December 11, 2019

"The activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this..."

Said Michael E. Horowitz, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, reported in the NYT.
Mr. Horowitz was responding to [Senator Lindsey] Graham’s mention of an Op-Ed by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey published in The Washington Post after Mr. Horowitz’s report became public.

While Mr. Comey acknowledged that the inspector general found “mistakes” in the administrative process associated with the wiretap applications targeting the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — the focus of the report — Mr. Comey wrote that Mr. Horowitz’s “most important” finding was his debunking of the insinuations by Mr. Trump and his allies that F.B.I. officials, driven by political bias, conspired to sabotage Mr. Trump.
Here's the op-ed in question: "James Comey: The truth is finally out. The FBI fulfilled its mission." (WaPo).

298 comments:

1 – 200 of 298   Newer›   Newest»
D. said...

"It ain't over until the fat corney sings"

Marcus Bressler said...

Sitting here in the sunshine. Will check back later for the comments.

THEOLDMAN

rhhardin said...

It's motivated mistakes.

Susan said...

We may never know their true motivation.

bleh said...

"Mr. Horowitz's 'most important' finding was his debunking of the insinuations by Mr. Trump and his allies that F.B.I. officials, driven by political bias, conspired to sabotage Mr. Trump."

Is that what Mr. Horowitz found? I didn't remember reading anything in the report "debunking" the possibility that certain biased agents tried to sabotage Trump. If Horowitz did that, then Mueller debunked the possibility that Trump obstructed justice.

As I recall, Horowitz had earlier found improper political bias by Strzok and Page, but he couldn't conclud that their bias affected any of their official actions. Now he's demonstrated how official actions undertaken by the FBI were replete with errors ... but he can't conclude that political bias was the reason for those errors. Time to read between the lines.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"Exonerate" and "vindicate" were ALL OVER THE PRESS YESTERDAY. Like paint in a can with a giant roller brush.

narciso said...

'those words you are using,( mr comey) don't mean what you think they mean.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Now devastate
Appreciate
Depreciate
Fabricate
Emulate
The truth dilate
Special date
The animals we ate
Guilt debate
The edge serrate
Like Watergate
The youth irate
Deliberate
Fascinate
Equivocate
Exonerate
Vindicate [Repeat: x4]

Qwinn said...

I wouldn't mind so much that Horowitz refuses to "read minds" and know the true inner motivations of the people he's investigating (no matter how implausible anything but venal motives obviously are in this case), if those people (as well as the ones shrieking "Impeach!") would extend the same courtesy to Trump, since *everything* they're going on about is completely reliant on the presumption that they have accurately read his mind and know all his stated motives are lies.

But the fucking double standards, I am fucking sick of them.

narciso said...

there was that technofog thread, that showed the parade of category error, by shane harris, by ryan goodman, etc, who were so confident of their conclusions,

Leland said...

AG Barr said the Dunham report won't be available until Spring or Summer. I wondering who will have respect for our federal government by then?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Humble request for more cut and paste from paywalled NYT article.

Michael K said...

God damned Blogger ate another comment.

Horowitz was limited to DOJ employees and Comey would not reapply for his security clearance and did not review classified documents.

Trump needs to declassify all this stuff.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

To Ben Sasse I would say, rem acu tetigisti.

Bob Boyd said...

James Comey is a disgrace.

MountainMan said...

An interesting Twitter thread.

To the lawyers who comment here: Does Carter Page have standing to sue the FBI?

eric said...

What's happening in the Senate right now is so incredibly damning to Democrats and media narrative over the last few years that their only strategy is to ignore it.

Lisa aren't going to cut it anymore. Comey made a huge mistake thinking he could get out ahead of this.

Cruz had a great line minutes ago.

"A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email that is in turn used as the basis for a sworn statement for the court that the court then relies on. Am I staying that accurately?"

IG, "That is correct. That is what occured."

Incredible!

Just imagine the news today if this were the Obama administration and the Bush FBI had done this to Obama.

narciso said...

this thread:


https://twitter.com/threader_app/status/1204600704113029121?s=20

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Just how bad was the FBI’s Russia FISA? 51 violations and 9 false statements

Bay Area Guy said...

Comey is delusional.

The FISA warrant was based solely on the Steele dossier, which was lies. The target of the FISA warrant, Carter Page, was not a Russian asset. He was a CIA asset.

The 3 subsequent FISA renewals were illegal, because by Jan 2017, the FBI knew that Page wasn't a Russian asset and that the Steele Dossier was filled with lies.

This was all done with Comey's approval or blind eye.

mccullough said...

“Mistakes” and “errors” mean not intentional.

The IG said he doesn’t know how the 17 false statements got into the FISA applications and the exculpatory facts were withheld.

So he can’t say these were “mistakes” or “errors.”

He identified the false statements, that the FBI knew they were false, and that they were put in anyway.

He identified the exculpatory facts, that the FBI was aware of the facts, and that they were withheld anyway.

Given this, a reasonable conclusion or inference is that this was done intentionally.

narciso said...

very very bad, remember in the departed, Costello's mole in the state police, deleted the dossier of costigan, to make it look like he was just another hood,

Leland said...

The Odds of seventeen significant errors or omissions all going against one side is 1:131072. Weird that Horowitz doesn't find bias there when statistically that is on the extreme.

n.n said...

exonerate (v.)

1520s, "to unload, disburden," a literal sense now obsolete; 1570s as "relieve (of a charge, blame, etc.) resting on one; clear of something that lies upon the character as an imputation," from Latin exoneratus, past participle of exonerare "remove a burden, discharge, unload," from ex "out, out of, off" (see ex-) + onerare "to unload; overload, oppress," from onus (genitive oneris) "burden" (see onus). Related: Exonerated; exonerating.


It exonerates or disburdens them, or so they think. Time will tell if their choice was a double-edged scalpel.

mccullough said...

It doesn’t matter what the motive was. What matters is that the conduct was intentional.

AllenS said...

If there is one person that needs a damn good waterboarding, it's Comey.

narciso said...

of course it was fiction, because in reality the state police would never send an undercover to investigate Costello, I mean bulger, because he had everything wired from state street to main justice, (that's the golden dome you see at the end of the film,) it took john durham to cut through the vines of corruption, yes the same john durham doing this real investigation into deep state malfeasance,

Lewis Wetzel said...

Read the Horowitz report, or at least its executive summary. Horowitz found mistakes and errors of judgments, and falsifications, and he says that he found no satisfying explanation for them. That is, if the problems were from FBI actors being over zealous, they weren't over zealous in other cases. People in positions of trust who made good investigations in non-political cases suddenly began to make mistakes and over reach their authority in political cases (the Hillary email and Trump-Russia investigations). And their mistakes and over reaching tended to help Hillary and to harm Trump.

JohnAnnArbor said...

The Odds of seventeen significant errors or omissions all going against one side is 1:131072.

Another way of saying:

Once his happenstance.
Twice is coincidence.
Three times is a conspiracy.

YoungHegelian said...

Izzit just me, or does Comey not come across as seriously delusional? I mean, delusional to the point of insanity?

Big Mike said...

Althouse still believes what she reads in the Times. Is that wise?

I am guessing that Horowitz was hoping to very quietly find a way to say that the FBI is not a fundamentally corrupt agency. He was called on this point by John Durham and William Barr, and very publicly so. In a roundabout way, Comey himself reinforced Barr’s criticism.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Repeat from Eric

Cruz had a great line minutes ago.

Cruz:
"A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email that is in turn used as the basis for a sworn statement for the court that the court then relies on. Am I staying that accurately?"

IG: "That is correct. That is what occured."


Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AllenS said...

