Let’s hope for more reasons than one the CCP virus is no longer too heavily with us this summer because America is going to need its full attention, or what’s left of it, for what’s coming down the pike—the Durham Report and all that entails.
That means, of course, the investigation of how and why the Mueller/Russia probe happened and whether anyone will be prosecuted for it.
Many have been skeptical that any of the possible guilty parties in this situation would be punished, but the tide toward prosecution may be turning.
We had an indication a few nights ago when Attorney General William Barr used some pretty strong language on Laura Ingraham’s show during an interview with the host:
“What happened to him [President Trump] was one of the greatest travesties in American history—without any basis,” Barr said. “They started this investigation of his campaign. And even more concerning, actually, is what happened after the campaign. A whole pattern of events while he was president … to sabotage the presidency … or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”
A number of Democratic Party and liberal sources dismissed this interview as so much biased Fox News claptrap, but one wonders why someone with Barr’s reputation would go that far out on a limb if he did not know something. Toward what end?
And he is, as the investigator John Durham’s boss, clearly in a position to know. Not only that, the AG told us months ago that Durham would not deliver his report and indictments, if any, until summer. That makes sense. If you go for the king, as they say….
And now, lo and behold, several days after the Ingraham interview and not more than five hours before I am typing this, the following evidence (with more likely to come) appears on Twitter from premier investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, once of Fox but now of CBS:
“SCOOP @CBSNews obtains newly declassified footnotes IG report w/multiple warnings to FBI about dossier, Russian targeting, disinformation. Footnote 342 “two persons affiliated with (Russian Intel) were aware of Steele’s election investigation in early July 2016”
Beneath the tweet is a photograph of a formerly redacted page of footnotes from the inspector general’s report on Mueller/FISA. (Quick query: Why did IG Horowitz seemingly put the most important material in footnotes and why was it almost always redacted?… Well, we can guess.) Anyway, the substance of the multiple footnotes is that as of July 2016, at minimum four months before the election, the FBI was well aware the Steele Dossier was at least in substantial part the product of Russian disinformation, some of it emanating from a purported supporter of Hillary Clinton who was Christopher Steele’s so-called “sub-source.”
Was he KGB? FSB? Or, in FBI parlance, RIS (Russian intelligence sources)? Who knows?
As a one time mystery writer I could take this in a lot of directions, none of them good, but I will resist speculating. A few things are evident, however.
First, one of the big lies promulgated by Mueller & Co. was that the Russians favored Trump. This was always dubious. The dossier makes Trump look terrible and since we now have evidence some of it comes from a Russian source, that the Russians wanted him to win seems pretty idiotic. As always, the Russians wanted to sow dissension.
More importantly, these footnotes expand the investigation considerably beyond the “mere” fudging of FISA applications to surveil Carter Page into areas of treason and sedition.
Because, as we all know, that is how Russians support the candidate they want to win.
It’s always been idiotic and anyone but an idiot would know this from the beginning. Beyond any possible doubt (Hillary made it so easy) the Russians have a truckload of dirt to use to blackmail Hillary; just having her emails alone is enough to show the world how incompetent she is. Sure, the Russians wanted disruption and chaos (thanks, komrad Democrats) but if they had their druthers, having the incompetent criminal Hillary as President of the United States would be a windfall.
The seditious coup is no conspiracy theory; it happened and is happening. Trump is blocking every blow.
@Deplorable Me: We cant forget all her emails going to China in real-time. The vanishing of the servers so zero proof who actually or even if the DNC was hacked.
Not every Russian is a supporter of Vladimir Putin. Why would we assume that Russian sources for information in the Steele dossier were doing the Putin government’s bidding?
The usefulness to the Putin government of any information revealed by the Steele document would have been dependent upon it remaining secret. Leverage only results from having the power to reveal what a compromised party wants to remain secret.
@Greg: Whistle your way past that cemetery, Greg. But, a reckoning is coming.
Whether is was supported by Putin or not is a nuance (it most likely was). The point is the FBI KNEW all the accusations were bullshit, but they needed it to justify their spying. All they had to do was hide the exculpatory aspect from the FISA judges.
