I mean... you can see why they were concerned right? A malignant narcissist was elected President and he carried baggage like questionable business deals, Russian connections, top advisers with Russian connections so shady they served prison time, and Russia was all in to get him elected.
1. Trump's "baggage" was pikerville compared to Hillery. 2. Russia was all in to get Trump elected is Dossier grade stupidity.
There is also this common false narrative where this was meant to hurt Trump's election chances. This investigation didn't even become public until a month or two after he became President... which is in stark contrast to the leak that Hillary's emails were being investigated during the runup to the election.
The 2016 efforts began under the Obama admin, whether that was before the election is a matter for you to resolve. They went public after the election as part of an effort to overthrow the election. Or as the TDS are loud for declaring- Insurrection!, End of Democracy!! Coup!!!
I mean... you can see why they were concerned right? A malignant narcissist was elected President and he carried baggage like questionable business deals, Russian connections, top advisers with Russian connections so shady they served prison time, and Russia was all in to get him elected.
1. Trump's "baggage" was pikerville compared to Hillery. 2. Russia was all in to get Trump elected is Dossier grade stupidity.
There is also this common false narrative where this was meant to hurt Trump's election chances. This investigation didn't even become public until a month or two after he became President... which is in stark contrast to the leak that Hillary's emails were being investigated during the runup to the election.
The 2016 efforts began under the Obama admin, whether that was before the election is a matter for you to resolve. They went public after the election as part of an effort to overthrow the election. Or as the TDS are loud for declaring- Insurrection!, End of Democracy!! Coup!!!
Did you have something smarter?
The election was not being overthrown, there was never a court case to overthrow the election.
The republican led senate investigation into Russian interference in our election concluded that Russia did in fact push to get Trump elected. Russia didn't hack and release the DNC e-mails (the same day as "grab them by the pussy" was leaked) to get Hillary elected...
I hope you see that we have a serious problem in the FBI and have for decades
Trump is over-rated. The problem is (significantly) worse than TDS.
When normal Americans see a Putin, an Edrogen, an Ayatollah use the arms and power of gov't to take the choice of gov't away from the people, we condemn them as third world. Venezuela, Cuba and China earn disrespect for gov'ts where the people just don't matter.
Yet now we have a significant (more than a handful) of people living in this country support just that style of gov't. Use the power of gov't to control the gov't. Put on an election and then install the the designated leadership.
0 for 2. You're gonna need a better hiding spot...
1. Trump's "baggage" was pikerville compared to Hillery. 2. Russia was all in to get Trump elected is Dossier grade stupidity.
The 2016 efforts began under the Obama admin, whether that was before the election is a matter for you to resolve. They went public after the election as part of an effort to overthrow the election. Or as the TDS are loud for declaring- Insurrection!, End of Democracy!! Coup!!!
Did you have something smarter?
The election was not being overthrown, there was never a court case to overthrow the election.
The republican led senate investigation into Russian interference in our election concluded that Russia did in fact push to get Trump elected. Russia didn't hack and release the DNC e-mails (the same day as "grab them by the pussy" was leaked) to get Hillary elected...
He prefers to remain in his fake news safe space bubble.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on May 17, 2023 7:44:23 GMT -8
Eight Takeaways From the Durham Report Susan Schmidt examines the highlights and lowlights of the new Special Counsel report on Trump-Russia
1. There was no valid predicate for the investigation, and the FBI knew it.
2.“There’s nothing to this, but we have to run it to ground.”
3. “It’s thin”; “There’s nothing to this.”
4. The Trump campaign investigation was premised on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence,” and U.S. intel agencies possessed no “actual evidence of collusion” when the probe began
5. Sensational stories published in the New York Times in February and March 2017 claiming Trump associates were in contact with Russian intelligence agents were false.
6. FBI Director James Comey pushed heavily for an investigation of Carter Page, starting in April 2016 when Page was a government witness in an espionage investigation of Russian diplomats in New York.
7. At the direction of the FBI, confidential human source Stefan Halper recorded lengthy conversations with Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, in which each denied the campaign had any involvement with Russian officials.
8. Durham was highly critical of the FBI’s “startling and inexplicable failure” to investigate the so-called “Clinton Intelligence Plan.”
