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Government Corruption

McCabe memos show how disgraced FBI leader kept Trump-Russia collusion hoax alive in 2017

2025-04-25

Another long one with lots of details at the link.

[JustTheNews] Newly-declassified Crossfire Hurricane records reveal the key role that Andrew McCabe played in perpetuating the Russiagate hoax. There are still people who believe it.

Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.

The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.

McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director James Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.

Pushed the Steele dossier

McCabe and Comey had pushed in December 2016 to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele's debunked dossier in the body of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on alleged Russian meddling, but they were thwarted by the NSA and CIA. The dossier was eventually included in an annex to the assessment.

By early 2017, McCabe and the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was baseless. The FBI had offered Steele an “incentive” in October 2016 of up to $1 million if he could prove the allegations in his discredited anti-Trump dossier, but the former MI6 agent was unable to back up his claims. An FBI spreadsheet from December 2016 showed nothing of any substance from the dossier could be verified. The FBI had unearthed nothing derogatory on Flynn. And an early 2017 interview of Steele’s main source — Igor Danchenko — undercut the dossier’s collusion claims.

Yet despite the huge setbacks for Crossfire Hurricane, McCabe’s newly-declassified memos show how McCabe facilitated the FBI’s targeting of Flynn, met with Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about the Flynn allegations, refused to publicly shoot down false media stories on collusion, opened a collusion investigation into Trump himself after Comey was fired, kept the Trump-Russia investigation alive and escalated it as the acting FBI director, helped successfully push for a special counsel to take the reins, and more.

McCabe did not respond to a request for comment sent to him by Just the News through his LinkedIn.

January 24, 2017 — Mike Flynn’s call with McCabe

McCabe created his first memo related to a discussion he had with Flynn just before he was interviewed by FBI agents on January 24, 2017. Versions of the memo were previously released with various redactions in 2019 and 2020, but the version released this month has the fewest redactions yet.

The FBI had been plotting how to potentially prosecute Flynn related to his December 2016 call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including potentially under the Logan Act.

McCabe said that “I told LTG Flynn that I had a sensitive matter to discuss. I explained that in light of the significant media coverage and public discussion about his recent contacts with Russian representatives, that Director Comey and I felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down with the General and hear from him the details of those conversations. LTG Flynn asked if I was referring to his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, and indicated that I was.”

McCabe said in his memo that Flynn explained that he had been trying to "build relationships" with the Russians, and that he had calls in which he "exchanged condolences." McCabe said Flynn then stated that McCabe probably knew what was said in these calls because "you listen to everything they say."

McCabe said of his talk with Flynn that “I reiterated that in light of everything that has been said about these contacts, the important thing now was for us to hear directly from him what he said and how he felt about the conversations.”

Comey later admitted in 2018 that he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of Trump’s administration when he sent FBI special agents Peter Strzok and Joseph Pientka to talk to Flynn.

“I sent them,” Comey said to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, prompting laughter in the audience. “Something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in … a more organized administration. In the George W. Bush administration, for example, or the Obama administration.”

“In both of those administrations, there was process, and so, if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel, and there’d be discussions and approvals and who would be there, and I thought, it’s early enough — let’s just send a couple guys over,” Comey added.

STRZOK OVERJOYED THAT FLYNN CASE NOT CLOSED
The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case in May 2020 stated that Strzok learned in early January 2017 that the Flynn case had not been closed despite the lack of evidence for keeping it open, and relayed the “serendipitously good” news to McCabe's special assistant Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair. Strzok remarked that “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Strzok then instructed FBI agents to “keep it open for now” at the behest of “the 7th Floor” of the bureau.

The DOJ said that “the FBI kept open its counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn based solely on his calls with Kislyak — the only new information to arise since the FBI’s determination to close the case.” McCabe did not tell Flynn that he was being interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation targeting the Trump campaign.

McCabe said in his memo that “LTG Flynn questioned how so much information had been made public and asked if we thought it had been leaked” and “I replied that we were quite concerned about what we perceived as significant leaks and that we were in the process of completing a referral to the Department of Justice requesting authority to initiate a leak investigation.” McCabe said that “I further indicated that these cases were hard to prove but that we thought the significance of this situation demanded a thorough review.”

Link

Government Corruption

Newly declassified Crossfire Hurricane docs shine light on Steele, Clinton, and more

2025-04-13

Long and detailed. Herewith, a taste:

[JTN] Trump's first attempt at declassifying Crossfire Hurricane documents in January 2021 was thwarted. But now, the FBI records have been released, revealing in part new details on the FBI's problematic Trump-Russia probe.

Newly-declassified FBI documents shine new light on the FBI’s mishandling of its relationship with anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, on the FBI’s double standards on defensive briefings given to Trump and Hillary Clinton, and other key elements of the debunked collusion saga.

Just the News already revealed on Thursday that declassified documents show that Stefan Halper, a key FBI informant in the widely-debunked Russia collusion case, was paid nearly $1.2 million over three decades and was motivated in part by "monetary compensation" — and that he continued snitching for the bureau even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

And Just the News also revealed on Friday that the newly-released documents showed that then-NSA director Mike Rogers shot down a Pultizer Prize award-winning Washington Post article about the baseless Russian collusion investigation.

And a new review of hundreds of pages of declassified documents provides new information about the politicized Russiagate scandal — although significant redactions still remain.

This week, FBI Director Kash Patel transmitted to Congress hundreds of pages of declassified documents from the bureau’s "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation related to false claims about Trump-Russia collusion, following a declassification executive order from President Donald Trump last month. Just the News made all 700 pages from the declassified binder available to the public on Thursday.

