HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes has a deliberate warning to U.S. Attorney Bill Barr, and the Department of Justice should take it very seriously.
In a 30 minute podcast interview last week [Listen Here] Representative Nunes rightly warns of massive political consequences if Justice Department officials don’t face jail time for their conduct during the Russia investigation. I strongly urge everyone to listen to the podcast.
[Podcast Interview Here]
Via Fox News – […] According to Nunes, the Russia investigation was an “obstruction of justice trap,” that started without evidence of collusion and ended in an “awful situation” that could only be fixed by jailing the people who “perpetuated this hoax.”
“These are all a bunch of dirty cops and I’ll tell you,” he told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on the latest “Hemmer Time” podcast. “We’re going to go down in a spiral in this country because you will not have a Republican that will trust the FBI or the Department of Justice for generations to come.”
Nunes specifically mentioned Andrew Weissman, one of the Mueller team’s top prosecutors who briefed AP reporters in 2017, before Mueller’s team was assembled, on “something to do with the Trump-Russia investigation.”
Authorities, Nunes said, hid that fact from his committee — something he said was inappropriate given that Weissman was briefed on the Steele dossier in the summer of 2016.
At Mueller’s hearing, Nunes plans to ask him whether he knew that Weissmann had been briefed on the dossier. Weissmann’s early involvement with the chain of custody, according to legal advice Nunes received, effectively disqualified him from serving on Mueller’s team. (read more)
♦ Phase One – November 2015 through April 2016: The first phase leading into ‘Spygate’ is the period of time where opposition research of the republican candidate field was taking place. It is in this period where Fusion-GPS hired CIA Open Source researcher Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ-NSD official Bruce Ohr, to do research.
In the background of this time period the FBI and NSA database was being exploited by unknown FBI contractors; it is highly suspected that Nellie Ohr and/or Fusion-GPS was one of those contracted agencies with access to the massive electronic and metadata files.
All of this is laid out inside a 99-page opinion from FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer who also noted that none of this FISA abuse was accidental in a footnote on page 87: “deliberate decisionmaking“:
Summary: The FISA court identified and quantified tens-of-thousands of search queries of the NSA/FBI database using the FISA-702(16)(17) system. The database was repeatedly used by persons with contractor access who unlawfully searched and extracted the raw results without redacting the information and shared it with an unknown number of entities.
The outlined process certainly points toward a political spying and surveillance operation; and we are not the only one to think that’s what this system is being used for.
Back in 2017 when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was working to reauthorize the FISA legislation, Nunes wrote a letter to ODNI Dan Coats about this specific issue:
The most important sentence in Judge Collyer’s brief:
…”many of these non-compliant queries involved the use of the same identifiers over different date ranges.”..
This Page #82 sentence specifically highlights that during the 2016 presidential campaign, those who had access to the NSA database were searching the same phone numbers, email addresses, electronic “identifiers”, or people, repeatedly over different dates.
~ Specific people were being tracked/monitored ~
♦ Phase Two – April 18th through July 31st 2016: At the same time as NSA Director Mike Rogers discovered a significant and unauthorized uptick in FISA-702(16)(17) database queries, and subsequently blocked access (April 18th, 2016), candidate Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee for the presidential race.
Fusion GPS was not hired in April 2016 to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the intelligence community was already doing surveillance and spy operations. The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign, and were monitoring everything by exploiting the FISA database.
However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations. Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier.
That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, are so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content. The Steele Dossier contains the cover-story and justification for the surveillance operation.
It was within this period where Fusion-GPS was commissioned to focus exclusively on candidate Trump. Fusion held the prior search findings, and Fusion contracted Christopher Steele who later contacted the FBI through official channels.
The evidence for the CIA aspect is found in the Weissmann-Mueller report. More specifically, it is found in the intentional way the report tries to conflate two contact points. This track is CIA Director John Brennan’s work, with enlisted help from the FBI counterintelligence unit (Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap) as they travel to the U.K.
After western intelligence asset Joseph Mifsud (posed as a Russian) plants a story on George Papadopoulos about Russia having “emails of Clinton”, the operation then needs Papadopoulos to share the information. That’s where a joint network comes in. The network is the U.S. embassy in London; the Australian embassy in London; the Australian Ambassador to the U.K. Alexander Downer; and his top aide Erika Thompson.
