter Page FISA application with the apparent approval of his Senate bosses.[226] The FBI and DOJ failed to prosecute Wolfe and his employer's seditious activity due to the problem of the Executive Branch prosecuting members of the Legislative Branch for attempting to overthrow the President of the United States, precipitating a possible constitutional crisis.
FBI Washington Field Office Special Agent Brian Dugan was given a task in early 2017 to see if he could track down and identify people who were leaking information related to national security. Dugan used a Top-Secret Classified Information request by SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner to begin a very specific leak investigation.
On March 17, 2017, Brian Dugan picked-up a copy of the Carter Page FISA application from the FISA Court. He personally delivered that “read and return” copy to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Security Director James Wolfe. Shortly after 4:02 pm that same day, Vice-Chairman Mark Warner reviewed the FISA in the senate “SCIF”.
It is not known if any other SSCI committee member viewed that FISA (there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence to indicate only Wolfe and Warner saw it); however, what is factually certain – is that on the same day as Wolfe and Warner reviewed the FISA, Security Director James Wolfe leaked it to journalist Ali Watkins.
Both the New York Times and Washington Post began reporting on the FISA application.
As soon as Ms. Watkins wrote an article for Buzzfeed, April 3, 2017, outlining Carter Page as “person one” in the application, Dugan knew the FISA had been leaked.
Dugan charged in the Wolfe indictment how the leak took place. The original FISA application is 83 pages with two mostly blank pages. Wolfe sent Ali Watkins 82 text messages (pictures), and later that evening had a lengthy phone call about it. Dugan put Wolfe under physical surveillance for several months as he gathered more information.
Dugan obtained enough evidence surrounding Watkins participation to gain a search warrant for her email, electronic communication and phone records. At the same time Dugan obtained the text messages between Chris Steele’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, and Vice-Chairman Mark Warner. The dates of both captures are very similar.
After more investigative paths were followed; and after more surveillance was conducted; eventually Wolfe was confronted. He lied three times over two dates until eventually Dugan put the direct evidence in front of him, and on December 15, 2017, Wolfe admitted to the leak. He was fired from the SSCI.
Sometime around mid-January 2018 Dugan wrapped up his investigation. However, because the Mueller team held investigative authority over everything Trump-Russia, which included the FISA application, Dugan’s entire investigative file had to transfer over to the Mueller team for review before going to the DC U.S. Attorney for a grand jury.
Dugan’s delivery of the investigative file to Main Justice (mid January ’18) was the first time the Mueller team knew of the totality of the investigation, and the issues with a trail of evidence going back to a serious SSCI compromise. The Mueller team took the Dugan file apart and began providing cover for their political allies. That’s why the Mark Warner text messages were released on February 9, 2018.
The Wolfe leak was toxic to the purpose of the Mueller team . There were also serious issues with an intelligence compromise, a national security compromise, an SSCI compromise, a gang-of-eight compromise, and a compromise between the legislative and executive branches of government. The Mueller team was in damage control mode.
Despite recommendations and normal procedures, “Top FBI leadership”, including FBI Director Chris Wray, made decisions not to do a national security damage assessment based on the identified intelligence compromises. The ramifications were rather stark. Everyone was in cover-up mode.
The transfer of the investigative file into Main Justice is how the Mueller team gained custody of the exact March 17, 2017, version of the FISA application which they released on July 21, 2018. Additionally, only nine days earlier, July 12, 2018, the Mueller team lied to the FISA court the Carter Page FISA application was adequately predicated.
When the Brian Dugan investigative file was returned, the evidence of the Wolfe leak was scrubbed. Wolfe was only charged with lying three times to investigators. Absent the indictment for the leak Wolfe's lawyers knew they had leverage; they threatened to subpoena the SSCI senators (it is likely only Warner was a participant in the March 17th FISA review – so the real target of that threat was Senator Mark Warner).
After the threat DC U.S. Attorney’ Office, Jessie Liu, agreed to a plea deal with Wolfe. They dropped the three counts of lying to federal investigators down to one count while simultaneously the mainstream media ignored the story.
On December 14, 2018, WFO Special Agent Brian Dugan filed an attachment, Government Exhibit 13, to the final sentencing recommendation – and in that two page sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, SSA Brian Dugan attested to Wolfe leaking the FISA application for the final time.
