CNN reports.
A former top counterintelligence expert at the FBI, now at the center of a political uproar for exchanging private messages that appeared to mock President Donald Trump, changed a key phrase in former FBI Director James Comey's description of how former secretary of state Hillary Clinton handled classified information, according to US officials familiar with the matter.
Electronic records show Peter Strzok, who led the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server as the No. 2 official in the counterintelligence division, changed Comey's earlier draft language describing Clinton's actions as "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," the sources said....
"Grossly negligent" is the mental element needed under federal law to make mishandling of classified material a crime.
And CNN has also learned that Strzok was the FBI official who signed the document officially opening an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to sources familiar with the matter....
Strzok was fired from the Mueller team because of anti-Trump messages he exchanged with an FBI lawyer.
Posts
176 comments:
It looks like he also led the ambush interview of Mike Flynn at the White House.
A-HAH!
It doesn't matter. Mueller and the deep state are hell-bent on sending obstruction of Justice charges for firing Comey. This was always a slow motion coup.
Clinton gets investigated by her supporters and FBI agents on her payroll. Trump gets investigated by Clinton supporters and FBI agents on her payroll. See it's all even.
That clown gets around!
Strzok not only changed "grossly negligent" and interviewed Flynn, he interviewed Hillary and signed off on opening the Trump Russia investigation based on the Dossier.
"An FBI lawyer"
Well, that's a cute euphemism. How about the FBI lawyer who was his adulterous boinkee?
I'm sorry, can someone please tell me what saint Trump lights a votive candle to so that he gets enemies like these? I mean, the man is absolutely blessed by God in the choice of his enemies.
And what was the FBI thinking to put this clown on the Special Investigation team? They don't have to have known about his extracurricular activities, they should have just said that his involvement with the HRC investigation makes for bad optics.
This man is an FBI agent. He took an oath. Goddamit where I come from, a real man knows that sometimes for the mission to succeed, he's gotta take one for the team. Strzok knew that from day one, that his presence was a hazard to the investigation. But, no, he just wanted to kick Trump in the balls.
Fuck these people. This is how we got Trump & will get more.
It's like he was the Forrest Gump present at every major event... Except he wasn't just present, he was the bad apple in every barrel.
YH complains: This is how we got Trump & will get more.
Some of us are glad we got Trump and will be happy to get more. So there's that.
@mock,
Some of us are glad we got Trump and will be happy to get more. So there's that.
Actually, I voted for the man, & do defend him here, as you might note.
I'm just mystified, though, as to how his detractors just seem utterly (and I do mean utterly) oblivious to how much their corruption & incompetence led to his rise.
If you ever saw my FB feed, MT, you'd understand the source of my teeth-gnashing.
This is getting more and more like the plot of 'Animal House' every day.
"And all at one Strzok, the investigation comes unglued."
Dumbing crime down so the Clintons can get away with it.
America! laws do not apply to the D-party. Nope.
Sounds like a hero and a principled man. First he saved Hillary Clinton from an unjustified charge. Then he opened the investigation on the evil election meddling by the Trump campaign. And then he sends anti-Trump messages, as all good people do.
What's not to like? You don't want good people at the FBI?
Another day, another link in the chain of command.
Well, two. Americans first in America. A native revival.
"Grossly negligent" is the mental element needed under federal law to make mishandling of classified material a crime.
hacks, liars, corruption - We really do need to drain the swamp.
@MikeR
And then he sends anti-Trump messages, as all good people do.
And don't forget he's probably hung like a moose & can touch his eyebrows with his tongue.
On keeping with the times he was busted Strzoking off in the office.
@YH: "a real man knows that sometimes for the mission to succeed, he's gotta take one for the team. Strzok knew that from day one, that his presence was a hazard to the investigation."
You are right, of course. But they acted with impunity in the Hill case, they effectively protected O's people for 8 years, and they had the swamp behind them in trying to Get Trump. He and the FBI could reasonably assume that the hazard was minimal. Absolute arrogance corrupts absolutely.
That's some extremely careful wording.
BamaBadgOR: "Strzok not only changed "grossly negligent" and interviewed Flynn, he interviewed Hillary and signed off on opening the Trump Russia investigation based on the Dossier."
Yeah, he "interviewed" Hillary.
Not under oath. No cameras. No notes.
That is the kind of "interview" for which only Alinsky or LLR Chuck would approve.
And very lawyerly.
But he has an FBI jacket. That makes it all OK!
Are we next going to learn that Lois Lerner supervised an audit of Trump's taxes?
I'm sorry, can someone please tell me what saint Trump lights a votive candle to so that he gets enemies like these?
YH, quoted you on Twitter, hope you don't mind.
A tally I'm pretty sure that there's no need for any finding of motive when it comes to mishandling of classified materials. I'm not an expert but I believe the point is if you screwed up you should be doing time. Intent had nothing to do with said violations. I think the fac t the "grossly negligent" is used as a legal categorization would be why that phrase is more damaging.
This becomes all the more interesting when you look at the FBI's unresponsiveness about this guy. I heard Comey was defending the integrity of the Bureau again today. If only he'd worried about the integrity of the Bureau when he still worked there.
Trump isn't so much the teflon president as the rubber one. It's uncanny how the charges against him have a tendency to bounce back on his accusers........Still, its good to see the left defending the FBI, raising suspicions about Russia, and denouncing the loose morals in Hollywood. I never thought I'd see such a trifecta in my lifetime.
Just think, the FBI was stretched so thin they had to be rabid and publicly partisan Hillary supporter in charge of the Russia "Investigation", "interviewing" Hillary but not under oath and with no notes or recordings (which is apparently SOPFD (Standard Operating Procedure For Democrats)) and targeting Flynn in the fake collusion hoax/coverup investigation.
And on top of it all, Mueller and Comey covered up the fact that he was removed AS WELL AS the IG investigation into the politicization of the FBI and DOJ.
Man, that's the kind of CV that makes one a hero to left.
William: " It's uncanny how the charges against him have a tendency to bounce back on his accusers..."
Well, that happens when your opponents are purposely projecting onto you the very things they are guilty of.