Notice page #89 of the report; but read carefully and specifically notice the date Weissmann and Mueller use to frame the Russia story extraction from Papadopoulos:
The meeting on May 6th, 2016 was NOT a meeting with Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer. That meeting did not happen until May 10th. The recent release of documents from Australia confirm this timeline.
The meeting on May 6th was between George Papadopoulos and Downer’s aide, Erika Thompson: …”that the Trump campaign had received information from the Russian government that it could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.”
So, if the U.S. used the information from the May 6, 2016, meeting as conveyed on July 26th, 2016, it was the conversation with Erika Thompson that opened Crossfire Hurricane; not the meeting with Alexander Downer on May 10th. {Go Deep}
On July 31st, 2016, FBI counterintelligence operation Crossfire Hurricane became official.
An official investigation targeting the campaign of Donald Trump now held a legal, albeit sketchy and politically motivated, justification. Under the auspices of investigating Russian involvement with George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort and General Michael Flynn, the FBI was now conducting full-blown surveillance on the political campaign of Donald Trump. Crossfire Hurricane was the legal cover; ‘Spygate’ begins.
♦ Phase Three – August 1st through October 21st 2016. With the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence operation in full swing, the Obama intelligence community, the CIA, was conducting facilitating parallel operations throughout. In August 2016 CIA Director John Brennan brought the covert intelligence congressional oversight team known as the Gang-of-Eight into the picture.
The CIA angle was explained by Director John Brennan under the auspices of the CIA operation looking at possible Russian interference with the 2016 election. However, Brennan’s activity was more importantly, and intentionally, a supplement to the FBI activity. Brennan provided FBI Director James Comey with the two-page “EC” or electronic communication document that initiated Crossfire Hurricane in July.
Brennan’s role is critical. Brennan kicked-off Crossfire Hurricane; Brennan’s intelligence product was included in President Obama’s daily briefing (PDB); and specifically by design, very importantly, Brennan was the ONLY intelligence official briefing congress:
Brennan Testimony: “Third, through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept congress apprised of these issues as we identified them.”
“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”…
During this time-frame [Aug, Sept, Oct ’16]: •Chris Steele was funneling the results of his collaborative work with Nellie Ohr into the FBI; •the FBI was conducting full surveillance upon the Trump campaign (CH/Spygate); •and Brennan was seeding the legal background, a plausible justification of sorts which might be needed later, with carefully worded briefings to the Gang-of-Eight.
Critical to note – the Go8 was not being briefed on Crossfire Hurricane/Spygate, which was the FBI operation to conduct internal political surveillance of the Trump campaign. The Go8 only knew what Brennan was informing them. Those Brennan briefings were more of a disingenuous overview of generalized Russian interference. James Comey never briefed the Go8 on his FBI operation. [In March 2017 Comey would tell congress his decision not to inform them was due to “the sensitivity of the matter”.]
Toward the end of October 2016 things took on a new sense of urgency. All of the aggregate intelligence exploitation, FISA-702 database extraction, and ongoing campaign surveillance being conducted was seriously fraught with legal peril. On October 21st, 2016, the FBI urgently applied for, and received, a FISA Title One surveillance warrant against U.S. person Carter Page.
Carter Page was a known person to the FBI and DOJ. Carter Page was a subject witness from 2012 to 2016 in the Evgeny Buryakov case [DOJ March 2016]. How could the FBI claim Carter Page was “an agent of a foreign power” to the FISA court in October 2016, when they only finished using him as a cooperating subject witness in May of 2016? [DOJ May 2016]
The short answers are: (1) they couldn’t; (2) they were in a big hurry; there was a sense of urgency; they needed the FISA and Steele Dossier as insurance policy; and (3) it wasn’t safe for the DOJ/FBI to make the ‘foreign agent‘ claim against their own prior witness if things went sideways.
Remember, this is all a coverup. Their efforts are about gaining position and appearances to justify a preceding action. Their efforts are not focused on an actual investigation. So they told the FISC the information came from the State Department and [Redacted]. Whichever source could give them the best legal justification to gain the FISA warrant was the leading point in the thought process.
That FISC approved warrant made the resulting information, gathered by prior FBI surveillance on the Trump campaign, completely legal. In essence the DOJ and FBI manipulated the FISA court to approve pre-existing FBI conduct. Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer approved the warrant. DAG Sally Yates and FBI Director James Comey were the original application signatories.
