Newly declassified intelligence documents released Thursday revealed Hillary Clinton personally approved a campaign plan to &#8220;smear&#8221; then-candidate Donald Trump with false Russian collusion claims to distract from her email scandal during the 2016 presidential race.
Special counsel John Durham uncovered the information during his multi-year investigation into intelligence activities during the 2016 election.
The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/895553887/Declassified-Durham-Annex-Released-by-Chairman-Grassley#download&amp;from_embed">intelligence</a>, released Monday by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), came from two memos obtained by the Obama administration containing &#8220;confidential conversations&#8221; between members of the DNC and George Soros&#8217;s Open Society Foundations before the 2016 election.
According to the declassified files, Clinton personally approved a plan proposed by her foreign policy advisor, Julianne Smith, to &#8220;smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate.&#8221; Smith was later appointed to serve as Ambassador to NATO under President Joe Biden.
One stunning email written by Open Society Foundations Senior Vice President Leonard Bernardo, dated July 27, 2016, stated: &#8220;HRC [Hillary Clinton] approved Julia&#8217;s [sic] idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level.&#8221;
&#8220;The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue,&#8221; Bernado continued, adding, &#8220;In absence of direct evidence, Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect will supply the media, and GRU [Russia&#8217;s foreign intelligence arm] will hopefully carry on to give more facts.&#8221;
Durham’s team spoke with analysts and officers who assessed these emails were likely authentic. The special counsel&#8217;s team believe the emails, apparently from Benardo, were a &#8220;composite&#8221; of emails hacked by Russian intelligence from U.S. think tanks.
The Clinton campaign&#8217;s plan included &#8220;raising the theme of &#8216;Putin&#8217;s support for Trump'&#8221; and pushing public opinion to &#8220;equate&#8221; the Russian leader&#8217;s influence campaign with actual election infrastructure hacking. It also involved distributing &#8220;the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated … technical structures … in particular, the Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications,&#8221; according to another email from Bernardo.
The email predicted that the FBI would &#8220;put more oil into the fire&#8221; of the Russia collusion narrative, with Obama even <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/31/us-news/hillary-clinton-approved-plan-hatched-by-campaign-aides-to-smear-trump-with-russia-collusion-declassified-docs/">considering</a> shutting down the bureau&#8217;s investigation into Clinton&#8217;s emails, according to the New York Post.
&#8220;Smith was, at minimum, playing a role in the Clinton campaign&#8217;s efforts to tie Trump to Russia,&#8221; Durham concluded.
Senator Chuck Grassley <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/newly-declassified-appendix-to-durham-report-sheds-additional-light-on-clinton-campaign-plan-to-falsely-tie-trump-to-russia-and-fbis-failure-to-investigate">said</a> in a statement: &#8220;Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton&#8217;s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means.&#8221;
&#8220;The American people deserve the full, unfiltered truth about the Russia collusion hoax and the political abuse of our justice system it exposed,&#8221; FBI Director Kash Patel stated, characterizing it as &#8220;one of the most shameful frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.&#8221;
The Russia collusion narrative dominated headlines for years during the first Trump administration. It led to multiple investigations, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s probe, which ultimately found no evidence of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The Inauguration Of Donald J. Trump As The 47th President

Hillary Clinton Greenlit Russia Hoax To Hide Email Scandal, Declassified Docs Reveal

2016 Election

Barack Obama

Christopher Steele

Donald Trump

Elections

Hillary Clinton

Politics

Russia Collusion Hoax

Trump Administration

Former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> is suing British ex-spy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-steele" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Steele</a> over the discredited Steele Dossier that was intended to paint a picture of alleged collusion between Trump and Russia.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for Trump in <a class="c-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/london" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/london" data-sk="tooltip_parent">London</a> and says that Orbis Business Intelligence, a consultant group founded by Steele, violated British data protection laws.
In a written witness statement, Trump <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12636387/donald-trump-calls-christopher-steele-russia-dossier-untrue-golden-showers-prostitutes-moscow.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that “not one of the damning allegations contained in the Steele reporting was ever corroborated.” 
Funds from Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-sec-boss-confronted-over-steele-dossier-payment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went toward</a> Steele’s dossier, which made claims tying Trump to Russia that were later discredited.
In his statement, Trump said that the dossier had “numerous false, phony or made-up allegations,” including wild claims of “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, and that Russia did not have “sufficient material to blackmail” him.
“The only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies of the personal data in the dossier is to bring these proceedings and to prove, by evidence at trial, that the data are false,” Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, said.
The dossier <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/christopher-steele-holds-firm-on-defending-discredited-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> to establish a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between Trump’s campaign and Russia, an allegation that was not backed up by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the collusion claims.
Trump’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-steele-dossier-lawsuit-london-russia-de956b079a1216526b84822b121acd04" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that the former president “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress&#8221; because of the dossier, which contained &#8220;shocking and scandalous claims.&#8221;
Antony White, a lawyer for Orbis, said that the case should be thrown out because too much time had passed and that BuzzFeed News was not supposed to publish the dossier.
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White claimed that Trump has “a long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.”
Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/judge-dismisses-trump-lawsuit-against-clinton-1c49b9f65177507bb06115b631c8499d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously</a> tried to sue former top FBI officials and Clinton over the dossier, but his lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge.
According to a report from special counsel Robert Durham, the FBI <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-to-pay-steele-1m-for-anti-trump-evidence-paid-possible-russian-spy-despite-knowing-his-info-was-bad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had offered to pay</a> Steele up to $1 million for evidence linking Trump to Russia and paid Steele’s primary subsource hundreds of thousands of dollars even after the source was unable to provide evidence for any of his claims.