"Peter Strzok — the fired Mueller team member — was responsible for the words "extremely careless" that got Hillary off the hook for her email problem."
It appears he was responsible for a lot more than that.
If history is a guide, Inga will show up in this thread about 3 am.
The big mystery to me is why Jeff Sessions or the new FBI chief can’t make the FBI and DOJ provide the subpoena’d information to congress. I really wonder if the demos have some sort of damning information on Sessions that has paralyzed him.
etbass, didn't Sessions 'recuse' himself from the investigative process?
@gbarto,
I'm sorry, can someone please tell me what saint Trump lights a votive candle to so that he gets enemies like these?
YH, quoted you on Twitter, hope you don't mind.
I suspect that only Catholics, Eastern Orthodox & Anglicans will get the joke. If my quote makes you any money, donate some to your local poor-box for the salvation of my soul. It looks like I-ma gonna need all the help I can get.
So, who believes Strzok's biases were unknown in the FBI? Were they as unknown as Matt Lauer's habits were in his organization?
So how does this sound. Strzok is picked because he is "reliable", i.e. Biased and corrupt. He is removed, discreetly and without rancor, when he demolishes deniability by creating a paper trail, but Mueller et all keep it under wraps, even stonewalling multiple explicit requests from their congressional oversight because it hasn't come out yet, and might not.
Sure that is speculation and full of unproven leaps. Is it any less plausible than what we hear daily from the dems?
Mueller needs to explain. I think he actually needs to resign.
Andrew McCarthy at NRO is correct. The left are going for impeachment.
Trump fired Comey and they plan to impeach him over it.
Sessions needs to grow a pair and suspend the Mueller investigation until they clean house at the FBI or is it the FIB?
DB@H
That is not news. That has been the stated goal since about the second Wednesday of November 2016. Give or take a day in either direction.
KenB
The odds of Mueller resigning are precisely zero. His ability to earn a D.C. sinecure would drop to zero immediately and he knows how and why his bread is buttered.
But this is NOT Democrats versus Republicans. This is the Deep State versus the election by a nation's citizens.
This is about the ability of a nation to stand, divided.
If history is a guide, Inga will show up in this thread about 3 am.
Inga will be fast asleep in her nice warm bed dreaming of impeachment at 3AM.
@Dickin,
The left are going for impeachment.
But impeachment has never worked. The only president who might have been impeached resigned.
The problem with a move as radical on the American political scene as impeachment is that the accusers have to be as pure as Caesar's wife or it doubles back on them. Remember, the impeachment of Clinton took out two Republican Speakers of the House when it was discovered that they, too, were adulterers. The primary political victim of Clinton's impeachment was Newt Gingrich.
They assigned Strzok to the HR Department--apparently being sent to Alaska was too good for him.
Strzok was fired from the Mueller team because of anti-Trump messages he exchanged with an FBI lawyer.”
With whom he was sleeping. Actually they weren’t sleeping as far as we know. But looking at his pic he’d have to be a big shot to get laid. FTFY.
“didn't Sessions 'recuse' himself from the investigative process?”
He did recuse himself but requiring his own people to comply with a congressional subpoena doesn’t seem like involvement in an investigation. And why doesnt the new FBI director require it?
So I guess CNN isn't always fake news?
steve uhr:
Statements against interest are admissible hearsay. Even when we might normally doubt the veracity or a statement, we believe that if the speaker is saying something against their own interests the likelihood is much higher that the statement is true.
You were saying, about CNN?
Forget all the drama about the server. The tragedy is we had a “spill” and we denied the best data to those who clean up, so we failed to protect those who were helping us. Printing out the emails to have our lawyers sift thru them for months, only to deliver the smallest portion as printed on paper was exactly the wrong thing to do if we wanted to avoid having little seven-year-old daughters dipped in tar and hung on a fence as examples that we cannot be trusted to keep our promises. Where the responsible thing to do was to declare the spill, and give the digital version, all of it without attempting to edit it down, of what we spilled into the hands of those that know how to clean up, no matter how much it embarrasses us, even puts us in legal jeopardy. Especially since we know we can ask a Title3 judge to protect our interests as if we’d never handed over the data, and they will. There is no one with higher security clearances than a Title3 judge. Well, ok, what does it matter? We go to our deathbed hearing that little girl screaming, and her mother trying to jump in after her. If there’s justice in the world.
Trump must be living right. Maybe it is being a teetotaler. The FBI is caught with its pants down here, letting the same guy who got Crooked Hillary off the hook have a prominent role in the Russian interference and Flynn investigations. And Mueller is caught protecting him and the FBI. We all knew that the investigation was purely political, to delegitimize Trump and his Administration. This is, essentially, the smoking gun. Without him, they could maybe brazen it out. Not any longer. We all know now that both Clinton's exoneration and these investigations were handled by a rabid Crooked Hillary supporter with an FBI badge. This is all suspect. Maybe Trump will wait to see what the IG finds, but an independent prosecutor investigating the top of the FBI, the handling of the Clinton investigations, and Mueller investigating the Trump team for non-crimes might be well justified. In particular, if the FBI wants to get its reputation back, instead of falling down in public estimation to ATF and IRS levels, they need to be seen welcoming such an examination.
He should be executed. Just kidding! He should be disbarred, at the least. Fuck this guy.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/12/a-possible-defense-of-michael-flynn.php?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=sw&utm_campaign=sw
Not just texts to an FBI lawyer, an FBI lawyer who worked for McCabe and with whom Strzok was having an affair, and her mom and Dad are rabid anti trumpers tweeting all kinds of anti trump things. I wonder how mush classified info they have, how much they leaked?
Let me guess..his code name is Behind the Green Door.
If Flynn does not file a motion to withdraw his coerced guilty plea he should at least sue his lawyer for not filing one.
You simply cannot be pressured into a guilty plea, as an American citizen, by a law enforcement team that harbors people who have a political and hidden partisan agenda against you, or against people you associate with. Well, you can, but you shouldn't.
Then again Flynn made 4 star when Obama was commander in chief, so it is no surprise he does not expect the world to be fair (in this case, to his detriment).