A Title-One FISA warrant authorizes any and all surveillance methods; and establishes legal authority for retroactive review of all files and records associated with Carter Page; and anyone he comes into contact with; and anyone those contacts come into contact with.
In essence Title-One authority permits all electronic and physical surveillance, wiretaps, phone and electronic records, database extraction etc. The warrant is retroactive. All of the previous evidence gathered against the Trump campaign was now legal. A Title-One FISA Court warrant is the highest level of surveillance authority any court can grant.
♦ Phase Four – October 21st, 2016, through January 20th, 2017: The FBI received their FISC surveillance authority two weeks before the November 8th presidential election.
If Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election all of this would disappear; none of this would ever surface; and the entire operation would just evaporate into the ether of invisible DC history. But Hillary didn’t win. She lost. Now, all downstream official action takes an entirely more urgent and important shift.
Shortly after Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer authorized the FISA warrant, NSA Director Mike Rogers went to the FISC and informed the same judge of the FISA-702(16)(17) abuses that took place in the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Judge Collyer issues an explosive opinion lambasting the FBI for their allowed abuse of the system. The DOJ head of the National Security Division, John Carlin, resigned from his position.
Ten days after the election NSA Director Mike Rogers also travelled to Trump Tower without informing his boss ODNI James Clapper.
There has been a great deal of speculation as to what Rogers told President-elect Trump during that meeting. It’s likely Director Rogers informed Trump about some of what he knew surrounding the unauthorized surveillance activity and FISA(702) exploitation. However, intelligence is highly compartmented; it’s also virtually guaranteed Rogers had no idea what the FBI did, or was doing, with the material and the larger ‘Spygate’ operation.
After Hillary lost the election, CIA Director John Brennan and ODNI James Clapper quickly put together an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) about Russian interference in the 2016 election. When the report was pushed into the media bloodstream NSA Director Mike Rogers did not hold the same level of confidence in the assessment.
[…] A source close to the House investigation said Brennan himself selected the CIA and FBI analysts who worked on the ICA, and that they included former FBI counterespionage chief Peter Strzok.
“Strzok was the intermediary between Brennan and [former FBI Director James] Comey, and he was one of the authors of the ICA,” according to the source. (link)
Again, it is super important to remember congressional oversight has no idea about the FBI operation (CH/Spygate) during the election. Congressional oversight, the ‘Gang-of-Eight’, only knows what John Brennan has briefed them about; there have been no Go8 briefings by FBI Director James Comey.
After the 2016 election the Go8 members also changed. Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her SSCI Vice-Chair position to Senator Mark Warner, and with the retirement of Harry Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer now became minority leader.
On January 5th, 2017, President Obama held an Oval Office meeting with VP Joe Biden, James Comey (FBI), Michael Rogers (NSA), John Brennan (CIA), James Clapper (ODNI), Sally Yates (DOJ) and Susan Rice. At the conclusion of the briefing, President Obama asks Sally Yates and James Comey to remain. Together with Susan Rice, this is where the “by the book” comment comes into play. As recounted by Rice:
“President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”
The background context here is important. The outgoing Obama white house team knows what has taken place throughout. Obama’s PDB’s have included information about the Trump campaign officials who were under active surveillance. As the Trump transition team enters into office the FBI surveillance is still ongoing. The counterintelligence operation against the incoming administration, and every participating member, remains in full swing.
The day after Obama’s oval office meeting, when President-elect Trump is briefed on the Steele Dossier, ODNI James Clapper and FBI Director James Comey cannot brief the target within their investigation on the granular material they used to gain the FISA warrant against the candidate who is now the President-elect.
Their target was Trump.
Trump is now the President-elect.
That’s why Comey only briefed Trump on the salacious material… the ‘pee tapes’ and ‘Russian hookers’ nonsense was not part of the FISA application. The material that was part of the FISA application; the material that outlined candidate Trump as a target; was not shared with the President-elect because it would have amounted to Trump discovering the factual origin of an ongoing counterintelligence operation against him.
Simultaneous to this transition taking place, all the Trump officials within his team were still under an active FISA Title-One surveillance warrant. This surveillance also included the capture of all of their transition email accounts, the content was later given -without transition team approval- to Robert Mueller by the GAO. The legal authority for that controversial event was inside the FISA Title-One surveillance warrant.
