Russiagate: Reclaiming My Time

OK, enough stalling. I've had enough coffee that I'm twitching. Let's clean this bin!

Dan Chaitin recounts how DOJ releases financial activity report on Durham special counsel investigation. I think they want to remind everyone it's costing money and yielding no tangible results. ET has an Infographic Timeline of the Durham Investigation (right). Also from Dan Chaitin, DOJ's 'relentless pursuit' has Andrew McCabe talking about John Durham. Any investigation that is discomfiting Andy McCabe is doing God's work in my view. He's got a lot of gall complaining. 

Jack Cashill at Am Think thinks about Barack Obama’s Parallel Russian Universe in a book review of Edward-Isaac Dovere's new bestseller, Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump. "Although no great fan of Barack Obama, Dovere accepts uncritically Team Obama’s collective amnesia about the Russian collusion plot." Jordan Davidson at Da Fed features GOP Legislators who Demand DOJ Answer For Russia Hoaxer Susan Hennessey’s Appointment. But according to Matt Margolis at PJ Media, Trump Wants DNC and Hillary Campaign Held Accountable For Bogus Russian Collusion Witch Hunt. LI, Robert Mueller to Teach Class on Mueller Investigation “Mueller will teach the course alongside Aaron Zebley, Jim Quarles and Andrew Goldstein, all of whom worked with him during the investigation.” At least they'll be able to nudge him awake when he dozes off. 

Gen. Michael Flynn is back still in the news as Market Watch (among others) claims Ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn says Myanmar-like coup ‘should happen’ in U.S. The video seems clear enough, but of course, Allah Pundit whines about Mike Flynn: I wasn't calling for a Myanmar-style military coup and Dan Chaitin reports  "Michael Flynn denies saying Myanmar-like coup 'should' happen in United States" (Dan Chaitin)

"For all the fake news 'journalists': Let me be VERY CLEAR — There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not at any time called for any action of that sort. Any reporting of any other belief by me is a boldface fabrication based on twisted reporting at a lively panel at a conference of Patriotic Americans who love this country, just as I do. I am no stranger to media manipulating my words and therefore let me repeat my response to a question asked at the conference: There is no reason it (a coup) should happen here (in America)," Flynn said on Sunday.

Sidney Powell, an attorney who has represented Flynn, also said Flynn did not endorse "any act of violence or any military insurrection" and claimed the media had "grossly distorted" his comments, according to CNN.

 And Matt Lewis at Da Beast warns Flynn’s Coup Talk Is a Warning About the MAGA Violence Ahead. Why does the left condone massive violence on the behalf of leftist causes but warm about barely existent right-wing violence? The Political Insider, Michael Flynn Tells Public ‘Don’t Feel Sorry For Me – Feel Sorry For Our Country, Feel Sorry For Our President’

Jonathon Mosely at Am Think thinks New York Prosecutors are Screaming at the Sky, while at Da Caller, Greg Price reports ‘They Are Searching For A Crime’: Donald Trump Jr. Says New York Attorney General Is Persecuting Her Political Enemies. That was clear when she made prosecuting Donald Trump one of her campaign promises. 

Capt. Ed at Hot Hair seems miffed that 

Karen McDougal

FEC socks Nat'l Enquirer parent with $187K penalty over McDougal "catch and kill" -- but passes on Trump

The Federal Election Commission has fined the National Enquirer’s parent company $187,500 for “knowingly and willfully” violating election law by making a payment in 2016 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model (NSFW) who said she had an affair with former president Donald Trump years before he was elected.

The decision came in response to a complaint made more than three years ago by the nonprofit government watchdog group Common Cause, which was notified of the FEC’s findings Tuesday.

The group had alleged that the company’s $150,000 payment to McDougal months before the 2016 election was effectively an illegal in-kind corporate contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign. The payment allegedly benefited Trump’s campaign by suppressing McDougal’s story of an alleged relationship with Trump before voters went to the polls.

That ruling seems pretty obvious in retrospect. American Media, now known as A360Media, admitted in a 2018 negotiation with the Department of Justice that the move was intended to help Trump out in the election. Former employees of AMI leaked information that the company had done this in the past with other celebrity friends of former CEO David Pecker, but this time it put the company afoul of election laws.Now do Facebook, Google and Twitter on Hunter's Laptop, not that a $150,00 fine would seem anything more than a licensing requirement. And at Da Caller, Stormy Daniels Says She ‘Would Love Nothing More Than’ To Testify Against Trump.

Stormy Daniels

I can't tell you happy I am that Karen and Stormy (NSFW) are back in the news.

“I have not been called to testify yet, but I’ve been very forthcoming since the beginning of all this that I would love nothing more than my day in court and to give a deposition and to provide whatever evidence that they need from me,” the adult film star told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.”

“I mean, I have all the original forms and emails and wire transcripts and all of that stuff, and I’m happy to turn it over to anybody who needs it, honestly,” Daniels added.

AP rages that  Fed lawyers say  Trump not liable for ‘crude’ remarks at accuser. Capt. Ed at Hot Hair VIP, Biden DoJ to court: We should take over for Trump in defamation case. Kimberly Wehle at the Bulwark wonders Why Is the Biden Justice Department Lawyering on Trump’s Behalf in the E. Jean Carroll Case? Because Biden has his own groping accusations. 

From Michael Ginsberg at Da Caller, Newly Released Audio Reportedly Shows Giuliani Pressuring Ukraine To Announce A Biden Investigation. I fail to see the problem. Biden is a crook.

During the call, conducted between Giuliani, then-Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, and Ukraine government official Andriy Yermak, Giuliani presses for an investigation into then-Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. The partial recording released by CNN does not completely match up with a partial transcript of the call published by Buzzfeed News in April 2021. That partial transcript was reportedly produced by Ukrainian officials.

“All we need from the President is to say, ‘I’m going to put an honest prosecutor in charge, he’s going to investigate, and dig up the evidence that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out.’ I don’t know if it’s true or not. I mean, I see him bragging about it on television. And to me as a lawyer, that sounds like a bribe. Someone in Ukraine has got to take that seriously,” Giuliani says in the partially released CNN recording.