Donald Trump Sues Former British Spy in London Data Lawsuit

Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over ‘Shocking And Scandalous’ Claims Made In Discredited Dossier

Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over 'Shocking And Scandalous' Claims Made In Discredited Dossier

Courts

London

Russia

Steele Dossier

World

A House Republican threw one curveball of a question at Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, asking the Biden administration official on Tuesday to answer under oath whether he facilitated payment for British ex-spy Christopher Steele&#8217;s now-discredited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1m-for-evidence-backing-up-dossier-claims-about-trump-fbi-analyst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-Trump dossier</a>.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) ended his <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?527459-1/sec-chair-testifies-house-oversight-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contentious line of questioning</a> during the final moments of a House Financial Services Committee hearing by hearkening back to Gensler&#8217;s role as chief financial officer on Hillary Clinton&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign.
&#8220;Did you facilitate the payment for the Steele dossier since you were CFO of the Hillary Clinton campaign?&#8221; he asked.
Gensler, who was shaking his head, began to answer with, &#8220;Sir,&#8221; after which Donalds said, &#8220;Yes or no.&#8221; This happened twice before Donalds reminded the witness that he was under oath. &#8220;I know,&#8221; Gensler replied before offering an answer: &#8220;It was not something I was aware of.&#8221;
The exchange, and the hearing at large, ended there.
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It is already well established that funds from Clinton&#8217;s failed campaign and the Democratic National Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-dnc-hillary-campaign-paid-compile-trump-ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went toward Steele&#8217;s</a> dossier, which was packed with salacious allegations tying former President Donald Trump to Russia that have been <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/christopher-steele-holds-firm-on-defending-discredited-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">picked apart</a> by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-report-dismisses-many-steele-dossier-claims-11555710147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">federal investigators</a>.
In fact, both parties <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fec-fines-dnc-clinton-for-trump-dossier-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were fined by the Federal Election Commission</a> for not properly disclosing the roughly $1 million that made its way to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele, from the Perkins Coie law firm.
Gensler&#8217;s name came up when the Clinton campaign&#8217;s chairman, John Podesta, testified to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017. Podesta mentioned Gensler as being the person who &#8220;established the financial controls&#8221; and he stressed that &#8220;Gary&#8221; was &#8220;at the top,&#8221; handling payments to Perkins Coie, <a href="https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2022-09/PodestaInterview.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a transcript shows</a>.
Devin Nunes, the Republican former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who left Congress to head Trump&#8217;s media company, said this week that his panel &#8220;outed&#8221; Gensler as the individual who &#8220;wrote the check to Fusion GPS.&#8221;
During a &#8220;Just the News Not Noise&#8221; interview, Nunes also criticized Gensler and the SEC for the extended holdup on a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/22/trump-sec-truth-social-public-company-00070444" target="_blank" rel="noopener">planned merger</a> between the Trump Media &amp; Technology Group, which runs the social media platform called Truth Social, and Digital World Acquisition Corp.
This follows Trump Media&#8217;s general counsel <a href="https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-02/23.02.27%20TMTG%20to%20Congress%20FINAL%20w%20Attachments.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requesting in February</a> that Congress investigate the SEC over an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-new-social-media-venture-is-under-sec-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;endless&#8221; review</a> described as &#8220;an unprecedented attempt to kill the deal without any finding of wrongdoing.&#8221;
Donalds <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/byron-donalds-endorses-trump-president-strength-resolve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed Trump earlier this month</a>, at the time making him the third GOP lawmaker from Florida to back the former president&#8217;s 2024 White House campaign.

SEC Chair Gary Gensle

Biden’s SEC Boss Confronted Over Steele Dossier Payment

House Republican Confronts Biden’s SEC Boss Over Steele Dossier

Byron Donalds

Congress

U.S.

If the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> thinks its reputation was restored by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-zeroes-in-on-fbis-real-problem-and-it-is-worse-than-incompetence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>’s latest – and likely last – courtroom defeat as special counsel, its powers of deduction are no better than when it launched a probe into whether ex-President Trump was a Russian asset based on the word of known fibbers and political operatives.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/igor-danchenko-source-of-steele-dossier-acquitted-in-blow-to-durham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Igor Danchenko’s acquittal</a> Tuesday followed that of Michael Sussmann earlier this year in the two cases Durham took to trial in his quest to find out why the FBI began an investigation that divided the country, ultimately cost upwards of $30 million, and stymied a presidency. Both men were essentially accused of lying to the FBI to “trick” the storied bureau into believing, in Sussmann’s case, that Trump communicated with his handlers at a Russian bank through some sort of bat signal emanating from Trump Tower, and in Danchenko’s case, a host of thoroughly implausible lies memorialized in the so-called “Steele dossier.”
Durham didn’t put the FBI on trial, at least not officially. But both cases revealed that the bureau was not so much duped as it was a willing participant in a vile hoax that began as the dirtiest political trick in American history. Sussmann, a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign operative, was accused of lying when he said his briefing to top FBI officials on Trump’s secret communications was merely the efforts of a concerned citizen. Danchenko was accused of telling former British spy and dossier compiler Christopher Steele about a cryptic call that relayed details about a “conspiracy of cooperation” between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. The call never happened, but no matter.
The FBI used the dossier, which also included lurid and completely false claims about Trump cavorting with urinating hookers in a Moscow hotel, to obtain four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to intercept Trump adviser Carter Page’s telephone and email conversations. The so-called “two-hop” rule meant those warrants basically opened the entire Trump campaign to FBI snooping.
Durham’s one victory to date was a guilty plea and slap on the wrist for former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who concealed the fact that the bureau knew Page had previously worked for the CIA, and thus was not likely to be spying for the Russians.
In the Sussmann and Danchenko cases, the juries had to be persuaded that the defendants’ lies helped drive the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. Apparently, they were not. But maybe that was due to Durham’s convincing argument that key members of the James Comey FBI used information from Danchenko and Sussmann that they knew was bogus as pretexts to pursue their own motive: Get Donald Trump.
The trial of Danchenko, who the bureau had once investigated for spying on behalf of Russia, included bombshell revelations. So craven was the FBI’s desire to stop Orange Man that, as Steele’s dossier crumbled before its eyes, it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1m-for-evidence-backing-up-dossier-claims-about-trump-fbi-analyst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered him $1 million</a> just before the election to prove any of it was true. Steele was unable to collect. And when the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog started snooping, the bureau made Danchenko, who by then it knew had lied, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-had-suspected-russian-operative-source-for-trump-dossier-on-payroll-durham-charges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a paid confidential informant</a>, putting him out of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s reach.
Americans who have been paying attention have long suspected that the FBI under Comey was a nest of anti-Trumpers, first bent on keeping him out of office and, when that failed, covering up their efforts and sabotaging a presidency. Durham stopped short of putting any FBI officials on trial, opting instead for the smaller fish. Critics on the Left will insist his failure to win convictions are proof there was never “any there there.” Critics on the Right will wonder if he simply shrank from a strategy that could have sunk the FBI or if he was there to paper over its actions all along.
But the FBI, which went on to collude with social media companies to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election and is now busy raiding the homes of peaceful pro-life protesters, should not be taking a victory lap. Durham exposed it for what it is, whether he meant to or not.
Aside from a report expected by the end of the year, Durham is likely finished. The FBI should be finished, too.

