I apologize for the deep weed details, but this stuff will soon become critical. If James Comey is indicted for leaking the “Comey memos” suddenly the door opens wide to see how the Robert Mueller appointment was a coordinated ongoing ‘conspiracy’ effort to target Donald Trump.
Back in June 2017 CNN (and other media) filed a FOIA suit to gain the Comey memos. As the lawsuit progressed through a lengthy battle -where the Mueller team did not want to turn over those memos- Mueller’s lead FBI agent, David Archey, made sworn declarations to the court. Those statements became known as the “Archey Declarations”. Inside those declarations agent Archey provided a specific outline of the FBI and the memos.
There are two sets of documents that outline a very specific picture. Robert Mueller’s lead FBI Agent David Archey made sworn declarations to the court. However, at the time of his sworn statement, Archey did not have knowledge of an inside FBI “whistleblower” who provided information to DOJ Inspector General, Michael Horowitz.
There is a distinct conflict within the IG Horowitz report on James Comey (and memos) [Available Here] and the David Archey declarations [Available Here]. However, beyond the conflict there’s an even more alarming picture of how Robert Mueller was deployed, when all the information is overlaid in a timeline. A very clear picture emerges; very clear.
Note the date: Agent Archey states the “investigative team” came into full possession of the Comey memos: “on or by May 12th, 2017,”…
[Page #3 of Exhibit A – Archey Declarations]
The “investigative team” would be Andrew McCabe, Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and then James Baker as lead counsel for the group. The “Director’s staff” would be James Rybicki, who is identified by Archey as having “maintained” possession of the memos.
This “small group”, particularly Comey’s Chief of Staff, James Rybicki, is the center of the team. This team is also confirmed by the IG Horowitz report. This team had the memos on May 12th, 2017.
Now we move into the aspect where the motives and ideology become clear as we look at the IG custodial record of the memos, as outlined by the Supervisory Special Agent in charge of Comey’s documents within the IG report, compared to the Archey declarations.
The FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in charge of Comey’s document retrieval is the “whistleblower” who eventually went to the IG. I’ll explain why and how below; and to make understanding easier we shall use “SSA Whistleblower” to describe him.
♦ On May 10th, the Comey memos were not in Comey’s office [per IG report]. At the time of the search and review of Comey’s office there were no hard copies found by SSA Whistleblower.
Now, keep in mind “by May 12th” James Rybicki had all the Comey memos in his possession, per Mueller team FBI Agent David Archey.
♦On May 12th, SSA Whistleblower went to James Comey’s house along with James Rybicki and Deputy FBI Director David Bowditch.
During this May 12th visit James Comey never told SSA Whistleblower he had the memos in his personal safe. James Rybicki was also present for this retrieval visit and also never told SSA Whistleblower that he was holding the memos in his FBI HQ office.
♦On May 15th, three days later, James Rybicki then tells SSA Whistleblower he knows the location of the Comey memos; and Rybicki informs SSA Whistleblower he has additional relevant material.
From the IG Report: “Rybicki told the SSA that he did not tell anyone about the Memos during the May 10 inventory because he understood that process to only include Comey’s office.” Very sketchy.
At this point SSA Whistleblower had to suspect something sketchy was happening. Keep in mind the following day May 16th, 2017, Comey sent memo content to his friend Daniel Richman with instructions to leak to the New York Times. [Article published 5:00pm 5/16/17]
If Rybicki didn’t inform SSA Whistleblower on May 15 about the Comey memos, then SSA Whistleblower would have found out from leaked media reports the next day May 16.
If Rybicki didn’t tell SSA Whistleblower about the memos on May 15, then it would have looked like the ‘small group’ was hiding and leaking the memos.
An intellectually honest review of the timing, and considering Rybicki had indeed been hiding the memos, leads to the conclusion Rybicki knew the NYT leak was coming; Rybicki was coordinating with James Comey; and Rybicki/Comey were trying to avoid team scrutiny. [Further evidence of this surfaces in the Mueller contact timeline.]
By May 16th, 2017, SSA Whistleblower, had to see the sketchy nature of how this was unfolding. As a result this scenario from the IG report now makes sense:
♦ If we overlay the FBI “small group” contact with Robert Mueller an even more clear picture emerges.
