Some Last Minute Russiagate

It's been a while, and I might as get what I've got out before the inauguration of of his fraudulency, China Joe Biden. I suspect further additions will come at a very slow pace.

From early last week, John Solomon at JTN has a long list (40) of declassifications he would like to see in One of Trump's biggest unfulfilled promises: Russia declassification. A couple of days later from Matt Margolis at PJ Media, IT BEGINS: Trump to Declassify 'Foot-High Stack' of Obamagate Documents. Sundance at CTH, President Trump Schedules Extensive Declassification Prior To Departure – Chris Steele Interview Likely Included, and then Senate Judiciary Committee Releases 11 Transcripts From Investigation into DOJ/FBI Misconduct During Crossfire Hurricane.  

1. Handling Agent 1: Interviewed on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 (Transcript)
2. Michael B. Steinbach: Interviewed on Friday, June 12, 2020 (Transcript)
3. Stephen C. Laycock: Interviewed on Monday, June 15, 2020 (Transcript)
4. Dana J. Boente: Interviewed on Monday, June 22, 2020 (Transcript)
5. Bruce Ohr: Interviewed on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 (Transcript)
6. Stuart Evans: Interviewed on Friday, July 31, 2020 (Transcript)
7. Supervisory Special Agent 1: [Joseph Pientka, the name no-one is allowed to repeat] Thursday, August 27, 2020 (Transcript)
8. Jonathan Moffa: Interviewed on Wednesday, September 9, 2020 (Transcript)
9. Deputy Chief, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Justice Department: Interviewed on Friday, September 18, 2020 (Transcript)
10. Case Agent 1: Interviewed on Friday, September 25, 2020 (Transcript)
11. Supervisory Intelligence Analyst: Interviewed on Thursday, October 29, 2020

Katie Pavlich at Town Hall, Graham Releases Transcripts from Russia Probe, FISA Abuse Investigation

“As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have decided to release all transcripts of depositions involving the committee’s oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. We have released as much material as possible, but some classified material has still been withheld. I appreciate all those who participated in the depositions and their candor. They have charted a path to allow us to reform the system," Graham released in a statement. “I believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ."

“The FISA court was lied to. Exculpatory information was withheld on those being investigated. The investigators, with some notable exceptions, were incredibly biased and used the powers of law enforcement for political purposes. The subjects of the investigation had their lives turned upside down. It is my hope that counterintelligence investigations will be reined in and this never happens again in America," he continued. “I hope that the media will look closely at what happened and examine these documents, but I am not holding my breath...I will be pursuing reforms of counterintelligence investigations and warrant applications, and hope that my Democratic and Republican colleagues can find common ground on these matters. I also hope and expect that FBI Director Wray will continue the reforms he has started. It is hard to believe that something like Crossfire Hurricane could have happened in America. The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations. We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system."

So what have we found out that we don't already know? Well, the mystery FBI agent, Joe Pientka, who was Peter Strzok's right hand man in framing Gen. Michael Flynn, among other things, tried to look into the validity of the Steele Dossier, and was shut down by Bill Priestap. Chuck Ross at Da Caller,  FBI Agent Quit Crossfire Hurricane Team After His Effort To Validate Christopher Steele Was Shut Down. Sundance, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joseph Pientka Testified The Review of Chris Steele was “Turned Off” By FBI Director of Counter Intel Bill Priestap

If the recent Senate transcripts are an indication of SSA Pientka’s side of the stories, it would appear the testimony and truthfulness of Pientka’s statements would be adverse to the interests of EVERYONE who framed the Trump-Russia narrative.

Within his testimony; and if we accept it is likely consistent with internal investigative statements to the IG and others; it appears Pientka realized the activity of the FBI was intentionally taken to hide the truth of how intelligence was weaponized against the Trump administration.