Clinton Attorney Michael Sussman Acquitted Of Charge Of Lying To The F.B.I.

Durham Looks Bad, But FBI Looks Worse In Failed Russia-Collusion Prosecutions

John Durham

Michael Sussmann

A Virginia federal jury found Igor Danchenko, a key source for the so-called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/steele-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steele dossier</a> of phony dirt on former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Trump</a>, not guilty on all four remaining counts of lying to the FBI Tuesday.
The verdict, which came after just one day of deliberations, was a blow to Special Counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>, who was tasked with finding the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation. The dossier, which contained derogatory information on Trump that was never corroborated, was put together by former British spy Christopher Steele for operatives of Hillary Clinton&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign and then passed on to the FBI.
In closing arguments Monday, Durham indicated that he believed the FBI had bungled the Trump-Russia probe that hamstrung the 45th president&#8217;s administration for nearly three years, but said Danchenko&#8217;s lies had played a role. Danchenko initially faced five counts of making false statements to the FBI, one of which was dismissed by the court. The jury acquitted him of the other four.
The trial revealed a number of revelations about the FBI and its investigation into false claims of the Trump campaign coordinating with Russian agents. For example, the FBI <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1m-for-evidence-backing-up-dossier-claims-about-trump-fbi-analyst">offered</a> dossier author Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate his compilation of fabrications and rumors about the Trump. The ex-British spy never claimed the reward because he was unable to corroborate the information he reported.
Durham was especially critical of the FBI in his closing remarks in court, which may be his some of his last public comments before his report. He said “the FBI mishandled the investigation at issue” and that “the FBI didn’t do what they should have done.” “The FBI failed here,” he added, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/closing-arguments-durham-trial-against-steele-dossier-source" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Examiner</a>.
Danchenko&#8217;s trial was Durham&#8217;s last chance at securing a conviction in his investigation into the origin&#8217;s of the Trump/Russia hoax. As it stands, Durham has been able to secure only one guilty verdict: former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email used to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign. Clinesmith was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/politics/kevin-clinesmith-probation.html#:~:text=A%20former%20F.B.I.%20lawyer%20who,service%20%E2%80%94%20but%20no%20prison%20time." target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to probation in January 2021.
Durham <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed</a> earlier this year to secure a convicted of former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who attempted to peddled dirt to the FBI of a fake backchannel between the Trump Organization and Russia&#8217;s Alfa-Bank. Sussmann approached then-FBI general counsel James Baker with the claim in September 2016. Baker claimed that Sussmann misrepresented himself as a concerned citizen when the attorney was working for the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Trump.
A jury in May acquitted Sussmann on a single charge of making a false statement to the FBI. The special counsel is not expected to bring any more charges before making his report on his investigation into Crossfire Hurricane.

