Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Government Corruption

Convicted FBI lawyer spared from prison by Boasberg far more involved in Russia probe than known

2025-04-18

Long and detailed. A taste:

[JustTheNews] The judge who has emerged as a top foe of Trump's deportation efforts previously let a well-known Trump-Russia collusion hoax proponent off the hook. But newly-declassified Crossfire Hurricane records show the FBI's Kevin Clinesmith was deeply involved in in the bogus Russiagate saga.

Convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith — whom Judge James Boasberg gave a slap on the wrist for his crimes years before becoming a public foe of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies — was more deeply involved in the deeply flawed Crossfire Hurricane investigation than previously known.

Clinesmith, who worked on both the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation and on the Trump-Russia collusion inquiry, pleaded guilty to falsifying a document during the bureau’s efforts to renew FISA authority to wiretap Carter Page, who was an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign.

Newly-declassified details about Clinesmith’s involvement include a wide swath of information about his role in the case. He was a key go-to for former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok throughout the debunked collusion saga and a main driver in obtaining a FISA warrant against Page based on the infamous Steele dossier.

Clinesmith also granted his seal of approval on a document describing the FBI’s pretextual briefing of then-candidate Trump, was deeply involved in the investigation into retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, played a role in going after former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and more. He also helped the FBI push its “Cross Wind” investigation, which Just the News can confirm related to the targeting of security expert Walid Phares, which resulted in no accusations of wrongdoing and no charges.

KNEE-DEEP IN THE MUD
Clinesmith confessed in August 2020 that he had manipulated a CIA email in 2017 to state that Carter Page was “not a source” for the CIA when that agency had actually told the bureau on multiple occasions that Page was in fact an “operational contact” for the CIA.

Boasberg, the federal judge who is blocking Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members, also played a key and controversial role in the aftermath of the Trump-Russia collusion saga as the leader of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The judge, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by then-President Barack Obama in 2011, is currently engaged in an all-out legal battle with the Trump Justice Department.

But in his role as the head of the FISA Court he made a number of divisive decisions, including a slap on the wrist for a member of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team, the appointment of officials who had defended the FBI’s actions during the Russiagate saga, the renewal of the FBI’s FISA powers, and more.

BOASBERG DEFENDS CLINESMITH
Boasberg ruled this week that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt after they violated his orders by continuing deportation flights. But his ruling follows the Supreme Court holding that Boasberg's court was in an improper venue for the case altogether.

Boasberg, in his role as a federal judge, denied the Justice Department’s efforts to seek up to six months behind bars for Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty in Special Counsel John Durham’s Trump-Russia investigation — instead giving Clinesmith a year of probation, 400 hours of community service, and no fine.

The remaining subheds:

Collaboration on the Carter Page FISA
Clinesmith altered docs, hid information from FISA court
Sign off on doc detailing pretextual briefing of Trump
Clinesmith Targets Flynn
Leaks and unmasking
"Out to get Trump"
Steele Dossier dissemination
Clinesmith and Papadopoulos
Strzok establishes a pattern of untruths
“Cross Wind”
Clinesmith: "Viva le resistance"
Comey arranges leaks to media
The Crossfire docs a profitable venture

Link

Government Corruption

FBI Director Kash Patel starts purge of 'undercover' James Comey agents who 'infiltrated' Trump's...

2025-02-26

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The FBI is beginning an investigation into an alleged accusation against former FBI director James Comey, after a whistleblower accused him of using female 'honeypot' agents to infiltrate the Trump campaign.

An agency whistleblower revealed details of the scheme, accusing Comey of launching an off-the-books investigation into Trump's campaign in 2015, according to Washington Times reporter Kerry Picket.

Details of the operation was revealed in a protected disclosure to the House Judiciary Committee in 2024, according to the Times.

Two female FBI undercover agents were drafted to infiltrate Trump's 2016 campaign as 'honeypots' the report noted.

The term 'Honeypots' refers to undercover agents feigning romantic interest with individuals within an organization to gain access from a specific target.

The whistleblower said in the disclosure that Comey 'personally knew' and 'personally directed' the operation even though it was off the books.

