#clinton email probe

[contemplatingoutlander]

FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year

In the DOJ’s investigation of Jan. 6, key Justice officials also quashed an early plan for a task force focused on people in Trump’s orbit

We KNEW the DOJ was avoiding investigating Trump for January 6th. According to this report by Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis for The Washington Post, the DOJ dragged its collective feet in starting the Trump investigation--for over a year. It was not until the House Jan. 6th committee and others started to investigate Trump's involvement in the attempted coup, did the DOJ become embarrassed enough to start their own investigation.

In this regard, contrary to what certain Republicans claim, the DOJ was NOT AT ALL "weaponized" against Trump. Rather, they were trying to avoid investigating him.

Below are some excerpts from this report:

A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found.

[See more under the cut.]

[...] Whether a decision about Trump’s culpability for Jan. 6 could have come any earlier is unclear. The delays in examining that question began before Garland was even confirmed. Sherwin, senior Justice Department officials and Paul Abbate, the top deputy to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach — focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder. The strategy was embraced by Garland, Monaco and Wray. They remained committed to it even as evidence emerged of an organized, weeks-long effort by Trump and his advisers before Jan. 6 to pressure state leaders, Justice officials and Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden’s victory. In the weeks before Jan. 6, Trump supporters boasted publicly that they had submitted fake electors on his behalf, but the Justice Department declined to investigate the matter in February 2021, The Post found. The department did not actively probe the effort for nearly a year, and the FBI did not open an investigation of the electors scheme until April 2022, about 15 months after the attack. The Justice Department’s painstaking approach to investigating Trump can be traced to Garland’s desire to turn the page from missteps, bruising attacks and allegations of partisanship in the department’s recent investigations of both Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Inside Justice, however, some have complained that the attorney general’s determination to steer clear of any claims of political motive has chilled efforts to investigate the former president. “You couldn’t use the T word,” said one former Justice official briefed on prosecutors’ discussions. [...] “A decision was made early on to focus DOJ resources on the riot,” said one former Justice Department official familiar with the debates. “The notion of opening up on Trump and high-level political operatives was seen as fraught with peril. When Lisa and Garland came on board, they were fully onboard with that approach.” Some prosecutors even had the impression that Trump had become a taboo topic at Main Justice. Colleagues responsible for preparing briefing materials and updates for Garland and Monaco were warned to focus on foot soldiers and to avoid mentioning Trump or his close allies. [...] That fall and winter, a House committee pursuing its own investigation into Jan. 6 conducted interviews with top Trump administration officials. Privately, its chief investigator, Timothy Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney, had alerted prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office to a few details his team had uncovered about Trump’s pressure on Justice Department officials and Pence to block the election results, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. But eye-grabbing news accounts about the committee’s discoveries fueled public criticism that the Justice Department appeared to be lagging. [...] [Between January and February 2022 there was renewed interest in looking at the role of Trump and those close to him in the "fake elector" scheme.] One person directly familiar with the department’s new interest in the case said it felt as though the department was reacting to the House committee’s work as well as heightened media coverage and commentary. “Only after they were embarrassed did they start looking,” the person said.

This is a very long article and you will have to read the rest for yourself. But after reading this article, it now seems clear that if the Jan. 6th Committee and others had not begun to investigate Trump's involvement in the attempted coup, the DOJ would have never gotten involved.

[beardedmrbean]

Harvard University law professor Jack Goldsmith thinks President Joe Biden should "stop" commenting about ongoing probes in the wake of the tax investigation against his son, Hunter Biden, saying that it makes the Department of Justice's (DOJ) job "much harder."

Biden on Friday defended his son ahead of a potential decision by federal prosecutors to issue tax violation charges against Hunter after a four-year criminal investigation. The president told Stephanie Ruhle, host of The 11th Hour on MSNBC, that his son has "done nothing wrong," and that he has faith in him.

Hunter Biden might face charges for failing to file taxes related to a business expense, according to NBC News. The president's son denied any wrongdoing in the tax case and said that he handled his matters "legally and appropriately." The case expanded to also include a possible gun-related charge in connection with the president's son allegedly making a false statement on a form linked to a gun purchase in 2018, according to Insider.

Aides in the Biden administration insisted that the president's advisers didn't interfere or influence the course of the investigation. An unnamed senior adviser to the president said that advisers in the White House "don't direct or advise" Hunter Biden's lawyers on how to act, according to CNN.

