Sunday, September 27, 2020

Russiagate still Festering

Not too shockingly, most of today's items are still related to the themes from the past couple of days, the new release of documents from the DOJ via the Flynn defense team, which show the upper echelon of the FBI eager to get Trump and hurt Flynn as a means to do so, and the revelations by Lindsey Graham 2.0 that the main source for the stories in the Steele dossier was a suspected Russian spy, the FBI knew it, and didn't bother to inform the FISA court.

Chuck Ross at Da Caller, FBI Failed To Tell Surveillance Court About Investigation Of Primary Dossier Source, Senator Says

Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, formally notified James Boasberg, the judge presiding over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) about the information in a letter on Thursday.

“This letter, and the attached summary, details what appear to be further failures on the part of the FBI to fully inform the court of all of the facts related to the probable cause determination for the Carter Page FISA applications,” Graham wrote.

“I feel that it is my duty to alert the court to this information so that it can consider it as part of its ongoing review of this matter.”

Eric Felten, RCP, Dossier Source Was a Suspected Russian Spy, and the FBI Knew It When It Spied on Carter Page

From Fox, Gregg Jarrett: Stunning revelations expose FBI’s Trump probe as dirtiest political trick in US history

It was always a witch hunt designed to “get Trump.” Collusion was an illusion invented by a suspected Russian spy but zealously embraced by malevolent actors at the FBI and later by scheming prosecutors on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of partisans.

These are the stunning revelations contained in two sets of newly declassified documents that pull back the curtain on the Russia Hoax, the dirtiest political trick in American history.

In testimony that is corroborated by records, FBI Special Agent William J. Barnett has exposed how the bureau’s collusion investigation of Donald Trump was based on nothing more than “supposition on supposition” and devoid of any credible evidence.

Assigned to lead the bureau’s original investigation into former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Barnett came to realize that the case against Flynn was being engineered or manipulated as way to damage President Trump. Flynn, whose life and livelihood were ruined, became collateral damage.

FBI investigators, who concluded there was no plausible case against Flynn, were ignored. Instead of closing the investigation down, the critical decision to move forward was made “top- down.” Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who had a contentious past relationship with Flynn, was calling the shots. The retired three-star Army general didn’t stand a chance.

GOP.com, Democrats' Russian farce update

Follow that thread. . . . Scott Adams (of Dilbert Fame) comes around to the notion that it was an outright coup attempt in Episode 1135 Scott Adams: Details on the Coup Plotters Emerge, BLM Focuses on Revenge Over Solutions, Hacking Voter Brains. You can skip the "simultaneous sip" and go straight to the heart by going to 7 minutes into the podcast.

At the paywalled ET, Roger L. Simon exclaims Basta! Time to Dismantle the FBI, but Insty has a big excerpt. from which I will excerpt.
Most recently, it has been revealed the sub-source for the Steele Dossier—the guy Christopher Steele relied upon for his vile lies—had already been investigated by the FBI as, of all things, a Russian agent, making the Dossier itself likely deliberate Russian disinformation that was accepted by the FBI anyway because… well… by any means necessary. (The shameless liars at Mueller’s operation claimed the Russians favored Trump, which is ludicrous given this revelation plus the content of the Dossier.)

It’s amazing it took three years for us to learn this.

But Sean H. evidently made one, I regret to say serious, mistake, probably because he’s basically a nice guy from a law enforcement family. He insisted all along that the problems in the FBI were only at the top, the so-called “Seventh Floor,” the domain of Comey, Strzok, McCabe, and the others.

Unfortunately, no. Also just revealed after three years are 302s (near-contemporaneous notes made after an interview) and texts that show lower-ranking FBI agents too were aware of the malfeasances that were occurring in the early stages of the Michael Flynn case.

In fact these agents were so alarmed they were considering professional liability insurance lest they be sued for the dishonest—one could even say treasonous— activities in which they were being forced to participate.

Frankly, I never imagined a FBI agent could even buy such insurance. The implications are unpatriotic on their face. But live and learn.

From Da Hill, Liberal Federal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept.

James Herbert, an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said he was compelled to issue the stunning rebuke Thursday over concerns Barr was politicizing the Justice Department.

"While I am a federal prosecutor, I am writing to express my own views, clearly not those of the department, on a matter that should concern all citizens: the unprecedented politicization of the office of the attorney general," Herbert wrote in The Boston Globe. "The attorney general acts as though his job is to serve only the political interests of Donald J. Trump. This is a dangerous abuse of power."

Herbert cited Barr’s summary of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report downplaying its findings in the Russia investigation and remarks echoing debunked claims from President Trump over concerns about widespread fraud in mail-in ballots to argue that the attorney general is using the DOJ to further the White House’s political interests.

“William Barr has done the president’s bidding at every turn. For 30 years I have been proud to say I work for the Department of Justice, but the current attorney general has brought shame on the department he purports to lead,” Herbert wrote.

Well, the AG works for the President. I suppose he objected when Eric Holder did what Barack told him to do?

Herbert said he was inspired to speak out after Barr gave a speech earlier this month at Hillsdale College, a conservative Michigan institution. The attorney raised eyebrows in the speech by claiming virtual absolute power within his agency.

“What exactly am I interfering with? Under the law, all prosecutorial power is invested in the attorney general,” Barr said in the speech at Hillsdale College in response to claims he was interfering in cases involving Trump associates.

“Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it is no way to run a federal agency,” he said.

And then, there's the Biden crime family. Seamus Bruner at JTN, Senate exposes a rogues' gallery of shady foreign associates behind Hunter Biden's lucrative deals. Matt Vespa at Town Hall, This Is Probably Why Joe Biden Called It A Day Before 10 AM Yesterday...And Hunter Might Be the Reason.

If anything, this is a time when Joe should be out there talking about SCOTUS and of all things, paying his respects to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Democratic base isn’t enthused by him. This is an issue that could gin up support. Look, I’m not complaining. Keep the bunker mentality going, Joe. Battleground states are only trending more towards Trump.

Yet, there could be another reason. The liberal media, which acted as the Biden rapid response team, says he’s doing debate preparation. Yes, the first debate is next Tuesday, but I think we’re forgetting the disastrous interview Joe recently had with Axios. Yeah, Hunter Biden was brought up by Mike Allen, the site’s co-founder. Joe didn’t handle it well.

I mean come on! 

The witness protection of Joe Biden by the media is starting to look like election interference.

Exhibit A: The Senate interim report released Wednesday detailing millions of dollars Joe Biden’s son Hunter received from corrupt foreign oligarchs and companies while his father was vice president.

Despite its obvious news value, the report immediately was pilloried by influential media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post as “inconclusive” partisan echoing of Russian propaganda.

“Republican Inquiry Finds No ­Evidence of Wrongdoing by Biden,” was the Times’ headline.

“GOP’s Hunter Biden report doesn’t back up Trump’s actual conspiracy theory — or anything close to it,” said The Washington Post.

“GOP senators’ anti-Biden report repackages old claims” was another typical headline dismissing the ­report, this from Politico.

Yet there are new and damning allegations in the report about Hunter’s ability to leverage his father’s position as vice president into riches for himself and his friends.

The old allegations were damning enough, anyway, despite the fact they have been flushed down the memory hole. Take Hunter’s $50,000 monthly payment for sitting on the board of Ukrainian natural-gas firm Burisma Holdings, despite no relevant experience and a history of drug problems, at a time when his father was in charge of US policy toward Ukraine.

But here’s just one of the new revelations: Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer in 2014 from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, and a billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin.

Now that’s real Russian collusion.

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