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September 10, 2020 - Newly released DOJ records show top Mueller team members "accidentally wiped" their phones

Original source that obtained the DOJ records: Judicial Watch

Newly released DOJ records show that multiple top members of Mueller’s investigative team claimed to have “accidentally wiped” at least 15 (!) phones used during the anti-Trump investigation after the DOJ OIG asked for the devices to be handed over.

(Sample of released docs)

Federal records show that Mueller deputy Andrew Weismann claims to have “accidentally” wiped, via wrong passwords at least 2 phones detailing his activity during the anti-Trump probe.

James Quarles’ phone “wiped itself.”

Greg Andre also made the same wrong password claim…

Mueller deputy Kyle Freeny similarly claimed that his phone was accidentally wiped after too many wrong passwords were entered.

Same with Mueller deputy Rush Atkinson.

At least 12 other officials whose names are redacted also claimed to have “accidentally” nuked their phones.

The newly released DOJ records from the OIG investigation of corruption during the Mueller probe shows that a key tactic used by the Mueller team was to put the phones in airplane mode, lock them, and then claim they didn’t have the password.

What are the actual probabilities of more than a dozen top Mueller officials all “accidentally” nuking their phones or accidentally putting them in airplane mode, locking them, and “forgetting” their passwords so the DOJ OIG couldn’t access and examine them? Negative 100,000%?  (Sean Davis@seanmdav/Twitter, 9/10/2020) (Archive)

(Department of Justice/Mueller team records, 9/04/2020)

(Timeline editor’s note: I reformatted the Twitter thread for an easier read. No words were changed.)

Devin Nunes appears on Maria Bartiromo’s show Sunday, September 13, 2020, to discuss the wiped phones:

September 17, 2020 - FBI agent from Mueller team is interviewed and says Flynn case was a politically motivated "dead end"

“Thanks to Judge Emmet Sullivan refusing the DOJ’s request to drop the Michael Flynn case, a cache of explosive documents has now been released to the public revealing that at least one FBI agent on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team thought the case was a politically motivated “dead end,” and others bought professional liability insurance as their bosses were continuing the investigation based on “conspiracy theories.”

In one case, FBI agent William J. Barnett said during a Sept. 17 interview that he believed Mueller’s prosecution of Flynn was part of an attitude to “get Trump,” and that he didn’t want to pursue the Trump-Russia collusion investigation because it was “not there” and a “dead end,” according to Fox News.

Barnett, during his interview, detailed his work at the FBI, and his assignment to the bureau’s original cases against Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Barnett said the Flynn investigation was assigned the code name “Crossfire Razor,” which was part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation — the bureau’s code name for the original Trump-Russia probe.

Barnett told investigators that he thought the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe was “opaque” and “with little detail concerning specific evidence of criminal events.”

“Barnett thought the case theory was ‘supposition on supposition,’” the 302 stated, and added that the “predication” of the Flynn investigation was “not great,” and that it “was not clear” what the “persons opening the case wanted to ‘look for or at.’”

After six weeks of investigating, Barnett said he was “still unsure of the basis of the investigation concerning Russia and the Trump campaign working together, without a specific criminal allegation.” –Fox News

When Barnett approached agents about what they thought the ‘end game’ was with Flynn – suggesting they interview the former National Security Adviser “and the case be closed unless derogatory information was obtained,” he was cautioned not to conduct an interview, as it may tip Flynn off that he was under investigation.

“Barnett still did not see any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government,” the 302 states. “Barnett was willing to follow any instructions being given by the deputy director as long as it was not a violation of the law.”

(Read more: Zero Hedge, 9/25/2020)  (Archive)

Conservative Treehouse also weighs in:

“U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jeff Jensen, has been conducting an ongoing review of the FBI investigation that led to charges in the case against Michael Flynn. As part of that review an interview was recently conducted (September 17, 2020) with the former Flynn supervisory case agent, William Barnett – who also was assigned to the Special Counsel’s Office investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.

What Special Agent Barnett says under oath about the DOJ and FBI investigations is devastating to the institutions.”

September 18, 2020 - FBI agent who discovered Clinton emails on Weiner laptop claims he was told to erase his computer

John Robertson (Credit: USA Network/YouTube)

“FBI agent John Robertson, the man who found Hillary Clinton’s emails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, claims he was advised by bosses to erase his own computer.

(…) His startling claims are made in a book titled, “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election,” an excerpt of which has been published by the Washington Post.

Robertson alleges that the FBI did nothing for a month after discovering Clinton’s emails on the Anthony Weiner laptop.

It was only after he spoke with the U.S. Attorney’s office overseeing the case, he claims, that the agency took action.

“He had told his bosses about the Clinton emails weeks ago,” the book contends . “Nothing had happened.”

“Or rather, the only thing that had happened was his boss had instructed Robertson to erase his computer work station.”

This, according to the Post report, was to “ensure there was no classified material on it,” but also would eliminate any trail of his actions taken during the investigation.” (Read more: Zero Hedge, 9/22/2020)  (Archive)

September 24, 2020 - New docs reveal the primary sub-source for Steele dossier was a possible national security threat and the subject of 2009 FBI counterintelligence case

Primary sub-source Igor Danchenko (Credit: public domain)

“The primary sub-source for the Steele dossier was the subject of an earlier counterintelligence investigation by the FBI, and those facts were known to the Crossfire Hurricane team as early as December 2016, according to newly released records from the Justice Department that were first reported by CBS News.

The timing matters because the dossier was first used two months earlier, in October 2016, to help secure a surveillance warrant for former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, and then used in three subsequent surveillance renewals.

