The Coming Russia Bombshells
Authored op-ed by Kimberley Strassel via The Wall Street Journal
The confirmation this week that Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid an opposition-research firm for a "dossier" on Donald Trump is bombshell news. More bombshells are to come.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-27...bombshells
Quote:The Fusion GPS saga isn't over. The Clinton-DNC funding is but a first glimpse into the shady election doings concealed within that oppo-research firm's walls. We now know where Fusion got some of its cash, but the next question is how the firm used it. With whom did it work beyond former British spy Christopher Steele ? Whom did it pay? Who else was paying it?
The answers are in Fusion's bank records. Fusion has doggedly refused to divulge the names of its clients for months now, despite extraordinary pressure. So why did the firm suddenly insist that middleman law firm Perkins Coie release Fusion from confidentiality agreements, and spill the beans on who hired it?
Because there's something Fusion cares about keeping secret even more than the Clinton-DNC news - and that something is in those bank records. The release of the client names was a last-ditch effort to appease the House Intelligence Committee, which issued subpoenas to Fusion's bank and was close to obtaining records until Fusion filed suit last week. The release was also likely aimed at currying favor with the court, given Fusion's otherwise weak legal case. The judge could rule as early as Friday morning.
If the House wins, don't be surprised if those records include money connected to Russians. In the past Fusion has worked with Russians, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who happened to show up last year in Donald Trump Jr.'s office.
FBI bombshells are also yet to come. The bureau has stonewalled congressional subpoenas for documents related to the dossier, but that became harder with the DNC-Clinton news. On Thursday Speaker Paul Ryan announced the FBI had finally pledged to turn over its dossier file next week.
Assuming the FBI is comprehensive in its disclosure, expect to learn that the dossier was indeed a major basis of investigating the Trump team - despite reading like "the National Enquirer," as Rep. Trey Gowdy aptly put it. We may learn the FBI knew the dossier was a bought-and-paid-for product of Candidate Clinton, but used it anyway. Or that it didn't know, which would be equally disturbing.
It might show the bureau was simply had. Don't forget that it wasn't until January the dossier became public, and the media started unearthing details. And the more ugly info that came out (Fusion, Democratic clients, intelligence-for-hire) the more former Obama officials seemed skeptical of it. In May, former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper said his people could never "corroborate" its "sourcing." In June, Mr. Comey derided it as "salacious and unverified."
Yet none of this jibes with reports that the FBI debated paying Mr. Steele to continue his work. Or that Mr. Comey was so convinced by the dossier that he pushed to have it included in the intelligence community's January report on Russian meddling. Imagine if it turns out the FBI was duped by a politically contracted document that might have been filled up by the Kremlin.
There's plenty yet to come with regard to the DNC and the Clinton campaign. Every senior Democrat is disclaiming knowledge of the dossier deal, leaving Perkins Coie holding the bag. But while it is not unusual for law firms to hire opposition-research outfits for political clients, it is highly unusual for a law firm to pay bills without a client's approval. Somewhere, Perkins Coie has documents showing who signed off on those bills, and they aren't protected by attorney-client privilege.
Those names will matter, since someone at the DNC and at the Clinton campaign will need to explain how they somehow both forgot to list Fusion as a vendor in their campaign-finance filings. Some Justice Department lawyer is presumably already looking into whether this was a willful evasion, which can carry criminal penalties. It's one thing to forget to list that local hot-dog supplier for the campaign picnic. It's a little fishier when two entities both fail to list the firm that supplied them the most explosive hit job in a generation.
And there are still bombshells with regard to unmasking of Americans in surveilled communications. If the Steele dossier reports (which appear to date back to June 2016) were making their way into the hands of senior DNC and Clinton political operatives, you can bet they were making their way to the Obama White House. This may explain why Obama political appointees began monitoring the Trump campaign and abusing unmasking. They were looking for a "gotcha," something to disqualify a Trump presidency. Of course, they were doing so on the basis of "salacious and unverified" accusations made by anonymous Russians, but never mind.
No, this probe of the Democratic Party's Russian dalliance has a long, long way to go. And, let us hope, with revelations too big for even the media to ignore.
"Brazen Plot To Exonerate Hillary Clinton" And Frame Trump Unraveling, Says Former Fed Prosecutor
GINNI THOMAS
10:37 PM 01/20/2018
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/obama-...e-hillary/
Quote:A former Federal Prosecutor sat down with The Daily Caller to give perhaps the most comprehensive rundown of the Obama Administration's "brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton" and "frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy."