An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, criticizing the“central and essential” role of the dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Special counsel John Durham’s report concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”

ADMIRAL MIKE ROGERS AND THE STEELE DOSSIER
Admiral Mike Rogers, who retired in 2018 after four years as National Security Agency chief and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, previously expressed a certain level of skepticism about the U.S. intelligence community’s 2017 assessment of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election — and a newly declassified interview Rogers gave to the FBI later in 2017 shines light on the dim view Rogers had of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier.

“ADM Rogers decided that he would make the final analytic call on the NSA’s input to the ICA as he knew there would be a lot of pressure and attention on the final draft and he felt strongly his career analysts shouldn’t have to be responsible for something under such political pressure. In one draft of the ICA, ADM Rogers noted the contents of the ‘Steele dossier’ in the body of the product, which he did not recall seeing in previous drafts,” FBI notes dated June 17, 2017 state.

“In early January, the four principals met and ADM Rogers told the group he was unclear why the ICA needed to focus on the dossier as it was considered largely uncorroborated. Comey responded that the information was relevant and ADM Rogers suggested the information be included in an annex or appendix rather than prominently in the nearly one-page summary he had seen.”

Rogers and Comey, along with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, briefed President-elect Trump about their election meddling findings at Trump Tower in January 2017. Comey stayed behind to tell Trump about some of the dossier’s more salacious allegations.

Steele told the FBI in October 2017 that he was “frustrated” by his dossier’s inclusion in an annex to the ICA. The FBI agent who recounted the interview with Steele wrote, “They brought up the inclusion of their material in the ICA annex multiple times – almost to the point that it felt like fishing for information about how the ICA was constructed. In the end, I made the point that I wasn’t going to get into how the ICA was put together, how the annex came about, etc.”

The Steele dossier annexed to the ICA was largely declassified in 2020, and it relayed some of Steele’s baseless collusion claims: “The most politically-sensitive claims by the FBI source [Steele] alleged a close relationship between the President-elect and the Kremlin. The source also claimed that the President-elect and his top campaign advisers knowingly worked with Russian officials to bolster his chances of beating Secretary Clinton; were fully knowledgeable of Russia’s direction of leaked Democratic emails; and were offered financial compensation from Moscow.”

VARYING ASSESSMENTS FROM INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
The 2017 intelligence assessment concluded with “high confidence” that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” The NSA diverged on one aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” that Putin actively tried to help Trump’s election chances and harm those of Clinton.

“I wouldn’t call it a discrepancy. I’d call it an honest difference of opinion between three different organizations,” Rogers told the Senate in 2017. “It didn’t have the same level of sourcing and the same level of multiple sources.”

A 2018 report from the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee concluded that “the majority of the Intelligence Community Assessment judgments on Russia’s election activities employed proper analytic tradecraft” but found the “judgments on Putin’s strategic intentions did not.”

Link

Government Corruption

Newly declassified FBI memos detail concerns, payments to Russia collusion informant

2025-04-11

Very long, excruciatingly detailed, link to the newly released 700 pages.

[JustTheNews] Newly declassified documents show informant Stefan Halper was motivated in part by "monetary compensation", was paid nearly $1.2 million from FBI over three decades, and continued snitching even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

The nearly 700 pages of once-secret documents, obtained by Just the News, were recently turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan after President Donald Trump ordered them declassified at the start of his second administration.

They provide the most extensive portrait yet of former FBI informant Stefan Halper, a Pentagon consultant and academic who, along with retired British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, was used by bureau agents to build the Crossfire Hurricane case against Trump and his advisers during the end of the 2016 election and the beginning of Trump's first term in office.

The memos confirm Halper was the source of one of the most sensational bogus claims to land in the FBI's probe in summer 2016: that Flynn had left a 2014 foreign meeting alone with Russia scholar Svetlana Lokhova when he was a three-star general leading the Defense Intelligence Agency.

FBI agents ultimately deemed Halper's account to be "not plausible" and "not accurate", but the bureau proceeded to investigate Flynn, kept paying Halper and continued to vouch for his veracity as a confidential human source codenamed "Mitch," the memos show.

The Defense Department inspector general also previously revealed that the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment paid Halper $1.05 million for projects he allegedly did for them between May 2012 and September 2016. The Pentagon under Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in March that it was disestablishing the office.

Despite the efforts by the FBI and Halper, a two-year investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. In addition, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, including criticizing the “central and essential” role of a dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

HALPER — AND THE FBI — TARGET MIKE FLYNN
At Cambridge University, Halper worked alongside MI6’s Sir Richard Dearlove and MI5 historian Christopher Andrew. Together, they founded and organized Cambridge Intelligence Seminars, including one in 2014 attended by Flynn.

CHS reports show Halper, an academic who long worked for the bureau as a trusted informant, was the original source of a story that Flynn had left a 2014 event in Cambridge, England, with the Russia scholar Svetlana Lokhova while he was still the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was also listed in FBI documents as part of the reason the bureau opened a counterintelligence probe of Flynn. The story was later leaked to the news media and became the focal point of a defamation lawsuit by Lokhova that was dismissed and affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Link

Government Corruption

Federal Court Rules Defamation Suit Against MSNBC's Andrew Weissmann Can Proceed

2024-11-21

[Breitbart] A federal court has denied a motion by anti-Trump pundit Andrew Weissmann to dismiss a defamation suit by former White House lawyer Stefan Passantino over false claims that he had coached a January 6 Committee witness to lie.