You know things are bad when Inga quits commenting.

narciso said...

re: paul sperry,


BREAKING: IG Horowitz just now testified he cannot rule out "political bias" in the case of FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith doctoring evidence used in FISA application targeting Trump aide Carter Page,a case which Horowitz confirmed has been referred for possible criminal prosecution

comey is the joey Isuzu of domestic intelligence,

Big Mike said...

I have one final question for Mr. Horowitz, Mr. Durham, and Mr. Barr. It’s a two-parter. What did Barack Obama know, and when did he know it?

Seeing Red said...

The elite in-charge FBI’s hatred of 1/2 of the country and protection of their rice bowls has made the field agents and the Justice Dept. jobs more difficult.

If I were a defense attorney going against the USG, you’d better bet I’d make damned sure this crap got in to create reasonable doubt.

They lied they lied they lied to bring down a sitting president because they didn’t like him or 1/2 the country.

How can the judge and jury trust their evidence?

Bay Area Guy said...

Here's the beauty of all this Brennan-Comey Deep State misconduct:

The Steele Dossier was peddled, but not published until Jan 10, 2017 -- AFTER Trump was elected.

So, you have a Sherlock Holmes type of "The Dog that Didn't Bark" scenario, which explains Strzok's remark about the "insurance policy":

During the entire campaign year of 2016, when the Russians were allegedly "sowing discard" and subverting our democracy, and when a desperate Chris Steele was peddling his phony dossier to the FBI and the media, the Obama Administration DID NOT:

1. Indict a single Russian troll (because it was too trivial a matter)
2. Indict anyone for the Wiki DNC leaks (because they couldn't tie it to Trump or the Russians)
3. Leak the Steele Dossier (because they thought Hillary would win)

They did try to make life miserable for Trump, his campaign afterwards, and the country afterwards, but it was a little too late.....

Seeing Red said...

Comey needs to swing.

AllenS said...

Big Mike said...
What did Barack Obama know, and when did he know it?

Patience, Big Mike, patience.

Qwinn said...

I'll say it again: Why should it be remarkable that no "documentary" evidence of FBI malfeasance was found, when in one of these investigations over 30,000 email documents under subpoena were destroyed with the FBI's approval?

Bay Area Guy said...

Also, during the 2016 Campaign:

4. the FBI did NOT leak that Trump was a subject or target of a counter-intelligence investigation, which probably woulda hurt his campaign or blunted his criticism of Hillary's e-mail capers.

#Faceplant!

Sebastian said...

"James Comey: The truth is finally out. The FBI fulfilled its mission."

Half-true. Its mission was to defeat Trump: that truth is out. But since the coup did not succeed, they didn't quite fulfill it.

Jersey Fled said...

AG Barr in an interview with the WSJ:

"It’s a big deal to use the law enforcement and intelligence resources of the United States government to investigate a [presidential] campaign, especially of the opposing party. I’m sure there were instances in the past, but I can’t think of any recent instances where that was done.”

“Where I disagree with [Horowitz] is I just think this [the basis for opening the investigations] was very flimsy.”

“From my experience, the normal thing to do in this situation — and I have had analogous experience — is to go to the campaign and here I don’t think there’s a legitimate explanation for why they didn’t, especially because they went to the Russians.”

“It’s hard to look at this stuff and not think it was a gross abuse.”

Quayle said...

I have concerns if some self-appointed guardians of the democratic republic take it upon themselves to save the democratic republic from the voters. Somehow that obvious contradiction, or the problem with such a thing ever happening, never occurred to these folks.

Jersey Fled said...

What we have here is a finding of systematic abuse of the system covering a period of more than two years that continued the investigation of a sitting and duly elected president that continued long after the initial predicate was found to be false. It was aided and abetted by false statements to the FISA courts, withholding of exculpatory evidence, and in one case the altering of a 302 report.

And we are to believe that it was all just errors and mistakes?

madAsHell said...

delusional to the point of insanity?

I'm beginning to think that was his core competence. He was hired to be insane.

Hagar said...

So a whole lot of perjuries have been committed, and a number of people should be prosecuted and sent to jail.
And I know why the caged bird sings.

FullMoon said...

Char Char Binks said...

" Now devastate
Appreciate
Depreciate
Fabricate
Emulate
The truth dilate
Special date
The animals we ate
Guilt debate
The edge serrate
Like Watergate
The youth irate
Deliberate
Fascinate
Equivocate
Exonerate
Vindicate [Repeat: x4]"

..........................................
Can't place it exactly, but Bob Dylan, right?

JAORE said...

If you are betting on coin flips, you call tails and the guy flipping the coin hits "heads" seventeen times in a row, he is cheating.

Bay Area Guy said...

The take-home simple overview from my disjointed rantings above is:

During the campaign, the Deep-State FBI assholes were poised to take-down Trump with the Steele Dossier. But they hesitated and held their fire, because they mistakenly believed Hillary would win.

After the unexpected Trump victory, they overcompensated and came after him hard on all fronts. However, they have now been thwarted.

Have a nice day!

wendybar said...

If they actually believe there was no bias, they are blind and deaf. They themselves must be biased. If any of the things they have done to Donald Trump were done to Barack Obama, there would be riots in the streets started by the Main Stream Media. It's really pathetic. I now have NO trust in anybody that is involved in this scam.

narciso said...

no he's a vindictive sob, the proof is in the march 04 hospital bed meet to reauthorize stellar wind, there was a period of hours where the surveillance was down, not long after was the madrid train bombing, he notes this in passing in his memoir, and then continues with his vendetta against alberto Gonzalez, they move him over to another job, then he ends up on the board of Lockheed, and after a time as 'look out' I mean oversight director for hsbc, that was the bank that laundered for al queda, Mexican cartels, swallowed up blocks of Arthur Andersen, safras republic national bank, and merged with credit Suisse, re the latest indictments,

Susan said...

Once his happenstance.
Twice is coincidence.
Three times is a conspiracy.

17 times is apparently no evidence of anything much at all.

Jersey Fled said...

Just because Horowitz can't find his ass with both hands doesn't mean that it isn't there.

wendybar said...

Char Char Binks said...
Now devastate
Appreciate
Depreciate
Fabricate
Emulate
The truth dilate
Special date
The animals we ate
Guilt debate
The edge serrate
Like Watergate
The youth irate
Deliberate
Fascinate
Equivocate
Exonerate
Vindicate [Repeat: x4]
12/11/19, 1:22 PM

INXS!!! Love the video...Michael Hutchence was HOT!!

southern boy said...

Char Char Binks said...

" Now devastate
Appreciate
Depreciate
Fabricate
Emulate
The truth dilate
Special date
The animals we ate
Guilt debate
The edge serrate
Like Watergate
The youth irate
Deliberate
Fascinate
Equivocate
Exonerate
Vindicate [Repeat: x4]"

..........................................
Can't place it exactly, but Bob Dylan, right?


I think it was INXS.....

Bob Boyd said...

Audit Comey.

I'm Full of Soup said...

If the decisions just randomly went against Trump 17 consecutive times, the odds of that happening are 131,072 to 1. But yeah there was no bias.

narciso said...

subterranean hometown blues, repurposed by tim robbins, in bob Roberts,

Anonymous said...

"It was aided and abetted by false statements to the FISA courts, withholding of exculpatory evidence, and in one case the altering of a 302 report."

I will never be interviewed by the FBI, for any reason, without an attorney present and a recording device in our control. I already knew that you can't trust local police but they at least record interviews in most jurisdictions. I'll confess a naive belief that the FBI was a cut above that. They're obviously not.

Original Mike said...

Blogger mccullough said..."It doesn’t matter what the motive was. What matters is that the conduct was intentional."

Horowitz is shaking his head in the affirmative just now as Jodi Ernst is saying 'These weren't mistakes. These were intentional.'