Similarly, I fail to see the problem here,  Capt. Ed, NYT: Trump-era DoJ secretly subpoenaed communications records of Schiff, Swalwell. Sauce for the goose and all. Eric Lendrum at Am Great, Trump Justice Department Had Previously Been Investigating House Democrats for Corruption. The Western Journal, Biden's DOJ Announces It Is Opening a Probe of Trump's DOJ 'Adam Mill' at Am Great, Business and Hypocrisy As Usual for Media on Latest Spying Story "The message, “It was the Trump Justice Department,” is exactly the kind of deep state PR message that deflects blame. There never was a “Trump Justice Department.”" He has a point there. Politico whines that Barr distances himself from Trump-era subpoenas of Democratic lawmakers. But Peter Strzok knew the truth, Wa Free Bee, Anti-Trump FBI Agent Suspected Top Democrats of Leaking Sensitive Information, "Peter Strzok texts show the Trump administration was not alone in suspecting Democrats." But at Hot Hair, Capt. Ed catches Politico in the admission that  Leak prosecutor no "Barr crony" after all.

Readers of the New York Times may have been shocked to read their report on the Trump-era Department of Justice’s secret search warrants on communications of members of Congress. Friends and colleagues of federal prosecutor Osmar Benvenuto were even more shocked to find him characterized as a “crony” of then-AG William Barr. The New Jersey Democrat got tapped for the job over his own misgivings, not because he knew Barr but because Barr had been told that Benvenuto was a tough, action-oriented independent thinker within the DoJ.

This recasting of Benvenuto’s background by Politico’s Josh Gerstein puts an entirely different light on Barr’s actions last year:

Associates said Osmar Benvenuto, 39, had misgivings about taking the assignment because he feared he might be seen as tarnished by the work given the perceived politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr, but the New Jersey-based career prosecutor ultimately decided to accept the job after friends counseled him to do so.

Several of Benvenuto’s friends and mentors said they found it utterly implausible that he would have taken on a political mission for the Trump administration. For one thing, Benvenuto is registered to vote in New Jersey as a Democrat and previously registered as a Democrat in New York City.

At least two of Benvenuto’s friends spoke on the record to Gerstein about their shock at the way the NYT story characterized him. One called the effort to cast Benvenuto as a Barr “stooge … just outrageous.”

Arkancide? Twitchy, Just keeps HAPPENING: ABC reporter Christopher Sign who exposed Bill Clinton/Loretta Lynch tarmac scandal dies of apparent suicide. Dan Chaitin at WaEx reports Reporter who broke story on Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting found dead

The journalist who broke the story about the controversial 2016 tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was found dead Saturday morning, according to police.

The body of 45-year-old Christopher Sign, a news anchor for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, was discovered by Hoover police and fire personnel at around 8 a.m. following a 911 call about a person down in a residence in Alabama, according to AL.com.

Hoover police Lt. Keith Czeskleba said Sign's death is being investigated as a suicide, the report added.

 I wonder how many bullets he fired into the back of his own head?

Russiagate: Stone Still Home Free

Three days later, people still care about the Stone sentence commutation? GOP senator Pat Toomey says Trump commuting Stone was a 'mistake'. The never-Trump whiners at the Dispatch try Remembering the Crimes of Roger Stone. He lied about something inconsequential in an investigation that should never have been carried that far? Chuck Ross at Da Caller recites how Mueller Defends Investigation Of Roger Stone After Trump Commutes Prison Sentence.

On the other hand, Andy McCarthy recalls Trump Spares Stone from Imprisonment, Sparking Howls from Amnesiac Democrats

Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother for felony distribution of cocaine. And a key witness in the Whitewater scandal for which he and Hillary Clinton were under investigation. And three others convicted in independent counsel Ken Starr’s probe. And Marc Rich, in what was a straight up political payoff. And his CIA director. And his HUD secretary. And eight people convicted in an investigation of his Agriculture Department.

No surprise there: The Clintons and their supporters then, like Trump and his supporters now, regarded the special-prosecutor probes into the administration as witch hunts.

Clinton also commuted the sentences of convicted terrorists, some of whom hadn’t even asked for clemency. Shameless as he was, though, even he couldn’t bring himself to pardon Oscar Lopez Rivera, the defiantly unrepentant FALN leader.

President Obama took care of that.

Matt Magolis, PJ Media, Obama Granted Clemency to Terrorists and Traitors, But Democrats Are Angry About Roger Stone. Don't forget the never-Trumpers.  Similarly, Jonathon Turley on Da Hill writes Why this Roger Stone commutation is not as controversial as some think. At ET, Roger Kimball pens Double Standards on View in Outrage at Stone Commutation. If it weren't for double standards, they'd have no standards at all. Andrea Widberg at AmThink, Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence horrifies the left, but that's a pretty low bar, while Grant Baker calls it Justice for Roger Stone. Da Caller, Lindsey Graham: Trump Commutation Of Roger Stone Sentence ‘Justified’. From AmSpec Larry Thornberry writes a missive to Mittens - An Open Letter to Sen. Mitt Romney
Would he really prefer a socialist takeover? 

My God, man, “Unprecedented historic corruption.” This is so high a flight of fancy you’re going to need clearance to land. And how did you get to be your age with so little knowledge of history? Some of it going on around you now. See the ongoing attempted coup by the Democrats and The Swamp. A little indignation about this would not be out of order. This is corruption on the grand scale. (On the current subject, a list of the sleaze-balls pardoned by Obama and by Billy-Bob supplied on request.)

Which is a decent segue to the rest of Russiagate. At Town Hall, Jeff Crouere claims General Flynn is an American Hostage. Tobias Hoonhaut at NRO say the New Flynn Notes show ‘FBI Leadership’ Decided Not to Provide Russian Call Transcripts to Flynn in Interview. Getting the truth was not on their agenda. But at AmThink, Aaron Ames, well, thinks that Judge Sullivan's Appeal for 'En Banc' Hearing Has Good Chance at Success. Clearly seeking a delay until the election.

From Da Caller, Trump Calls For Dossier Author Christopher Steele To Be ‘Thrown In Jail’, I'm OK with that, but be sure to try him in a strongly pro-Trump jurisdiction first.

Lindsey Graham will apparently call Mueller to the Senate to testify. Sundance at CTH puts together a story on how Robert Mueller Was Obama’s Shield – Graham Open To Mueller Hearing….

Why is it important to understand the duality of purpose for the appointment of the special counsel run by the figure-head (in name only) of Robert Mueller?…

…Because from the outset the seventeen Lawfare lawyers who formed the resistance unit operation took control over the DOJ.

