Transcripts of Former Top FBI Lawyer Detail Pervasive Abnormalities in Trump Probe

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Former top FBI attorney James Baker admitted to House lawmakers in October last year that the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was riddled with abnormalities.

Confronted with a damning summary of abnormalities, bias, and omissions, which transpired during the investigation, Baker told Congress that the investigation indeed was “highly unusual.”



“I had a jaundiced eye about everything, yes. I had skepticism about all this stuff. I was concerned about all of this. This whole situation was horrible, and it was novel and we were trying to figure out what to do, and it was highly unusual,” Baker told lawmakers.

Members of the House judiciary and oversight committees conducted the interviews in an unclassified setting, with agency counsel present to ensure that classified information didn’t enter into the unclassified setting. The transcripts of the interviews have not been publicly released, but were obtained for this article.

Baker served as the FBI’s general counsel when the bureau investigated the Trump campaign and Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized private email server. During two days of testimony on Oct. 3 and Oct. 18, he told lawmakers that he believed even toward the end of the Clinton investigation that she should have been charged over her “alarming, appalling” mishandling of classified information.

He argued with others, including then-FBI Director James Comey, about the issue all the way toward the end of the investigation, but was ultimately persuaded that Clinton should be exonerated.

“My original belief … after having conducted the investigation and towards the end of it, then sitting down and reading a binder of her materials, I thought that it was alarming, appalling, whatever words I said, and argued with others about why they thought she shouldn’t be charged,” Baker told lawmakers.

As of October 2018, nearly two years after the Clinton probe concluded, Baker still believed that the conduct of the former secretary of state and her associates was “appalling” with regard to the handling of classified information.

As general counsel, Baker advised senior FBI leaders on the legal aspects of key investigations and served as the liaison with the Department of Justice (DOJ). In testimony, he detailed a series of unusual steps he took in the Trump-Russia investigation, including serving as the conduit between Perkins Coie—the firm working for the Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—and the FBI.

Baker left his position as general counsel in early January 2018 and then resigned from the FBI in early May 2018.

Baker testified that it was Michael Sussman, a partner at Perkins Coie, who shared with him information that detailed alleged communications between servers in Trump Tower and servers located in Russia at Alfa Bank, which were eventually debunked. Sussmann was also the lawyer who spearheaded the handling of the alleged hack of the DNC servers. Baker admitted that it was highly unusual to interact with an outside counsel.

Mr. Jordan: [This] is the first time and to your recollection the only time an outside counsel had information and was wanting to make sure it got to the general counsel of the FBI, and it happened to deal with the Russia investigation.

Mr. Baker: I that that’s correct. Sitting here today, that’s the only one I can remember.

Baker had at least three meetings with Sussman—the first in person and the following two by phone. During the subsequent meetings, Baker discovered that Sussman was speaking to the media regarding the same information he shared with Baker.

Baker admitted during his testimony that he knew Sussman had professional involvement with the DNC.

Baker acknowledged that he soon discovered that Sussman was also speaking to The New York Times regarding that same information. The FBI later contacted The New York Times and asked them to hold off on publishing while they investigated the matter.

The information Sussman passed to Baker also appeared in the so-called Steele dossier in a memo dated Sept. 14, 2016. Notably, Sussman met with Baker five days later, Sept. 19, 2016. Baker had initially testified he believed the meeting took place sometime after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application on Carter Page was approved. Lawmakers later provided a corrected, earlier date.

The server and Alfa Bank were investigated by the FBI and were also the subject of a journalistic investigation by The New York Times. Nothing was found.

The server in question was not operated by the Trump Organization but “run and managed by Cendyn, a vendor that organizes email marketing campaigns for hotels and resorts,” according to a Nov. 2, 2016, article by Slate. The traffic was simply “mass emails, related to loyalty programs, discount offers, and the like.”

During lawmaker questioning of Baker’s interactions with Mother Jones reporter David Corn, it was revealed that Baker was the subject of an ongoing criminal leak investigation by the DOJ. Baker admitted to having received parts of the Steele dossier from Corn. Baker testified that these sections were different than the ones already in the FBI’s possession.

