TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-MEMORIAL DAY

The Russia Hoax Was Just The Beginning: The Left’s Plan To Undermine Trump’s Second Term

The Russia Hoax Was Just The Beginning: The Left's Plan To Undermine Trump’s Second Term

Democrats

Donald Trump

James Clapper

John Durham

Judges

Leftists

Opinion

Peter Strzok

President Trump

Robert Mueller

Russiagate

This week, Special Counsel John Durham released a 316-page report detailing the origins of Operation Crossfire Hurricane – the FBI’s investigation into supposed connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The report is an astounding expose of corruption and collusion – not between Trump and Russia, but between the Hillary Clinton campaign, friendlies at the FBI, and top officials at the Obama administration. As it turns out, Crossfire Hurricane was initiated based on sheer conjecture. That conjecture was trafficked by Hillary’s 2016 campaign. And that conjecture served as the basis for a four-year-long witch hunt into a bevy of allegations that ultimately came to nothing.
The story began, Durham reports, in late July 2016, when Australia provided information to the US embassy in London surrounding conversations between Australian diplomats and low-level Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, in which Papadopoulos had allegedly suggested that the “Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist” in the process of releasing information about Hillary Clinton. This information alone was utilized as the predicate for launching the full-blown Trump-Russia investigation, within three days after receipt of the flimsy information. Top FBI officials greenlit the investigation, including Peter Strzok, deputy assistant director of counterintelligence and devoted Trump-hater. The investigation, Durham notes, was launched “before any dialogue with Australia or the Intelligence Community, and prior to any critical analysis of the information itself.”
What could have prompted this eagerness? The FBI, as Durham acknowledges, was already in possession of the so-called Steele Dossier, a compendium of lies and innuendo created by Fusion GPS at the behest of the Clinton campaign. The FBI had also been approached by a second source working with Fusion GPS in July 2016. There appears to have been a push for an investigation prompted by the desires of the Clinton campaign and the perceived necessity of stopping Trump. The FBI’s Assistant Legal Attache in London knew the Papadopoulos information was thin, but told the Office of the Inspector General that FBI management was “pushing the matter so hard that ‘there was no stopping the train,’” making it his job to “grease the skids.” 
Meanwhile, in July 2016, US intelligence agencies found out about Russian intelligence suggesting that Hillary had approved a campaign plan to gin up allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. On August 3, CIA Director John Brennan “met with the President, Vice President and other senior Administration officials, including but not limited to the Attorney General (who participated remotely) and the FBI Director” and briefed them on the so-called Clinton Plan. Nobody decided to put a hold on the Trump-Russia investigation, despite the relevant fact that all involved now knew of allegations that the entire situation had been drummed up by the Clinton campaign.
And so, in short, we now know that top officials at the White House and the FBI were aware of Hillary Clinton’s plan to disseminate information falsely claiming Trump-Russia collusion; the FBI knew full well that the intelligence it had making such accusations was flimsy at best; they all went ahead anyway. For the rest of the election cycle and much of Trump’s presidency, the Democrats, media, and intelligence community continued to parrot the Trump-Russia collusion lie.
This collusion is significantly worse than Watergate. It involves the former Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for president laundering false intelligence information to the FBI; and the FBI, overseen by the candidate’s political allies in the Obama administration, using that information as the predicate to open a full-scale investigation knowing full well that the Clinton campaign could well be behind the allegations in the first place. 
This is patently insane. It destroys any semblance of legitimacy in the FBI. It implicates Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Clapper, John Brennan, and a bevy of other high officials in weaponization of the government to stop Donald Trump. The Russia hoax was much more than a hoax, it turns out. It was a nefarious plan, enacted at the highest levels of government, to corrupt an election and undermine a presidency.

Ben Shapiro 3

The Worst Political Scandal In American History?