As Breitbart News reported in September 2023:

Former Trump White House attorney Stefan Passantino filed a defamation lawsuit against MSNBC’s Andrew Weissmann, who served as lead prosecutor for former special counsel Robert Mueller, over Weissmann’s claims that Passantino coached discredited January 6 Committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson to lie on the stand.

"Hutchinson’s third-hand testimony that Trump grabbed the wheel of his presidential limousine in an effort to force it to drive to the Capitol was rejected by the people she claimed had told her about it," Breitbart News reported.

Passantino represented Hutchinson at the time of her testimony before the committee. Many members of the media falsely claimed he coached her to lie on the stand, a claim he has repeatedly denied.

The Federalist reported Wednesday:

In September, U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan denied a motion from MSNBC legal analyst and attorney Andrew Weissmann to dismiss a complaint filed by Stefan Passantino, who represented former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before she became the Jan. 6 Committee’s star witness.

...

"This is an insidious lie," Passantino’s lawsuit reads. "Ms. Hutchinson even testified, under penalty of law: ’I want to make this clear to you: Stefan [Passantino] never told me to lie. ... He told me not to lie."

Hutchinson’s testimony can be found on page 42 of the publicly available transcript from her Sept. 14, 2022, interview with the Jan. 6 Committee. Passantino, instead, coached her as a standard fact witness to only answer questions she could recall. Passantino represented Hutchinson through her first three interviews with the committee before she changed counsel and appeared publicly. None of the transcripts dated Feb. 23, 2022, March 7, 2022, or May 17, 2022, show Passantino obstructing Hutchinson’s testimony. While the transcripts were also recorded, the Jan. 6 Committee destroyed the video.

Weissmann is known for his hostility to Trump and his enthusiasm for "lawfare" efforts to target the President-elect.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Trump chooses Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general, as NATO ambassador

2024-11-20

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump chooses Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general, as NATO ambassador.

Link

Government Corruption

Texas AG demands records from special counsel investigation of Trump

2024-11-09

[FoxNews] State Attorney General Ken Paxton has submitted a FOIA request

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Biden administration's Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday, demanding that it provide records relating to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s corruption investigation into President-elect Trump.

In a release, the Republican AG alleged that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who led a team investigating Trump regarding a false Trump-Russia election collaboration, "destroyed records."

"Past Special Counsels, including — notoriously — Robert Mueller, destroyed records at the end of their investigations to avoid accountability," Paxton said in a release.

"It is not clear why nobody was prosecuted for doing so," he added. "This request is part of my Office’s efforts to ensure that Americans are not cheated out of accountability or information again. This pattern of weaponizing the justice system for partisan retribution must end."

In Paxton's request, he argued that past special counselors "appear to have intentionally destroyed documents" during their tenure.

"Our office would consider any destruction of the documents requested herein to be a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1361, and would refer the matter for prosecution in the event destruction occurs," the letter said.

According to the DOJ, 18 U.S.C. § 1361 "protects "any property" of the United States or an agency or department thereof."

The FOIA request from Paxton follows the House Judiciary Committee sharing its concern that Smith and prosecutors involved in the Trump investigations will "purge" records to skirt oversight.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., penned a letter to Smith on Friday, demanding that he produce to Congress all documents related to the probes before the end of the month.

"The Committee on the Judiciary is continuing its oversight of the Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel. According to recent public reports, prosecutors in your office have been ‘gaming out legal options’ in the event that President Donald Trump won the election," they wrote. "With President Trump’s decisive victory this week, we are concerned that the Office of Special Counsel may attempt to purge relevant records, communications, and documents responsive to our numerous requests for information."

Following Trump's decisive victory, the DOJ is looking to wind down two federal criminal cases against Trump as he prepares to be sworn in for a second term in the White House.

Its decision to do so upholds a long-standing policy that prevents DOJ attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president.

Link

Government Corruption

Shocking History of Dominion Voting - How Obama rigged the creation of Dominion Voting Co.

2024-10-12

[X] I need help in identifying who wrote this stunning article below, wish to give them credit.

Since 2009, Dominion Voting Systems operated from 215 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON, M5T 2C7,Canada — an office space of the radical Tides Foundation. This building houses (or housed until a few months ago) a Toronto office of Tides Canada and a Tides’ incubation space for leftist groups.

Dominion Voting Systems Corp. is the Canadian company behind the ballot switching software.
Dominion was founded in 2003, with a mission to provide electronic voting systems friendly for progressives. Because of such partisanship, it languished with almost no customers for the next 5-6 years, until the Obama administration came to power.

In 2010, the Obama administration confiscated electronic voting systems assets (software, intellectual property, manufacturing tools, customer base, etc.) from two established American companies, and gave them to Dominion. At the same time, Dominion got some employees and assets from a foreign EVS company, tied to Hugo Chavez.

Its software has been used by some 40% of the voters in this elections, mostly by Democrat-controlled states and election commissions. Apparently, no protections were put in place against ballot switching, deletion, or creation. According to Dominion’s own website, it software was used in "battleground" states and the largest Democrat states, including MI, GA, AZ, NV, NM, CO, AK, UT, NJ, CA, NY.

Dominion Early History
Dominion Voting System Corp., was founded in Canada in 2002-2003 with an openly progressive mission — to develop electronic voting software which would not just process ballots, but also "mobilize voters" — a popular slogan of the Left.