Still, Goldsmith expressed concern that the president's commentary on his son's "sensitive and fraught" investigation might affect the DOJ's work.

"Biden's statement was one of the most egregious and ill-timed breaches of the norms of Justice Department independence since Watergate," the Harvard professor wrote about Biden's Friday comment in a Lawfare blog on Sunday.

He explained that presidents should not be involved in, or comment on, pending DOJ investigations, "especially ones that impact the president," despite having authority under Article II to direct criminal investigations. Goldsmith wrote that, like Biden, former presidents have commented on DOJ investigations in the past while they were in office. He mentioned that former President Barack Obama breached the norm by commenting on Hillary Clinton's email case and that former President Donald Trump repeatedly commented on prosecutors' work while he was in office.

The Harvard law professor believes that Biden's "inappropriate commentary" came at a bad time as federal prosecutors are nearing a decision in Hunter's case after a four-year-investigation. David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware who is leading the probe and who will decide on whether or not to charge Hunter, said that a decision is expected to come soon, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Though Goldsmith criticized Biden's commentary, he also pointed that it could be coming from a place where a father is simply expressing his emotional stance towards his son.

"However understandable it might be for a father to express confidence in a son, and however rowdy House republicans are acting toward Hunter, this is a very serious violation of the norm," he wrote in his blog. "It is hard for me to believe that Biden's comment will actually impact what the prosecutors decide to do; if anything, it will make exonerating Hunter harder. But that does not make the statement any less bad."

House Republicans have been heavily targeting Hunter Biden over contents he had on his laptop that was reportedly leaked and revealed information about his foreign business dealings. In addition, some GOP lawmakers are trying to prove whether the president had any connection with his son's business affairs while he served as vice president during the Obama administration.

Newsweek reached out by email to Goldsmith and the White House for comment.

[bllsbailey]

Sen. Marshall Targets Harris Campaign, ABC Over Debate

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., has promised to investigate whether the moderators of the ABC News presidential debate coordinated with the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris to leak questions and provide biased fact-checking.

"I will be sending a letter to @ABC and the Harris Campaign demanding all correspondence, records, and potential coordination between the two parties ahead of Tuesday's presidential debate,” Marshall posted on X Friday.

Marshall was reacting to a call from Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, for ABC to launch an internal probe into whether the debate was rigged. Penn, who worked for the Clintons from 1995-2008, told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast on Thursday that a review on internal texts and emails should be done by a third party to determine if the debate was skewed in favor of Harris.

Following Tuesday night's debate between former President Donald Trump and Harris, many critics have assessed the debate moderators as much as the two candidates. ABC News chose "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir and "ABC News Live Prime" anchor Linsey Davis to moderate the debate, and they were criticized for what many saw as favoring Harris and fact-checking only Trump.

Harris has called for a second debate, saying, "I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what is at stake could not be more important."

Trump, on the other hand, posted on Truth Social Thursday: "KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!" 

Critics of ABC have noted that Disney senior executive Dana Walden is "extraordinary friends" with Harris, according to The New York Times. The two have known each other for over 20 years, and their husbands have known each other since the 1980s.

James Morley III ✉

James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature. 

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[justiceheartwatcher]

Former top Clinton adviser calls on ABC to launch internal probe into whether debate was rigged | Just The News

[chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted]

I love how they under sell an FBI lawyer “doctoring” emails during an investigation, the Steele dossier having “unverified information” and...

I love how they under sell an FBI lawyer “doctoring” emails during an investigation, the Steele dossier having “unverified information” and talking about issues within the FISA application process without calling them issues. If “Trump appointed” John Durham didn’t find anything “bombshell” why did the FBI implement “dozens of corrective actions” at the FBI “In response to the conduct examined by Durham”?

CNN acknowledges the Steele dossier and the role ii played in the “surveillance warrants” then goes on to say that it “contained unverified allegations”. Democrats are always saying there is “no proof/evidence to support that claim” but apparently that does not apply to Trump. It’s a good thing Durham was elevated to a special counsel because it protected “his position” and made “it politically difficult for the Biden-run” DOJ to shut down the investigation. Why would they want to shut down the investigation if there was so much proof of wrong doing?