In this highly recommended 30 minute interview with Joe diGenova, the former Special Counsel who went after both the Teamsters and former NY Governor Elliot Spitzer, paints a very clear picture of collusion is painted between the Obama administration, the FBI, the Clinton campaign and opposition research firm Fusion GPS.
From the Daily Caller:
The FBI used to spy on Russians. This time they spied on us. what this story is about - a brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton from a clear violation of the law with regard to the way she handled classified information with her classified server. Absolutely a crime, absolutely a felony. It's about finding out why - as the Inspector General is doing at the department of justice - why Comey and the senior DOJ officials conducted a fake criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton. Followed none of the regular rules, gave her every break in the book, immunized all kinds of people, allowed the destruction of evidence, no grand jury, no subpoenas, no search warrant. That's not an investigation, that's a Potemkin village. It's a farce.
And everybody knew it was a farce. The problem was, she didn't win. And because she didn't wain, the farce became a very serious opera. It wasn't a comic opera anymore, it was a tragic opera. And she was going to be the focus.
What this is about, this is about a lavabo, a cleansing of FBI and the upper echelons of the Department of Justice.
We're going to discover that the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, her deputy Sally Yates, the head of the national security division John Carlin, Bruce Ohr and other senior DOJ officials, and regrettably, lying attorneys. People who were senior career civil servants violated the law, perhaps committed crimes, and covered up crimes by a presidential candidate - but more than that, they tried to frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy that never existed, and they knew it, and they plotted to ruin him as a candidate and then destroy him as a president. That's why this is important. That's why connecting the dots is important.
DiGenova condemned the FBI for working so closely with the controversial Fusion GPS, a political hit squad paid by the DNC and Clinton campaign to create and spread the discredited Steele dossier about President Donald Trump. Without a justifiable law enforcement or national security reason, he says, the FBI "created false facts so that they could get surveillance warrants. Those are all crimes." He adds, using official FISA-702 "queries" and surveillance was done "to create a false case against a candidate, and then a president." -Daily Caller
During the interview, DiGenova holds up and references a previously unreported and heavily redacted 99-page FISA court opinion from April, 2017, which "describes systematic and on-going violations of the law [by the FBI and their contractors using unauthorized disclosures of raw intelligence on Americans]. This is stunning stuff."
NSA Admiral Mike Rodgers: An American Hero
DiGenova also discusses the immense risks taken by retiring NSA director, Mike Rogers - who briefed Trump on Nov. 7, 2016 about the Obama administration's surveillance of the Trump team. The next day, the Presidental transition team was moved out of Trump tower and into the president-elect's Bedminster, NJ golf course until they could sweep for bugs.
Uranium One and other matters
Also discussed in the interview are the Uranium One scandal, Mueller's "tainted" probe, and the consequences of the Democrats regaining control in the November midterms - which would most certainly lead to an effort to impeach Trump.
"It's important for the House to complete its work now," says diGenova.
The 99-page FISA court opinion:
https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icot...r_2017.pdf
If you're not very familiar with American politics, the Daily Caller is run by Trump fanboy and Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, who conjures up almost as much fan fiction per square inch as Alex Jones.
It's called "incidental surveillance." When Americans are communicating with Russian oligarchs, mobsters and/or spies, they are going to be picked up by intelligence agencies, both foreign and domestic.
"Britain's spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump's campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told. GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious "interactions" between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump's inner circle and Russians, sources said. The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence known as sigint included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the "Five Eyes" spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said. Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017...nks-russia
Thanks to Tracy we now know that only Germany, Estonia, Poland, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, France and the Netherlands interfered in our election. Thank goodness it was not the Russians!
James Lateer Wrote:Thanks to Tracy we now know that only Germany, Estonia, Poland, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, France and the Netherlands interfered in our election. Thank goodness it was not the Russians!
Hi, James. Actually, you learned that US allies keep constant tabs on Russian activities and communications (this should not be shocking to anyone), and people who are communicating with them will be monitored and recorded (this also shouldn't be shocking - everybody spies on everybody). But the Obama administration was slow to pay attention and take the whole thing seriously for months.
Tracy: My response to your important information was probably way too sarcastic considering it was totally new information to me and I appreciate it as such. But how would one evaluate the credibility of the Estonian and the Polish counterintelligence people given the revelations about the U.S. Counterintelligence chief, Peter Strzok (and his paramour)? I would be very interested in learning if you (or other people) have any clue as to what the U.S. Government could do to fix all the problems that have come to light regarding our top law enforcement officials, especially counter-intelligence people. To me, this is very serious for our country. Can we trust their interactions with all these foreign intelligence people? What is their commitment to the US Values of democratic principles and elections, either here or overseas?
