August 17, 2020

"A New York Times reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his role perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax was tasked with framing the news that a former top FBI lawyer was to plead guilty..."

"... to deliberately fabricating evidence against a Donald Trump campaign affiliate targeted in the Russia probe. The resulting article is a case study in how to write propaganda. Adam Goldman broke, and cushioned, the news that former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was to plead guilty to fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application to spy on Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. His job was to present the news as something other than an indictment of the FBI’s handling of the Russia collusion hoax, to signal to other media that they should move on from the story as quickly as possible, and to hide his own newspaper’s multi-year participation in the Russia collusion hoax.... The 434-page Horowitz report identified major abuses by the FBI that violated Page’s civil liberties....  Here’s how Goldman puts it: 'Republicans have seized on a narrow aspect of the inquiry — the investigation into Mr. Page — in a long-running quest to undermine it.'... FISA abuse was never a 'narrow aspect' of the inquiry and everyone should have 'seized' on it because lying to a FISA court and violating an American’s civil liberties are evil."

Writes Mollie Ziegler Hemingway at The Federalist. Much more at the link.

129 comments:

mezzrow said...

It's really inconvenient to notice these kinds of things, Mollie.

The article has been noted, and she'll be dealt with along with the rest of the Federalistas when the resistance triumphs some day.

Bay Area Guy said...

Boom. Mollie Hemingway is a national treasure.

To be clear:

To spy on the Trump campaign, the Obama DoJ/then Comey FBI needed a pretext, so they sought out Carter Page and claimed he was a Russian spy. In truth, he was a goofball, who was an asset for the CIA who assisted the FBI in taking down a few Russians in federal cases.

FBI weasel Clinesmith altered an email from the CIA, saying, yeah Carter Page is one of our assets to state, No, Carter Page is NOT one of our assets. He then used this fraudulent doctored email to intentionally mislead the FISA Federal Courtto granting the warrant to continue spying on Trump et al.

Well, maybe that's not clear.

But Obama's DOJ lied to the Federal Court to spy on the Trump campaign. And the NYT was a willing accomplice.

Temujin said...

Russians continue to be a source of Pulitzer Prizes for the New York Times.

1932: Walter Duranty wins Pulitzer Prize for covering up the mass genocide by starvation of millions of Ukrainians and making Josef Stalin 'palatable' for Western Elite politicians, academicians, and liberals. This opened the door to Western money and equipment that helped keep the Soviet Union from crumbling under its own horrid policies. To this day, socialism is still excused and praised by them all. Nothing like a few million deaths to understand that to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs.

2018: Adam Goldman wins Pulitzer Prize as part of the NYT "deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign," Nothing like writing, then perpetuating a false narrative to enable a coup of a elected President of the United States, then getting a Pulitzer for your efforts!

Sebastian said...

"Republicans have seized on"

Republicans pounce! It's a prog tell.

Both the original collusion hoax and now the damage control show, as if we didn't know, how shameless the prog MSM really are.

Craig said...

Expect more of this in the future, and they'll probably get away with it.

The Chinese government can get away with their propaganda, so why can't the Democrat Party?

Who is going to call them out and risk being labeled a Trump sympathizer, which the left has cleverly equated with being a racist, sexist, science denier, etc.? Most people simply aren't that brave or that interested.

The brainwashers are winning.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Russia Collusion hoax - put on by the same party and came corrupt media that give us The Clinton Crime family and the Biden crime family.

Marshall Rose said...

How many Pulutzer Prizes have been awarded to reporters for completely untrue reporting? Especially reporting that was known to be false at the time.

What Fishwrap had benefitted the most from these?

Only read the offending rag to know what exactly is the propaganda that is being pushed today.

D.D. Driver said...

"Republicans have seized on a narrow aspect of the inquiry — the investigation into Mr. Page — in a long-running quest to undermine it..."

LOL. Other than THAT, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

Pookie Number 2 said...

I don’t see why this matters. We were recently reassured that Joe looked healthy in a cartoon.

Narayanan said...

raise your hand if you see parallel with how Mueller was (pre)selected for Special Counsel

Narayanan said...

Marshall Rose said...
How many Pulutzer Prizes have been awarded to reporters for completely untrue reporting? Especially reporting that was known to be false at the time.
-----------=============
Pulitzer = Oscar or Golden Globe for people who don't want to show their face on screen?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The collective left sure do like to hide behind their bogus awards.

From Hillarywoodland to the corrupt leftwing press.

Original Mike said...

Will Goldman get another Pulitzer for the cover up?

daskol said...

Goldman has gone from carrying water for his establishment sources to try to haul an ocean, which will not work. But it is fun to watch him and his fellow bullshit peddlers squirm.

Leland said...

My test for the seriousness of Barr and Dunham was prosecution of Clinesmith. I don't know how one can read the IG report and not understand that Clinesmith should face criminal charges. He was the equivalent of a cop throwing down a gun and then wanting to arrest the suspect for brandishing a firearm. In the age of BLM, Clinesmith should be a poster child for the notion bad cops exist and need to be punished.

Meade said...

