Russigate on Life Support

As all the oxygen in the news business is being shunted to the coronavirus. As of early last night, I had no articles flagged. Then one of the reliable new sources came up with a couple.

Margot Cleveland at Da Fed is wondering Did Spygate Source Stefan Halper Work For The Hillary Clinton Campaign? That Clinton Foundation money is really a giant political slush fund. Let's see his tax returns.

Halper’s past relationship with the CIA highlights yet another possible task master for the 76-year-old during the 2016 election and raises the question of whether Halper was working for the CIA or another intelligence agency before the FBI brought him on as a CHS in early August 2016. The IG report’s conclusion that the FBI had not used any confidential human sources prior to the launch of Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016, indicates Halper had another boss before then, because Halper first engaged with Page at a small dinner gathering at Magdalene College in Cambridge on July 10, 2016.

But additional facts raise still another possibility: that Halper was working with the Clinton campaign at this time.

On July 6, 2016, just days before Halper dined with Page and a dozen other select guests at Magdalene College, Halper spoke at a plenary lecture series at Cambridge on “the phenomenon which is ‘Trump’s maverick candidacy.’” A write-up of the talk noted that Halper “explain[ed] the deficits in Clinton’s campaign which have caused the campaign to become almost too close to call,” and then “concluded his talk by stating that if the media focuses on Clinton, she will lose, whereas if they continue to focus on Trump, he will lose.”

“This will be true despite Trump’s adept handling of the media that has resulted in him receiving two billion dollars’ worth of free media coverage,” Halper said, according to the blog post.

Four days after sharing his sage insights with the attendees of the lecture series, Halper welcomed Clinton surrogate and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and former Republican Party strategist and outspoken Never Trumper Vin Weber, to the same Cambridge conference Page attended. According to the Washington Post, Page’s presence at that conference came at the behest of Halper, whose grad student called and emailed Page an invitation to the seminar. The Post also reported that Cambridge paid for Page’s air travel and accommodations—a strange arrangement given that Page was not a featured speaker at the conference.

From Just The News, Ex-Trump adviser: Brits hinted they assisted Team Obama on Russia collusion probe "K.T. MacFarland also says she believes James Comey's alert to Trump about Steele dossier was akin to blackmail."

President Trump's former deputy national security adviser says a British intelligence official hinted to her that his country had aided the Obama administration's early Russia collusion probe during the 2016 election.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland told Just the News that as Trump was preparing to take office in January 2017 she received a call and email from her counterpart in the British national security establishment.

The contact from British Deputy National Security Adviser Patrick “Paddy” McGuinness occurred around the day the sensational but now debunked Christopher Steele dossier leaked in the U.S. news media.

McGuinness stated the British would not be commenting on the leaked document, which was written by the former MI6 operative Steele as an opposition research project for Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic Party, she said.

From Judicial Watch, More Clinton Court Battles

In another desperate attempt by the Clinton machine to delay truth and accountability for her email conduct and how it impacted the people’s “right to know” under FOIA, lawyers for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills have asked the Court of Appeals to overturn a U.S. District court order granting Judicial Watch’s request for their depositions about Clinton’s emails and Benghazi attack records. Lawyers for Clinton and Mills filed a “Petition for Writ of Mandamus” earlier today.

The Clinton request comes in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit that seeks records concerning “talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack” (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01242)). Judicial Watch famously uncovered in 2014 that the “talking points” that provided the basis for Susan Rice’s false statements were created by the Obama White House. This Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015.

Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx, Hillary Clinton asks appeals court to overturn order for deposition about email server and Benghazi

The legal team for Clinton said reversing the order “is warranted because Judicial Watch’s impending depositions of Secretary Clinton and Ms. Mills are inappropriate, unnecessary, and a clear abuse of discretion.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “This desperate act is yet another attempt by the Clinton machine to delay truth and accountability for her email conduct and how it impacted the people’s ‘right to know’ under FOIA.”

No go forth, and socially distance yourself some more (and wash your hands).