Russiagate Stew

A pretty random lot, of mostly older material, but let's start with James Casey from atop Da Hill with  'Unmasking' Steele dossier source: Was confidentiality ever part of the deal?

Critics who claim that Attorney General William Barr has recklessly declassified this FBI electronic communication, putting Danchenko and other sources — and future source operations — in peril are wrong. Steele was a “non-U.S. Person,” and not an FBI source when he was de facto working for the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign to develop opposition research against Donald Trump. Steele subcontracted this work to Danchenko, also not a government agent or source, who, by his own admission during the FBI interview, provided what he categorized as “bar talk over beers” back to Steele. The fact that this kind of information in an FBI communication was classified as “secret” in the first place is unexplainable. How is bar talk by a collection of drinking friends a threat to the national security of the United States, the very description of what constitutes “secret” information?

Speaking of those "who claim that Attorney General William Barr has recklessly declassified this FBI electronic communication, putting Danchenko and other sources" The Ghost of Daniel Parker has a long Twitter thread on one of the Never-Tumpers who make such claims:

1\

MEET THE CLEANUP MAN

How well do you know David H Laufman?

Read on...you may be surprised by what you learn. pic.twitter.com/kPqcydrOkZ

— ghost of daniel parker (@SeekerOTL) August 2, 2020

At Da Fed, William Corben The Michael Flynn I Knew In Iraq Was A Brilliant Patriot

A decade later, a retired lieutenant general Flynn transitioned from his second career as a savvy policy commentator, and a less-than-savvy K Street merchant, to throwing in with a pit crew during the demolition derby that was the 2016 U.S presidential election.

Then arrived an ominous apparition that haunted our national psyche for the next four years. Russian spooks, aided by saboteurs from the Trump campaign, were imagined to have subverted the paragon of our democratic system, a free and fair election. This phantasm dwelled in the hearts of Donald Trump’s most strident political adversaries. More troubling, it lurked in the fevered ideations of our national security, legislative leadership, and justice system.

This all changed after a gush of declassified transcripts and affidavits began flowing into daylight. Through the clarity of original source documents and sworn testimony, the allegations of “foreign collusion” evaporated under facts, giving way to a shockingly egregious pattern of governmental abuse.

While malfeasance emerged from multiple institutions, no organization discredited itself more acutely than the Federal Bureau of Investigation I have been privileged to serve for 22 years. With conflagrations ravaging the 2016 electoral landscape, the FBI should have served as a rule-of-law firebreak. But that role was enthusiastically abandoned by FBI headquarters arsonists whose names we have come to learn and loathe.

The entire fiasco has been a gut shot to the thousands of former agents whose careers faithfully adhered to the Constitution. How did law enforcement’s premier investigative agency, steeped with expertise in quashing public corruption, become so thoroughly devoted to abetting it?

The full answer awaits the completion of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s formal investigation, and possibly the deliberations of a federal trial jury. But FBI veterans also seek to know, how on earth was this allowed to happen?

Sharyl Attkisson is still looking for answers at AmThink Attkisson v. Holder: The Government Spied on Me and Now is Hiding the Guilty Parties. DOJ still hiding the pickle.

Breitbart,  Ron Johnson: ‘Corruption at the Highest Levels’ During Obama Admin Investigation of Trump’s 2016 Campaign

Johnson dismissed Jarrett’s remarks that downplayed former President Barack Obama’s role in a 2016 investigation into the Trump presidential campaign, adding there was “corruption at the highest levels.”

“Well, you will notice she didn’t answer your question,” he said. “She just talked about, in general, what the process should be. That’s not the process they followed. It is very clear that there was corruption at the highest levels of, certainly, the FBI. We have evidence of it. I’m looking forward to John Durham, wrapping up his investigation. I personally believe that the intelligence community was involved in this thing.”

Johnson continued, “Their initial goal was to exonerate Hillary Clinton, when — so that she could win the election. When she lost the election, their goals shifted to first — first and foremost, I think, sabotaging the Trump administration, which they have done a pretty good job of, also, I think initiating this diversionary operation, the smokescreen to cover up their wrongdoing. The fact that they — they used all the awesome powers of their agencies to investigate their political opponent. They didn’t want that revealed. It’s being revealed right now.”

“So, again, Valerie Jarrett simply isn’t answering the question,” he added. “That’s our job. We need to get the information. But, as I stated earlier, they still have so many of their supporters in these agencies. They are doing a pretty good job at hiding the ball. It’s hard to extract the information. But I’m a pretty tenacious guy.”

From Wayne Allyn Root at Town Hall Does Anyone Have the Courage to Indict Obama? I don't want to indict Obama, it's a bad political habit to get into, but it might be amusing to impeach him ab initio.

But if any one is going to do it, it has to be The Magnificent William Barr "The attorney general understands how the Democrats have misled the American people for the last four years." Angela Kelly at AmGreat.