The Never Ending Story, Russiagate

An odd lot today: Deranged Lib Says Trump Grew the Economy to Distract from [Fake] Russia Probe (S. Noble at the Independent Journal)

“New figures released just this morning showing the economy is growing at its fastest pace in years. NBC’s Peter Alexander’s at the White House. Peter, good morning, there are a lot of headlines to talk about from the White House this morning, but this is one that the president wants to emphasize.”

Chuck Todd would have none of it.

“You know, Savannah, you can tell there was sort of an urgency in the president’s voice that bordered on – of almost pulling a muscle trying to pat yourself on the back. He was – you could feel that he knows there’s all these other headlines out there that are not good, especially this morning involving Michael Cohen, involving the Russia investigation. Frankly, even on the economic front, he got a lot of grief about trade from even fellow Republicans while traveling in the Midwest,” said Todd.

If that's what it takes, maybe we should start independent counsels whenever a democrat takes office.

Da Caller: Justice Department Is Silent About Why It Has Failed To Preserve Comey Emails In FOIA Case I think you have to look at initial revelations forced of out the DOJ/FBI as the opening bids in a game of liar's poker: Ace: FBI Releases Records on Christopher Steele, and SURPRISE, They're Almost Completely Redacted

Eric Felton, one of the four people still (somehow) at the Weekly Standard who actually does real work instead of issuing ritual maledictions against Trump and squeeing like schoolgirls over superhero movies and Star Wars, has this very interesting report:
. . .
How many lies does the FBI get to spin before people start getting fucking fired?

I'll direct you to Felton's article for the details of the continuing Steele-FBI relationship, despite Steele being terminated for cause based on the "seriousness of the violations."

And I know I mentioned this earlier, but in case all this crap has made you forget:

What's up with Steele apparently being sworn in as a Junior G-Man on February 2, 2016, almost six months before the FBI says it opened an inquiry into the Trump Collusion Hoax?

The FBI seems to lie an awful lot for an organization whose motto includes "Integrity." Maybe they listed that last for a reason.

More on the Mysterious Mr. Misfud from Margot Cleveland at the Federalist: If You Inspect The FISA Applications Closely, More Mysteries Arise About Joseph Mifsud. If you get him to spell his name backwards does he disappear back to his own dimension?

. . . The recently released Page FISA applications might provide a hint, I thought, so I pulled the sections discussing Papadopoulos from the four applications to compare. A spare line, unblackened portion, or even the addition of several redacted paragraphs might give some insight.

The important comparison would be between the second application filed in January 2017 (by mid-January, because the October 21, 2016, surveillance order expired in 90 days) and the FISA application filed in April 2017, because three significant events occurred during that time.

First, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos on January 27, 2017. Second, the FBI reportedly interviewed Mifsud in early-to-mid February, 2017 in Washington DC, when Mifsud spoke at the Global Ties conference. Third, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos again on February 16, 2017. The April 2017 application should have included details from these interviews, especially details from its interview of Mifsud, who, after all, supposedly provided the information that launched Crossfire Hurricane.

But the page-plus summary of Papadopoulos’ role in the Trump campaign and his supposed nexus to “coordinated efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election” remained unchanged. (Compare pages 93-94 with pages 191-192 of the released FISA applications available here.) The only apparent change in that section came in the concluding paragraph, detailing Page’s “established relationships with Russian Government officials,” with a slight addition to the footnote. (See page 192 of the FISA Application file.)

Of particular note, the footnote included a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request exemption notation, b7D-1, which allows the government to withhold information that “could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source.”

These facts indicate that the DOJ did not inform the FISA court of the FBI interviews with Papadopoulos and Mifsud. But it should have, especially if Mifsud denied Papadopoulos’ claim that the Maltese professor had bragged that the Russians had dirt on Hillary. Or was Mifsud an FBI informant or an asset of a foreign government, and was that instead what the DOJ told the FISA court?

It’s time for the FBI to come clean: Who was Mifsud, and what was his role in the launch of Crossfire Hurricane? And did the State Department assist the FBI in handling Mifsud? Congress and the president supposedly hold power over these agencies. They, and we, need the answers.