Ben Shapiro

Crossfire Hurricane

Hillary Clinton

Readers Pass

Days after opening a full FBI investigation into connections between Donald Trump and Russia, lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok told a subordinate that “there’s nothing to this, but we have to run it to the ground,” the subordinate — a top official in the Bureau’s London outpost—told Special Counsel John Durham.
Strzok opened a full investigation — skipping preliminary steps — based on nothing but a brief and “vague” account by an Australian diplomat of a conversation in a London bar, and within hours had traveled to London. But when he explained why he had opened the investigation, neither the FBI employees there nor their British counterparts could believe it, according to a report released by Durham on Monday.
The FBI&#8217;s specialists on Russia had heard nothing about ties between Trump and Russia, making them skeptical. Instead of using Russia experts, the FBI then assigned brand-new intelligence analysts to work the most prominent and politically explosive case in the country.
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The FBI&#8217;s Assistant Legal Attache in London (UK ALAT) told the Special Counsel that British intelligence agents “did not assess the information about the Russians and Trump, attributed to Papadopoulos, to be particularly valuable intelligence. Indeed, he told the FBI&#8217;s Inspection Division investigators that &#8216;the British could not believe the Papadopoulos bar conversation was all there was,&#8217; and they were convinced the FBI must have had more information that it was holding back.”
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“Dude, are we telling them everything we know, or is there more to this?” the ALAT wrote to a supervisory special agent.
“That’s all we have. Not holding anything back,” the supervisor replied.
“Damn that’s thin,” the ALAT said.
“I know. It sucks,” the supervisor said.
British agents felt the same way, raising concerns that Papadopolous was a low-level volunteer who seemed “insecure” and trying to impress. The ALAT said that in discussing the matter with a “senior British Intelligence Service-I official, the official was openly skeptical, said the FBI&#8217;s plan for an operation made no sense, and asked UK ALAT-1 why the FBI did not just go to Papadopoulos and ask him what they wanted to know.”
The FBI&#8217;s specialists on Russia had also heard nothing about ties between Trump and Russia. FBI officials in London assumed there was much more evidence given Strzok’s urgency, but after it quickly became clear that there was not, they had to “grease the skids” for it anyway because of pressure from top leadership, the ALAT said.
“From his vantage point, UK ALAT-1 saw that FBI executive management was pushing the matter so hard that &#8216;there was no stopping the train,&#8217; and he told the OIG that, &#8216;I mean it was, this thing was corning. So my job was to grease the skids for it, and that&#8217;s what I did,'&#8221; the report said.
FBI lawyer and Strzok mistress Lisa Page testified that the FBI used &#8220;line level analysts who [were] super experts on Russia,&#8221; but  the FBI&#8217;s Inspection Division found that the intelligence analysts &#8220;selected for Crossfire Hurricane were uniformly inexperienced&#8221; and that &#8220;[n]one of them were subject matter expert analysts.&#8221; Aside from Brian Auten, an FBI agent who has been criticized for allegedly working to shut down an investigation into Hunter Biden, &#8220;the most experienced analyst had less than nine months of experience working in that capacity, two had less than four months experience, and two came straight from analyst training,&#8221; the report said.
At the time, Strzok was Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI&#8217;s Counterintelligence Division. After his hyper-anti Trump text messages with his mistress were exposed, he has since become an open partisan with regular TV appearances. His comment, as recalled by the ALAT, could suggest that Strzok knowingly conducted a baseless operation from Day 1. The Russia probe went on to overshadow much of the Trump presidency, despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluding that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-report-makes-sobering-findings-about-fbis-handling-of-trump-russia-probe?preview_id=551559&amp;preview_nonce=f5e3753ddf&amp;_thumbnail_id=551549&amp;preview=true">Read the Durham report</a>

‘There’s Nothing To This, But We Have To Run It To The Ground,’ Anti-Trump FBI Agent Strzok Said: Durham

'There's Nothing To This, But We Have To Run It To The Ground,' Anti-Trump FBI Agent Strzok Said: Durham

U.S.