Original Mike said...
"Will Goldman get another Pulitzer for the cover up?"

Now that's the kind of sarcasm I consider to be high humor. Gold star. (No, I mean it. ⭐ See?)

Joe Smith said...

Whoever the hell these Pulitzer people are, they should be mortified.

Can you take the prizes back?

Not that sane people ever gave the prize much credence as they are always won (like book awards) by lefty, commie, socialist, woke writers.

They spent FOUR FUCKING YEARS peddling demonstrable (even at the time) nonsense.

The MSM, like the KKK, are just another wing of the DNC.

Unknown said...

More 'Pravda journalism'- they are doing their job. The party is always right and we will omit, distort and lie to achieve that end.

Original Mike said...

"Republicans have seized on a narrow aspect of the inquiry — the investigation into Mr. Page — in a long-running quest to undermine it..."

So, there's no explanation in Goldman's piece of what the Page FISA warrant allowed Comey, Mueller, et al. to do?

NYTs readers pay for the privilege of being patronized. I will never stop being amazed at this.

Narr said...

None of this will get through the MSDNC, where 90% of the Dims/Lefties I know get ALL of their info--and most of them wouldn't care anyway because OMB.

What's the GS rank for a desk smurf like young Clinesmith? Figure that as a baseline and then expect one or two more wrist-slappings for higher-ups . . .

I was wrong in thinking nothing would come from the Durham investigations, but I still think the fallout will prove fairly minimal--not enough to change a voter's mind anyway.

Narr
I would like to be crazy wrong on this one

Original Mike said...

"Now that's the kind of sarcasm I consider to be high humor. Gold star. (No, I mean it. ⭐ See?)"

Cool. I like stars.

Andrew said...

In the end our elite media will be un-indicted co-conspirators in the attempted coup.

Gk1 said...

I've been thinking for weeks that Barr/Durham will have very few people that will actually be prosecuted other than a few small fries because most of the big fishes will feign incompetence and maybe get away with it. But they will detail which DOJ/Mueller/FBI sources where leaking nonsense to which press people, many who won so-called Pulitzer prizes for their stellar stenography session. The only real penalty now is no one really believes them on anything. Reputational damage is hard to repair when you continually get caught lying.

TreeJoe said...

Why is there often a presumption that the Pulitzer Prize isn't targeted to be awarded to those who most re-frame an issue in a fashion they deem the most desirable outcome?

Why do we think Pulitzer Prizes aren't supposed to go to propagandists?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

If Trump wins - expect coup-II.

CNN gearing it up.

Meade said...

"Cool. I like stars."

Yes, well, in this corner of the galaxy you are widely known to be a star. A shooting star. And you know what they say about shooting stars. That's right — when you're a shooting star, they let you grab them by their asteroid.

tim in vermont said...

"So, there's no explanation in Goldman's piece of what the Page FISA warrant allowed Comey, Mueller, et al. to do?”

It didn’t get past the censors. The NYT was doing a first rate job of covering Biden’s corruption in Ukraine when the reporters working on it were shut down. The “Black Ledger” the New York Times produced in August leading up to the election which decapitated the Trump campaign was made up of whole cloth in Ukraine. Hence impeachment to make the story radioactive. It was solicited by the Hillary/Biden network. The NYT could have come out with the truth and let the Democrats pick another candidate, just like with Hillary, and the fact that putting up the connected candidate is more important than the good of the party and the American people tells you all you need to know about how the Democrat party is run and for whose benefit. Harris is their to look out for Silicon Valley. Look for “net neutrality,” actually seizure of the internet infrastructure by the government for the benefit of the billionaires in California who don’t own it, but built their fortunes on it, to come right back.

Mike Sylwester said...

Republicans have seized on a narrow aspect of the inquiry — the investigation into Mr. Page

George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy advisor on Trump's campaign staff, was invited to have a drink in London with Alexander Downer, the former Australian Foreign Minister. Downer says that Papadopoulos perhaps mentioned something about Russian Intelligence having some of Hilary Clinton's e-mails. Supposedly, Papadopoulos perhaps indicated to Downer also that Russian Intelligence might collaborate with someone on Trump's campaign staff to use those e-mails to help Trump defeat Clinton.

Downer tells someone at the US Embassy in London, and very soon the FBI is informed.

So, the FBI works to figure out who on Trump's campaign staff is the culprit. The FBI figures out that there are four suspects:

1) George Papadopouls

2) Paul Manafort

3) Michael Flynn

3) Carter Page

Very soon, the FBI decides that the culprit is Carter Page. Russian Intelligence will collaborate with Carter Page to use the Clinton e-mails to help Trump defeat Clinton in the election.

The FBI tells the FISA court that Page is a witting secret agent of Russian Intelligence who is a key collaborator in a plot to use Clinton's e-mails to help Trump defeat Clinton.

So, the FISA court issues a FISA warrant that will enable the FBI to seize and search all of Page's communications -- past, current and future -- in order to collect evidence about the plot. Furthermore, the FBI can seize and search all communications in a two-hop radius from Page.

