Monday, January 13, 2020

Another Day, More Russiagate

Julie Kelly at AmGreat thinks Christopher Wray Isn’t the Right Man to Fix the FBI. I'm beginning to think that the FBI has gone beyond redemption; not that at the rank level the agents are corrupt, but at the Washington D.C. level, it his been horribly polluted by power and politics, and the agency needs to be abolished, and the work the agents do rolled into the Marshall service. How many paramilitary police federal police agencies do we need any way.
Rather than express disgust at the reputational wreckage created by Comey and company or apologize to Carter Page for accusing him of being a Russian agent or empathize with Americans outraged at what the FBI put the country through for three years, Wray instead begged for the court’s forgiveness. “The FBI has the utmost respect for this Court, and deeply regrets the errors and omissions identified by the OIG,” Wray wrote. “The OIG report . . . describes[s] conduct that is unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution.”

Wray’s 15-page mea culpa is loaded with bureaucratese in its most obnoxious form; solemn promises about very serious government forms and training classes and instructional videos and manuals and processes and working groups. There are no penalties for failing to follow the rules, no consequences for bad behavior.

(And, as if to shred any pesky concerns about the court’s objectivity, FISC’s presiding judge immediately appointed a Trump-hating collusion truther, David Kris, to oversee the alleged reform efforts. In March, Kris, disappointed with the Mueller report, predicted “that SDNY (or NYAG) will get [Trump] fair and square for campaign finance or other crimes.”)

Wray was forced to address the FBI’s use of sketchy confidential human sources. An audit of the FBI’s CHS program—also conducted by Horowitz and released the month before his FISA abuse report—identified extensive problems with the way the FBI handled that program, too. Just more errors and omissions, I suppose.

But it’s not just Wray’s fecklessness in the aftermath of the Horowitz report that merits his ouster. The chief has tried to cover up and excuse the scandal since he took the reins of the agency in August 2017.

Wray strenuously objected to the release of the February 2018 memo prepared by then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, which detailed how Comey’s FBI used the bogus Steele dossier as evidence in its application to the court and then withheld disclosing Steele’s Democratic funders.

Wray appealed to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, conflicted because he signed the final renewal on Page’s FISA application, to do whatever he could to stop Nunes from making his memo public. Rosenstein and Wray met with Trump’s chief of staff to warn that the memo’s release could “set a dangerous precedent.”

Wray refused to fire the disgraced Andrew McCabe—the acting FBI chief who served in between Comey and Wray—despite mounting evidence of McCabe’s misconduct. (Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe just hours before he could retire with full benefits.) Wray also has stonewalled requests for communications from McCabe.
Most institutions have a natural arc, creation by those dedicated to the function, followed by a slow takeover by those dedicated to the continuation of the agency regardless of of its function, along with an accumulation of political power dedicated to it's maintenance. Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Ex-DOJ Official Picked To Assist FISA Reform Was Ardent Defender Of FBI’s Surveillance Of Carter Page. And the FISA court too. At DaMail, REVEALED: Top FBI official who leaked court-sealed and sensitive information about 'terrorism and law enforcement' to reporters through hundreds of texts, rounds of golf and private dinners "Bryan Paarmann, a former top FBI official, is said to have leaked court-sealed and sensitive information to at least six reporters"

At CTH Sundance insists McCord is The Key – Devin Nunes Discusses Sketchy Issues Surrounding ICIG Michael Atkinson and Origination of the “Whistle-blower” Complaint…



It is very safe to say Mary McCord and Michael Atkinson have a working relationship from their time together in 2016 and 2017 at the DOJ-NSD. Atkinson was Mary McCord’s senior legal counsel; essentially her lawyer.

McCord was the senior intelligence officer who accompanied Sally Yates to the White House in 2017 to confront then White House Counsel Don McGahn about the issues with Michael Flynn and the drummed up controversy over the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak phone call.

Additionally, Mary McCord, Sally Yates and Michael Atkinson worked together to promote the narrative around the incoming Trump administration “Logan Act” violations. This silly claim (undermining Obama policy during the transition) was the heavily promoted, albeit manufactured, reason why Yates and McCord were presumably concerned about Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. It was nonsense.

However, McCord didn’t just disappear in 2017 when she retired from the DOJ-NSD. She resurfaced as part of the Lawfare group assembly after the mid-term election in 2018.
Gaslighters, blowhards and idiots who say they're pro-Trump, continue to push Devlin Barrett's FakeNews.
Again, Huber was NOT tasked to conduct an investigation into Clinton or the Clinton Foundation.

He was tasked to REVIEW issues raised by Congressman Goodlatte and then TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS to the AG and DAG.

You can see the letter at page 24. Read it carefully.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/57
So US govt gives money to Ukraine, Ukraine gives money to Busisma, Burisma gives money to Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden gives money to Democrats Congresscritters. Everybody happy. What's the problem?

At Town Hall, WATCH: Pelosi Fumbles to Explain Why She's Confident In the House's Impeachment Case
AP, Trump, Pelosi square off ahead of impeachment trial. At CTH, Kevin McCarthy floats a new hypothesis, Speaker Pelosi is Trying to Block Bernie Sanders Nomination… Politics is nth dimensional chess with no rules except the ones you made up yesterday.  At NR Anti-Trumper Kevin Williamson asks Impeachment, What Was It For?  "Which is to say, impeachment will be this year’s Beto O’Rourke vs. Ted Cruz."
Pelosi may have given the Democrats another moral victory, but McConnell is going to give Republicans an unqualified victory. And what is the cost of this impeachment misadventure? An even more dysfunctional government, an even more insipid politics, and an even more bitter and fearful electorate.
Jessica Tarlov, RCP, Impeachment Doesn't Matter -- Health Care Does. I remain unconvinced. From sundance,  Sunday Talks: Steve Bannon Discusses Senate Impeachment Trial and Connects to Bigger Picture…



MSN cites Bloomberg hopefully, Impeachment Adds to a Long List of Trump’s Legal Headaches, which is basically what it's all about while at Da Beast, Rick Wilson whines (and I do not exaggerate) If Trump Wins in 2020, Get Ready for President Don Jr. We could do worse. Preznit Chelsea?
Get ready for Donald Trump Jr., a man who speaks the fluent asshole dialogue of the own-the-libs Trump Party, to rise to the top of the 2024 GOP primary ranks. The dynastic talk that was once treated as a joke (even by me) is already growing around both Don Jr. and Ivanka. Poor Eric is left out, but then again, he always has been.

The Trump family—including the creepy automaton Jared Kushner—will continue to view the American government not as a sacred trust but as an ATM for their crapulous enterprises and nation-state-level grifting. While Kushner’s ambitions don’t appear to be especially political, his exploitation of his high office as Grand Vizier to Emir Donald has been spectacularly profitable for his companies. As for Trump personally, his hotels, golf courses, and clubs were miraculously both popular and profitable for unknown reasons. (Pardon me while I recover from that epic eye-roll.)
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