Joseph Pientka wanted to investigate Chris Steele in November of 2016 because he knew something was sketchy. Following the use of Chris Steele to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page -and by extension the Trump administration- Pientka wanted to explore the motives of Steele and the contacts he was using to push his narrative. That’s where FBI Director of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, steps in and stops Pientka.

John Solomon at JTN, FBI, State officials aware early on Steele made major mistake in Russia reporting "FBI kept silent about flaws in Steele reporting, one of which widely known." No Russian consulate in Miami.

Sundance has Sunday Talks, Lindsey Graham Attempts to Explain Why He Did Not Subpoena FBI/DOJ Spygate Operatives. He's not convinced. 

Fox, Biden pick for top Pentagon position hyped Steele dossier, Trump-Russia collusion claims

'Steele's Trump-Russia Dossier holds up pretty well,' Kahl tweeted in 2017. I hope some Republican Senators ask some pointed questions, at the very least. And from Sundance, A Severely Compromised Senator Mark Warner is About To Become Chairman of The Senate Intelligence Committee and he explains Warner's role in Russiagate. Yes, elections have consequences. Often bad. Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx, NSA moves forward with installing Michael Ellis as its top lawyer despite Democratic opposition. Embedding a Nunes lawyer in the federal bureaucracy. I'm OK with that.

Da Blaze, Report: Trump considering pardon for Steve Bannon. Fine.

Chuck Ross at Da Caller, US Sanctions Ukrainians Linked To Giuliani Who Were Part Of ‘Russia-Linked Disinformation Network’

The Trump administration on Monday announced sanctions against seven Ukrainians, including several who have met with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, on allegations that they are part of “Russia-linked disinformation network” that tried to influence the 2020 election.

The Treasury Department imposed the sanctions against seven individuals and four media outlets that are linked to Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker previously sanctioned over his ties to Russian intelligence.

At WaPoo, Opinion from Sue Gordon: Trump?s intelligence briefings should stop once he leaves office. Are you sure he wants them?

Some Wednesday Russiagate

A kind of slack day as the Democratic Convention smothers the news. Hopefully Durham is still working.

Charley Lipsom at AmGreat wonders Will the Dam Break After Clinesmith’s Plea?. If it doesn't soon, it won't.

News reports have downplayed the significance of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea, acknowledging he altered an official document in the government’s Trump-Russia collusion probe. There has been some coverage, mainly because it is so rare to see FBI agents charged with a felony and because it is the first tangible result of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s sprawling investigation of the investigators. But mainstream news outlets have minimized its importance. It’s only one count, they say, and it deals with a relatively minor crime by a mid-level figure.

That’s spin, and it’s wrong. This plea is like finding water seeping from the base of a dam. The problem is not one muddy puddle. The problem is that it foreshadows the dam’s failure, releasing a torrent. That’s what the Clinesmith plea portends.
. . .
Who Should Be Nervous?

Anyone who worked on Crossfire Hurricane with Clinesmith. You can bet he is telling Durham everything he knows. Any plea deal would require complete disclosure. Durham could have charged him with a more serious crime, requiring a longer prison sentence. Prosecutors don’t grant such leniency without getting something valuable in return (unless they are investigating Hillary Clinton, whose top aides received immunity for free). Durham is no such patsy. He would not go easy on Clinesmith unless he got useful information in return.

Real trouble looms for anybody on the Mueller team or elsewhere at the DoJ and FBI who knew that Clinesmith had altered the CIA email to change its meaning. There’s even worse trouble ahead for those who ordered him to commit a crime. To prove those charges, Durham needs documents or multiple eyewitnesses. Clinesmith can point prosecutors in the right direction, but his word alone won’t do.

Via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 08.18.20 (Morning Edition) The Federalist Margot Cleveland has Seven Big Stories Corporate Media Is Ignoring Because The Truth Might Help Trump and #1 is:

Spygate - While the Spygate scandal spans many years, some of the most newsworthy developments broke over the last several months, although you would not know it if you read corporate media. Just Friday, the Department of Justice released information charging Kevin Clinesmith with making a false statement in an email he altered concerning Carter Page. Clinesmith inserted “was not a source” in the email addressing Page’s relationship with an intelligence agency, and that false statement led to a fourth FISA surveillance order on Page.