Carter Page is not "a narrow aspect of the inquiry". The FBI argued that Page was the key person on Trump's staff in a Russian Intelligence plot to help Trump defeat Clinton in the USA's 2016 election.

William said...

Can anyone here name a single victim of the Holodomor? It was and continues to be a successful cover up.....I'm pretty sure that a majority of Democrats continue to believe that Trump colluded with Russia and that Russian interference is one of the main reasons Trump was elected President. It was a successful hoax. It's hard to make a few million people disappear from the face of the earth without attracting attention or disapproval. This Russian collusion hoax is child's play for these pros......Side note: In the twentieth century, collective farms killed more people than plantation farms did in the nineteenth century. Perhaps we should disavow those who supported or enabled those who supported collective farms with the same fervency that we now direct at those who in the nineteenth century were apologists for plantation slavery.

Meade said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
"The collective left sure do like to hide behind their bogus awards.

From Hillarywoodland to the corrupt leftwing press."

Hey, AprilBleachBitandHammers!: I was just the other day remembering how only 4 short years ago, you and I shared the conspiracy theory that slimy Donald Trump was in collusion with his good pals the slimy Clintons to steal the White House for them. What a difference a presidential term makes, huh?

Drago said...

Original Mike: "So, there's no explanation in Goldman's piece of what the Page FISA warrant allowed Comey, Mueller, et al. to do?"

Which leads me to Sally Yates and the farce of a hearing Lindsay held a few weeks back.

Yates testifies along the lines of whats the big deal? Carter Page was no longer with the campaign when the FISA's were issued....

...knowing all along that the FISA's allow the feds to go BACK IN TIME and gobble up all comms and information along with the 2 Hop Rule...

...which allowed the Feds to seize ALL comms of anyone who had communicated with Carter Page...

....AND anyone who had communicated with those anyones who had ever communicated with Carter Page.

Which was the entire Trump family/business associates/political campaign orbit.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Without exception.

I'll bet the Soviets and East Germans would be impressed by that.

But wait, there's so much more.

Trump was the target and the corrupt FISA's allowed the dems to do what they had already been doing illicitly for about a decade: use the FISA 702 database as an oppo research tool against all political opponents in government and outside of government, within the US and outside the US, including journalists and their families.

And that raw FISA 702 data was combined with the IRS files Lois Lerner delivered, by hand, in CD form (why do that in a modern age you might ask) right into the grubby little mitts of....Robert Mueller and his FBI.

And all that raw FISA 702 database info, combined with IRS records, were then combined with...(wait for it)...(wait for it)...all the digitized medical records that were enabled by the obamacare monstrosity.

And then that's combined, through democrat relationships and contractors and democrat pals, with all the info google and twitter and facebook and all the other tech dem supporters.

Well now.

And if you were wondering what all that buzz has been over the last several years about this weird thing called a "Social Credit Score", then you are finally on the right track.

Your future "Social Credit Score", compiled by the left and their pals in big tech/revolving government dems, will be what in the future allows you to access just about everything in society.

That's their goal. Its precisely what google and the gang helped the ChiCom's to implement on their own citizens.

And what's google's motto again? Oh, that's right: "Don't Be Evil".

1984.

Drago said...

Bruce: "Carter Page is not "a narrow aspect of the inquiry". The FBI argued that Page was the key person on Trump's staff in a Russian Intelligence plot to help Trump defeat Clinton in the USA's 2016 election."

As soon as the hoax dossier was blown away, the Carter Page gambit was Inga's next fall back...right up until the moment that collapsed and then it was all about George Papadopolous...right up until the time that it changed again....and then Inga sort of gave up and pretended she didn't care and never had cared and didn't know why everyone kept mentioning this russia collusion stuff.

It was awesome.

Amadeus 48 said...

These facts are very hard for our institutions (FBI, CIA, Congress, news media, universities, etc.) to deal with. They show those institutions to be valueless in every sense of that word.

My liberal friends are clueless about this, apparently because Adam Schiff told them three years ago that it was all a plot by that dairy farmer Nunes to make something out of nothing.

Remember the attacks of the vapors about the Patriot Act? No problem, said the naive institutionalists like Andy McCarthy. We have checks in place like the FISA court. Hmmm...

The one person's twitter feed that I read every day is Mollie Hemingway.

MartyH said...

I have tried to explain to a never Trump coworker that this alone is enough reason to crawl over glass to vote for Trump. The fact that the FBI would forge documents, and lie repeatedly to the FISA court shows a corruption at the core of our system.

Drago said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers: "If Trump wins - expect coup-II.

CNN gearing it up."

Without a doubt.

If Trump wins and the dems hold the House and take the Senate, we will be looking at a literal perpetual 2 full year rolling Senate impeachment hearing that will simply take one after another charge from the House in an attempt to permanently bring all of Washington and the nation to its knees (similar to the last 4 years but x 1,000,000).

Of course, the democratics and their LLR-lefty minions will explain that if you just vote for the dems all this pain can be brought to an end.

Nice country you have there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it....

Drago said...

Bruce: "George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy advisor on Trump's campaign staff, was invited to have a drink in London with Alexander Downer, the former Australian Foreign Minister."