The report concludes the FBI: Failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts—a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.
The report notes in detail how false information intended to damage Trump – the Steele Dossier and the Alfa Bank claims – was provided to the FBI by people tied to the Clinton campaign. Had the FBI investigated what Durham termed the “Clinton intelligence plan” as it pursued its “Crossfire Hurricane” probe, it “would have increased the likelihood of alternative analytical hypotheses and reduced the risk of reputational damage both to the targets of the investigation as well as, ultimately, to the FBI.”
Durham added that if the FBI looked into the “Intelligence Plan,” it might at least have cast a critical eye on the phony evidence it was gathering in Crossfire Hurricane, and/or questioned whether it was “part of a political effort to smear a political opponent and to use the resources of the federal government's law enforcement and intelligence agencies in support of a political objective.”
Both Clinton campaign Chairperson, John Podesta and Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan called the information “ridiculous,” but the failure to investigate it in real time had a lasting impact.
Eight Takeaways From the Durham Report Susan Schmidt examines the highlights and lowlights of the new Special Counsel report on Trump-Russia
1. There was no valid predicate for the investigation, and the FBI knew it.
2.“There’s nothing to this, but we have to run it to ground.”
3. “It’s thin”; “There’s nothing to this.”
4. The Trump campaign investigation was premised on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence,” and U.S. intel agencies possessed no “actual evidence of collusion” when the probe began
5. Sensational stories published in the New York Times in February and March 2017 claiming Trump associates were in contact with Russian intelligence agents were false.
6. FBI Director James Comey pushed heavily for an investigation of Carter Page, starting in April 2016 when Page was a government witness in an espionage investigation of Russian diplomats in New York.
7. At the direction of the FBI, confidential human source Stefan Halper recorded lengthy conversations with Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, in which each denied the campaign had any involvement with Russian officials.
8. Durham was highly critical of the FBI’s “startling and inexplicable failure” to investigate the so-called “Clinton Intelligence Plan.”
The report concludes the FBI: Failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts—a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.
The report notes in detail how false information intended to damage Trump – the Steele Dossier and the Alfa Bank claims – was provided to the FBI by people tied to the Clinton campaign. Had the FBI investigated what Durham termed the “Clinton intelligence plan” as it pursued its “Crossfire Hurricane” probe, it “would have increased the likelihood of alternative analytical hypotheses and reduced the risk of reputational damage both to the targets of the investigation as well as, ultimately, to the FBI.”
Durham added that if the FBI looked into the “Intelligence Plan,” it might at least have cast a critical eye on the phony evidence it was gathering in Crossfire Hurricane, and/or questioned whether it was “part of a political effort to smear a political opponent and to use the resources of the federal government's law enforcement and intelligence agencies in support of a political objective.”
Both Clinton campaign Chairperson, John Podesta and Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan called the information “ridiculous,” but the failure to investigate it in real time had a lasting impact.
Post by EPIC Sir Tinley on May 17, 2023 7:56:31 GMT -8
How Can Anybody Take Them Seriously?
I accept that this is naïve, so please don’t write to me and tell me that I need to understand that the media is irreparably biased — trust me, I know — but I sincerely, honestly, genuinely do not understand how any of the people who continued to peddle the Trump-Russia nonsense long after it was obvious that it wasn’t true can expect to be taken seriously ever again.
New York’s Jonathan Chait wrote this elongated suicide note in the summer of 2018. “The media has treated the notion that Russia has personally compromised the president of the United States as something close to a kook theory,” Chait complained, in a piece titled, “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?” Er, yeah, it has. As opposed to what? Here’s one of the Pepe Silvia–esque charts Chait made in support of his theory:
David Frum was insisting emphatically on TV and in the Atlantic that the theory “wasn’t a hoax” in December of 2021 — ten months after Joe Biden had taken office.
Rachel Maddow made a career out of spreading lunatic conspiracy theories on MSNBC, as did Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace (who is still, today, rejecting all evidence that contradicts her fever dream).
Adam Schiff lied relentlessly from his official perch on the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is now gearing up to run for the Senate.
I could go on and on. Certainly, it gets boring saying as much, but if any of these people weren’t fully approved of by the Borg, they’d never be able to write or do anything again without being reminded at every turn that they’d fatally beclowned themselves and ought to go away.