And he's agreeing there must be consequences. But as he's also admitted, several of these people still work for the FBI.

Gospace said...

Bay Area Guy said...
Also, during the 2016 Campaign:

4. the FBI did NOT leak that Trump was a subject or target of a counter-intelligence investigation, which probably woulda hurt his campaign or blunted his criticism of Hillary's e-mail capers.

#Faceplant!


Or, as I suspect, it would have had exactly the opposite effect - an investigation started with no evidence would seem like nothing but a political hit piece to the American people. Which, clearly, it was.

Bay Area Guy said...

Sen. Kammy Harris is now questioning Horowitz (or simply speechifying). She's railing against Barr. She wants Horowitz to investigate Barr!

It's kinda pathetic.....

Ken B said...

YoungHegelian
Comey comes across as a man who knows the press will cover for his every lie. Where you sense delusion I sense entitlement.

Anonymous said...

"If the decisions just randomly went against Trump 17 consecutive times, the odds of that happening are 131,072 to 1."

That assumes only two possible errors - in favor or against. If we include the possibility of neutral errors, the probability rises to nearly 130 million to 1.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Phil:

Excellent point!

Swede said...

Graham was in fine fashion today.

Comey had to know this was coming, but he took advantage of the small window of opportunity between the release of the report and the testimony to remind everybody what a preening, smug dipshit he is.

Can't wait to see what follows.

narciso said...

this along with enabling the special counsel, his good buddy Patrick fitzgerald, whos southern district had a pre existing grudge against lewis libby, who curiously didn't investigate Richard Armitage, along with the kerfluffle over the removed us attorneys is why he won the job of director,

Bay Area Guy said...

Andy McCarthy notes there are two pending cases in DC Circuit that bear on the Articles of Impeachment.

AOI No. 2 -- dealing with subpoenas -- seems to be contingent on the outcome of these 2 cases.

Laslo Spatula said...

Wake me when Comey is hung upside-down from a street lamp.

Otherwise: he won.

We ARE playing Banana Republic rules.

I am Laslo.

FullMoon said...

Can't place it exactly, but Bob Dylan, right?


I think it was INXS.....

Heck,I was kidding, I thought Char Char made it up. Exposed my ignorance.

rcocean said...

Basically, everything Trump and Nunes said was true about the FBI and FISA warrants. Just from popping in and out from the Horowitz hearings, its obvivous that Horowitz is a straight shooter, but completely uninterested in going beyond the NARROW scope of his IG Audit.

Didn't look at this, didn't look at that. "Not my job". No judgement on this - no judgement on that. "Not within my scope of review". Didn't verify this, didn't verify that. "That's not what the IG does".

Original Mike said...

John Kennedy: "At a minimum, somebody's got to be fired."
Michael Horowitz: "I agree".

Kennedy also had him freely agreeing it's hard to believe that it wasn't intentional.

Josephbleau said...

The democrats should have leaked that Trump was under FBI investigation in Oct 15. Trump would have likely lost and they could have covered up the leak or sacrificed an underling after a Hillary won. I am surprised they did not think of it.

rcocean said...

Democrat Senators showing themselves to be incompetent morons. R's SLIGHTLY better. The R from North Carolina comes off as an idiot, waving an Org Chart (that no one can see) around, and asking convoluted questions - because he's not a lawyer.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

Please remember that Horowitz was appointed by Obama, so he's got to cover for his deep state buddies as best he can.

Remember when Hillary testified on the email thing and she couldn't remember anything about anything? Horowitz's "not my job" stonewalling is the same idea - except he's trading on his undeserved reputation as a straight shooter to execute a gentle stonewalling that protects the coup.

rcocean said...

Miss Lindsey cam't stop bloviating. Blah, Blah, here's my OUTRAGED soundbite. Be sure to print it, and show it on Youtube. Just shut up Graham.

Bay Area Guy said...

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) is not that bright. That may be an understatement. Indeed, if that's the type of Senators we get from Hawaii, we should probably just give it back to Queen Liliuokalani.

narciso said...

burr or tillis, one is a tool of mark warner, the other of chris coon, 'the bearded marxists'

Kathryn51 said...

Josephbleau said...
The democrats should have leaked that Trump was under FBI investigation in Oct 15. Trump would have likely lost and they could have covered up the leak or sacrificed an underling after a Hillary won. I am surprised they did not think of it.

But recall (or perhaps you did not know). . . Harry Reid announced to the world that the FVI was conducting an investigation in September 2016 - information he received in a one-on-one briefing from the abominable CIA Director John Brennan.

wendybar said...

It's over..... SEN. @tedcruz: “A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email that is in turn used as the basis for a sworn statement for the court that the court relies on. Am I stating that accurately?"

IG HOROWITZ: “That is correct. That is what occurred.”

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger I'm Full of Soup said...

"If the decisions just randomly went against Trump 17 consecutive times, the odds of that happening are 131,072 to 1. But yeah there was no bias."

No bias? Everyone knows math is racist.

Original Mike said...

Shocker. The McCabe ChaNNel didn't cover a lot of the hearing today.

I happened to watch a few minutes on the McCabe ChaNNel a couple of nights ago. It was Cuomo and McCabe acting all butt hurt about the IG report. I could only watch for a couple of minutes. It was stomach turning.

Hagar said...

There was no need to "investigate" Richard Armitage. They called him, and he freely admitted to being Bob Novak's source. For good measure, he then got up and walked over to Colin Powell's office and told him all about it.

Rosalyn C. said...

The thing that's bothered me the most since the 2016 election was Hillary Clinton's unpatriotic refusal to accept the election result and her loss. She's encouraged millions of Americans to "resist" and to treat a duly elected president as if he were illegitimate and his supporters as deplorable, racist, etc. I've never seen that before after an election. I thought that her behavior perhaps was a personal failure of character because of her egotism and her emotional attachment to ambition. But now I am beginning to believe strongly she has been motivated by a desire to hide the depth of the corruption of her campaign and powerful supporters. It's sinister and it stinks. Really absolutely shameful.

Skeptical Voter said...

St. James Comey has just won the grand prize as "delusional twit of the year".

I caught the tail end of Lindsey Graham's statement as Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and it's safe to say that Lindsey is coming and boy is he ticked off! Comey better invest in some asbestos underwear. Comey might send his tailor his measurements so he can sew up an orange jumpsuit in an extra tall length. St. James will need it.

h said...

Maybe I'm living in an echo chamber, but it seems to me that Comey's reputation is sinking every news cycle.

Josephbleau said...

I did not remember Harry Reid’s pre-election reveal about the FBI investigation. He knowingly tipped off the Russians that their deviously effective YouTube Jesus wrestling operation was blown.

Spiros said...

It seems like the Obama Administration used the FBI to gain a competitive edge for the Democrats during the election. And, unfortunately, the FBI crossed the legal line into espionage. Is that it? Or did these bastards believe that Trump was a Russian asset and that Putin "stole" the election? If so, what stopped Obama from declaring martial law and seizing control of the government? What the heck is going on???? The Russia Collusion stuff is too stupid to believe...

GingerBeer said...

You can't spell comedy without Comey.

Wince said...

Notice how Chuck in the previous post misses the repeated messaging strategy of the Deep State.

Chuck said...
There is a better 'witness for the prosecution' on every single aspect of the whistleblower's complaint, than the whistleblower himself or herself.

So describe exactly why the whistleblower is a necessary witness, and if not a necessary witness, then why would any information be needed to impeach such a non-witness?


As we saw with Horowitz's limited purview and in his report, hiding the "whistleblower" now would largely conceal from discovery what Horowitz called any "documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the [Russia now Ukraine] investigation".