Special Counsel John Durham, who was tasked by former Attorney General Bill Barr to examine the propriety of the FBI&#8217;s investigation of President Trump, released a 320-page report Monday that found that the FBI had no evidence to support a Trump-Russia scandal when it began its investigation, and found &#8220;sobering&#8221; differences in how it approached the Trump probe compared to other politically sensitive investigations.
You can read the report <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
It said the FBI immediately opened a full investigation based on a brief note from an Australian diplomat recounting that he had met with George Papadopoulos, a volunteer with the Trump campaign, in which he mentioned that Russia might have information negative to Hillary Clinton. &#8220;At the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI did not possess any intelligence showing that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was in contact with Russian intelligence officers at any point during the campaign,&#8221; the Durham report said.
The probe later relied on the &#8220;Steele dossier,&#8221; which came from a circular loop of people with little insight into Russia — except that some of them had been on the FBI&#8217;s radar for possible misconduct or ties to Russian intelligence in their own right, it said. The FBI knew it was nothing but &#8220;rumor and speculation,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;Upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.&#8221;
&#8220;The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information. Further, the FBI did so without (i) any significant review of its own intelligence databases, (ii) collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities, (iii) interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received or (iv) using any of the standard analytical tools typicallv employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence,&#8221; the report concluded.
&#8220;Had it done so &#8230; the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject. In addition, FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;In the eighteen months leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI was required to deal with a number of proposed investigations that had the potential of affecting the election. In each of those instances, the FBI moved with considerable caution. In one such matter&#8230; FBI Headquarters and Department officials required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference,&#8221; it said. &#8220;In another, the FBI elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable CHSs went beyond what was authorized and made an improper and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated.&#8221;
&#8220;And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI&#8217;s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos.&#8221;
&#8220;Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting. Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration.
&#8220;The FBI learned that Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, Igor Danchenko, to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the reports. Specifically, our investigation discovered that Danchenko himself had told another person that he (Danchenko) was responsible for 80% of the &#8216;intel&#8217; and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.&#8221;
&#8220;In December 2016, the FBI identified Danchenko as Steele&#8217;s primary sub-source. Danchenko agreed to meet with the FBI and, under the protection of an immunity letter&#8230; the FBI conducted multiple interviews of Danchenko regarding, among other things, the information he provided to Steele,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Danchenko was unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations, and further, described his interactions with his sub-sources as &#8216;rumor and speculation&#8217; and conversations of a casual nature. Significant parts of what Danchenko told the FBI were inconsistent with what Steele told the FBI during his prior interviews in October 2016 and September 2017. At no time, however, was the FISC informed of these inconsistencies. Moreover, notwithstanding the repeated assertions in the Page FISA applications that Steele&#8217;s primary sub-source was based in Russia, Danchenko for many years had lived in the Washington, D.C. area.&#8221;
&#8220;The FBI knew in January 2017 that Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011. In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money. According to one employee, Danchenko believed that he (the employee might be following a mentor into the incoming Obama administration and have access to classified information. During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information.&#8221;
&#8220;The FBI converted its investigation into a full investigation after learning that Danchenko (i) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (ii) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers&#8230; at that earlier time, Agents had interviewed several former colleagues of Danchenko who raised concerns about Danchenko&#8217;s potential involvement with Russian intelligence. For example, one such colleague, who had interned at a U.S. intelligence agency, informed the Office that Danchenko frequently inquired about that person&#8217;s knowledge of a specific Russian military matter.&#8221;
This is a breaking report and will be updated.

READ IT: Durham Report Makes ‘Sobering’ Findings About FBI’s Handling Of Trump-Russia Probe

READ IT: Durham Report Makes 'Sobering' Findings About FBI's Handling Of Trump-Russia Probe

Russia

NewsNation host Chris Cuomo brought in fired FBI agent Peter Strzok to discuss the recent news concerning Secretary of State Antony Blinken&#8217;s contact with Hunter Biden and alleged attempts to hide that interaction when speaking to Congress.
Strzok <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-details-several-security-violations-against-anti-trump-agent-peter-strzok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was fired</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-fbis-brutal-draft-letter-firing-disgraced-agent-peter-strzok-revealed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from the FBI</a> in 2018 after several of his private text messages — many disparaging former President Donald Trump and Trump voters — were made public, but he has remained in the public eye as a political commentator. He argued that Blinken&#8217;s testimony was not so much an attempt to hide something criminal as it was an attempt to hide something politically damaging.
WATCH:
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Former fed <a href="https://twitter.com/petestrzok?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PeteStrzok</a> defends <a href="https://twitter.com/SecBlinken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecBlinken</a> falsely testifying in 2020 that he never emailed with Hunter Biden: &quot;There’s a difference between catching somebody in a criminal act and catching them in a politically problematic act.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/KqkZ95Mh9R">pic.twitter.com/KqkZ95Mh9R</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1653712014106132483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Cuomo referenced the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-senator-claims-blinken-lied-under-oath-about-hunter-biden-contacts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claim made Sunday</a> by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) when he told &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; host Maria Bartiromo that Blinken had communicated via email with Hunter Biden in 2015 — but had then told Congress in 2020 that the two had not been in communication.
&#8220;Now, because of more information that’s come out, we know that he lied bold-faced to Congress about never e-mailing Hunter Biden,&#8221; Johnson said, adding, &#8220;My guess is, he told a bunch of other lies.&#8221;
Turning the question to Strzok, Cuomo asked whether he believed Blinken had been &#8220;caught&#8221; — and Strzok quickly downplayed that possibility.
&#8220;Well, Chris, I think there’s a difference between catching somebody in a criminal act and catching them in a politically problematic act,&#8221; he said. &#8220;As I read that transcript, this was a 2020 interview and they&#8217;re asking current Secretary Blinken about events that occurred in 2015.&#8221;
Strzok went on to concede that Blinken had clearly denied conversations that now appear to have taken place — but he said that was &#8220;still a long way from being a violation of the law,&#8221; and there was a lot of wiggle room for Blinken to simply say that he had not remembered any of those conversations.
<a class="c-link" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-18836">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
&#8220;For a criminal violation it would have to be a knowing and willful act,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And I think, frankly, that&#8217;s — what we know now — that&#8217;s a long way away from the facts. But that&#8217;s very separate from whether this is a political problem or not.&#8221;