Direct Quotes:

Special counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI should never have launched a full investigation into connections between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election

Durham’s 300-plus page report also states that the FBI used “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,” to launch the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into Trump and Russia but used a different standard when weighing concerns about alleged election interference regarding Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Durham only secured one conviction: the guilty plea of a low-level FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, who avoided jail after admitting to doctoring an email about a surveillance warrant.

In a statement Monday, the FBI said its leadership has “already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time,” in response to the conduct examined by Durham. “Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the statement adds.

Despite acknowledging the FBI had sufficient reason to open a preliminary assessment or at most a preliminary investigation, the report states that the bureau should not have gone as far as opening a full probe into whether individuals associated with the Trump campaign were coordinating with the Russian government.

The report is also critical of the Steele dossier, an explosive document that had been used by the FBI to bolster its case for probable cause to secure surveillance warrants against a former Trump campaign adviser.

The Steele dossier contained unverified allegations about Trump’s connections to Russia, including his alleged business dealings, rumors of lurid trysts in Moscow and claims that his campaign collaborated with the Kremlin in 2016.

The FBI has made reforms to the way it obtains warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in light of the inspector general’s report – which led to FBI invalidating two of the four warrants it obtained on the Trump campaign adviser – as well as a follow up investigation revealing widespread problems with FISA court applications.

Before the 2020 election, Barr elevated Durham to “special counsel” status, further protecting his position and making it politically difficult for the Biden-run Justice Department to control or shut down the investigation.

[charyou-tree]

Masterlist of Trump-Russia Collusion:

Flynn Thing: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-flynn-comey-russia-timeline-2017-htmlstory.html

Manafort Thing: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/342509-new-book-devils-bargain-details-trump-lashing-out-at-manafort-days

Tillerson Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/07/tillerson-says-trump-pressed-putin-on-russian-hacking-but-the-evidence-suggests-not-so-much/?utm_term=.e0ac214bd9bc

Sessions Thing: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/did-trump-kushner-sessions-have-undisclosed-meeting-russian-n767096

Kushner Thing: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/09/trump-russia-new-meeting-revealed-involving-donald-jr-kushner-and-manafort

Wray Thing: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-wray-russia-20170712-story.html

Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius "Russian Law Firm of the Year" Thing: http://nypost.com/2017/05/12/trump-used-russia-law-firm-of-the-year-to-draft-letter-about-his-finances/

Carter Page Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-has-questioned-trump-campaign-adviser-carter-page-at-length-in-russia-probe/2017/06/26/1a271dcc-5aa5-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html?utm_term=.24d0b138db83

Roger Stone Thing: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/14/roger-stone-house-testimony-postponed-240568

Felix Sater Thing: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-felix-sater-real-estate-632690

Boris Epshteyn Thing: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-press-officer-boris-epshteyn-investigation-russia/story?id=47731166

Rosneft Thing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/08/trump-new-fbi-director-chris-wray-russian-ties-rosneft-gazprom-column/102603214/

Gazprom Thing see above : http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/30/trumps-energy-adviser-is-personally-invested-in-gazprom/

Sergey Gorkov banker Thing: http://www.newsweek.com/sergey-gorkov-grad-russian-banker-kushner-617422

Azerbaijan Thing: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/senators-ask-for-an-investigation-into-trump-dealings-in-azerbaijan

"I Love Putin" Thing: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-timeline/

Lavrov Thing: https://www.vox.com/world/2017/6/27/15875434/sergey-kislyak-trump-russia-return-moscow

Sergey Kislyak Thing: https://www.vox.com/world/2017/6/27/15875434/sergey-kislyak-trump-russia-return-moscow

Oval Office Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-oval-office-with-trump-and-the-russians-broad-smiles-and-loose-lips/2017/05/16/2e8b0d14-3a66-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html

Gingrich Kislyak Phone Calls Thing: http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/newt-gingrich-trump-russia-meetings/3504/ Russian Business Interest Thing: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/trump-lawyers-up-conflicts-of-interest/526185/

Emoluments Clause Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/dc-and-marylands-lawsuit-trump-flagrantly-violating-emoluments-clause/2017/06/12/8a9806a8-4f9b-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html

Alex Schnaider Thing: http://theweek.com/speedreads/699538/russian-bank-directly-linked-putin-helped-finance-trump-hotel

Hack of the DNC Thing: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/5/dnc-email-server-most-wanted-evidence-for-russia-i/

Guccifer 2.0 Thing: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/14/just-six-days-after-trump-jr-s-meeting-guccifer-2-0-emailed-me-but-there-was-one-key-difference/