The FISA warrant was reauthorized on January 12th, 2017, about a week before the inauguration of Trump with DAG Sally Yates and James Comey again approving.
♦ Phase Five – January 20th, 2017, through today: Here’s where the current background of multiple issues and questions begins to make sense.
Remember, as the Trump administration takes office, congressional oversight (Go8) still has no idea what is taking place within the ongoing counterintelligence operation against President Trump and all those around him. Crossfire Hurricane, aka ‘Spygate’, is mostly invisible in the background.
The need to put factual teeth behind a fraudulently created investigative predicate means the FBI needs to start getting serious about the investigative targets. Thus in January, for the first time since CH/Spygate began, the FBI reaches out to question George Papadopoulos. Additionally, on January 24th, 2017, investigators question another origination target, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Evidence of CH/Spygate surfaces in the actions against appointed National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos; however, despite President Trump and FBI Director James Comey twice being together (January 27th and Feb 14th), only the small group within the FBI and DOJ-NSD are aware of the operation as incoming Trump intelligence officials replace outgoing Obama intelligence officials.
All of that changes mid-March 2017.
Around March 14th, 2017, amid the Flynn fiasco, multiple swirling contradictions, massive intelligence leaks to the media and Trump administration officials beginning inquiries about what the heck is going on…. FBI Director James Comey how has to brief congressional oversight. This is the first time the 2017 Gang-of-Eight is officially informed about the counterintelligence operation known as Crossfire Hurricane.
This necessary shift toward oversight briefing leads to the Senate Intelligence Committee receiving a March 17th copy of the FISA application. Go8 members Richard Burr and Mark Warner receive the original October 21st, 2016, FISA application and the first renewal.
A few days later, March 20th, 2017, James Comey testifies to congress and tries to explain why oversight was not informed of the operation since it began in July 2016. [Note, if Clinton had won the election no-one would ever have needed to be informed] WATCH:
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Now, it’s unknown to what extent FBI Director Comey explained the level of FBI investigation into candidate and President-elect Trump; it’s also unknown whether or not Comey gave the Go8 all of the details to include the origination of Crossfire Hurricane and the FISA Title-One surveillance warrant authority received by the investigative unit in October 2016; the distribution date of the FISC copy, March 17th, would indicate that he did..
However, immediately after this public testimony on March 20th, HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, a Go8 member who would have been part of the briefing, gets information about the Trump campaign officials and transition team officials under surveillance and being unmasked. Watch and listen carefully:
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Presumably if FBI Director James Comey was fulsome with his briefing Devin Nunes would not have been surprised; OR, it could be the surprise was not about the investigation itself per se’, but rather that Obama political officials would be part of the pipeline of information about an ongoing covert counterintelligence operation against a political campaign. The latter seems to be the most likely cause of alarm and concern.
After Nunes’ March 22nd, 2017, Press announcement, and the subsequent democrat/media outrage therein, House Speaker Paul Ryan somewhat removes Devin Nunes from his committee responsibilities as they pertain to oversight on the Trump-centric investigative matters, and Nunes is placed under an ethics investigation.
In hindsight, and knowing the Comey Go8 briefing likely outlined Trump as a potential target within the FBI counterintelligence operation, Speaker Ryan’s action against Devin Nunes now makes more sense. In essence, from Ryan’s perspective Nunes might be compromising the FBI’s investigation by communicating with the White House about information from the FBI shared to the Gang-of-Eight. Even giving the impression that such communication might have occurred was enough for Ryan to act.
Then we move on to April 2017, when the FISA surveillance warrant was again reauthorized; and the FBI counterintelligence operation is continuing; this surveillance now includes almost the entire Trump administration.
By this time Sally Yates has been fired over her refusal to defend Trump’s travel ban. Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente and James Comey sign the second extension; everyone is keeping notes about every encounter with the President, yet President Trump doesn’t know he’s the ‘Soft Coup‘ target.
May 9th, 2017, President Trump fires the insufferably political FBI Director James Comey. Now Andrew McCabe, the lead initiator of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane operation, is Acting FBI Director.