James Lateer
James Lateer Wrote:Tracy: My response to your important information was probably way too sarcastic considering it was totally new information to me and I appreciate it as such. But how would one evaluate the credibility of the Estonian and the Polish counterintelligence people given the revelations about the U.S. Counterintelligence chief, Peter Strzok (and his paramour)? I would be very interested in learning if you (or other people) have any clue as to what the U.S. Government could do to fix all the problems that have come to light regarding our top law enforcement officials, especially counter-intelligence people. To me, this is very serious for our country. Can we trust their interactions with all these foreign intelligence people? What is their commitment to the US Values of democratic principles and elections, either here or overseas?
James Lateer
To me, the Strzok texts are a big fuss over nothing. Strzok and his girlfriend talked crap about everybody in 2016 -
"Strzok once texted, "I'm worried about what happens if HRC is elected." He also referred to Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, as "self-entitled," and dismissed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I - Vt., as an "idiot." Page also called Sanders supporters "idiots.""
[FONT=&]
https://www.salon.com/2017/12/15/why-did...t-mueller/
[/FONT]FBI agents are allowed to have and express political opinions per Bureau regulations.
I can't vouch for any intelligence agency's commitment to democratic principles, but we do know that Eastern European/Baltic countries are always very concerned about Russia, for good historical reasons, and keep constant surveillance on them.
Tracy Riddle Wrote:"Britain's spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump's campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told. GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious "interactions" between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump's inner circle and Russians, sources said. The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence known as sigint included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the "Five Eyes" spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said. Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017...nks-russia
For those unfamiliar with Britain's presstitutes, the Grauniad is a notorious CIA rag with a long and spectacular history of tax evasion, typos, and pseudery, taken seriously only by drunks, Americans and exchange students.
Russsia-Gate Implodes
The real "collusion" is the alliance of foreign actors and the Democrats
by Justin Raimondo Posted on January 22, 2018
https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018...-implodes/
Quote:The finale is upon us: the Russia-gate fraud is about to be exploded, at long last. Although the vaunted memo and the underlying intelligence compiled by the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee under chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has yet to be released, there has been enough chatter by those House members who have read it to give us the basic elements of what it contains. Although prepare to be shocked by what I consider to be the most outrageous aspect of this affair.
To begin with, it's clear that the "dossier" paid for by the neocons over at the Free Beacon and then taken up later by Hillary Clinton was submitted to the FISA court by the FBI as the factual basis for allowing secret surveillance of the Trump campaign, possibly including Donald Trump himself. The FISA judge was reportedly not told who paid for the dossier.
In an interview with the Daily Caller, veteran law enforcement professional Joseph DiGenova cites as evidence of a pattern of deception the details of a FISA court opinion (April 27, 2017) that charged the Obama administration with lying to the court and illegal use of material obtained through their spying campaign. The court said the government's actions were "abusive" because the purloined material was handed out to "contractors." We aren't told who these contractors are. My guess and DiGenova's: Fusion GPS, the firm hired to smear Trump, and CrowdStrike, the cyber-security firm in charge of the DNC's email system which the FBI never was allowed to look at.
The anti-Trump coup plotters constructed an elaborate fiction for the benefit of the FISA court, presented it to the court as factual, and used it as the basis for obtaining a warrant for the Obama administration and, in effect, the Clinton campaign to not only spy on the Trump campaign but to actively disrupt it.
Secondly and this, I think, is why the memo and the underlying intelligence is so highly classified the FBI/CIA factor in this operation is just a part of the whole. The involvement of "former" MI6 agent Christopher Steele argues in favor of British involvement. And of course it could be a mere coincidence that the head of the GCHQ the British spy outfit resigned shortly after the Steele story broke. And then again maybe not.
And it's not just the British, who have been conducting their own cold war against Russia since long before Russia-gate broke in this country. A number of other foreign intelligence agencies reportedly had a hand in all this, including the Ukrainians and the Estonians, whose virulent hatred of Russia and fear of Trump's peaceful intentions toward Moscow were motivation enough.
That's the reason for the intra-Republican dispute about releasing the memo: the "internationalist" types (who aren't especially friendly to Trump) fear roiling relations with our "allies." Those who want to release it realize that with "allies" like these we don't need enemies.