Russian Analyst Igor Danchenko Goes On Trial For Lying To The FBI

Igor Danchenko, Source Of Steele Dossier, Acquitted In Blow To Durham

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> offered <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-steele" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Steele</a> $1 million if he could prove allegations recorded in his now-infamous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/steele-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dossier</a>, a senior FBI analyst said in court on Tuesday.
FBI analyst Brian Auten testified in the trial of Igor Danchenko, the primary source of allegations in Steele’s dossier, that the bureau placed a $1 million price tag on confirmation of the dossier’s outlandish allegations. Steele was unable to provide any evidence.
Auten said he and a group of FBI agents met with Steele in October of 2021 and offered the former British spy $1 million for evidence supporting the dossier, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/durham-probe-fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1-million-corroborate-trump-allegations-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>. The FBI’s offer came years after it had used the dossier’s claims to secure FISA warrants to surveil former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“On October 21, 2016, did you have any information to corroborate that information?” Durham asked Auten, referencing the date the first FISA application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was filed.
“No,” Auten responded, according to Fox News.
Auten testified that the FBI offered Steele “up to $1 million” for proof substantiating allegations made in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/steele-timeline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">series</a> of reports to the bureau over the course of several months in 2016. The analyst said Steele never received any money because he could not “prove the allegations,” according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/politics/steele-dossier-fbi-durham-danchenko" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. Steel’s reports were eventually compiled into the dossier first published by BuzzFeed News in January 2017.
Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI. His trial is the last scheduled as part of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion hoax before Durham issues his final report.
Durham has scored one guilty plea from former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/former-fbi-attorney-pleads-guilty-durham-398605#:~:text=Kevin%20Clinesmith%20admitted%20to%20altering,Trump%20campaign%20adviser%20Carter%20Page." target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> to altering an email that was used to obtain a FISA warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Durham struck out against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted</a> by a Washington, D.C., jury in May of a charge of lying to the FBI.
In July of this year, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that according to FBI whistleblowers, Auten was involved in suppressing an investigation into Hunter Biden during President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
“[I]n August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters … team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease. Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” Grassley wrote in a <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_justice_deptfbipoliticalbiasfollowup.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

FBI Offered Christopher Steele $1M For Evidence Backing Up Dossier Claims About Trump: FBI Analyst

Fresh revelations from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/death-row-or-wanted-for-murder-the-cursed-lives-of-hunter-bidens-associates">Hunter Biden</a>&#8216;s laptop raise new questions about his possible effort to buy a stake in a Russian oil company, and what President Joe Biden knew about his son&#8217;s dealings.
They also underscore the profound dishonesty of the &#8220;Steele dossier&#8221; created by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Democratic National Committee: With a Russian oil company preparing to sell shares, the dossier claimed a Donald Trump official had set up a secret deal to make favorable Russian policy in exchange for the shares. In reality, it was a Chinese firm <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-family-sought-to-make-money-by-giving-china-preferential-access-to-us-energy">paying the Biden family</a> that ultimately tried to buy them.
&#8220;But amidst all of that and the NYTs calling about the major article they are doing on me and discussing with dad about what I need to get in order before he runs for president I spent an equal amount of time dealing with&#8230; your sh&#8211;,&#8221; read an August 2, 2018, text from Hunter Biden to Elizabeth Secundy, the sister of Beau Biden&#8217;s widow, who Hunter began dating after his brother&#8217;s death. Another text indicates that Hunter believed the Times was probing whether he did deals with Russia.
Hunter Biden&#8217;s involvement with Chinese energy firm CEFC first came to light in a December 12, 2018, New York Times story. The company&#8217;s chairman, Ye Jianming, was imprisoned in China at the time, and Patrick Ho, another top CEFC official, who was Hunter Biden&#8217;s &#8220;client&#8221; who was arrested on corruption charges in New York. Shortly after the Times story was published, Joe Biden left his son a voicemail saying: “I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-spoke-with-hunter-about-dealings-with-chinese-oil-tycoon-voicemail-reveals">I think you’re clear</a>.”
Other messages culled from the laptop and reviewed by The Daily Wire provide more clues about what that reassurance might have meant.
Two days after the story ran, Hunter Biden texted his sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend Hallie Biden that he was &#8220;dealing with the aftermath of the abduction and likely assassination (that’s what NYT’s suspects) of my business partner the richest man in the world, the arrest and conviction of my client the chief of intelligence of the people’s republic of China by the U.S. government, the retaliation of the Chinese in the ouster and arrest of US suspected CIA operatives inside China, my suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil gas assets inside Russia to China&#8230; And Dads running for president.&#8221;
A Times reporter, Mathew Goldstein, had reached out to Hunter about his story by May, laptop materials show. The eventual Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/business/cefc-biden-china-washington-ye-jianming.html">story</a> did not say that Ye had been assassinated, only that he &#8220;disappeared into the custody of the Chinese authorities.&#8221; Hunter Biden&#8217;s message suggests that a Times reporter discussed additional information or impressions with him that were not included in the article. It also implies that it was the Times that &#8220;suspected&#8221; Biden of brokering a deal with Putin. The Times ultimately reported only that Ye had &#8220;bought a $9 billion stake in Rosneft, Russia’s state oil giant,&#8221; but did not implicate Hunter Biden &#8212; a possible reason for his father&#8217;s relief.
The “largest sale” of Russian oil referred to by Hunter Biden likely refers to the fact that in September 2016, Vladimir Putin said state-owned oil company Rosneft hoped to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation/russia-aiming-for-over-11-billion-from-rosneft-stake-sale-idUSKCN1181A9">sell</a> a 19.5% stake, valued at some $11 billion, to “strategic” private investors by the end of the year.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-top-steele-dossier-source-arrested-charged-with-making-false-statements-to-fbi">discredited</a> Steele <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations">dossier</a> commissioned by Democrats &#8212; which ironically involved engaging with Russians to falsely assert that Trump was engaged with Russians &#8212; claimed that Trump official Carter Page met with Rosneft President Igor Sechin in July 2016 and that Sechin &#8220;offered Page/Trump&#8217;s associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatised) stake in Rosneft&#8221; if Trump would lift U.S. sanctions on Russia. &#8220;Page had expressed interest and confirmed that were Trump elected US president, then sanctions on Russia would be lifted,&#8221; it claimed.
But it was associates of Hunter Biden, not Trump, who ultimately made a deal for Rosneft shares. In late 2016, Rosneft <a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-11-21/failed-rosneft-deal-costs-cefc-china-a-quarter-billion-101350092.html">sold</a> the 19.5% stake <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/11/qatar-glencore-to-buy-195-percent-stake-in-russia-state-oil-major-rosneft.html">to</a> a partnership between the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Glencore. Less than a year later, in September 2017, CEFC made arrangements to <a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/deals/glencore-qia-consortium-scarps-9-1bn-worth-stake-sale-in-rosneft-to-cefc/">buy</a> a 14% stake, valued at $9 billion, from the pair.
That deal fell apart after Ho&#8217;s arrest, as did another deal Hunter was working on for CEFC in the U.S.
The Daily Wire did not find evidence of Hunter Biden brokering a “deal with Vladimir Putin directly” in a review of his laptop materials. However, the materials do suggest that Hunter Biden was used by CEFC and others to facilitate top-level introductions for deals, and that he might have been in a position to play such a role for a deal involving Russian oil and China.
Glencore is a mining and commodity company founded by Marc Rich, the Democratic Party super-donor who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001. Rich exited the company in 1994, but Hunter Biden&#8217;s associates had numerous ties to Glencore alums.
Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s closest business partners, cultivated a relationship with a former Glencore executive named Jonathan Dimitry, who he called &#8220;our little Glencore PM,&#8221; an email showed.
Archer also had a relationship with oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev, who with Glencore co-owned <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-glencore-sells-stake-russias-russneft-cap-20-year-partnership-2022-02-15/">RussNeft</a>, a different Russian oil company unrelated to Rosneft. In 2013, Archer forwarded a news article on Glencore&#8217;s involvement with RussNeft, saying &#8220;This could be useful down the line with our O&amp;G play.  As you know Gutseriev is our guy.  Keep in mind for when we get out of AAA ball.&#8221;
Hunter Biden also had a relationship with Mohammed Bin Hamad Khlaifa Al-Thani, who was at one point in charge of QIA and is the brother of Qatar&#8217;s Emir. &#8220;Let me know if you need anything with regards to QIA, I would be more than happy to help,&#8221; Al-Thani wrote to Biden in 2014. Biden&#8217;s partner Eric Schwerin contemplated deals to do with the Qataris, saying &#8220;Thinking big but with QIA you have to.&#8221;
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not return a request for comment.