“Between May 2009 and March 2011, the FBI maintained an investigation into the individual who later would be identified as Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-source,” the two-page FBI memo states. “The FBI commenced this investigation based on information by the FBI indicating that the Primary Sub-source may be a threat to national security.”

The memo, which is a summary of the FBI counterintelligence investigation continues, “in December 2016, the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE team identified the Primary Sub-source used by Christopher Steele and, at that time, became familiar with the 2009 investigation.”

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, who released the FBI records said in a statement, “To me, failure of the FBI to inform the court that the Primary Sub-source was suspected of being a Russian agent is a breach of every duty owed by law enforcement to the judicial system.”  (Read more: CBS News, 9/24/2020)  (Archive)

The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel responds to Catherine Herridge’s breaking news with this lengthy tweet:

“So Christopher Steele’s main source for the dossier? He was the subject of a nearly two-year-long FBI counter-intel investigation (2009-2011), under suspicion of being a Russian spy and a “threat to national security.”

Early in [the] Obama admin, subsource “reportedly attempted to recruit two individuals connected to an influential foreign policy advisor” to Obama. Said if they got jobs in the administration and access to classified information, he could help them “make a little extra money.”

FBI says he had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and Russian intelligence officers. Thanks to @paulsperry_ we know the name of this subsource, and that he, for a period, [was] at Brookings, [a] Democratic think tank.

But here’s the real kicker, per these documents out from @LindseyGrahamSC The FBI KNEW about this prior CI investigation into the source in DECEMBER OF 2016. It KNEW it was relying on information from a suspected Russian spy!

The same FBI said to be concerned about Russian interference in the election, was using information from a suspected Russian spy to probe a presidential campaign. The same FBI claiming Carter Page, a Russian agent, was making that case based on info from a suspected Russian agent.

Most importantly: It never told the FISA court about this CI investigation. It withheld that information and continued re-upping its applications to surveil Page and the campaign. It vouched for information supplied by a suspected Russian agent.

The name of this subsource, and the realization of the FBI’s prior suspicions, should have ended the entire probe. Instead, the FBI doubled down, hid things from the court, kept going. This again raises an urgent need to know who knew what, and when.

And people wonder why #Durham is looking into all this?

Also, extra-credit question: Wasn’t it Mueller’s job to find sources of Russian disinformation? How do you miss the guy potentially feeding it directly to the FBI?

Finally, big credit here to AG Bill Barr and  [Senator] Lindsey Graham for their commitment to truth and transparency. Americans deserve to know what happened before they vote. (Kimberley Strassel/Twitter, 9/24/2020)

September 24, 2020 - Report: Durham is investigating Main Justice resistors blocking FBI subpoenas in 2016 RE: Clinton Foundation

“Two media reports today point toward an aspect CTH had noticed happening in the background of the Durham/Aldenberg investigation.

The Washington Examiner and New York Times are writing about Durham investigating 2016 efforts from Main Justice DOJ to block FBI efforts to investigate the Clinton Foundation.  The interesting part is what the media ignore (emphasis mine):

WASH EXAMINER– […] The New York Times report Thursday said that Clinton Cash “caught the attention of FBI agents, who viewed some of its contents as additional justification to obtain a subpoena for foundation records,” but former officials said “top Justice Department officials denied a request in 2016 from senior FBI managers in Washington to secure a subpoena.” The outlet said that “the decision frustrated some agents who believed they had enough evidence beyond the book, including a discussion that touched on the foundation and was captured on a wiretap in an unrelated investigation.”  (more)

Who was one of the “top Justice Department officials” in position to deny the 2016 request from senior FBI managers in Washington?  As TechnoFog notes:  “The DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section (FSCD) would have overseen prosecutions relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (ie. bribery that crosses borders).”

Who was Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section in 2016?

That would be Andrew Weissmann, the same corrupt epicenter of the Robert Mueller investigation.  So how did the New York Times get their information about what Durham is looking into? (again, emphasis mine)

(New York Times) (…) The Clinton Foundation investigation began about five years ago, under the Obama administration, and stalled in part because some former career law enforcement officials viewed the case as too weak to issue subpoenas. Ultimately, prosecutors in Arkansas secured a subpoena for the charity in early 2018. To date, the case has not resulted in criminal charges.

Some former law enforcement officials declined to talk to Mr. Durham’s team about the foundation investigation because they felt the nature of his inquiry was highly unusual, according to people familiar with the investigation. Mr. Durham’s staff members sought information about the debate over the subpoenas that the F.B.I. tried to obtain in 2016 and have also approached current agents about the matter, but it is not clear what they told investigators.

A spokesman for Mr. Durham declined to comment. (more)

Weissmann squealing to the New York Times for help…

Now, this makes sense:

(Conservative Treehouse, 9/24/2020) (Archive)

September 24, 2020 - Powell files new Motion to Dismiss: FBI texts detail the internal strife over their handling of ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation; 'Trump Was Right'

“Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents tasked by fired former Director James Comey to take down Donald Trump during and after the 2016 election were so concerned about the agency’s potentially illegal behavior that they purchased liability insurance to protect themselves less than two weeks before Trump was inaugurated president, previously hidden FBI text messages show. The explosive new communications and internal FBI notes were disclosed in federal court filings today from Sidney Powell, the attorney who heads Michael Flynn’s legal defense team.

“[W]e all went and purchased professional liability insurance,” one agent texted on Jan. 10, 2017, the same day CNN leaked details that then-President-elect Trump had been briefed by Comey about the bogus Christopher Steele dossier. That briefing of Trump was used as a pretext to legitimize the debunked dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and compiled by a foreign intelligence officer who was working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

“While the names of the agents responsible for the texts are redacted, the legal filing from Powell, quoting communications from the Department of Justice (DOJ), states that the latest document production included handwritten notes and texts from Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and FBI analysts who worked on the FBI’s investigation of Flynn.