And close Clinton ally and Clinton Foundation donor.

tim in vermont said...

"that slimy Donald Trump was in collusion with his good pals the slimy Clintons to steal the White House for them.”

If you followed Wikileaks, you would see that Hillary thought the same thing.

Joe Smith said...

@Mike Sylwester

I've seen the excerpts from the Page warrant. It states unequivocally that Page is a Russian agent.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Carter_Page_FISA_warrant_application.pdf

Why was he never arrested? Why was he never charged? We're talking treason here.

All I get out of it is that Page was a willing participant, and let the Intelligence communities use his name as needed to gain access to other Trump campaign members (2 hop rule). He was an FBI informant in the past as well as a CIA operative. He is feigning outrage now, but I think it's pretty obvious that he was in on the hoax from day one.

Gk1 said...

The Pulitzer Prize committee withdrew Janet Cooke's Pulitzer prize in 1981 for her fictional child heroin addict stories so there should be no reason they can't recind the pulitzer prize for "journalists" that collaborated with domestic intelligence agencies to drive Trump out of office.

I would think Judicial Watch, Breitbart or even the Trump campaign can put someone on it to connect all the dots once Barr & Durhams work is done and pester the Pulitzer people into acknowledging or making a ruling on why knowingly false stories planted by intelligence agencies should win prizes.

Michael K said...

gadfly was all over this two days ago explaining how Clinesmith was just a minor story.

Papadopoulis' book is a good introduction to the whole conspiracy.

YoungHegelian said...

@Original Mike,

NYTs readers pay for the privilege of being patronized. I will never stop being amazed at this.

You state a profound truth that begs for a deeper analysis. The NYT liberals among my friends & acquaintances are the most invincibly ignorant. They pride themselves on knowing just that one view & think that makes them above the rest of us rabble.

Mike Sylwester said...

The heads of the US Intelligence agencies -- in particular, James Clapper, John Brennan and James Comey -- feared an October Surprise that would enable Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton. The main idea was that many computer files of or about Clinton would be released to the public shortly before the election.

Russian Intelligence had lots of Clinton's computer files. However, Russian Intelligence needed to consult with someone on Trump's campaign staff in order to optimize the release of Clinton's computer files.

The FBI argued that the culprit on Trump's campaign staff was Carter Page. The FBI assured the FISA court that Page was a secret, witting agent of Russian Intelligence in a plot to affect the USA's Presidential election.

Page was traveling back and forth between the USA and Russia. While in Russia, Page was meeting secretly with high-ranking Russian officials who were "close to Putin". These meetings were for the purpose of planning the October Surprise that would enable Trump to defeat Clinton.

Russia was promising to give Page 40% of Russia's petroleum industry as a reward for Page's collaboration.

Now, though, it turns out that Carter Page was only a "narrow aspect of the inquiry".

tim in vermont said...

In fact I bet Hillary felt that Trump had double crossed her when he actually beat her, which is why she was so angry and vindictive. I always figured that he had a $1 bet with Bill Clinton on the race.

Howard said...

The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019

MD Greene said...

About damned time, and good for Hemingway for laying out this nasty little piece of the broader scandal.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a broader exposure than the NYT's Pulitzer hack has provided, though.

henge2243 said...

How come all of these CIA and FBI agents resemble Pete Buttigieg without the muscularity?

Thank god that they take some creative license in the movies.

Bruce Hayden said...

From last night:

One of the things that has not been made overly public about the charging Friday of Kevin Clinesmith is that he was working for the Mueller SC investigation at the time that he changed the email from the (apparently) CIA that Carter Page was an asset of theirs, and reported to them on his Russian contacts, which was submitted to the FISC in order to get the 3rd FISA extension on Page. Putting it all together, an attorney for the Mueller SC investigation has admitted to a felony, materially changing a document, in order to get FISA warrant coverage over Page (and the people in the Trump campaign well into the Trump Administration, along with all of the illegal FISA Title VII political surveillance) for the sole use of the Mueller investigation. Moreover, this is more evidence that the Mueller investigation knew, with a certainty, from at least June of 2017, that there never had been collusion between Trump and his campaign, and the Russian government.

Why did they need the FISA warrant? As noted above, it provided them quasi legal access to Results of the illegally obtained 702 database searching, ended by Adm Rogers in spring of 2016. But probably more importantly, it allowed for eavesdropping and electronic surveillance of Trump and his top people without the need to go into district court and show probable cause.

Comey earlier admitted what they (at that time) were doing - running a dual criminal/counterintelligence investigation in order to get evidence of (hoped for) crimes without the need to show probable cause. That is essentially illegal. FISA cannot legally be used to provide evidence of crimes. Instead, crimes discovered coincidentally and inadvertently pursuant to a FISA warrant can be used in criminal prosecutions. That wasn’t what was happening. What the FBI was doing under Comey, immediately followed by the Mueller SC investigation (authorized in the wake of the Comey firing), was bootstrapping a criminal investigation using FISA warrants, since, of course, they never had the probable cause needed for a regular warrant, that could be used to investigate Trump, his campaign, Carter Page, George Papadopoulis, etc.