World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony

Steele Dossier Falsely Linked Trump To Russian Oil Shares Actually Sought By Biden Associates

Energy

Fusion GPS

Hunter Biden

Former President Donald Trump sued numerous people and entities involved with the Steele Dossier and the 2016 Russian collusion conspiracy on Thursday.
Trump’s <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157.1.0.pdf">suit</a>, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, accuses former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, and dozens of others of engaging in an organized plot to spread malicious and false information about Trump.
“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot — one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” Trump’s suit begins. “Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty. The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.”
“Under the guise of ‘opposition research,’ ‘data analytics,’ and other political stratagems, the Defendants nefariously sought to sway the public’s trust. They worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump,” the suit continues. “Indeed, their far-reaching conspiracy was designed to cripple Trump’s bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy.”
Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and his subsequent presidency was hounded by allegations that his campaign worked with Moscow to rig the 2016 presidential election. The allegations stemmed from the Steele Dossier, a report put together by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Clinton’s campaign.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of the alleged collusion after a roughly two-year investigation into the dossier and Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
Trump’s lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated U.S. RICO laws, or laws used against organized crime groups such as gangs and mafias, among other violations.
“The members of the Enterprise are a group of persons associated together for the common purpose of carrying on an ongoing enterprise; specifically, the Enterprise had a common, unlawful goal of dismantling the Plaintiff’s political career and/or impeding his ability to effectively govern through fraudulent, deceptive, and criminal means, including, but not limited to, falsely implicating the Plaintiff, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Administration as colluding with Russia,” the lawsuit states, explaining its RICO case.
Combatting the false allegations cost Trump at least $24 million, according to the lawsuit.
“Among other things, the Plaintiff was forced to incur expenses in an amount to be determined at trial, but known to be in excess of twenty-four million dollars ($24,000,000) and continuing to accrue, in the form of defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses incurred in connection with his effort to defend against the Defendants’ actions and the various federal investigations and/or official proceedings which arose therefrom, in addition to the loss of existing and future business opportunities for himself, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Organization LLC,” the lawsuit says.

Trump Sues Hillary Clinton, Dozens Of Others Over ‘Far-Reaching’ Russian Collusion Conspiracy

Former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus grilled Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The View&#8221; on ABC over Schiff&#8217;s past promotion of the now widely discredited Steele Dossier.
&#8220;You&#8217;ve been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee, and you defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele Dossier,&#8221; Ortagus said. &#8220;And we know last week, the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?&#8221; she asked.
Schiff immediately deflected by attacking former President Donald Trump, despite not being asked about Trump, and by continuing to promote conspiracy theories related to Russia.
&#8220;But you&#8217;ve made false, spread disinformation yourself for years by promoting this,&#8221; Ortagus said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this.&#8221;
Schiff refused to accept the premise of Ortagus&#8217; question and claimed that it was &#8220;impossible&#8221; to &#8220;have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele&#8221; about political gossip.
&#8220;None of that is undercut, none of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele,&#8221; Schiff continued.
&#8220;No, I think just your credibility is,&#8221; Ortagus said.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Adam Schiff defended his promotion of the STEELE DOSSIER by citing concerns about KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK, which are … not referenced (or even alluded to) anywhere in the dossier. <a href="https://t.co/dyfh6cJbmp">pic.twitter.com/dyfh6cJbmp</a>
&mdash; Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1458215337145602051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>MORGAN ORTAGUS: So I want to ask you about something that&#8217;s in the news a lot right now. You&#8217;ve been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee and you defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele Dossier. And we know last week, the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, first of all, whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted. And they are. And unlike in the Trump administration, if they&#8217;re convicted, they should go to jail, not be pardoned. So Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone for lying, he pardon Michael Flynn for lying. If people like the FBI, they should go to jail. But at the beginning Russian investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated. We couldn&#8217;t have known, for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele, so it was proper to investigate them. And let&#8217;s not forget what we learned in that investigation. We learned that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal polling data, campaign polling data, to Russian intelligence, while Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign.
ORTAGUS: And to be clear he was fired halfway through the campaign.
SCHIFF: Well, he may have been fired.
ORTAGUS: Yeah&#8211;
SCHIFF: &#8211;but the effort to get Russian help continued and even beyond the effort to get Russian help, the president also sought to get&#8211;
ORTAGUS: &#8211;but you&#8217;ve false, spread disinformation yourself for years by promoting this. I think that&#8217;s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this.
SCHIFF: Well, I completely disagree with your premise. It&#8217;s one thing to say allegations should be investigated, and they were. It&#8217;s another to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible, of course to do. But let&#8217;s not use that as a smokescreen to somehow shield Donald Trump&#8217;s culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election, which they did, for trying to coerce Ukraine into helping him in the next election, which he did, into inciting an erection, insurrection, which he did. None of that is undercut, none of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele.
ORTAGUS: No, I think just your credibility is.</blockquote>