Chris Cuomo Brings In Big Guns To Defend Blinken’s Alleged Lies: Disgraced FBI Agent Peter Strzok

Chris Cuomo Brings In Big Guns To Defend Blinken's Alleged Lies: Disgraced FBI Agent Peter Strzok

Antony Blinken

Chris Cuomo

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Media

A top <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> official accused Trump-hating former agent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-details-several-security-violations-against-anti-trump-agent-peter-strzok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peter Strzok</a> of doing long-term damage to the bureau’s reputation with a “sustained pattern of bad judgment” and “selfishness” in the newly released draft of the 2018 letter firing him.
David Bowdich, who was deputy director of the bureau when he penned the brutally harsh draft of the dismissal letter, told Strzok the damage he caused to the bureau would last for years. He referred specifically to Strzok’s use of “an FBI device,” an apparent reference to the shocking text messages sent on bureau cell phones between Strzok and his paramour, Lisa Page, in which vowed to stop former President Trump from being elected in 2016.
“While there is no doubt your 21 years of service to the organization cannot and should not be erased, it is difficult to fathom the repeated, sustained errors of judgment you made while serving as the lead agent in two of the most high profile investigations in the country,” Bowdich wrote in the August 8, 2018 letter. “Though the Office of the Inspector General found no evidence of bias impacted any of your or the FBI’s investigative actions or decisions, your sustained pattern of bad judgment in the use of an FBI device has called into question for many of the decisions made during both the Clinton e-mail investigation and the initial states of the Russian Collusion investigation.&#8221;
“In short, your repeated selfishness has called into question the credibility of the entire FBI.”
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Strzok&#39;s dismissal letter was published today:
&quot;In my 23 years in the FBI, I have not seen a more impactful series of missteps that has called into question the entire organization and more thoroughly damaged the FBI’s reputation.&quot; 
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/walkafyre?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@walkafyre</a> <a href="https://t.co/rFILnxDL84">pic.twitter.com/rFILnxDL84</a>
&mdash; Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) <a href="https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1575986650643304448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The draft letter was an attachment in a DOJ response in Strzok&#8217;s wide-ranging federal lawsuit alleging violation of his right to privacy and wrongful termination. Strzok&#8217;s attorneys deposed Bowdich and are now trying to depose Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a bid to show his firing was political. The DOJ attached the draft letter to rebut the idea that Strzok&#8217;s firing was for political reasons.
Bowdich has since left the bureau and is vice president of global security for Disney. Strzok, despite being humiliated by the exposure of his emails, extramarital affair, and repeated bungling of investigations, has written a book and frequently appears on hard-left cable news channel MSNBC to defend the FBI against accusations of political bias.
Strzok served as deputy assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division, leading the investigation into phony Trump-Russia collusion claims and before that, the probe of Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a personal email server to send and receive classified documents.
Strzok was first fired from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/robert-mueller" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Special Counsel Robert Mueller</a>’s team and then from the bureau after the Department of Justice’s inspector general in 2017 turned up the damning emails exchanged between him and Page. In them, the pair expressed contempt for Trump and his supporters and Strzok hinted at plans to derail his campaign.
Bowdich claimed Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence that political bias affected FBI investigations involving Strzok, but said the public perception was otherwise.
“In my 23 years in the FBI, I have not seen a more impactful series of missteps which called into question the entire organization and more thoroughly damaged the reputation of the organization,” wrote Bowdich. “In our role as FBI employees we sometimes make unpopular decisions, but the public should be able to examine our work and not have to question motives.”
The two-page letter ends with a blistering reference to Strzok’s failure as a public servant.
“As Deputy Assistant Director, you were expected to be a leader who was beyond reproach and set an example for not only our direct subordinates, but others throughout the organization who watched and observed your behaviors and actions,” Bowdich wrote. “You failed to do so repeatedly and put your own interests [above] the interests of the organization. Though it pains me to do so, it is for this reason that I am dismissing you from the rolls of the FBI.”
In addition to the texts ending Strzok&#8217;s career, they appear to have wrecked his personal life. In one exchange the DOJ revealed in response to Strzok’s wrongful termination suit, the pair discuss Strzok’s wife seeing their correspondence.
“My wife has my phone,” Strzok wrote.
“Your wife left me a VM,” Page replied. “Am I supposed to respond? She thinks we’re having an affair. Should I call and correct her understanding? Leave this to you to address?”
“I don’t know,” Strzok wrote. “I said we were close friends and nothing more. She knows I sent you flowers. I said you were having a tough week.”