That was a large purpose of their installation. The Mueller resistance unit controlled everything, including every impediment to congress.

I expect numerous memory lapses and evasions. Just like when he testified to the House. Sundance also has a much longer piece on Why Fire Dana Boente?… My question is why not? It's been clear for a long time that the upper levels of DOJ and the FBI was rotten. Get rid of the whole crowd, even if there's a little sound wood in there too.

Fox gives the mic to Newt Gingrich: Good riddance anti-Trump Republicans who would rather support Biden, Pelosi and Schumer. Unfortunately, many old school Republican are much more content in the minority, standing somewhere near the barricades and whispering "stop" to the mobs tearing down the country.

Sundance, Sunday Talks: Jim Jordan Discusses Durham Probe – Findings Released Before Election?…




Anders Hagstrom at NR, Trump Promotes Diplomat Who Testified In Impeachment Trial

President Donald Trump promoted a batch of senior diplomats Friday, one of whom was a star witness in the president’s impeachment trial in January.

The diplomat, George Kent, served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and testified during the impeachment trial regarding U.S. relations with Ukraine. Many believe Trump was carrying out a purge of administration members who testified in his impeachment, according to Foreign Policy. Eight of the 12 administration members who did testify have since been fired, reassigned, or left their jobs.

Eight out of twelve is a good start. At the Peacock, Jeff McCausland whines about Trump, Vindman and a military leadership case study that will be taught for years. Don't be insubordinate.

From Fox, Jeff Sessions dismisses Trump's 'juvenile insults': 'My honor and integrity are far more important'. I have some sympathy for Sessions, but he was clearly snookered by "the resistance" in DOJ. He was out of his depth.

Dan Greenfield at Front Page reminds us that the Manhattan DA Targets Trump After Giving Epstein and Weinstein a Pass. Ep and Wein Steins are just rapists and pedophiles. Trump is a existential  threat to their reign.

Lynching Russiagate

Tempest, meet teapot. So, did you hear? Trump complained that the impeachment inquiry in the house was a lynching (AP, Trump likens House impeachment inquiry to ‘a lynching’) , and all the democrats and liberals got all whiny because that is a "racial" word. Don't take my word for it. Via the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.22.19 (Late Night Edition),  Joe For America does the digging Trump Compares Impeachment Inquiry to A Democrat-Led “Lynching” And The Media Explodes

Trump’s use of the word “lynching” ticked off House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), an influential black lawmaker. “That is one word that no president ought to apply to himself,” Clyburn said on CNN. “I’m a product of the South,” he added. “I know the history of that word. That is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using.” True, except it is appropriate here and I might remind these black leaders calling foul that it wasn’t only African Americans who found themselves at the end of a rope.
Another black congressman who is a race monger and a Marxist, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), said Trump should delete the tweet. “You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING? What the hell is wrong with you?” Rush wrote on Twitter. “Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you.” Yes, all white people are bad. Give me a break.

But a little more digging, and, also from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.22.19 (Late Night Edition) Twitchy: Enjoy These Videos Of Democrats Calling Bill Clinton’s Impeachment A Lynching. More piling on, Insty IT’S RACIST TO CALL TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT A “LYNCHING,” BUT NOT WHEN DEMOCRATS SAID THAT ABOUT CLINTON IN 1998: You aren’t surprised, right?, Ace, Today's Ignorant Twitter Freak-Out: Trump Said Lynching, Red State, Apparently Every Democrat In Existence Used The Term “Lynching” To Defend The Clintons, John Sexton Hot Air, Joe Biden, Other Democrats Used The Word ‘Lynching’ In Reference To Impeachment. Eventually, even SloeJoe saw a bit of error in his ways and admitted to making mistakes in the past.

This wasn’t the right word to use and I’m sorry about that. Trump on the other hand chose his words deliberately today in his use of the word lynching and continues to stoke racial divides in this country daily.

From the Department of "we got him this time for sure", after the secret testimony by the Ambassador to the Ukraine, Democrats came out of the meeting swearing they had him this time. Again from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.22.19 (Late Night Edition), Just One Minute, The Ambassador to the Ukraine is not helping Team Trump citing NR, Trump Made Ukraine Aid Contingent on Biden Investigations, U.S. Ambassador Testifies

The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, testified on Tuesday that he was told the delivery of military aid to Ukraine was contingent on Ukraine promising to investigate corruption allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to the Washington Post.

Taylor had previously sent a message to Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the EU, on September 9, writing: “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

“During that phone call, Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” Taylor told House impeachment investigators. Hunter Biden was a former board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas company, while his father was vice president.

“Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelensky was dependent on a public announcement of investigations — in fact, Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance,’” Taylor continued.

“He said that President Trump wanted President Zelensky ‘in a public box’ by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”

And still, I don't see a direct link to Biden. I see Trump demanding investigation into Ukrainian corruption as the price for aid. Forgive me for not being impressed. Sundance at CTH, John Ratcliffe: Adam Schiff’s “Media Leaks to Frame Impeachment Narrative Are False”….



Also, Rep. Elise Stefanik Discusses Schemes, Ploys and Manipulative Games of Adam Schiff…



At Power Line, Paul Mirengoff wonders if Ukrainian corruption is a Russian myth? Trying to digest this one, and it's not happening. And again from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.22.19 (Late Night Edition) AmThink: Trump Gave Ukraine What Obama Withheld

Capt. Ed at Hot Air, Shocker: House Treats Hyperpartisan Schiff In Hyperpartisan Manner, WND, Newt rebuts Hillary: We adopted Democrat rules in Clinton impeachment. Mediaite, Lindsey Graham Plans to Introduce Resolution Condemning ‘Illegitimate’ House Impeachment: ‘Should Be Dismissed in Senate Without a Trial’, Matt Margolis, PJ Media, Trump Warns Democrats on Dangerous Precedent They're Setting With Impeachment "So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights" and at WaEx, 'Pelosi, she's crazy': Trump decries House speaker over impeachment inquiry.

BI, Trump is said to believe that the Democrats will never impeach him, despite his aides' desperate attempts to get him to prepare for it. Conrad Black predicts Impeachment Will Fail "The Democrats are being led by a coalition of constitutional renegades, political tricksters, and would-be Maduros. They are speeding over a political cliff. The force of gravity will assert itself." I'm not that confident. Also from from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.22.19 (Late Night Edition), the occasionally sensible Megan McArdle: Why The Senate Might Actually Remove Trump From Office. Salena Zito, WaEx, Will the Democrats miss Middle America again?