What is interesting about that approach is that FBI agents and attorneys know not to lie, even by omission, on Wiretap Act Warrant applications in district courts. But, because FISA warrant applications are secret and classified, they are not so constrained. The Clinesmith admission of guilt is one of the few times that they have been able to show that the FBI people involved in getting the four FISA warrants lied by commission. IG Horowitz found 17 inaccuracies in the 4 FISA warrants. Likely the other 16 were lies by omission. They knew, since at least August, 2016, that Carter Page was not a Russian asset, but rather was a CIA asset. That information was material to the 4 FISA warrants Because that meant that he was one of the good guys. (They also failed to inform the FISC that he had been one of their own assets, working with them to make cases from 2013 up through March of 2016, 7 months before they filed their first FISA application on him).

Jersey Fled said...

The NYT willfully gave up any claim to be a trustworthy and credible news organization years ago. They don't even try anymore, instead relying on the ignorance and/or complicity of it's ever shrinking number of readers. The only reason for serious people to read it is to measure just how deranged the Left has become.

My thanks to Ann for doing the dirty work for us.

Meade said...

Howard said...
"The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019"

Brace yourself, Howard. You might even want to pray (if you're a believer.) Otherwise, I'll just recommend giving Loretta & Conway a listen. If that doesn't work, there's always expatriating to Portugal.

Joe Smith said...

"How come all of these CIA and FBI agents resemble Pete Buttigieg without the muscularity?"

At least Mayor Pete is purportedly smart (not that smart people can't have crazy ideas).

Not sure if this applies to Federal cops, but I've known some, and it seems true to me...from ABC news:

"N E W L O N D O N, Conn., Sept. 8, 2000 -- A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

Most Cops Just Above Normal The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average."


The last paragraph above is copied as written (it's a mess) but the fact that the average IQ for people with guns is 104 should make you nervous and afraid...

hstad said...

Molly one of those rare breeds left - actual reporting the truth!

AA, your watching the dying of the NY Times - who will you go to for your misplaced inspiration in the future?

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Bruce, you had better explain this to gadfly as he was in a lather yesterday about Clinesmith and his "technical" error.”

It wasn’t a technical error - because, for one thing, Clinesmith is admitting that he MATERIALLY altered the email. By definition, if the misstatement (or document alteration here) was “material”, it is not a mere “technical” error. It is material because if the alteration had not been made, and the document submitted to the FISC included the document, it is likely that the FISA warrant would not have been issued, since that court would haves known that Page was a CIA asset, and not a Russian asset. One of the good guys.

Let me reiterate that. Straight shooting, Annapolis grad, Carter Page was acting as loyal and patriotic American all along, dutifully reporting to the CIA his contacts with the Russians, and helping the FBI send several people to prison, last testifying for the FBI in March, 2016, 7 months before agents from that very same agency first swore in a FISA application that he was a Russian spy. The FBI knew, all along, that he was not a Russian spy, but instead was working for the US against the Russians. They were informed about his status from this other agency (presumably the CIA) at least as early as August, 2016, two months before they first filed a FISA warrant on him. He was one of the good guys. The FBI knew it all along. They lied.

Michael K said...

Howard said...
The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019


Howard is so 1917.

tim in vermont said...

"Howard said...
The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019”

Same with the slogan “Facts matter,” although to Howard’s credit, he has always maintained that for him they don’t.

tim in vermont said...

You need hard facts to land a man on the moon, but not to win the presidency and control over all of those opportunities for graft.

hstad said...


Blogger Joe Smith said...Whoever the hell these Pulitzer people are, they should be mortified..." 8/17/20, 11:52 AM

Answer: Columbia University manages the program and they pick 102 "jurors" all from the industry and Liberal - end of story.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

A lefty prog trick is to say the old and busted collective left prog-lie is "old news"

Yeah - lets ignore the left's corruption - because it's "Old News."

mikesixes said...

Those Republicans, always seizing on one thing or pouncing on another.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Mike at 12:37

hahahahahahaha .

totally.

Anonymous said...

OT:

DBQ stay safe from the Loyalton Fire

"The wildfire has charred 20,000 acres in Lassen County, California, as of Sunday morning and has ignited serious concerns and sparked evacuations on Saturday for portions of Sierra, Lassen and Plumas counties.

Firenados are created when rising hot air from a fire becomes twisted by winds changing direction, much like the more common land tornado. The difference between a regular tornado and the firenado, however, is that winds combine with smoke plums to create especially dangerous conditions."

Mike Sylwester said...

Why did Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller continue to demand renewals of the FISA warrant long after Carter Page knew about it? Did Mueller really think he would catch Page -- who knew about the warrant -- talking on the telephone with Vladimir Putin about how to steal more US elections?

My theory is that Mueller hoped to catch Carter Page communicating with Paul Manafort. Both Page and Manafort had been questioned by the FBI, and both said that they had not communicated and were not even acquainted.

Mueller hoped to find some communication between Page and Manafort so that Page and/or Manafort could be charged for lying to the FBI. Then Page and/or Manafort could be pressured to compose accusations against Trump.

