Russiagate, Really?

Yes, really. The morning edition was put off by a fishing trip (more later) so here we go: Ace: Oh: FBI Lawyer Who Texted "Viva La Resistance" Just Happened to Conduct Interview of George Papadopolous. Also, "FBI Attorney #2" identified

So, if you wanted to make sure the George Papadopolous interview came out "right" -- like the Hillary Email investigation was rigged to come out "right" -- who would you turn to? Mr. Viva Le Resistance, of course.

An FBI attorney who sent anti-Trump text messages -- including one calling for "resistance" against Trump -- took part in at least one interview last year with George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was part of the FBI team that interviewed Papadopoulos on Feb. 16, 2017, a source familiar with the interview tells TheDCNF.
...
While Meadows, a close President Donald Trump ally, did not explicitly say that Clinesmith was FBI Attorney 2, The Daily Mail reported that he was.

Recall that Mark Meadows made another surprising claim during his questioning of IG Horowitz -- that there was "growing evidence" that FBI Interview Form 302s had been "edited and changed.""I think the other thing that I would ask you to look into, there is growing evidence that 302s were edited and changed," Meadows said. "Those 302s, it is suggested that they were changed to either prosecute or not prosecute individuals. And that is very troubling."

#Me Too! Margot Cleveland at the Federalist thinks The FBI Would Be Guilty Of Clear Bias If Its Trump Investigation Were A Racial Discrimination Lawsuit, Me too! Trump calls for Peter Strzok's testimony to air live on TV: 'There should be total transparency!' Me Too!

Daniel Greenfield at Front Page: Why Obama Wanted the Russians to Hack the Election 

Without the Russians, Obama’s people would have just been nakedly abusing their powers to spy on Americans. But as long as the Russians were active, his deep state had the excuse that it needed.

IBD Editorial: FBI Still Stonewalls Congress On Russia Investigation — More Deep State Obstruction? Yes.  Kathryn Blackhurst at PoliZette: DOJ Docs Showdown Coming Thursday on House Floor, Meadows Says, and Goodlatte Says DOJ and FBI Face New Document Deadline: Time to put somebody in the pokey. Wray or Rosenstein? Why choose when you can have both?

Real Clear Investigations: Here's One Unverified File the Feds Won't Leak: About Loretta Lynch

The information remains so secret that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz had to censor it from his recently released 500-plus-page report on the FBI’s investigation of Clinton, and even withhold it from Congress.

The contents of the secret intelligence document — which purport to show that Lynch informed the Clinton campaign she’d make sure the FBI didn't push too hard — were included in the inspector general’s original draft. But in the official IG report issued June 14, the information was tucked into a classified appendix to the report and entirely blanked out.

“The information was classified at such a high level by the intelligence community that it limited even the members [of Congress] who can see it, as well as the staffs,” Horowitz explained last week to annoyed Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight authority over Justice and the FBI.

DOJ protects it's own above all.  More from Lee Smith at Real Clear Investigations: Seven Mysterious Preludes to the FBI's Trump-Russia Probe. We need Misfud to testify. Ace:

It's almost as if there were a covert operation against Trump, directed by high partisan officials of the US government.

Here's the first approach, and the second.

I have long found it very interesting that one man with connections to Western intelligence attempted to "incept" George Papadoplous with the claim that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton, and then another man with connections to Western intelligence then arranged, for some reason, to meet with Papadopolous and extract this same information from him.

Then this information was fed to the US government, and used as the basis for opening an investigation. Almost as if this was all a set-up.

Also, note the very interesting detail near the end. . .

 George Parry at da Spectator: Mueller’s Concord Mismanagement Is Convulsing

Against all expectations, in April 2018, lawyers for one of the Russian corporate defendants, Concord Management and Consulting, LLC (“Concord”), entered their appearances in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They then served extensive discovery requests on Team Mueller seeking full disclosure of the government’s case and investigation including sensitive national security and intelligence information.

This type of discovery is called “graymail,” in which the government must disclose closely guarded state secrets in order to proceed with the prosecution. The alternative is to drop the charges.

So, should Team Mueller bother to litigate the discovery requests? The maximum penalty against Concord is a $500,000 fine or compensation to anyone damaged by the alleged conspiracy. But these may be mere theoretical penalties since there appears to be no way for the government to levy Concord’s assets in Russia. In short, even if the prosecution wins at trial, no one will go to prison and the fines may be uncollectible. So what’s the point of the exercise?

If the Muellerites lose the discovery litigation and are faced with having to disclose sensitive intelligence about the case and their investigation, should they withdraw the indictment against Concord? And, if they drop the charges, are they prepared for the resulting public relations disaster?

Bottom line: how did such a purportedly smart bunch of lawyers get themselves into this fix? . . .

Eric Tucker, AP: Looming question for Mueller probe: How much to make public? It's really not his choice. It's Rosenstein, and since Rosenstein reports to Trump through Sessions, ultimately it's Trump's.

James Gordon Meek, ABC News: Special counsel obtains Trump ally Erik Prince's phones, computer. Anything he can do to make a Trumpite uncomfortable. The process is the punishment.

Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage Mag: The Media Accuses Trump of its Own Crimes

The entire trade in hacked emails, by domestic or foreign actors, only exists because of the media. Whether it’s Sarah Palin’s emails, the DNC emails, Broidy’s emails or Podesta’s emails, the practice wouldn’t exist without the collusion and complicity of media outlets with the hackers and their agenda.

If the media wants to investigate someone for colluding in email hacks, it can look in the mirror.

The media was eager to peddle the same stolen emails that it wants to blame on Trump. The Washington Postand ABC News are still cashing in on stories about the hacks garnished with lurid clickbait headlines like, "Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC's leaked emails" and "The 4 Most Damaging Emails From the DNC WikiLeaks Dump". Did Trump force them to run those stories?

To paraphrase Casablanca’s Captain Renault, “I am shocked to find that email hacking is going on here!”