Meanwhile, discussion continues over the Durham investigation taking on Brennan and Clapper in his probe into the "spygate" story. Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Report: Durham probe seeks interviews with Brennan and Clapper. Hint, subjects of the investigation get interviewed last, so they can't set up defense in advance. Sundance, Durham Looking At Brennan – A Reminder of “The Crown Material” Conflict…

The Christopher Steele dossier was called “Crown Material” by FBI agents within the small group during their 2016 political surveillance operation. The “Crown” description reflects the unofficial British intelligence aspect to the dossier as provided by Steele.

In May 2019 former House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy stated there are emails from former FBI Director James Comey that outline instructions from CIA Director John Brennan to include the “Crown Material” within the highly political Intelligence Community Assessment.

Specifically outlined by Gowdy, the wording of the Comey email is reported to say:

…”Brennan is insisting the Crown Material be included in the intel assessment.”

However, on May 23rd, 2017, in testimony -under oath- to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) John Brennan stated [@01:54:28]:

GOWDY: Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?
BRENNAN: I don’t.

. . .
It certainly looks like former CIA Director John Brennan has exposed himself to perjury. However, beyond that and even more disturbing, what does this say about the political intents of a weaponized intelligence apparatus?

When you have to choose between the testimony of the  FBI director and the CIA director as being true . . . Ace, John Durham Has "Requested" An Interview With Coup Organizer and Former (?) Communist John Brennan, and Plans to Request The Same of CNN Leaker James Clapper and John Brennan Orders His Personal Stenographer, Natasha "Fusion Nat" Bertrand, to Write a Five-Alarm Scream Piece Decrying How Terrible It Is That the Architect of the Russia Hoax is Being (Gasped) Investigated

A Reuters reporter sent a nasty email about TWT to a source I used to understand Joseph Mifsud. I write about Mifsud now because John Durham is also trying to understand who he is. The liberal media hates the Russia-origins Durham probe. email and reply. pic.twitter.com/9NBw8aQbaX

— Rowan Scarborough (@RoScarborough) October 21, 2019

Nice Deb at AmGreat, Reuters Reporter Slimes Washington Times in Insulting Email to Mifsud Source

Sundance again, CIA Circles Wagons – Dispatches Media Narrative Engineers to Defend Interests…. Politico decries it as Trump’s quest for vengeance against John Brennan. Dr. John at Flopping Aces, Barr and Durham strike gold

Newsbusters, NYT Columnist Admits Deep State Exists...To Protect Us From Trump

Your unelected betters are valiantly trying to save you from your choices, and you bumpkins don't even have the decency to say thank you. https://t.co/CRsvNixWi0

— The Partyman (@PartymanRandy) October 21, 2019

John Davidson, Da Fed, No, The Deep State Isn’t A Bunch Of Unbiased Patriots Who Deserve Our Gratitude.

More to the point, “protecting the interests of the American people” isn’t the job of these public servants. They have other, rather specific jobs. The job of career officials in the intelligence agencies, for example, is to provide the White House with intelligence relevant to national security. That’s it. They have no other role to play in public life, and for good reason. Appointed and unelected officials are supposed to serve those who were put in office by the people, from whom elected officials derive their authority. That’s how a republic is supposed to work.

But lately it seems our unelected officials think of themselves less as public servants and more as a Praetorian Guard. After more than two years of the Mueller probe and the Russia collusion hoax, Americans got a pretty clear picture of an extremely politicized intelligence community run amok. Who can forget disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok, whose anti-Trump text messages with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page revealed shocking bias against Trump during the 2016 election—right when Strzok was investigating the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia? Does anyone really think Strzok was simply an unbiased patriot free from political motives?

Same goes for the entire cast of characters involved in the Russia collusion hoax. There’s former FBI director James Comey, who infamously leaked memos of his conversations with President Trump in hopes of triggering the Mueller probe, violating numerous FBI policies in the process. There’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who leaked the infamous Steele dossier to CNN and then lied to Congress about it. There’s former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who is under investigation for repeatedly lying to the FBI’s inspector general about his actions during the Russia investigation.

The idea that these people are pure-hearted patriots is laughable. On the contrary, there’s plenty of reason to suspect that what Comey and the others were up to was a coordinated, premeditated effort to remove a duly elected president whom they despised. There’s likewise plenty of reason to believe the impeachment effort directed by Schiff is simply an extension of this same ploy under a new pretext. The Mueller probe didn’t work out for them, so now we have an anonymous whistleblower complaint and secret testimony from a different set of unelected career bureaucrats who might well have similarly biased motives for cooperating with impeachment investigators.

 Paul Bedard, WaEx, Stephen Miller pushback: ‘Permanent bureaucracy a mortal threat to America’

In an interview, Miller called inside attacks a “very grave threat,” and he explained it this way:

“It is best understood as career federal employees that believe they are under no obligation to honor, respect, or abide by the results of a democratic election. Their view is, ‘If I agree with what voters choose, then I’ll do what they choose. If I disagree with what voters choose, then I won’t, and I’ll continue doing my own thing. So basically it’s heads I win, tails you lose.

“‘If you elect Hillary Clinton, then I’ll implement all of her policies very faithfully, and if I see massive evidence of corruption on Hillary Clinton’s part, then I’ll keep it all a secret. If you elect a candidate I disagree with, then I’ll lie, I’ll leak, I’ll cheat, I’ll smear, I’ll attack, I’ll persecute, and I will refuse to implement, and I will obstruct at every single step of the way.’”

From The Morning Rant at Ace's:

All of the delays and excuses why the Horowitz IG FISA report isn’t public yet after several months of anticipation of its issues leads me to the suspicion it’s going to be “deep six” by the deep state

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 22, 2019

This issue is the Rubicon for our country. If the seemingly constant law-breaking embedded in our national institutions is allowed to go on without official notice and punishment, then the relationship we the people have with our government is going to change.

This is not the grift and graft that we all expect from government. After all, government in all its forms is ripe for corruption, and most of us are never surprised by it. In fact, many of us are only surprised by the occasional emergence of an honest man.

No, this is something different, and far more malign. Using the power of the state to manipulate elections is the essence of totalitarianism. Blocking the power of the people to choose their own government is counter-revolutionary, and unfortunately has been tried to great effect in most of the world.