The media take-away the Deep State demanded with respect to Horowitz's report on Crossfire Hurricane is the same media take-away Schiff wants to maintain now for impeachment:

"No documentary or testimonial evidence" was adduced... from the (limited) witnesses and sources investigators had access to.

Francisco D said...

This will get interesting as Durham starts to make criminal indictments. In that sense, Horowitz' report is useful in terms of the information it provides, although not the weak-kneed conclusions.

Expect more desperation and panic-spinning from the Democrats because they need to put a blanket over this scandal.

Some are already calling for Barr's impeachment. LOL!

Michael K said...

The IG said he doesn’t know how the 17 false statements got into the FISA applications and the exculpatory facts were withheld.

He was limited in what he could do. Durham is not limited.

What is interesting is that this was a CIA opp all along and they hang the blame on the FBI. This does not speak well for Comey and team's intelligence. The CIA is not subject to DOJ IG. We need a Church Committee, maybe next year.

Bay Area Guy said...

Matt Taibbi is at it again. Corroboration Zero’: An Inspector General’s Report Reveals the Steele Dossier Was Always a Joke

Money Grafs:

The Steele report reads like a pile of rumors surrounded by public information pulled off the Internet, and the Horowitz report does nothing to dispel this notion.

At the time the FBI submitted its first FISA application, Horowitz writes, it had “corroborated limited information in Steele’s election reporting, and most of that was publicly available information.” Horowitz says of Steele’s reports: “The CIA viewed it as ‘internet rumor.’”

Worse (and this part of the story should be tattooed on the heads of Russia truthers), the FBI’s interviews of Steele’s sources revealed Steele embellished the most explosive parts of his report.

The “pee tape” story, which inspired countless grave headlines (see this chin-scratching New York Times history of Russian “sexual blackmail”) and plunged the Trump presidency into crisis before it began, was, this source said, based a “conversation that [he/she] had over beers,” with the sexual allegations made… in “jest”!


We have a few remaining Russia Truthers here, don't we? Tattoos for each of you! Heh.

iowan2 said...

The Horowitz testimony was devistating for Democrats. How do you tell? Democrats spent about 20% of their aloted time asking Horowitz about his report. The other 80% was spent orating on orange man bad, or asking Horowitz about things unrelated to this report, or things that he had to explain repeatedly, did not fall under his jurisdiction.

Then there is the talking heads in the Democrat media PR team. They spent the first segment mocking the hearing. Avoided facts as presented, and misrepresenting Horowitz's finding that there was no political bias

Horowitz repeated often, that he had no evidence of political bias, but no witness gave a satisfactory reason for their gross violations of procedures. Horowitz surmised bias was present, but had no evidence to present what that bias was based on. In fact, the more the Democrats pushed on the "no political bias" angle, the more Horowitz wavered on his conclusion. Democrats, again, overplayed their hand on this topic.

Kathryn51 said...

Usually avoid the cable news channels, but watched FNC's coverage of the Horowitz hearing today - Democrats weren't interested in any of the "findings" of the report except to the extent they outright lied and said the KEY finding of the report was that there was never, ever any bias in anything that the FBI did. Horowitz corrected them many times, but. . . the narrative was set on Monday.

Most disgusting of all - no surprise - was Kamala Harris. She spent her entire time attacking AG Barr. No concerns whatsoever about the FISA abuse outlined in the report.

I turned over to CNN - they were talking impeachment. They moved to FISA report (after the hearing ended) and the reporterette's first words were "The Republicans POUNCED. . . .". Can't make this shit up.

CNN talked to one member of the Senate Judiciary - a Democrat. Then immediately pivoted back to impeachment.

Gawd, I might actually hold my nose and vote for Trump in 2020.

effinayright said...

The “pee tape” story, which inspired countless grave headlines (see this chin-scratching New York Times history of Russian “sexual blackmail”) and plunged the Trump presidency into crisis before it began, was, this source said, based a “conversation that [he/she] had over beers,” with the sexual allegations made… in “jest”!
*****************

Ritmo, aka President Pee-Pee Tape, hardest hit, huffs more glue.

Drago said...

Francisco D: "Some are already calling for Barr's impeachment. LOL!"

LLR-lefty Chuck will not be far behind.

Chuck is really feeling the heat now.

BTW, it was difficult to stomach listening to both of LLR-lefty Chuck's favorite Judiciary Committee members Dickie Durbin and Stolen Valor Blumenthal, but I did anyway since I wanted to get an early heads up from them what LLR-lefty Chuck's talking points would be this evening.

Drago said...

wholelotta: "Ritmo, aka President Pee-Pee Tape, hardest hit, huffs more glue."

HoaxPPT was actually claiming that he never believed the hoax pee pee tape story was true (obvious lie) and that he only changed his online name to that to bother Trump!!

LOL

He actually claimed that!

It was very similar to how LLR-lefty Chuck ends up walking back all of his lefty talking points after they've been blown to hell.

Bay Area Guy said...

Well, I must say my spirits have been heartened.

My initial reaction to the IG Report was that it was a typical CYA whitewash "mistakes were made," "no concrete evidence of bias, "blah, blah, blah.

But Graham, I thought, did a good job explicating the 17 "mistakes" (all against Trump), and getting Horowitz to acknowledge the serious errors, misjudgments, omissions and falsified Email by asshole FBI agent, Kevin Clinesmith, who successfully covered up that fact that Carter Page was a CIA asset, not a Russian asset.

The Steele Dossier is officially dead. It should not have been used for any FISA warrants.

Steele is officially dead. He's a lying weasel.

Bruce Ohr (DOJ) comes off as a shady little weasel who tried to revive Steele, after the FBI fired his ass.

Anyway, we've covered most of it above. On the whole, the Barr Statement, the Durham Statement, and the Horowitz hearing, have turned things around (at least for me).

rcocean said...

I'll use an analogy to make people understand what Horowitz's means by " I didn't find any political bias".

Lets say a Country Club suspects a member of cheating. They task someone to look into it and the "Golf Club IG" reviews the golf scores and signed golf cards and talks to people who've played with the suspected cheater "Joe".

They find 17 times in a row, where "Joe" says he made a 5 on the 18th hole but recorded a 4. They ask Joe about it and Joe says "oh, I'm just bad at math". ANd they ask his friend Sam, who co-signed the card and he says "Oh, good o'l Joe. He wouldn't cheat, he's just bad at Math". BUT, they review all "Joe's" golf cards and find "Joe" has NEVER overstated his score, he ONLY understates it.

If you're Horowitz, you say you find NO evidence that Joe cheated. Sure, all the errors go in "Joe's" favor. And sure he NEVER makes a math error that overstates his score. BUT, Joe/Sam say he didn't cheat. And you don't have an e-mail or signed document expressing his desire to cheat.

But everyone with an IQ over room temperature KNOWS Joe cheated. Because you don't make errors that just go one way - 17 times in a row!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I didn’t make up the song, but I altered it in parts. None of the alterations were in Trump’s favor.

TJM said...

Inga,

Are you and Chuck on life support yet?

Hagar said...

Dr. K,
These people work together regardless of what agency they may nominally belong to at any one time. It's kind of like the Obsidian Order.

YoungHegelian said...

@Hagar,

It's kind of like the Obsidian Order.

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!

Naaaah! Closer to the Tal Shiar

rcocean said...

These people have been, I think, illustrated as phonies from the get-go. I mean, here’s Trump, who has — I’ve said this a bunch of times, but to me it’s very powerful. Here’s Trump who has implemented policy after policy after policy that these people have supposedly devoted their lives to, they have sought donations from you to advance these policies, to try to make them real. Economic policies, immigration policies. And they want no part of these policies working and benefiting the American people. They want no part of them as long as Donald Trump has any linkage to them.