READ IT: FBI’s Brutal Draft Letter Firing Disgraced Agent Peter Strzok Revealed

READ IT: FBI's Brutal Draft Letter Firing Disgraced Agent Peter Strzok Revealed

Department of Justice

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has yet again jumped on the slightest adverse news regarding the Trump administration to call for an investigation.
Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, used a New York Times article from late August to draft <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2020-10-28.Schiff%20CBM%20SFL%20Waters%20Nadler%20Pascrell%20to%20DOJ%20IC%20IGs%20re%20CI%20Investigation.pdf">a six-page letter</a> demanding inspectors general at the Justice Department and in the intelligence committee investigate allegations that former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hampered the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The letter quotes heavily from a Times report from Michael Schmidt, which was adapted from his book, “Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President.”
Relying on anonymous sources, Schmidt wrote: “The Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of President Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia.” The report also claimed Rosenstein “curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere.”
As the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/adam-schiff-calls-for-watchdog-investigations-based-on-discredited-new-york-times-story">reported</a>, however, many of the prominent anti-Trump officials who worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation disputed the Times report shortly after it was published.
Fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, famous for having an affair with another FBI official and discussing an “insurance policy” in case Trump won the election, said in September that the Times reporting was inaccurate.
“During the time I worked at the Special Counsel’s Office, I didn’t feel such a limitation,” Strzok told The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum. “When I discussed this with Mueller and others, it was agreed that FBI personnel attached to the Special Counsel’s Office would do the counterintelligence work, which necessarily included the president. But that’s an extraordinarily complex task, one of the most difficult counterintelligence investigations in the FBI’s history.”
Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor for Mueller, also disputed the Times article.
“NYT story today is wrong re: alleged secret DOJ order prohibiting a counterintelligence investigation by Mueller, ‘without telling the bureau.’ Dozens of FBI agents/analysts were embedded in Special Counsel&#8217;s Office and we were never told to keep anything from them,&#8221; Weissmann said after the article was published.
As Dunleavy noted, Mueller’s own report contradicted the claims in the Times article on which Schiff relied.
“From its inception, the Office recognized that its investigation could identify foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information relevant to the FBI’s broader national security mission. FBI personnel who assisted the Office established procedures to identify and convey such information to the FBI,&#8221; Mueller’s report said. &#8220;The FBI’s Counterintelligence Division met with the Office regularly for that purpose for most of the Office’s tenure. For more than the past year, the FBI also embedded personnel at the Office who did not work on the Special Counsel’s investigation, but whose purpose was to review the results of the investigation and to send — in writing — summaries of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information to FBIHQ and FBI Field Offices.”

Adam Schiff

Adam Schiff Calls For Investigation Based On New York Times Article Discredited By Anti-Trump Former FBI Officials