In fact, it is a fine indicator of an unfounded belief in elitism and credentialism and, so obvious currently, Never-Trumpism. Ask any member of the "conservative" cuckocracy his opinion of the FISA mess, and if he downplays it or mocks it, then he is the enemy.

And a quick change of subject as CNN Finally Admits Smearing Someone As A Russian Asset Is Wrong as long as it's a Democrat. And, the NYT filtered through Hot Air, Why Hillary Shouldn’t Trade In Conspiracy Theories About Tulsi Gabbard. Because it makes her look drunk or stoned?

Some DIY Russiagate While I Fish

Wow, I haven't resorted to this in a while. Sorry, you'll have to make do without my minimal patter:

PJ Media - The Morning Briefing: Media White Knights for Mueller, Discredited Steele Dossier Trending

Red State - A Major Mueller Report Claim Just Went Up In Flames

Hot Air - NYT: DoJ leaning on two Mueller deputies not to appear in congressional hearing

AP - 'It will not be easy': Dems prepare for their Mueller moment

News Trust - U.S. Justice Department trying to quash Mueller team ...

Politico - Felix Sater slammed by House panel as uncooperative

The Resurgent - In Search of Silver Bullet, The Media Moves From Russia to Epstein

Da Beast - The U.S. Attorneys Who Revered Rudy Giuliani Loathe Him Now

Vanity Fair - Trump Knew Jeffrey Epstein Had Incriminating Photos of Bill Clinton

But take this video of Luiza swimming with the Sting Rays in the Grand Cayman Islands as my way of apologizing:

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Baba Fumika up and running at The Other McCain.

Russiagate Diverted to Epstein Island

Althouse reads Lawfare so you don't have to  "Mueller is...likely to be grumpy when you question him. And who can blame him? You would be grumpy too if you were being subjected to hours of unwanted hectoring by your colleagues, many of whom are not very bright..."

"... will not have done their homework, and will want to yell at the man and ask him things that would be wildly inappropriate for him to answer. But you are that rare thing: a diligent member of Congress who wants to use your time with Mueller to bring out important findings and nuances of the Mueller report. What do you do?"

Writes Benjamin Wittes in "If I Had Five Minutes to Question Robert Mueller." From the advice:

[A]sk him questions to which you know the answer. This is not an investigative hearing. It is an exercise in political and legal theater, and you are trying to provide a compelling elucidation of Mueller’s work and findings. Ask only questions you know he can answer and whose answers you know will reasonably contribute to the thread you are developing.

At least he's admitting it's all for show. Margot Cleveland at Da Fed claims  Having Mueller’s No. 2 Testify To Congress Will Hurt Democrats More Than Trump

But, far from damaging Trump, Weissmann’s closed-door testimony—if handled properly—will assist Republicans in unraveling the Russia-collusion-turned-obstruction witch hunt and inflict far greater damage on the Democrats. Here’s why.

While the general populace viewed Mueller as an apolitical straight-shooter (at least until he put his name to a final report that exposed him as a political hack), those familiar with Weissmann’s prosecutorial and professional history held a much different view of the number two man. Yet, even now, only a small segment of society knows Weissmann’s name, much less the details about his questionable background. That will change soon with Democrats’ decision to call Weissmann to testify, thrusting Mueller’s sidekick into the spotlight—blemishes and all.

And Weissmann’s warts are many. First, we have Weissmann’s applause for the insubordination former acting attorney general Sally Yates showed President Trump. “I am so proud. And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects,” Weissmann emailed Yates upon learning that Yates had refused to fulfill her duty to defend Trump’s travel ban and had instructed Department of Justice attorneys to do likewise. Trump immediately fired Yates, while Mueller later chose Weissmann to lead the special counsel team.

We also have Weissmann’s financial support of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton through thousands in campaign contributions. The Wall Street Journalalso reported that Weissmann attended Clinton’s 2016 election night party in New York City, further raising the specter of an anti-Trump bias at play.

Then there are questions concerning Weissmann’s meeting with Associated Press reporters on April 11, 2017, about Trump’s onetime campaign chair, Paul Manafort. The following day, the AP published an “explosive expose,” detailing Manafort’s purported dealings with Ukrainian officials, including approximately $1.2 million in payments recorded in a handwritten ledger in Ukraine, suggesting Weissmann had leaked details to the journalists during the April meeting.

Weissmann’s meeting with the AP reporters pre-dated the special counsel investigation, as did Weissmann’s knowledge of the Steele dossier and author Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson’s meetings with DOJ lawyer Bruce Ohr. Yet many in the media have ignored Weissmann’s early involvement in the investigation into the Trump campaign—even after Ohr’s reveal in his congressional testimony that, in fall 2016, he shared with Weissmann information peddled by Steele and Simpson. This fact suggests Weissmann knew that the FBI was using Ohr as a conduit for Steele’s supposed intel after the FBI had terminated its confidential human source relationship with Steele for lying.

The key phrase is "if handled correctly". What are the chances? John Sexton at Hot Air, Carl Bernstein: The Media Made A Big Mistake In Coverage Of The Mueller Report. Gosh durn it, they were just too nice to Trump!

“We’re in a cold civil war in this country. The figures of Trump’s approval rating is a reflection of that cold civil war and how appealing his message has been to almost half the people in this country,” he said. While it’s not completely clear what Bernstein expects the media to do at this point, he clearly wants the media to spread the negative coverage more broadly: “We are not making in the press the connections between what’s going on in the country and Donald Trump, the president.”

And a link between Mueller and burgeoning Epstein scandal? Whoa whoa WHOA! Thread from 2018 about possible connection between Jeffrey Epstein and Mueller’s FBI is enlightening. Yeah, Mueller's had his hands in a lot of the FBI's recentish mistakes.

Breaking: Epstein Indictment Released


So, will the Epstein prosecution be turned into a weapon against Trump? In the newest  story, Jeffrey Epstein charged with federal sex trafficking crimes involving young girls, WaPoo managed to mention Donald Trump before Bill Clinton and in Epstein indictment renews questions about earlier case handled by Trump Cabinet official, they stress that the prosecutor in Epstein's previous case, Alexander Acosta is now a Trump Labor Secretary.

At his 2017 confirmation hearing, the only senator to ask him about the plea deal was Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Acosta told Kaine that “professionals within a prosecutor’s office” decided on the deal, taking himself out of the negotiations. On Monday, Kaine called for Acosta’s ouster.