House Select Committee On Jan. 6 Votes On Holding Stephen Bannon In Criminal Contempt

Morgan Ortagus Grills Schiff Over Steele Dossier: You ‘Spread Disinformation Yourself For Years’

Adam Schiff

The View

Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer behind the infamous dossier on former President Donald Trump, broke his silence this week and defended the contents of the dossier, much of which has been contested and remains unverified.
In an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/shadows-christopher-steele-defiant-dossier-trump-potential-threat/story?id=80522891">interview</a> with ABC News, Steele said he stands by &#8220;the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it.&#8221;
&#8220;It was credible reporting,&#8221; Steele told ABC News&#8217; George Stephanopoulos. &#8220;We knew some of it was right, and we suspected some of it may never be provable.&#8221;
&#8220;The idea that somebody with my track record — and I&#8217;ve never had my integrity, professionalism, or expertise on Russia questioned at any point in my career — would be inventing some strange, fabricated document or information, is absolute anathema, and I wouldn&#8217;t be a successful businessman if that were the practice,&#8221; Steele said.
The 35-page dossier, which exploded in the news cycle just 10 days before Trump took office in 2017, alleged that the Trump campaign conspired with Russian operatives to benefit Trump in the 2016 election. Trump dismissed the dossier as a “hoax.”
&#8220;I think there are parts of the dossier which have been stood up, there are parts of the dossier that haven&#8217;t been stood up,&#8221; Steele told Stephanopoulos. &#8220;And there are one or two things in it which have been proven wrong.&#8221;
On the most salacious allegation, that Russian authorities had filmed Trump being urinated on by prostitutes in 2013 in a Moscow hotel room, Steele said he still believes footage of that event &#8220;probably does&#8221; exist.
A December 2019 Justice Department inspector general report found that &#8220;certain allegations&#8221; in the dossier &#8220;were inaccurate or inconsistent&#8221; with the FBI&#8217;s Russian investigation of the Trump campaign and that &#8220;the limited information that was corroborated related to time, location, and title information, much of which was publicly available.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you accept that conclusion?&#8221; Stephanopoulos pressed Steele.
&#8220;I think they are putting too much store, frankly, into what FBI knew about early on in the campaign,&#8221; Steele responded. &#8220;I think the FBI is generally an effective organization. I&#8217;m not sure the extent to which FBI has got good coverage of Moscow and Moscow politics and Moscow operations.&#8221;
The FBI cited the dossier in applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to surveil the Trump campaign in 2016. The inspector general report found that the FBI knew Steele&#8217;s allegations about Trump&#8217;s connection to the Russian government were not reliable but failed to say so in some of its applications for warrants to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
Democrats claimed that the dossier was not the main reason the FBI applied for warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, but the inspector general report found it had played a &#8220;central and essential role.&#8221;
Furthermore, Steele was contracted to compile the dossier by Fusion GPS, a firm that was working for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign at the time.
When the inspector general report came out, Attorney General William Barr slammed the FBI for launching an &#8220;intrusive&#8221; probe into the Trump campaign.
“The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,” Barr <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-william-p-barr-inspector-generals-report-review-four-fisa">said</a>.