New York Times

“Obamagate: The Movie” isn’t for the casual viewer. No, audiences should have a general sense of both the Russian collusion hoax that roiled the nation for more than two years as well as how the media framed every fraudulent second of it. That context makes “Obamagate” a delicious riposte to the spin we’ve endured. The production (which you can watch in full below) is muscular update on “FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers,” the 2019 play featuring Kristy Swanson and Dean Cain as disgraced agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, respectively.
<a href="https://obamagatethemovie.com/">The film version</a>, bolstered by new revelations gleaned since that play hit a D.C. theater, makes little attempt to disguise its theatrical roots, down to the audience chuckles. The narrative begs for a full-bodied Hollywood production, with all the appropriate bells and whistles that entails. Since no studio would go near this accurate narrative, it took provocateur Phelim McAleer and co., aided by a successful crowdfunding campaign, to make it happen.
The heart of the story proves his instincts anew.
Swanson and Cain’s characters flirt and flaunt their willingness to target then-candidate Donald Trump throughout the production. The dialogue, pure Verbatim Theatre, draws their conversations from the text messages they fired back and forth over several months.
That leaves us with credible chats that feel real and raw. It’s a nasty peek at Beltway life from two consummate “Swamp” creatures.
The texts allow for a sweet running gag where the stars spit out the emoticons capping their missives. That grown men and women use them to this degree offers a sly social commentary all on its own, but the bigger points remain.
These two self-absorbed agents let their political biases get the better of them, letting down the country in the process.
Swanson’s Page can be “Mean Girls” cruel at times, but she’s a piker compared to Strzok. Cain spits out his insults, which start with attacks on former Rep. Paul Ryan but mostly target Trump.
Still, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Mitch McConnell and even Glenn Beck get derisively name checked by the duo, more proof that their actions were far from neutral.
Of course, an FBI agent can believe whatever he or she wants without scrutiny, but when we witness a deeply flawed investigation smacking of a coup, it’s time to sniff out the clues.
“Obamagate” nearly capsizes with them.
Kudos to Cain and Swanson for making their characters as three dimensional as possible. Sure, the audience hisses at the right moments as they lean into their political biases.
The veteran players round out their villainy with softer tones. Swanson, in particular, radiates vulnerability when she longs to leave political life to spend more time with her family.
The line could have rung hollow, but Swanson gives it the proper pathos.
Cain’s Strzok, by comparison, is endlessly competent and cagey. Watch him maneuver around damning texts offers a wonderful character study. He’s smart, slick and unwilling to admit to a mistake, any mistake.
That’s true even when asked to defend texts mocking Walmart shoppers as, well, odious. It’s a nasty comment, but Strzok won’t cop to its obvious truth.
On a gut level it’s hard not to savor his stubborn streak.
Progressive productions too often demonize their conservative villains, stripping of both their humanity and nuance in the process. “Obamagate” offers a more full-bodied take on Strzok and Page without leaving out their “greatest hits.”
Yes, their “insurance policy” exchange gets an extreme closup.
A sharp screenwriter could leave us with similar impressions. Instead, the actual texts and testimonies (credit to screenwriters McAleer and Brian Godawa for putting them all together) do it as well as any original screenplay might.
The film’s stage origins are forgivable, but the stars’ leaning on lines just off camera are much less so. It’s likely Team “Obamagate” worked overtime to release the film in time for the 2020 elections, much like much of Hollywood dumped anti-Trump content on the October schedule for the same reason.
Still, it’s distracting and doesn’t allow the stars to consistently engage with their characters.
“Obamagate” would be dull if it focused solely on the Strzok/Page connection. It breaks up their banter with two sizable subplots. We see both former CIA Director John Brennan (Paul Michael Nieman) clutching a teddy bear, share ominous Tweets about Trump’s Russian connections.
Even better is former “Dynasty” star John James, clad in a Boy Scout uniform, reading FBI Director James Comey’s texts. He sells them as they should be peddled, grandiose snippets that tease his arrogant mien.
Arrogance courses through “Obamagate,” especially when Strzok is center stage. He’s too smart for government, too aware of its many flaws.
We’re also privy to Congressional transcripts where Page and Strzok get grilled for their text relationship, and its greater implications.
Strzok and Page spoke so fluidly about their Trump rage, never worrying their texts could come back to haunt them. Those less familiar with the FBI’s negligent behavior regarding collusion, and that’s being kind, may be aghast at what they see.
That’s on purpose.
Verbatim Theater has its limitations, but “Obamagate” sneaks around most of them. The modest directorial cues make the most of the clever edits and asides. Plus, the production wraps with a narrative “kill shot” that puts a dagger in the Russian collusion heart.
And that’s before we’ve learned even more about the fatally flawed investigation in recent weeks, its ties to Hillary Clinton and how some FBI agents lunged for <a href="https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/flynn-case-bombshell-fbi-analysts-bought-insurance">insurance policies</a> for fear their actions would be called into question.
Those agents may never face the full consequences for their actions. For now, “Obamagate’s” blistering truths will have to suffice.
Watch the full film below:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="ObamaGate Movie | With Dean Cain &amp; Kristy Swanson | Co-Produced By The Unreported Story Society" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qqi5Cv4OFJg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-POLITICS-INVESTIGATION-FBI-STZOK

WATCH: ‘Obamagate: The Movie’ Exposes Anti-Trump FBI Bias, Media Spin

Lisa Page

The most recent trove of declassified documents shows the FBI used the pretense of a defensive briefing as an opportunity to spy on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The Federalist <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/23/declassified-documents-show-fbi-used-defensive-briefing-in-2016-to-spy-on-donald-trump/#.XxoHAzWE1CQ.twitter">reported</a> that the documents, which were declassified Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and provided to senators on the Finance and Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees, are just the latest to show how far the FBI was willing to go to make a case against the Trump campaign.
“In one of the documents declassified and released on Wednesday, FBI supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka wrote that he deliberately used the briefing to ‘actively listen for topics or questions’ from Trump ‘regarding the Russian Federation.’ Rather than provide the Trump campaign a specific warning that certain campaign principals were being targeted by Russian intelligence, the FBI instead gave a general, non-specific warning that foreign intelligence services might eventually target the campaign,” the outlet reported. “Pientka’s written summary of the briefing noted that Trump, Michael Flynn, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the only three Trump campaign members in attendance. Christie’s attendance had not previously been disclosed. The August 17, 2016 meeting came the day after the FBI opened a formal counterintelligence investigation against Flynn and just two days after FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok texted his former lover, FBI attorney Lisa Page, about an ‘insurance policy’ he had designed to keep Trump from becoming president.”
Pientka wrote in his notes that the meeting lasted roughly two hours, during which time he spent just 13 minutes providing the Trump campaign members a warning about foreign interference. He then complained about other intelligence officials not having enough time to provide the campaign with their own material suggesting foreign interference.
“Due to time constraints, not all ODNI briefers presented their material,” Pientka wrote, ignoring the fact that he used the meeting to spy on the Trump campaign. He didn’t address whether that may have kept other intelligence officials from providing their information to the campaign.
Pientka, according to a report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), “was selected to provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.” Pientka told the OIG that he was sent to the meeting to “record” or “overhear” from the attendees “any kind of admission” that they were colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Pientka also wanted to study Flynn’s “overall mannerisms” to potentially use as a base against him in the future.
Pientka was present during the FBI’s interview on January 24, 2017, where agents questioned Flynn about a phone call from months earlier with then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Even though the FBI already had a transcript of the phone call, they questioned Flynn to try to trip him up so they could charge him with lying. The charges against Flynn were dropped earlier this year.