Stacy McCain. MSNBC and CNN Are Trying to Spin the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Against Trump

Everybody with access to a computer can discover that Bill Clinton took dozens of flights on billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” and yet viewers of the liberal cable channels are being treated to a warped version of the story in which Epstein is falsely depicted as Donald Trump’s best friend, and the realscandal involves Trump’s Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.
This partisan spin is being replicated on broadcast network news, as Kristine Marsh of Newsbusters notes that ABC’s Good Morning America(hosted by former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos) covered the latest Epstein charges without even mentioning Bill Clinton:

CBS and NBC, on the other hand, tried to connect Epstein to Trump. While NBC’s Stephanie Gosk gave a passing mention to both Clinton and Trump (without any mention of the “Lolita Express”), CBS This Morning’s Mola Lenghi spent more time on both Trump and Clinton, while emphasizing comments Trump made praising Epstein in 2002:

Epstein has had several high-profile friendships in the past. Bill Clinton reportedly rode on his jet more than a dozen times in the early 2000s. In a 2002 interview, then private citizen Donald Trump called Epstein ‘a terrific guy’ and ‘it’s even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them, are on the younger side.’

However, Lenghi didn’t mention that after Epstein had been convicted of assaulting an underage girl, Trump had barred him from Mar-a-Lago. All three networks didn’t mention either that Epstein was a major donor to Democrats for years, a fact that most certainly would’ve made the cut had he donated to Republicans.

“Democratic Party operatives with bylines,” as someone keeps saying.

From Red State, Users On Wikipedia Are Trying To Quietly Edit Out Democratic Connections In Epstein’s Bio, while Nancy Pelosi's daughter admits, "It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated..." and Hollywood, Media Partied With Epstein After His Plea To Soliciting Underage Girl, Clintons Invited His ‘Fixer’ To Chelsea’s Wedding. They were pretty chummy with Harvey Weinstein too, for a long time, knowing his proclivities, and Roman Polanski is still one of their deities. It's like they don't take this war on women stuff seriously or something. Bill Clinton Denies Knowing Anything About His Pedophile Friend Jeffery Epstein But Flight Logs Show Otherwise. Really Bill? On the other hand, Donald Trump Helped Build a Case Against Jeffrey Epstein

Interviewed by The Conscious Resistance outside the courthouse after the settlement announcement, Edwards was asked about accusations that President Trump has been involved in the same things as Epstein.

“The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who, in 2009 when I served a lot of subpoenas on a lot of people, or at least gave notice to some pretty connected people, that I want to talk to them, [Trump] is the only person who picked up the phone and said, let’s just talk. I’ll give you as much time as you want. I’ll tell you what you need to know, ” Edwards recalled.

He added about the president, “[He] was very helpful, in the information that he gave, and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever, but had good information.”

Edwards was also asked about the rumor in a Patterson book that Trump actually had Epstein kicked out of Mar-a-Lago for hitting on an underage girl.

The attorney replied, “I definitely have heard that. I definitely have heard that and I don’t know if it was Trump himself as opposed to a manager there.”

Edwards also heard that Epstein hit on the underage daughter of a member of his club so Trump banned him. Edwards wasn’t sure if that’s true.

More Epstein coverage via The Wombat's, In The Mailbox: 07.08.19, JustOneMinute: Jeffrey Epstein Busted and at PJ Media's Morning Briefing  Rich Clinton Foundation Donor Epstein Busted for Underage Sex Trafficking

Reuters also wants you to know that the prosecutor who made that deal was Alex Acosta, who is President Trump's secretary of Labor, but they didn't bother to mention Mueller was running the FBI at the time Epstein got a slap on the hand. USA Today, which is just total garbage, wants you to know there is a Trump-Epstein connection because they put it in the title that Epstein was an "associate" of Trump.

Capt. Ed at Hot Air,  WaPo/ABC Poll: Record High On Impeachment … Opposition?

Has anyone noticed that Democrats have become a lot quieter on the subject of impeachment lately? Robert Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in ten days, but the fevered demands for Donald Trump’s removal have receded. One key result from the latest Washington Post/ABC poll shows why:

37% support for Congress initiating impeachment proceedings against Pres. Trump in new @ABC News/WaPo poll, unchanged since April, while opposition to this step has grown by 13 points to 59%. https://t.co/wzDsLdnyu1 pic.twitter.com/hLPY7zf5Qz

— ABC News (@ABC) July 7, 2019

Russiagate: A Comey Family Business?

A rather long, detailed and provocative version of the events from Leo Goldstein at PJ Media in Here's How the 'Russia Collusion' SpyGate Deception May Have Played Out. I prefer a version in which stupidity and blind ambition play a bigger role, and actual malice  slightly less, because I tend to think that stupidity plays a larger role in human events than even the history writers admit. It's still worth the read. A taste whet your appetite:

The Initial State of Affairs (mid-April 2016)

• Donald Trump is most likely the Republican presidential candidate.
• Hillary Clinton is endorsed by Obama and is virtually guaranteed the Democratic presidential nomination, despite an underwhelming performance against Bernie Sanders.
• FBI Director James Comey has promoted the pro-Hillary troika Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, as well as Bill Priestap, to the top of the FBI. The Hillary exoneration operation, called the Mid-Year Exam (“MYE”), is already at full steam. The same FBI people tasked with exonerating Hillary Clinton will investigate Trump.
• Due to the rapid expansion of digital technology, the Obama administration had an opportunity to create new agencies, divisions, and committees devoted to cyber security and other digital technologies. But they are staffed with partisans. Examples include the head of the U.S. Digital Service Mikey Dickerson, who ran false-flag Facebook operations against the Alabama Republican Senate candidate in 2017, and fake Republican groups on Facebook, intended to discourage the Republican vote in 2018. State Department intelligence advisors Jonathon Morgan and Renée DiResta have collaborated with him and set up a company called New Knowledge, which advised Congress on the alleged Russian social media operations. Of course, they gave false advice in support of the Russian hoax.
• The FBI Cyber Division (CyD) became dysfunctional, as acknowledged by Peter Strzok in some of his infamous texts. Because the CyD was involved in the investigation of Hillary’s server, James Comey probably did to the CyD the same thing that he did to counterintelligence: replaced competent and honest professionals with Democratic partisans.
• The DNC has engaged with the Ukrainian government to produce dirt on Paul Manafort. He was the former adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and supported by Putin.