Agents also said they were worried about how a new attorney general might view the actions taken against Trump during the investigation. Shortly after then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was confirmed to be Trump’s new attorney general, congressional Democrats, media, and Obama holdovers within DOJ immediately moved to force Sessions to recuse himself from overseeing the department’s investigations against Trump.

(…) The FBI agents also discussed how the investigation’s leadership was consumed with conspiracy theories rather than evidence.

(Read more: The Federalist, 9/24/2020)  (Archive) (Motion to Dismiss w/docs, 9/24/2020)

September 30, 2020 - James Comey testifies to Senate Judiciary Committee and doesn't remember much

On September 24th Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released a letter from Attorney General William Barr and a declassified summary from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicating Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-source was a likely Russian agent and had previously been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation.  In advance of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony today, the question is: did Comey, Andrew McCabe or Bill Priestap know?

John Spiropoulos outlines the issue.  WATCH:

Key takeaways from the FBI’s declassified summary:

  • The Crossfire Hurricane team knew in December 2016 that Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-source was an individual who the FBI had indicated in 2009 “could be a threat to national security.”
  • In May 2009, Steele’s source reportedly attempted to recruit two individuals connected to an influential foreign policy advisor connected to President Obama, offering that if the two individuals “‘did get a job in the government and had access to classified information’ and wanted ‘to make a little extra money,’ [Steele’s source] knew some people to whom they could speak.”
  • FBI databases revealed Steele’s source “had contact in 2006 with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers, [including contacting a known Russian intelligence officer] ‘so the documents can be placed in tomorrow’s diplomatic pouch.’”
  • One individual interviewed by the FBI noted that “the Primary Sub-source persistently asked about the interviewee’s knowledge of a particular military vessel.”
  • Significantly, the “record documenting the closing of the investigation [of the Primary Sub-source] stated that consideration would be given to re-opening the investigation in the event that the Primary Sub-source returned to the United States.”  (source)

(Conservative Treehouse, 9/30/2020)  (Archive)

Some public responses to Comey’s testimony:

The full hearing:

September 30, 2020 - CIA Gina Haspel is blocking declassification of Russiagate documents detailing corruption at highest levels

 

Gina Haspel swears in as the first woman to direct the Central Intelligence Agency, on May 21, 2018. (Credit: public domain)

“CIA Director Gina Haspel is personally blocking the declassification of documents detailing corruption at the highest levels of the intelligence community during the 2016 election, according to The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis.

While new information about wrongdoing at the FBI has recently been declassified, including recent revelations about Hillary Clinton campaign’s collusion with Russia, Davis reported on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday that Haspel herself is standing in the way of the declassification of other relevant documents.

“I’m told that it is Gina Haspel personally who is blocking continued declassification of these documents that will show the American people the truth of what actually happened,” Davis said.

Notably, Haspel was previously the London CIA station chief under former CIA director John Brennan during the 2016 election. “Recall it was London where Christopher Steele was doing all this work,” Davis said, noting Haspel was the “main link” between Washington and London at the time. Haspel was hand-picked by former CIA director John Brennan to run the CIA’s operations in London, where she served as the spy agency’s bureau chief from 2014 through early 2017.” (Read more: The Federalist, 9/30/2020)  (Archive)

October 2020 - Michael Morell is one of seven CIA directors on the Atlantic Council Board; DHS deputizes the Board to censor the 2020 election while they are lobbyists for Burisma

Morrell was *inches* away from becoming Biden’s CIA chief as a reward. (The Daily Beast, 11/24/2020)

October 5, 2020 - Trump is working to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation

“President Donald Trump is working to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation while he recovers from coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his chief of staff said Monday.

“This morning we’ve already had a couple of discussions on items that he wants to get done,” Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

“Candidly, he’s already tasked me with getting declassification rolling in a follow up to some of the requests that Devin Nunes and others have made.”

Meadows did not go into detail about the documents he is working to declassify or the timeline on which they will be released. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has called for the declassification of a variety of documents from the FBI and U.S. intelligence community related to the investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible links to Russia in 2016.

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Nunes discussed two sets of documents he wants released to the American public. He called for the release of memos from interviews that the FBI conducted with the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele in January, February and May 2017.” (Read more: The Daily Caller, 10/05/2020)  (Archive)

October 6, 2020 - Declassified CIA documents reveal Brennan briefed Obama on Clinton’s plan to tie Trump to Russia

(Illustration: Yahoo News/Associated Press/Getty Images)

“Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday declassified documents revealing that former CIA Director John Brennan had briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s plan to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia — as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”

Ratcliffe declassified two items — two pages of Brennan’s handwritten notes — taken after he briefed Obama on intelligence the CIA received; and a CIA memo that showed that the CIA referred the matter to the FBI for potential further investigation.

Most of Brennan’s handwritten notes are redacted. However, the unredacted portions say: “We’re [gaining] additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED].”

“Cite alleged approval by Hillary Clinton [on 26 July] of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to villify [sic] Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services,” he wrote.

An intelligence official said on background about the revelation:

The American people deserve to see how the Obama-Biden White House and their appointees at DOJ and CIA politicized our work, because many of them are trying to regain power now. We just want to keep the American people safe. It’s what we spend every waking hour focusing on. We don’t want to go back to our important work being abused as a political weapon of the Democrats.

The rest of Brennan’s notes appear to be linked to different Obama administration officials — possibly of what they said or wanted follow-up action on.