By the time the existence of the FISA warrant became publicly knows, Mueller was looking mainly for process "crimes" that could be used thus to compel people to compose accusations against Trump.

After Trump won the election and while Mueller was conducting the witch-hunt, the goal no longer was to find Russian Intelligence communications with Trump's staff members. Rather, the goal was to find Trump associates who might be pressured to compose accusations about anything related to Trump. Mueller hoped that the renewed FISA warrants -- with their two-hop scope -- might be useful along those lines.

bagoh20 said...

It's just a case of a sitting American presidential administration illegally using federal law enforcement and courts to try and reverse a fair and legal presidential election for a purely partisan power grab, and did so by lying to step all over the most important rights of American citizens. It's just as serious a case of sedition as is possible short of assassination. No big deal, right? You lefties who defend or diminish this have absolutely no principles, and do not deserve the rights and privileges this nation provides. What the hell happened to you people? Have been this despicable since birth, or did someone beat you with an American flag as a child.

bagoh20 said...

Using the NYT in your blog is the intellectual version of feeding your students semen laced cookies. Why would you do that? I know, I know. You just like doing it. Yep, that's probably the reason for the cookies too.

Drago said...

Howard: "The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019"

Howard will be the last person in the US to take down his Tigerbeat poster of corrupt Stasi-wannbe lovebirds Strzok and Page.

Drago said...

Michael K: "Howard is so 1917."

Howard is having a very hard time adapting to the dems shifting lie-filled narratives.

It was just weeks ago that Howard was praising his "Saving Private Ryan" antifa "heroes" who have since devolved into attacking old women, women in walkers, guys in wheelchairs, 5 year old boys (whom they gun down at point blank range, ripping off kids at their lemonade stands, etc.

Oh yes. Howard has gotten very, very quiet indeed.

We went from Howard screaming about Trump launching massive chemical weapons attacks on innocent protesters who only want the opportunity to finish burning down churches and burning bibles and shooting motorists to Howard saying "what riots?".

Howard is a little wind up toy for the lefties and he'll never be anything else.

narciso said...

meanwhile remember that butina gal, who was the latest twist, well back in 2018, the businessmen she supposedly worked for, were acquitted in a trial in spain,

Carter page is the one who successfully brought a public issue with gazprom, the fact that sechin, chose a byzantine group of partners like the qatari investment trust, an italian bank not known for the oil business, and mark rich's old glencore crew, was the 'dog that didn't bark'

Bruce Hayden said...

I detect a bit of sarcasm in your post. Nevertheless...

“The heads of the US Intelligence agencies -- in particular, James Clapper, John Brennan and James Comey -- feared an October Surprise that would enable Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton. The main idea was that many computer files of or about Clinton would be released to the public shortly before the election.”

If the FBI had done their job up through June, and had recommended her prosecution for the thousands of felonies that she had committed, instead of having Comey whitewash her guilt, the Dems could have replaced her before their convention, and maybe even won the election. The only reason that the Russians, Chinese, etc had her emails was that she had flaunted several federal statutes by illegally conducting ALL of her email business utilizing her private server. If she was vulnerable to that specific October surprise, it was solely due to her own felonious actions.

“Russian Intelligence had lots of Clinton's computer files. However, Russian Intelligence needed to consult with someone on Trump's campaign staff in order to optimize the release of Clinton's computer files.”

“The FBI argued that the culprit on Trump's campaign staff was Carter Page. The FBI assured the FISA court that Page was a secret, witting agent of Russian Intelligence in a plot to affect the USA's Presidential election.”

They lied. They knew better, at least as early as August, 2016.

“Page was traveling back and forth between the USA and Russia. While in Russia, Page was meeting secretly with high-ranking Russian officials who were "close to Putin". These meetings were for the purpose of planning the October Surprise that would enable Trump to defeat Clinton.”

Manufactured BS.

“Russia was promising to give Page 40% of Russia's petroleum industry as a reward for Page's collaboration.”

Is that the least bit credible? That the cash strapped Russian government would give up 40% of its largest funding source (oil) in order to possibly assist in a, at the time, remote chance that Trump could beat Clinton? When it was Trump who was promising opening up fracking, as well as imposing sanctions on them, and Clinton opposed fracking? 40% of their government’s largest funding source to Page so that the US could crash worldwide oil prices, and make the US a major oil producer?

“Now, though, it turns out that Carter Page was only a "narrow aspect of the inquiry".”

Which is a dangerous admission. Trump was the target. The FBI just couldn’t admit it. Former DAG Sally Yates recently testified to Congress that the DOJ would have freaked out, if they had known the truth, that the FBI was targeting one of the major party Presidential candidates for alleged Russian collusion, based on weak, primarily fabricated, evidence.

narciso said...

an interesting twist I noted in gellman's apologia for having taken snowden at face value, the swiss banker, that was supposedly blackmailed, was a saudi money manager, puts a different spin on it,

Rosalyn C. said...

NY Times new motto: We won't ever bother you with facts.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I've seen the excerpts from the Page warrant. It states unequivocally that Page is a Russian agent.”