Lying and spying. Trampling the Constitution. Police state. Gestapo. Nazis. Fascists. Democrats.
@Greg:
Like Trump revealing Democrat corruption in the way of Biden/Ukraine, and there suddenly being an “impeachment”.
Leverage and power: Trump.
Compromised Party: The Democrats.
It’s useful for Dems to keep the Russian hoax alive…keep it’s dwindling members in a false haze of indignation, rather than let them realize their party got weak and simply lost an election.
@Nathan Blue:
They have to keep the hoax pointed in the right direction; it’s beginning to turn on them so, as per their usual tactic, they have to keep accusing others of what they have been doing.
@Deplorable Me: Man, greg said it best…so well I have to post it again:
That is what ALL OF THIS is about. The Dems were compromised by the leaks showing the DNC was corrupt, and then with Trump’s election, everything was getting revealed.
@Nathan Blue, #5:
Nothing was ever revealed. It was all slanderous bullshit rolled out by Trump and his “conservative” propaganda outlets to discredit his most likely 2020 presidential opponent and throw up a smoke screen that would save him from being removed from office.
What has happened to Rudy and his Box Box of Evidence? He’s been effectively disappeared from public view, now that he has served his purpose. You’ll never see what was inside his Big Box of Evidence because it was completely empty. But those who are True Believers never really need to. They imagine what they were repeatedly told exists actually does, and nothing will ever disabuse them of that delusion. What worked in the case of Benghazi and Clinton’s email server is the same thing that works here. Lies constantly repeated come to be believed—particularly when the target audience (aka, “the rubes”) wants to believe them. This is the basis of every successful con job.
@Greg:
Its now in the proper hands of the prosecutor er official investigator, all in good time…all in good time. How did Lunchbox go from a cool million in debt to 16 million in assets, all in good time. He may get off on a mercy plea as Joe can no longer form a sentence. His money laundering kid maybe not so much.
But Durham isnt after lunch box, he is working on your dedicated honorable civil servants that cant put together a legal FISA warrant request.
Isn’t this the same play as Trump’s repeatedly promised investigation of Hillary Clinton, which was going to result in prosecution and conviction for her “many, many crimes”?
He never got around to specifying them. He just repeatedly punched buttons related to a handful of recurring accusations and topics that had already been well-established by the right’s media outlets. It’s a tactic he uses constantly against all of his political enemies. Some unproven accusation or pre-existing conspiracy theory becomes center focus until it has served its purpose, then it’s suddenly dropped and he moves on to the next item. I’ve been watching him do this for over three years now, since he began methodically targeting each republican nomination contender that got in his way. The claim or accusation doesn’t even have to be credible. All that’s required is that it be present in the tabloid-level political media.
Nobody knows what Durham has concluded about anything. There’s nothing but rumor in the aforementioned media.
@Greg: Lying to a federal court is illegal, certain people signed off on warrant requests, swearing the information in them was confirmed and true.
None of them are running for President.
@Greg:
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s been other events consuming all the air in the news world lately. Don’t worry; the facts about Biden’s extortion to protect his worthless, crack-head, dead-beat, whore-mongering son from being exposed for taking payments in US taxpayer money and kicking back a substantial portion to daddy-dum-dum.
But WE know exactly what he is looking at and the chances he will find the facts. In fact, the evidence of serious crimes (including Hillary’s) have been readily available; all that’s been missing is someone willing to prosecute it (that wasn’t already involved in pursuing false accusations against Trump). It’s going to be pretty easy.
@kitt:
I think you’ve busted the case; Biden’s appearances have all been leading to supporting an insanity plea. I think he’s made his case.
@Greg:
LOL…that’s you…and your party. That’s what they do. Trump plays your game to an extent, and you hate it.
THAT IS EXACTLY THE ENVIRONMENT THE DEMS/MEDIA HAVE BUILT. We needed someone who to could navigate that and win, and that winner is Trump.
A list:
Trump bribed the ukraine.
Kav. “raped” someone who he never met.
Romney hates dogs.
On and on and on…
You’re party INVITED Trump, you idiot? Deal with the reality now.
@Greg:
“What worries you, rules you.”
-John Locke
You sound worried.