The media ignored it. The cover-up was complete.
All of the direct evidence of this series of events is included in a series of public documents released over a period of about twelve months. Because the documents were released out of sequence and seemingly disconnected no-one caught on to the backstory.
This evidence was directly provided to special investigator William Aldenberg.[227]
Mueller team cover-up
- See also: Muellergate
The Mueller investigation was never to find Russian interference in the election. It always was a rear-guard action by former and current FBI officials. The Mueller operation should have evaporated the minute it was reported that the Clinton campaign paid for the Steele dossier. FBI officials colluded with the Clinton campaign to spy on and frame the opposing candidate for the presidency. They thought that they would get away with it because they expected Hillary to win. Mueller understands the seriousness of the misconduct by his friend James Comey and other FBI officials. Mueller is not seeking to unmask Russian interference in the election, but rather to cover up FBI collusion with the Clinton campaign and DNC to interfere in the election.[228]
The very existence of the Mueller investigation obstructed Congressional inquiries into the scandal throughout entirety of the 115th Congress, interfering and tipping the scales in the 2018 Midterm elections. The Department of Justice and FBI did not cooperate with Congressional investigators, and stonewalled requests for information citing the ongoing Mueller witch hunt.[229] Documents were slow in coming forth, and redactions were not been to protect national security, but rather to obstruct investigators, obscure government wrongdoing, and shield high-level officials from embarrassment and corruption. For example, a $70,000 conference table purchased for Andrew McCabe was redacted from the Strzok-Lisa Page text messages, having nothing to do with national security or "sources and methods."[230]
See also
References
- ↑ https://jonathanturley.org/2017/10/27/clinton-campaign-lawyer-marc-elias-allegedly-sat-next-to-podesta-as-he-denied-any-campaign-involvement-in-the-russian-dossier/
- ↑ https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/06/25/the_mysterious_seven_preludes_of_the_fbis_trump-russia_probe.html
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/22/wall-street-journal-russia-trump-clinton-durham/
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-justice-stonewall-continues-1523219016
- ↑ A $70,000 conference table purchased for Andrew McCabe for instance, was redacted from the Strzok-Lisa Page text messages, having nothing to do with national security or "sources and methods."
http://www.mygovcost.org/2018/05/29/the-fbis-70000-conference-table/ - ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELBRVvjzlf8
- ↑ https://republicans-intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=952
- ↑ Rolling Stones song inspired 'Crossfire Hurricane' codename for Trump-Russia investigation at Fox News
- ↑ https://upnorth.eu/if-trump-wins/
- ↑ https://www.bitchute.com/video/b0P03XkrKNkn/
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/07/most-wikileaks-emails-werent-even-written-until-after-dnc-knew-it-was-hacked/
- ↑ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/7/hillary-clinton-democrats-deluded-themselves/
- ↑ http://www.wbur.org/npr/561768006/book-reveals-clinton-campaign-effectively-controlled-dnc-as-early-as-2015
- ↑ Confessore, Scott Shane, Nicholas; Rosenberg, Matthew (11 January 2017). "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The New York Times.
