Byron York has reported something several people noted several weeks ago; the Office of Inspector General for the DOJ, Michael Horowitz, has completed a separate carve-out investigation of former FBI Director James Comey and will soon publish a final report.

Via Washington Examiner – The Comey report is separate from a larger inspector general report on the DOJ’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe. That report, sometimes referred to by Republicans as an investigation into “FISA abuse,” is expected to be released later.
It is not clear why the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, chose to write a separate report on Comey.

(more…)

Everyone has been looking for a moment where we can determine the intents and motivation of U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.  Well, here is one…
According to reporting today from the New York Times, Washington DC U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has punted the decision on whether to indict former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe back to Main Justice, via Deputy AG Jeffrey Rosen.

All of our prior research into the DC U.S. Attorney’s office, specifically toward Jessie Liu, has identified her as -essentially- Rod Rosenstein in a skirt.  Attorney Liu’s DC office was responsible for not prosecuting the Awan Brothers; and also Liu’s office was responsible for covering up the leaking of the classified FISA application by SSCI Director of Security James Wolfe. Yes, covering it up – there is ZERO DOUBT.
Both cases were clear law-breaking, and both highly politically charged.
Today the Times is reporting on leaks from officials connected to the DC office of Ms. Liu, framing her deference of the McCabe indictment back to Main Justice.
Two former DC prosecutors who were involved in the McCabe decision are mentioned by name in the NYT reporting: former lead prosecutor Ms. Kamil Shields, and also former prosecutor David Kent.  It would be interesting to see if Shields and/or Kent were also involved in the Awan case or the James Wolfe case.
Here’s the substance of the NYT article [emphasis and names added by me]:
(more…)

Former FBI Director James Comey (aka participant “Z”) and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (likely participant “Y”) deliver responses to CNN about claims made by Overstock founder and former CEO Patrick Byrne.
Mr. Byrne claims he was recruited by FBI agents to conduct a counterintelligence operation and cultivate a relationship Russian national Maria Butina. [Full Backstory]
Mr. Byrne further alleged that top officials in the Obama administration, including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bill Priestap and John Carlin were involved in various aspects of the overall operation; which included FBI requests to Byrne which were carried by FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok to lower level FBI agents.
According to the responses presented by CNN, James Comey and Andrew McCabe deny ever participating in instructions to Mr. Byrne to engage in a “romantic” relationship with Maria Butina:

(Via CNN) […] Reached Thursday evening by CNN, Comey called Byrne’s claim “ridiculous.” “The FBI doesn’t work that way,” Comey said.

(more…)

Former CEO Patrick Byrne has given four primary interviews where he outlines his knowledge of a 2015 and 2016 political espionage operation being run by the FBI.

Fox News, MacCallum – Fox Business #1 – Fox Business #2 – CNN, Cuomo

After a review of the interviews, and extracting specific points therein, here’s an overview.
The substance of Mr. Byrne claims does seem to align with what we already know about the DOJ and FBI activity during the 2016 election cycle, including the FBI operations.

First, Patrick Byrne claims he has spoken to the DOJ on April 5th, 2019, and again on April 30th, 2019.  Mr. Byrne states he told the DOJ all of the information he was aware of during those two interviews covering approximately seven hours of questioning.
The current public statements Mr. Byrne is making are not with the approval of the DOJ or any investigators therein.  His decision to go public with this information comes as a result of conversations with a life-long mentor and confidant, Warren Buffett.  Mr. Byrne states he has known Warren Buffett since Byrne was a teenager and Mr. Buffett was in his mid-forties.
According to his CNN interview Byrne talked to Buffett in June of 2019 about how he could be a witness in the DOJ investigation authorized by Attorney General Bill Barr and being conducted by U.S. Attorney John Durham.  After listening to the details, Buffett recommended Mr. Byrne go public with the story.
However, in order to go public Byrne would need to separate himself from his role as CEO of Overstock, the company Byrne founded.  Mr. Byrne resigned yesterday, August 22nd.
(more…)

After appearing on Fox Business, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne appeared on Fox TV with Martha MacCallum.  In this interview Byrne explained his impetus for contacting the FBI in 2015, about Russian national Maria Butina, surrounded a low-level security clearance he held and a responsibility to report suspicious contacts.
Mr. Byrne then names Peter Strzok, Bill Priestap, Andrew McCabe and James Comey as the top of an operation where Byrne was instructed to guide Butina into the contact circle of republican presidential candidates in 2015, and then back away.
Curiously, if you get beyond the confusing mess of communication, what Byrne is describing does factually align with what is already known. However, Byrne is describing an aspect to the DOJ/FBI operation that has not been discussed very much.
Byrne is describing the DOJ-NSD and FBI using Russian national Maria Butina as an unwitting, walking, FISA surveillance virus.