In McCabe’s 2019 media tour he claims he was going bananas because his target was firing his team, yet McCabe appeared in front of congress on May 11th, 2017 and said President Trump firing James Comey two days earlier did not amount to any interference:
♦Senator Rubio: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. McCabe, can you–without going to the specifics of any individual investigation, I think the American people want to know, has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped, or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
Director McCabe. As you know, Senator, the work of the men and women of the FBI continues despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. So there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date. Quite simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution. (link)
In 2019 both Andrew McCabe and DAG Rod Rosenstein have admitted to conversations about the best way to proceed after Comey was fired. Eventually a decision was reached to initiate a Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, on May 17th, 2017, to take over the entire probe.
FBI Director James Comey was fired on Tuesday May 9th, 2017.
According to his own admissions (NBC and CBS), Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe immediately began a criminal ‘obstruction’ investigation the next day, Wednesday May 10th; and he immediately enlisted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
These McCabe statements line up with with text message conversations between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI agent Peter Strzok – (same dates 5/9 and 5/10):
It now appears that important redaction is “POTUS” or “TRUMP”. [Yes, this is evidence that some unknown DOJ officials redacted information from these texts that would have pointed directly to the intents of the DOJ and FBI. WARNING: Don’t get hung on it.]
The next day, Thursday May 11th, 2017, Andrew McCabe testifies to congress. With the Comey firing fresh in the headlines, Senator Marco Rubio asked McCabe: “has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped, or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigation?”
McCabe responded: “So there has been no effort to impede our investigation to date. Quite simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.”
However, again referencing his own admissions, on Friday May 12th McCabe met with DAG Rod Rosenstein to discuss the issues, referencing the criminal ‘obstruction’ case McCabe had opened just two days before. According to McCabe:
… “[Rosenstein] asked for my thoughts about whether we needed a special counsel to oversee the Russia case. I said I thought it would help the investigation’s credibility. Later that day, I went to see Rosenstein again. This is the gist of what I said: I feel strongly that the investigation would be best served by having a special counsel.” (link)
Recap: Tuesday: Comey Fired. Wednesday: McCabe starts criminal ‘obstruction’ case. Thursday: McCabe testifies to congress “no effort to impede”. Friday: McCabe and Rosenstein discuss Special Counsel.
After the weekend, Monday May 15th, McCabe states he and Rosenstein conferred again about the Special Counsel approach. McCabe: “I brought the matter up with him again after the weekend.”
Now, overlaying what we know now that we did not know in 2018, to include the John Dowd interview and McCabe admissions, a very clear picture emerges.
On Tuesday May 16th, Rod Rosenstein takes Robert Mueller to the White House to talk with the target of the ‘obstruction’ criminal investigation, under the ruse of bringing Mueller in for a meeting about becoming FBI Director. This meeting was quite literally advanced reconnaissance.
The next day, Wednesday May 17th, 2017, Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe go to brief the congressional “Gang-of-Eight”: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, ¹Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Burr and Mark Warner.
… […] “On the afternoon of May 17, Rosenstein and I sat at the end of a long conference table in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol. We were there to brief the so-called Gang of Eight—the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Rosenstein had, I knew, made a decision to appoint a special counsel in the Russia case.”
[…] “After reminding the committee of how the investigation began, I told them of additional steps we had taken. Then Rod took over and announced that he had appointed a special counsel to pursue the Russia investigation, and that the special counsel was Robert Mueller.” (link)
Immediately following this May 17, 2017, Go8 briefing, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein notified the public of the special counsel appointment.
According to President Trump’s Attorney John Dowd, the White House was stunned by the decision. [Link] Coincidentally, AG Jeff Sessions was in the oval office for unrelated business when White House counsel Don McGahn came in and informed the group. Jeff Sessions immediately offered his resignation, and Sessions’ chief-of-staff Jody Hunt went back to the Main Justice office to ask Rosenstein what the hell was going on.
Consider from their small group perspective in May 2017; knowing what actions had been undertaken from December 2015 through all phases of the investigative purposing; Andrew McCabe, FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, FBI Lawyer Lisa Page and all “small group” team members would want to pass any investigative torch to a very tight and ideologically aligned crew. This is where Andrew Weissmann comes in, and the group selected their leader.
If McCabe, Baker et al had to pass the baton, there would be an element of risk involved if the totality of all 2016 background information surfaced. They would need an insider with a perfect set of specific tools to continue the operation and also avoid risk. The group which included Andrew Weissmann, would need someone they could easily control. That person was Robert Mueller; and they leveraged maximum influence over DAG Rosenstein toward that end.