Comey was assisted by then-Deputy Director Dave Bowdich and Paul Abbate, according to the disclosure.

The undercover agents allegedly targeted campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who was the focus of Comey's early efforts to scrutinize the Trump operation.

The FBI declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com about the story.

The news suggests that Patel will pursue investigations of past officials who targeted Trump within the FBI, even though he indicated he had no interest in doing so during his Senate confirmation hearings.

'I have no interest, no desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,' Patel said during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. 'There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken.'

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Disgraced FBI Official Charles McGonigal Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

2023-08-17

[RedState] As anticipated, former FBI official Charles McGonigal pled guilty on Tuesday to one count of conspiracy in federal court in New York arising out of his efforts to aid Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in evading U.S. sanctions.

The Information filed Tuesday (and which can be viewed in its entirety below) alleged one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which authorizes the president to regulate international commerce, including investigating and imposing controls on transactions and freezing foreign assets under U.S. jurisdiction when a national emergency is declared as to any external "unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States."

The Information alleges that in furtherance of the conspiracy, McGonigal:

a. From in or about August 2021 through in or about November 2021, McGONIGAL and others, acting at the behest of Oleg Deripaska, whom the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated as a Specially Designated National on or about April 6, 2018, sought to gather derogatory information about a rival of Deripaska, in violation of IEEPA.

b. From in or about August 2021 through in or about November 2021, McGONIGAL and others received and routed payments from Deripaska through two corporations, neither of which was registered in the name of McGONIGAL or Deripaska, in an effort to conceal that the payments originated from Deripaska.

McGonigal was originally charged with five counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering (and conspiracy to commit same), and violating the IEEPA (and conspiracy to commit same). Pursuant to Tuesday's plea, the remaining four charges will be dismissed.

McGonigal, 55, was formerly the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau's counterintelligence division from 2016 to 2018, which ironically meant that he was involved in investigating former President Donald Trump for Russian collusion, then essentially engaged in it himself. As streiff explained in January:

McGonigal was a key figure in creating the Russian Hoax. He’s the guy who received the allegation made by Australian High Commissioner to the UK Alexander Downer that Trump campaign aid George Papadopoulos said the Russians have “dirt on Hillary.” For a trip down memory lane, read Was a Drunken Conversation Really All the Probable Cause the FBI Needed to Investigate a Presidential Campaign?

While the media is harping on the “Russian oligarch” narrative because they can never admit Hillary Clinton’s opposition research team thoroughly punked them, it is useful to remember that in 2009, FBI Director Robert Mueller approached Deripaska about funding a private effort to locate American citizen, former FBI agent, and suspected CIA asset Robert Levinson who had gone missing in Iran. More memories can be found at There Might Be a Very Good Reason Why Mueller Is Not Indicting Paul Manafort’s Russian Business Partner. Even as the Russia Hoax was unfolding, Hillary’s oppo team at Fusion GPS was working on getting sanctions removed from Deripaska, which is the same activity that got McGonigal indicted; see
New York Times Forced To “Correct” Major Story on the Manafort Case. I don’t know the trajectory of McGonigal’s career, but it is entirely possible he was in the New York Field Office when Mueller tried to turn Deripaska into an FBI asset.

At the plea hearing on Tuesday, McGonigal expressed remorse for his actions.

The former FBI special agent in charge of the agency's counterintelligence division from 2016 to 2018 told the federal judge that he took over $17,000 from Deripaska in exchange for collecting derogatory information on a different Russian oligarch. Deripaska was a business competitor with the person McGonigal was paid to find derogatory information on.

Additionally, McGonigal was allegedly working to help get Deripaska removed from the sanctions list, prosecutors said.

The American was in talks, along with co-conspirators, to get a $650,000 to $3 million fee to search for hidden assets of $500 which belong to Deripaska's business rival.

...

"This, as you can imagine, has been a painful process not only for me, but for my friends, family and loved ones," McGonigal said. "I take full responsibility as my actions were never intended to hurt the United States, the FBI and my family and friends."