Now, the MSM did “cover” this story, if you count the spin peddled as news coverage. After telling readers “Ex-F.B.I. Lawyer Expected to Plead Guilty in Review of Russia Inquiry,” The New York Times twisted the story to slam Trump, sub-heading its article, “Prosecutors did not reveal any evidence of the kind of broad anti-Trump conspiracy among law enforcement officials that the president has long alleged.” The Times then hit Attorney General William Barr and defended the Robert Mueller investigation while minimizing Clinesmith’s misconduct.

Coverage of the charge against Clinesmith is already receding, but the story deserves relentless investigative reporting. Clinesmith was deeply involved in the Crossfire Hurricane surveillance of Trump, including in the FBI’s decision to task Joe Pientka with spying on the Trump campaign during an intelligence briefing. Further, Clinesmith altered the email while a member of Special Counsel Mueller’s team and the special counsel’s office then obtained the fourth and final FISA surveillance order on Page.

Kyle Smith at NR, Clinesmith, the Russia Lie, and the Deep State

The press that spent two years on the shaggy-dog story of the nonexistent Trump–Russia conspiracy has been extravagantly bored by the new development. CNN’s coverage of the matter on its website has been limited to two pieces, one a news item meant to downplay the guilty plea and one a column by Chris Cillizza meant to downplay the guilty plea. Cillizza focuses on Trump’s typically hyperbolic and imprecise comments on the matter and concludes, of the case, “What it doesn’t prove is that Trump’s wild claims that there is a ‘deep state’ conspiracy that tried to keep him from being elected and has worked against him since he got into office actually exists. The facts just aren’t there.”

No, a Trump-hating FBI member who said he was part of “le [sic] resistance” simply falsified a document as part of a months-long play to obtain and renew FISA court approval, under false pretenses, to unleash all of the levers of state surveillance to spy on a Trump aide. It strains credulity to believe such a nobody as Carter Page was the actual target; he was just the tool the FBI used to wedge its way into Trump’s inner circle. Nothing deep-statey about that at all.

And, as if to take preempt the  Clinesmith story, the SSCI release it's report (again) and NYT touts it: G.O.P.-Led Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia "A nearly 1,000-page report confirmed the special counsel’s findings at a moment when President Trump’s allies have sought to undermine that inquiry." Forcing Power Line (cited from Wombat's In The Mailbox: 08.18.20 (Evening Edition)) to debunk it: From The Intel Committee Report

(U) Volume 5 of the report on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference is the last body of work relating to the Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This final volume brings an end to more than three years of investigative work. Bipartisan professional staff reviewed more than one million documents and interviewed more than 200 witnesses to produce over 1,000 pages of analysis. Volume 5 exhaustively reviews the counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities to the 2016 election, but never explicitly states the critical fact: the Committee found no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government in its efforts to meddle in the election.

(U) The Trump campaign publicly and repeatedly promoted a policy of improving relations with Moscow which, in some ways, was a view not much different than the effort by the Obama administration to “reset” relations between the two countries. Such a policy does not itself constitute collusion or a counterintelligence threat. Volume 5 includes sections that address foreign policy actions taken by the Trump transition team in line with this policy, not because the Committee found any evidence that these foreign policy actions were the result of collaboration with the Russian Government, but to show that after an exhaustive investigation allegations of cooperation can be put to rest. Decisions taken were the result of a foreign policy viewpoint, not illicit Russian influence. We feel Volume 5 should have explicitly stated this.

(U) More than three and a half years later, the Trump administration’s record on Russia shows a consistent attempt to cooperate with Russia where possible, while responding firmly to Russia’s nefarious activity worldwide. For instance, under the leadership of President Trump, the administration effectuated the largest expulsion of Russian spies in U.S. history after Russian operatives poisoned Sergei Skripal in London, provided Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to deter Russian aggression, and led the U.S. withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty-international agreements that the Russians have been violating for years and wish to preserve.