It is not clear what products or services the company has developed. It found almost no buyers, until Obama was elected in 2008. In 2009, New York ordered a few dozens of systems from it. In 2010, Obama’s DOJ (Holder — Mueller) took the EVS unit, purchased from Diebold, away from the market leader ES&S, and gave it to Dominion. This gift included the installed base of about 30% of the US electronic voting systems (EVS) market. Within two weeks, Dominion also acquired Sequoia, which was formally spun from Smartmatic, but ties between these two companies remained.

Smartmatic is a UK based EVS vendor, whose software was used by Chavez to "win" the Venezuelan referendum in 2004. Smartmatic’s unit Sequoia faced troubles in the US. Those troubles quickly ended when its assets were purchased by Dominion.

Thus, the new Democratic party created a pocket pet corporation, gave it the lion share of the US electronic voting systems market. Dominion is ideologically aligned with the Democratic Party, owes it everything it has, dependent on it for most of its business, and needs it in power to avoid prosecution for corruption. Sounds like a conflict of interest.

Electronic Voting
Using electronic voting machines has always been controversial. The pros for electronic voting — saving working time of the ballot counters — are minuscule. The cons however are infinite. Because software is inherently complex, non-transparent, and volatile, there is always a risk of significant errors. There are also suspicions and doubts about election results. The complexity of software and hardware on which voting machines run has been continually increasing, aggravating these concerns.

At the beginning of 2009, there were four major US EVS suppliers: ES&S, Premier (a unit of Nixdorf-Diebold), Sequoia (linked to Smartmatic), and Hart Intercivic. The market size was a few hundred million dollars a year and growing. EVS vendors competed among themselves and against traditional pen and paper voting. There were no barriers to entry for other competitors, other than government’s regulations.

Electronic voting, which sounded like a good idea in the 1980s is so no more. Electronic voting machines and their vendors were under criticism for many years. In 2007-2008, this criticism materialized in the SEC, DOJ, and states lawsuits against the voting machines vendors. Diebold was catching flack for having a prominent Republican party supporter among their top executives. It spun its EVS unit as a separate company Premier, and was looking for a buyer. The existing vendors were burdened with liabilities, including DOJ investigations. This opened up an opportunity for the Obama administration.

Technical Vulnerabilities of EVS Systems
The voting software developers can easily insert code, changing numbers in favor of or against one candidate. No hacking is necessary. The malicious code can be designed to pass tests and to be triggered only at the time of a real election, automatically or manually. Both case are possible even the the machine is disconnected from the internet and has no ordinary I/O devices.

The malicious code can be activated manually in real time by inserting a ballot or another paper with a pre-defined QR or image code. An audit of the source code is necessary, but not sufficient. Dominion software runs on Windows, and the malicious code can be hidden in any part of the operating system. Malicious code can be hidden in the firmware, too.

If a state wants to take risks and to rely on testing and the source code audit, they should be conducted with the participation of technically competent representatives of both parties. If the system passes testing and auditing, the machine image must be securely stored. All supplied machines must have exactly the same hardware and the software as the audited system.

As far as I know, thorough tests and source code audits are conducted very rarely, if at all. Further, the vendors are not required to use only the audited image, and are allowed to update the software almost at will. That means that election commissions are forced to blindly trust the vendors. Blind trust is always wrong and invites abuse. But even "trust but verify" is applicable only to trustworthy vendors. Dominion Voting is the opposite of trustworthy.

The only real solution to the vulnerability of EVS is not to use them at all. Manual ballot counting has no software vulnerabilities, and is much cheaper. Virginia appears to be the only state that decided to use only manual ballots.

How Dominion went from nothing to everything in two weeks
In September 2009, ES&S acquired Premier [8], without any objections from the DOJ. But in March 2010, the Obama’s DOJ (Eric Holder — Robert Mueller) forced ES&S to "sell" Premier’s assets to Dominion, but to keep its liabilities. In addition, ES&S was forced to license to Dominion some of its software, in perpetuity and free of charge. The pretext for the DOJ action was antitrust.

The "Sale"
This is how the assets transfer was structured, per DOJ [1] (March 8, 2010). "WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Election Systems & Software (ES&S) to divest voting equipment systems assets it purchased in September 2009 from Premier Election Solutions Inc. in order to restore competition.

The assets to be divested include the means to produce all versions of Premier’s hardware, software and firmware used to record, tabulate, transmit or report votes, including the Assure 1.2 system, and a license to better serve disabled voters. The department said that today’s settlement will restore competition in voting equipment systems in the United States... "

"In order to restore competition" sounds funny, because the same document also required ES&S to not compete against the buyer (with exceptions).

"... the acquisition substantially reduced competition as it combined the two largest providers of systems used to tally votes in federal, state and local elections in the United States. ES&S’s acquisition of Premier made ES&S the provider of more than 70 percent of the voting equipment systems in the United States. The department said that because the cash value of the deal between ES&S and Premier was $5 million, far below the mandatory reporting threshold for mergers under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the department’s investigation of the transaction did not begin until the companies had combined their assets and dismantled many of Premier’s operating divisions."

Sounds like a poor pretext. The DOJ has been investigating these companies even before the merger, and was aware of it. Further, the DOJ does not allege that the merger has not been reported. Even so, why not simply demand unrolling the merger? The DOJ provides a poor excuse to demand divestiture rather than a normal unrolling.

