As Ed Sullivan might have said. A couple of new angles have opened up in Russia/Spygate in the last day. Now can they actually penetrate the public consciousness through all the noise from the election and Supreme Court nomination ?
First, there's a new document dump from DOJ regarding the Flynn persecution. From Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway at Da Fed, ‘Trump Was Right’: Explosive New FBI Texts Detail Internal Furor Over Handling Of ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents tasked by fired former Director James Comey to take down Donald Trump during and after the 2016 election were so concerned about the agency’s potentially illegal behavior that they purchased liability insurance to protect themselves less than two weeks before Trump was inaugurated president, previously hidden FBI text messages show. The explosive new communications and internal FBI notes were disclosed in federal court filings today from Sidney Powell, the attorney who heads Michael Flynn’s legal defense team.
“[W]e all went and purchased professional liability insurance,” one agent texted on Jan. 10, 2017, the same day CNN leaked details that then-President-elect Trump had been briefed by Comey about the bogus Christopher Steele dossier. That briefing of Trump was used as a pretext to legitimize the debunked dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and compiled by a foreign intelligence officer who was working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
Ace reacts, Newly Released Texts Show That FBI Agents and Analysts Were So Distressed by Likely-Illegal Handling of Trump Investigation They Bought Liability Insurance to Protect Themselves From Subsequent Lawsuits "This is normal, right? These are the precious MuhNorms that Charlie "3-Wives" Sykes is trying to preserve, right?" Sundance at CTH has Sydney Powells reaction, Sidney Powell Discusses Explosive New Texts and Documents With Lou Dobbs – Corrupt FBI Officials Even Purchased Professional Liability Insurance…
No matter what open source information is collected; and no matter what evidence congress can assemble; the toxic political environment in DC is the primary driver of DOJ investigative events. It shouldn’t be, but the reality of action reflects an uncomfortable truth. Here’s my opinion on what is happening.
Attorney General Bill Barr is trying to split the baby against two competing narratives.
♦ On one hand there is enough evidence to indict former officials for gross abuses of power, falsifying information to a FISA court (violating fourth amendment protections); manipulating investigative effort for political purposes; weaponizing the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. to target political opposition, and then using their positions to cover-up their corrupt and unlawful conduct.
♦ On the other hand there is a current highly toxic political environment; consisting of elected politicians and a fully vested branch of government; attempting to cloud the reality that corrupt former government officials worked hand-in-glove with deceitful media, which includes agents of Lawfare, who collaborated in the effort.
This leads to current DC officials and people within those remaining institutions saying: “there are delicate balances.”
In my opinion, in an effort to thread this needle -and considering the timing of the 2020 election- Bill Barr is using the document production from Missouri USAO Jeff Jensen as a backdoor method to provide the information he will not/cannot put forth in a press conference, report or series of indictments. This is why Jensen is providing new information to Michael Flynn’s defense attorney Sidney Powell.
The U.S. Attorney General knows Powell will make this information public; therefore Powell becomes a conduit to receive significant amounts of evidence previously hidden by the Special Counsel (Weissmann/Mueller) cover-up operation; the “insurance policy” of sorts. Barr is essentially funneling information through Powell in lieu of a report which would include much of the same evidence.
And from another set of the releases via Lindsey 2.0, from Chuck Ross at Da Caller, FBI Investigated Steele Dossier Source As A Possible Russian Spy Years Before Trump Probe
“This is the most stunning and damning revelation the committee has uncovered,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement after releasing an FBI memo about the dossier source.
The document shows that the FBI considered a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant of Danchenko years before the bureau relied heavily on information that he had provided Steele, a former British spy, to obtain FISAs against Carter Page.
Danchenko is not named in the memo, though is attorney has confirmed to reporters that the Russian national was Steele’s source.
The information also could increase concerns that Russian disinformation was fed to Steele, a former MI6 officer who investigated the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC. A Justice Department inspector general’s report released Dec. 9 said that the FBI received evidence in January and February 2017 that Russian intelligence officers may have fed false information into Steele’s network of sources.
Footnotes from the IG report say that two Russian intelligence officers knew in July 2016 that Steele was investigating the Trump campaign.
According to the FBI document, Danchenko had contact with suspected Russian intelligence officers in Washington, D.C. in 2005 and 2006.
The document says that the FBI had an investigation into Danchenko open from May 2009 to March 2011, based on an interaction he allegedly had with three employees of an American think tank.
Zach Evans at NR, FBI Docs: Primary Sub-Source for Steele Was Suspected Russian Agent and ‘Threat to National Security’, Politico, Steele dossier sub-source was suspected of spying for Russia, DOJ reveals. I have to give them credit for publishing that; I doubt NYT or WaPoo will. Capt. Ed at Hot Air, YGBKM: FBI Knew Steele Dossier Subsource Was Suspected Russian Intel Asset — And Considered A Nat-Sec Threat?. I had to Google "YGBKM". It means "You Got to Be Kidding Me." Nope, you were never supposed to find out.