(U) While this Volume did not find evidence of collusion between President Trump and the Russians, it does detail a stunning accounting of the FBl’s sloppy work and poor judgment. In 2016, the Democratic Party, using a series of arm’s length transactions, hired a foreign citizen to seek out dirt on a political opponent, provided by foreign sources. This Volume confirms that Christopher Steele used information gained from sources in Russia-some with direct ties to the Russian Government. That unverified, uncorroborated, foreign information was then actively circulated with the press to disparage a U.S. political candidate.

(U) Meanwhile, the FBI should have followed the advice of other intelligence agencies to view Steele’s reports skeptically, and the Bureau should have verified the methodology and the information before using it. Instead, the Bureau used the material in FISA applications and insisted on its inclusion in the Intelligence Community Assessment. Other IC agencies wanted to exclude the Dossier from the ICA because they had not verified its sources or its data. All Americans should be deeply troubled that the FBI was willing to accept and use Steele’s information without verifying its sourcing or methodology.

(U) Volume 5 is an important contribution to the historical record from which historians will someday draw. As is evident to those who read all five volumes of the Committee’s report, the Russian government inappropriately meddled in our 2016 general election in many ways but then-Candidate Trump was not complicit. After more than three years of investigation by this Committee, we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion.

Also from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 08.18.20 (Evening Edition), American Greatness: The Permanent Coup Plotters Take The Virtual Stage, also, InfoWars Correspondent Millie Weaver Arrested Just Before Releasing ShadowGate Documentary

Sundance at CTH, Substantive Elements of The Big Story Behind The Mueller Special Counsel Purpose…

Foolishness and betrayal of our country have served to reveal dangers within our present condition. Misplaced corrective action, regardless of intent, is neither safe nor wise. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized against a candidate by those who controlled the levers of government. This is what AG Bill Barr needs to explain to the nation.

The purpose behind briefing Durham’s lead investigator William Aldenberg was essentially to provide an understanding of what we the people already know. The purpose behind releasing the investigator name is to cut through the chaff and countermeasures and give face to the unit holding the precarious responsibility of sunlight.

And in interesting Twitter thread, Allow me to retort a thread to this specific account and The Essentially Accurate Point…

A Small Smattering of Russiagate

Not much as seeped through the weekend, but this one is a good one. Andy McCarthy explains how New Disclosures Confirm: Trump Himself Was the Target of Obama Administration’s Russia Probe Nothing really new here, but a great 30,000 ft view of their means and motives.

Among the most significant of the newly declassified documents is a memorandum written by FBI agent Joe Pientka III, the case agent on Trump-Russia. It was Pientka who, at the FBI’s New York City headquarters on August 17, 2016, purported to brief Trump and two top campaign surrogates — the aforementioned General Flynn and then–New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who was slated to run the transition if Trump won.

In reality, Pientka and the FBI regarded the occasion not as a briefing for the Republican presidential nominee but as an opportunity to interact with Donald Trump for investigative purposes. Clearly, the Bureau did that because Trump was the main subject of the investigation. The hope was that he’d blurt things out that would help the FBI prove he was an agent of Russia.

The Obama administration and the FBI knew that it was they who were meddling in a presidential campaign — using executive intelligence powers to monitor the president’s political opposition. This, they also knew, would rightly be regarded as a scandalous abuse of power if it ever became public. There was no rational or good-faith evidentiary basis to believe that Trump was in a criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin or that he’d had any role in Russian intelligence’s suspected hacking of Democratic Party email accounts.