In addition to facing up to five years in prison, McGonigal must forfeit $17,500 pursuant to his plea agreement. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Charges against McGonigal for misleading the FBI regarding his contacts with foreign nationals and concealing $225,000 he allegedly received from an Albanian intelligence employee remain pending in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.

Link

Government Corruption

Former Senior FBI Official Involved in Trump Probe Now Under Scrutiny for Russian Ties

2022-09-17

[Breitbart] A former senior FBI agent involved in the agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign based on phony allegations of collusion with Russia is now under apparent investigation himself by the Justice Department for his ties with Russia and other foreign governments, according to a report.

Business Insider reported Friday that late last year, U.S. attorneys convened a grand jury to examine the conduct of Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the New York City FBI field office. A witness subpoena obtained by the outlet indicated that the government was looking into McGonigal’s business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who was an associate of Paul Manafort, who served for several months as Trump’s campaign manager.

Does that make this an anti-Trump play?

NBC News reported in January 2018 that the Russian tycoon had been repeatedly denied a visa to enter the United States over his alleged ties to organized crime.

The FBI raided Deripaska’s homes in D.C. and New York City in October 2021.

The subpoena was issued in November 2021 and requested records related to McGonigal and a consulting firm called Spectrum Risk Solutions. In a separate filing a week after the subpoena was issued, a Soviet-born immigrant named Sergey Shestakov said McGonigal had helped “facilitate” an introduction between a Deripaska aide and Spectrum. McGonigal also reportedly introduced the aide to a law firm specializing in advising clients investigated for “fraud and misconduct.”

Business Insider reported:

While it wouldn’t necessarily have been illegal for McGonigal to work on behalf of Deripaska, failing to disclose activities covered by the Foreign Agents Registration Act, such as lobbying and public relations, is punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison. Deripaska was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2018 for acting as an agent for the Kremlin, and has been accused of ordering the murder of a businessman. ‘If McGonigal is mixed up in any way shape or form with Deripaska, that strikes me as unseemly, to put it politely,’ says Tim Weiner, the author of ‘Enemies: A History of the FBI.’

The outlet noted it is not clear whether McGonigal is the target of the grand-jury investigation, or if his behaviors are related to the target. But, Business Insider noted, “The materials requested in the witness subpoena raise questions about whether a top FBI agent may have been tapping the connections he made during his years of public service for private gain — an all-too-common practice among Washington insiders.”

Prosecutors are also allegedly looking into if McGonigal has ties to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and any “payments or gifts” he was provided by Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania. According to Business Insider, McGonigal had used his official FBI email account to try to arrange a meeting between Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania, and an American firm that he was thinking about hiring for an anti-corruption initiative. The FBI reportedly did not give McGonigal approval for the meeting and it never took place.

Despite McGonigal using his official FBI email, a representative for Rama told Business Insider that the relationship between McGonigal and Rama was a “totally private friendly relationship of no public interest.”

“We have no idea about any grand jury and no U.S. authority has ever contacted us about it. There have never been meetings with firms, gifts, payments, travel reimbursements before or after Mr. McGonigal left his job,” the representative said.

McGonigal was serving as chief of the cybercrimes section at the FBI headquarters in D.C. at the time that the Democratic National Committee was cyber hacked in the runup to the 2016 election. According to Business Insider, McGonigal was one of the first officials to “learn” that then-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos allegedly bragged the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, which the FBI claims sparked Operation Crossfire Hurricane. Then-FBI Director James Comey promoted McGonigal to the FBI field office in New York City.

McGonigal was reportedly working at a multibillion-dollar real-estate company in New York up until January, as witnesses were scheduled to appear before the grand jury.

Link

Government Corruption

Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

2021-09-26

A taste:

[RealClearInvestigations] White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week, Michael A. Sussmann, a partner in Perkins Coie, a law firm representing the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to the FBI about his clients and their motives behind planting the rumor, at the highest levels of the FBI, of a secret Trump-Russia server. After a months-long investigation, the FBI found no merit to the rumor.

The grand jury indicated in its lengthy indictment that several people were involved in the alleged conspiracy to mislead the FBI and trigger an investigation of the Republican presidential candidate -- including Sullivan, who was described by his campaign position but not identified by name.