"Under the terms of the settlement, ES&S must divest all of the intellectual property associated with all versions —past, present and in development —of the Premier voting equipment systems to another company. ES&S also must divest all Premier tooling and fixed assets, as well as inventory of parts and components. In order to allow the divestiture buyer to better serve disabled voters, ES&S must also grant a fully paid-up, irrevocable, perpetual license to use the AutoMARK, ES&S’s ballot marking device for which Premier had a limited license prior to the acquisition. The buyer of the divestiture assets will have the right to modify and improve both Premier products and the AutoMARK."
Thus, the Obama’s DOJ stripped ES&S not only acquired Premier assets, but also coerced it to license rights to its pre-merger product.

"ES&S must sell the divestiture assets to a buyer approved by the department." This is not selling. This is confiscation multiplied by corruption. "The settlement prohibits ES&S from bidding on new voting equipment system contracts using the Premier equipment. [transferred to Dominion]"

Wait, didn’t they say that the purpose was to increase the competition?
"The department also required that ES&S grant the divestiture buyer an opportunity to compete to provide services to Premier customers currently under contract with ES&S, giving customers the option to switch to the divestiture buyer or to remain with ES&S ... ES&S also must provide access to knowledgeable Premier employees and agree to offer a supply agreement to allow the divestiture buyer time to establish its own manufacturing of voting equipment systems."

The approved divestiture buyer, Dominion Voting, is not mentioned in this press release. But this quote shows that the DOJ has already determined the "approved buyer," and knew that it had no manufacturing base.

After the "Sale"
Dominion announced the acquisition of the Diebold products on May 19, 2010 [2] and the acquisition of Sequoia Voting assets on June 4, 2010 [3]. Dominion also hired much of its personnel, probably retaining ties to extremely sketchy Smartmatic. Sequoia/Smartmatic systems had been used in the Venezuela 2004 referendum, which Hugo Chavez "won". Smartmatic is a British company with Hugo Chavez ties, headed by "Lord" Malloch-Brown (former UN Deputy Secretary-General, UNDP, UNHCR, VP of Soros’ Quantum Fund, and Vice Chair of Soros’ Open Society Foundation) [7], and linked to electoral scandals all over the world [5].
In August 2009 (corrected), the rough breakdown of the EVS market in the US was (per Brad Friedman):

40% ES&S
30% Diebold/Premier
20% Sequoia/Smartmatic
10% Hart Intercivic
0% Dominion Voting

Less than a year later, after the "antitrust" actions of Obama’s DOJ, it became:

50% Dominion
40% ES&S (restricted in competing against Dominion)
10% Hart Intercivic

Thus, the DOJ’s actions did the exact opposite of its words. An elections system vendor should be non-partisan, in a demonstrable way. Dominion is not just partisan, but hyper-partisan in favor of the Democrat party, or even its pocket vendor.

Dominion has many more ties to the Democrat party and its prominent supporters in the US and abroad, which are not covered in this article.
Software Development in Serbia

Dominion develops much of its software in Belgrade, Serbia. Russia is a close friend to Serbia, if not its only one. If anybody sincerely thought that Putin wanted to hack American elections, their first location of interest would be the offices of Dominion Voting in Belgrade, rather than the Trump Tower in New York.

By the way, Serbian and Russian languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Most letters have the same Unicode encoding in Serbian and Russian (the Basic Multilingual Plane, range 0410-04FF). If any election officials found Cyrillic text on a Dominion voting machine in 2016, it was probably left by its developers in Serbia.

Remarks
This is the Agreement between Michigan & Dominion, including specs of many Dominion products (PDF, 161 pages). Wi-Fi connection and even a dial up modem are offered as an option.

Some of the companies referenced here as foreign based or foreign originating re-registered in the US.
Dominion Voting Systems Series
Part I
Part II (this)
Part III

[the above explains why Dominion is protected, in effect their are an arm of the federal government; John Populous, along with Obama The Foreigner, must be one of the first arrested and prosecuted]

Some References
[1] Justice Department Requires Key Divestiture in Election Systems & Software/Premier Election Solutions Merger, http://justice.gov, March 8, 2010
[2] Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. Acquires Premier Election Solutions Assets From ES&S, press release, May 19
[3] Dominion Voting Systems Corporation Acquires Assets of Sequoia Voting Systems, press release, June 4, 2010
[3b] On Heels of Diebold/Premier Purchase, Canadian Firm Also Acquires Sequoia, Lies About Chavez-Ties in Announcement — contemporary commentary
[4] Marcos warns of ’another Smartmatic situation’ — Smartmatic was accused of election fraud in the 2016 elections in Philippines
[5] Smartmatic in Wikipedia, November 9, 2020 (not verified)
[6] Sequoia Voting Systems in Wikipedia, November 9, 2020 (not verified)
[7] "Lord" Malloch Brown in Wikipedia, November 8, 2010 (not verified)
[8] Diebold Sells U.S. Elections Systems Business to ES&S, press release, September 3, 2009
[9] Dominion Voting Systems Corp — discussion of Dominion’s ideology and highly partisan offers
[10] Dominion Voting Systems’ profile in Bloomberg

Link

Home Front: Politix

Lawyer hired by Haitian Bridge Alliance who filed criminal charges against President Trump and JD Vance today is Kamala Harris friend

2024-09-26

[X]

EXCLUSIVE:

🚨KAMALA HARRIS @KamalaHarris VISITED THE HOME OF THE LAWYER @SubodhChandra WHO FILED CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP AND JD VANCE FOR HAITIAN MIGRANTS🚨

🚨The lawyer hired by Haitian Bridge Alliance who filed criminal charges against President Trump and JD… https://t.co/3gtlV1vbHn pic.twitter.com/dGZvtENfcG
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 24, 2024

… against President Trump and JD Vance today is Friends with Kamala Harris, Hosted her at his house, and refers to Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff
@SecondGentleman
as his “brother in law🚨

Today, a pro invasion nonprofit called the Haitian Bridge Alliance filed criminal charges against President Trump and JD Vance
@JDVance
for their claims that Haitian migrants are eating peoples pets in Springfield, Ohio.