Now think about Robert Mueller being contacted by Rosenstein, briefed on the task at hand, and generally given a background overview of what was needed. For Mueller this endeavor to investigate a sitting president would have all kinds of possibilities for going sideways and backfiring. In addition, Mueller knows these people, this is his tribe, he would be hearing from the network within the system and watching the news. He knows this entire crew before the Rosenstein phone call is even answered.
It stands to reason the only person Mueller wouldn’t know in this entire story is the target President Donald Trump. That explains Rosenstein introducing Mueller to Trump on May 16th, 2017, and then a day later announcing Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.
The first priority Mueller would hold, after a briefing from McCabe, Comey, Baker and all the FBI team; and considering the claims and evidence used to obtain the legal warrants to conduct surveillance etc; would be to prioritize investigating whether POTUS was factually a Russian asset, and whether President Trump was obstructing the investigation therein.
A few weeks later, June 2017, DAG Rosenstein and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe signed the third -and final- FISA warrant reauthorization.
Shortly after Mueller begins the urgent review of POTUS as a Russian asset, in late June and July 2017, Robert Mueller is also forced to confront a paper trail of unavoidable evidence pointing to the extreme political bias (Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe) within the previous FBI investigative unit. Mueller would have to be an idiot not to see the outline of what had taken place throughout 2016 all the way to his appointment.
As a result of the pre-Mueller moves by the FBI (McCabe) and DOJ (Yates), the FBI investigative unit already has Michael Flynn inside their investigative control system. Weissmann now uses Mueller’s authority to throw a bag over George Papadopoulos and enhance the optical false narrative of collusion and innuendo.
In July 2017 Mueller’s team executes the $10,000 sting operation using CIA asset Charles Tawil, and they arrest Papadopoulos under extremely suspicious and sketchy circumstances. Papadopoulos is now shut down; any subsequent risk is under control. Again, the purposeful intent is to provide the originating CH/Spygate fraud with more necessary predicate authenticity.
By August 2nd, 2017, Robert Mueller has ensnared Flynn (lobbying, FARA & lying), Manafort (lobbying, FARA & taxes), and Papadopoulos (lying, and a failed attempt at FARA via $10,000 from Tawil). Three of the originating four CH/Spygate targets as outlined to the FISA court. The only one they didn’t capture, or perhaps some would say they didn’t try to capture, is Carter Page; a former asset of the FBI and known commodity to the CIA.
On August 2nd, 2017, with the aforementioned Trump-Trio in various stages of legal limbo, Robert Mueller requests an updated “scope memo” from Rod Rosenstein:
[scribd id=375478974 key=key-4DaehSp6U38EiB8eNVXS mode=scroll]
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On October 20th, Rosenstein expanded the Mueller probe yet again; allowing Weissmann and Mueller to target those who are engaged in “jointly undertaken activity.”
By outlining, in a specific mandate to Mueller, that the office of the president was currently the subject of an ongoing counterintelligence investigation, the special counsel would be authorized to block any congressional oversight requests for documents, material or evidence that would interfere in their investigation. This is what Mueller and Rosenstein did throughout 2017 and 2018. In September 2018:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s scope memos created a impenetrable firewall through which information could not be shared or discussed with congressional investigators or the IG office until Robert Mueller’s probe was complete; and Rosenstein used the threat of the appearance of “obstruction” to keep President Trump from declassifying the material that would have exposed the corrupt endeavors.
The picture here is pretty clear:
Team Obama is hoping to keep claiming the originating 2016 surveillance upon the Trump campaign was an outcome of a valid counterintelligence investigative probe; which is the underpinning of their need to perpetuate the Russian election conspiracy narrative. So long as all Obama officials who were engaged within the process keep up the story that validates the fraudulent purpose; their hope is all players will escape legal accountability for the unlawful weaponization of the intelligence apparatus to target political opposition.
If they succeed, “by the book” will have been successful.
This is what Devin Nunes is warning about.
The concerning/alarming aspect is that Attorney General William Barr asked President Trump to abdicate his declassification authority to the DOJ.
If AG Barr is intent on preserving the institutions, President Trump has now provided Barr with the tools he would need to control all information. AG Bill Barr now holds all the power. Nunes is warning Barr that too much information is now far too well known for Barr to decide to bury the evidence.