The Clinton campaign project, these sources say, also involved compiling a "digital dossier” on several Trump campaign officials – including Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Page. This effort exploited highly sensitive, nonpublic Internet data related to their personal email communications and web-browsing, known as Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses.o

To mine the data, the Clinton campaign enlisted a team of Beltway computer contractors as well as university researchers with security clearance who often collaborate with the FBI and the intelligence community. They worked from a five-page campaign document called the "Trump Associates List."

The tech group also pulled logs purportedly from servers for a Russian bank and Trump Tower, and the campaign provided the data to the FBI on two thumb drives, along with three “white papers” that claimed the data indicated the Trump campaign was secretly communicating with Moscow through a server in Trump Tower and the Alfa Bank in Russia. Based on the material, the FBI opened at least one investigation, adding to several others it had already initiated targeting the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016.

The indictment states that Sussmann, as well as the cyber experts recruited for the operation, "coordinated with representatives and agents of the Clinton campaign with regard to the data and written materials that Sussmann gave to the FBI and the media."

One of those campaign agents was Sullivan, according to emails Durham obtained. On Sept. 15, 2016 – just four days before Sussmann handed off the materials to the FBI – Marc Elias, his law partner and fellow Democratic Party operative, "exchanged emails with the Clinton campaign’s foreign policy adviser concerning the Russian bank allegations," as well as with other top campaign officials, the indictment states.

The sources close to the case confirmed the "foreign policy adviser" referenced by title is Sullivan. They say he was briefed on the development of the opposition-research materials tying Trump to Alfa Bank, and was aware of the participants in the project. These included the Washington opposition-research group Fusion GPS, which worked for the Clinton campaign as a paid agent and helped gather dirt on Alfa Bank and draft the materials Elias discussed with Sullivan, the materials Sussmann would later submit to the FBI. Fusion researchers were in regular contact with both Sussmann and Elias about the project in the summer and fall of 2016. Sullivan also personally met with Elias, who briefed him on Fusion's opposition research, according to the sources.

Sullivan maintained in congressional testimony in December 2017 that he didn’t know of Fusion’s involvement in the Alfa Bank opposition research. In the same closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, he also denied knowing anything about Fusion in 2016 or who was conducting the opposition research for the campaign.

"Marc [Elias] ... would occasionally give us updates on the opposition research they were conducting, but I didn't know what the nature of that effort was – inside effort, outside effort, who was funding it, who was doing it, anything like that," Sullivan stated under oath.

Jake Sullivan's December 2017 House testimony may put him in perjury jeopardy.

Lying to Congress is a felony. Though the offense is rarely prosecuted, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller won convictions of two of Trump’s associates on charges of that very offense.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

John Solomon: Once-secret FBI informant reports reveal wider-ranging operation to spy on Trump campaign

2021-02-26

[Just The News] nce-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find "anyone in the Trump campaign" with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt "damaging to Hillary Clinton."

The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed "Mitch" — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.

Among the revelations, the memos make clear that:

Almost immediately after the FBI opened a Russia collusion probe on July 31, 2016 narrowly focused on the foreign lobbying of a single Trump campaign aide named George Papadopoulos, agents pressed Halper for information on more than a half dozen other figures, including future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, foreign policy adviser Sam Clovis, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, economic adviser Peter Navarro, future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser Carter Page.

Halper provided significant exculpatory evidence to the FBI — including transcripts of conversations he recorded of targeted Trump advisers providing statements of innocence — that was never disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approved a year of surveillance targeting the Trump campaign, and specifically Page.

While current FBI Director Chris Wray has insisted the bureau did not engage in spying on the Trump campaign, Halper's taskings include many of the tradecraft tactics of espionage, including the creation of a fake cover story (he wanted a job at the Trump campaign), secret recordings, providing background on targets, suggested questions to ask and even contact information for potential targets.

But the memos' most explosive revelations are the sheer breadth of the FBI's insufficiently predicated dragnet targeting the Trump campaign, and the agents' clearly stated purpose of thwarting any Trump campaign effort to get dirt from Russia that could hurt his Democratic rival.