I read Special Counsel John Durham’s “Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns” yesterday in a state I can only describe as psychic exhaustion. As Sue Schmidt’s “Eight Key Takeaways” summary shows, the stuff in this report should kill the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory ten times over, but we know better than that. This story never dies. Every time you shoot at it, it splits into six new deep state fantasies.
I’ve given up. Nearly seven years ago this idiotic tale dropped in my relatively uncomplicated life like a grenade, upending professional relationships, friendships, even family life. Those of us in media who were skeptics or even just uninterested were cast out as from a religious sect — colleagues unironically called us “denialists” — denounced in the best case as pathological wreckers and refuseniks, in the worst as literal agents of the FSB.
Your turn- Should the DOJ pursue criminal charges for those possibly be involved in a crime, or should the (D)OJ keep looking the other way?
The FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane was tasked with investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election, yet a major memo sent from the CIA to lead agent Peter Strzok outlining U.S. intelligence that Hillary Clinton may have hatched a plan to frame Donald Trump — which stood to dramatically alter the investigation — simply went missing, according to the blockbuster report from Special Counsel John Durham.
“In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee,” the report said.
On September 7, 2016, the CIA wrote a “referral memo” addressed to FBI director James Comey and to the attention of Deputy Assistant Director Strzok saying as much. The information was considered so important that then-CIA Director James Brennan immediately briefed President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Comey about it in the Situation Room. Yet not a single FBI employee working for Strzok who was interviewed by Durham could recall seeing it or doing anything with the information.
While the Russian intelligence that was intercepted could have been an “exaggeration or fabrication,” it would have rung true to the FBI agents because they suspected, correctly, that the sources that were feeding them the anti-Trump narrative were being paid by the Clinton campaign or DNC, and caused them to proceed more skeptically.
Some agents expressed “surprise and dismay” to learn from Durham that the FBI had received this intelligence but bosses had seemingly concealed it from them. “For example, the original Supervisory Special Agent on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Supervisory Special Agent-1, reviewed the intelligence during one of his interviews with the Office. After reading it, Supervisory Special Agent-I became visibly upset and emotional, left the interview room with his counsel, and subsequently returned to state emphatically that he had never been apprised of the Clinton Plan intelligence and had never seen the aforementioned Referral Memo. Supervisory Special Agent-1 expressed a sense of betrayal that no one had informed him of the intelligence,” Durham wrote.
Clinton’s campaign paid the law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion GPS, which paid dossier author Christopher Steele. Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussman also fed the FBI “white papers” pushing the idea that Trump was involved in a conspiracy with Russia, and billed the Clinton campaign for it, the report said.
The idea that Steele was working on a plot for Clinton — rather than being simply a retired British intelligence agent — would have answered nagging questions the investigators had, such as one’s reservation that “what was strange was that [British Intelligence Services] don’t seem to want to deal with the guy.” Another agent assigned to handle Steele said his initial reaction was “disbelief.”
Crossfire Hurricane agents regularly found themselves flummoxed by why they were being pushed aggressively by leadership brass to investigate something that seemed so weak. The agent who became “visibly upset” also said he had “felt like a fool” while investigating “dry holes,” but assumed that “somebody above them” knew of some solid evidence that he did not that guided their decision-making.
He said a colleague felt similarly and would regularly ask, “what are we even doing here?” That colleague told Deputy Assistant Director Jennifer Boone that he did not think there was justification for surveilling Trump aide Carter Page, but “he was largely ignored and directed to continue.”
After analysts determined that the case into wrongdoing by Trump associates was weak, a top FBI official gave the order that nothing should be put in writing on the case, the report said.
“A meeting was then held with Assistant Director Priestap and others. During that meeting, the review team was told to be careful about what they were writing down because issues relating to Steele were under intense scrutiny. Two weeks later, the Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Dina Corsi, met with the review team and directed them not to document any recommendations, context, or analysis in the memorandum they were preparing. The instructions, which Headquarters Analyst-3 described as ‘highly unusual,’ concerned the team because analysis is what analysts do,” the report said.