.
In addition to Strzok, Priestap, McCabe and Comey, Patrick Byrne cites “Carlin” as one of the “suits” involved.  Carlin is likely a reference to John Carlin who was head of the DOJ-National Security Division until October 2016.
(more…)

Jumpin’ ju-ju beans this is interesting.  During a live broadcast on Fox Business the CEO of Overstock Inc, Patrick Byrne, explained the earlier announcement of why he was resigning as CEO from the company he created.
According to Patrick Byrne, due to an earlier relationship relating to Wall Street and assisting federal officials with an investigation therein, he was approached in/around 2015 to assist the FBI with another operation.  *UPDATE* Video added:

.
♦Byrne now says in 2015 and 2016 the FBI operation was part of a network of political surveillance being conducted by the FBI on presidential candidates.
♦Byrne names FBI Agent Peter Strzok as the person giving the instructions.
♦Byrne names: Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump as the four candidates under FBI surveillance, and/or inside an operation consisting of political espionage.
♦Byrne claims he was offered a $1 billion bribe to keep his mouth shut.
♦Byrne claims there are additional witnesses.
♦Byrne states he went to the DOJ in April 2019 (3rd – 10th), after Bill Barr was Attorney General, because he was informed that Barr was trustworthy and going to support.  Byrne told the DOJ everything that was happening.
(more…)

…Every minute spent outraged at what Muller did yesterday, is one minute less that Bill Barr is being held accountable for what he is not doing today…

Judicial Watch is fighting for one of the more critical buckets of “declassified documents” from within Spygate that has never made sense.  This goes to the heart of a two-year-long contention: Why were the Page/Strzok text messages redacted in the first place?  Why are their unredacted text messages being protected?  Who benefits from this roadblock?
The FBI wants to wait until AFTER the 2020 election to release the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages?  Whiskey – Tango – Foxtrot !   Enough.  This alone should be like a million warning flares shooting skyward simultaneously for those who demand justice.

(Judicial Watch Link)

These are critical questions.  Actually, long-standing and unresolved questions that we have carried for two years.  On December 1st, 2017, the day after Michael Flynn signed a coerced guilty plea, the first batch of text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok became public.   Who the hell released them?  Why? …and ultimately what national security issue exists that would require them to be redacted?
These are open, non-encrypted, messages – using government phones – between a DOJ lawyer assigned to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok.  The content did not travel through protected and/or classified systems. So why were the text messages redacted when they were made public?
(more…)

Delivering a statement directly from the files of ‘captain obvious‘ former AAG Matt Whitaker notes that everything about Bruce and Nellie Ohr was sketchy.

.
Political opposition research was paid for by Hillary Clinton and created by Fusion-GPS (Glenn Simpson and Nellie Ohr).  That oppo-research was then sent to Chrisopher Steele in the U.K. so he could launder the information and return it to the DOJ and FBI, through Bruce Ohr, as a semi-official “intelligence” product.
Within the released documents provided to Judicial Watch the last FBI interview of Bruce Ohr (May 15th, 2017) took place two days prior to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller; and one day before Rod Rosenstein took Mueller to the White House.
Throughout the interviews (full pdf below) Bruce Ohr was acting as the go-between delivering information from his wife Nellie Ohr at Fusion GPS and one of Fusion’s contract investigators, Christopher Steele.
(more…)

A U.S. District Judge has rejected the DOJ and FBI motion to block the release of the Archey Declarations (descriptions of Comey memos). [Background Here]
In a strongly worded ruling (full pdf below) released moments ago, Federal Judge James Boasberg blasted the DOJ and FBI for attempting to change their filings, claim national security “sources and methods”, and block his prior court ruling – which instructed the DOJ to release the “Archey Declarations”.  The judge is obviously angry:

It must strike readers as erroneous “with the force of a five-week-old, unrefrigerated dead fish.”…

[Backstory for those unfamilar] In the background of what was The Mueller Investigation, there was a FOIA case where the FBI was fighting to stop the release of the Comey memos.  Within that courtroom fight Mueller’s lead FBI agent David Archey wrote a series of declarations to the court describing the content of the memos and arguing why they should be kept classified.
The FOIA fight shifted; and the plaintiff, CNN, argued for public release of the content of the FBI agent’s descriptions, now known as the “Archey Declarations”.
After a lengthy back-and-forth legal contest, on June 7th Judge James E Boasberg agreed to allow the FBI to keep the Comey memo content hidden, but instructed the DOJ/FBI to release the content of the Archey Declarations.  On August 2nd the DOJ/FBI changed their position and claimed national security, “sources and methods” would be compromised by the release of the Archey Declarations.
Today Judge Boasberg completely rejected their argument:
(more…)

In a rather curious and quirky interview, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne describes a related aspect to the DOJ/FBI operations against candidate Donald Trump in 2016.
Byrne enters the story due to his romantic relationship with Maria Butina, a person charged by Robert Mueller as being a Russian intelligence operative.  In/around 2015 Byrne met and started a relationship with Butina, and later was enlisted by the FBI for assistance in their investigation of her.  [Sara Carter Backstory Here]
Mr. Byrne now describes all of that FBI activity as somewhat of a political espionage operation to spy on several 2016 candidates, collect dirt, and seemingly gain operational leverage.  WATCH:

(more…)