Mike Pence "I don't know anything" Thing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/18/mike-pence-insists-he-didnt-know-flynn-under-investigation-turkey-lobbying/101831354/

Russians Mysteriously Dying Thing: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/03/31/eight-prominent-russians-dead-since-us-elections-labott-dnt-erin.cnn

Trump's public request to Russia to hack Hillary's email Thing: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html

The Trump email server that regularly communicated with a IP address from Russian Alfa Bank thing: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign

Trump house sale for $100 million at the bottom of the housing bust to the Russian fertilizer king Thing: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article135187364.html

Russian fertilizer king's plane showing up in Concord, NC during Trump rally campaign Thing: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article137881768.html)

Nunes sudden flight to the White House in the night Thing: http://www.businessinsider.com/nunes-white-house-grounds-trump-surveillance-2017-3

Nunes personal investments in the Russian winery Thing: http://www.business2community.com/government-politics/devin-nunes-invested-california-wine-company-business-ties-russia-fact-check-01809651#ilwFvHKSgDxcmIOQ.97

The create a joint cyber defense agreement with Russia Thing: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/16/trump-putin-joint-cybersecurity-group/

Cyprus bank Thing: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/wilbur-ross-russian-deal-bank-of-cyprus-donald-trump-commerce-secretary

Trump not Releasing his Tax Returns Thing: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/trump-taxes-tax-returns/index.html

The Republican Party's rejection of an amendment to require Trump to show his taxes thing: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/326220-republicans-vote-to-block-resolutions-on-trumps-tax-returns

Election Hacking Thing: http://time.com/4828306/russian-hacking-election-widespread-private-data/

GOP platform change to the Ukraine Thing: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/jd-gordon-change-story-gop-platform-ukraine-amendment

Steele Dossier Thing: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/16/donald-trump-jrs-meeting-with-russians-undermines-/

Sally Yates Can't Testify Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-block-sally-yates-from-testifying-to-congress-on-russia/2017/03/28/82b73e18-13b4-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html

Intelligence Community's Investigative Reports Thing: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/read-us-intelligence-report-russian-hacking-2016-campaign/

Trump reassurance that the Russian connection is all "fake news" Thing: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/11/15953640/donald-trump-twitter-mocked-russia-collusion

Chaffetz not willing to start an Investigation Thing: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/why-is-jason-chaffetz-resigning

Chaffetz suddenly deciding to go back to private life in the middle of an investigation Thing: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/why-is-jason-chaffetz-resigning

Appointment of Pam Bondi who was bribed by Trump in the Trump University scandal appointed to head the investigation Thing: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-florida-ethics-panel-clears-pam-bondi-over-trump-contribution/article/2620970

The White House going into cover-up mode, refusing to turn over the documents related to the hiring and firing of Flynn Thing: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/330410-white-house-rejects-oversight-request-for-flynn-documents

Chaffetz and White House blaming the poor vetting of Flynn on Obama Thing: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/trump-flynn/525816/

Poland and British intelligence gave information regarding the hacking back in 2015 to Paul Ryan and he didn't do anything Thing: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/intelligence/328718-uk-spies-first-saw-trump-russia-ties-report

Agent M16 following the money thing: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/richard-dearlove-mi6-trump-russia-money-2008-financial-crisis-us-election-a7684341.html

Trump team KNEW about Flynn's involvement but hired him anyway Thing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/05/17/report-trump-team-knew-flynn-being-investigated/101816334/

Let's Fire Comey Thing: http://www.npr.org/2017/05/10/527744909/suspicious-timing-and-convenient-reasoning-for-trumps-firing-of-comey

Election night Russian trademark gifts Things: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/us/politics/russia-trump-trademarks.html

Russian diplomatic compound electronic equipment destruction Thing: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russians-destroyed-and-removed-material-from-shuttered-compounds-officials-say/

Let's give back the diplomatic compounds back to the Russians Thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-moves-to-return-russian-compounds-in-maryland-and-new-york/2017/05/31/3c4778d2-4616-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.9f251823e6ad

Let's Back Away From Cuba Thing: https://qz.com/1007416/donald-trumps-cuba-trade-and-travel-roll-back-is-another-gift-to-russia/

Donny Jr met with Russians Thing: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/07/18/trump-voters-dont-believe-don-jr-met-russian-lawyer/23036294/