Streiff at Red State has more the WaPoo article on the Mysterious Mr. Mifsud in CIA Prepares The Blame The Consultant Excuse For Screwing The Pooch With The Steele Dossier. Will the Mysterious Mr. Mifsud, photographed with all sorts of western politicians and intelligence types, be the designated fall guy? Well, I guess they want foreign fingerprints on it.

Andy McCarthy at NR on Oleg Deripaska's rejection of the the FBI collusion theory with Paul Manafort, Russian Oligarch Scoffed at FBI’s Collusion Theory. Fairly conventional until:

Solomon reports that the FBI’s interview of Deripaska was not disclosed to Manafort’s defense during the proceedings at which he was convicted — federal criminal cases in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Manafort’s lawyers claim that this concealment violated Manafort’s due-process rights. One need not be a Trump-deranged collusion diehard to understand why this claim will get nowhere.

The suggestion that the nondisclosure amounts to a Brady violation (the relevant precedent is the Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling in Brady v. Maryland) misapprehends the prosecution’s obligations. Brady requires the government to surrender to the defense information uniquely in its possession that tends to exculpate the defendant. Information is not exculpatory unless it shows the defendant is not guilty of the crime charged. Manafort was never charged with any offense alleging a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. As Solomon notes, he was charged and “convicted on tax and lobbying violations unrelated to the Russia case.” Deripaska’s reported statements to the FBI have no bearing on those offenses.

Manafort’s counsel intimates that the government’s possession of potentially exculpatory information means the investigation of Manafort was illegitimate. I am not a fan of Mueller’s probe, but there is no Brady right against being investigated. The purpose of an investigation is to determine if a crime has been committed. Usually, there is evidence on both sides of the question — that’s why you investigate rather than forging ahead with an indictment. Brady simply means that if prosecutors formally charge a person with a crime, they must disclose information in their possession that indicates the person did not commit the crime.

That information, by the way, must actually be exculpatory. Here, not only is Deripaska’s information irrelevant to the crimes that were charged against Manafort. It might not have qualified as Brady material even if “collusion with Russia” had been alleged. The statement amounts to Deripaska’s opinion. To be sure, it is not an uninformed opinion. The oligarch is close to Putin and the Russian regime. To my knowledge, however, no one has alleged that Deripaska had any knowledge or participation in Russia’s hacking of Democratic email accounts, or of the dissemination of those emails to the media via WikiLeaks and other channels. Unless he was a conspirator in the scheme, or otherwise shown to have insider knowledge about it, Deripaska’s opinion about who might or might not have participated in it would be immaterial. Brady only requires government disclosure of material information that shows innocence.

That's not what I wanted to hear, but that's why you read Andy McCarthy; he knows the laws.

And of course, a big news item, not on the surface connected to spygate, is the fact that the Southern District of New York has reopened the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire mathematician/hedge funder, accused of, well, all kinds of nasty things, who pleaded guilty to almost nothing to then Federal prosecutor Acosta, now Trump's Labor Secretary, and was serving a sentence of house/work arrest. It's interesting because he flew all sorts of interesting people, including Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz to his private island in the company of underage women. Is this Barr digging deeper, or what. Anyway, it gets into spygate because James Comey's pussy hat wearing, women's marching daughter is on the prosecution team, Guess Whose Daughter Is Reportedly a Prosecutor in Jeffrey Epstein Case, and that a familiar dark force, Fusion GPS tried to tie Trump to Clinton's pedophile pal Epstein as part of smear campaign:

Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm whose Democrat-financed Russia dossier fueled an FBI investigation into Donald Trump, pitched other stories about the Republican presidential candidate to Washington reporters, including an attempt to tie him to a convicted pedophile who was once buddies with former President Bill Clinton.

Journalist sources told The Washington Times that Fusion founder Glenn Simpson pushed the idea of a close relationship between Mr. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from an underage girl.

The Trump-Epstein link appears purely social, far short of Mr. Clinton’s 20-plus plane rides on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” private jet around the globe in the early 2000s.
. . .
“The New York Times, I know they work with Fusion,” said Mr. Silverstein, an investigative reporter who skewers the left and right. “Fusion works with a lot of big media organizations. That would give them influence in Washington.”

“I have worked with them,” he said. “I have gotten tips from them and stories from them. And every time I do, I go out and re-report … because I assume it is for a client and it is not 100 percent accurate. And I’ve never gotten anything from them that was 100 percent accurate. Not because they were slanting or lying or twisting. Every time I’ve gotten something from them, ‘This is a report. You’ve got to check it out.’ I have a great relationship with those guys.”

Do you trust SDNY and Comey's daughter to play it straight, or will they use this as an excuse for another go at Trump? I don't trust them.

A Steaming Pile of Russiagate

A pretty good pile for a Sunday anyway. Two from one of the last honest journalists, Kimberly Strassel: AG Barr gets attacked because his probe endangers powerful people and Kim Strassel on Barr Hearings: “There’s an Intense Desire Among Democrats to Attempt to Impugn The Integrity of Bill Barr”

        

Insty, SEEN ON FACEBOOK: “Barr is investigating Democrats. Democrats call for Barr to resign. According to Nadler, that’s obstruction of justice!”.

From Jack Goldsmith at Lawfare, a long article on his Thoughts on Barr and the Mueller Report. Read it, but Insty summed it up pretty well with this snippet:

“Sometimes Justice Department independence means standing up to the president. And sometimes it means taking unpopular positions in defense of the presidency. I am pretty confident that the latter is what Barr is up to.”

Chuck Ross at Da Caller, William Barr Made A Major Disclosure In His Senate Hearing That Hardly Anyone Noticed. He named former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer  as an FBI source for information about George Papadopoulos. We knew it, but now we know what direction he's going in.

A couple from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 05.03.19 (Evening Edition), American Thinker: William Barr In The Crosshairs and Power Line: For Fear Of William Barr which heavily cites a third Kimberly Strassel article from the pay walled WSJ.

Christine Emba at WaPoo complains about William Barr’s master class in word-splitting. Remember the magic code to read WaPoo, https://wapo.st/30daypass?code=HRY-MFU-KQC-BXD --Nona.