"The Crossfire Hurricane investigative team is attempting to determine if anyone in the Trump campaign is in a position to have received information either directly or indirectly from the Russian Federation regarding the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton," one of the early FBI electronic communications (ECs) from Halper's undercover work stated.

You can read the memos here.

Link

Government

Re-post, still no update - Three weeks after Trump declassified Russia memos, most aren't released

2021-02-10

[Just The News] More than two weeks after Donald Trump officially declassified the evidence, the vast majority of documents detailing FBI and Justice Department failures in the now-discredited Russia collusion investigation remain out of public view in a delay that has thwarted the former president's goal of sweeping transparency.

Multiple officials tell Just the News that the documents yet to be released include:

less redacted versions of the flawed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants that allowed the FBI to target former Trump adviser Carter Page and the Trump campaign for a full year without producing any evidence of wrongdoing.

the confidential human source handling documents for informant Stefan Halper showing the specific requests the FBI gave to Halper to spy on Trump campaign officials and the cover story used to justify his contacts with Trump officials during the election.

the confidential human source handling documents for informant Christopher Steele, including what he told the FBI at his first meeting on July 5, 2016, when he first approached agents about the dossier.

a spreadsheet used to assess the many allegations Steele provided in his infamous dossier showing most were uncorroborated, debunked or traced to open-source Internet rumors or unreliable sources.

hundreds of digital messages exchanged on the FBI's internal chat network among the most senior officials in the Crossfire Hurricane probe, including fired Director James Comey, fired Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, fired lead agent Peter Strzok, former bureau lawyer Lisa Page and others.

Just the News was able to obtain about 15% of the thousands of pages of declassified documents, from a hodgepodge network of White House officials who worked on the declassification, law enforcement and intelligence officials who got their own versions of the declassified documents, and members of Congress who were given copies of some memos in the final days of the Trump presidency.

Just the News has posted all of those documents, which include explosive revelations like:

Four days before the FBI secured a surveillance warrant against him in October 2016, Page repeatedly knocked down the key allegations at the heart of the Russia collusion investigation while unwittingly talking to a government informant who was wearing a wire.

As deputy director and acting director, McCabe was repeatedly pressured by FBI officials and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to step aside from the Russia and Clinton email probes because of a perceived conflict of interest.

Efforts by Hillary Clinton supporters to craft the Russia collusion narrative to vilify Trump began earlier than previously reported, in April 2016, and eventually involved an "indiscreet" effort to buy foreign video footage that made even Steele uncomfortable.

In a 2017 tell-all interview with agents, Steele admitted to the FBI that he leaked the Russia collusion story during the height of the 2016 election to help Clinton overcome her lingering email scandal and because he believed Trump's election would be bad for U.S. relations with his home country of Britain.
The remaining documents, according to sources who have seen them, provide more details showing just how far the FBI went to deceive the FISA judges in an effort to keep surveilling Page and that the FBI's true target for surveillance was the larger Trump campaign.

For instance, an August 2016 tasking document for Halper, one of the informants, made clear the FBI's real focus of the investigation was to determine whether "anyone in the Trump campaign is in a position to have received information either directly or indirectly from the Russian Federation regarding the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton," according to a source who took verbatim notes from one of the documents.

Those documents also show Halper was asked to potentially contact or monitor Trump campaign figures far beyond Page and George Papadopoulos, the two figures publicly acknowledged in the past.

Among the names that show up in the FBI's operational plan are former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, former Trump campaign adviser Sam Clovis and eventual White House adviser Peter Navarro, according to sources interviewed by Just the News.

The less redacted FISA warrants show, according to sources, that as the FBI failed to develop any evidence that Page was working for Russia — and in fact had worked as an asset for the CIA — it offered the FISA court unusual justifications for continuing to spy on him, including that he espoused foreign policy views deemed favorable to Russia and might be writing a book, two clearly First Amendment-protected activities.