Enclosure 2 (Dcia Memo, 09-… by Sara

In the left margin, he wrote “POTUS,” and to the right, he then made three bulleted notes. Two are redacted, but one said: “Any evidence of collaboration between Trump campaign + Russia.”

He then wrote “JC” in the left margin — a likely reference to then-FBI Director James Comey, and took four additional bulleted notes on the right, all of which are redacted.

He drew another line, with no additional name, for one bulleted note that is redacted.

Another line was drawn, and below that in the left margin he wrote “Denis” — likely in reference to then-White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and added one redacted note.

He drew another line, and below it in the left margin wrote “Susan” — likely then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice. To the right, he added five bulleted notes, and put an asterisk by one of the notes. All of the notes are redacted.

RealClearInvestigations journalist Paul Sperry tweeted on Monday evening that the Clinton foreign policy adviser who allegedly proposed vilifying Trump is Jake Sullivan, who is now a top Biden campaign aide.

(Read more: Breitbart, 10/06/2020)  (Archive)

October 8, 2020 - Massive 2020 voter fraud uncovered in Michigan; estimated “800,000 ballot applications sent to non-qualified voters”; guns, burner phones and voter registrations

On October 8, 2020. only one month before the 2020 general election, Muskegon, MI City Clerk Ann Meisch noticed a black female (whose name was redacted from the police report), dropping off between 8,000-10,000 completed voter registration applications at the city clerk’s office.

The Muskegon Police Department was contacted and asked to investigate. On 10/21/20 First Lieutenant Mike Anderson was contacted by Tom Fabus, Chief of Investigations for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office. According to the MI State Police report, Mr. Fabus asked for Michigan State Police assistance with a joint investigation of alleged voter fraud being conducted by the Muskegon Police Department and the AG.

An investigative task force was formed, and an investigation was initiated.
The following is from the MI State Police report:

On 10/16/20 Muskegon City Clerk Ann Meisch and Deputy Clerk Kimberly Young contacted the Muskegon Police Department after noticing irregularities in voter registration applications received both in person and by mail.

The Muskegon city clerk became suspicious when the female, (whose name is redacted in the first part of the police report, but then later, is unredacted), hand-delivered thousands of voter registrations to her office, many of them in the same handwriting.

On 10/20/20 (deadline day for in-person voter registration applications) the suspect retumed to the *Muskegon City Clerk’s office to deliver additional registration forms in person. Meisch estimated that (suspect) brought an additional 2500 forms. Meisch contacted the Muskegon Police Department and Detective Logan Anderson and Captain Shawn Bride conducted a non-custodial interview with the suspect. 

Meisch stated that in her opinion a quantity of the voter registration forms were highly suspicious and possibly fraudulent.

Meisch’s opinion was based on the fact that numerous forms appeared to have been completed by the same writer and upon initial examination, addresses on multiple forms were invalid or non-existent.

Meisch investigated further and found that phone numbers on multiple forms were erroneous and signatures on multiple forms didn’t appear to match signatures on file with the Department of Secretary of State. Examples included an address in the and another in the [REDACTED]

Those addresses do not exist in the Muskegon City house numbering system. Another form listed 80 W. Southern Ave which is the address for Muskegon High School and is clearly not a residence.

Later in the report, the name of the female suspect was unredacted.

The MI State Police investigator assigned to the case spoke with the female suspect who explained that she was being paid $1150/week “to find un-registered voters and provide them with a form so they can get registered to vote or obtain their absentee ballot.” The only problem is, the handwriting on the voter registrations was the same on several of the registrations and many of the addresses were non-existent or fake.

MI Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is currently attempting to prosecute 15 senior citizens and the former MI GOP co-chair for casting an alternate set of electoral votes in the 2020 election, asked the MI State Police to join the Muskegon Police and AG’s investigation of the potentially massive, multi-city voter fraud operation.

Two members of AG Dana Nessel’s Criminal Investigation Division were assigned to the operation, yet curiously, she failed to mention the investigation to the public. To this day, Dana Nessel is still claiming there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Michigan, despite the fact that she knew her office and the office of her friend, Michigan’s crooked SOS Jocelyn Benson, were involved with the MI State Police in a large scale investigation that took place across the state before it was taken over by the FBI.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (l) and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (c) (Credit: The Gateway Pundit)

Corey Ames, a MI SOS analyst CONFIRMED “a quantity of the forms they found in their investigation “are clearly fraudulent.”MI SOS Jocelyn Benson also claimed there was no widespread voter fraud in Michigan and neglected to mention the investigation to the public.

Today, The Gateway Pundit and our close friends from Michigan are exposing this damning report. The evidence from this investigation exposes criminal election fraud involving thousands of fraudulent ballots in Michigan by an organization that set up temporary offices in several swing states prior to the 2020 election.

This explosive investigation was covered up and buried from the public, until today.

It should be noted that after documenting these crimes and investigating for weeks, the Michigan police turned their investigation over to the FBI who promptly buried the findings. Once again, the FBI apparently took no action—more on that in an upcoming report. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 8/08/2023)  (Archive)

October 8, 2020 - Federal judge rules whistleblower case against Clinton Foundation can proceed

Clinton Foundation Whistleblowers: Doyle, Moynihan vs. IRS
In a December 2018 Congressional hearing. (Credit: Fox News)

“A federal judge on Oct. 8 ruled that a whistleblower complaint against the Clinton Foundation can proceed, saying that the IRS “abused its discretion” in attempting to dismiss allegations of wrongdoing by the nonprofit organization.