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.10bece00087f
- ↑ DOJ Political Surveillance – From the IRS in 2011 to the FISA Court in 2016, Posted on March 8, 2020 by sundance. theconservativetreehouse.com
- ↑ https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele
- ↑ Open Source Works is described as "CIA's in-house open source analysis component, devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open source information." The directive itself that established Open Source Works is classified, as is the charter of the organization. CIA says the existence of any such records is a classified fact. “The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request,” wrote Susan Viscuso, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator, in a November 29 response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive for the Open Source Works directive and charter. “The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure,” Dr. Viscuso wrote. This is a surprising development since Open Source Works — by definition — does not engage in clandestine collection of intelligence. Rather, it performs analysis based on unclassified, open source materials. -FAS http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-12/mccabe-cancels-testimony-something-far-more-sinister-fusion-gps
- ↑ http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/LicArchive/license.jsp?archive=Y&licKey=12382876
- ↑ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fusion-gps-paid-journalists-court-papers-confirm/article/2641454
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/21/unsealed-fusion-gps-bank-records-show-russia-related-payments/?utm_source=site-share
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/checking-facts-there-evidence-fusion-gps-was-paid-russia-while-compiling-trump
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/07/10/senate-panel-to-hear-testimony-from-businessman-targeted-by-trump-dossier-firm/
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/complaint-firm-behind-dossier-former-russian-intel-officer-joined-lobbying-effort
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/03/31/trump-dossier-financier-accused-of-improper-work-for-kremlin/
- ↑ https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/21/founder-of-firm-behind-the-trump-dossier-refuses-subpoena-to-testify-will-plead-the-fifth/?utm_content=buffer303c7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/checking-facts-there-evidence-fusion-gps-was-paid-russia-while-compiling-trump
- ↑ https://ru.linkedin.com/in/ikekaveladze
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-seeks-more-information-pro-russia-lobbyist-present-trump-jr-meeting
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rinat-akhmetshin-who-russian-lobbyist-who-met-trump-team-n783161
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/complaint-firm-behind-dossier-former-russian-intel-officer-joined-lobbying-effort
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/07/fusion-gps-official-met-with-russian-operative-before-and-after-trump-jr-sit-down.html
- ↑ https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-06/fusion-gps-bank-records-handed-over-may-shed-light-payments-russian-embezzler
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-dossier-firm-also-supplied-info-used-meeting-russians-trump-n819526
- ↑ https://pjmedia.com/trending/honeypot-confirmed-russian-lawyer-met-with-fusion-gps-before-and-after-meeting-with-trump-camp/
- ↑ https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele
- ↑ https://apnews.com/b9657a2a41184b72b05bd1dae6667d4e
- ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-probing-attempted-hack-trump-organization-officials/story?id=47652150
- ↑ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alan-dershowitz-history-precedent-and-james-comeys-opening-statement-show-that-trump-did-not-obstruct-justice/article/2625318
- ↑ https://www.circa.com/story/2017/06/28/fbi-chief-mccabe-faces-three-separate-federal-inquiries-into-his-behavior
- ↑ http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-fbi-director-mccabe-compromised-by-serious-conflict-941110851569
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-80-tweets-comey-2017-6
- ↑ https://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/08/donald-trump-jr-met-with-russian-lawyer-during-election-but-didnt-follow-up
- ↑ https://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/13/russian-lawyers-special-immigration-parole-statues-raises-more-questions-than-answers
- ↑ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/22/ray-mcgovern-a-non-hack-that-raised-hillarys-hackles/
- ↑ http://nypost.com/2017/06/24/inside-the-shadowy-intelligence-firm-behind-the-trump-dossier/
- ↑ https://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/cnn-russia-coverage-publishing-restrictions?utm_term=.ao6kVqGapp#.ekgonlyw55
- ↑ https://thefederalist.com/2017/10/29/obamas-campaign-gave-972000-law-firm-funneled-money-fusion-gps/
- ↑ http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/document/fec-complaint-hillary-america-dnc-failure-disclose
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/04/13/research-firm-behind-trump-dossier-is-refusing-to-answer-senate-committees-questions/#ixzz4eLwyp4Oe
