Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Russiagate: Judge Sullivan Stalls

To pick up from yesterday when it was revealed that the Appeals court rejects Flynn effort to force judge to drop case immediately (Jerry Dunleavy, WaEx), today we find Judge Sullivan taking all the time he wants about getting to a solution. Or, as Margot Cleveland at Da Fed puts it, D.C. Court Endorses Continued Legal Harassment Of Michael Flynn
Where things go from here, however, is unclear, and Flynn’s legal team has not yet decided on its course of action. Flynn could seek review by the Supreme Court, but strategically he is likely better off waiting for Sullivan to rule on the motion to dismiss — something the D.C. Circuit said they “trust and expect” will happen with “appropriate dispatch.”

Flynn, though, has already waited long enough for justice. And justice delayed is justice denied.
Fox, Gregg Jarrett: In Flynn case, DC circuit court plays a silly game of legal dodgeball
The D.C. Circuit suggested that it is within the realm of possibility that Sullivan might actually dismiss the case, however improbable that may seem given his conduct.
If Sullivan refuses to drop the case, the court stated that Flynn would then be able to present the very same arguments in a direct appeal after sentencing.

In other words, the higher court played a silly game of legal “dodgeball.” They found a way to duck making a decision on the merits, and simply deferred the case pending Sullivan’s final ruling.

This is unfortunate and underscores the legal maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
And there is some movement, Sundance at CTH, Maximum Antagonism – Judge Sullivan Files Order Dragging Out Flynn Case Past Election…
The minute order filed by Judge Emmet Sullivan outlines a protracted time-frame for the next sequence of events in the case against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn:
. . .
As noted in the order, Sullivan is now telling the DOJ and Flynn defense to file a joint status report outlining their “recommendation for further proceedings” by September 21, 2020. From there a briefing schedule which will require both parties to respond to Sullivan’s personal amicus (Gleeson), and additionally respond jointly to any other amicus not ordered by the court. Lastly, Sullivan is requesting three dates for oral arguments.

In essence, despite his ability to quickly convene the parties to settle all matters before the court; which includes the unopposed motion by the DOJ and defense to drop the case; Sullivan intends to drag this case out as long as possible and use the amicus as a tool forcing responses from both parties (DOJ and Flynn). So much for the “quick dispatch” outlined within the DC Circuit opinion, this case is going on for several more months.
I predict that if becomes clear Trump will win the election, Sullivan will drop the case like a hot potato.

Brian Cates at UncoverDC, The Steele Dossier Was “Plan B”
It’s been noticed by some SpyGate researchers and investigative reporters that it seemed strange after focusing so much attention on Papadopoulos, sending an OCONUS lure at him, and recording him several times over a few months, that in late September the FBI suddenly shifts its gears and focuses on Carter Page, seeming to do so once they decided to make use of the Steele dossier as the basis for their surveillance warrant.

This is because while Carter Page shows up several times in the Steele dossier, George Papadopoulos does not.

The original plan was never to resort to using a paid political operative of the Hillary Clinton campaign selling often non-verifiable hearsay to the agency as a confidential human source [CHS, or informant]. This only happened after the surreptitious recording strategy failed.

All those involved knew the claims advanced by Steele in his dossier would not stand up to any real scrutiny, and indeed, they haven’t.

And so here we are now, after the first Durham indictment dropped, waiting to see who goes next as this massive and ever-growing scandal continues to build.
Sara Carter, Carter Page’s FISA Related ‘Woods File’ Docs Disappeared, Was It ‘Malice Or Incompetence’. It doesn't have to be "or." It can be both. The "Crossfire Hurricane" team was unusual in that it was run of the the "7th floor," the high muckety mucks  who administered the FBI, rather than at a field office, where working FBI agents live. Administrators are often not that good at doing the tasks they administrate. See "The Peter Principle"
The malfeasance ran deep and straight to the top of the bureau. Attorney General Barr and Durham shouldn’t leave any stone unturned and expose what happened to the American public.

There is no way that a file of that significance can go missing in an investigation into a Presidential campaign and then a President of the United States.