U.S. Tax Court Judge David Gustafson last week found that the complaint, brought by whistleblowers Lawrence Doyle—a corporate tax compliance expert, and John Moynihan—a former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) official, “provided ‘specific credible documentation’ supporting their allegations” that the Clinton Foundation potentially evaded paying taxes on millions if not billions of dollars.

The judge struck down the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) request for a summary motion. He said that its Whistleblower Office (WBO) was wrong in denying the whistleblowers’ claims based on an email from the agency’s Criminal Investigation (CI) office that said the complaint was closed.

The record “fails to support the WBO’s conclusion that CI had not proceeded with any action based on petitioners’ information. Accordingly, we deny the motion on the grounds that the WBO abused its discretion in reaching its conclusion, because not all of its factual determinations underlying that conclusion are supported by that record,” Gustafson wrote.

Gustafson also said that based on evidence, he had reason to believe that the FBI was involved in an IRS investigation. He cited information contained within IRS records that had until now been kept secret from the public, in which Doyle and Moynihan discuss their contacts with law enforcement officials. (Read more: The Epoch Times, 10/14/2020)  (Archive)

October 8, 2020 - John Durham subpoena's Dan Jones and other participants in the Alfa Bank hoax

Daniel J. Jones (Credit: The Guardian)

“Yesterday I ran with the Alfa Bank Redux story. Please follow the link if you need to refresh yourself about that hoax–probably the first part of the Russia Hoax that truly went public during the 2016 election. Dexter Filkins at the New Yorker–one of the original purveyors of the hoax, which was quickly debunked by the FBI–is trying to resurrect the hoax for a very specific reason.

Filkins, in his article, breaks the news that John Durham is taking what looks like a very deep dive into the origins of the Alfa Bank hoax. In doing so Durham has subpoenaed several of the hoaxters before a grand jury. Among those subpoenaed is Daniel Jones. Another participant in the hoax–and possibly one of its originators–was Jake Sullivan, who is currently a top adviser to none other than Joe Biden. Filkins is sounding the alarm about the, um, alarming direction Durham’s investigation has taken–signaled by Durham’s subpoena to Daniel Jones. Here’s how I described Jones’ background yesterday:

(…) There was big money backing Jones and the scorched earth war on Trump.

In other words, Daniel Jones is at the center of the Deep State. Those “7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California” did not give him Jones $50 million on some sort of whim–they were looking for tangible results–along the lines of the removal of Trump from office by hook or by crook. Speculation is that Jones was the connection between the “resistance” operatives within the Intelligence Community and the outside world–the MSM, the Dems in the legislative branch, etc.

The subpoena to Jones is a measure of just how serious Barr and Durham are. They would never have subpoenaed someone so connected unless they were deadly serious and unintimidated by the Left’s hysterical attacks on their investigation. Think about that in the context of what I wrote about Barr’s determination to forge ahead on his efforts to pull the Deep State inside out. Compare that to what SWC [@shipwreckedcrew] has recently written about Jones (Durham’s Investigation Has Taken an Interest A Person Named Daniel Jones — The Implications are Uncertain At This Point):

An investigation of Jones and his organization will certainly lead to exposure of Jones’ communications, and all the financial transactions between Jones and his clients and partners.

THAT could go anywhere — including back to Democrat Senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

I would maintain that that is only a small part of what an investigation of Jones could lead to.

Consider this. I simply can’t conceive that Durham is calling Jones before the grand jury on a whim, without having conducted a searching background investigation of everything connected to Jones. If Durham sent Jones a grand jury subpoena to testify before the grand jury, IMO it’s for sure that he has also issued grand jury subpoenas for everything in Jones life that could conceivably be obtained via grand jury subpoenas. That would, as SWC says, focus on communications and finances. Moreover, before quizzing Jones on all that, Durham would have reviewed that mountain of material and followed out all leads that arose from it. And my belief is that Durham would not be calling Jones before the grand jury if he hadn’t already developed bona fide investigative leads that he has followed out. That’s too serious a step to take just to show how thorough an investigator he is.” (Read more: MeaningInHistory.blogspot, 10/09/2020)  (Archive)

October 9, 2020 - Mike Pompeo claims Clinton's missing emails could be released before the election

“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said his agency was working as fast as it could to release Hillary Clinton’s missing emails after President Trump lashed his top diplomat for not making them public.

In an interview on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing,” the secretary said some of his predecessor’s correspondence could also be made public before the presidential election just 25 days away.

“We’re going to get there. We’re going to get this information out so the American people can see it,” Pompeo said while criticizing Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.

“We’re doing it as fast as we can. I certainly think there’ll be more to see before the election,” he went on.

In an hour-long interview with Fox Business on Thursday morning, Trump rebuked Pompeo and Attorney General Bill Barr over the fact that Clinton had not faced consequences for both her use of a private email server and involvement in the origins of the 2016 investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia.

“They are in the State Department but Mike Pompeo has been unable to get them out, which is very sad,” Trump told anchor Maria Bartiromo.

“Actually I’m not happy with him for that reason,” he added.

Clinton deleted more than 30,000 emails from her private server after she was asked to turn them over to investigators, claiming they were personal matters.”  (Read more: New York Post, 10/09/2020)  (Archive)

October 11, 2020 - Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, and his close ties to China

Doug Emhoff

When Obama FBI Director James Comey investigated the Clinton email scandal and the Clinton Foundation, he recommended no prosecution by the Department of Justice.

Harris’ spouse is also a primary partner of the law firm that audited the Clinton Foundation. One of the executives of the firm in charge of the audit was Peter Comey–the brother of James Comey.