- ↑ http://dailysignal.com/2017/04/17/senator-explains-why-the-susan-rice-surveillance-allegations-are-a-big-deal/
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/08/22/fusion-gps-founder-refuses-to-identify-dossier-clients-in-marathon-senate-session/
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-paid-for-the-trump-dossier-1501193386
- ↑ http://www.independentsentinel.com/john-podesta-appears-to-have-lied-to-the-senate-intel-committee-its-illegal/
- ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/john-podesta-debbie-wasserman-schultz-trump-dossier/index.html
- ↑ http://www.dailywire.com/news/22445/firm-connected-russia-and-democrats-made-trump-ryan-saavedra
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.458088f4d37c
- ↑ https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/10/24/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-russia-dossier/WfYqXZf9lvbL5ujqnpp2FJ/story.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/25/the-clinton-camp-and-the-dnc-helped-pay-for-that-trump-russia-dossier-heres-what-it-means/?utm_term=.44ba2d3fe34b
- ↑ http://ntknetwork.com/panetta-intelligence-committee-needs-to-look-into-clintondnc-dossier-payment/
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/10/28/cnns-undisclosed-ties-to-fusion-gps/
- ↑ http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/how-team-hillary-played-the-press-for-fools-on-russia/
- ↑ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/5/journalist-pay-questioned-in-russian-dossier-court/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20171117203451/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/democratic-mega-donor-mostyn-dies-amid-mental-health-51199029
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/21/unsealed-fusion-gps-bank-records-show-russia-related-payments/?utm_source=site-share
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/yuri-milner-paradise-papers/545483/
- ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/08/politics/joseph-mifsud-trump-russia-investigation/index.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20121021154712/https://www.tlrpac.com/files/DemSteveMostynBig.pdf
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20171117203451/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/democratic-mega-donor-mostyn-dies-amid-mental-health-51199029
- ↑ http://rebrn.com/re/long-time-clinton-donor-multimillionaire-dead-by-suicide-3718228/
- ↑ http://nypost.com/2017/11/05/graham-calls-for-special-counsel-to-prove-clinton-on-russia-ties/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&sr_share=twitter
- ↑ http://nypost.com/2017/11/05/graham-calls-for-special-counsel-to-prove-clinton-on-russia-ties/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&sr_share=twitter
- ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/13/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-considers-appointment-of-new-special-counsel.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/14/jim-jordan-special-counsel-needs-to-investigate-do/
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/11/15/rep-mark-meadows-special-counsel-must-investigate-russia-dossier-explain-why-obamas-fbi-was-involved.html
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-the-clintons-should-be-investigated/2017/11/19/d88bb652-cb15-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html?utm_term=.f31ee84c1d43
- ↑ https://www.nationalreview.com/article/454133/russia-investigation-robert-mueller-special-counsel-needs-oversight-prevent-abuse
- ↑ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/11/dianne-feinstein-partially-blames-bad-cold-for-rel/
- ↑ Russian Active Measures in the 2016 Election, House Permanent Sub Committee on Intelligence, March 22, 2017, Finding #36 p. 88.
- ↑ https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/3/9/3974a291-ddbe-4525-9ed1-22bab43c05ae/934A3562824CACA7BB4D915E97709D2F.simpson-transcript-redacted.pdf
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/fbi-plan-pay-ex-spy-trump-intel-during-campaign-sparks-questions-obama-admin’s
- ↑ https://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2017/05/fbi-plan-to-pay-ex-spy-for-trump-intel.html
- ↑ https://causeofaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ECF-No.-01-01-2017.04.17-Ex.-1-CoAI-v-FBI-17-671.pdf
- ↑ https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=D644F90E-54E2-4DD5-AC8F-BB3B8D8059CE
- ↑ https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/us/politics/justice-dept-declines-to-back-claim-trump-is-not-under-investigation.html?smid=tw-share&mtrref=undefined&gwh=D8DEF8A40A9C4355914D43F648CC50D3&gwt=pay&_r=1&referer=http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/justice-dept-refuses-to-back-up-sean-spicers-claim-that-trump-is-not-under-investigation/
- ↑ http://radio.foxnews.com/2017/03/15/sen-lindsey-graham-on-possibility-of-subpoena-in-trump-wiretapping-allegation-if-there-is-no-warrant-only-way-to-surveil-would-be-illegal/
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/20/while-questioning-fbis-comey-gowdy-accuses-obama-team-leaks-no-proof/99412100/
- ↑ https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article139695453.html#storylink=cpy
- ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4376628/New-questions-claim-Russia-hacked-election.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/843876462113554437
- ↑ https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/843881258593796098
- ↑ https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/843863057516380161
- ↑ http://www.aim.org/special-report/a-watergate-style-threat-to-the-democratic-process/
- ↑ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-22/bombshell-cia-whistleblower-leaked-proof-trump-under-systematic-illegal-government-s
- ↑ https://thefederalist.com/2017/03/23/heres-why-nunes-obama-spying-revelations-are-such-a-big-deal/
- ↑ http://time.com/4709443/devin-nunes-trump-transition-intelligence/
- ↑ Derespina, Cody (March 23, 2017). Trump basks in Nunes surveillance news: 'So that means I'm right'. Fox News. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- ↑ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/intelligence-reports-reveal-improper-political-surveillance-trump-transition-team/
- ↑ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-24/nunes-calls-comey-rogers-closed-session-after-finding-concerning-info-intel-reports
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/24/dennis-kucinich-fbi-director-comey-must-recuse-himself-from-trump-russia-probe.html
- ↑ http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/group-files-lawsuit-for-documents-tied-to-secret-lynch-clinton-sky-harbor-meeting
- ↑ https://www.voanews.com/a/crowdstrike-comey-russia-hack-dnc-clinton-trump/3776067.html
- ↑ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-probes-opposition-research-firm-behind-unsubstantiated-trump-dossier
- ↑ https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/press-room/press-releases/2017/nsa-stops-certain-702-activites.shtml
- ↑ https://www.nationalreview.com/article/443768/obama-fisa-trump-wiretap-may-have-been-sought
- ↑ https://youtu.be/5CSZKmssG2o
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/lifting-the-steele-curtain-1510274070
- ↑ https://youtu.be/bu8vI4js_OE
- ↑ https://sharylattkisson.com/when-incidental-intel-collection-isnt-incidental/
- ↑ https://youtu.be/pM11i-WF_Rw
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/863112363578462212?s=03
- ↑ https://www.dailywire.com/news/24938/report-mccabe-contradicts-himself-testimony-unable-ryan-saavedra
- ↑ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/25/fbi-says-russia-dossiers-collusion-charges-unsubst/
- ↑ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-22/fbi-fires-suspected-leaker-and-comey-ally-james-baker
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/20/mccabe-draws-blank-on-democrats-funding-trump-dossier-new-subpoenas-planned.html
- ↑ https://www.populistwire.com/politics/top-republican-senator-grassely-wants-mcgabe-replaced-after-fbi-trail-of-corruption-comes-to-fruition/
- ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121?lo=ap_f1
- ↑ https://insider.foxnews.com/2017/09/01/james-comey-may-have-committed-perjury-chaffetz-says
- ↑ OVERSIGHT OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 page 88 PDF
- ↑ https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/08/31/confirmed-comey-decided-he-wasnt-going-to-refer-hillary-for-prosecution-before-interviewing-key-witnesses-n2375767?amp=true
- ↑ https://www.axios.com/gop-senators-comey-had-draft-statement-clearing-clinton-before-fbi-interview-2480037436.html
- ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/rosenstein-letter-annotated/526116/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/04/19/comey-trump-cnn-news-hook/
- ↑ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/huge-cia-whistleblower-eric-cairamella-worked-with-dnc-operative-alexandra-chalupa-in-creation-of-trump-russia-collusion-hoax/
- ↑ http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-fbi-director-mccabe-compromised-by-serious-conflict-941110851569
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alan-dershowitz-history-precedent-and-james-comeys-opening-statement-show-that-trump-did-not-obstruct-justice/article/2625318
- ↑ https://goodlatte.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=939
- ↑ https://www.peoplespunditdaily.com/news/politics/2017/05/11/chuck-grassley-calls-fbi-end-wild-speculation-surrounding-trump/
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-firing.html?_r=0
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html
- ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/16/this-latest-trump-russia-leak-smells-like-a-coup-attempt-commentary.html
- ↑ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3860979-Untitleddocument.html
- ↑ https://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/26/politics/james-a-baker-fbi-general-counsel-is-allegedly-under-an-investigation-for-leaking-classified-information-to-the-media
- ↑ Multiple references:
- ↑ https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer
- ↑ https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/04/19/conservative-journalist-confronts-comey/
- ↑ https://goodlatte.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=939
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/clinton-ally-says-smoke-no-fire-no-russia-trump-collusion-n734176
- ↑ http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/03/20/conspiracy-president-trump/
- ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-presidents-kill-list
