Time for More Russiagate

It's getting harder and harder to find names for these. Today is an odd lot, none of the stories terribly connected; just dots in the pointillist painting that's slowly being created.

Dan Chaitin at WaEx records that James Comey says 'Public record' can't explain why ex-FBI lawyer doctored email in Russia inquiry. But maybe he can.

Kevin Clinesmith is the former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty last week to one count of making a false statement by doctoring a CIA email during the process of the bureau seeking a court's permission to renew an order to wiretap Page for the third and final time. In that email, Clinesmith, 38, wrote that Page was "not a source" for the CIA when the agency had actually told the FBI that Page was an operational contact for them. “At the time, I believed the information that I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the language that I entered into the email was not originally there and that I inserted that in there,” he said during his plea hearing.

Comey signed off on the original Page FISA warrant application and two renewals but not the third one, as he had been fired. He insisted to Cooper that he does not know Clinesmith.

"Maybe I was in a meeting with the guy," he said. Comey also said the matter should be taken "seriously" but also downplayed Clinesmith's significance by repeatedly calling him a "junior lawyer" and said he can't understand why Clinesmith altered the email like he did, judging from the "public record."

So he's already setting the stage for the "doesn't remember" defense, in case emails come out showing he corresponded with Clinesmith about the Page FISA warrant, and other relevant matters.

Until today we were unaware that there were whistleblowers and patriots who were silenced when trying to stop the spying operation on POTUS. https://t.co/gyBO9Gq1sl

— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz) August 27, 2020

Da Signal, 3 Key Points in Newly Released FBI Documents on Foreign Bid to Influence Clinton Campaign 1. Foreign Government Sought to Donate to Clinton Campaign . . . but the FBI refuses to identify which, unlike the Trump/Russia probe. 2. Defensive Briefing (she got one, Trump didn't). 3. What Comey Knew:

On April 14, 2015, the special agent in charge of the Clinton foreign-meddling case took concerns directly to Comey about what seemed like a stalled investigation.

The agent, who was not identified by name in the documents, respectfully told the director in an email, “I hope I am not overstepping in this matter.” The message said that Comey would be getting a briefing the next day about the foreign government and Clinton.

“The FISA application has remained in limbo for the last four months, even though subsequent investigative activity by [redacted] provided additional probable cause for the FISA application,” the agent’s message to Comey said. “[Redacted] is still uncertain as to why the application has not been sent to [the Justice Department] for final approval, although several reasons have been put forth by [the Counterintelligence Division], most recently that the decision to put the application on hold originated ‘on the seventh floor.’”

The “seventh floor” at the FBI refers to the most senior agents at the FBI.
The message continued:

While superficially connected to political candidates, the investigation targets a NONUSPER [non-U.S. person] involved in illegal activity; it does not target the candidate(s), and there is no evidence the candidate is even aware of the potential targeting.
I would like to either see this investigation move forward, or at least get an understanding of why we are not being allowed to move forward.
My team has put a lot of time and effort into this matter, and they don’t understand why they are not being allowed to vigorously investigate this case.

That day, Comey responded to the special agent in charge.

“Don’t know anything about this, but will get smarter,” Comey wrote.

That last is dubious. So the FBI scotched an investigation of a  non-U.S. person] involved in illegal activity on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Jack Cashill at Am Spec, So Who Exactly ‘Cozied Up’ to Russia, Joe? "Democrats point one finger, but three point right back at them." The Democrats are mad at Russia because it wouldn't stay bought, and vice versa. No honor among thieves.

So far, if I'm not mistaken, impeachment has been mentioned more at the RNC than at the DNC. A sign that the politics of impeachment did not go as the Democrats planned.

— Matthew Continetti (@continetti) August 28, 2020

Newly freed Daily Caller Men's Fashion editor, Roger Stone comment on non-sartorial matters: The Newest Big Lie About Trump Hinges On One Slimy Word, And Two Guys Desperate To Avoid Prison

Because there was a general mainstream media blackout of the coverage of the show trial I was subjected to in Washington, D.C., many people do not know what I was charged with. It is therefore important to know that my trial never produced any evidence that I possessed or knew about the content or source of any of the Wikileaks disclosures prior to their public release.

The other falsehood that the mainstream media manipulators got huge mileage from is my entire innocuous exchange on Twitter direct messages with the persona of Guccifer 2.0, who our intelligence agencies insist without providing any proof was a Russian intelligence asset.

Robert Mueller himself recycled the whopper in a op-ed in the Washington Post the day after the president commuted my sentence. “Roger Stone was communicating with Russian Intelligence Officers known to us” he wrote. His claim that my innocent and innocuous exchange with the persona of Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter DM, which I released entirely publicly in 2017, was proof of collusion between the GRU and the Trump campaign is disproved by the timing and content of the exchange which took place after the release of DNC documents by Wikileaks. The exchange itself proves no collaboration or collusion.

Mueller’s assertion that I claimed advance knowledge of the Wikileaks data release is meaningless; Julian Assange had already said in multiple interviews in the late Summer of 2016 that he had more material on Hillary Clinton and would release it.

Jordan Davidson at Da Fed, VP’s Top Foreign Policy Aide: John Bolton Is A Liar Who Fabricated Intel To Start Wars



WaPoo, House Democrats seek probe of Vindman firings amid new allegations involving Trump’s national security adviser. A lie. Vindman was reassigned from the NSC staff. It happens, Lt. Colonels get reassigned all the time. They rotate from position to position. He then resigned because the hand writing was on the wall regarding his career. Somehow he seems to feel entitled to stay at the NSC despite the fact that he's clearly working against the administrations policies.

Linked at 357 Magnum in Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups.