The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General review of DOJ and FBI conduct in the Clinton investigation has been ongoing for over 17 months. That’s a long time for a single investigation, and with good reason. The scale of the misconduct is staggering.
John Spiropoulos, a former TV news reporter at WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, has created a series of video reports as a reminder on the background on the crime, the coverup and the corruption. Here’s the series:
The transcript from the U.S. Special Counsel -vs- Paul Manafort has been released (full pdf below). The entire transcript of the arguments between the Special Counsel lawyers, Paul Manafort Lawyers and Federal Judge T.S. Ellis III are well worth reading.
As noted yesterday Judge Ellis is the first legal entity to identify the origin of the special counsel investigative authority as a troubling issue. This is likely to become a much bigger story as people catch on to the ramifications.
It is only now coming to light how Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein essentially appointed the Special Counsel to take over the counterintelligence investigation originally begun by the FBI in 2016. Also previously unknown: part of the initiating mandate included the special counsel being granted use of a sketchy FISA Court Title-1 surveillance warrant initially applied against Carter Page in October 2016.
Asst. AG Rod Rosenstein gave the special counsel the counterintelligence investigation and also gave them FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant authority; which allowed Robert Mueller to retrieve all communications (e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g) belonging to any person, entity or group, within two-hops of former unofficial campaign aide Carter Page. By extension this covered almost all the campaign officials, and also most of the Trump administration.
This is a critical point often misunderstood. When Mueller was appointed in May 2017, they began a criminal investigation (Title 3) by taking over the FBI counterintelligence investigation (Title 1). By design the counter-intel structure meant the special counsel had access to the entire gamut of active surveillance on almost every official in the Trump Administration; and every official in congress – without having to get a search warrant.
The New York Times is now reporting former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker has resigned from the FBI. This follows a similar announcement for Lisa Page.
James Baker and Lisa Page were part of the “fab five” (Baker, Page, Strzok, Ohr, Priestap) previously suspected as cooperating with IG and FBI INSD investigators in exchange for some form of process leniency. James Baker was removed from his position as FBI Chief Legal Counsel on December 21st, 2017. He has been holding down some previously unknown position inside the FBI until today.
WASHINGTON — Two top F.B.I. aides who worked alongside the former director James B. Comey as he navigated one of the most politically tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history resigned on Friday.
One of them, James A. Baker, served as the F.B.I.’s top lawyer until December when he was reassigned as the new director, Christopher A. Wray, began installing his own advisers. Mr. Baker had been investigated by the Justice Department on suspicion of sharing classified information with reporters. He has not been charged.
Former FBI Deputy Director James Kallstrom appeared on Tucker Carlson to discuss the context of the ongoing Special Counsel investigation by Robert Mueller and his assigned team of investigators. Within the discussion Mr. Kallstrom provides some historic context for current events.
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CTH is going to expand an outline of the Mueller probe origin, and current disposition, utilizing the latest information and contrast against the timeline of Deputy Director Rod Rosenstein. More on that soon.
Michael Caputo appears on Fox News for a general discussion of his third experience being grilled by Hillary Clinton’s Legal Team within the Clinton-Mueller Special Counsel.
However, one of the interesting bits of information is where Mr. Caputo notes the Clinton-Mueller team have the personal emails, phone call logs, communications and even text messages of every targeted member of the investigation. This little factoid is jaw-dropping important because it highlights the underlying reason why Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein needed to grant a July 2017 extension of the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant (initiated against Carter Page); that was actually being utilized by the FBI to conduct political surveillance of these same Trump officials.
Without the July 2017 FISA extension, Robert Mueller would not have predicate investigative authority to reach into the accounts of his targets and extract their personal communication. Mueller would have needed to go to court for a search warrant; he is conducting a criminal investigation; he would have needed probable cause. However, by applying the 2016 extended FISA Title-1 warrant, the Clinton-Mueller special counsel used the previous legal authority to extract all the information they wanted to review.