Here’s the list of material possible for declassification. This was the original list as outlined in 2018:
- All versions of the Carter Page FISA applications (DOJ) (FBI) (ODNI).
- All of the Bruce Ohr 302’s filled out by the FBI. (FBI) (ODNI)
- All of Bruce Ohr’s emails (FBI) (DOJ) (CIA) (ODNI). All supportive documents and material provided by Bruce Ohr to the FBI. (FBI)
- All relevant documents pertaining to the supportive material within the FISA application. (FBI) (DOJ-NSD ) (DoS) (CIA) (DNI) (NSA) (ODNI);
- All intelligence documents that were presented to the Gang of Eight in 2016 that pertain to the FISA application used against U.S. person Carter Page; including all intelligence documents that may not have been presented to the FISA Court. (CIA) (FBI) (DOJ) (ODNI) (DoS) (NSA) Presumably this would include the recently revealed State Dept Kavalac email; and the FBI transcripts from wiretaps of George Papadopoulos (also listed in Carter Page FISA). [AKA ‘Bucket Five’]
- All unredacted text messages and email content between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok on all devices. (FBI) (DOJ) (DOJ-NSD) (ODNI)
- The originating CIA “EC” or two-page electronic communication from former CIA Director John Brennan to FBI Director James Comey that started Operation Crossfire Hurricane in July 2016. (CIA) (FBI) (ODNI)
Additionally, since the 2018 list was developed, more information has surfaced about underlying material. This added to the possibility of documents for declassification:
♦ President Trump can prove the July 31st, 2016, Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence operation originated from a scheme within the intelligence apparatus by exposing the preceding CIA operation that created the originating “Electronic Communication” memo. Declassify that two-page “EC” document that Brennan gave to Comey. [The trail is found within the Weissmann report and the use of Alexander Downer – SEE HERE]
♦ Release and declassify all of the Comey memos that document the investigative steps taken by the FBI as an outcome of the operation coordinated by CIA Director John Brennan in early 2016. [The trail was memorialized by James Comey – SEE HERE]
♦ Reveal the November 2015 through April 2016 FISA-702 search query abuse by declassifying the April 2017 court opinion written by FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. Show the FBI contractors behind the 85% fraudulent search queries. [Crowdstrike? Fusion-GPS? Nellie Ohr? Daniel Richman?] This was a weaponized surveillance and domestic political spying operation. [The trail was laid down in specific detail by Judge Collyer – SEE HERE]
♦ Subpoena former DOJ-NSD (National Security Division) head John Carlin, or use U.S. Attorney John Durham to haul him in front of a grand jury, and get his testimony about why he hid the abuse from the FISA court in October 2016; why the DOJ-NSD rushed the Carter Page application to beat NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers to the FISA court; and why Carlin quit immediately thereafter.
♦ Prove the Carter Page FISA application (October 2016) was fraudulent and based on deceptions to the FISA Court. Declassify the entire document, and release the transcripts of those who signed the application(s); and/or depose those who have not yet testified. The creation of the Steele Dossier was the cover-up operation. [SEE HERE]
♦ Release all of the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages without redactions. Let sunlight pour in on the actual conversation(s) that were taking place when Crossfire Hurricane (July ’16) and the FISA Application (Oct ’16) were taking place. The current redactions were made by the people who weaponized the intelligence system for political surveillance and spy operation. This is why Page and Strzok texts are redacted!
♦ Release all of Bruce Ohr 302’s, FBI notes from interviews and debriefing sessions, and other relevant documents associated with the interviews of Bruce Ohr and his internal communications. Including exculpatory evidence that Bruce Ohr may have shared with FBI Agent Joseph Pientka. [And get a deposition from this Pientka fella] Bruce Ohr is the courier, carrying information from those outside to those on the inside.
♦ Release the August 2nd, 2017, two-page scope memo provided by DAG Rod Rosenstein to special counsel Robert Mueller to advance the fraudulent Trump investigation, and initiate the more purposeful obstruction of justice investigation. Also Release the October 20th, 2017, second scope memo recently discovered. The Scope Memos are keys to unlocking the underlying spy/surveillance cover-up. [SEE HERE and SEE HERE]
Forget the niceties; forget the institutional friendships; forget the need to preserve public opinion about the former DOJ and FBI officials. A significant portion of the American public already know the basic outlines… Release the details and let the chips fall where they may!
