Russiagate Gathering Steam Again?

We had a tremendous thunderstorm last night, it seemed like Donner and Blitzen danced on our roof all night long, with Skye cowering in her hidey hole in the closed. More than 2 1/2 inches of rain. But today promises more heat and humidity.

Sundance at CTH, Senator Chuck Grassley Ponders Lack of Durham Response Prior to 2020 Election…,  Capt Ed at Hot Air, VIP, Grassley To Durham: *Hurry Up* With The Crossfire Hurricane Prosecutions. Yep, because if the Democrats get into power they won't hesitate to shut down an investigation for political reasons, and they won't even be apologetic about it.

.@realDonaldTrump #CommonSense IF NO PROSECUTIONS TIL AFTER ELECTIONS SAD SAD //just think Flynn Mueller Impeachment/ The deep state is so deep that ppl get away w political crimes/Durham shld be producing some fruit of his labor

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 6, 2020

Breitbart, Grassley: ‘The Deep State Is so Deep Its People Get Away with Political Crimes’ "“So much for a peaceful transition of power,” he remarked."

Frank Miele at RCP wonders Is Strzok Memo the Rosetta Stone of Obamagate?

Andrew McCarthy at National Review speculates that “Strzok’s notes were taken when someone later briefed him about the White House meeting that Strzok did not attend.” The New York Post concludes that the Strzok memo is “plainly Strzok’s notes of FBI chief Jim Comey’s account.” Certainly if Strzok were briefed by someone in attendance, it was most likely Comey. But Ivan Pentchoukov of The Epoch Times floats a much more interesting idea about how Strzok came to be in possession of the facts he recorded in the memo.

“The on-the-fly nature of the notes suggest that he was either physically present or listened in on a conference call,” Pentchoukov speculates.

Well, the Washington Post reports that “Strzok’s lawyer told The Fact Checker that Strzok did not attend the meeting,” and then suggests that probably means “the notes may recount what someone else — perhaps Comey — told him about the meeting.” Yes, maybe so, but there is good reason not to skate over the possibility that, as Pentchoukov puts it, Strzok “listened in” on the conversation.

This is indeed heady stuff, as it is beyond reason to think that Strzok was an invited participant. The last thing anyone at that meeting would want is an independent account of what was said as they planned how to entrap one of the incoming president’s closest aides. Yet that does not eliminate the chance that Strzok benefited from some kind of surveillance technique to eavesdrop on the conversation, either with the knowledge of one person in the room or possibly with none. Of course it is scary to think that the FBI was wiretapping the White House, but they did it to Trump Tower, so who knows?

It is the nature of the notes themselves that lends credence to this speculation. If they were written after the fact to memorialize a conversation Strzok had with Comey or someone else, there is no way to account for the brevity and choppiness of the account. Rather than just put “Logan Act” next to VP, an after-the-fact recitation would have been more likely to specify, “The Vice President brought up the Logan Act as one statute that could be used to prosecute Flynn’s dangerous dealings with the Russian ambassador.” And most suspiciously, there is no explanation for why Strzok would have cut off the end of Biden’s other contribution to the conversation. “I’ve been on the Intel Committee for 10 years and I never,” the transcript goes. “Never what?” the reader wants to know.

Somebody, perhaps even someone named Durham should ask him, under oath. Julie Kelly at AmGreat has this weekends "long read" Weapons of Mass Collusion as she recounts how "For two years, as Robert Mueller tried and failed to find evidence of a criminal conspiracy, NeverTrump Republicans tended to the right flank of the Trump-Russia collusion front. But their role in pushing the hoax went much deeper." Bill Kristol figures prominently.

At Am Think, Monte Kuligowski claims Shifty Schiff Cannot Re-Impeach for Anything Prior to Jan. 15, 2020. I don't believe it, and if you think they'll abide by anything resembling rules, you're delusional. It's all a giant game of Calvinball.

Andrew Kerr at Da Caller has news of the Biden crime family, Chinese Private Equity Firm Updates Records To Remove Hunter Biden From Its Board, But He Still Owns 10% Of The Company. Hey, coke and hookers don't pay for themselves!

The Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners updated its business records on April 20 to remove Hunter Biden as a member of its board of directors, but he continues to hold a 10% ownership stake in the company through his LLC, Chinese business records show.

Hunter Biden’s departure from BHR’s board was submitted to China’s National Credit Information Publicity System (NCIPS) more than six months after he pledged to relinquish his position with the firm “on or by October 31,” according to Qixinbao and Baidu, two independent services that provide registration information on Chinese corporations based on NCIPS filings.

At Da Wire,  Michael Cohen Allegedly Caught Dining Out While Serving Home Sentence. DOJ, Bureau Of Prisons Silent. Well, it's only been a few days over a holiday, and bureaucracies exist to run the clock. Maybe they'll get around to caring, and maybe not. Certainly, the press would show more interest if it were Paul Manafort.

And speaking of home confinement, Jeffrey Lord at AmSpec Roger Stone: The Corruption of Justice Part Two. Yeah, Roger Stone got a raw deal, but like Icarus, he flew too close to the sun.

Linked at 357 Magnum in Wednesday Link Roundup.