“Crossfire Hurricane” – During 2016, after the November election and throughout the transition period and into 2017, the FBI had a counterintelligence investigation ongoing against Donald Trump. FBI Director James Comey’s memos were part of this time-period as the FBI small group was gathering evidence. Then Comey was fired….
♦Tuesday May 9th – James Comey was fired at approximately 5:00pm EST. Later we discover Rod Rosenstein first contacted Robert Mueller about the special counsel appointment less than 15 hours after James Comey was fired.
♦Wednesday May 10th – From congressional testimony we know DAG Rod Rosenstein called Robert Mueller to discuss the special counsel appointment on Wednesday May 10th, 2017, at 7:45am. [See Biggs questions to Mueller at 2:26 of video]
According to his own admissions (NBC and CBS), Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe immediately began a criminal ‘obstruction’ investigation. Wednesday May 10th; and he immediately enlisted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
A few hours after the Rosenstein-Mueller phone call James Comey’s office was being searched by the SSA Whistleblower per the IG report on Comey’s memos.
♦Thursday May 11th – Andrew McCabe testified to congress. With the Comey firing fresh in the headlines. McCabe testified there had been no effort to impede the FBI investigation.
Also on Thursday May 11th, 2017, The New York Times printed an article, based on information seemingly leaked by James Comey, about a dinner conversation between the President and the FBI Director. The “Loyalty” article [link]. The IG report shows: “[Daniel] Richman confirmed to the OIG that he was one of the sources for the May 11 article, although he said he was not the source of the information in the article about the Trump Tower briefing“.
♦Friday May 12th – Andrew McCabe met with DAG Rod Rosenstein to discuss the the ongoing issues with the investigation and firing. 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)
According to Andy Biggs questioning of Mueller, on this same day, May 12th, evidence shows Robert Mueller met “in person” with Rod Rosenstein. This is the same day when SSA Whistleblower went to James Comey’s house to retrieve FBI material and both Rybicki and Comey never informed the agent about the memos:
May 12th is the date noted by David Archey when FBI investigators had assembled all of the Comey memos as evidence. However, no-one in the FBI outside the “small group” knows about them.
♦On Saturday May 13th, 2017, another meeting between Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller, this time with AG Jeff Sessions also involved. [Per Andy Biggs]
♦Sunday May 14th – Comey transmitted copies of Memos 2, 4, and 6, and a partially redacted copy of Memo 7 to Patrick Fitzgerald, who was one of Comey’s personal attorneys. Fitzgerald received the email and PDF attachment from Comey at 2:27 p.m. on May 14, 2017, per the IG report.
♦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.”
On this same day was when James Rybicki called SSA Whistleblower to notify him of Comey’s memos. The memos were “stored” in a “reception area“, and in locked drawers in James Rybicki’s office.
♦Tuesday May 16th – Per the IG report: “On the morning of May 16, Comey took digital photographs of both pages of Memo 4 with his personal cell phone. Comey then sent both photographs, via text message, to Richman”
On this same day Rod Rosenstein takes Robert Mueller to the White House for a meeting in the oval office between President Trump, VP Pence, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein. While they were meeting in the oval office, the following story was published by the New York Times (based on Comey memo leaks to Richman):
Also, during the approximate time of this Oval Office meeting, Peter Strzok texts with Lisa Page about information relayed to him by Tashina Guahar (main justice) on behalf of Rod Rosenstein (who is at the White House).
Later that night, after the Oval Office meeting – According to the Mueller report, additional events on Tuesday May 16th, 2017:
Interesting that Tashina Gauhar was taking notes presumably involved in the 5/16/17 meeting between, Lisa Page, Rod Rosenstein, and Andrew McCabe.
This meeting at Main Justice appears to be happening in the evening (“later that night”) after the visit to the White House with Robert Mueller. This meeting appears to be Lisa Page, Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe; along with Tashina Gauhar taking notes.
Why is the Tuesday May 16th, 2017, date of additional importance?
♦ Wednesday May 17th, 2017: Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe go to brief the congressional “Gang-of-Eight”: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin 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.
What is clear from a review of all the related and released information is the FBI small group (McCabe, Page, Strzok, Rybicki, Baker) were hiding the ongoing FBI investigation from other FBI officials (including the SSA Whistleblower), inside the department after Comey was fired.
McCabe launched a “criminal investigation” (obstruction) May 10th, and Rosenstein was in immediate contact with Robert Mueller about being a special counsel after conversations with the FBI small group. The small group were then releasing information to their media allies, and hiding the releases from FBI agents outside the small group; until they no longer needed to do so (May 15).