In their press release,
@HaitianBridge
said they have hired Ohio-based civil rights attorney Subodh Chandra.

Who is Subodh Chandra?

He’s an open Kamala Harris supporter who fundraises for her publicly. In social media posts, he said Kamala Harris came to his home and met with his mother and called her “Auntie”, and he said he considers Doug Emhoff to be his brother in law, and Meena Harris
@meena
to be his neice.

Chandra has also received a commendation from former FBI director Robert Mueller, who carried out countless witch hunts against President Trump and his associates.

Chandra is a leftist political activist who has a long history of partisan activities with Kamala Harris, Robert Mueller and other Leftists engaged in the since discredited lawfare against President Trump.

That’s how you know these “criminal charges” are purely political.

Did Kamala Harris instruct her good friend
Subodh Chandra to file criminal charges against Trump in the key state of Ohio to help her Presidential campaign?

Kamala and Subodh are very close as you can see.

This is what you call a political witch hunt.

President Trump’s lawyers should file sanctions against Subodh Chandra for filing frivolous criminal charges for the sake of assisting his friend Kamala Harris’s Presidential campaign.

This is unethical behavior by a lawyer who should be disbarred.

RECEIPTS 👇🏻

Related: Haitian Bridge Alliance About

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Government Corruption

'Call from 2016': Dissenting bloggers are being bullied to help Harris win

2024-09-06

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Velesov

[REGNUM] A scandal is unfolding in the West, clearly connected to the upcoming presidential elections in the United States in November, to which, just as in 2016, they are trying to implicate a “Russian trace” and the “hand of Moscow,” allegedly pushing Donald Trump toward the White House.

On September 5, leading American and British television channels and publications, from the Associated Press to the Daily Mail, simultaneously reported on the “sensational indictment” released by the US Department of Justice.

"Here they called from 2016 and demanded all their hackneyed cliches back. There are three inevitable things in life: death, taxes, and "RT's interference in the American elections"... Somewhere, Secretary of State Clinton is sad that this time it's not all because of her."

The document stated that employees of the Russian media holding RT, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, were accused by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York of "implementing" a certain "plan" that allegedly consisted of paying $8.7 million to an unnamed company ("Company 1") from the state of Tennessee so that it would release videos "in line with the Kremlin's interests" in exacerbating internal discord in the United States.

It is alleged that Company 1 spent the said $10 million on publishing videos in support of Moscow’s agenda, including in the Ukrainian conflict.

According to the US Department of Justice, the content was allegedly “seeded” onto all known platforms, including TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram* and YouTube.

Since November, the company has published more than 2,000 videos that have been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube, according to the indictment, National Public Radio reported. The publication, by the way, is accompanied by a photo of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland against the backdrop of a Ukrainian flag, which the attorney general hung out in solidarity with Kiev.

The "sensation" about a conspiracy against American democracy was leaked simultaneously with the US Treasury's decision to impose sanctions against RT, its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, the Rossiya Segodnya media group, and the RIA Novosti and Sputnik agencies. The wording was "for carrying out a disinformation campaign related to the elections."

CNN, which is clearly playing on the side of the Joe Biden administration and is more zealous than others in promoting “RT-gate,” has released its “leak”:

“CNN has independently confirmed that Company 1 is Tenet Media, a platform for independent content creators. It describes itself as “a network of unorthodox commentators who focus on Western political and cultural issues,” according to its website, which matches the language in the newly unsealed indictment."

CNN's publications, which were picked up by other media outlets, emphasize that among the popular video bloggers and podcast hosts who worked with Tenet Media (and therefore were involved in "Russian propaganda") are well-known "right-wing personalities" - Benny Johnson and Tim Poole.

“Both have millions of subscribers on YouTube and other platforms,” CNN points out, making the appropriate point: Poole interviewed Trump on his podcast in May.

The Daily Mail adds a third suspect: Dave Rubin, the author of a popular X blog.

Tenet Media is real and based in Tennessee. The “Free Voices Are Here” outlet is indeed home to Benny Johnson (2.7 million subscribers), Tim Poole (2.1 million), and Dave Rubin (1.5 million subscribers).

All three are called "influencers," that is, well-known figures whose opinions matter to large groups of people. All three are working for the same, conventionally Trumpist, audience.

That is, people living in the “Bible Belt,” for example, in Tennessee, people who are traditionalist (at least in terms of family life and “gender issues”) and who do not trust the federal government and especially the current Democratic administration.

But the main thing is the Republicans who will vote for Trump in November.

The major American and British press, spinning the scandal, particularly emphasized that among the latest heroes of the Tenet videos was Lara Trump, the presidential candidate’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Other prominent Trump associates gave interviews to the “suspicious” influencers. In particular, former presidential candidate, Indian-born businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (an ardent supporter of the “Mexican wall,” who withdrew his candidacy in favor of Trump back in January), as well as journalist and politician Carey Lake, who calls herself the Republican candidate’s “chief cheerleader.”

The conclusion being pushed by Biden's appointed Attorney General Garland, the Justice Department, and the mainstream media is simple and follows a well-worn pattern: Moscow allegedly helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, and it intends to do the same in 2024 by launching "propaganda" through conservative media.