The Deep State leaks like a sieve when it comes to investigations of Trump. But when it comes to one of its own, its lips are sealed. Will we ever see these (presumably very) damning emails that forced Mueller's hand? It is becoming more and more clear to me that Trump needs to fire Mueller and Sessions, to end this fiasco of a Deep State coup before it proceeds any further. To assume that anyone in the FBI or DOJ is making decisions on any neutral or principled basis is suicidally naive.
Never Trumpers and Democrats will stop at nothing in their quest to end this Trump presidency. Impeachment (if they take the House and Senate in 2018) or invoking the 25th Amendment, whatever it takes they are determined to deliver the same message to Trump supporters that Obama and Lois Lerner gave to the Tea Party: "You can't win."
Birkel: "Statements against interest are admissible hearsay."
You lost Steve Uhr at "Statements against interest..."
I was telling my wife tonight that I should be gracious and magnanimous like Hugh Hewitt. And not see these people as enemies in a Cold Cultural War. Then they do stuff like this. At least he was terminated with extreme predjudice; he was transferred to HR.
"Personnel?? Personnel is for idiots!" Harry Callahan
But impeachment has never worked.
Actually it has worked twice. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were both impeached. However neither was convicted in the Senate.
Can there be anyone on this planet who doesn't think the FBI is corrupt at the top? How would you like be a subordinate in this organization? You're looking up at your leadership at just shaking your head. Your tainted by association. The FBI is now a joke.
And don't forget the esteemed Mueller was FBI director when Uranium One went down.
So I guess CNN isn't always fake news?
Even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut.
The problem with a move as radical on the American political scene as impeachment is that the accusers have to be as pure as Caesar's wife or it doubles back on them
"On a blog popular among the alt-right, a commenter who adopted the name of a pre-Nazi German philosopher described the idea that Donald Trump should face consequences for his illegal firing of widely respected former FBI director and gosh-darn American Hero James Comey as, quote, 'radical', unquote, before going on a rant about the importance of purity in women which included a code word for 'czar', which many see as a reference to Trump co-conspirator Vladimir Putin."
This is how CNN would report it, which is why I don't think the Democrats are at all scared of the idea of impeachment.
There's a Leftwing faction within the FBI. The leader is McCabe. Strzok is a minion under McCabe. Neither Mueller, nor Comey did enough to reign that faction in. Comey may have been part the faction. They're loyalty was to Holder and then Lynch at the DOJ.
In short, they whitewashed Hillary, but Comey felt crummy about it, and trashed Hillary enough at the famous "exoneration" press conference to damage her politically.
Then, Comey felt crummy over that unintended consequence (helping Trump get elected), and now seeks to sink Trump.
At least he was terminated with extreme predjudice; he was transferred to HR.
"Personnel?? Personnel is for idiots!" Harry Callahan
I thought it amusing that the man who came under investigation for an extramarital affair with a coworker was transferred to HR. Shows how seriously they take personnel issues.
Free advice. Every night, as we sleep, we have a kind moment in dreams we do not remember, and we tell our guardian angel that we will be fine alone, for the next few moments of sleep - and the angel, who is king of time and not a servant of time, leaves us for those moments, and goes forth to say a word or two to every sad and neglected insect and animal that wanders through the night outside our bedroom windows, goes forth to say a word of comfort to every little creature seeking a way to live an hour, a day, a week longer - the moths, the small mammals, the flying multitudes of insects that nobody ever notices, at night, while we sleep. Free advice: a motion to withdraw an unfairly coerced guilty plea on the basis of not only Fifth Amendment violations, and Fourteenth Amendment violations, but also on the basis of a novel but well founded challenge regarding an Article One/Two/Three violation ? Comedy gold, on the one hand - (article one two three chebere baby chebere) but what is important is this - comedy aside, there is not a single honest Judge in the United States who would not grant that motion to withdraw that plea. I will not say that there are dishonest Judges - why would I say such a thing, when I do not need to - but I will say any honest Judge would grant that motion. Free advice.
Horace Greeley said, "All Democrats are not horse thieves, but all horse thieves are Democrats."
Nothing much has changed.
I give you a toast:
To Peter Strzok: the Dem operative at the FBI that curdled everything he touched.
To Bob Mueller: the man who couldn't admit that Doofus Strzok's fingerprints were all over his investigation before it began.
To James Comey: the man who thinks this clown posse is full of great public servants.
May you all be sent to the FBI records office for permanent duty.
"Inga will be fast asleep in her nice warm bed dreaming of impeachment at 3AM."
"In your dreams" is about right.
You don't negligently register a domain name.
You don't negligently hire a contractor to configure an email server.
You don't negligently configure DNS records to point your newly registered domain name to your newly configured email server.
You don't negligently direct the whole of the State department to contact you via your unsecured email server, rather than your State-department-issued email address.
You don't negligently send and receive classified documents via your unsecured email server.
You don't negligently fail to respond to a subpoena for your emails - for MONTHS!
You don't negligently, once the jig is up, selectively print (no headers!) the emails you wish to share that are under subpoena, and delete the rest.
You don't negligently wipe the hard drive to unrecoverable status using BleachBit.
None of this shit happens by accident - how many of you accidentally set up an email server? There was no negligence, this was 100% intentional. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a bald-faced liar.
I am sure Bismarck would add Trump to the quote if alive today.
There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.
Otto von Bismsrk
Also, was this joker Strzok actually fired-fired or just reassigned to other mischief?
"Neither of the Clinton associates, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, faced legal consequences for their misleading statements, which they made in interviews last year with former FBI section chief Peter Strzok."
Ray - good comment. But Bismarck and his wife were idiots, too. Can you imagine how disappointed you would be if your children grew up to be like Bismarck and his wife? Kulturkampf, kitsch, and all the rest? You would be devastated and sad.
Trump is not that dissimilar from the people we hoped the party hearty losers we remembered from the 70s would be if they ever grew up - kinder, more gentle, more caring elderly people.