The Week in Pictures: Close Down the Barr Edition

Roll Call, House Democrats give Barr final warning before contempt proceedings

In a letter to Barr on Friday, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler gave the Justice Department a 9 a.m. Monday deadline to respond to his letter affirming that it will comply with the subpoena — which called for Barr to supply the full Mueller report and underlying evidence to Congress by May 1 — or negotiate in good faith with the committee to reach a “reasonable accommodation.”

So far, DOJ has stiffed the committee, citing legal statutes that restrict the attorney general from handing over some information underlying the Mueller report to Congress and claiming the committee does not have a “legitimate” reason to demand such information.

AllahPundit, Dem Rep. Steve Cohen: We Need To Send The Sergeant-At-Arms To Arrest Bill Barr If He Won’t Come Testify Voluntarily. Good Luck with that.

John Dowd: Rod Rosenstein Has To Answer For Appointing Robert Mueller As Special Council. Rod is still a mystery in my mind. My guess is that he was a basically non-partisan institutional guy. He's a good lawyer, and will command a high price in private practice, but appointing Mueller does seem like a precipitous step.

Matt Vespa at Town Hall reviews a WSJ Columnist: This Is Why The 'FBI Spying On Trump Campaign' Story All Of A Sudden Has More Leaks Than The Iraqi Navy, as, covering his own ass, Comey defends FBI's investigation in response to NYT 'spying' report.

Devin Nunes seeks to unmask the Mysterious Mr. Mifsud, whose name has been bandied about a bit more often in the last week or so again. Da Caller, Devin Nunes Casts Doubt On Joseph Mifsud Narrative In Letter To Intel Agencies. If he was, as the Mueller Report alleges, a Russian spy, he was the best known Russian spy for years.

Mifsud, who once served as a Maltese diplomat, taught at Link Campus, a Rome-based university that has close ties to Western intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA. Mifsud was interviewed by the FBI about his Papadopoulos contacts during a visit to the U.S. in February 2017.

Mifsud had attended an event hosted by the State Department. He was also a featured speaker at an event hosted by Global Ties. Another speaker at the event was Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Nunes asserted that if Mifsud was a Russian agent, the U.S. government would be obligated to run “damage assessments to determined what sensitive information Mifsud may have conveyed to the Russians and what Russian disinformation he may have spread.”

At Doug Ross, Larwyn's Linx: Has the Intel Community Become a Danger to Our Republic? has a number of related links: Has the Intel Community Become a Danger to Our Republic?: Robin Burk, Giddy Up – Devin Nunes Questions Political Alignment of Joseph Mifsud: CTH, Politics by Other Means: The Use and Abuse of Scandal: John Marini, Who won this week: Don Surber. Barr Told Nothing But the Truth to Congress: Adam Mill, President Trump Should Ask Democrats to Declare War on Russia: Daniel Greenfield, Read: White House Counsel Emmet Flood's letter to AG Barr on Mueller report: Fox, On the Warpath: Emmet Flood’s Letter Signals a New Phase: EIB
AG Barr: “the evidence is now that the President was falsely accused”: CHQ

Red State demonstrates how The New York Times Goes To Hilarious Lengths To Not Use The Word “Spy”

Today's @nytimes reminds me of that classic James Bond film, "The Cloaked Investigator Who Loved Me." #Spygate pic.twitter.com/p1fXSneYuo

— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) May 3, 2019

And today, WaPoo tipped it's hand as to how they're going to deal with the spygate problem, "Republicans sieze" ‘Investigate the investigators’ is new Trump rallying cry to counter Mueller report

Trump and his allies, seeking to amplify claims that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign, are seizing on news reports and statements by Attorney General William P. Barr to launch a political rallying cry they view as an antidote to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings.

Also at WaPoo, Jennifer Rubin whines the question Why don’t Americans want to impeach Trump?. Because he hasn't done anything wrong (after extensive investigation), the economy is great, and he's appointing good court picks. Beating Hillary in the electoral college is not a crime.

Chucky Schumer Rips Trump Over Putin Call For ‘Gossiping About Fox News Conspiracy Theories’

Glenn Thrush at NYT (cited at MSNBC), Pelosi Warns Democrats: Stay in the Center or Trump May Contest Election Results. Talk about projection.

Red State, Leaked Transcript Of Loretta Lynch’s Testimony On Pre-Exoneration Tarmac Meeting With Bill Clinton Shows He Was ‘Strangely Eager’ To Speak To Her. Hmmm, nope, nothing fishy going on there, at all.

Testifying under oath in a closed-door hearing on December 19, 2018 before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Lynch answered questions about her encounter with Clinton.

Felten describes it as “both perplexing and preposterous, a story that defies innocent explanation.”

At Doug Ross, Roscoe B. Davis ASKS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION: who actually brought Paul Manafort into the Trump campaign? with a suspicion that the Ukranian government, in cahoots with the Clinton campaign, had a role.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air reports Prosectors: You’d Better Believe We Can Charge Stone With Obstruction Without Russia-Collusion, when there was no underlying crime of collusion.

What’s the difference between Stone and Trump on obstruction? For one thing, prosecutors allege that Stone conducted specific acts of obstruction. For all of Trump’s venting and threats, Trump never actually took an obstructive act, except potentially to ask James Comey to take it easy on Michael Flynn and to fire Comey a few weeks later. Neither of those were obstructive on their face, however; as Barr argued, neither act was inherently illegal, so one would have to prove a corrupt intent.

Without an underlying crime, Barr argued, it would be nearly impossible to prove that Trump had a criminal intent to block the probe by using authority granted to him by the Constitution, especially since he never did take any action to shut it down when he also had that authority. Everything else in the Mueller report came down to Trump throwing tantrums and making demands that no one took seriously enough to undertake — which is why those didn’t amount to obstruction. Arguably, anyway, even though they certainly don’t paint Trump in a very positive light.

In contrast, prosecutors allege in their indictment that Stone took specific and corrupt acts to thwart investigations not just by the FBI and special counsel, but also Congress:

Yep, collusion

If true, all of those actions would be illegal on their face, and not part of some constitutional authority subject to a dissection of motive. Also, the defense argument overlooks another inconvenient detail, which is that only one of the seven counts on Stone is explicitly an obstruction charge. He also faces five counts of making false statements to investigators, all of them in his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, and a seventh count of witness tampering. Assuming that prosecutors can prove those charges, they would apply whether the investigation turned up a Russia-collusion scheme or not.

Trump was smart enough to keep himself out of a perjury trap and to keep from making too much contact with other witnesses. Allegedly at least, Stone wasn’t.