Donny Jr emails details "Russian Government's support for Trump" Thing: https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953204/donald-trump-jr-emails-russia

Trump's secret second meeting with his boss Putin Thing: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-putin-idUSKBN1A32H5

Secret meeting between former high commissioner Alexander Downer and Trump adviser George Papadopoulos when Papadopoulos told Downer that Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton Thing: https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/downer-papadopolous-trump-mueller-russia

Erik Prince Seychelles Russia backchannel meeting thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.2ded0bfdc5a9

Trump tweet admitting Russia helped get him elected Thing: https://www.vox.com/2019/5/30/18645526/trump-russia-elected-help-twitter

Right-wing commentators like Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern pedalled misinformation to the American public while raking in shitloads of Russian cash.

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."Did Durham lie?

John Durham was supposed to be the great Trump hope — the anti-Mueller, who would blow the lid off something something something. His years-long probe ended with multiple courtroom humiliations and a damp squib of a report.

His testimony before a House committee yesterday didn’t go any better. He stumbled, hedged, and made it clear that he didn’t really know much at all about the Rusia probe. Here’s Jonathan Chait:

Durham seemed to be unaware of the major factual elements of the alliance between the Trump campaign and Russia. This ignorance came through in several awkward exchanges with Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee panel. Eric Swalwell asked Durham about how Trump “tried and concealed from the public a real-estate deal he was seeking in Moscow.” This was a deal, described in the Mueller report, in which the Russian government promised Trump several hundreds of millions of dollars in profit at no risk to himself to license a tower in Moscow. The proposed payoff, and Trump’s public lies at the time about it, gave Russia enormous leverage over his campaign. Durham replied, “I don’t know anything about that.”

There was a lot more like that.

When Adam Schiff asked Durham if the Russians released stolen information through cutouts, he replied, “I’m not sure.” Schiff responded, “The answer is yes,” to which Durham reported, “In your mind, it’s yes.” When Schiff asked Durham if he knew that, hours after Trump publicly asked Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails and release them, Russian hackers made an attempt to hack Clinton emails, Durham replied, “If that happened, I’m not aware of that.” When asked if Trump referred to those stolen emails more than 100 times on the campaign trail, Durham answered, “I don’t really read the newspapers and listen to the news.” And when Schiff asked Durham if he was aware that Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, passed on polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence agent, at the time Russia was conducting both a social-media campaign and the release of stolen documents to help Trump, Durham replied, “You may be getting beyond the depth of my knowledge.”

David Corn isn’t having it. He writes, “John Durham Just Made False Statements to Congress.”

“The Manafort-Kilimnik connection — which the Senate Intelligence Committee report characterized as a ‘grave counterintelligence threat’ — is one of the most serious and still not fully explained components of the Trump-Russia scandal. “It is inconceivable that Durham is unaware of this troubling link.”

Corn walks through Durham’s other false statements, including his account of the infamous Trump Tower meeting in which Don Jr. hoped the Russians would provide dirt on Hillary Clinton.

This meeting signaled to Moscow that the Trump camp was receptive to Russian endeavors to intervene in the election to boost Trump’s chances, and Schiff expressed surprise that Durham found it insignificant. “Are you really trying to diminish the importance of what happened here?�� he asked. Durham answered: “The more complete story is that they met, and it was a ruse, and they didn’t talk about Mrs. Clinton.” That is not true.  The report produced by special counsel Robert Mueller notes that the Russian emissary, a lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, did discuss Clinton: “Participants agreed that Veselnitskaya stated that the Ziff brothers [an American family investment firm] had broken Russian laws and had donated their profits to the DNC or the Clinton Campaign. She asserted that the Ziff brothers had engaged in tax evasion and money laundering in both the United States and Russia.” (There was no evidence that Ziff Brothers Investments had engaged in wrongdoing.) The Mueller report points out that Trump Jr. zeroed in on this: “Trump Jr. asked follow-up questions about how the alleged payments could be tied specifically to the Clinton Campaign, but Veselnitskaya indicated that she could not trace the money once it entered the United States.” The report quotes a participant in the meeting recalling “that Trump Jr. asked what they [the Russians] have on Clinton.” Durham’s characterization of the meeting—that it had nothing to do with Clinton—lined up with what the Trump camp first claimed when the meeting was revealed a year afterward, in 2017. At that time, Trump Jr. issued a false statement dictated by his father that insisted the conversation had focused “primarily” on the adoption of Russian children by Americans. That was a phony cover story. Later on, when more information came out, even the elder Trump conceded that the point of the meeting was to gather negative information on Clinton from a foreign adversary. “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent,” Trump said. Yet years later, Durham was still pushing the original disinformation about the meeting propagated by Trump and his allies. 