Trump dossier

Christopher Steele Defends Discredited Trump Dossier

Following the release of a letter from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday revealing that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was referred to the FBI for allegedly approving a plan to “stir up a scandal against” President Donald Trump involving Russia, Democrats and their media supporters quickly tried to downplay the news.
The letter, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-feds-referred-hillary-to-fbi-for-probe-after-allegedly-approving-plan-to-create-trump-russia-scandal-to-distract-from-email-scandal-odni-says">reported</a> by The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra, contained three major points:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>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 IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>According to his handwritten notes, former Central Intelligence Agency Director [John] Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>On 07 September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding “U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server.”</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
Politico <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-feds-referred-hillary-to-fbi-for-probe-after-allegedly-approving-plan-to-create-trump-russia-scandal-to-distract-from-email-scandal-odni-says">reported</a> that the information underpinning Ratcliffe’s letter was “Russian disinformation” and spoke to Democrats and anonymous sources to bolster its claim.
“It’s very disturbing to me that, 35 days before an election, the director of national intelligence would release unverified Russian [rumor intelligence,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) is quoted as saying in the third paragraph of the Politico report.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill called Ratcliffe’s letter “baseless bull***” and former deputy chief of staff for Brennan, Nick Shapiro, said Ratcliffe “should be ashamed of his blatant politicization of his position.”
These are interesting statements coming from Democrats, who ran with obvious Russian disinformation ahead of the 2016 election. Ratcliffe may have said things in a letter, but President Barack Obama’s FBI actually used Russian disinformation to fraudulently obtain FISA warrants against members of Trump’s campaign staff. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-report-here-are-the-17-specific-inaccuracies-and-omissions-in-the-fbis-fisa-warrants-against-carter-page">Recall</a> the falsified evidence, errors, and omissions in the FISA warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Back in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign commissioned Fusion GPS to obtain opposition research on Trump. Fusion hired Christopher Steele, an Ex-British intelligence officer, who put together a shoddy report now known as the Steele Dossier, which confirmed salacious and unconfirmed allegations that Russia had dirt on Trump. Forty-one days before the election, Yahoo! News published an article based on the Steele Dossier, as its author had been one of the many journalists briefed by Steele on his dubious findings. And just eight days before the 2016 election, David Corn published an article mentioning the findings for Mother Jones.
It was the Steele Dossier that formed the basis of the FISA warrants, no matter what Democrats say.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted this when reporters confronted him with what Democrats were saying.
“They took the whole damn country through hell for two and a half years — and is it far-fetched to believe that the Clinton campaign would do something like this after Christopher Steele?” Graham said.
By the way, Ratcliffe released a statement later saying: “To be clear, this is not Russian disinformation and has not been assessed as such by the Intelligence Community. I’ll be briefing Congress on the sensitive sources and methods by which it was obtained in the coming days.”

Mark Warner

HYPOCRISY: Democrat Attempts To Discredit John Ratcliffe Letter Reveal Double Standard