George Neumayr at Da Spectator: Never Forget the Brennan-Brit Plot to Nail Trump

Long before Flynn joined the Trump campaign in early 2016, Brennan and British intelligence were spying on him. That the CIA and FBI turned to Halper to set traps for him and others in the Trump campaign makes perfect sense. Halper was in on Spygate’s ground floor. Bloating himself for years on the American taxpayer’s dime, Halper couldn’t resist serving as a dual asset for the CIA/FBI and British intelligence.

In all likelihood, the Trump-hating Peter Strzok, who, as we have learned from his texts, was determined to “stop” the Trump candidacy, obtained Halper’s contact info from Brennan, to whom he served as the FBI’s liaison, which is one of the most critical facts for explaining the baseless probe. Brennan and Strzok nourished a shared hatred for Trump; Strzok would later boast to his mistress that Brennan had given him a CIA medal.

Trump should declassify all communications between Brennan and Strzok, if they exist, which is a real possibility, given what careless clowns the two of them are. Those communications would contain much of the story of Spygate.

The second form of foreign collusion underpinning the Mueller probe has gotten much more attention: the collusion between the FBI and Hillary’s foreign opposition researcher Christopher Steele. In paying Steele $160,000, Hillary purchased more than just opposition research; she purchased FISA warrants on her opponent’s associates and a counterintelligence probe of his campaign. Through Peter Strzok, who wanted her to win “1,000,000-0,” as he put it to his mistress, the FBI was working directly for the Hillary campaign, taking the work of her Brit spy and putting it directly into FISA warrant applications.
. . .
Under the post-9/11 fig leaf of CIA-FBI cooperation, Brennan ran a spy operation for the Hillary campaign straight out of CIA headquarters, with branch offices at M15 and M16 in the United Kingdom. Against what they saw as the terrifying future of a Trump presidency, the very figures who claimed to guard the special relationship turned it, through their mutual hysteria, into something shockingly sinister.

 A history lesson from True Pundit: Mueller & Holder Shut Down FBI Investigation of Stolen U.S. Stealth Defense Technology Implicating Lockheed Martin, While Comey Was Lockheed’s Top Lawyer. Remember that when they tell you how moral and upstanding they all are.

“This was the original pay-to-play scheme and it involves Mueller, Holder, (James) Comey and (Hillary) Clinton,” said Steve Morton, inventor and owner of a rare robotic ship and submarine stealth painting technology that can help make the U.S. Navy’s fleet invisible on radar and sonar. “They allowed my technology to be stolen by European companies partnered with Lockheed Martin and Comey was the top lawyer for Lockheed.

Now my technology is being sold to the Chinese, Russians, and all over the world to enemies of the United States. I wonder how much Hillary Clinton made on this because she was Secretary of State when the probe was shut down.”

Meanwhile Mueller's 13 angry democrats continue to plug on with the Manafort trial, at which the judge seems willing to take them to task over their ethical lapses. Daniel Greefield at Frontpage mag: When the Mueller Gang Met Judge Ellis:

Judge Ellis isn’t interested in a show trial. He’s asked the prosecution whether it thinks George Soros is also an oligarch. He’s made it clear that while he knows the agenda behind the case, there won’t be a Russiagate circus in his courtroom, no paranoid hysteria or sinister speculation. Nor will the case be allowed to linger on endlessly attracting swarms of reporters, activists and deep staters.

Manafort may well be convicted, but it won’t be on the terms that Mueller wanted. Mueller may get Manafort, but lose Trump. He may win the battle in Alexandria, but lose the war.

 “The Manafort trial is spinning him into a frenzy”, I'm pretty sure that was one of the main objectives. AllahPundit: Giuliani: Trump will decide whether to do an interview with Mueller within the next 10 days. Go ahead, Mueller, try to kick that football.  If it hasn't happened now, I don't think it will happen before the midterms. CNN: Lewandowski: Trump shouldn't meet with Mueller. Or he could sit down placing Mueller under oath and ask him some serious questions.

Linked in "Blog of the Day" in Pirate Cove's daily "If All You See . . ." Thanks Teach!