That's Rush Limbaugh, tip-toeing around the idea that the Bush Family, Romney, McCain, Bill Kristol and the whole Never-Trumper bunch were Phonies and frauds. Well, I can only say that when you've lost Rush Limbaugh, you've lost everyone on the Right.

iowan2 said...

What Qwinn said up thread needs more exposure.

Horowitz refused to enter into the realm of mind reading. He would not infer from the actions of FBI persons, what their intentions were. Therefore, Horowitz refused to conclude any malice in their obviously wrong actions that violated well known, standard operating procedures.

Senators now have a perfect example before them about how to look at the Actions of President Trump. President Trump's actions are well within a President's Article II powers to conduct foreign relations. Only if Democrats practice their magic mind reading (something Horowitz does not do)can you believe any corrupt intent in President Trumps actions.

rcocean said...

"The Steele Dossier is officially dead. It should not have been used for any FISA warrants."

So, 3 YEARS LATER, after its served its purpose, the Steele Dossier is dead. Well, Okey-Dokey. Does that mean everyone is a little skeptical about the CURRENT attack on TRump by the same suspects? Does that mean all the McCain worshipers are going to have 2nd thoughts about their "War Hero"?

I'd hope so.

Jim at said...

You know things are bad when Inga quits commenting.

You misspelled 'great.'

rcocean said...

"Bruce Ohr (DOJ) comes off as a shady little weasel who tried to revive Steele, after the FBI fired his ass."

Yeah. So does Yates. That GREAT AMERICAN HERO, who wouldn't sign off on the Travel ban.

rcocean said...

"We have a few remaining Russia Truthers here, don't we? Tattoos for each of you! Heh."

Bay Area Guy - The truthers are Bill Kristol, David french, and Jonah Goldberg.

Leland said...

have turned things around (at least for me).

Things won't turn around for me until Clinesmith is arrested. I figure he will be first, since his actions were described in detail. Until then, it is just another type of show trial.

Bay Area Guy said...

"The truthers are Bill Kristol, David french, and Jonah Goldberg."

Horrible people, all 3.

bagoh20 said...

How the hell could anyone read the emails between Strzok and Page and conclude that they had no bias in their work? If they could feel the way the clearly did about Trump and Hillary and not be biased in their investigations of the two candidates for POTUS, then they are the most amazing public servants in history. They were hysterical in both their hatred for one and their support for the other. You have to be a fool to believe they could be fair in their motivations and their efforts with their clearly expressed preferences in writing when they believed nobody would see it.

Michael K said...

Well, I can only say that when you've lost Rush Limbaugh, you've lost everyone on the Right.

A retired FBI agent who has been an ASAC called Rush today and said how upset he is at these clowns. He said one error in a FISA warrant request was unheard of.

This, along with the FBI lab scandal of a few years ago, should be in every defense lawyer's files.

Bay Area Guy said...

@Leland,

"Things won't turn around for me until Clinesmith is arrested."

That's a good litmus test. If dishonest weasel Clinesmith is indicted/arrested/convicted, we know Barr means business. If not, well, the charade continues and we remain chumps.

Rory said...

"The democrats should have leaked that Trump was under FBI investigation in Oct 15."

The Clinton campaign/DNC strategy was to use their media access to promote Trump as a "viable candidate," in order to throw the Republican primaries into chaos. It worked: he got $2 billion in free media and advanced all the way to the nomination.

JEP said...

A couple of comments. Horowitz - alone among the AGs - cannot interview DOJ lawyers. He strongly backed legislation now in Congress to be so empowered. He stated that he did find bias in Strozk and Page, but they were not in the decision chain. He iterated that he did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of bias in the decision chain, ie, no inculpating emails or dramatic interview breakdowns of the "I cannot tell a lie. I made these decisions on purpose to screw Orange Man, and I'm glad I did it" type. He would - could - go no further than that. But he was quite clear in his indignation about the misconduct and blunt about how he was given no convincing excuses or reasons.

If you put Hirono and (the lamented Barbara) Boxer on the IQ balance scale the beam would snap. Durbin was smart and understated. Cruz is very smart, and overstated. Another one of the Repubs (damned bad camera work: could not ever get a view of his name-plate) was honest-to-Jesus brilliantly articulate. I didn't think they made them like that now, thought Cicero broke the mold. Harris was a dog - bitch, I should say - gnawing and biting at Barr's ankle. Told Horowitz to investigate Barr; just as if we weren't here because of a dubiously-sourced politically instigated investigation. Klobuchar was a gift. I'd have had to consider her if she got the nomination. Moderate Dem and all that. But, longer Klobuchar, though not as long as herself: If I had a talking point, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, I'd hammer out a warning, all over this land. In a smarmy way she's a dolt and I don't have to evaluate voting for her; the fork's in. Kennedy. That southern drawl can be a rhetorical device, though it takes a kind of genius to use it. The drawl says surf the internet, answer an email, start a reverie about abolishing the Senate, sleep. But it's the dialectal device of the foothold trap: you slide down the drawl unsuspectingly gratifying your sense of your own superiority over some cousin-marrying proto-Appalachian atavism, until "snap!" the most memorable line of the day: "Ah only read 'bout 70% a this report, but Ah'm gonna finish it. But. By the time Ah was 15% through this report, Ah thought I'd throw up. By the time I was 20% through, Ah thought Ah'd dropped acid."

bagoh20 said...

It's one thing to make terrible and numerous mistakes, which they did, and by "they" I mean Democrats in the FBI, but quite another to do that in an unprecedented investigation of the GOP nominee, then the President elect, and then the President of the United States. That's not just "oh, well, we'll try not to do that next time". There should never be a next time. This use of FISA courts and the FBI should be made impossible.

bagoh20 said...

"... he was given no convincing excuses or reasons."
To then conclude that it was all just accidental is ridiculous.

pacwest said...

Comey is as dirty as they come:

1: He (a minor official at the time) replaced Mary Jo White as the DOJ investigator of the Marc Rich pardon. We know how that turned out. Money from Rich was the springboard to setting up the Clinton Foundation.

2: He quit the DOJ for a job as Executive VP at Lockheed. Lockheed was a big contributor to the CF, and a large government contractor. Comey got a $6M payout after leaving the position.

3: Then off to HSBC who were having major problems (under investigation for money laundering) at the time. Bill Clinton was receiving massive speaking fees while Comey was there. HSBC was fined 1.6B, a minor amount considering the charges. Comey was appointed to the board of directors.

4: Appointed head of the FBI despite being completely unqualified for the job.

5: The Clinton email whitewash.

Make no mistake, Comey is a bought and paid for minion of the Clintons.

wildswan said...

"According to the IG report, the FBI became a shambles while you were director. Your agents made 17 serious procedural errors which resulted in abusive FISA court warrants allowing the FBI to spy for no real reason on a Presidential candidate. The suspicions created within the United States by the knowledge that the FBI had accepted the "Steele dossier" have torn families apart and led large numbers of people to reject the election of 2016.
James Comey, have you any comment on the maladministration this report reveals and on the damage done to the country through the FBI while you were director."

"They said it was bias. There's no proof of bias. None. Nothing. No one wiretapped me. Gimmie my pension!"

"But what about the mal-adminstration? spying on a Presidential campaign? ruining lives with a dossier known to be false? causing half the country to suspect their President was a Russian agent."

"What are you talking about? What are you saying? Me? Responsibility? to the FBI? to the country? I was just a clerk basically, like Adolf Eichmann. Reports came, I initialed, reports were filed. So many reports. Lotta work but I kept my desk clean. Proud of that. Proud of my time, my service. Don't hate.

walter said...

Some people did something...
Dude gotta go!

Chuck said...

