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:
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey appears on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the ongoing issues with the special counsel appointed by Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Mr. Mukasey’s largest point of concern is how the Special Counsel was initiated, and the lack of public knowledge of the investigative intent.
Andrew McCarthy discusses the origin of the feces. Specifically, how Robert Mueller was not assigned a criminal investigation, but instead given instructions to continue the FBI counterintelligence investigation originated by FBI Agent Peter Strzok in 2016.
This investigative framework is what Judge T.S. Ellis III (EDVA) challenged on Friday morning. The special counsel originated their Russian conspiracy investigation through exploitation of a Title-1 FISA warrant against Carter Page. The special counsel then seeks to merge the results of that 2017 Russia investigation authority into Title-3 criminal cases that have absolutely nothing to do with Russian investigations; see: Paul Manafort and 2004 and 2007 banking and tax issues(?). None of it makes a lick of sense.
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.
The Daily Caller is reportingLisa Page has resigned from the FBI. If accurate this would indicate her internal investigative usefulness has run its course. This would align with those who expect the IG report to come out soon [likely May 18].
DAILY CALLER: The FBI attorney who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with another bureau official resigned on Friday, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The FBI confirmed that the lawyer, Lisa Page, tendered her resignation.
Page has faced months of scrutiny over the text messages, which she exchanged with Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. (more)
Lisa Page was assigned to be Special Counsel to FBI Deputy Andrew McCabe in 2015. It was Lisa Page’s testimony to FBI Inspection Division (INSD) investigators and the DOJ Inspector General that ended up delivering her text messages on July 20th, 2017.
Page was instrumental in the initial phases of the internal investigation. During mid-summer questioning about leaks to media former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said he did not authorize Lisa Page to talk to media. This contradicted Mrs. page. To prove her side of the story Lisa Page provided the text messages. Thus the first investigative thread was pulled, eventually revealing massive internal corruption at the top levels of the DOJ and FBI.
One of the most frequent questions about Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein circles around his decision to reauthorize the FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant used against Carter Page and by extension the Trump campaign. In this outline we take the timeline and overlay new information that helps to understand what was going on:
Why did Rosenstein renew that sketchy FISA warrant July 18th, 2017?
Why did Mueller request clarity two weeks later on August 2nd, 2017?
To understand the dynamic we must remind ourselves what was known at key dates in the investigative decision-making. None of this is intended to exhibit an opinion toward the motives of those making decisions; however, in hindsight we can clearly outline what was known and what was not known at the time these decisions were made.
Recently we have gained clarity toward the scope of investigative evidence held by Robert Mueller. Thanks to some debriefing interviews by ‘witness’ Michael Caputo we more thoroughly understand what evidence is held by Robert Mueller; and, more importantly the scale of that evidence leads to a reasonable conclusion about how it was obtained.
It appears Special Counsel Robert Mueller began his investigation of Russian interference and the possibility of Trump campaign collusion, right where the FBI counterintelligence operation left-off. This is additionally supported by reviewing the original investigative instructions as outlined by Rod Rosenstein the day Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel:
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.
A report by NBC that Michael Cohen’s phones and email accounts are being “wiretapped” and under surveillance by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation unit has gained attention today. However, there should be no real surprise in the reporting.
When the special counsel was initiated and authorized by Rod Rosenstein, there was a transfer of investigative authority from the FBI to Robert Mueller. This is the underpinning of the “Insurance Policy”, as originally begun via the original FISA surveillance warrant granted in October of 2016. The only thing that changed was who was conducting the investigation.
The appointment of the Special Counsel merely transferred the ongoing investigation from inside the FBI counterintelligence unit (Page, Strzok, Ohr, Priestap, etc.) to Robert Mueller (Aaron Zelby, Andrew Weissman, etc.). The ongoing SC (Mueller) investigation is identical in every way, sans the name changed for the participants. The current Mueller investigation is the same one initiated by the FBI in 2016; that is what is hidden in the redactions of instructions by Rod Rosenstein. (See pdf below):
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.
