Russiagate, Now With "Bull" Durham

Can we just nickname him "Bull"? Fox US attorney John Durham has been reviewing origins of Russia probe 'for weeks'

Fox News reported on Monday that Attorney General Bill Barr had assigned John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to conduct the inquiry into alleged misconduct and alleged improper government surveillance on the Trump campaign in 2016 as well as whether Democrats were the ones who improperly colluded with foreign actors.

Durham, known as a “hard-charging, bulldog” prosecutor, according to a source, will focus on the period before Nov. 7, 2016—including the use and assignments of FBI informants, as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. Durham was asked to help Barr to "ensure that intelligence collection activities by the U.S. Government related to the Trump 2016 Presidential Campaign were lawful and appropriate."

 Sundance at CTH, Investigating the Investigators – AG Barr Working with CIA and ODNI…

Against the backdrop of media reports surrounding U.S. Attorney John Durham, and an investigation into potentially corrupt 2016 investigators, perhaps it’s worthwhile to pause, evaluate, reset the outlook and review the backstories.

There’s room for cautious optimism, but there’s also reason to temper expectations. First within the latest Fox News report, the following is noted:
. . .
If this report is correct; and if this review parameter is accurate as described; then Durham is ONLY looking at the gross intelligence activity prior to the 2016 election.

This is pertinent because it means Durham is NOT looking at the DOJ/FBI corrupt activity that surrounds the Mueller probe, Rod Rosenstein, corrupt current FBI agents/officials; corrupt investigative outcomes and cover-ups that occurred during 2017 and 2018 (James Wolfe etc.)… Regardless of disposition, career DOJ and FBI employees (ie. Mueller’s staff of workers), will remain safe under this limited review. Keep this in mind.

From the Daily Signal, 6 Things to Know About the Prosecutor Investigating Spying on Trump Campaign 1. Career Prosecutor, 2. Busting Mafia-FBI Connection, 3. Special Probes of CIA and Terror Detainees, 4. Devoted Catholic, Red Sox Fan, 5. Public Corruption and 6. Lauded by Democrats.

Thomas Lifson at AmThink asks the real question, What are the odds that the Durham investigation is for real and will bring the bad actors to justice?

I have long believed that the only reason a man like Barr, who was earning millions of dollars a year as a DC lawyer at the very top of his profession, could be lured back into the snake pit of DC politics under Trump would be his devotion to the integrity of our legal/judicial system.  If he were a cynic just interested in preserving the establishment that let him succeed so mightily, why not just stay where we was? He had to know that taking on the task of rescuing the system from its abusers would lead to the sort of vilification he now is enduring.

and wondering about the reported "collaboration" with the CIA:

My friend Mike Nadler observes in an email: "As a career bureaucrat, Haspell seems to love her agency and may not tolerate its misuse for partisan political purposes." I would add to that historically the CIA was very much a boys' club. Haspell's reputation was as a devoted career official, who no doubt endured a lot as a woman coming up the ranks. She may not be part of the club, but rather a harbinger of a new order at the CIA.

However, it must be considered that she could be implicated, in which case she could be obfuscating and trying to torpedo the investigation (which seems unlikely if Barr and Durham are as serious as I suspect they are) or alternatively that she is spilling what she knows. Sundance asks:

Who was the CIA Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action over Europe, while John Brennan and Peter Strzok were running their European 2016 counterintelligence operations?….

And Sundance says that it was Haspell. She probably knows a lot.

And how about that Honey Badger himself, Bill Barr? Barr Trolls Pelosi at the Capitol: ‘Madam Speaker, Did You Bring Your Handcuffs?’ (WaFreeBee). From the doubters at Da Beast, William Barr Delivers Chilling Message to FBI for Trump, and she says it like it's a bad thing! At Sara Carter, Clapper: “We Don’t Need Another Investigation of Investigators…Barr Should Wait for IG Report”, and at RCP, Brennan: Barr Is Fishing For Something In FISA Warrant To "Misrepresent" As A Deep State Plot Against Trump.  You can almost smell the fear in Washington from here. Or maybe that's just a dead fish.

In an interview Tuesday with MSNBC's Nicole Wallace, former CIA Director John Brennan said the Trump team's insistence on investigating the FISA warrants used to surveil members of the president's 2016 campaign is a fishing expedition to "uncover something they will misrepresent as being part of this deep state effort to try to undermine Donald Trump's election" in 2020.

"If they look back in 2020, are they going to find something that should have been said differently? Whatever, they might," he said.