An FBI attorney “remembered being shocked by the directive from Corsi. OGC Attorney-I’s recollection was that Corsi was speaking for FBI leadership, but that she did not say exactly who provided the directive. OGC Attorney-I advised the Office that what Corsi said was not right in any circumstance, and it was the most inappropriate operational or professional statement he had ever heard at the FBI. OGC Attorney-I stated that the directive from Corsi was ‘really, really shocking’ to him and that he was ‘appalled’ by it.”
The Steele dossier itself also went missing for 75 days between when it was received in London and when the dossier made its way to Crossfire Hurricane investigators, Durham wrote. Instead of using that time to validate its authenticity, it was dropped on their lap and they were told to quickly use it to get spy warrants, the report said. No one could explain the delay.
Not a single element of the dossier could ultimately be corroborated by its primary subsource, Igor Danchenko. Yet even as the FBI spent thousands of hours chasing rabbit holes of dubious leads and tangentially related interviews, it made no effort to interview some of the people who could have quickly gotten to the bottom of it, Durham wrote.
That includes Christopher Dolan, a prominent Democrat whose name made Danchenko and others visibly nervous, and who was likely a dossier source. It also includes George Papadapolous, whose vague comment in a London bar was used to open a full investigation instead of simply asking him what he meant, as British intelligence urged the FBI to do.
The FBI also refused to interview Carter Page despite his offer, it said.
I mean... you can see why they were concerned right? A malignant narcissist was elected President and he carried baggage like questionable business deals, Russian connections, top advisers with Russian connections so shady they served prison time, and Russia was all in to get him elected.
There is also this common false narrative where this was meant to hurt Trump's election chances. This investigation didn't even become public until a month or two after he became President... which is in stark contrast to the leak that Hillary's emails were being investigated during the runup to the election.
Rationalizing abuse of power is interesting. Nothing good comes from abusing power, despite your fascination with Trump.
The FBI used gut instinct and predetermined guilt to target those investigated.
Eliminate the FBI from the top-down.
The FBI Agents working the front line and in good standing will be transferred to a new organization.
A friend of a friend is an FBI Agent and he spends ALL of his time escorting “high profile” citizens
Let those citizens hire their own security and try to achieve 100% dedication to preventing and investigating crime within the law and review to assure compliance
The FBI used gut instinct and predetermined guilt to target those investigated.
I don't know about "gut instinct". So far there hasn't been any claim of that. Perhaps there was but as of the released info it was a straight up political hit to undermine an election and then administration.
At least much of the senior leadership must go, and possibly prosecuted.
“A meeting was then held with Assistant Director Priestap and others. During that meeting, the review team was told to be careful about what they were writing down because issues relating to Steele were under intense scrutiny. Two weeks later, the Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Dina Corsi, met with the review team and directed them not to document any recommendations, context, or analysis in the memorandum they were preparing. The instructions, which Headquarters Analyst-3 described as ‘highly unusual,’ concerned the team because analysis is what analysts do,” the report said.
An FBI attorney “remembered being shocked by the directive from Corsi. OGC Attorney-I’s recollection was that Corsi was speaking for FBI leadership, but that she did not say exactly who provided the directive. OGC Attorney-I advised the Office that what Corsi said was not right in any circumstance, and it was the most inappropriate operational or professional statement he had ever heard at the FBI. OGC Attorney-I stated that the directive from Corsi was ‘really, really shocking’ to him and that he was ‘appalled’ by it.”
This stuff needs attention. Who, when and why needs to be clarified and prosecution if criminal.
A friend of a friend is an FBI Agent and he spends ALL of his time escorting “high profile” citizens
Let those citizens hire their own security and try to achieve 100% dedication to preventing and investigating crime within the law and review to assure compliance
Yes, there are good, real good people at an important agency for the country. It would be a loss for all to fire them all. Leadership is focused on "leading" a political action committee. They are working for the state not the people. They clearly need to be held accountable.
Of course, the actual quote doesn't mention the word treason.
Too soon on Schiffts. He's been making these claims as an official of the US gov't and led efforts to overturn our gov't. Perhaps he's been truthful. He's a nightly regular on state Party media. One of the hosts should actually challenge him to produce his evidence (don't forget, Swallowswell is a party too). Let's see what he's got. Short of that, move forward with congressional action.