You didn’t have to believe Trump was a savory man to know that. His top advisers were Flynn, a decorated combat veteran; Christie, a former U.S. attorney who vigorously investigated national-security cases; Rudy Giuliani, a legendary former U.S. attorney and New York City mayor who’d rallied the country against anti-American terrorism; and Jeff Sessions, a longtime U.S. senator with a strong national-defense track record. To believe Trump was unfit for the presidency on temperamental or policy grounds was a perfectly reasonable position for Obama officials to take — though an irrelevant one, since it’s up to the voters to decide who is suitable. But to claim to suspect that Trump was in a cyberespionage conspiracy with the Kremlin was inane . . . except as a subterfuge to conduct political spying, which Obama officials well knew was an abuse of power.

So they concealed it. They structured the investigation on the fiction that there was a principled distinction between Trump himself and the Trump campaign. In truth, the animating assumption of the probe was that Trump himself was acting on Russia’s behalf, either willfully or under the duress of blackmail. By purporting to focus on the campaign, investigators had the fig leaf of deniability they needed to monitor the candidate.

Just two weeks before Pientka’s August 17 “briefing” of Trump, the FBI formally opened “Crossfire Hurricane,” the codename for the Trump-Russia investigation. The Bureau also opened four Trump-Russia subfiles, related to Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Flynn.

There was no case file called “Donald Trump” because Trump was “Crossfire Hurricane.” The theory of Crossfire Hurricane was that Russia had blackmail information on Trump, which it could use to extort Trump into doing Putin’s bidding if Trump were elected. It was further alleged that Russia had been cultivating Trump for years and was helping Trump’s election bid in exchange for future considerations. Investigators surmised that Trump had recruited Paul Manafort (who had connections to Russian oligarchs and pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs) as his campaign manager, enabling Manafort to use such emissaries as Page to carry out furtive communications between Trump and the Kremlin. If elected, the theory went, Trump would steer American policy in Russia’s favor, just as the Bureau speculated that Trump was already corruptly steering the Republican party into a more pro-Moscow posture.

Besides obtaining FISA surveillance warrants against Page, the Bureau’s favored tactic — a common one in criminal investigations — was to create or exploit situations in which the suspects would be at ease. Either the settings would not seem investigative or, in Trump’s case, repeated assurances were provided that he was not under investigation. With no notice that the FBI was trying to catch them and even prompt them into making incriminating statements, Trump and his campaign advisers would be invited to talk about Russia. Agents parsed their statements and scrutinized their demeanor, searching for any indication of pro-Russia sentiment or uneasiness about the topic — anything that could be portrayed as incriminating. If the Bureau’s contacts with Trump officials were not covertly recorded (as they were, for example, when informants interacted with Papadopoulos), agents would generate written reports about them, the kind of reports the FBI routinely writes when building a criminal case.

This is exactly what Pientka did in connection with the August 17 “briefing,” under the supervision of Kevin Clinesmith, the rabidly anti-Trump FBI lawyer later found by the Justice Department’s inspector general to have tampered with a key email, and Peter Strzok, the rabidly anti-Trump counterintelligence agent who was later fired.

Pientka’s significantly redacted seven-page memo is worth reading. The point of it is not the national-security information provided to the candidate; that is just context for the Bureau’s documenting of statements made by Trump in response. For example, when the topic is differences in methodology between Russian and Chinese espionage, Pientka carefully notes that Trump asked, “Joe, are the Russians bad? Because they have more numbers [of FBI cases] are they worse than the Chinese?” After all, maybe we’ll find out he was reporting back to the Kremlin. When the topic turned to signals intelligence, Pientka notes that Trump interjected, “Yes I understand it’s a dark time. Nothing is safe on computers anymore,” and elaborated that his then-ten-year-old son had broken the code for access to a computer — you know, just the kind of badinage you’d expect from a co-conspirator in a Russian hacking scheme.