It was not unexpected to see NBC shift their earlier reporting on the surveillance of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and attempt to walk-back the most troubling of issues. In a correction to earlier reporting NBC changes the story from federal authorities (ie. Robert Mueller and the corrupt FBI group) “wiretapping” the phones and communication devices of Cohen, to federal authorities “monitoring” the phones and devices of Cohen.
NBC – CORRECTION: Earlier today, NBC News reported that there was a wiretap on the phones of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal attorney, citing two separate sources with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
But three senior U.S. officials now dispute that, saying that the monitoring of Cohen’s phones was limited to a log of calls, known as a pen register, not a wiretap where investigators can actually listen to calls. NBC News has changed the headline and revised parts of the original article. (link)
The reason for the imprecise shift is obvious. If everyone understood how Robert Mueller’s investigation was merely an extension, an “insurance policy” per se, of the prior originating FBI Counterintelligence operation against Trump, then people would begin to ask uncomfortable questions.
Whether the FBI was actively listening in-on Michael Cohen’s calls; or whether the FBI was merely monitoring who, what, where and how, those calls were taking place, doesn’t diminish the reality that Robert Mueller was –and is– conducting wide-scale surveillance on President Trump and any entity associated with his administration.
That reality, accidentally released by the initial NBC reporting, is considered an uncomfortable risk to the Mueller investigation. The last thing Team Mueller team want people to understand is how they are simply continuing a political investigation that began two years ago under false and unlawful pretense.
The 16-month Inspector General review of the DOJ/FBI investigation of the Hillary Clinton email is soon to be made public. The IG inquiry is specifically looking into whether the FBI investigation was corrupted by political influence in their determination of the Clinton outcome. The preliminary investigative outcomes speak for themselves.
As a result of the known OIG investigative findings already the top FBI and DOJ officials in charge of the Clinton investigation have been fired, demoted or removed from responsibility: Director James Comey (fired), Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (fired), FBI Legal Counsel James Baker (removed – status unknown); FBI investigative Agent Peter Strzok (demoted, reassigned); DOJ special counsel to McCabe, Lisa Page, (removed, reassigned); and DOJ Deputy AAG Bruce Ohr (demoted, twice).
Additionally other officials resigned immediately after the preliminary IG findings were made public: FBI Communications Director Mike Kortan (quit); Director Comey Chief-of-Staff, Jim Rybicki (quit); DOJ-NSD DAAG Mary McCord (quit); DOJ Deputy AAG David Laufman (quit). In total, almost no-one within the “small group” conducting the Clinton email investigation has survived initial Office of Inspector General scrutiny.
The OIG review of the DOJ and FBI conduct has taken a long time; and with good reason. The scale of the misconduct is staggering. John Spiropoulos, a former TV news reporter at WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, has created a series of video reports as a reminder on the background on the crime, the coverup and the corruption.
Former federal prosecutor, Mayor of New York and presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani is now one of the lawyers for President Donald Trump.
Tonight Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity for a wide-ranging interview of current events and issues. Giuliani discussed the ongoing resistance efforts from the Clinton embeds inside the Robert Mueller team; and also discussed the “personal heartbreak” felt by President Trump toward the conduct of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.
Additionally, Giuliani discussed the attacks against the Trump allies, former campaign aides, the Trump family and the other legal representatives of Donald Trump including Michael Cohen. The institutional media apparatus is going bananas over this interview.
Michael Caputo appears on television with Tucker Carlson (Fox) and Anderson Cooper (CNN) to discuss his three-hour inquisition by Hillary Clinton’s “small group” #Resistance lawyers within the Robert Mueller special counsel team.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested another delay in the sentencing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, citing the status of the special counsel’s investigation.
WASHINGTON DC – Lawyers for both special counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump’s former national security adviser want two more months until Michael Flynn is sentenced.
In a court filing in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, Mueller’s office asks for a postponement “due to the status of the special counsel’s investigation.”