Ray, go back to 1978, back to the starry slutty Manhattan of that day, and imagine that one of the loser sybarites that hung out (because he was rich and because he could) with the people who went to the most exclusive clubs in 1978 Manhattan would one day be a pro-life, pro-middle-class, and pro-working-class American (disagree if you want but if working-class people were the only people who voted Trump would have won 70-30, at least) political hero who won a presidential election, because his opponent was too lazy to campaign in Wisconsin.
Do you know how beautiful the landscapes of Wisconsin are - of course you do.
Do you know how important it is to be pro-life? Of course you do.
The opposite of pro-life is not pro-choice, for the record.
It doesn't matter. These corrupt seditionists are shameless. Does anybody believe this bent agent didn't make his feelings known to the Mueller team regularly? Does anybody believe Mueller's partisan Democrat button men don't share his feelings?
He was about to get caught out and Mueller covered up the reason for kicking him off the team.
In the fourth trimester, there are no babies to be deemed unworthy, only witches and warlocks practicing their arts at the twilight fringe.
> Then, Comey felt crummy over that unintended consequence (helping Trump get elected), and now seeks to sink Trump.
The question about Comey's tweet is not
The FBI remain an "independent" organization
its reverse
Can we free our government from the FBI?
If there was collusion and meddling, it was them.
Deep Plunger continues to plumb the depths of Water Closet.
Speaking of shitpiles....
Keep telling me how professional and non partisan and above reproach the FBI and Deep State are.
Keep telling me the system isnt rigged!
Keep pretending that justice--impartial, equitable, predictable, accessible justice--is something the Government cares about or is something any of us plebs can get.
I assume this asshole was one of the agents in Co ey's tweeted picture, right?
WHat a shitshow.
"No reasonable prosecutor."
Such horseshit.
If there are any honorable people in those organizations they ought to be be angriest of all--their hard work and sacrifices are now soiled by this filth.
This has been a Stalinist operation from the start.
The dark side of me wants them to succeed in impeaching Trump and causing a constitutional crisis. We are overdue a reset.
You know, changing that wording looks like obstruction based on the new leftist definition of the crime. You can't call it discretion because, well, not even the president can use discretion in the power of prosecution, right?
Birkel wrote:
"Statements against interest are admissible hearsay. Even when we might normally doubt the veracity or a statement, we believe that if the speaker is saying something against their own interests the likelihood is much higher that the statement is true."
You can believe this story for another reason, though related. The FBI had reached the end of the line in defying Nunes and knew it- that is why the first Strzok stories appeared in WaPo and the NYTimes simultaneously and just before Congress was told about it by the FBI. Both articles were direct leaks from the FBI with the approval of whoever was about to give Nunes the evidence supporting it. Once that dam was breeched, the rest of Strzok's work was going to come out because Wray and McCabe are facing contempt resolutions from Congress. CNN was chosen by, I assume, Wray to carry this particular item.
I think the FBI is in full panic mode right now- this guy seems to be at the nexus of everything related to the election in the year and half along with his buddy McCabe who, in my opinion, took what amounts to an open bribe from Terry McCauliff to fix the Hillary investigation.
Someone asked above why Sessions hasn't pressed this information into the open- first, he has to learn of it from the people who worked there during Obama's years; second, he stay on top of it to make sure it gets done. The FBI and the DoJ are huge organizaitions, and it is probably pretty easy for recalcitrant and politically motivated lower level operatives to say "Yes sir, I will get right on that," and "We are still working on night and day, sir," and still be doing nothing for quite a long time. Add to that that Sessions is a 70 year old man. It is almost the ideal environment for passive resistance.
I have heard from the HIGHEST Authority (Matt Lauer) that the FBI is as above reproach as the Presidential Debates, the State Department, Donna Brazille, Hawaiian Judges and Hillary Clinton, the absolute paragon of honesty, integrity and forthrightness.
And timing of the WaPo and NYTimes stories about Strzok appeared a day after Flynn's plea was filed. I am absolutely certain that this information was known to Mueller and his team, and was not shared with Flynn or his lawyer. Like one of the commenters above wrote, I think Flynn and his lawyer should consider asking the judge to vacate the plea because it was tainted by a biased investigator right from the very start. It is sure no coincidence that this information, known in its entirety by July by Mueller and his team, was buried precisely because it was Strzok that interviewed Flynn- there was no other reason to hide it since in almost any other circumstances firing Strzok publicly would have been a public relations boon, but to have done so would have irredeemably tainted the one case they had against Flynn.
I will just about guarantee that Flynn and his lawyer were pressed hard in the last week to agree to that plea- the Strzok information was coming out one way or another and Mueller knew it, too.
Im surprised the deep staters didnt simply deputize John Podesta to investigate Hillary and Trump.
It wouldnt make a bit of difference compared to what actually occurred.
Wow. Just wow.
My understanding is that FBI attorney Lisa Page, who Strzok was fucking and exchanged anti-Trump emails with, also worked for the Mueller Team.
"•Peter Strzok was the lead FBI agent in charge of the 2015/2016 Hillary Clinton email investigation. •Agent Strzok was one of a small group who actually interviewed Hillary Clinton. •Agent Strzok was also the person who interviewed Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, granting them immunity. •Agent Strzok created the wording for the Comey/Clinton exoneration •Strzok was the counterintelligence investigator for the 2016 ‘vast Russian conspiracy’, narrative. •Agent Strzok was also the FBI contact person to receive the Russian Dossier and interview the author Christopher Steele.
•Agent Peter Strzok was then hired by Robert Mueller to lead the FBI investigative efforts into the “Russian Election Collusion/Conspiracy.” •Agent Strzok was the person who interviewed National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. •Agent Strzok was then removed from the Mueller Team after the anti-Trump/pro-Clinton content of his internal communications were discovered by the ongoing Inspector General investigation."
Note that it was the FBI Inspector General that found the anti-Trump emails and an investigation is on going, which might explain why the lag time in reporting info to Congress.
Would anyone be surprised if this super hero FBI Agent wasn't also the guy who told the DNC, fuck no we don't need to look at your hacked servers. When did Strzok have time to fuck his co-worker and his wife?