Pientka then recounts that when other intelligence-agency briefers took over to continue the briefing on other topics, Pientka did not leave; he stayed in the room “actively listen[ing] for topics or questions regarding the Russian Federation.” Here, in a classified report they figure no one will ever see, there is no pretense: FBI agents are monitoring Trump. Pientka notes that when one briefer said the U.S. was the world’s leader in counterterrorism, Trump interjected, “Russia too?” And when the discussion turned to cheating by Russia and China on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, “Trump asked, ‘Who’s worse?’” When the briefer replied, “They are both bad, but Russia is worse,” Pientka took pains to relate, “Trump and Christie turned toward each other and Christie commented, ‘Im shocked’” [sic].

You’re thinking, “So what?” Yeah, well, that’s the point. They had nothing, but the agents were exploiting the U.S. political process to try to turn nothing into a federal case. And would any public official voluntarily attend a security briefing, ostensibly meant to help him perform his public-safety mission, if he thought the FBI might be spying on him and writing reports with an eye toward portraying him as a hostile power’s mole?

Just as we’ve seen in the Flynn investigation, Pientka’s official FBI report is marked in bold capital letters: “DRAFT DOCUMENT/DELIBERATIVE MATERIAL.” Why deliberate over a draft when the purpose is to document a suspect’s statements? After all, he said whatever he said; there shouldn’t be a need to edit it. Drafts and deliberations are necessary only if a report is being massaged to fit the perceived needs of the investigation. Observe that, although the briefing was August 17, the memo is dated August 30. Nearly two weeks later, and it’s still in the form of a deliberative draft, meaning they’re not done yet.

This is not materially different from the Obama administration’s plan on January 6, 2017. That is when the FBI’s then-director, James Comey, “briefed” Trump in New York City. This briefing came just a day after Comey met with his Obama-administration superiors — the president, Vice President Biden, national-security adviser Susan Rice, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. They discussed withholding information about the Russia investigation from President-elect Trump and his incoming team.

Consistent with this White House strategy session, Comey did not actually brief Trump about the Russia investigation; he buzzed Trump with an allegation that the Putin regime might be in possession of blackmail material — the pee tape — that it could hold over Trump’s head in order to get him to do the Kremlin’s bidding.

The point was not to give information. It was to get information: to provoke Trump into making incriminating or false statements, or statements evincing consciousness of guilt. Outside Trump Tower was an FBI car equipped with a laptop so Comey could immediately write an investigative report. The director and his team treated this as an investigative event, not a briefing. Comey memorialized Trump’s statements, as well as his physical and emotional reaction to the suggestion that Moscow might have video of the soon-to-be president cavorting with prostitutes. If a case had ever been made on Trump, Comey could then have been a witness, with his investigative report available to refresh his recollection about Trump’s comments and comportment.

That is one of the main reasons such reports are done.

Insty responds, IT WAS A SEDITIOUS POLITICAL HIT JOB, BY CORRUPT LEADERS IN THE FBI, THE DOJ, AND ELSEWHERE IN THE GOVERNMENT: New Disclosures Confirm: Trump Himself Was the Target of Obama Administration’s Russia Probe. "And it counted on support from a corrupt press, which it got."

Anything else? Not much, and even then, pretty tangential. First, a reminder from John Solomon at JTN that the Obama/Biden administration long tilted towards the Russians, and didn't really give a flying fuck if they spied or meddled in our elections, Tech hub Obama, Biden and Clinton helped Russia build set off U.S. intelligence alarms DOD, FBI warned of Skolkovo espionage operation by Russia before 2016 election, according to new book.

Skolkovo was perhaps the Kremlin’s boldest maneuver yet. Envious of America’s technological success, the Russians sought to re-create the West Coast high-tech industrial hub in the suburbs of Moscow. But unlike the bottom-up innovation that defines Silicon Valley, where computer geniuses like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs pinched their pennies and built the first personal computers in their garages, Skolkovo was a top-down state-run project that sought to replicate decades of trial and error seemingly overnight.

It was also a ploy to steal American intellectual property and transfer technological secrets to the Kremlin.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy described the Skolkovo scam best: “The project was like an espionage operation in broad daylight, openly enhancing Russia’s military and cyber capabilities.” Indeed, multiple Defense Department (DOD) agencies and the FBI condemned Skolkovo as an espionage front that posed a clear and present danger to U.S. national security.

