I & I Editorial BoardThe media have been saturated with coronavirus news for weeks now, with literally hundreds of stories each day about the pandemic. But while you’re quarantined and self-distancing yourself from the dreaded COVID-19 virus, you might not have noticed something big: the investigation into the Russian spygate fiasco is coming to a head.
As the old saying goes, the wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine. Some time after our nation reopens for business in a few weeks, the wheels will turn when the Durham report on the Russian collusion case will be released and hit the front pages.
If recent revelations are any indication, it will be a blockbuster, potentially leading to indictments of former senior intelligence and justice officials.
By now, most of us know that top officials in the Justice Department, FBI and CIA pursued an investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign for alleged “collusion” with Russia to tilt the 2016 election in Donald Trump’s favor.
The main premise of that investigation proved to be false, as the subsequent Mueller report showed conclusively.
That’s bad enough. But new revelations show that not only did U.S. officials wrongly pursue the investigation and spy on the Trump campaign, they did so knowing that it was based on Russian disinformation.
And why did they do it? To aid the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, which financed the spurious anti-Trump “dossier” put together by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Damning Footnotes
As investigative reporter Sara Carter recently noted, “Newly declassified footnotes from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s December FBI report reveals that senior Obama officials, including members of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team, knew the dossier compiled by a former British spy during the 2016 election was Russian disinformation to target President Donald Trump.”
The FBI used the bogus evidence anyway to convince a FISA court to let the FBI spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Page resigned as a Trump adviser in September 2016. But by spying on him, the FBI opened a backdoor into Trump’s entire campaign.
Let the irony of that sink in. U.S. officials knowingly colluded with Russian intelligence using tainted evidence to prove that Trump colluded with the Russian government to weaken Clinton’s campaign.
If so, they were willingly duped by former KGB agent Vladimir Putin.
In addition, the footnotes show that these same senior officials “were aware of the disinformation when they included the dossier in the Obama administration’s Intelligence Communities Assessment.”
Under the legal “fruit of a poisonous tree” doctrine, evidence obtained illegally cannot be used as a predicate for legal action. That means the whole Trump investigation, including the tapping of Trump campaign officials’ communications, was illegitimate if not downright illegal.
The upshot of all this is that former FBI chief James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA top spy John Brennan and an array of their underlings knew the information that came from the Steele dossier was tainted, but used it anyway.
Spying On Trump To Help Hillary
They did so again not for reasons of justice, but to prop up Clinton. In essence, the FBI, CIA and Clinton campaign formed a cozy little cabal using taxpayer money and federal investigative agencies to take down Trump’s campaign.
Moreover, it never ended. Even after Trump was elected, a ring of senior officials plotted ways to remove Trump from office. To us, it was little more than a silent coup attempt.
But ask an attorney: That’s called “conspiracy,” and it’s a felony.
Just look at how Steele, who worked in Moscow for Britain’s MI6, got paid for putting together his bogus dossier. He was paid $168,000 for his work with the political opposition research firm GPS Fusion. But that came from an even bigger chunk of money, $1.02 million to be exact, paid to Steele’s Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., a business intelligence firm staffed by former spooks.
All this money came from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. To hide its true source, payments were “facilitated” by the left-leaning Seattle-based Perkins Coie law firm, which worked both for the DNC and Clinton.
Contrary to later reporting in the mainstream media about Steele being “trusted” and “professional,” the FBI had repeated warnings going back all the way to 2015 that Steele’s contacts included sketchy Russian underworld characters and untrustworthy intelligence sources.
Spying on a presidential campaign was one of the most disgraceful episodes of recent American history, exceeding even the burglary of the DNC by former President Richard Nixon’s campaign.
For those who engaged in this unlawful and unethical behavior, things just got real, as the saying goes.
Barr’s Shot Across The Bow
Speaking to Laura Ingraham earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General William Barr called the FBI-Clinton spying on Trump “one of the greatest travesties in American history.”
He promised that the current investigation of wrongdoing by U.S. Attorney John Durham would “bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses” in the Russia investigation, and that those who broke the law would be “prosecuted.”
This should include Clinton, who has become an increasingly unhinged and vocal critic of all things Trump. If there was indeed a Deep State conspiracy, wasn’t she at its very center?
In addition to resolving the Russia spygate mess, which Clinton helped set in motion, the Justice Department said it will not block depositions by former Secretary of State Clinton and her deputy Cheryl Mills, as recently ordered by a federal judge.
The depositions are in response to a Freedom Of Information Act suit brought by the legal watchdog group Judicial Watch over Clinton’s possibly illegal use of an unsecured private email server to conduct State Department business.
Stay tuned. The Russian collusion investigation, which was in fact a partisan witch hunt funded by public money, is coming to an end. And it may lead to one or more major former public officials being indicted and going to prison.
For a nation based on the idea of one standard of justice for all, this reckoning is long overdue.
— Written by I&I editorial board
Richard Manning
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
Barr mentioned that the main focus of the investigation is prosecution not the issuance of a report.