Back then, I remember, the topic of Russian influence through social networks was also being discussed – Facebook* and Instagram, which are blocked in our country.

The conclusion is the same as in 2016-2017. “The message from the Department of Justice is clear: We will not tolerate authoritarian regimes attempting to exploit our democratic systems of government,” Attorney General Garland now declared.

But just like seven or eight years ago, the Democratic Party did not bother to present any clear evidence. Let us recall that the “Russiagate” investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which lasted two years (2017–2019), ultimately did not come to the required conclusions.

As a result, the next special prosecutor, John Durham, in 2023 published a conclusion : the FBI had unreasonably suspected the 45th President Donald Trump of “collusion” with Russia.

RT, which has been sanctioned, has taken an ironic approach to the latest edition of "Russiagate". When Reuters asked for a comment on the accusations, the Russian media holding responded as follows:

"Here they called from 2016 and demanded all their hackneyed cliches back. There are three inevitable things in life: death, taxes, and "RT's interference in the American elections"... Somewhere, Secretary of State Clinton is sad that this time it's not all because of her."

Now, in place of Secretary of State Clinton, who wants to defeat Trump at any cost, is Vice President Kamala Harris, but the essence of the matter does not change.

But the conservative influencers themselves who have come under suspicion are in no mood for jokes. Johnson, Poole, and Rubin are forced to make a long-winded defense, repeating that they were “used.”

"If these allegations are true, I, like other activists and commentators, will be the deceived party and the victims," said Tim Poole.

Dave Rubin wrote that he had "absolutely no knowledge of this fraudulent activity" and that the Justice Department's charges demonstrated that "I and other columnists were victims of this scheme."

The behavior of bloggers is quite understandable.

The Biden administration is ready to leave influencers in the status of victims of a “Russian intrigue” rather than conscious conductors of the Kremlin’s will. The fact that “Company 1” allegedly kept the plan’s executors in the dark about the sources of funding is stated in a statement by Merrick Garland.

The only (and most important) thing that the US authorities deny to conservative bloggers with millions of followers is, in fact, the status of people who have the right to dissent.

According to the logic of the US Department of Justice, speaking out against LGBT** propaganda, against transgender transitions among teenagers, and criticizing the failed policies of the Biden administration is only possible for money. And for money “from the Kremlin.”

It is clear that the "Company 1" case became another way to sink Trump in the November elections. But it is significant who exactly was the target of the political and media attack - the publicists who deviated maximally from the liberal general line.

It seems that the monopoly on common sense is vested solely in the Democratic Party, while the famous First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right to free speech, remains on paper.

Link

-Land of the Free

Judge tosses Trump documents case, ruling prosecutor unlawfully appointed

2024-07-15

[Yahoo] A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office, handing the Republican former president another major legal victory as he seeks a return to the White House.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.

The judge found that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who named Smith in 2022 to oversee investigations involving Trump, did not have the authority "to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith."

Cannon also found that Smith's investigation has been improperly funded through a permanent and unlimited fund Congress set aside in the 1980s for independent investigations.

It marked another blockbuster legal triumph for Trump.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president - a landmark decision recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution. That ruling involved charges pursued by Smith in a separate case against Trump in Washington involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Cannon's ruling came two days after Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania. Trump is set to be formally named the Republican presidential nominee in Milwaukee this week, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Prosecutors are likely to appeal Cannon's ruling. Courts in other cases have repeatedly upheld the ability of the U.S. Justice Department to appoint special counsels to handle certain politically sensitive investigations.

Trump, in a social media post, said Cannon's ruling should be a "just the first step" and called for the dismissal of all four criminal cases against him.

"Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System," Trump wrote.

Trump was convicted in May on New York state felony charges involving hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 election. Trump had pleaded not guilty in the documents case and in Smith's other case, as well as to election-related charges in state court in Georgia.

A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the documents case, Trump was indicted on charges that he willfully retained sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and obstructed government efforts to retrieve the material. Prosecutors have said the documents related to U.S. military and intelligence matters, including details about the American nuclear program.

Two others, Trump personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Olivera, were also charged with obstructing the investigation.

'BREATHTAKINGLY MISGUIDED'
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement: "This breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence. It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned."

At the very least, Cannon's ruling throws the future of the case into doubt. Trump's lawyers have not made a similar challenge to the special counsel in Smith's election-related case.

Trump's lawyers challenged the legal authority for Garland's 2022 decision to appoint Smith to lead investigations into Trump. They argued that the appointment violated the U.S. Constitution because Smith's office was not created by Congress and the special counsel was not confirmed by the Senate.

Lawyers in Smith's office disputed Trump's claims, arguing that there was a well-settled practice of using special counsels to manage politically sensitive investigations.

"This ruling flies in the face of about 20 years of institutional precedent, conflicts with rulings issued in both the Mueller investigation and in D.C. with respect to Jack Smith himself," said Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security, referring to an investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller during Trump's presidency.

Moss also said the ruling raises the question of whether Smith will seek to have Cannon removed from the case.

Cannon's ruling is the most consequential in a series of decisions she has made favoring Trump and expressing skepticism about the conduct of prosecutors. The judge previously delayed a trial indefinitely while considering a flurry of Trump legal challenges.

In an unusual move, she allowed three outside lawyers, including two who sided with Trump, to argue during a court hearing focused on Trump's challenge to Smith's appointment.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas provided a boost to Trump's challenge to the special counsel. In an opinion agreeing with the court's decision to grant Trump broad immunity, Thomas questioned whether Smith's appointment was lawful, using similar arguments to those made by Trump's lawyers.