In 2012, the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Program at Fort Leavenworth examined the security implications of Skolkovo and concluded that Skolkovo was an apparent “vehicle for worldwide technology transfer to Russia in the areas of information technology, biomedicine, energy, satellite and space technology, and nuclear technology.”
. . .
The Kremlin and the Obama State Department praised the civilian endeavors of Skolkovo and its “clusters”—information, energy, biomedical, and even space technology (among other seemingly innocuous initiatives). The promoters of Skolkovo in Moscow and Washington conveniently neglected to mention the military applications.

WaFreeBee, Former U.S. Marine Sentenced to Nine Years in Russian Prison

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was sentenced by a Moscow court to serve nine years in prison on Thursday, the New York Times reported.

Already imprisoned for 11 months, Reed was sentenced on charges of assaulting and endangering the lives of two Russian police officers. Reed, his supporters, and his family denied the charges, describing them as politically motivated.

"I think anyone who has eyes and ears and who has been in this courtroom knows that I’m not guilty," Reed said. "They didn't ask me anything about fighting police, they asked me where I served in the Marine Corps, what deployments I was on…. Everything about this case is political."

I rather expected him to be traded for Maria Butina, but apparently she wasn't worth that much since we gave her back for free. Could we trade him for Clapper, Brennan or Comey, or perhaps all three?

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

Russiagate: It Was All a Set Up, But We Already Knew That

Sean Davis at Da Fed, Declassified Documents Show FBI Used ‘Defensive’ Briefing In 2016 To Spy On Donald Trump

Newly declassified internal Federal Bureau of Investigation documents prove the top U.S. law enforcement agency used a so-called defensive briefing of the Trump campaign in 2016 to spy on and collect information about Donald Trump himself. The new documents, which are just the latest in a string of declassifications regarding the FBI operation to spy on the Trump campaign and later the Trump administration, detail the FBI’s attempts to use a briefing ostensibly meant to warn the Trump campaign about foreign intelligence threats to spy on the Trump campaign itself.

The documents were formally declassified by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on July 23 then provided to Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

In one of the documents declassified and released on Wednesday, FBI supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka wrote that he deliberately used the briefing to “actively listen for topics or questions” from Trump “regarding the Russian Federation.” Rather than provide the Trump campaign a specific warning that certain campaign principals were being targeted by Russian intelligence, the FBI instead gave a general, non-specific warning that foreign intelligence services might eventually target the campaign.
. . .
Pientka was excoriated in a report from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) for his behavior during the FBI’s spy operation against the Trump campaign. Pientka told the OIG that he designed the August 17 meeting to “gain assessment and possibly have some level of familiarity with [Flynn].”

According to the OIG report, Pientka “was selected to provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.”

Pientka told the OIG that he was selected to attend on behalf of the FBI so he could “record” or “overhear” from Trump, Flynn, or Christie “any kind of admission” that they were colluding with the Russian government to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. Pientka also added that he wanted to get a baseline impression of Flynn’s “overall mannerisms” in case he needed to later use that information against him.

As far as anyone knows, Pientka is still working for the FBI, having been moved to SF, and then anonymized. Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Declassified Memo: FBI Planted A Crossfire Hurricane Agent In Trump, Flynn Briefing

Pientka’s memo does not indicate that Trump or Flynn made any incriminating statements. According to Pientka, Trump asked about Russia’s spy activities in the United States compared to other hostile nations, such as China.

“This brief will advise you that if you are not already a target of a Foreign Intelligence Service, due to the fact you are receiving this classified briefing, you will be,” Pientka said in the briefing, according to his memo.

Pientka then detailed differences in how Russia and China use intelligence officers to collect information inside the United States. He also told Trump and Flynn the number of suspected Russian and Chinese intelligence officers working inside the U.S.