I will believe when I see it. If and when it does happen, I hope it takes down all the rotten players, not some low level sacrificial lamb.
I hope it breaks the DNC. I hope it convinces the majority of American citizens that the Federal government is too large by a factor of 3. I hope, in the end, property values in DC, Fairfax and Montgomery Counties fall by 30%. All those innocent swamp creatures in the city learn that looking the other way amidst this behavior cost them dearly.
Why stop there? Surely, as specified in those e-mails-“the boss want’s to know.” was part of this coup attempt. And who is behind him?
“the Russia spygate mess, which Clinton helped set in motion”
Clinton is both the reason for the Trump/Russia as well as a top player. However, President Obama either allowed/participated in this 2nd assault (the first being Obama/IRS 2012) on America’s election system (as well as the Rule of Law) and is culpable or he did not know anything about what happened on his watch and is an idiot as well as culpable. I doubt he simply learned about it at “the same time that everybody else learned it, through news reports”.
Brennan confirmed CIA participation. Comey confirmed FBI participation. Clapper confirmed NSA participation. Comey also confirmed DOJ participation. The ‘Dossier’ was paid for by the Hillary campaign and the DNC. The Obama DOJ, the Obama FBI, the Obama NSA and the Obama CIA did not do this while Obama was President without Obama’s authorization.
To believe otherwise is to believe that those agencies acted on their own and coincidentally found each other working on the same goal. There was only one person with the authority (means), the desire to see Hillary beat Trump (motive) and control of the necessary Federal agencies (opportunity) and that is Barack Obama.
And remember the Executive Order(s) Obama enacted within days of leaving office. Once of which changed the sharing of info between intel agencies. As you have well stated, the illegal spying and attempt to take down the Presidency was all from Executive Branch departments and agencies. Obama was chief of those. Good word.
I’m not holding my breath. When you take the fact the “highly regarded/respected” Michael Horowitz whitewashed his investigation and failed to expose publicly the massive corruption he found. At a time when he had his biggest audience and center stage to tell the WHOLE truth before congress, he hid the most damning information in his footnotes. Another ted” lackey whose main goal was to protect the deep state instead of recommending these traitors for prosecution.
On Jan. 29. 2019, Ivan published that I.G. M. Horowitz failed to report to Congress that China had copied all of sec. of state Clinton’s e-mails.
It’s going to be like a very high stakes poker game, everyone sweating bullets not wanting to blink, waiting for an offer of immunity for the full story. Then things speed right up.
Absolutely.
One skunk, rarely mentioned, personally signed the last FISA Application and appointed Robert Mueller to investigate Trump. That skunk is Rod Rosenstein. Mr. Rosenstein, like everyone else involved, should have known the Dossier was crap. Yet he ran with it. He needs to answer for his actions along with the others!
As I’m now convinced, we are in the midst of a non – violent civil war. The Democratic Party, their deep state, a few Republicans such as Mitt Romney, and the mainstream media have only one political issue of any serious meaning – remove President Trump from office. We can all speculate on why this true, but there is no question any longer that it is true. They have rejected the Constitution, the rule of law, and overall welfare of the nation and its citizens in their desperate attempts to remove the President from office. Even if Barr gets indictments and convictions, the anti-Trump power structure will reject them claiming Trump and Barr have framed these people in order to hold onto power. Facts mean nothing to them. More proof? They are rejecting the Taiwan documentation and other proof that WHO is under the control of the CCP in China. They don’t blame China or WHO for Wuhan virus pandemic, only President Trump. I suspect the motive for this civil war is two-fold. First, Barr’s investigation will lead to Barack Obama and these political forces will never peacefully permit the nation’s first black President to be indicted. Never. Second, There has been a decades old effort by progressive globalists to use China as the means for neutralizing the power the of the United States, a necessary requirement for a global socialist government to control the world economy. President Trump is the first President since this effort seriously started to reject it, and stand tall against China’s domination over us. In any event, I find it difficult to see how this non-violent civil war can be ended without violence.
Bankrupt them First!
Not sure why Obama, Rice, Holder, and Lynch are exempted; at least as culpable as Hillary, Brennan, and Comey.
Holder protected the oxy-pushing drug companies while they flooded the nation (and mostly the parts of it he doesn’t like) and now he works for the law firm that defends them. The upper crust of the lawyer class is pretty corrupt; a very few law professors dare to speak against the grain on these things, Jonathan Turley and Eugene Volokh are stand outs and their respective websites are worth a view. LegalInsurrection is home to Prof. Volokh I think and Prof Turley you can find with a name search.
Robert Mueller should be prosecuted too. He knew at the start of the investigation that it was bogus yet spent millions of taxpayer money on this sham investigation. He then went before the Senate and lied.
AND jail sentences!
Durhams investigation will end with a wimper just like Horowitz’ There was ample predicate for the investigation and the Russians were indeed interfering on Trumps behalf Period
*whimper
If you consider grand jury indictments, prosecutions in federal court, and long-term prison sentences a “whimper,” then you might have a point.