On May 15th, it appears the SSA whistleblower was finally notified of the Comey memos because the small group already knew Robert Mueller was going to be appointed.
Comey, his lawyers and Lawfare allies, together with the small group, coordinated to leak and publish the NYT article (May 16th) the day Mueller was interviewing President Trump in the oval office. They knew Mueller was going to be appointed the following day, May 17th. The NYT leak was cover and ammunition for Rod Rosenstein to fulfill his role.
This is the Special Counsel as the insurance policy deployed.
Everything was a set up by the small group; exclusively executed by the small group; kept hidden from other FBI agents and officials; and Mueller’s visit with President Trump was part of that investigative effort.
This overall conspiracy/plan is why the FBI SSA turned to Inspector General Michael Horowitz and requested Whistleblower protection. This is also why IG Horowitz was motivated to carve out the Comey memos in his report.
KEY POINT – OIG Michael Horowitz outlined the Special Counsel appointment as fraudulently predicated.
Because FBI Agent David Archey was not part of the original team (he did not join until August 2017); and because Archey had no idea a whistleblower had gone to the FBI when he wrote his declarations; David Archey wrote about the FBI investigative team having all of the copies of the memos on May 12th, 2017.
FBI Agent David Archey was unaware the ‘small group‘ had kept the Comey memos hidden from the FBI SSA Whistleblower until May 15th, 2017; so he inadvertently exposed their assembled disposition prior to the ‘small group’ admissions to the SSA.
Lastly….
♦ June 1st, 2017 – After the “small group” had successfully organized the operation to get Robert Mueller appointed, then this same team sat down to classify the material that might expose their efforts to set up the special counsel appointment.
They knew about the leak from Comey to Richman and then to the New York Times on the 16th of May, but this group then told Inspector General Horowitz they didn’t know Comey shared his memos during their discussions on June 1st.
Prosecute James Comey for releasing classified information, and the background of all the FBI ‘small group’ effort comes into play. Michael Horowitz would even be a good witness for the prosecution. Their effort led to the appointment of Robert Mueller and the team of Lawfare operatives who targeted the office of the president for two years.
This was a conspiracy against rights, including the right of the American voter to have a functioning administration.
Sundance, no one can comb through the weeds, find all of the bits of information, then assemble them in a coherent report, then present it so even a person such as myself can understand it. This report should be placed as evidence and used to put the rope around all of their necks, in my humble opinion. This was like reading a Columbo crime drama except this is real.
Lets also prosecute Rod Rosenstein since his fingerprints are all over everything!
Maybe it’s because of the manner the timeline is presented … but Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein (who also was the source of ALL the verbal and written Instructions to the Mueller Team) appears as the pivot point at nearly stop along the timeline … in the Article Above.
He also would have been made aware of the contents of IG Horowitz’s investigation … in position to help bury the right parts .. while leaving just enough exposed to allow some finger wagging at naughty agents.
Rosenstein was also the author of the Summary Cover Letter to IG Horowitz’s REPORT … that DID NOT even match the few files of evidence posted here on CTH by Sundance. that summary essentially said .. yep some naughty stuff happened but nothing serious to see.
Rosenstein was the junction (CENTRAL) point each step along the way of the conspiracy.
Now the $64,000 question is … who was running Rosenstein??
Sundance’s timeline and article also explains why AG Barr terminated the Mueller Investigation with NO Action required.
Tashina Gauhar
She just disappeared, didn’t she. Was she ever called in to testify before Congress, preferably under oath?
Use your preferred search engine and you get practically no information about her. Looking like another CIA embedded at DOJ.
Wow! I think I have my mind mostly around this sequence of hiding the memos until they could be leaked to create publicity momentum and then support appointment of special prosecutor after initiating the obstruction investigation. Reasonable suspicion would point to likely coordination among the conspirators along the way. So, my question is this: is there a legal mechanism to access the NSA data base for texts and phone calls that are not yet in the records? The resulting precedent would be of glow-in-the-dark magnitude but might have collateral benefit to the 702 renewal issue. Nothing says “I love you” like hiring a private investigator to follow and monitor, and that’s how much our our government loves us.