Sure, why not?
Is President Trump playing rope-a-dope here?
He could have fired Mueller at any time a d many here and elsewhere thought he should have. If he had there would have been a major shitstorm.
Now, letting the swamp reveal how corrupt it really is, he is going to get even doubters clamoring to drain it.
I hope this is the strategy. I suspect it might be. We shall see.
John Henry
A bit off topic but does anyone know if the full text of Comeys memo is available anywhere?
When the bit clai ing President Trump said Flynn was a good guy I went looking for the whole thing and could not find it.
Maybe now it is available?
John Henry
These are the kinds of rocks I voted for Trump to turn over.
This is bigger than Watergate. As McCarthy has noted, the FBI protected Hillary by intentionally engaging in a fake investigation. This Peter Strzok is at the center of this COVERUP.
Hilary should have been indicted for multiple crimes. She was protected by the FBI and DOJ. This is how the Swamp works.
I find myself agreeing with Achilles. Impeach Trump -- remove him from office. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That reaction will include a lot of necessary and overdue bloodshed. Let's get it started!
Did Sessions initiate the IG probe? How did that come about?
That's an entity independent of Sessions, Breezy.
First they finally admitted that Bill Clinton most likely committed forcible rape, well all but a few die-hard Kool Aide drinkers. Now they are going to have to admit that Hillary broke the law with that email server. It's a matter of time, because, as was famously said during Watergate, "facts are stubborn things."
Next they are going to have to admit that the whole Russian "collusion" investigation was a partisan hit-job made up out of whole cloth.
But they won't report it in any major way, because the nightly news is about cheerleading for Democrats, End of story. Cover it with a pillow until it stops struggling.
Obama handled these inconvenient IG reports by firing the IG. I am sure that is what would have happened had Hillary won.
And the NSA abuse is still to come. Who exactly did use Samantha Powers' name to unmask all of those conversations which were promptly and highly selectively leaked to the press?
Still they piss down on us and call it sunshine.
So many of the comments above are pure gold.
John Henry,
"I hope this is the strategy. I suspect it might be. We shall see."
It sure looks like they are taking a page out of the Communists' workbook - letting them sell us the rope. Or more accurately, not taking the rope away from them, and letting them hang themselves with it.
You do realize that at some point, the Demos and the LLRs are going to start criticizing Trump for letting them do this to themselves.
So many of the comments above are pure gold
We could call this thread "The Silence of the Trolls."
deepthroat2017 has been exposed. Maybe there is a deeper throat in the deep state?
I guess this is the part where Mueller now gets to sit for hours in a Congressional inquiry repeating variants of "What difference can it make now?"
Gosh, these people are corrupt. Just reekingly, stinkingly corrupt. So corrupt they can't even smell their own corruption, don't perceive their own corruption, don't react with alarm to the sensory onslaught of their own decaying flesh as it slides off their corporate bones. It's business as usual to them.
What's left of the FBI after this?
I liked the comment that either this is the busiest guy in the deep state, or he is being set up as a scapegoat. No matter how hard you try, it is probably impossible to be cynical enough. If you were, you would probably just kill yourself out of despair for the human race.
We go to our deathbed hearing that little girl screaming, and her mother trying to jump in after her. If there’s justice in the world.
Spix, what dreadful thing are you talking about?
Blogger David Begley said...
This is bigger than Watergate. As McCarthy has noted, the FBI protected Hillary by intentionally engaging in a fake investigation. This Peter Strzok is at the center of this COVERUP.
Hilary should have been indicted for multiple crimes. She was protected by the FBI and DOJ. This is how the Swamp works.
12/5/17, 5:29 AM
Is any of this actionable? Is there any recourse? HRC walks free because a saboteur edited words on a page that some other schmuck read? That can't be walked back?
When the cops are corrupt we have big problems. See Dennis Quaid in “The Big Easy.”
Newt referred to a book on how Hoover created the FBI; a case from OK where the whole county was corrupt. Judge, cops and county attorney.
How bad are these emails from Strzok that he got shipped of to personnel? Mueller is fine with having most of his attorneys being contributors to the Democrats. So obviously he doesn't care about the appearance of bias. These emails must be talking about direct action to undermine the President.
Trump either really is playing 11 dimensional chess, or he is the luckiest guy in the world. I don't know because I can't follow 11 dimensional chess.
Blogger Fabi said...
"I find myself agreeing with Achilles. Impeach Trump -- remove him from office. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That reaction will include a lot of necessary and overdue bloodshed. Let's get it started!"
No. You don't want that. You're assuming rational heads will prevail. If Trump is impeached and removed from office there will be a bloody civil war. There are people on both sides who are willing to take this to the streets.
If Trump pardons Manafort and Flynn, I can't blame him. The FBI clearly prosecuted them not for the actions that Mills Abedin and Podesta took, but rather their politics. The FBI needs to clean house.
Looking at Drudge right now. Mueller subpoenaed Trump's bank Deutschebank.
It looks like all out war. Trump said investigation if his business dealings is a redline.
My guess is Mueller has nothing and knows it. So now he is going to get himself fired by Trump and use that as an impeachable offense.
There's no reason to subpoena that account. Money has not gone to Trump according to any information. The only direction money went is between Russia and Clinton. This subponea is bull.
Lots of lawyers here and I will ask how in the world was destruction of 33,000 subpoenaed emails NOT obstruction of justice?
And how did Cheryl Mills get an immunity deal and she gave up nothing. She was a lawyer, witness and target in the SAME case.
David Kendall - not some associate - read every single one of the deleted and destroyed emails. They detail the worst aspect of her corrupt and criminal deals with foreigners. The best part of it is that Kendall has a copy of the emails. He kept a copy to blackmail Hillary and to make sure he got paid a giant fee. Any lawyer would do the same thing. What would Tom Hagen do?
how in the world was destruction of 33,000 subpoenaed emails NOT obstruction of justice?
Because the Obama Administration, DOJ and FBI were thoroughly criminally corrupt, because many of those people are holdovers in the Deep State, and because the Republican Congress was and is thoroughly criminally incompetent.