Which was, of course, a lie.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Carter_Page_FISA_warrant_application.pdf

“Why was he never arrested? Why was he never charged? We're talking treason here.”

Because he was innocent, and arresting him would have caused SpyGate to blow up in their faces. Remember, the FBI had known since at least August, 2016, that Page was a CIA asset, and had been working for them up through at least March of that year. All that information was, very likely intentionally, withheld from the FISC on the four FISA warrant applications. This was all (legally) material information that would have caused rejection of the applications, if the FISC had been informed of that information, as the law required. This is the lying by omission that I was talking about above.

“All I get out of it is that Page was a willing participant, and let the Intelligence communities use his name as needed to gain access to other Trump campaign members (2 hop rule). He was an FBI informant in the past as well as a CIA operative. He is feigning outrage now, but I think it's pretty obvious that he was in on the hoax from day one.”

Be more specific. There is really no credible evidence remaining that Page ever worked with the Russian government against his own. Face it - the FBI lied to get the FISA warrants against Page. They didn’t really care who they used to get the warrants - they had been turned down by the FISC for a FISA warrant on Papadopoulis the month before (and thus their pivot from Papadopoulis to Page as their primary target).

Francisco D said...

Joe Smith said...

All I get out of it is that Page was a willing participant, and let the Intelligence communities use his name as needed to gain access to other Trump campaign members (2 hop rule). He was an FBI informant in the past as well as a CIA operative. He is feigning outrage now, but I think it's pretty obvious that he was in on the hoax from day one.

I had never considered that possibility before. It is something to keep in mind as events unfold, if the DNC Media covers it.

narciso said...

oh never mind,

https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/17/report-iran-paid-taliban-fighters-attack-kill-america-afghanistan-qasem-soleimani-drone-strike-trump/

James L. Salmon said...

The FISA Warrant on Carter Page provided a legal excuse / fig leaf for PRIOR illegal access to the NSA data base. The Obama administration illegally spied on ALL of its domestic enemies - Democrats, Menendez et. al., GOP, ALL candidates for president, Socialists, Bernie Sanders and any prominent private citizens who engaged in wrong think, Roger Stone - with the same foreign intelligence tools he used to spy on Bibi, Angela and others on the world stage. Admiral Rogers proved the fly in the ointment when he shut down the illegal use of the NSA data base by Obama's minions in April of 2016. Fearful that their illegal SPYING would be revealed the minions scrambled and pulled the Carter Page fig leaf out and hid behind it and the Russian Hoax for almost a year, before handing the cover up off to Robert Mueller's special counsel team which continued to cock block investigators until Bob Barr appointed John Durham. Hopefully the Clinesmith indictment is the first of several shoes to drop on these scumbags.

mikee said...

I, for one, would fall over laughing if this year the October Surprise is perp walks for everyone involved in the Resistance.

Jon Ericson said...

*Sigh* Ms. Althouse's chances to achieve lasting fame and sainthood for her "Wow, how great is The New York Times?" book (in collaboration with The New York Times) look to be on the wane (unless we can all pull together for the 'Greater Good'. and get this wrecker Trump off our potentially famous and saintly backsides).

Jersey Fled said...

The last paragraph above is copied as written (it's a mess) but the fact that the average IQ for people with guns is 104 should make you nervous and afraid...

What's the average IQ for public school teachers?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Mike Sylwester said...
Republicans have seized on a narrow aspect of the inquiry — the investigation into Mr. Page

George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy advisor on Trump's campaign staff, was invited to have a drink in London with Alexander Downer, the former Australian Foreign Minister. Downer says that Papadopoulos perhaps mentioned something about Russian Intelligence having some of Hilary Clinton's e-mails. Supposedly, Papadopoulos perhaps indicated to Downer also that Russian Intelligence might collaborate with someone on Trump's campaign staff to use those e-mails to help Trump defeat Clinton.

...

The heads of the US Intelligence agencies -- in particular, James Clapper, John Brennan and James Comey -- feared an October Surprise that would enable Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton. The main idea was that many computer files of or about Clinton would be released to the public shortly before the election.

Russian Intelligence had lots of Clinton's computer files. However, Russian Intelligence needed to consult with someone on Trump's campaign staff in order to optimize the release of Clinton's computer files.




That's some "impressive" stuff there, Mike.

So
1: How did Russia get all those files? Did they get them because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton violated laws about handling classified materials?

Why yes, they did.

I wonder why she was never prosecuted for those crimes?

2: You are correct. If Putin had wanted Trump instead of wanting Hillary, he would have released those classified files to the public, making Hillary look very bad.

Gee, I wonder why he didn't release them?

3: If the people you are describing were honest, they would have realized post election that the fact that Putin had not released those emails meant that all their suppositions we're wrong. And then they would have stopped spying on Carter Page.

instead they kept on spying on him. including getting three more quarterly renewals of the obviously illegitimate FISA Court orders.

So that means your entire defense of them and their actions is total garbage.

Thank you for playing, we have a lovely parting gift for you, 4 more years of the Trump Administration

Unknown said...