As Hayes Brown notes, Durham’s testimony was “a far cry from when the former president was promising that Durham’s probe would reveal ‘the crime of the century’.”

Instead, Durham said in his opening statement that his report “should not be read to suggest in any way that Russian election interference was not a threat; it was.” And when it came to Mueller himself, Durham didn’t hold back in his praise. “Our object, our aim, was not to dispute Director Mueller,” Durham said. “I have the greatest regard, the highest regard for Director Mueller. He is a patriot.” That’s again not what Trump’s most ardent devotees would like to hear coming from the man who they expected to expose Mueller’s role in the “witch hunt” against Trump."

[giancarlonicoli]

Update (1351ET): More bombshells from Durham on Wednesday, where he told the House Judiciary Committee that the CIA knew that Hillary Clinton approved a plan to smear then-candidate Donald Trump with Russia allegations in order to distract from her classified email scandal, and that the FBI did not "sufficiently scrutinize information it received," nor "apply the same standards to allegations it received about the Clinton and Trump campaigns."

"The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research, such as the Steele dossier," said Durham, adding "The FBI relied on the dossier and FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign or political opponent."

🚨BREAKING: John Durham testifies before House Judiciary Committee: "The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier." pic.twitter.com/bi4mHvQPoN — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023

Durham said that it's "going to take time to rebuild the public's confidence in the institution," referring to the FBI following its mishandling of the Russia collusion probe.

Under questioning from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Durham said former FBI Director Jim Comey withheld a referral memorandum from the agents working the Crossfire Hurricane case. The memo contained intelligence from a high-level briefing with Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan related to then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's attempts to tie Trump to Russia. "They kept key intelligence from the investigators. This is how bad this investigation was but here's the scary part: I don't think anything has changed," Jordan said. -Just the News

A few highlights:

John Durham SNAPS at Adam Schiff after trying to justify Russiagate Hoax by asking if leaked emails were stolen: “In your mind!” pic.twitter.com/WD6VQNZazK — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023

*  *  *

Following the May 12 release of Special Counsel John Durham's long-awaited "Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns," which found that the FBI's original investigation of Trump was unwarranted, Durham sat for testimony on Wednesday which was originally slated to be closed-door, only to be opened up for the public to see.

In comments to the House Judiciary Committee, Durham reiterated the report's findings that there was "not a legitimate basis" for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation - before shooting down several barbs from Democrats;

Special Counsel Durham says that, at the time, there was "not a legitimate basis" to launch the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump. pic.twitter.com/0wO1hIEs3u — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 21, 2023

COHEN: "Your reputation will be damaged!" DURHAM: "My concern about my reputation is with the people who I respect, and my family, and my Lord, and I'm perfectly comfortable with my reputation with them, sir!" pic.twitter.com/zughWAoN2l — Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 21, 2023

He also suggested Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has a few skeletons in his closet.

Dammmmmm- What does Durham have on Schiff pic.twitter.com/RfWLTCRfTL — Karli Bonne’ (@KarliBonnita) June 21, 2023

Durham said that several FBI agents apologized to him for how the Trump investigation was run.

DURHAM: "I have had any number of FBI agents...who have come to me and apologize for the manner in which that investigation was undertaken. I take that seriously!" pic.twitter.com/3vqE08nrl0 — Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 21, 2023

"The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier," said Durham, who also confirmed that there was no collusion found between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

🚨BREAKING: John Durham testifies before House Judiciary Committee: "The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier." pic.twitter.com/bi4mHvQPoN — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023

Durham confirms what we’ve known all along: there was NO COLLUSION. As he said today: “As to collusion or conspiracy, I’m not aware of any.” pic.twitter.com/zTzgGJTmG7 — Rep. Mike Johnson (@RepMikeJohnson) June 21, 2023

More:

"Our findings were sobering. I can tell you, having spent 40 years plus as a federal prosecutor, they were particularly sobering to me." — Special counsel John Durham WATCH: https://t.co/bQ4a7xO3qH pic.twitter.com/axu4FHtv3R — NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 21, 2023

Of course, many would like to know why Durham didn't 'do anything' more meaningful in terms of prosecutorial recommendations.