Also, the internal messages between senior FBI officials on the Russia probe, according to the sources, reveal that McCabe had direct contact with reporters from major news organizations like the New York Times and CNN even as his deputies, like Strzok, viewed the Russia reporting of those organizations as significantly flawed.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Trump authorizes DOJ to declassify Russia probe documents

2021-01-24

[Politco 19 Jan 2020] President Donald Trump on Tuesday authorized the declassification of a set of documents connected to the investigation of his 2016 campaign’s contacts with Russia.

Trump has long declared his intention to make public more of the sensitive materials underlying the probe, which he has maligned as a "witch hunt," despite findings that his campaign sought and relied upon materials obtained by Russia to aid his campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Trump has spent his final weeks in office seeking to erase any vestiges of the investigation, pardoning key figures such as George Papadopoulos, the 2016 campaign aide whose interactions with a Russia-linked professor helped ignite the probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane.

It’s unclear which documents Trump has ordered declassified less than 24 hours before he leaves office. He cited the decision as based on the results of a Dec. 30 review he asked the Justice Department to perform. The department presented him with a "binder of materials" that remain classified, he said in a memorandum issued on Tuesday. Trump said he then asked for the documents to be declassified to "the maximum extent possible."

The FBI responded that it believed that all of the materials should remain classified, but that some were particularly crucial and should at least be redacted.

Link

-Land of the Free

Trump pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and father of Jared Kushner

2020-12-24

[Washington Examiner] President Trump issued pardons to his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and to his longtime friend Roger Stone just before Christmas Eve, with the 26 new pardons and three additional commutations on Wednesday also including a full pardon to son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father.

Both Manafort and Stone had been swept up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and both were found guilty of crimes not directly connected to allegations of Russian collusion against them. Trump had pardoned 15 other individuals, including former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, on Tuesday.

The Wednesday pardons came after Attorney General William Barr’s final day as attorney general, and Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen will be taking over in an acting capacity

"Today, President Trump has issued a full and complete pardon to Paul Manafort, stemming from convictions prosecuted in the course of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, which was premised on the Russian collusion hoax," the White House said. "Mr. Manafort has already spent two years in prison, including a stretch of time in solitary confinement — treatment worse than what many of the most violent criminals receive. As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Senate Homeland Security Committee authorizes subpoenas for testimony from Obama officials as part of Russia probe

2020-09-16

[Fox News] Includes John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey

The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday voted to authorize subpoenas for former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, and other Obama administration officials as part of its broad review into the origins of the Russia investigation.

The committee on Wednesday held a business meeting to authorize committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to issue notices for taking depositions, subpoenas, for records, and subpoenas for testimony to individuals relating to the panel’s "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, the Justice Department inspector general’s review of that investigation, and the "unmasking" of U.S. persons affiliated with the 2016 Trump campaign, transition team and the Trump administration.

The committee voted 8-6 to authorize the subpoenas.

The committee also authorized subpoenas for Sidney Blumenthal, former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough, former FBI counsel Lisa Page, former FBI agent Joe Pientka, former ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, former FBI director of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, former White House national security adviser Susan Rice, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith — who pleaded guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham's review of the investigation into links between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign — among others.

The committee further authorized subpoenas for "the production of all records" related to the FBI’s original Russia investigation and the Department of Justice Inspector General’s probe, as well as the process of "unmasking" for James Baker, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, DOJ official Bruce Ohr, FBI case agent Steven Somma, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Teftt, former deputy assistant attorney general Tashina Gauhar; and Stefan Halper.

The committee, earlier this summer, authorized subpoenas for the majority of the individuals that were named. But on Wednesday, after a back-and-forth between Johnson and the top Democrat on the panel, the committee gave the final go ahead, leaving authority on timing and scheduling of depositions and issuance of subpoenas up to the chairman.

Halper, a Cambridge University professor who reportedly is deeply connected with British and American intelligence agencies, has been widely reported as a confidential source for the FBI during the bureau’s original investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Last year, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz was reviewing Halper’s work during the Russia probe, as well as his work with the FBI prior to the start of that investigation.

During the 2016 campaign, Halper contacted several members of the Trump campaign, including former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and former aide Carter Page. Page also was the subject of several Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants during the campaign

The committee also authorized a subpoena for James Baker, the director of the Office of Net Assessment at the Defense Department. That office awarded government contracts to Halper, including one in September 2015.

