Russiagate Beyond the Scope

The Hunter Biden emails have sucked most of the wind out of the Russiagate sails, so this should be a short one. 

Sundance at CTH reports that the mysterious second scope memo, authorizing the Mueller Weissman team to target Gen. Flynn's son as a means of coercing an guilty plea has been released, and it has an interesting detail: The Mysterious October 20th DOJ Targeting Memo Finally, Quietly, Released – Weissmann Made Rosenstein Take Ownership of Michael Flynn Targeting…

As you can see above the special counsel’s office used that October 20th scope memo to expand their investigative authorities. Specifically the second redacted name is very important because this specific memo authorized Andrew Weissmann to target Michael Flynn Jr as pressure to coerce a guilty plea from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn a month later.

During his apologetic senate testimony Rosenstein told congress he never questioned the authority of the special counsel team and never once questioned their “investigative process“, those are his words. Additionally, Rosenstein testified he signed all the scope memos because he felt it was his “responsibility” to facilitate the SCO needs regardless of what they requested; and every request was considered an “investigative process” by him.

Yesterday the mysteriously avoided October 20, 2017, scope memo was finally released to Catherine Herridge from the Senate Homeland Security Committee (Chairman Ron Johnson). Within the scope memo we can now see exactly what reference point Rosenstein was carrying during his June testimony.

The scope memo was written by the special counsel’s office and the last page shows the motive and intent of Weissmann’s crew. Notice the tone and direction of the memo as that aspect also conveys a message; and do not overlook the specific phrase “jointly undertaken activity.” That approach was used by the SCO to target Flynn Jr.:

Photos of lightly redacted scope memo at link

Notice Andrew Weissmann gave Rod Rosenstein the option, literally the physical option line, to approve or deny the widely expanded scope of the special counsel authority.

In essence this approach forces Rosenstein, in material and documentary form, to take ownership of the outcomes of the special counsel…. OR create a written documentary form that could be used against Rosenstein (via media allies) if he did not agree to expand the scope and authority of the special counsel.

Yes folks, Weissmann created “an authorized get out of jail free card“.

and from John Solomon at JTN,  'Absolute Travesty:' Paul Manafort's ex-partner Rick Gates breaks silence on Mueller probe "The Russia probe 'should never happen to any president or any American citizen' ever again, former Trump aide says."

In his first lengthy public interview since pleading guilty to federal charges in Robert Mueller's now-discredited Trump-Russia collusion probe, Rick Gates slammed that investigation in blunt and unequivocal terms, calling it "an absolute travesty of justice" that "should never happen to any president or any American citizen" ever again.

Gates, who served in President Trump's 2016 campaign and later plead guilty to conspiracy and false statement charges related to his work in Ukraine, said in an interview on the latest episode of the John Solomon Reports podcast that his experience taught him "the way our justice system can be weaponized against so many different people."

The former political consultant stated bluntly that the tactics used by the Mueller investigation indicated that "there was no question that they were trying to get to the president." Gates suggested the investigation itself was largely political, an affair in which Mueller was reportedly little more than a figurehead.

"Robert Mueller was literally nonexistent during my almost 1,000 hours of cooperation with his office," Gates told John Solomon. "And it wasn't just that he was nonexistent in his physical presence ... He was rarely mentioned in any of the interviews. There was no discussion of needing, you know, to talk to Bob Mueller, or anything by the prosecutors."

Instead, Gates said, the investigation seemed to be run largely by Andrew Weissmann. A former FBI general counsel and former chief of the criminal fraud division at the Justice Department, Weissmann joined Mueller, his old boss at the FBI, as his key lieutenant in the special counsel investigation.  "He seemed to be calling the shots," Gates said. "He seemed to be leading the charge."

Weissmann, it became known last month, was among the numerous agents whose phones were allegedly accidentally wiped before being surrendered to the DOJ inspector general's office. Gates in his interview referred to the investigator as "partisan."

From David Steinberg at Am Great,  A Glaring Hole in the Alfa Bank/Trump Server Story Could Unravel the Russia Hoax

According to last week’s New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins, Special Counsel John Durham has recently subpoenaed multiple sources quoted in Filkins’ 2018 report on the server saga. Filkins writes that Durham’s recent subpoenas are for testimony before a grand jury: “Some agents told scientists that they were exploring a potential criminal charge . . . for giving false information to the government.” 

The evidence below—which I believe has not been published elsewhere, though it has long been open-source—makes a strong case for the veracity of Filkins’ sources. It suggests that false information about a Trump-Alfa-Putin backchannel was indeed passed to the FBI.

Frankly, I am not aware of a simpler, more persuasive piece of evidence that shows “Russian collusion” was entirely and intentionally false. Indeed, it was the largest criminal abuse of power in American history.

Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Operatives Behind Steele Dossier Played Little Known Role In Another Debunked Conspiracy Theory. Little known.... It doesn't make a lot of sense to me except that a lot of the Russiagate players were also playing games in the UK.

Breitbart, DNI John Ratcliffe Refers Nunes Report on ICA to Intelligence Community Inspector General, who will, of course, proceed to ignore it.

After the 2017 ICA that said Russia intervened in the 2016 election to hurt Hillary Clinton and to help Trump came out, then committee Chairman Nunes and other Republicans on the committee began investigating the assessment, amid allegations that it was politically driven by Obama administration appointees such as then-CIA Director John Brennan — particularly the assessment that Russia wanted to help Trump and not just sow discord.

A senior intelligence official familiar with Nunes’s report told Breitbart News:

There are a number of things in the referral that the ICIG will likely be interesting, in particular Obama-Biden era political appointees who overruled career intelligence officials who raised concerns about some things being included in the ICA. Ratcliffe made the right call sending this to the ICIG.

Ratcliffe said in the letter the referral was first sent to the ICIG in December 2018 by Republicans, who then controlled the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He wrote that since then, the office of the DNI received “numerous requests” from senior oversight officials for the ICIG to review whether “all portions of the aforementioned ICA adhered to proper analytic tradecraft.”

Ratcliffe also requested that Nunes’s report undergo a formal declassification review. “I am committed to facilitating transparency that serves the public interest while balancing the imperative to protecting sources and methods,” he wrote.

But these things take time, when they happen at all. Newsmax, Pompeo Says Doing 'Everything We Can' to Release Clinton Emails. I can't wait to find out about Chelsea's wedding and Hillary's yoga routines. 

Breitbart, FBI, DHS: Hackers Have Accessed Election Systems. If they can, they will.

Kyle Sammin at Da Fed writes that Pelosi’s Latest 25th Amendment Scheme Poisons The Process Of Removing A President. She may well be the most poisonous women in American politics, but the competition is strong.

 Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.