Trump campaign

New Documents Show FBI Used A Briefing To Spy On The Trump Campaign In 2016

Michael Flynn

The Senate Judiciary Committee released new documents relating to the FBI’s probe into whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election. The new documents reveal that in early 2017, the FBI had “little, if any, evidence” of ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and already had misgivings about the so-called Steele Dossier.
Despite this lack of evidence, the FBI, spurred on by anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok, continued to look for something to pin on Trump and further the false narrative that Trump was an agent of Russia. The information in this new trove of documents isn’t anything groundbreaking, it’s just more evidence that the investigation and narrative was weak to begin with, yet media outlets are either ignoring the documents or downplaying them. For example, Politico headlined <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/17/lindsey-graham-russia-probe-documents-368045">its article</a> about the documents as boring as possible, titling it, “Graham releases declassified docs on early months of Russia probe,” referring to Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The article, however, describes just how flimsy the case was against Trump even though media outlets rushed to suggest his administration would crumble and the election was illegitimate:
<blockquote>The documents suggest that even as press reports began to describe connections between Americans in Trump’s orbit and figures in Russia’s shadowy intelligence services, the FBI had gathered little, if any, evidence that such ties existed.
“We have not seen evidence of any officials associated with the Trump team in contact with [intelligence officers],” wrote Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who helped initiate and lead the Russia probe, in internal <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Annotated%20New%20York%20Times%20Article.pdf">notes</a> accompanying a Feb. 14, 2017, New York Times article. “We are unaware of ANY Trump advisors engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials.”
Those contacts, Strzok wrote, were limited to Russia’s then-ambassador to the U.S. and the Russian Embassy’s liaison to Congress.</blockquote>
The documents also revealed that Strzok was skeptical of the dossier alleging Russia collusion and scandalous acts between Trump and Russians, compiled by ex-British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele.
“Graham also released a <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/February%209,%202017%20Electronic%20Communication.pdf">57-page memo</a> detailing the FBI’s interview with a top source for Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent whose unverified dossier on Trump described a nefarious, yearslong plot to aid his election. That document, which formed part of the basis for the FBI’s surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser in 2016, was crafted largely through a network of six sources relied on by this associate of Steele’s — and some of its most explosive and salacious findings were based on thinly sourced speculation,” Politico reported. “In his New York Times annotation, Strzok also indicated that Steele may not have been able to adequately judge whether the sources he relied on for his dossier were reliable. Strzok, who was fired from the bureau in 2018 after drawing Trump’s fury over private text messages that revealed his disdain for the president, raised strong doubts about the Times article, which described &#8216;repeated&#8217; contacts between Trump aides and Russian intelligence agents.”
The article is laid out to absolve Strzok of anti-Trump bias, yet it confirms that even though the FBI had no evidence to investigate, it continued for two years, while the media lapped up every dubious leak.

New Documents Show FBI Drove Trump-Russia Collusion Investigation Forward Despite Lack Of Evidence, Distrust In Steele Dossier