Last month, Johnson issued the panel’s first subpoena as part of the committee’s Russia review to the FBI, demanding that the bureau produce "all records related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."

"This includes, but is not limited to, all records provided or made available to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice for its review," the subpoena states, referring to Horowitz's review of abuses related to the FISA warrants.

The subpoena also demands "all records related to requests" to the General Services Administration or the Office of the Inspector General for the GSA for "presidential transition records from November 2016 through December 2017."

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Peter Strzok would like to clear a few things up

2020-09-06

In which POLITICO attempts to rescue the sorry mess that Mr. Strzok, et al made in their attempt to reverse the 2016 election.

[Politico] "I’m sorry to bother you. But it turns out Trump just accused me of treason."

Peter Strzok, who was still an FBI employee that day in January 2018 and couldn’t respond to the president’s attack, was appealing to his boss: "The bureau can’t let this stand," he pleaded.

"I’m sorry, Pete," came the response. "We’re not going to say anything."

Nearly three years later, Strzok — who led the FBI’s Russia investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, until he was removed over several anti-Trump texts

...hundreds or thousands, actually — I don’t exactly recall the appalling number, just that it’s a wonder he got any work done at all...

he’d sent during the election amid an affair with a colleague — is finally able to speak publicly and on his terms for the first time since he joined the FBI more than two decades ago.

And he has a lot to say.

No doubt. Did he run the manuscript by management before release, or is that only a CIA thing?

Strzok’s new book, obtained by POLITICO ahead of its release next week, recaps the full arc of Crossfire Hurricane from the perspective of an enterprising

..that’s one word, certainly, though not one on my list for him...

counterintelligence expert who perceived Donald Trump and his campaign team not necessarily as criminals but as compromised by a foreign adversary. And he worries that there’s still much we don’t know, because the bureau was never able to do the kind of deep dive into Trump’s business records he wanted.

Perhaps he should have consulted Robert Mueller’s team — they spent two years and tens of millions of dollars investigating the question, followed by Attorney General William Barr, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham investigating the Mueller investigation.

The investigation began as a pure counterintelligence inquiry — an attempt to understand who, if anyone, on Trump’s campaign team had been offered help by Russia to undermine Hillary Clinton. The probe kicked off with a tip from an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, who told the FBI that he had heard from a Trump campaign staffer about a Russian overture to the campaign after the leak of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.

The FBI’s probe soon zeroed in on four possibilities of who might have received that offer, according to Strzok: Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and soon-to-be national security adviser Michael Flynn. It turned out to have been Papadopoulos. But by the time they figured that out, Trump had been elected president — and Strzok’s team had uncovered so many suspicious contacts and communications between the campaign and Russians that they began debating whether to open a case on Trump himself.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Graham says declassified FBI documents show 'double standard' for Clinton and Trump campaigns

2020-08-24

[FOXNEWS] Following the release of recently declassified documents, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham
...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John Maverick McCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems...
, R-S.C., says he believes the FBI showed a double standard in its investigations into reports of foreign interference at the campaigns of Crooked Hillary Clinton
<q>Crooked Hillary</q> Clinton

...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
and now-President Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Calling it "the ultimate double standard," Graham said that the documents reveal that leaders at the FBI sought to give the Clinton campaign a defensive briefing before it could pursue a FISA warrant related to a threat posed to the campaign by a foreign government.

But instead of doing the same for the Trump campaign, the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane operation and pursued a number of FISA warrants against people working with Trump’s campaign.

While Graham would not reveal which foreign government wanted to assist Clinton in getting elected, he said on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures" that FBI leadership shot down a request for a FISA warrant until Clinton was briefed on the matter.

"They never did to Trump," Graham said. "As a matter of fact, not only did they not tell Trump, they used a generic briefing to spy on Trump."

Crossfire Hurricane was the code name of the FBI counterintelligence investigation into links between Trump associates like George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn and Carter Page and Russian officials and whether they worked "wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election."

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More