If Trump ignores the FBI, do you think they'll stick to the Clinton precedent?
From wiki:
Robert Swan Mueller: A Republican, he was appointed by President George W. Bush and his original ten-year term was given a two-year extension by President Barack Obama, making him the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover.
James Brien Comey: was a registered Republican for most of his life.
The current Mueller investigation is a direct result of Trump's own actions. No one else to blame.
They got arrogant and careless, but the press will cover for them. They will find a way to shut down Drudge. You don't need to know that stuff people!
The current Mueller investigation is a direct result of Trump's own actions. No one else to blame.
Sure. Keep repeating that. These are not the droids you are looking for. I notice you have zero factual or logical rebuttals for any of the many claims made here. Not one.
The New York Times has an article mentioning that the FBI Director emailed the entire staff, probably in response to Trump's comments. Not mentioned in the article is the proximate cause of Trump's irritation, the revelations about Strzok being made public. I know they do it all the time, but Strzok's actions not meriting a mention is journalistic malpractice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/christopher-wray-fbi-agents.html?
Not mentioned in the article is the proximate cause of Trump's irritation, the revelations about Strzok being made public. I know they do it all the time, but Strzok's actions not meriting a mention is journalistic malpractice.
All the news they see fit to print, and they didn't see fit to print it. So it's a fact not in evidence and anybody who writes about it is a conspiracy theorist at best, a Russian troll at worst!
The feelings and sensibilities of New York Times readers must be carefully coddled. The New York Times knows exactly what they are doing.
If Trump had fired people like Obama did or refused to cooperate like Clinton did maybe there would be no investigation. We find this statement mostly true.
But this is NOT Democrats versus Republicans. This is the Deep State versus the election by a nation's citizens.
This is about the ability of a nation to stand, divided.
Why do you think the left has taken over education for 40 years ? Read your Gramsci.
Orthodox Marxism had predicted that socialist revolution was inevitable in capitalist societies. By the early 20th century, no such revolution had occurred in the most advanced nations. Capitalism, it seemed, was more entrenched than ever. Capitalism, Gramsci suggested, maintained control not just through violence and political and economic coercion, but also through ideology. The bourgeoisie developed a hegemonic culture, which propagated its own values and norms so that they became the "common sense" values of all. People in the working-class (and other classes) identified their own good with the good of the bourgeoisie, and helped to maintain the status quo rather than revolting.
It was necessary to destroy education.
Impeachment , even if the Senate does not convict, will be revenge for Clinton.
If the Democrats can take the House, even if they get close enough to combine with "NeverTrump" Republican Deep Staters, they will try to impeach. There is no chance they can take the Senate and a 2/3 majority is required.
I have mentioned that I was reading "Grant," Chernow's biography. The section I am reading now is about the Johnson impeachment.
Interesting parallels.
ARM is unaware of the GOP wing of the Deep State,.
Should President Trump pardon Flynn? I think only as a last resort.
Forget where I saw it but someone suggested that if Flynn can prove unlawful coercion or the like, leading to his confession, he can get it withdrawn. As if it never even happened.
I think if this is true, it would be better than a pardon.
John Henry
Trump probably will fire Mueller using the Obama precedent when a government investigator went beyond their perceived authority in looking into the president. These are the rules of engagement , and it will be foolish to not use the precedents set.
I thought it was bad when Obama did it and won't like Trump's doing it
Flynn should be pardoned. He didn't do anything Abedin or Mills didn't do. And he complied with requests for documents. They targeted him for political reasons but he admitted to lying.
" if Flynn can prove unlawful coercion or the like,"
Probably prosecutorial misbehavior. I think that was the Ted Stevens decision although, of course, it was too late for the election which was the point.
Mind. I won't like Trump's firing Mueller, but he won't be wrong to do so.
If you read the Flynn deal, it looks like it is all about the Logan Act, which apparently means that you can't, as president elect, telegraph that Obama's policies are mostly doomed.
Talk about searching high and low for a crime! All the while studiously avoiding finding any crimes from the Democrats.
Golly you guys, if Comey and Mueller are really Republicans, that means everybody was working with the same party so things must have been on the up and up. Members of a political party are always loyal and true, and if you don't believe me, ask Donna Brazile.
And not to forget our great problem of not having a free and unbiased media, probably our greatest problem.
Souter was a Republican too, until he got power and suddenly wasn't, and resigned so that Obama could replace him, nullifying GHW Bush's choice.
Fuck Flynn. He folded like a cheap suit. He knew he had multiple ways to defend himself against this charge. He knew this Strzok was transferred for misconduct. Comey testified that he thought Flynn told the truth in his interview. He knew Mcabe set him up for the interview. Etc.
The reason he pled to lying to FBI because this is an obstruction and impeachment hunt. Mueller dropped the Turkish corruption case against Flynn and his son in exchange for helping to get Trump.
I'm sure Flynn told Mueller that Trump was running his mouth about the Russian BS and said something they can use to argue impeachment.
Supposedly Flynn is going to testify that AS THE FUCKING PRESIDENT-ELECT, Trump started contacts with the Russians, and lots of other furriners. Not even a crime. It has to be done. Obama was telling the Iranians not to give in on negotiations before he was even elected.
The audacity of it is breathtaking.
Laws are not for the corruptocrat party
"Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills went unpunished after making false statements to anti-Trump FBI supervisor"
Mueller’s Credibility Problem
The special counsel is stonewalling Congress and protecting the FBI
Fuck Flynn. He folded like a cheap suit. He knew he had multiple ways to defend himself against this charge. He knew this Strzok was transferred for misconduct.
Assuming facts not in evidence. The Flynn interview was January 24, four days after the inauguration. It was an ambush when the FBI had been having training sessions with the new administration and McCabe (!) called to say two agents were coming over. No mention of an interview.
They started interviewing with no offer to get a lawyer. This was a hit job and probably unconstitutional.
Mueller compounded the felony by dragging it out and draining Flynn' assets.
Remember Ollie North's lawyer at the hearing ?
"They started interviewing with no offer to get a lawyer."