An additional page of notes believed to be written by ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok pertaining to former national security adviser Michael Flynn have been found by prosecutors.
The notes were mentioned by Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin in a new court filing, though the notes themselves were not included in the filing. Journalist John Solomon <a href="https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/breaking-doj-reveals-discovery-new-strzok-notes-flynn">reported</a> on his website Just the News that the notes from Strzok were believed to have been written in early January, before the FBI spoke to Flynn and accused him of lying.
&#8220;This page of notes was taken by former Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok. While the page itself is undated; we believe that the notes were taken in early January 2017, possibly between January 3 and January 5,&#8221; Sherwin wrote in his court filing to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has refused to dismiss charges against Flynn even though the U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-doj-dropping-criminal-case-against-michael-flynn">dropped its case</a> against Flynn. An appeals court on Wednesday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-appeals-court-orders-judge-to-drop-charges-against-michael-flynn">ordered</a> Sullivan to drop the charges against Flynn.
“A source directly familiar with the discovery of the document told Just the News they include one paragraph of notes believed to be taken around Jan. 4, 2017, the date Strzok relayed a request from FBI leadership to the lead agent in the Flynn case asking him not to shut down the investigation as had been planned. The notes are ‘highly exculpatory,’ the source said, declining to describe them more fully because they are under seal,” Solomon reported.
As Solomon wrote, the FBI had concluded there was “no derogatory” information found to charge Flynn with a crime after the former Trump adviser was investigated for five months. When the FBI agent in charge of the probe recommended it be closed, Strzok jumped in to save it.
“Strzok relayed a message from the ‘7th floor’ leadership of the FBI to hold off closing the case, leading to a controversial decision to seek an interview with Flynn that eventually led to criminal charges and a plea deal,” Solomon reported.
Documents unsealed earlier this year included notes written by former FBI general counsel James A. Baker questioned why Flynn was being interviewed when the probe was about to be shut down. Baker asked if the Flynn interview was about “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, fired FBI director James Comey admitted that the FBI interview with Flynn didn’t follow standard protocol. The FBI knew what Flynn discussed with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, yet they brought him in for questioning anyway. The FBI had a transcript of Flynn’s phone call; Flynn did not. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but has since tried to rescind that plea. Others who have lied to the FBI, such as former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, were never charged.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Justice Department Finds New Notes From Peter Strzok Regarding Michael Flynn Believed To Be ‘Highly Exculpatory’

FBI agents determined to discover evidence that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election used selective leaks to the media to justify continuing its investigation.
Chuck Ross, an investigative journalist at the Daily Caller News Foundation, has <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/18/fbi-crossfire-hurricane-leaks-donald-trump-russia/">outlined</a> five examples of the FBI using so-called news hooks to advance its probe into the Trump campaign. In one of the most extreme cases, fired FBI Director James Comey actually used a media leak to push for the appointment of a special counsel. That special counsel, Robert Mueller, spent two years investigating claims of Russian collusion and found no evidence to suggest the Trump campaign worked with the hostile nation to win the election.
“Prominent media outlets played a key role in advancing the now-debunked theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Much of that media manipulation centered around the infamous Steele dossier, which the Clinton campaign and DNC funded,” Ross reported. “Christopher Steele, a former British spy, briefed numerous reporters, the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), State Department and think tank officials on his dossier. The FBI’s possession of the dossier itself would eventually serve as a news hook that allowed Steele’s unverified allegations to make their way into public view.”
It was Comey who used the dossier to advance the investigation. He briefed incoming President Trump on the dossier’s existence, thereby allowing the media to report on the dossier and launch the narrative that Trump colluded with Russia. The FBI then used those media reports to advance its probe into the incoming Trump administration.
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok used the publication of the dossier to interview more people who worked with Trump, texting his lover, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, that he and other agents were discussing whether to use the published dossier “as a pretext to go interview some people.”
“Weeks after the dossier was published, two FBI agents would investigate former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos for the first time. Court documents show that the investigators initially told Papadopoulos that they wanted to speak to him about an associate, Sergei Millian, who had been identified in the media as a possible unwitting source for the dossier,” Ross reported.
In another instance, the “FBI also seized on a seemingly illegal leak of classified information to the media in order to advance its investigation of Michael Flynn,” Ross continued.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-list-of-obama-officials-involved-in-unmasking-michael-flynn-revealed-the-list-includes-joe-biden">reported</a>, Flynn’s phone call with then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak was leaked to The Washington Post, who questioned whether Flynn violated an obscure U.S. law known as the Logan Act during the conversation. Fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe would use the Post article to interview Flynn – without an attorney. FBI agents who interviewed Flynn had a transcript of Flynn’s phone call, while Flynn did not. Flynn was accused of lying to the FBI, though it now appears as though he simply didn’t recall details exactly as they happened, since his phone call with Kislyak was unremarkable and had taken place a month before the FBI interviewed him. The Department of Justice has since dropped charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI.
The final example Ross noted was the numerous news reports used to further the FBI’s investigation into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“Applications for FISA orders that the FBI submitted on Page in 2016 and 2017 show at least three areas where news reports about the Trump aide were used to open up new lines of inquiry or to make the case that he was working for Russia,” Ross reported.
Claims that Page orchestrated a change to the 2016 GOP platform regarding Ukraine and that he was a Russian agent were eventually debunked, though the FBI ignored obvious evidence that was never the case to begin with, a DOJ Inspector General <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">found</a> in December 2019.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

James Comey

How The FBI Used The Media To Push Its Russia-Collusion Narrative

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