His firm, DLA Piper, not only filed Clinton Foundation taxes each year, James Comey held the mortgage for his brother’s mansion. This ties a direct financial connection between Comey and the Clinton Foundation while he was investigating Hillary.

Emhoff’s China Connection Runs Deep

Emhoff’s DLA firm has“represented lead investors” in deals with Bytedance the company of controversial social media app TikTok. The Trump Administration is set to ban TikTok since evidence has surfaced that it feeds user information to China.

  • DLA Offices

 

Other China state owned companies advised by DLA Piper are Huarong Investment Stock Corporation Limited, China National Gold Group, and Tencent (which hosts the WeChat app that was banned by the Trump administration over its links to the Chinese Communist Party).

Cohen Makes the Biden’s Rich

DLA Piper has a “strong strategic partnership” with The Cohen Group, a consulting firm founded by former Secretary of Defense and Joe Biden close friend and endorser Bill Cohen.

Biden deal maker William Cohen

Although Cohen described President Trump as a “tyrant,” his firm employs several high-level leaders in the Chinese Communist Party and has advised party officials as part of a Harvard program. The program has been attended by entities that the Trump administration sanctioned for committing “serious human rights abuses.”

Cohen travels to China to meet with Chinese Communist Party officials to increase Chinese capital flow into the U.S. Evidence proves this has been the main avenue through which intellectual property theft and spying has occurred. He is seen as a close advisor and key to enriching the pockets of Joe, James and Hunter Biden.

More Serious Concerns Against Emhoff

Emhoff’s firm also thrives on their Washington lobbying practice with offices in places like Moscow and Riyadh.

There are serious concerns about Emhoff-Harris ties to Big Pharma.

During his decade as a lawyer at the corporate firm Venable, Emhoff represented the pharmaceutical giant Merck in lawsuits tied to its drug Fosamax.

He also represented the arms dealer Dolarian Capital in a case related to its sale of AK-47s for use in Afghanistan; and a nightclub owner accused of sexual harassment and sexual battery, including spraying an employee’s hair and body “with a foreign substance” that he removed with “his mouth, lips and tongue.”

Although Emhoff has announced a leave of absence with the firm to campaign, he fielding criticism and suspicion.

“He should leave the firm entirely,” said Richard W. Painter, who served as chief White House ethics counsel during the George W. Bush administration. “Leave of absence still imputes the financial interests of the firm to him.” He added that clients that pay the firm could be accused “of trying to buy influence.”

The Herbalife Conflict

As California attorney general, Harris elected not to pursue an investigation of Herbalife, a nutritional supplements company accused of fraudulent practices in 2015.

Her San Diego regional office was pleading for an investigation. However, Herbalife was represented by Venable, partially owned by Emhoff.

Harris received at least $5,400 in donations at the time from an outside lobbyist who did work for Herbalife.

“You can’t tell me that as the A.G. of California, you have all these complaints, and then your husband is going to be working for this company?’’ Julie Contreras, an activist and pastor who has campaigned against Herbalife,  said. “Somehow that was ethically inappropriate.”

Doug Emhoff

By 2017, Emhoff switched firms, becoming a partner at DLA Piper, and became licensed to practice in Washington. He retained a partnership stake in Venable that was worth nearly $1.2 million.

In 2018 Venable paid Emhoff $200,000, according to the couple’s tax filings. He was paid $1.34 million by DLA Piper in 2018, tax filings show.

Among the firm’s lobbying clients with interests before the federal government are Comcast, the telecom giant; L3 Harris Technologies, the defense contractor; and the governments of Afghanistan and Bahrain. Among their most concerning clients is the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera and the Palestine Monetary Authority.

Early in their marriage Kamala Harris was pulled into a sexual assault dispute at DLA Piper. A junior partner, Vanina Guerrero filed a complaint with  the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after being sexually assaulted four times by a top deal-maker at Emhoff’s firm named Louis Lehot.

The Sexual Assault Caper

Guerrero’s lawyer, Jeanne Christensen, asked for California Sen. Harris’ help in getting her client released from DLA Piper’s mandatory arbitration rules so she can “get her day in court.”

Mentioning the press coverage of the Guerrero case and an open letter sent to DLA Piper’s leadership last week, Christensen wrote, “I hope that you either read about the open letter yourself or that your husband Douglas Emhoff, a partner at DLA Piper, shared it with you.”

Vanina Guerrero (Credit: Vanina Guerrero)

“I am sure that you would agree that silencing women though forced arbitration must end,” Christensen wrote.

Louis Lehot

“No female employee, including a new partner, would knowingly agree to waive her right to our court system for claims involving sexual assault, battery, or rape,” Christensen continued. “Given your profile as a candidate for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, you are in a unique position to condemn the actions of DLA Piper and make clear that mandatory arbitration must stop.”

“Again, I urge you to support Ms. Guerrero and let DLA Piper know that time is up for its draconian policy that disproportionately protects male predators at the expense of women,” Christensen wrote.

In the EEOC complaint, Guerrero wrote that Lehot lured her to his law firm with promises of fast advancement and attacked her the first time two weeks after she signed on.

Guerrero charged the attacks escalated over the next 10 months.   Lehot began sabotaging her career when she resisted his advances. She said she was initially afraid to tell anyone.

“Having moved my two toddlers and husband that I support financially from Hong Kong to California for this job, I was petrified to believe what was happening to me, much less tell anyone,” she wrote in the complaint. (Read more: Clever Journeys, 10/11/2020)  (Archive)

 

October 12, 2020 - CBS obtains 94-page outline showing FBI and Chris Steele collaborative use of media reporting

“CBS News Catherine Herridge has obtained a 94-page spread sheet (pdf here) showing dates of media reports, dates of Steele reports on the same material, and the FBI effort to verify or validate the circular process.   In essence this is evidence of the process we initially shared almost three years ago; only now we know the names.