-- Wait. What? I thought that Flynn didn't know he was being interviewed as a subject, and once he figured that out, he agreed to go on without a lawyer. If they didn't even offer him that's... that's bad.
Just reading the comments this morning, and something dawned on me. Someone above questioned how one agent could be the key went in so many different high profile investigations and operations. The FBI has many thousands of special agents, so what are the odds here? Unless there was some reason to put him in charge of so many of such. Compounding this maybe, the FBI has two missions: criminal investigations and counterintelligence, and their agents apparently pecialize and work one side or the other. This guy was apparently one of the top agents on the counterintelligence side. These are the ones who work with the FISA court to get FISA wiretap warrants, etc. which makes sense for him to have been working on Mueller's Russian involvement investigation, and maybe before that with the Fusion Trump Dossier, which may have been used for FISA warrants to wiretap Trump's people (Flynn seems to have been intercepted pursuant to a different FISA warrant - the standing one for the Russian ambassador). So Strzok may also have his fingerprints on the Trump FISA warrant. But the question remains - why was he involved in the Crooked Hillary illegal email server investigation? That should probably have been more of a criminal investigation. Was it his security clearance? Or was he placed in charge there by someone intentionally? Someone who wanted to make sure of a whitewash? My guess, if there were someone behind putting him in charge of so many politically important counterintelligence and criminal investigations, is that it was Dep Dir McCade, who was concurrently making sure that the Clinton Foundation investigation went nowhere, while his wife was taking $700k in campaign contributions from Terry McCaliff, Long term Clinton bag man and their handpicked DNC chair when Bill Clinton was President. Remember the saying that twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action? I think that is where we are now with this one guy having a key role in all these issues and investigations.
Bruce
Excellent points.
1. This is how the Clintons RIGGED the investigation.
2. Best selling crime novelist Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch) writes that there are no coincidences.
Bigger than Watergate.
It's not really that complicated. Strzok was McCabe's Fixer. It is also clear the corruption inside the DOJ/FBI is structural.
Remember, none of this was supposed to see the light of day. Damn Deplorables.
"Or was he placed in charge there by someone intentionally? Someone who wanted to make sure of a whitewash? "
Why was Michael Corleon the one to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey?
He could be trusted and was not on the other families' radar.
Strzok was the hit man.
Bad Lt search boiling tar, in Palmyrene to, Consider the roots of Quds intel, 8200's respect.When-in-doubt response by tribes.
I'd like to think that Strzok was at the center of all these separate incidents because there were not enough corrupt agents at his level to pass the assignments around. A back handed compliment to the bureau. I'd like to think it, doesn't mean it's true.
Go easy on Peter Strzok, he suffers from a memory disorder. But he means well. He just forgot to swear Hillary before he started his interview with her. Now the poor woman can't be charged with perjury.
The latest is wondering if Strzok even exists.
How does the one guy do all these things?
There are apparently no photos of him and his wife.
We are really in neverland.
Strzok is actually Keyser Söze
@ARM
You attempt to argue to the conclusion that "(t)he current Mueller investigation is a direct result of Trump's own actions. No one else to blame."
Your argument would be more effective if there were some connective tissue between your (largely irrelevant) premises and your conclusion.
Your argument would be more effective if there were some connective tissue between your (largely irrelevant) premises and your conclusion.
In fairness to ARM. the reason all this was set off was that Trump won the election.
So, if he had not beaten Hillary like a rented mule, the FBI/CIA/DOJ/Deep State would probably leave him alone.
Not for certain because he was foolish enough to try to interfere with her coronation.
So, you see, ARM had a point, It was Trump's fault for winning that god damned election.
Next time we will do away with those god damned elections!
The server ate my comment. I will try again,
Your argument would be more effective if there were some connective tissue between your (largely irrelevant) premises and your conclusion.
In fairness to ARM, it was Trump's action, winning the election, that set off this hysteria and witch hunt.
Next time we will do away with those god damned elections!
Did Blogger not pay the electric bill ?
That's two 5092 error messages today,
At least the last comment made it,
"502" error messages.
Looks like a glitch-
Now that there is finally some heat coming down on Mueller, he leaks out that he's going after the Trump family financial records, directly crossing Trump's red line, and daring him to do something about it.
""502" error messages."
I've been having problems accessing and commenting on Althouse for about a week. I think the server meeds lubricatin.
Now the other comment shows up. Blogger is really screwed up.
"I think the server meeds lubricatin."
Perhaps it was wiped, like with a cloth.
The fact that this is being reported at CNN is significant. The news this week from Mueller's team is making Trump's electoral campaign look like a well oiled machine and CNN is reporting it. That means that it is being thrown in the face of the Dems who think of CNN as biblical. Mueller - and Comey - are beginning to look more and more partisan (and unhinged) and less and less competent as time goes on. It does not pay for a Federal Agency to piss off a Committee chairman in either the House or Senate. Comey, Mueller and the FBI are managing to do so weekly. If I were Rosenstein I would be calling Mueller in on the carpet and demanding a full scale review of what he is up to. Rosenstein's reputation is on the line too.
Question: If Mueller is pushing obstruction now does that mean that Sessions need not recuse himself.
I am convinced that if Mueller fabricates anything there will be hell to pay for the Dems at the ballot box. There have been enough questionable actions already to make some really damaging campaign ads.
"I am convinced that if Mueller fabricates anything there will be hell to pay for the Dems at the ballot box."
The Media will do what they can to hide it. None of this is in the LA Times.
Remember when they told us the last honest man in Washington is James Comey. And Rod Rosenstein. And Robert Mueller?
(Now being reported that Strzok was demoted for leaking to the Washington Post, not for his obvious partisanship)
Blogger has always been pretty weak. It seems that about half the time that I post something big, I get the message that there were conflicts, or some such. Essentially, Blogger is saying that two (or more) people are trying to comment at the same time. Well, given the number of people using Blogger at any time around the world, that is inevitable. It takes a finite amount of time for Blogger to update the comment list for a blog. But the programmatic solutions to this problem have been well known for decades, at least from the time I was doing that sort of stuff for a living, which was almost 30 years ago. In short, if the Blogger software were decently organized, I could probably fix that problem with a couple database locks in a couple days of work, even now. And, over the years, I, have personally probably spent more time than that retyping dropped posts, and there are probably millions of other users so inconvenienced. It seems to me to be orphan software, grudgingly patched, only when desperately required, despite the $billion$ that Google has in the bank.