And a warning from Ace? Is a Major Announcement by Durham Coming Soon
Is this what it's about? Fox, Durham assumed parts of John Huber's Clinton Foundation review, and the NYT whines In Politically Charged Inquiry, Durham Sought Details About Scrutiny of ClintonsYou're going to want to remember this tweet. https://t.co/OBPXgGFJ76
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 24, 2020
"John Durham’s team has sought information about the F.B.I.’s handling of the Clinton Foundation investigation, raising questions about the scope of the prosecutor’s review." Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media, John Durham Also Investigating Clinton Foundation in His Obamagate Probe. John Sexton at Hot Air dissects the NYT in Durham ‘Sought Documents’ About Clinton Foundation Investigation. "The framing is thick in this piece but eventually we do get to the news." Nice Deb at Am Great, Report: John Durham Taking Over John Huber’s Fruitless Clinton Foundation Review
FBI agents in 2016 were denied permission to subpoena the Clinton Foundation because they supposedly didn’t have sufficient evidence to do so. But frustrated agents argued that they had plenty of evidence, including evidence that was captured on a wiretap in an unrelated investigation, according to the NYT. At the time, former Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann led the Fraud Section at the Department.
Sundance is all over that last angle, Report: Durham Investigating Main Justice Resistors Blocking FBI Subpoenas in 2016, RE: Clinton Investigation….
Two media reports today point toward an aspect CTH had noticed happening in the background of the Durham/Aldenberg investigation.
The Washington Examiner and New York Times are writing about Durham investigating 2016 efforts from Main Justice DOJ to block FBI efforts to investigate the Clinton Foundation. The interesting part is what the media ignore (emphasis mine)
. . .
Who was one of the “top Justice Department officials” in position to deny the 2016 request from senior FBI managers in Washington? As TechnoFog notes: “The DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section (FSCD) would have overseen prosecutions relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (ie. bribery that crosses borders).”
Who was Chief, of the DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section in 2016?
“Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a Chinese national who has reportedly executed transactions for limited liability companies controlled by Ye Jianming, applied to a bank and opened a line of credit under the business name Hudson West III LLC (Hudson West III),” the Senate report states. The report continues:
Hunter Biden, James Biden, and James Biden’s wife, Sara Biden, were all authorized users of credit cards associated with the account. The Bidens subsequently used the credit cards they opened to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple Inc. stores, pharmacies, hotels, and restaurants. The cards were collateralized by transferring $99,000 from a Hudson West III account to a separate account, where the funds were held until the cards were closed. The transaction was identified for potential financial criminal activity. [Emphasis added]According to the Senate report, Hunter Biden held one of the credit cards while James Biden and Sara Biden, Biden’s brother and sister-in-law, held three cards.
Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Republicans Push For Deeper Probe Of Hunter Biden Wire Transfers
According to the report, Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire whose late husband was mayor of Moscow, wired $3.5 million in February 2014 to a company co-founded by Biden. The report also said that Biden wired money to people linked to sex trafficking and prostitution in Eastern Europe.
Accounts linked to Chinese businessman Ye Jianming wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to Biden-linked accounts beginning in 2017, according to the report.
Jianming, who was chairman of Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy, has links to the People’s Liberation Army, Republicans said. Jianming was a top official in the mid-2000s for the China Association for International Friendly Contacts, a front group for the PLA that engages in “intelligence collection” for Beijing.
Red State, Sen. Rand Paul Sending Hunter Biden Report To DOJ For Potential Criminal Probe. Senators don't generally have much action taken on their criminal referrals, but we can cross our fingers.
Julie Kelly at AmGreat spins Biden Report Shows Impeachment Was Election Interference. We always knew impeachment was about the election, they had no hope of conviction.
Trump’s impeachment served two purposes: to bury one more scandal under the self-proclaimed “scandal free” Obama Administration and to save Joe Biden’s candidacy. It was straight-up interference with the 2020 election because without the impeachment diversions, it’s very likely that either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, not Biden, would be on the November ballot right now.
As Andrea Widburg at Am Think notes It turns out that there really was Russia collusion!
To understand who the players were, you need to follow Hunter's trail of partnerships. In 2009, he created Rosemont Seneca Partners with Devon Archer, his friend, and with Christopher Heinz, who is John Kerry's stepson. In 2013, Rosemont Seneca Partners joined with the Thornton Group to create Rosemont Seneca Thornton. What you need to remember is that Hunter is one of the people behind Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
On the Russian side of things, there's a woman named Elena Baturina. She's the widow of Moscow's former mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Luzhkov was so corrupt that even Putin's government, acting through then-president Dmitry Medvedev, fired him in 2010.
When Luzhkov died, Baturina ended up a billionaire and the richest woman in Russia. Although the Senate report doesn't say so, one has to assume that a female oligarch in Russia is on good terms with Putin. Neither looks very happy in this picture, but they definitely know each other:
and Cockburn at the Spectator asks a strictly rhetorical question: Why is the media downplaying the Hunter Biden story?Putin and the woman who sent 3.5 million dollars to #HunterBiden, while his father #JoeBiden was Vice-President of the United States. Follow the stench of filthy money and it leads to a #DirtyBiden every time... pic.twitter.com/aIfJE61XVY
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 23, 2020
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