Former SSCI staffer Dan Jones, former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, and Simpson’s crew at Fusion-GPS, pitched and planted phony Trump-Russia evidence with the media and simultaneously gave those fake points to Chris Steele to supplement the dossier. Using the same method of Ezra Klein’s “JournOList” replication, Dan Jones and Fusion-GPS paid the journalists to run the stories.

…”media reports on FBI reports of media reports”…

Steele then used the same information from Jones and Fusion in his Dossier and cited the planted media reports; as evidence to substantiate. The Dossier is then provided to the FBI. The journalists then provide *indulgences* to the FBI as part of the collaboration.

The FBI, specifically Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and public information office Mike Kortan, then leak the outcomes of the FBI Dossier investigative processes to the same media that have reported on the originating material. It is all a big circle of planting and laundering the same originating false material; aka a “wrap up smear.”

Here’s the 94-page spread sheet:

Steele Spreadsheet 1 by Herridge

Michael Isikoff highlighted the level of how enmeshed media is with the Fusion team in February 2018 when he admitted his reporting was being used by the DOJ and FBI to advance the political objectives of the intelligence community.

Additionally, FBI investigator Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page were shown in their text messages to be leaking stories from the Clinton Investigation, the Trump investigation and the Mueller investigation to journalists at Politico, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. –SEE HERE–

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was busted by the Inspector General leaking stories to the media and then lying about it to INSD and IG investigators. FBI Director James Comey admitted to leaking stories to the New York Times, and even hired his friend Andrew Richman (off-the-books), gave him access to FBI and NSA databases, and then leaked information to Richman along with another friend Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare blog.

Lest we forget, the IG report on how the FBI handled the Clinton investigation revealed that dozens of FBI officials were actually taking bribes from the media for information:

IG REPORT – We identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters. Attached to this report as Attachments E and F are two link charts that reflect the volume of communications that we identified between FBI employees and media representatives in April/May and October 2016. We have profound concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized media contacts by FBI personnel that we have uncovered during our review.

(…) We do not believe the problem is with the FBI’s policy, which we found to be clear and unambiguous. Rather, we concluded that these leaks highlight the need to change what appears to be a cultural attitude among many in the organization. (link to pdf – page Xii of executive summary)

Madness.

This is an IG fact-based criticism of the institution of the FBI, not simply a few rogue officials within it.

But wait…. Perspective:

Later it was revealed that Andrew Weissman, Robert Mueller’s #1 special counsel prosecutor, was coordinating investigative efforts with the full support of four AP reporters who were giving Weissman tips.  That’s information from journalists to use in his court filings and submitted search warrants.  Make sure you grasp this: The AP journalists were feeding information to their ideological allies within the special counsel.

Nuts; simply, well, nuts.

And then there’s Devlin Barrett, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok:

Additionally, Christopher Steele has stated in U.K. court records the person in charge of the Clinton Campaign’s opposition research firm, Glenn Simpson from Fusion GPS, arranged and coordinated for Mr. Steele to talk to several journalists (CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo News and Mother Jones) while Mr. Steele was also the primary source of information for the FBI investigators (including Strzok and Page):

Make sure you read that full response from Christopher Steele above to see the scope of the media engagements he was conducting.

As more evidence surfaces the relationship between journalists, Fusion-GPS, Chris Steele and the media’s DOJ/FBI sources begins blending together. The FBI was using media reports, which were based on Fusion-GPS pitches, to bolster its investigative documents to the FISA court. It is an intelligence laundry operation:

According to the U.K records, Christopher Steele reports this September 2016 meeting with Isikoff was arranged by Glenn Simpson. According to Michael Isikoff on his February podcast, he met Christopher Steele at a Washington, D.C. hotel in Sept. 2016. They were joined by his “old friend” Glenn Simpson, the founder of opposition research firm Fusion GPS, who Isikoff now defines as a “private investigator.”

So Christopher Steele was meeting with journalists, the journalists were writing articles; the FBI was leaking to media and simultaneously citing those same articles as underlying evidence to support their counterintelligence investigations; and all of this was used to validate the investigative documents the FBI was receiving from Christopher Steele; who, along with the leaking FBI officials, was also the source of the media articles.

FUBAR! This is exponentially bonkers.

This is a circle of information, all coming from Dan Jones and Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS, who was the opposition research firm being financed by Hillary Clinton, along with FBI officials who were using their own strategic leaks to validate their own investigation.

Think about the scale of the reporting, and reporting on reporting, of anonymous leaks, false leaks, lies from “people with knowledge of the matter”, “government officials involved in the matter”, “people familiar with the matter”, “government sources” etc. all going in one unified and semi-coordinated direction – against the aggregate Trump administration.

Now, it actually gets even more convoluted.

Christopher Steele has sworn under oath that he met with multiple journalists (at least eight organizations) in September, mid-October, and late-October 2016: “at Fusion’s instruction“. (pdf page #7)

Overlay upon that sworn admission with what Glenn Simpson (Fusion-GPS) told the House Intelligence Committee while also under oath about his involvement in sharing information derived from Christopher Steele:

…”without my knowledge and against my wishes”?

Huh?

FBI Director James Comey admits to leaking his ‘memos’ to the New York Times. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was busted for leaking and lying about it. FBI #2 Counterintelligence Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Attorney Lisa Page are caught in their text messages leaking to Politico, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

…. AND the FBI is caught, in at least one FISA application, using Yahoo media reports provided by them AND their investigative source Christopher Steele to establish a basis for FISA “Title I” surveillance; the most intrusive and wide-open search and surveillance authority possible.