Horowitz v. Durham v. Durham:

https://mobile.twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1204810023429451778

exhelodrvr1 said...

Can Carter Page sue the government over this?

Bay Area Guy said...

In the "Hasn't Aged Too Well" Department, shall we file this?

"I have total confidence that the FISA process was followed and that the entire case was handled in a thoughtful, responsible way... I think the notion that FISA was abused here is nonsense."

- James Comey, 12/7/18

Original Mike said...

"You know things are bad when Inga quits commenting."

She's busy getting her forehead tattooed.

JEP said...

bagoh20 said...

"... he was given no convincing excuses or reasons."
To then conclude that it was all just accidental is ridiculous.
>>>
Sure it is. Graham and one or two others were right: the start of the investigation met the minimal standards as to a legal predicate, but what followed was a criminal conspiracy at the top of 2 law enforcement agencies (FBI, DOJ) and one spy agency. It is worth noting he had no subpoena power (unlike Durham), and all he got, he got by asking for cooperation. In fact a couple actors declined to speak to him. But it was not Horowitz's mandate to file criminal cases, so he sent the report to those who can. I suspect that if he had been empowered to offer an opinion rather than just gather evidence, he'd agree with you: "To then conclude that it was all just accidental is ridiculous." He seems a polite man as well as highly intelligent, so very little facial telegraphing despite a good deal of cause, but I got the impression it pained him to have to be the monkeys: See no evidence of bias, hear no testimentary admissions of bias, report lack of same.

Drago said...

LOLOLOLOLOL

"True Conservative" Chuck is linking to far left Lawfare guys!!! AGAIN!!

The very guys at the center of every dem deep state resistance ploy, including this ukraine hoax.

These guys are as far left as you can get and LLR-lefty Chuck simply cant resist their siren song!!

You know, like any "principled conservative" would do!!

Too funny.

The good news? Unlike 2016, Althouseblog denizens will go into 2020 knowing full well LLR-lefty Chuck is a complete fraud.

Original Mike said...

Kennedy: "By the time I was 20% through, Ah thought Ah'd dropped acid."

Horowitz was actually nodding ''YES' rather vigorously to this!

narciso said...

ah ryan goodman, who facepalmed re the the technofog thread, I posted earlier, along with French's mustard, liz mair, matt lewis et al, it's like the cast of the producers, lol,

Original Mike said...

"This use of FISA courts and the FBI should be made impossible."

There was a surprising amount of support for this today among the Senators today.

I saw Andrew McCarthy today savage the FISA structure. He said the DOJ/FBI uses it to shed responsibility for their actions.

I've said this before; in the first Comey testimony before Congress when all of this started to come out, I was struck by how concerned Comey was that Congress might shut FISA down. It's now clear why.

narciso said...

well biden came up with the fisa bill, because it was deemed to bring accountability that the minaret/shamrock system had lost, but codevilla set it up,

narciso said...

and leftists are the same all around the world


https://babalublog.com/2019/12/11/cuban-dictatorship-dispatches-communist-apparatchiks-to-attack-annual-bible-reading-event-in-havana/

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Drago said...

"BTW, it was difficult to stomach listening to both of LLR-lefty Chuck's favorite Judiciary Committee members Dickie Durbin and Stolen Valor Blumenthal, but I did anyway since I wanted to get an early heads up from them what LLR-lefty Chuck's talking points would be this evening."

Comrade Drago, your fellow patriot, Tommish Duncaninovich, celebrates your service to the Soviet. By listening you do the work others refuse to do. Perhaps it is time for Comrade Beria to investigate the voting records of "Chuck" (if that is his real name). The mines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan need laborers.

Your old squeeze, Xenia Onatopp, sends her heartfelt regards and hopes you will return to Mother Russia when your service in swaying the US elections is done.

narciso said...

codevilla admitted it in that long dialogue he had with david samuels in the tablet, in that exchange samuels called him the 'demon emperor' an office somewhat like thanos I guess, codevilla is rare as he doesn't vouch for nosenko, the Christopher steele standard of authenticity and admits golitsyn might have had more of a point,

Drago said...

Tommish Duncaninovich, I must confess that I have very little work to do in swaying US elections for Mother Russia.

Imperialist democratzis and Potemkin "LLR conservatives" are already undermining United States faster than I can plan operations.

Soviet Lawfare Group has been especially effective in destroying American norms and undermining confidence in elections.

I have activated all latent "LLR conservative" assets to fully exploit online subversive activity.

Please to give regards to Xenia and ask her to have a borscht shooter (as the Americans say) for me.

narciso said...

ah zenia, who if she was as old as famke might have only 26 or so when the soviet union collapsed, that would make her a very junior officer, now alex travelyan, is a more interesting case, as he is supposed to be the son of liensk Cossacks, but operation keel hawl, would have happened at latest by 1950, the notion bubbled up out of lord Tolstoy's cames against alexander and macmillan in the mid 80s,

Achilles said...

AllenS said...
Big Mike said...
What did Barack Obama know, and when did he know it?

Patience, Big Mike, patience.

It has been 30 years of this grifting corrupt bullshit.

Heads.

On.

Pikes.

narciso said...

of course he came from the Washington city paper, the same place tapper started when he left miss mezvinsky's service as a staffer, and activist with handgun control,


https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/11/wemple-cnn-editors-note-manafort/

Seeing Red said...

Via Lucianne:

Ted Cruz mocks Trump-Russia investigation: 'This wasn't Jason Bourne. This was Beavis and Butthead'

narciso said...

what's that line from 'present danger' cutter doesn't go to the bathroom, without the presidents authorization (I cleaned it up) but the minefield, prevents accountability to be applied to Obama,

narciso said...

it's full of facepalm, if seppuku were permitted, the cleaners would be very busy in the news rooms and thinktanks


http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=384726

compared to sean davis, Michael doran, lee smith, david reaboi, as well as Atkinson, strassel et al, truth is like a grain of sand, in the sahara of lies,

Bay Area Guy said...

The best, most salient excerpt of of the IG hearing today -- via our friend BBH upthread -- remains the exchange with Sen. Cruz:

Cruz: "A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email that is in turn used as the basis for a sworn statement for the court that the court then relies on. Am I staying that accurately?"

IG: "That is correct. That is what occurred."


More so, the altered email was significant -- it hid the fact that Carter Page was a low level CIA asset, not a Russian spy or asset or anything nefarious. The guy was a harmless goofball.

The altered email helped get the FISA warrant against an innocent non-spy -- the pretext to surveille (spy on) the Trump campaign.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I am guessing that Horowitz was hoping to very quietly find a way to say that the FBI is not a fundamentally corrupt agency. He was called on this point by John Durham and William Barr, and very publicly so. In a roundabout way, Comey himself reinforced Barr’s criticism.”

Keep in mind that Horowitz is an Obama appointee.

Still, the big things to keep in mind are first that he was I no position to determine the legitimacy of the information that the FBI received from a foreign government. He had to assume that it was accurate, and go from there. Was it sufficient to open a preliminary, then a full counterintelligence investigation under existing FBI rules and regulations? He found that it clearly was. Most of his detractors on the right, if honest would probably have to agree.

The first thing that he was not able to determine, under his mandate, was whether it was actually accurate. This is where Durham has the advantage. He has the power to go outside the DOJ and FBI, and question it’s source, which looks very much like it was orchestrated and fabricated by the CIA. Also that it was probably funded by payments to Stefen Halper by an obscure DOD intelligence agency. Setup, funded, and executed by federal agencies using taxpayer money.