Nunes, Rep. Trey Gowdy, and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte are now trying to figure out how to initiate a "never before used procedure" to release the really juicy stuff the underlying intelligence that nails these felons for abusing the FISA system, spying on Americans, subverting the electoral process, and, yes, colluding with foreign powers to subvert and destroy Trump's presidency.
If our system works the way it ought to be working, a lot of these people are going to jail. These are felonies we're talking about. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, recently renewed and given even more sweeping powers to spy on us, makes it a crime to present false evidence to the FISA court: under section 1809, FISA makes it a crime for anyone to either "engage in" electronic surveillance under "color of law" by presenting false evidence. Penalty: five years in jail and/or a $10,000 fine
Now the coup plotters are destroying evidence as fast as they can: the FBI just informed Congress that text messages sent by Robert Mueller's investigators, Peter Strzok and his FBI lawyer paramour Lisa Page, filled with anti-Trump material and possibly detailing the "insurance policy" Strzok talked about to prevent Trump from either taking office or functioning as President were "mistakenly" destroyed.
My usual subject is the many ways in which US government agencies seek to dominate, coerce, and otherwise seek to forcibly and/or illegally change governments abroad. These days, however, in the latter days of the American Empire, I'm forced to write about a regime-change operation to end all regime-change operations the one being carried out by high-ranking US government officials right here at home.
But why? How? Who?
The "how" is now coming out, but I'm convinced people like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and John Brennan are just part of the story. The other part is the foreign nationals who I believe are deeply involved in the genesis and implementation of this wrecking operation. Trump's talk of getting out of NATO, cutting down on US military intervention abroad, as well as his opposition to a new cold war with Russia this last especially angered the Brits and the East Europeans threatened their precious "international order," not to mention the political agenda of the Davos crowd.
Americans will be shocked by the nature and extent of the FBI/CIA's interference in our domestic politics, but they'll also be surprised at the way our spooks dominate not just influence, but dominate what passes for American journalism today. I'd bet the farm that there isn't a single "mainstream" media outlet that isn't beholden to them. The reason I say this with such alacrity is that "Operation Get Trump" couldn't have happened without the kind of fulsome partisanship we're seen since before Trump took office. We've seen this kind of thing before only not in this country. We saw it in Ukraine, where the CIA and their Euro-weenie allies overthrew an elected President Yanukovich. We saw it in Chile,when they overthrew Salvador Allende, we saw it in Guatemala when they got rid of President Jacobo Arbenz heck, I could spend the rest of the week just listing their crimes.
It was inevitable that they'd try to pull the same thing off in America. Oh, the irony! We thought of our allies as if they were our satellites but who is revolving around whom? The mere threat that American largesse might be withdrawn, that our "allies" will have to start paying their own way, and that we want to rip up the many tripwires that could plunge us into war halfway around the earth for no good reason this is what mobilized the War Party to declare war against … their own country. We have become a prisoner of our own empire.
When all this is over if it ever is Congress must gather its courage and examine exactly what went on here. We need a new Church Committee to rein in the FBI and the CIA and the other 16 intelligence agencies we inexplicably operate.
That, of course, is after the culprits are thrown in jail.
And for the absolute last time: this isn't about Trump. It's about preserving the American republic against rogue intelligence agencies and the FBI a national police force which we don't need, which the Founders never envisioned, and which has proven itself to be a deadly danger to the American system.
Paul, do you know who Devin Nunes is? He was on Trump's transition team, and has spent so much time crawling around the Oval Office being fed talking points by Team Trump, he'll soon require knee pads. This Super Duper Secret Memo That Will Destroy Mueller and Exonerate Trump is the latest attempt to create a counter-narrative, but he won't even show it to Senate Republicans or the Department of Justice:
"Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr's staff has not been given access to a classified memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a sign of how closely House Republicans are guarding allegations of Justice Department wrongdoing over surveillance activities in the Russia investigation.
According to three sources familiar with the matter, Burr's staff requested a copy of the memo and has been denied, just as the FBI and Justice Department have also been denied reviewing a copy of the document. The memo is based on highly classified intelligence that only a select group of House and Senate lawmakers have accessed."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/politics/...index.html
Odds are very good that Nunes, along with other House Republicans, accepted laundered dirty Russian money into his campaign coffers at some point.
As for Strzok and his girlfriend - keep in mind that the FBI is the most politically conservative agency in the Federal Government, after the Pentagon. But in any case:
"F.B.I. regulations allow agents to express opinions "as an individual privately and publicly on political subjects and candidates.""
[FONT=&]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/politics/mueller-removed-top-fbi-agent-over-possible-anti-trump-texts.html[/FONT]