Is Durham going to explain why he didn't actually do anything? Thanks John! Pfft — Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 21, 2023

To that end, Matt Taibbi suggests a few hard questions for Durham;

1. Why were former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, along with FBI officials Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, and Kevin Clinesmith, and others allowed to refuse cooperation? 2. Where is Mifsud? 3. Why were “omissions” or “misstatements” by FBI officials and/or their sources treated as such, and not as criminal lying, as would likely have happened in Robert Mueller’s investigation? 4. Why was Halper’s name kept out of the report? What other “informant” activity was obscured? 5. Why did you punt on the hack?

It's a great read which subscribers to Racket News can check out here.

[dertaglichedan]

Former special counsel John Durham testified Wednesday that the FBI overlooked intelligence that Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to smear former President Donald Trump with Russia allegations and treated the two campaigns disparately during the 2016 election.

Durham confirmed that the CIA had received intelligence about Clinton approving a plan to make Russia allegations against Trump as a means of distracting from her classified email scandal.

The prosecutor said the FBI did not "sufficiently scrutinize information it received" and did not "apply the same standards to allegations it received about the Clinton and Trump campaigns."

“The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research, such as the Steele dossier," he said during the House Judiciary Committee hearing. "The FBI relied on the dossier and FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign or political opponent."

He told the House panel that "it's going to take time to rebuild the public's confidence in the institution" of the FBI after the agency's handling of the so-called Russia collusion probe.

[truck-fump]

<b>Trump</b> allies cite Clinton email probe to attack classified records case. There are big differences

New Post has been published on https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-clinton-classified-documents-republican-claims-7681bc9807ecd8bc37fd3f39b9756cc7&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjUzM2UwMTY5ZmFhZTIwMGQ6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw1avfXViWjci8mJEM_j7rpA

Trump allies cite Clinton email probe to attack classified records case. There are big differences

As Donald Trump readies for a momentous court appearance Tuesday on charges related to the hoarding of top-secret documents, Republican allies are …

[opedguy]

Senate to Investigate John Durham

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Jan. 30, 2022.--Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durham, 78, (D-Ill) said he would investigate nefarious conduct of 72-year-old Special Counsel John Durham, tasked Oct. 19, 2020 by 72-year-old  former Atty. Bill Bill Barr to get to the bottom of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of 76-year-old former President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.  Durham was given broad authority to look into 62-year-old former FBI Director James Comey who launched a counterintelligence investigation into then Republican nominee Donald Trump in the summer of 2020.  New York Times reported ethical lapses in Durham’s probe, after several of Durham’s staff resigned.  Times’ investigators found that Barr influence the probe as well as prosecuting Justice Department Atty. Kevin Clinesmith and former Hillary Clinton campaign Atty. Michael Sussmann.

Durham prosecuted Clinesmith for deleting information on an email to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [ACT] court, asking for a warrant to wiretap former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Durham won a conviction Jan 20, 2021 for Clinesmith who doctored an email to prevent the FISA court from knowing that Page worked for the CIA.  Former FISA Court Chief Justice Rosemary Collyer said she would have never granted the FBI warrant to wiretap Carter Page.  Yet Durbin thinks Durham should be prosecuted because of some of staff quitting or that Barr influenced the investigation.  What about the New York Times printing untold stories about Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow, all based on 75-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA the Steele dossier, insisting Trump was a Russian asset.

Clinesmith’s Jan.  20, 2021 conviction was the tip of the iceberg showing that the FBI conspired in 2016 to sabotage the Trump campaign with the intent of getting Hillary elected president.  Durham the went after former Justice Department and Hillary 2016 campaign Atty. Michael Sussmann who told the FBI he did not represent any client in when he told the FBI that Trump had contacts with a Russian bank. Sussmann told FBI General Counsel James Baker that he represented himself, telling Baker that Trump had ties with a Russian Bank.  Sussmann at the time worked for Hillary’s campaign, looking for anyway possible way to discredit Trump. Sussman eventually got off May 31, 2022 on a technicality after Durham pled his best case. Democrats and he New York Times were euphoric knowing that Durham hit a dead end on the Sussmann case, making Durham look feeble.