Secondly, Horowitz could not determine whether or not there was any coordination there between the FBI and the CIA. There was no smoking gun corroboration that there was coordination found in the FBI. I think that the evidence we have seen so far is that the FBI, notably Strzok and company, knew in advance, that the evidence to use as a predicate to open their counterintelligence investigation was on the way. My guess is that Strzok knew because of his CIA ties, and esp his ties to Brennan. There have been repeated suggestions that he was dual hatted (CIA and FBI). But his role as a CD section chief (then AADD) May have given him the info. But their anticipation for the trade off was almost palpable, in his text msgs with Page. Durham and Barr, by now do know the provenance of the information used as the CH predicate.

Interestingly though, I don’t think that the CIA ever expected the FBI to use this to predicate a FISA warrant on one of their very own agents Carter Page, and tried to reach out to the FBI to tell them that he was one of theirs. Ignored of course. Remember, the CH predicate (likely from the CIA) involved George Papadopoulos, and but the FISA warrants were on Carter Page.

Bay Area Guy said...

Nadler, Waters, Pelosi and Biden talkin' impeachment 20+ years ago.

Nancy and Maxine look good, but Nadler was much fatter.

Original Mike said...

The report I heard was that the Durham statement was in response to an incorrect (cough) report by the Washington Post that Durham told Horowitz he agreed there was no bias in the FBI dealings with the FISA court. IIRC, Bob Mueller also saw the need once to push back on an erroneous press report about his "investigation".

Michael K said...

There have been repeated suggestions that he was dual hatted (CIA and FBI).

I personally think this was a CIA operation run by Brennan and with Obama's approval. Brennan used the FBI as cover and as a patsy if something went wrong. Something did; Trump won the election. The rest was scrambling to keep it a secret until they could figure out a way to get rid of Trump.

Strzok's father is CIA so there was a connection.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Said it before, bears repeating. The Clintons have been assfucking this country for DECADES.

MAJMike said...

I fear that nothing will happen to punish those who abused their trust.

We have a ruling class that feels entitled and immune to any penalty when they cross the line. This situation is a reminder of what happens when no one watches the watchers. Our government agencies are fully larded with self-serving corrupt drones.

I fear the only solution is one involving pikes and the severed heads of a self-proclaimed aristocracy (some assembly required).

Bruce Hayden said...

“I personally think this was a CIA operation run by Brennan and with Obama's approval. Brennan used the FBI as cover and as a patsy if something went wrong. Something did; Trump won the election. The rest was scrambling to keep it a secret until they could figure out a way to get rid of Trump.”

The other thing that went wrong was that the FBI switched the focus from George Papadopoulos to Carter Page, probably as a result of getting ahold of the Steele Dossier. Page appears to have belonged to the CIA (though there is evidence that the FBI used him up through maybe April of 2016). Which suggests to me that the FBI was closer than the CIA to its origins. I just don’t see the CIA pushing the Steele Dossier, when it appears to implicate and expose one of their agents (Carter Page). Besides, there have long been suspicions that some of the Steel Dossier was the result of laundering through Steele some of the FISA 702 information collected by FBI contractors up through that previous spring.

Anonymous said...

Foam Party Conservative Cuck must really be having a sad now that Cruz has turned on him too. It’s almost as though Cuck doesn’t have anyone who agrees with him in “his” party.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/status/1204847596017205249

Original Mike said...

"Interestingly though, I don’t think that the CIA ever expected the FBI to use this to predicate a FISA warrant on one of their very own agents Carter Page, and tried to reach out to the FBI to tell them that he was one of theirs. Ignored of course."

Far from ignoring it, the FBI inverted the meaning of the email they received from the CIA and submitted it as evidence to the FISA court.

Birkel said...

Carter Page *was* a CIA asset?

Why do any of you believe the tense of that verb is correct? John Brennan ran this whole thing. He started the whole series of lies. So what makes us think that Carter Page was not !!!STILL!!! a CIA asset when he agreed to join the Trump campaign and be the target of a FISC warrant? That would explain why he's not suing for civil rights violations, btw.

Why do we believe any portion of the official story?

Narayanan said...

Are there any Allen Drury level writer who can use the material?

How long before another Clint Eastwood make movie?

narciso said...

Ive often referenced drury? Stephen coonts has broached some of this material.

Michael K said...

I just don’t see the CIA pushing the Steele Dossier, when it appears to implicate and expose one of their agents

I don't know. I have read the Popadopoulis book. Halper is a CIA asset. Mifsud is a CIA asset. Neither was ever a Russian agent. When Downer, an Aussie Hillary supporter, talked to Papadopoulis, he was more interested and frankly hostile to Papa's indea of trying to organize a pipeline for Israeli natural gas to Greece, where Papa has connections, and avoiding Turkey. Downer and Mifsud both attacked him as wishing to injure a US ally. Russia, according to Papa, was a minor matter.

Turkey figures in this somehow. Steele was a Brit and Sir Richard Dearlove, the MI 6 chief, is involved. Why ? Why are "Five Eyes" folks involved? FBI has no connections with them., They are CIA friends.

I hope we will learn more,. Trump is being pressured to keep stuff secret that involves these other countries. Why ? Let it all see daylight.

Michael K said...

Are there any Allen Drury level writer who can use the material?

WEB Griffin has some CIA stories in his novels. Not much. His police novels emphasize that cops don't like FBI.

WE need somebody like Daniel Silva to write some roman a clef novels. Tom Clancy loved the CIA and I wonder why sometimes.

MartyH said...

FWIW, I'm with Bay Area Guy on Horowitz. He had limited tools at his disposal yet left a very clear trail of crumbs that Cruz and Graham followed effectively today. His report is certainly not a whitewash; the press cannot totally bury it; it invites closer inspection of those seventeen mistakes by Durham, with his subpoena power.

Horowitz documented an incredible amount of smoke, even if he was not empowered to find the smoking gun. (to mix two clichés.)

narciso said...

Mifsud (re blackburnhad contacts all the way from gilbraltar dowm the red sea into karachi.) As for brennan an npr correspondent of all things wrote a roman a clef where the ultimate villain isnt a cambridge educated muclear physicist but a c character much like the beltways kimgpin

MayBee said...

Doesn't the fact that the Dems are not in the least bit interested in why the FBI did such a terrible job kind of a tell that they know it was bias/anti-Trumpism?

A few of them talked about improving the FISA warrant process, which is great. But none of them were like, "My GOD I had no idea they would do this and its terrible how much they messed up and we can't let this happen again". Their lake of care gave the game away.

Some of them even tried to say, well Russia really did try to ruin our elections and our democracy. Amy Klobachar even invoked the little girls trying to go to school during the civil rights movements. That's what Russia was trying to ruin. Why, it's just a hop skip and a jump to from that to putting Human Intel with wires in meetings with Presidential campaigns. What else were they supposed to do?

narciso said...

Well he spent some 20 years with special firces and associated aviation units. He cowrote some of the mash tales with richard hooker.

MayBee said...

Don't forget the sainted Dr Fiona Hill simply said she thought Christopher Steele got "rolled". She didn't have the judgement to think he did something terribly wrong/

narciso said...

Well she was his counterpart at the nsc hoe could a student of richard pipes get things so wrong.

Birkel said...

Again:

What EVIDENCE do we have that Carter Page is not DTILL a CIA asset?

stephen cooper said...

I know a lot of guys like James Comey.

Trust me, he has no idea how he is going to go down in history. His education was not that good, although he profited from his degrees, and his march through the government services he rendered was unusual but philosophically unimpressive ......

If he is reading this, I give him this advice ....

get on the internet or go to a book store, and buy every book you can buy that was written by Nixon's advisor Charles Colson.
Repentance is a balm to the soul, and none of us are without sin, well a few of us are, not me, not you, almost none of us.
Those who are without sin are not really concerned about the fact that
so many Trump-haters are worried tonight that they are going to go down in history the same way they used to think Roy Cohn went down in history, and I am saying that in the nicest way I can,

Thanks for reading.