- ↑ https://spectator.org/the-counterintelligence-probes-phantom-origin/
- ↑ https://freedomoutpost.com/john-brennans-cia-operated-like-a-branch-office-of-the-hillary-campaign/
- ↑ https://youtu.be/W54KbYPfkcw
- ↑ https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/04/22/nunes-interview-no-official-intelligence-used-problems-for-brennan/
- ↑ https://insider.foxnews.com/2018/03/22/strassel-rips-john-brennan-spewing-innuendo-trump-russia
- ↑ https://spectator.org/confirmed-john-brennan-colluded-with-foreign-spies-to-defeat-trump/
- ↑ NYT, 1/19/17
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120925054433/http://wikileaks.org:80/gifiles/docs/1210665_obama-leak-investigations-internal-use-only-pls-do-not.html
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2013/05/22/wikileaks-stratfor-e-mail-brennan-behind-witch-hunt-of-journalists-reporting-leaks/
- ↑ Credit:Sharyl Attkisson. https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/12/1210665_obama-leak-investigations-internal-use-only-pls-do-not.html
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/04/erik-prince-nypd-ready-make-arrests-weiner-case/
- ↑ http://gotnews.com/breaking-barackobamas-cia-director-john-brennan-allies-targeting-trump-supporters-surveillance/
- ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/comey-book-claims-president-trump-sought-loyalty-mafia/story?id=54420635
- ↑ https://youtu.be/U0Y3FH9Nb3I
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/10ALQAEDATRAININGMANUELOperationCyclone1979179/U.S.%20MILITARY%20ARMS%20SYRIAN%20REBELS,%20CREATING%20ISIS%20-%20Al%20Qaeda%20Iraq%20Syria%20ISIS%20-%20DOCUMENTS%20-7_djvu.txt
- ↑ http://gotnews.com/breaking-barackobamas-cia-director-john-brennan-allies-targeting-trump-supporters-surveillance/
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ http://circa.com/politics/some-us-intelligence-officials-want-trump-to-rescind-obamas-expansion-of-nsa-data
- ↑ PROCEDURES FOR THE AVAILABILITY OR DISSEMINATION OF RAW SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION BY THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY UNDER SECTION 2.3 OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 12333 (RAW SIGINT AVAILABILITY PROCEDURES). OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. UNCLASSIFIED
- ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html
- ↑ https://apnews.com/152579d488a740b2a8d39fbe2f34506d
- ↑ https://apnews.com/a82309544e9e465fa2ad4f83e5a48540
- ↑ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-02-08%20CEG%20LG%20to%20Rice%20(Russia%20Investigation%20Email).pdf
- ↑ https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/susan-rice-email-president-obama-russia-investigation/
- ↑ [4]
- ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-russia-allegations-20170110-story.html
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/11/the-doj-and-fbi-worked-with-fusion-gps-on-operation-trump/
- ↑ https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/04/09/john-brennans-role-in-the-fbis-trump-russia-investigation/
- ↑ https://spectator.org/the-clapper-news-network/
- ↑ https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/01/10/an-american-hero-the-death-of-a-fisa-narrative/
- ↑ https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/comey-memo-clapper-instruction-january-7-2017.jpg
- ↑ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1804/19/cg.01.html
- ↑ https://saraacarter.com/former-dni-james-clapper-allegedly-leaked-to-cnn-investigation-revealed/
- ↑ 4. One of the seventeen reports in the Dossier—CIR 112—accused the Plaintiffs of criminal conduct and participation in an alleged Trump-Russia scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election. Defendants knew that this Report was not verified, and that it defamed Plaintiffs on its face. Defendants could easily have removed that Report from the Dossier before they started peddling the Dossier to media and journalists in September and October 2016. They chose not to do so. Nor did they attempt to determine the veracity of that Report with the Plaintiffs themselves. 5. At all times during the Defendants’ engagement of Orbis and Steele, it was either intended or clearly foreseeable that the Dossier’s contents would be republished (in whole or in part) to third parties, either by the Defendants themselves or their clients. Indeed, that is the entire purpose of “oppo research” in politics. Those third parties included government officials, as well as news media and journalists who could make its content public. 6. On information and belief, Defendants arranged for Steele to brief selected members of the print and online media about the information he was compiling on candidate Trump. Consistent with the intended purpose of “oppo research” to publicly discredit its target, Steele’s briefings were designed to generate interest in the Dossier and secure its eventual public dissemination. Briefings were held for journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Yahoo News, and others in September 2016. Shortly thereafter, Yahoo News published an article by Michael Isikoff that described some of the content of the Dossier (referred to there as “intelligence reports” and “reports”), which was still being compiled at that time.1 Many other media articles reported speculative accounts of the Dossier’s existence and contents. In October 2016, Steele was interviewed by David Corn, a writer for Mother Jones, which on October 31, 2016 published an article headlined “A Veteran Spy Has Given The FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump.”2 The Corn article stated that it had “reviewed” the early reports in the Dossier, and then quoted from those reports as well as statements made by Steele in the interview. The public dissemination of the Dossier’s content had begun in earnest. 7. In addition to cultivating media interest, the Defendants also organized or approved a meeting in Great Britain between Steele and David Kramer, a director of a private foundation led by U.S. Senator John McCain. The purpose of that meeting was to brief Kramer on behalf of Senator McCain, who at the time was an outspoken critic of Trump’s candidacy. Subsequently, in November 2016, Defendants provided a copy of the Dossier’s first sixteen reports, including the Report that falsely accused and defamed Plaintiffs, to Kramer for redelivery to Senator McCain. 8. As the 2016 presidential election neared, both print and online media in the United States and abroad began to expand their coverage of the Dossier and its alleged content. That coverage only intensified after Trump won the election. On January 10, 2017, one of those media entities, BuzzFeed, Inc., published the entire Dossier on the Internet, describing it as “explosive.” The copy of the Dossier that BuzzFeed published included the false and defamatory allegations about the Plaintiffs and Alfa, along with an article entitled “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia.”3 The Dossier misspells Alfa’s name throughout, incorrectly spelling it as “Alpha.” In a recent court filing, Fusion admitted that it had “pre-publication” communications with BuzzFeed about its publication.4 9. The Defendants intended, anticipated, or foresaw a high likelihood that allowing their clients and/or the media access to the Dossier’s defamatory content would result in its republication by news media outlets, including online news media such as BuzzFeed. 10. Plaintiffs seek an award of compensatory and punitive damages for the harm to their personal and professional reputations, current business interests, and the impairment of business opportunities that resulted from the blatantly false and defamatory statements and implications about them published by the Defendants and republished by BuzzFeed and countless other media around the world. FRIDMAN et al v. BEAN LLC et al https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/22639671/FRIDMAN_et_al_v_BEAN_LLC_et_al https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Dossier.pdf
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/politics/john-tony-podesta-mueller-russia-investigation.html?mtrref=t.co
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-intel-20170111-story.html
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/moscow-rejects-report-donald-trump-ties-total-hoax-n705586
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/11/trump-was-not-given-any-summary-russian-claims-about-compromising-info-source-says.html
- ↑ https://archive.is/Y2fbA
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-intel-20170111-story.html
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/jaketapper/status/819187673961287681
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/20committee/status/819764059096678402?lang=en
- ↑ https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/326331-how-obamas-white-house-weaponized-the-media-against#.WNvlVh1HfDU.twitter
- ↑ https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/3216
- ↑ "to remove the name “Magnitsky” from the Global Magnitsky Act, delay the bills passage, and cast doubt on the Justice Dept.’s version of events prior to the passage of the Magnitsky Act. The defrauded complaintant referred to Simpson, who was hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC as "a professional smear campaigner.” “Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences.” https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/13/exclusive-oppo-researcher-behind-trump-dossier-is-linked-to-pro-kremlin-lobbying-effort/
- ↑ Ross's article expounds: The main proponent of that law, a British-American businessman named Bill Browder, tells DC..."Glenn Simpson’s job was to knowingly and dishonestly change the narrative of how Sergei Magnitsky came to die from murder to natural causes, and to change the narrative that Sergei Magnitsky was a criminal and not a whistleblower," ... Magnitsky, who helped Browder investigate many of the corrupt Russian firms, was arrested in Nov. 2008 and accused of engaging in fraud and tax evasion. Magnitsky was tortured for months in a Russian prison and deprived of medical treatment, all in order to elicit a false confession that he and Browder were engaged in fraud and tax evasion, Browder has alleged. After Magnitsky’s health deteriorated, he was transferred to another jail. There, the lawyer was allegedly beaten with blunt objects by prison guards. He died on Nov. 16, 2009 at the age of 37. Soon after his friend’s murder, Browder began lobbying American lawmakers — Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Arizona Sen. John McCain, in particular — to pass a law that would provide a mechanism to punish Kremlin-linked Russian criminals. https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/16/think-tank-appears-to-cut-ties-with-oppo-researcher-behind-trump-dossier/#ixzz4d5c0xHTC