According to Pientka, Trump asked him to assess whether Russia or China poses a greater counterintelligence threat.

“Joe, are the Russians bad? Because they have more numbers are they worse than the Chinese?” Trump said, according to Pientka.

Flynn asked Pientka for statistics on the number of FBI special agents and the number of ongoing investigations into homegrown violent extremists, or HVEs.

“See, they don’t have enough resources to work the HVE threat and the IOs,” Flynn told Trump after Pientka shared the data.

Pientka said in response to a question from Flynn that the foreign intelligence threat was be equal to or greater than during the Cold War.

Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, told the IG that officials picked Pientka to sit in on the briefing because of his position on the Crossfire Hurricane team.

Charles Lipsom at Mercatus calls it a Put-Up Job and says  "Growing evidence that officials involved in the Russia collusion investigation knowingly acted without cause is undermining our governing institutions" and also at Da Fed, Mollie Hemingway thinks  the New FBI Notes Re-Debunk Major NYT Story, Highlight Media Collusion To Produce Russia Hoax. The leaks were real, the news was fake.

Sundance, Rep. Matt Gaetz Discusses the Latest Release from DNI John Ratcliffe…



WaEx, Trump campaign jet fuel? Republicans pin hope on Durham Russia-hoax investigation. At AmGreat, Julie Kelly highlights how the Brookings Institution is A Key Collusion Collaborator.

ET is taking note of the interesting aspects of the current Flynn court fight, DOJ: Flynn’s Judge in Catch-22 Situation–Either Disqualified or Not Entitled to Rehearing

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), it’s a no-win situation for District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who’s seeking a rehearing of an appeals court decision that ordered him to accept the dismissal of the DOJ’s case against former Trump adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

Sullivan, through his lawyer Beth Wilkinson, argued that a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia appeals court erred in its order. He’s asking for a rehearing by the full court (en banc).

But only people with a “personal stake” in the proceedings can seek appellate review, the DOJ said in a July 20 response to Sullivan’s petition.

“A judge does not have—and under the [Constitution’s] Due Process Clause, cannot have—such a stake,” the department said.

WaEx, GOP senator who opposed Roger Stone commutation says Trump should pardon Michael Flynn (Pat Toomey). If necessary, yes, but I would prefer a full exoneration and the trial and sentencing of those who perpetrated this miscarriage of justice.

And didja hear, Judge finds Michael Cohen's return to prison 'retaliatory,' orders his release! (the peacock)."Cohen had refused to sign a form that would have barred him from speaking in public, including by publishing a book, as a condition of home confinement." The point of jail is to restrict your freedoms, including speaking in public and dealing with book editors. If they want you to abide by those restrictions on home release for WuFlu, you should abide by them or go back to the pokey. NYPo, Judge rules Michael Cohen should be released to home confinement

In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors argued the officials who drafted his home confinement agreement had no clue he was writing a book — and only rearrested Cohen after he’d refused the terms to his home confinement.

“While I was aware that Cohen was a high-profile inmate, at the time I drafted the … Agreement I was not aware that Cohen was writing a book. I drafted the … Agreement without input from the BOP or anyone in the executive branch,” Probation Officer Specialist Adam Pakula wrote in court papers.

AllahPundit at Hot Air (VIP) whines, Judge Transfers Michael Cohen From Prison To Home — Because Feds Want Him To Promise He Won’t Publish Any Books Until His Sentence Ends. Ace, Federal Judge Orders Michael Cohen Released from Jail and Back Into Home Confinement

The Trump Conspiracy Theorists -- who spend half their time scolding people on the right for conspiracy theories and the other half of their time inventing their own conspiracy theories -- will be spinning lots of Exciting New Conspiracy Theories about this.

A Clinton appointee from SDNY:

Hellerstein is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton on May 15, 1998, to a seat vacated by Louis L. Stanton. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received his commission on October 22, 1998. He took senior status on January 30, 2011.

And he is old as fuck.