The next question we should be asking is “why didn’t anyone know until now?”
A reappearance of the Mysterious Mr. Mifsud. A thread from Techno Fog -  Whoa - the Joseph Mifsud 302 is out.
Mifsud said he had no advance knowledge Russia had DNC emails and did not make any offer to Papadopoulos
And there is a post-interview email from Mifsud to FBI yet to be released 🤔
A very short interview for a purported "Russian agent"

Mueller's Report played-up Mifsud's "connections to Russia."
At the interview, the FBI didn't bother to ask many questions about those "connections."
No follow-up questions about emails.
Now we can see why there were zero references to the Mifsud 302 in Mueller's Report.

Mueller allegation: @GeorgePapa19 "lies" about if he was w/ Trump campaign during Mifsud meeting impeded their ability to question Mifsud.
The problem: Mifsud himself told the FBI that George was w/ Trump campaign when they met.

One last thing - the Special Counsel's dishonesty to the court.
Representation: @GeorgePapa19 prevented FBI from getting to the bottom of the Mifsud story.
Reality: the FBI asked few questions of Mifsud, was getting emails from Mifsud, and chose to not follow-up with Mifsud.
It's becoming clearer and clearer that the "Special" Counsel was set up to get Trump, and finding no Russian collusion, they tried "Obstruction of Justice", and even then they couldn't bend the frame to make it really fit, although they tried mighty hard.

Sundance, Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot: AG Bill Barr Announces Intent to Codify, Permanently, a Two-Tiered Justice System for FISA…. I get his point, but I agree with Barr that we probably need special protections for FISA abuse against political enemies. This requires the AG to go along. That's probably enough in a Republican administration . . .

John Solomon at JTN, CIA conduct during Russia assessment may be next boomerang in probe of investigators "DNI hints new declassification coming soon. Some want it to be a congressional complaint to the CIA inspector general questioning the Obama intelligence assessment on Russian intentions."
By his own admission, ex-CIA Director John Brennan chafed at being questioned earlier this month by federal prosecutor John Durham about the Obama administration's intelligence assessment that Russia’s meddling in 2016 election was designed to help Donald Trump.

Brennan "questioned why the analytic tradecraft and the findings of the ICA are being scrutinized by the Department of Justice, especially since they have been validated by the Mueller Report and the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Review," a statement issued by his spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

The answer, according to multiple officials familiar with the evidence, is that the House intelligence committee in 2018 sent a secret report to the CIA inspector general that called into question the tradecraft used in the Brennan-led assessment.

Specifically, the officials said, it highlighted dissent and doubts by some intelligence community analysts about Vladimir Putin's intentions in intervening in the 2016 election. Some believed it was to help Trump; others believed it was simply to sow chaos without picking a winner, and still others saw evidence Putin might have preferred Hillary Clinton, the officials said.

In other words, an assessment that was portrayed as unanimous when it was made public in early January 2017 was anything but at the analyst level, according to Fred Fleitz, a longtime intelligence officer who was briefed on the House intelligence committee's concerns when he served as chief of staff in the National Security Council.

"When I was briefed on the House Intelligence Committee report on the January 2017 ICA, I was told that John Brennan politicized this assessment by excluding credible intelligence that the Russians wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election and ordered weak intelligence included that Russia wanted Trump to win, Fleitz told Just the News.

"I also was told that Brennan took both actions over the objections of CIA analysts. I am concerned about what happened to these analysts and worry that they may have been subjected to retaliation by CIA management," he added. "These analysts are true whistleblowers, and they should come to the congressional intelligence committees to tell their stories and set the record straight on the ICA."
Related, at WaPoo  John Brennan whines Trump will suffocate the intelligence community to get reelected, right after the proof emerges that he did exactly that to try to elect Hillary. Liberals always project.

Dan Chaitin at WaEx, What we know about CNN host Chris Cuomo's 'shocking' conversation with Michael Cohen revealed by Tucker Carlson. That they're both scummy bottom feeders? But we already knew that.
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