John Ratcliffe

Media Bias

“The Comey Rule” likely wrapped production before COVID-19 shut down Hollywood along with the rest of the country. So it’s understandable that recent headlines surround the Russia collusion narrative, details that obliterate its remaining credibility, couldn’t make the final cut. Consider:
<ul>
<li>FBI agent: Never was evidence of Russia collusion but Mueller team had &#8220;<a href="https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/fbi-agent-never-was-evidence-russia-collusion-mueller">get Trump</a>&#8221; goal.</li>
<li>Flynn case bombshell: FBI analysts <a href="https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/flynn-case-bombshell-fbi-analysts-bought-insurance">bought insurance</a> fearing they’d be sued for misconduct.</li>
</ul>
What about The Mueller Report?
Remember the 2019 document that found no proof that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election?
Not only is there zero mention of that historic investigation in the film or its final text, “The Comey Rule” suggests the 2020 election is already bought and paid for by Mother Russia on Trump’s behalf.
Like in 2016.
This isn’t Resistance Fan Fiction. It’s one of the most deeply dishonest productions in recent memory. It shouldn’t be banned or canceled, just mocked into oblivion.
The two-part event, airing Sept. 27 and 28 on Showtime, begins with the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s home-brewed email server. It’s a rote dramatization of recent history, something liberals blame for the former First Lady’s shocking electoral defeat … along with <a href="https://www.axios.com/16-things-hillary-clinton-blames-for-her-election-loss-1513305545-cf6505a6-76a8-49a0-989a-1be67190d4ed.html">Russia, Facebook ads, Fake News, sexism, and low information voters</a>.
That’s just a partial list from Hillary Clinton herself.
The meat of the miniseries, and the reason it exists in the first place, is to cover the dawn of the Russia collusion scandal. Or non-scandal, as we eventually found out.
Tell that to writer/director Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass”), who designed “The Comey Rule” as a cautionary tale voters must see before Election Day. There’s so much fiction, and obfuscation, here it’s hard to know where to begin.
Let’s start with Part 1, which focuses on then-FBI director James Comey’s unenviable task — investigating if Clinton broke the law by bypassing traditional email methods.
The miniseries opens with Stephen Colbert, of all people, asking his “Late Show” crowd if Comey (Jeff Daniels) was a good guy or a bad guy via a CBS clip.
The answer is obvious. The Left saw Comey as a monster for investigating Clinton in the first place, and his fangs grew longer after he re-opened said investigation mere weeks before the 2016 election.
Once Comey took on Trump, though, he became a Resistance hero. All was forgiven, and then some. Now, he has the miniseries to prove it. “The Comey Rule” is first and foremost a love letter to Comey, a public figure who avoided partisanship at all costs, we’re told, because he loves his country so very, very much.
This is the same Comey who <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/05/10/hollywoods-heroic-comey-story-collapses/">happily told MSNBC</a> — in 2018 — how he ignored standard protocols while interviewing Gen. Michael Flynn. The same Comey-led FBI which tried to “get [Flynn] to lie” in order to “prosecute him or get him fired.”
As a protagonist he’s a dud, especially with Daniels playing him as a cocktail of arrogance and pained acceptance. D.C. just wouldn’t adhere to his all-American excellence, letting him down time and again.
And that’s before a brash real estate mogul enters the frame.
Part 1 sets up the key players, including Sally Yates (Holly Hunter in full superheroine mode), <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/andrew-mccabe-lied-so-will-the-fbi-apply-the-same-rules-against-him-it">under oath liar</a> Andy McCabe (Michael Kelly), <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/theaters-fbi-lovebirds-violence-free-speech/">Lisa Page (Oona Chaplin), and Peter Strzok (Steven Pasquale).</a> They must figure out if Clinton knowingly broke the law or directed her team to mass delete her (yoga) emails.
In between, we see glimpses of the upcoming Part 2, including shots of two wily Russian agents discussing how to sabotage Clinton’s presidential dreams.
“Ever spend much time on Facebook?” one asks the other, even though the <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/06/facebook-ads-russia-linked-accounts-242401">Russian spend</a> on that platform was microscopic at best.
The first installment also introduces us to the Comey couple, their moments accompanied by tinkly, treacly music. Mrs. Comey (Jennifer Ehle) is on Team Clinton or Bust, and she’s aghast that her husband could hurt Clinton’s presidential hopes.
The Comey kids are equally appalled at Daddy’s work. He feels their pain, but he must do his job, his set jaw all but screams.
Not all heroes wear capes.
We already know Team Comey didn’t indict Clinton regarding the email imbroglio, so there’s little dramatic tension to be found during the first part of the miniseries. So we’re left watching Comey and his team meticulously craft their public statement on the matter, about as interesting as watching CSPAN with the sound turned off.
All along, the miniseries message is clear. Comey is Above Reproach and every FBI agent, even if they have personal views, is Apolitical to the Core.
And, of course, that Comey abhors leaks … unless <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/politics/james-comey-ig-report/index.html">he’s the one doing the leaking</a>.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dc8XsWQMcs8" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>
It’s more about setting the stage for part 2 and Brendan Gleeson’s entrance as the country’s 45th president. That means framing the Steele Dossier, as discredited as any document in recent memory, as coming from a “highly credible source.”
Well, that <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/518138-steele-dossier-sub-source-was-subject-of-fbi-counterintelligence-probe">statement got incinerated this week</a>. Again.
In “The Comey Rule,” the dossier offered a “plausible working theory,” the miniseries alleges. The Mueller Report <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-report-dismisses-many-steele-dossier-claims-11555710147">shredded much of it last year</a>, well before “The Comey Rule” went into production.
Ray marches on, oblivious to those facts. He also finds screen time to protect Strzok and Page, notorious for referring to an “insurance policy” against a Trump presidency. The miniseries downplays that statement, making it sound innocent.
“We’ll stop him,” he tells Page.
“‘We’ as in the bureau?” she asks him.
“‘We’ as in the public,’” he answers.
Oh.
Part 2 features Gleeson’s Trump, and it’s exactly the performance you expect, well detailed but conventional. Ray gives us the version of Trump we see on the news, minus the humor and street smarts. In short, it’s a caricature.
Then again, so are the other members of Trump’s team. The FBI agents and various government types are depicted in “The Comey Rule” as smart, considerate, and well mannered.
Not Gen. Michael Flynn (Williams Sadler). He’s a buffoon, at one point shown eating food with his hands. That’s a classic trope to demean a character. Later, Trump wolfs down ice cream like it’s his last meal. Again, no accident.
Everyone on Team Trump looks like they’re starring in another movie, a dark comedy perhaps, instead of a serious dramatization.
President Trump’s election day victory, the FBI warns, means an uptick in hate crimes. <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2019/04/07/finley-americas-hate-crime-surge-hoax/3374192002/">AKA a hoax.</a> So why include it?
We’re told President-Elect Trump is unwilling to criticize Putin, as if “coercive pressure is being applied.” James Clapper (“Breaking Bad” alum Jonathan Banks) goes one step further, saying Russia elected Trump and they’re happy to do it again in 2020.
“They have no real incentive to stop,” he notes.
The miniseries also says the Russians hacked both the DNC and RNC but only released info from the former. Yet that’s not true,<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/jan/11/donald-trump/trump-says-russians-were-unable-hack-republican-na/"> even the liberal Politifact declared</a>. Then again, the lies of omission found in “The Comey Rule” comprise a far greater stack, one visible from space.
See Report, Mueller, for starters.
By now Gleeson’s Trump is like Michael Meyers and Hannibal Lecter combined, so we get ominous music accompanying him. Even more fear-driven? When Comey walks toward Trump we get the dreaded “slo-mo” camera work, as if he’s walking up to a lion, or other feral predator.
This is beneath Ray, who last year penned the brilliant “<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/richard-jewell-review/">Richard Jewell</a>.” That movie excoriated Fake News and dishonest media narratives.
His “Comey Rule” marinates in both.
Is President Trump a bull in a Beltway China shop? Of course. Is his manner often rude and unpresidential? Absolutely. Did The Mueller Report reveal behavior beneath the dignity of the office? At times, yes.
It still didn’t give Democrats a shred of material with which they could impeach President Trump. That seems important.
“The Comey Rule” emits that suffocating air of Re-Enactment Theatre, where new characters have their names flashed on the screen and there’s little time for creative interpretation or, dare we say, art.
It’s all exposition, stripping Ray of his better tools. He escapes the trap a time or two, adding personal elements when he can squeeze them in. Perhaps a better format for this would be a longer miniseries where the “factual” data points could give way to richer character development and unrelated sub-plots.
As is, “The Comey Rule” features cutesy call backs and so much chest puffing it’s like a WWE match on steroids.
Even the far-left Rolling Stone <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/horowitz-report-steele-dossier-collusion-news-media-924944/">shattered the Russian collusion story</a> in Dec. 2019, weeks after production started on “The Comey Rule.” That meant Team Showtime had months, and months, to update its narrative and chose not to do so.
Of course, the miniseries wraps with both somber images of the nation’s capital and Ray Charles’ version of “America the Beautiful.”
Only in America can an absurd, factually deficient project like “The Comey Rule” make it to an august channel without fear of government reprisal.
What a country.
What a crock “The Comey Rule” is.
A version of this article appears on HollywoodInToto.com

James Comey

TOTO: Showtime’s ‘Comey Rule’ Gaslights On Trump-Russia, Ignores Crucial Facts

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