- ↑ [5]
- ↑ http://truepundit.com/exclusive-white-house-fingers-john-mccain-as-media-leak-believes-u-s-senator-eavesdropped-on-trumps-classified-phone/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170216061621/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/obama-secret-syria-order_n_1730712.html?tw_p=twt
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/08/09/the-benghazi-brief-the-entire-story-of-operation-zero-footprint-in-libya-and-why-further-committee-hearings-are-futile/
- ↑ https://consortiumnews.com/2011/10/28/sen-mccains-libyan-two-step/
- ↑ https://www.conservapedia.com/images/0/06/C9Pak4-W0AIldKy_%281%29.jpg
- ↑ After Nixon invaded Cambodia, Congress required notification of covert actions. The specific charge in the Iran-Contra affair was that Congress was never notified. While reporting requirements are opaque, compliance can be made by informing a group of Senators smaller than the Gang of 8, which includes at least one member of the opposition party, usually a ranking member or vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee or committee with oversight of an executive department providing funding for the covert action. In this case, Senators McCain and Graham appear to be recipients of the information from Sec. Clinton who provided regular briefings.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a473612.pdf - ↑ https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2015/09/11/exclusive-new-emails-in-benghazi-weapons-mystery.html
- ↑ http://www.captainsjournal.com/2015/09/14/the-weapons-of-benghazi/
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq
- ↑ http://washingtonsblog.com/2015/05/dia-docs-west-wants-a-salafist-principality-in-eastern-syria.html
- ↑ https://nypost.com/2014/06/08/how-the-taliban-got-their-hands-on-modern-us-missiles/
- ↑ https://youtu.be/QcEMH5YuI6E
- ↑ Former Obama official discloses rush to get intelligence on Trump team. Fox News. March 29, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
- ↑ Poor, Jeff (March 29, 2017). Fmr Obama Official Reveals Pre-Inauguration Effort to Gather Intel on Incoming Trump Team. Breitbart News. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
- ↑ http://www.mrctv.org/videos/former-obama-official-stumbles-while-trying-backtrack-after-implying-intel-leaks
- ↑ http://www.aim.org/aim-column/trump-outsmarts-the-media-again/
- ↑ https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/344226-intelligence-chairman-accuses-obama-aides-of-hundreds-of-unmasking
- ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/28/fbi-scrutinized-by-congress-over-probe-into-alleged-russia-trump-link.html
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/adamhousley/status/847858385798049793?s=09
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/adamhousley/status/847859134888239105
- ↑ McCabe, Neil W. (March 31, 2017). Fox News: Senior Obama Intelligence Official Unmasked Trump Associates. Breitbart News. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
- ↑ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-rice-full-blown-investigation/
- ↑ https://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2017/06/02/obama-spy-scandal-reveals-new-suspect
- ↑ https://youtu.be/JGTO2dkH2Q4
- ↑ http://www.freedomwatchusa.org/
- ↑ http://www.freedomwatchusa.org/james-comey-fbi-and-others-sued-by-whistleblower-dennis-mo
- ↑ http://circa.com/politics/accountability/james-comey-sued-by-intelligence-contractor-dennis-montgomery-over-spying-on-americans
- ↑ http://www.thepostemail.com/2017/06/06/former-nsa-cia-contractor-dennis-montgomery-topic-hannity/
- ↑ http://www.freedomwatchusa.org/pdf/170606-2017.06.05%20-%20Spying%20Comp.pdf
- ↑ http://www.thefogbow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9798
- ↑ http://circa.com/politics/accountability/james-comey-sued-by-intelligence-contractor-dennis-montgomery-over-spying-on-americans
- ↑ later FBI Director. James Comey, the name entrusted to investigate government leaks, admits to being an anonymous source for the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html
- ↑ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3571705/posts
- ↑ [6]
- ↑ Check out @HillaryClinton's Tweet: https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/793250312119263233?s=09
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/11/the-dc-cover-up-thats-as-big-as-spygate/
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/08/22/my-discussion-with-john-durhams-lead-investigator-william-aldenberg/
- ↑ http://nlpc.org/2018/01/03/mueller-probe-part-rear-guard-fbi-action/
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-justice-stonewall-continues-1523219016
- ↑ http://www.mygovcost.org/2018/05/29/the-fbis-70000-conference-table/
External links
- George Eliason: Beyond the DNC - Leaks, Hacks, and Treason, August 14, 2018.
- Source E = Boris Epshtyn, Seth Abramson Megathread.
- All the president's enemies, by The Washington Times
|