Garland appointed Smith, a public corruption and international war crimes prosecutor, to give investigations into Trump a degree of independence from the Justice Department under Biden's administration.

Link

-Land of the Free

SCOTUS Dooms Jack Smith--Again

2024-07-09

[Declassified with Judy Kelly] Remember when the media and class of "legal experts" swooned over Jack Smith?

Immediately after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel to take over the Department of Justice’s existing investigations into Donald Trump, news outlets eagerly touted Smith’s credentials. "He’s a hardworking, smart person who knows how to move cases. That’s who he is: He comes in and gets things done," one former DOJ colleague told the New York Times in November 2022.

Another ex-colleague described Smith as "a brilliant independent thinker and a gutsy lawyer." A prosecutor on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team told CNN that Smith "understands the courtroom. He understands how to try a case. He knows how to prove a case."

Regime lapdog Andrew Weissmann, in response to Smith’s January 6-related indictment of Trump, said in August 2023 that the case indicated Smith "wants to get to trial quickly."

But Weissman’s doomsday predictions about the fate of Donald Trump once again didn’t materialize into reality. Nearly one year later, Smith’s two federal indictments against Trump—one for J6 and one for allegedly hoarding national defense files at Mar-a-Lago—are nowhere close to going to trial.

A series of legal stumbles, bad blood between Smith’s prosecutors and Judge Aileen Cannon in the documents case in Florida, and unfavorable Supreme Court decisions imperil not just Smith’s cases but his media-manufactured reputation as a prosecutorial ace.
AND his constitutional appointment status - See Thomas's concurring opinion in the immunity case

Link

Government Corruption

James O'Keefe Releases Undercover Video of CIA Contractor Admitting CIA Director Withheld Info from Trump and Spied on His Presidency

2024-05-02

[GatewayPundit] James O’Keefe last Friday warned he was about to release the most important story of his entire career.

“I have evidence that exposes the CIA, and it’s on camera. I am working on releasing a story that I believe is the most important of my entire career,” O’Keefe said on Friday.

“Do you think it’s a coincidence that right at this moment I am subject to an endless series of attacks?” he said. “This is obviously a sophisticated information operation designed to stop me from releasing this story. I’m sure you recognize they are masters of using half-truths and innuendos to raise doubt against people who don’t deserve it. It’s meant to consume my time and energy and make me back down.”

“But I’m not going to let it work. Rest assured, nothing will stop me from releasing this story,” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe Media Group on Wednesday released part one: Exposing the CIA: A project manager working in cyber operations told OMG’s undercover journalist that the Director of the CIA would keep information from Trump.

He also said the CIA spied on Trump’s presidency and is still monitoring him to this day.

“So the agencies kind of, like, all got together and said, we’re not gonna tell Trump…Director of the CIA would keep [information from Trump]…” Amjad Fseisi, a project manager working in Cyber Operations for the CIA with top-secret security clearance told an undercover journalist.

Amjad Fseisi said Trump is a “Russian asset” – “He’s owned by the f*cking Russians,” he told the undercover journalist.

Per James O’Keefe:

Amjad reveals to OMG’s Undercover American Swiper that intel agencies not only kept intelligence information from a sitting United States President and Commander-In-Chief, they also used FISA to spy on President Trump and his team and are still monitoring President Trump according to Amjad who says, “We monitor everything.” Amjad adds “we also have people that monitor his ex-wife. He likes to use burner phones” – information only an insider with access to highly sensitive information would state.

“We steal it [information]” and “We hack other countries just like that,” Amjad, who states he currently works on the CIA’s China Mission Center, explains how intel agencies obtain information. He also describes a broken intelligence system where “We don’t share information across agencies” because the CIA is “very reluctant” to share information with the “careless” NSA.

O’Keefe Media Group’s bombshell undercover footage supports earlier reports by investigative journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag that revealed how the American intelligence community illegally ran a spy operation against then-candidate Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and illegally acquired intelligence that was later used to justify the Federal Bureau of Investigation (@FBI) official probe, “Crossfire Hurricane,” which in turn led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that ultimately did not find evidence of Russia collusion by the 2016 Trump campaign.

Contractors like Fseisi hold the duty to withhold sharing confidential or national security information. In denying his statements, Fseisi may have realized he could be held liable for violating internal agency provisions and federal laws like the Executive Agency ethics provisions, which restrict what he may share with others outside of his contracted-to agency. Additionally, any government worker or agency head who withheld information from a superior (i.e. President Trump) may violate: (a) obstruction of justice by deception (18 USC 1512); (b) conspiracy to obstruct (18 USC 371); and false statements (18 USC 1001). Agency regulations may also provide offenses related to insubordination, reflecting poorly on the agency in public, or misrepresentation or dishonesty.

When James O’Keefe caught up with Amjad Fseisi on the streets of Washington, D.C., Fseisi could not tell O’Keefe whether he had top secret clearance, denied making statements clearly caught on camera, and would not even confirm it was him on the video saying only “It looks like me.” When asked directly if he works at the CIA, Fseisi said, “I can’t tell you that.”

The official was terminated following O’Keefe’s undercover sting!

BREAKING – EXPOSING THE CIA: “So the agencies kind of, like, all got together and said, we’re not gonna tell Trump…Director of the CIA would keep [information from Trump]…” A project manager working in Cyber Operations for the @CIA and an @NSAGov contractor with top-secret… pic.twitter.com/TXq8ZjJEBq
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 1, 2024

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