I wrote earlier that the timing of events is almost certainly not a coincidence here. That the first Strzok stories appeared in Mueller friendly WaPo and the NYTimes a day after Flynn's plea was filed is a tell of huge proportions. One can be 100% certain those stories were published because both papers got prior approval to do so from either a high up official in the FBI or on Mueller's team. I strongly suspect that both papers have known about Strzok's problems for months, but were told to hold on publishing the stories (remember, Congress was asking about this guy in August!). Why? Because he was the guy in charge of interviewing Flynn- if Strzok is outed as an anti-Trump partisan, any attempt to get Flynn to plea to lying in the interview isn't going to work. Once Flynn has pled, then Mueller and the FBI can try to get out in front of the IG investigation by letting friendly media sources (WaPo, NYTimes, CNN) get the Strzok info out there so that when the congressional committees or the IG reveal it, it can be called old and unimportant news.
If I were Flynn and his lawyer, I would be seriously considering asking the judge to vacate the plea as a corrupt one because it is certain that neither one knew of this Strzok business.
AReasonableMan said...The current Mueller investigation is a direct result of Trump's own actions. No one else to blame.
Counterpoint: the current investigation is a direct result of the fired FBI director leaking information to a compliant/complicit Media...a plan Comey admits!
CNN: Comey Hoped Leak Would Lead To Special Counsel
It's disturbing that more people aren't outraged just by that. Comey got fired and orchestrated the appointment of an SC in what in any other case would be treated as a near-criminal attempt to misuse the power of the State to get revenge. You usually don't get to COLLUDE with pals & the Media and use government documents/insider government info to cause millions of dollars to be spent on law enforcement investigations of people you don't like. We all agree Trump is a jerk, though, so Comey's actions are OK.
Blooger has slowed down posting of comments because it is very vigorously trying to determine if you are a Russian agent trying to influence the coming election.
Now being reported that Strzok was demoted for leaking to the Washington Post,
That makes a lot more sense. Unauthorized leaking.
The "fixer" comment makes a lot of sense too. This guy was like that character who comes in at the end of Burn After Reading and cleans up the mess. Except that guy was more competent.
I think this may have hit critical mass. Rush this morning in his opening monologue started slow, but quickly built up to almost seeming to shout. Not sure if I have heard him this passionate in a long time. His point is that the swamp/deep State pulled out all the stops to coronate Crooked Hillary, and keep the barbarians out of the White House. They lost. So they, along with their Democratic allies, are doing whatever it takes to get Trump out of office. Something that they have no moral or Constitutional Power to be attempting. The initial premise of the Russian collusion investigation has been bogus from day one. And we find out that the Trump Dossier that was used to justify this was bought and paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. That is the real Russian collusion. We all know it, but no one investigates it. So we have a bogus “crime” being used to ensnare Trump people with process crimes - that wouldn’t have been committed except for the investigation of the bogus scandal in the first place. No investigation would have meant no process crimes. Compounding that - the appointment of the special prosecutor to investigate the bogus (Clinton caused) scandal was in violation of DoJ regulations, which require that an actual crime to have been committed (by the people being investigated, instead of those being protected, which is the case here). It stinks. The whole FBI/DoJ/Mueller investigation violates the spirit and the Constitutional order that form the basis of our society. We have the swamp, the Deep State, trying to take out the duly elected President, whom they supposedly work for, and owe whatever power they have to him, solely because they don’t like him. He isn’t one of them, so he must go.
If Blogger will allow me:
The present stories about FBI corruption are only the biginning.
To review: veteran FBI agent Peter Strzok, working under James Comey, headed up both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe before Mueller's special counsel was created to take the reigns. Strzok - who was responsible for changing the FBI's opinion of Clinton's mishandling of classified info from "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," - had an extramarital affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page while the two were working on the Clinton "matter." During the investigation, Strzok sent Page anti-Trump / pro-Clinton text messages, which resulted in the dismissal of both Strzok and Page from Mueller's Trump-Russia probe. Strzok now works in the FBI's HR department.
Strzok's conduct during the Clinton email investigation and any other politically charged cases he's worked on, are now being investigated by the DOJ's Office of Personel Management the results of which, per Sara Carter of Circa, will be coming out in December and January.
Maybe somebody woke up Sessions.
On the blooger issues people are having- I think perhaps the problem is that people are checking the "I am not a robot" box followed by clicking the "Publish Comment" button too quickly after one another. Check the box- wait for it to completely fill in, then click Publish.
"Maybe somebody woke up Sessions."
Meanwhile, Inga is still sleeping.
"On the blooger issues people are having- I think perhaps the problem is that people are checking the "I am not a robot" box followed by clicking the "Publish Comment" button too quickly after one another."
Not in my case.
Took three attempts to post this; "Conflicting edits."
No, I don't click the "robot" button. This is just the host getting over loaded and not upgrading.
John Henry wrote:
"Now, letting the swamp reveal how corrupt it really is, he is going to get even doubters clamoring to drain it."
There is an WSJ editorial today calling for Mueller to go. The WSJ has hardly been a huge Trump booster, so it looks like you are correct.
Wet dream would be a special prosecutor to investigate FBI and DoJ corruption. Good Dream is that Mueller is fired and his crew of Crooked Hillary supporting minions be demoted, if not also fired. Bad dream is nothing happening to those in the Deep State attempt to take down a duly elected President for political reasons.
I was telling my wife tonight that I should be gracious and magnanimous like Hugh Hewitt.
Screw that. No quarter to these assholes.
Michael K said,
"There are apparently no photos of him and his wife."
Fox News claims to have a picture of him.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/05/fired-fbi-official-at-center-flynn-clinton-dossier-controversies-revealed.amp.html
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