MayBee said...

I thought Horowitz was a refreshing straight shooter. I really liked him.

Someone above asked about Strozk and Page's bias and how didn't that prove bias? He said Preistap (?) approved their work and he didn't have any evidence or testimony about Preistap's bias so he couldn't say that's why it was done.

It was all very interesting. He brought up whistleblowers from Fast and Furious, and the horrible behavior in the Ted Stevens prosecution. I think he's a guy with a lot to say and seems to be in the right job.

narciso said...

Its an interesting question, because of his naval career as well as finance (remember jack ryan) he was certainly asource. But that history didnt matter. Because access to info was restricted,

Birkel said...

narciso,
Was that last in response to my question?

MayBee said...

Birkel- interesting theory. Maybe the only evidence is that it was allowed to come out that he has been a CIA asset.

As for Comey being Clinton's guy, that was evident in the Valerie Plame thing. Wilson and Plame were Hillary's. They hated Obama when he was running. They are both anti-Israel and as we know, Valerie doesn't hesitate to retweet anti-semitic tropes. That case was a trial run for this--- complete with getting the AG to recuse himself.

The pipeline information is interesting--- Insty posted just the other day that a Biden meeting in Cyprus (during Obama admin) about a pipeline was about to become relevant again. I wonder what's up.

narciso said...

I have yet to see a real reprobate from the prog side get his comeuppance. Mark felt was spared the consequences of his treachery by w pardon by reagan along witn ed miller, and they were hunting terrorists. Lewis libby was targeted by fitz as apayback fotm his successful lawyerung in the rich case.

stephen cooper said...

Birkel of course it was, Narciso is clear as sunlight

Carter Page and James Comey are gonna be writing inspirational books 30 years from now
Narciso did not say that I said that

stephen cooper said...

narciso
Greg Craig has been indicted
Obama's wife lost interest in him
Biden is a victim of elder abuse from his advisors
Hilary was blackmailed into making a fool of herself on the Harold Stern show, although she was not subjected to the same vicious sexual insults Robin Quivers always is subjected to
Weinstein was indicted
Epstein did not kill himself
Prince Andrew cannot leave little England

Prog side reprobates get their comeuppance all the time

MayBee said...

There's this woman, Susan Hennessey, who is a former IC attorney who scares the bejesus out of me. She thinks this is just. a normal error rate.

stephen cooper said...

Had Greg Craig or Obama or Biden or Hillary or Weinstein or Epstein spent one single hour protesting outside an abortion clinic, they would not have gotten the comeuppances they got.

And Prince Andrew is probably never going to be able to visit any civilized country again in his entire life.

narciso said...

I was sketching out a scenario of how and why this might have happened, sabrina de sousa was an actual operative not a source, at the appointed time she was dissavowed in the mi parlance. I never met but i knew the sons of operatives in south america in the congo who were convemient for a time and them they wete dissavowed

MayBee said...

I also want to point out once again how reporters and pundits who went against the grain and tried to call this out were treated. Many were called Russian Assets. Lots have been written off. Like the people who thought maybe there wasn't a rape at UVA.

I've really gotten to the point where when I see a media shame storm against reporters who think something, I'm going to look harder their way.

Birkel said...

MayBee,
Hennessey is a Liar, of course.
She's another Leftist Collectivist with dreams of authoritarian power.
She thinks The Hunger Games are a how-to manual and she lives in Panem.

Original Mike said...

Who let cooper escape the cafe threads?

narciso said...

Craig was acquitted judge jackson bent over backwards to insure it. As for the othwrs shirley you cant be seeious.

stephen cooper said...

I mean, had they been the sort of person who would have spent a single hour protesting outside an abortuary.

The prog life is a sad life .... so far from heaven, so little knowledge of how to make one's way back to heaven ,,,,

narciso said...

They will get their comeuppance in the next life, but in this one they are sitting pretty,

stephen cooper said...

sure I am serious and he was acquitted but no the judge did not bend backwards, I would have acquitted him if I were on the jury, everything pre-2013 was before the statute of limitations .....

seriously he was one of the most respected lawyers in the world, he was the little finasteride-haired boy who got rape of children tossed out as a death penalty violation, and then he was dragged through the courts as a potential jailbird, that is some serious comeuppance

narciso trust me I don;t always know what I am talking about but I am serious tonight, because this is the anniversary of a very good day in my life ..... trust me, you too should remember good anniversaries, I know you can do it! God loves us all and has appointed the days of our lives as days where we need to understand
Justice
Love
and compassion, and yes I have compassion for Greg Craig and I look forward to his Colson-like reformation !!!!

Birkel said...

Original Mike,
When you find out you have my permission to beat the scalawag to within an inch of his life.

stephen cooper said...

well I could be wrong, it seems to me like Mrs Obama does not really love Mr Obama anymore, judging from the pictures, but maybe it is the other way around, I mean, I don't approve of their politics, but I would be happier if they loved each other than if they didn't, I mean I don't really spend much time thinking about celebrities, political or otherwise, but that being said I am sure that love for the people in our lives is the first stepping stone to love for those who are not really in our lives but who could use our help, which is the next stepping stone to being the sort of person God wants us to be.

I promised Ann no more long comments so I am gonna stop there!

stephen cooper said...

Birkel God loves you but for the love of God you really ought not to dream of violence against one of God's most favored children --- just saying, you crabby old funny little man ....

narciso said...

Greg craig sentenced a six year old boy to room 101 or alexs clockwork room, to ve property of the state, before that he opened loopholes for haitian oligarchs to get their fuel across before that he worked for the borgia of

stephen cooper said...

Birkel God loves you but for the love of God you really ought not to dream of violence against one of God's most favored children --- just saying, you crabby old funny little man ....

stephen cooper said...

narciso - and Saint John Paul scowled at the people who informed him that Maciel was a criminal.

God forgives a lot.

narciso said...

Hyannisport who left a young woman to drown to save his own albino butt. Who would later volunteer his services to the soviets through an internediary the son of the great boxer.

stephen cooper said...

Original Mike - I have a brother named Michael.

ANd Michael the Archangel is a glorious creature.

Man up, and abandon the Gamma town you live in.

Equipment Maintenance said...

Comey will brag, for the rest of his life, that he was able to seriously damage the presidency of Donald Trump. He didn't get him out if there, but, by jove, he really damaged him. Hopefully, it's only his cell mate who has to listen.

Big Mike said...

Why do any of you believe the tense of that verb is correct?

Because CIA assets who get exposed as CIA assets are no longer useful for collecting information.

stephen cooper said...

well narciso if you have been thinking a lot about Mary Jo Kopechne and the drunk guy who left her to die - both of them long dead - and have not been praying for their souls ---- then you are not doing this right.

Qwinn said...

Birkel,

I gotta admit, if Page was a willing plant, that leaves me with fewer questions than if he was a victim. Very interesting conjecture there. I could see it. I don't know anything much about the guy beyond his role in this, mind you

stephen cooper said...

I also promised Ann I would not hijack any more threads so feel free to have the last word, my friends, and have a wonderful evening ....

in the history of the universe have there been many things better than living in the USA in a small town with lots of Christmas lights in a December where things may have been bad but were just USA level bad, not rest-of-the-world-bad?

narciso said...

Thats who greg craig apprenticed under, that what he did after in brief he ended up as apartner at skadden overseeing the ukraine account btim trying to frame yulia tymochenko but thats apparently not wrong

narciso said...

The law is an inperfect instrument, but when are they ever subject to it. My greatest gripe with mrs obama is she never showed any gratitude for the extraordinary privilege she was accorded. Then you have what she did to earn her sinecure at the u chicago hospital

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