Durbin attacked Durham because he knows that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), 58, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will initiate probes showing that the Justice Department and FBI were weaponized to go after Trump politically in 2016 and during his presidency.  “The Justice Department should work on behalf of the American people, no for the personal benefit of any president.  As we wait for the results of ongoing internal review, the Senate Judiciary Committee will do its part and take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again,” Durbin said.  Durbin wants to turn on its head the kind of obvious abuse during the 2016 presidential campaign, where the FBI clearly tried to sabotage Trump’s campaign.  Durbin wants, with the help of DOJ, to point fingers at Trump, the subject of an FBI sting.

New York Times and Washington post have spent years covering up years of reporting about Trump’s allege ties with 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation.  All the specious stories written about Trump were based on Hillary’s Steele Dossier, pure rubbish that proved in court to be completely bogus.  Yet that didn’t stop Comey and his buddy, 67-year-old former CIA Director John Brennan from accusing Trump of Russian conspiracy.  Comey and Brennan knew about the conspiracy against Trump because it was part of the FBI’s sting  against the former president.  Yet no matter how much conspiracy was uncovered at the FBI to sabotage Trump’s 2016 campaign, Dubin goes Orwellian, accusing Durham of conspiracy to defraud the government.  FBI brass under Comey did everything possible to get Hillary elected in 2016.

Whatever conspiracies existed in 2016 at the FBI, they all attempted to sabotage Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.  Durham couldn’t get enough evidence to prove that former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch asked former CIA Director John Brernnan to contact Comey in summer 2016 to launch a counterintelligence investigation, alleging Trump’s ties to the Kremlin.  Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), insisted even after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump of wrongdoing March 23, 2019, that he had categorical proof of Trump’s Russian ties.  Schiff, of course, never produced  proof of anything.  Whatever Durham and Barr couldn’t find, it was because Comey and his top FBI brass did everything possible to cover up the 2016 conspiracy against Trump’s campaign.  Once Sussmann was acquitted May 31, 2022, Democrats and the press used it to discredit Durham.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[lawenforcementtoday]

Wow - talk about protecting your own. Apparently the law only applies to some of us.

[arpov-blog-blog]

First let's understand that the Trump indictments are not about classified documents. They are about the willful and unlawful retention of government documents. Not one of the 38 charges in the indictment is about he classification of the documents. The charges are primarily about obstruction.

This Yahoo news report gets some facts wrong. In the Clinton case fewer than five documents on her server were found to be classified after a review determined that most of the information had been declassified. Secondly, the FBI did not find new emails, they found some of the same emails on a different computer: A computer used by a Clinton aide Huma Abedin..."WHAT SEPARATES THE CLINTON AND TRUMP CASES?

A lot, but two important differences are in willfulness and obstruction.

In an otherwise harshly critical assessment in which he condemned Clinton's email practices as “extremely careless,” then-FBI Director James Comey announced that investigators had found no clear evidence that Clinton or her aides had intended to break laws governing classified information.

As a result, he said, “no reasonable prosecutor" would move forward with a case. The relevant Espionage Act cases brought by the Justice Department over the past century, Comey said, all involved factors including efforts to obstruct justice, willful mishandling of classified documents and indications of disloyalty to the U.S. None of those factors existed in the Clinton investigation, he said.

That's in contrast to the allegations against Trump, who prosecutors say was involved in the packing of boxes to go to Mar-a-Lago and then actively took steps to conceal classified documents from investigators.

The indictment accuses him, for instance, of suggesting that a lawyer hide documents demanded by a Justice Department subpoena or falsely represent that all requested records had been turned over, even though more than 100 remained in the house.

The indictment repeatedly cites Trump's own words against him to make the case that he understood what he was doing and what the law did and did not permit him to do. It describes a July 2021 meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which he showed off a Pentagon “plan of attack” to people without security clearances to view the material and proclaimed that “as president, I could have declassified it.”

“Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” the indictment quotes him as saying.

That conversation, captured by an audio recording, is likely to be a powerful piece of evidence to the extent that it undercuts Trump's oft-repeated claims that he had declassified the documents he brought with him to Mar-a-Lago."

[deanlawrencekowalski]

State Dept. intensifies email probe of Hillary Clinton’s former aides | Washington Post As many as 130 officials have been questioned in recent weeks by State Department investigators. The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said. Source: State Dept. intensifies email probe of Hillary Clinton’s former aides