The only predicates for the investigation were the absurd Steele dossier and reports from Halper regarding his conversations with Papadopoulos, transcripts of which prove that Papadopoulos vehemently denied that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russian government.
Hillary must be indicted and charged with two crimes, The first is the U.S. Espionage Act where she used her private email server to send classified information (many of these top secret) to individuals who had no security clearance, Her second crime was with the U.S. Federal Records Act where she destroyed computer hard drives and other information after she was requested to turn them over to Federal; authorities.
The crimes involving Hillary Clinton is a long list. The attempted coup against Trump, Potential violations of the Espionage Act, Storing and then destroying classified information on non-government hard drives, the long list of dead/missing people including Seth Rich, The pedophile trips to Epstein’s properties, culpability in the Bengazi tragedy, etc. Hillary has literally been getting away with a multitude of crimes for decades. She is the queen of the two-tiered system of justice in America.
I am all for justice, regardless of who it is but I do not see any evidence of criminal activity in the article- investigating someone is not a crime. There is no evidence Steele was paid in order to concoct the dossier which would show intent. Until there there is factual, evidentiary findings we are left with conjecture and suppositions.
Online articles have published the money trail from the Clinton Campaign to Fussion GPS and then to Steele.
“…when the Durham report on the Russian collusion case will be released and hit the front pages.”
What front pages would that be???
The dossier was a tool, used as a stepping stone by criminal elements of the fbi, cia, dnc, Hillary’s campaign and The Obama Regime to commit a coup against an elected American president. The conspiracy was a coup conspiracy, sedition, and using and involving foreign assets from belligerent countries moves their crimes into treasonous territory…
Even the wimp IG report admitted that FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith altered a document showing Carter Page was cooperating with the CIA to assess Russian spying, changing it to make it look like he may be colluding with Russia. How this is not an overt act of criminality is beyond me. The name-brand media sources threw it down the Memory Hole as soon as it came out, of course.
As for the rest of the Crossfire Hurricane wrecking crew, the FBI lovebirds’ text messages evidenced a blatant scheme to meet with FISA court Judge Contreras outside of court in order to justify a secret investigation. That judge is still on the bench and even ruled against the Trump administration (in a non-FISA case) that federal lands set aside by Obama’s order could not be reversed by a parallel order by Trump.
Horowitz previously authored a 504 page tome on the “Fast and Furious” scam in which he similarly strained to avoid identifying criminal acts inside Eric Holder’s DOJ;. The PDF is available to download, it’s worth a look only for the very last pages (“Appendix F”) where thanks to the persistence of Congr. Issa and Nunes the DOJ was forced to admit false statements regarding the security of the weapons allowed to be transported into Mexico. Connoisseurs of weaselly legalese might appreciate the verbal gymnastics Holder’s lackey’s exhibit in their attempt to avoid saying “we lied”.
Everyone is still in place thanks to the deep state overseer (BARR) they will
now form up on Joe Bidden and start the machine/shadow gov to grinding again.
They were just laying low according to plan Sessions, Wray, Barr, are just
the delay pattern till operations can resume as usual.
Rulers rule peasants pay. two tier justice
my guess is that Trump will be in prison before any of these three people are ever in prison…
We must repeat and repeat all this happened (meaning the attempted cou) because they all thought that Hillary was going to win the electioon and they would never be exposed. Of course they must held accountable.
As the saying goes, “What did Obama know and when did he know it”? It’s extremely unlikely that the spying authorizations were not approved at the “highest levels”, which means POTUS. I sincerely hope Barr has the courage to bring down this cabal of traitors and send them to prison.
Anyone believing the perpetrators of this coup attempt will be brought to justice is on drugs. Biden, the ultimate puppet of the deep state, will be elected (massive voter fraud and unprecedented mass media bias) and everything just disappears. After emphatic voter rejection of the deep state in 2016, the deep state will achieve its final victory in 2020 with the election of a president so mentally compromised he won’t be functional.
President Trump is by far the best ! He is all you can ask for in a President, something we have not had in so many decades ‼️ 🙏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏
That means the whole Trump investigation, including the tapping of Trump campaign officials’ communications, was illegitimate if not downright illegal.
‘tapping’ should be taping.
The timing had to come when there was an Attorney General who wasn’t part of the evil. Trump picked the right man for the right time. Now, the hammer is about to drop – and the timing of it actually couldn’t be better – so as to inform the people when they vote in November.
There is all this spying, but where is the tangible aid to Hillary’s campaign? What exactly did this spying contribute to the effort to defeat Trump?
Independent news agencies have published online that the Clinton payoffs to remove candidate Trump reach as far back to her first year as sec. of state.
At the same time Clinton ensnarled former FBI director Robert Mueller to deliver uranium to Russia. Clinton & Mueller violated federal law that prohibited that sale & delivery.
My point is that pres. B.O. had many appointed directors breaking the law because his DOJ looked the other way.
Adam of CA.