Knowing what we know now about Judas Pence, I think you should have bolded VP Pence’s name in your recap of the events of May 16, 2017. I want someone to FOIA his emails and text messages to see if he was present as a “faithful GOP witness” in an attempt to seem apolitical if the whole thing blew up. You know he could be drawn into the Fauci investigation too as covid task force chair. By 2021, he became a known traitor. Was he one behind closed doors in 2017? Or did they “flip” him later??
Excellent detailed timeline. I hope it gets to the appropriate investigators/prosecutors so they can “start asking the right *!&%# questions”.
I’ve thought this for a while SD and if the Republic is ultimately saved from the corruption, Intel community shenanigans, and the communist/globalist attacks to divide us and destroy the “Shining city on the hill”, it will be in part due to your research and the platform you created on the web that helped shine the light.
If President Trump ever creates his heroes garden, I hope your efforts are recognized with a place in the garden.
God bless you and protect you.
When I read all this stuff, deep in the weeds, and how SD puts it together…..and then realize SD is not a lawyer? It just proves to me how deeply intelligent he is. Beyond most mortal beings. No doubt about it.
No one can put this stuff in context, with citations etc…..Not like this!
Not 1 lawyer in the Government that Ive ever read, or anyone online, can do this stuff, so tightly! And if such lawyers or people exist in Government, they have sat on their arses for years, letting all this slide. Or they were threatened to keep their eyes blinded. Not sure which, but no one does it like our host.
Very impressive. And it is about time the DC people, who are at least, not all the way corrupt, start listening and reading what SD has to say! The totality of the evidence with distinct timelines is beyond dispute at this point.
Good work SD!
There it is, in black and white.
Conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people, who elected this man to be President.
Why? Because he is not part of “the Club.”
Because he is breaking their rice bowls.
Because he is overturning their globalist “New World Order.”
He is all that stands between us and the camps the Democommunists want to put us in.
This was perhaps the most suprising statement. to me.
“ Everything was a set up by the small group; exclusively executed by the small group; kept hidden from other FBI agents and officials; and Mueller’s visit with President Trump was part of that investigative effort.”
Most have assumed the players were a much bigger group. It appears it was a small group who then carefully directed compartmentalised investigations and inquiries.
In terms of prosecution this is a big step forward. Freezing the target and limiting the players. A jury would have serious trouble with a prosecution that relied on a core group and a bunch of shadow players somewhere we dont have names for.
Obviously this small group was put on this task with probably nothing more then a whisper in an ear. It is possible it was self contained with perhaps Comey being the root of it. If there was an outside whispered order you can asssume it was a single whisperer acting for another compartmentalized group outside the FBI. That would lead other intresting places but that point neeeds to be mute for now.
Sundance has put together the actual control agents within the FBI. We need to freeze this target understand they are not genius masterminds. They are burecrates, clumsy and ham handed, acting out their mission believing they were super spies.
I think a Jury will need a permanent poster display of the conspiraters photos and the specific information flows between them as well as the critical bi-pass of the memos around the SSA
I wonder if Rybicki carried the documents out in his pants? Would he walk into an inventory control zone carring a brief case? (wondering if their is any security camera footage of the reception area stored somewhere if only for dramatic effect.)
The “beauty” of their plan also contained the seeds of their downfall in 2026 because all of these people working together starting in 2017 have engaged in a conspiracy and conspiracy in some cases has no statute of limitations.
It’d be interesting to see who they use internally as an unindicted co-conspirator to tumble the house of cards–I wonder if it’ll be Lisa Page?
Stroker is still very involved in Lawfare.
From Brave AI
Peter Strzok is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he teaches undergraduate courses such as IPOL 323: Counterintelligence and National Security.
He joined Georgetown in fall 2020 after his termination from the FBI in August 2018.
He also works as a private-sector consultant and commentator on national security, election integrity, and cybersecurity, while continuing to write and speak publicly about his government experiences.
Strzok co-hosts a podcast and remains active on social media, particularly Twitter, where he discusses law enforcement and political accountability.
Key recent developments:
Sundance, many thanks for posting this article and uncovering the deep corruption within our government, so that even a simpleton like me can understand it.
Since the beginning of President Trump’s first term, and throughout the 2020 coup, and even now in his 2nd term, it is made clear that the IC, Congress, Senate, and other government entities have strived to overthrow the will of We The People.
And we were forced to pay for it!
Great work Sundance!