Mr. Baker: My recollection is that he had part of the dossier, that we had other parts already, and that we got still other parts from other people, and that — and nevertheless some of the parts that David Corn gave us were parts that we did not have from another source.

Baker said he either knew or assumed at the time that Corn had gotten the dossier from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, whom Steele was working for.

Simpson had been hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign through Perkins Coie to produce the dossier on then-candidate Trump. Former British spy Christopher Steele compiled the dossier, which the FBI later used as the core of the FISA application to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Baker told investigators that he personally reviewed portions of the Page FISA application, adding that this was not something he would usually get involved in. He also admitted that he did not review the Woods file, which provides underlying documentation for the accuracy of facts represented in the FISA application.

Baker testified that he told Comey at some point that he thought the FISA “was legally sufficient.” Baker, however, appears not to have been aware of the politicized nature of some the information. He also acknowledged he had only read part of the FISA.

DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who was a key conduit between Steele and the FBI, previously testified to the joint committee that he had informed the bureau of Steele’s anti-Trump bias, and that the dossier was tied to the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Neither fact appeared in the final FISA application before it was approved by the FISC court.

Baker also said that he only became aware of the fact that Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS—which had also employed Steele—from public reporting.

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MORE proof that those driving the investigation of Trump didn’t care about how factual their information was, they just needed an excuse. They were more than willing to ignore verifying it and turning a blind eye to all the indications it could very well be all lies.

But, Mueller and his team are “honorable”.

@Deplorable Me: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fusion-gps-paid-journalists-court-papers-confirm
A restraining order filed on congress not to declassify? Threats to the POTUS they will hit him with obstruction if he declassifies.
Telling you this thing is much bigger than we imagine. Electric Chair, lethal injection for more than just those that paid the lawyers.

@kitt: Who fears the truth?

@kitt:

Telling you this thing is much bigger than we imagine.

The deeper you dig into Trumpgate, the nastier it gets. Take a look at the recent “leaked” testimony of Bruce Ohr, go between for the Steele dossier and the FBI. Start adding up the players; Bruce and Sally Ohr, Steele, Comey, Sidney Blumenthal, Strzok and Page, the Clinton Campaign, Fusion GPS, the DNC, Perkins-Coie, Mueller, himself, the list just continues to grow and grow.

Not just recently, but in decades passed, the FBI already had a reputation of manufacturing “evidence” in search of a crime.

Years from now the truth will prevail and Americans will wonder how their government became so corrupt just to removed a duly elected President that the Democrats hated.

A lengthy, but interesting read on the spider web that is the “Get Trump” scandal:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mccabes-fbi-tried-to-re-engage-christopher-steele-after-comey-was-fired_2766822.html

@retire05:

Start adding up the players; Bruce and Sally Ohr, Steele, Comey, Sidney Blumenthal, Strzok and Page, the Clinton Campaign, Fusion GPS, the DNC, Perkins-Coie, Mueller, himself, the list just continues to grow and grow.

You left out Obama. He’s in the middle of it, too. HIS DOJ, FBI and IC conducted the illegal surveillance aided and abetted by Susan “give me the lie and I’ll tell it” Rice. This is a sitting President using the powers of the government to destroy his party’s political opponent, then when that failed, his hold-overs trying to destroy the President before he can expose and destroy them.

@retire05:

Years from now the truth will prevail and Americans will wonder how their government became so corrupt just to removed a duly elected President that the Democrats hated.

Bigger still, seems DT missed the pre-approval stage, then began upsetting the Applecart. De regulation streamlining of construction projects. Cities and NGOs make huge dollars pushing estimated costs to tax payers through he roof. By the time they break ground the project no longer fits the needs. Trump has lived these obstructions, mostly removed by greasing politicians war chests.
This was international, some of our closest allies, not so much Russia who has become the whipping boy.

Pervasive abnormalities are the subject of the investigation.

@Greg:

Pervasive abnormalities are the subject of the investigation.

Falsely manufactured abnormalities.

How about that BuzzFeed “bombshell”? Do you still have your “IMPEACHMENT” banners up in your living room, waiting for the next false hope or did you pack it away?