I hope he's thinking of what happened to Michael Flynn and George Papadop. Meanwhile Brennan and Comey are starting to point fingers at each other. Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Comey And Brennan Appear At Odds Over Who Pushed To Include Dossier In Intel Report and  PJ Media, Gowdy: Emails Between Brennan and Comey Show One of Them Demanding that Dossier Be Put in Intel Assessment. Ace, Walls Are Closing In: Brennan and Anonymous Official Named "Brohn Jennan" Accuse Comey of Insisting on Putting Fake Steele Dossier in Official Intelligence Assessment; Comey Had Previously Accused Brennan of Trying to Sneak It In  Hint, hint. Why speculate when we have someone who can investigate and tell us?

Kevin Brock on Da Hill, Jim Comey's own words justify Bill Barr's review

AG Barr understands well that the FBI is dead as an agency — undeserving of the nation’s trust — if it is commonly perceived to be a weapon for political vagaries rather than an impartial, objective enforcer of the rule of law so vital to the survival of democratic governance.

These three initiatives will either validate Comey’s claim that everything he and his team did was “by the book” or they will expose grievous abuses that will invite reforms to ensure this never happens again.

Early indicators are troubling and Comey, with three linebackers bearing down, is in full scramble mode. His own words do not instill confidence, as evidenced during his most recent media tour last week in which he catapulted stones at all who have offended him.
. . .
So now Comey's game plan seems to be an appeal to emotion: We had to investigate the Trump campaign because he is such a terrible person and, as articulated by his investigator, Peter Strzok, someone who had to be “stopped.”

There’s a problem with that. FBI agents are not allowed to investigate individuals based on emotion or because they don’t like someone, or that someone has distasteful character traits. (For this, all politicians should be grateful.)

Referring to the article above, Ace, Former FBI Assistant Director of Intelligence: Comey Should Be Worried "Cucked-out pencil-neck incel sasquatch should start communing with lawyers instead of redwoods."

From "Brennan'sorangejumpsuit" (heh!) I don't expect the Horowitz report to expressly criticize the FBI for relying on Crowdstrike, but there are issues that really should be explored and explained, even if Crowdstrike's conclusions on hacking were 100% correct (I'm not saying it was or wasn't). It could be a cover up, but we might never find out. Go get 'em Bull!

Ace put's this one in red type (but no flaming skull), State Department Red Flag on Steele Dossier, Exposing It As Politically Motivated and Highly Inaccurate, Was Sent to Senior FBI Leader -- BEFORE the First FISA Application

So, they took a document they knew was not reliable and used it to get a FISA warrant on Carter Page (and really on Trump) anyway.

And -- lied to the court about its reliability!

Ed at Hot Air, Nadler: We’re Probably Not Gonna Impeach Trump, But …, while over at Breitbart, Louie Gohmert: thinks we were Very Close to America's First Successful Coup. The Peacock, White House rejects House panel's demands, says investigation amounts to 'unauthorized do-over' of Mueller probe. I think a middle finger should suffice.

Gateway Pundit has your foreign intervention in US elections, Stunning: European Reporter Reveals Trump-Russia-Collusion Hoax Has Its Origins with Soros-Funded Ukrainian Activist Group

The Russiagate affair began with documents released by groups funded by billionaire activist George Soros, it now emerges. Now it is clear that under Barack Obama, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev worked closely with Soros-related groups to compile opposition research on the Trump campaign.

Several U.S. media outlets have reported on the Ukrainian origins of the Russiagate hoax, including Epoch Times, The Hill and Gateway Pundit. The Epoch Times reported on April 10, 2019, that the charges against ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort originated with Ukrainian Representative Serhiy Leshenko and Artem Sytnyk, director of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), who revealed documents on kickbacks to Manafort during the Presidency of pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovych.

Politico purports to give us a A look inside Mueller’s office: Moot courts, job interviews and potluck parties "The Weissmann calendar entries show a mix of the mundane with the legally complex." But no entry for "Today, we take down the President"

From both Wombat's In The Mailbox: 05.15.19, Mark Steyn: The Deep State Goes Dangling, and Maggie's Farm, independently, a long but very interesting interview of George Papadopuolos by Mark Steyn:



Remember, if you walk into a room, and you don't know who the mark is, you're the mark. Also from the Wombat, Don Surber: Obama Spied On Many Others. Chicago politics writ large. Also  Joe For America: Democrats In Serious Trouble As AG Barr Includes CIA, National Intelligence In Investigation Of Coup Against President and Victory Girls: Adma Schiff Sinks Deeper Into Trump Derangement Syndrome. I didn't think that was possible.