The Clinton Campaign is paying Fusion-GPS to conduct opposition research against Donald Trump. In addition to the collaboration between Dan Jones, Glenn Simpson pushed that opposition research into the media, and Fusion GPS is also providing that opposition research –including information from contacts with media– directly to the FBI:

… In addition to using the Fusion-GPS opposition research to underpin their counterintelligence investigation, the FBI then turn around and leak the same opposition research information to the media to create secondary support for their counterintelligence investigation.

Tell me again how the media can possibly write about this now?

The problem is not just corruption with the U.S. Justice System, the DOJ and the FBI; the problem is corruption within the media.

We’re talking about thousands of hours of media TV pundits, thousands more columns written, and almost every scintilla of it based on originating intelligence sources -from the larger intelligence system- that are now being exposed as duplicitous and conspiratorial in the scale of their malicious intent.

This larger story-line has traveled in one direction. The narrative has only traveled in one direction. Each thread converging on codependent trails for collective stories all going in one direction. One big engineered narrative endlessly pushed. Think about how far the collective media have traveled with this story over the past eighteen months?

Hell, twenty-something-year-old “journalists” were so committed to the resistance narrative they were even sleeping with their sources to get any little engineering angle possible.

Now, over a period of several years, it has become increasingly obvious the collective journey, using all that expended effort, was intentionally going in the wrong direction.

The media have fully invested themselves in four months of narrative distribution in only one direction. Not a single MSM entity has questioned their travel as a result of false leaks or false sources in the totality of time they have covered the DOJ and FBI story.  They have even won Pulitzer prizes for writing stories about the lies and manufactured evidence.

Nothing within their collective need to will-an-outcome will change the media’s proximity to facts as the truthful story behind the DOJ and FBI corruption is finally exposed. The media are so far away from the place where this story ends, they have no inherent capability to even begin to travel in the opposite direction, toward the truth.

The only way they could align with the truth is to admit that virtually every scintilla of their reportage over the past four years was inherently false or manipulated by the “sources” distributing the material for their willfully blind reporting.

There’s not a single media outlet capable of doing that.

Think about a New York Times, CNN, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Yahoo News or Washington Post journalist having to write an article deconstructing a foundation of four-years worth of lies they participated in creating.

Do we really think such a catastrophic level of corrupted journalism could reconstitute into genuine reporting of fact-based information?

EVER?

Impossible.

(Conservative Treehouse, 10/13/2020)  (Archive)

October 14, 2020 - Biden laptop email reveals Hunter Biden introduces his VP father to a top Burisma executive

New York Post Front Page, 10/14/2020

“Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.

The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 exec, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.

The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer. (Read more: New York Post, 10/14/2020)  (Archive)

October 2020 - FBI's Timothy Thiebault oversaw Hunter Biden laptop witness, Tony Bobulinski

“Timothy Thibault, a former top FBI official who has been accused of stifling aspects of the inquiry into Hunter Biden, was reportedly “running point” on the bureau’s handling of Tony Bobulinski, a key witness in the laptop saga.

Bobulinski is raising concerns that Thibault played a key role in suppressing the evidence he gave the FBI about the Biden family, sources told the Washington Free Beacon. Thibault recently stepped down from his post as assistant special agent in charge of the Washington field office amid a firestorm over his handling of the inquiry and allegations of political bias.

“What Mr. Thibault knows about the FBI’s significant misconduct and running of interference for the Biden family won’t stay hidden just because he’s no longer with the bureau,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the news outlet.

In October 2020, Bobulinski said he was interviewed by the FBI for five hours and discussed the “Biden family business dealings with the Chinese.” He said President Joe Biden was the “big guy” described in the New York Post’s story about messages on Hunter Biden’s laptop. During that time, Tucker Carlson interviewed Bobulinski to discuss his allegations.

Bobulinski alleged that he met with Hunter Biden and his father to talk through a deal with a Chinese firm, CEFC China Energy, that reportedly has connections to Chinese military intelligence. Representatives for Bobulinski reached out to the FBI after he sat for an interview with agents, but the bureau has not reached out to Bobulinski in the time since, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Reports that Thibault was “running point” on the FBI’s dealings with Bobulinski raise questions about whether the FBI adequately assessed Bobulinski’s allegations against the Biden family. (Washington Examiner, 9/02/2022)  (Archive)

October 19, 2020 - Nine additional “former IC officers who cannot be named publicly” support the letter but will not openly sign their name to the letter


There are 60 dishonest intel officers who support the Hunter Biden laptop being a Russian disinformation operation.

The bottom of the original signed letter reads:

“In addition, nine additional former IC officers who cannot be named publicly also support the arguments in this letter.”

The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have obtained evidence that an active CIA employee may have recruited signatories for a now-infamous letter in which intelligence community veterans falsely categorized the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation in a bid to swing the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.

“The Committees have evidence that an employee affiliated with the CIA may have assisted in obtaining signatories for the statement,” reads a soon-to-be released report from the committees. “One signer of the statement, former CIA analyst David Cariens, disclosed to the Committees that a CIA employee affiliated with the agency’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (‘PCRB’) informed him of the existence of the statement and asked if he would sign it.”

The report further stated that the committees “have requested additional material from the CIA, which has ignored the request to date.”

A CIA spokesperson told Just the News that “[t]he role of CIA’s Pre-Publication Review Board (PCRB) is to review materials submitted by current and former officers to determine if the materials contain any classified information.” (Read more: Just the News, 5/9/2023)  (Archive)