"The FISA Warrant on Carter Page provided a legal excuse / fig leaf for PRIOR illegal access to the NSA data base. The Obama administration illegally spied on ALL of its domestic enemies - Democrats, Menendez et. al., GOP, ALL candidates for president"

Are there any investigations into illegal spying on the Romney campaign in 2012? It must have
occurred. How else could Romney have been beaten. It's the only possible explanation.
I am sure he would welcome such an inquiry - LOL.

Kevin said...

These people don't seem to realize that once the shooting starts it's going to be impossible to stop.

When you "other" others, you become an "other" to them.

Kevin said...

In other news, Donald Trump said the media is the enemy of the people.

Or something we could contort into that to enrage our subscribers.

Jon Ericson said...

I appreciate the frisson between Mike Sylwester's way of jerking the reader's sympathies to and fro versus Bruce Hayden's dry factual analysis. The rest of you guys are pretty good too.

Jersey Fled said...

I have a theory that Trump was not the only candidate the Obama administration was spying on.

Wait until the news drops that they were spying on Bernie.

JaimeRoberto said...

I have a theory that Trump was not the only candidate the Obama administration was spying on.

I suspect they spied on Romney too. It seems awfully fortuitous that Candy Crowley had that transcript in her hands at the debate.

Equipment Maintenance said...

It's good Clinesmith has gone down; may he be the first of many, including Weissman, Comey, Clapper, etc., even Obama. But, lost in all this is that none of it would be worth spit unless there was, waiting to pounce, twenty or so Republican senators who were in on it, and ready to remove what they knew to be a framed President for "Obstruction" or something. They need to hang from lampposts, too.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy advisor on Trump's campaign staff, was invited to have a drink in London with Alexander Downer, the former Australian Foreign Minister. Downer says that Papadopoulos perhaps mentioned something about Russian Intelligence having some of Hilary Clinton's e-mails. Supposedly, Papadopoulos perhaps indicated to Downer also that Russian Intelligence might collaborate with someone on Trump's campaign staff to use those e-mails to help Trump defeat Clinton.”

Of course, the part of that that is intentionally ignored is the question of who told Papadopoulos about the Russians having the Clinton emails. The answer that they gave was Russian intelligence asset, Maltese academic, Joseph Mifsud. Skeptics became suspicious when photos emerged of Downer together with Mifsud, and both of them separately with former British spook, Steven Harper, who turns out to have been under contract to an obscure US intelligence agency at the time that this was all happening. Both the FISA applications and the Mueller Report claimed that Mifsud was a Russian asset. Had to, because he was the one who supposedly told Papadopoulos about the Clinton emails.

Does that make sense? Not even close. Mifsud has close ties to Western, not Russian intelligence agencies. He taught British (and other Western) spies for years at his Link Institute in Rome. FBI agents also attended there, likely at least some from the Counterintelligence Division that prepared the four FISA applications. The CIA apparently routinely holds events there. There are 2016 photos of Mifsud with both former UK PM Teresa May and current PM Boris Johnson (when he was UK spy chief). If Mifsud were actually a Russian asset, that would be the biggest Western intelligence failure of the last several decades. He knows the identities of a generation of western intelligence agents, and is apparently on good terms with the British government. Etc. Calling him a Russian asset doesn’t pass the laugh test.

And, of course, if Mifsud actually is Western Intelligence, and not a Russian intelligence asset, the entire SpyGate collapses. Instead of Papadopoulos being told by the Russians that they had Clinton’s missing emails (which she was legally obligated to turn over to the government, but never did), and relaying that to a western intelligence asset (Downer), he was told it by one western intelligence asset, and then relayed it to the other, both of whom know each other. Mifsud set the hook, and his buddy Downer reeled him in.

Final note - the meeting between Papadopoulos and Downer is extremely suspicious, even without Downer having known Mifsud for years. He was one of Australia’s most senior diplomats, their retired ambassador to the Court of St James, and head of the Commonwealth. Diplomats at his level just do not meet with low level functionaries from another country for drinks. He might have plausibly met thus with Gen Flynn, the incoming NSA, and Trump’s chief foreign intelligence advisor at the time. But not Papadopoulos.

Yancey Ward said...

"My theory is that Mueller hoped to catch Carter Page communicating with Paul Manafort. Both Page and Manafort had been questioned by the FBI, and both said that they had not communicated and were not even acquainted."

Mike, I have great respect for the work you have done on this issue over the years, but you are overthinking it- the warrant was refiled 3 times for the simple reason that they wanted access the e-mails and calls of the Trump Campaign people/supporters post election/inauguration, and access to those people who also continued on into the administration, like Flynn, Priebus, Bannon, Conway, Jeff Sessions, etc.

Page was literally always just a conduit for surveillance- the Crossfire Hurricane "investigators" always knew that Page wasn't any kind of Russian agent- he was just the most convenient target for a FISA warrant- he had first person contacts directly with Trump Campaign leadership/transition team, had worked in Russia and with Russian nationals for many years, and wasn't too high a profile Trump person that a FISA court judge might think twice about granting such a warrant to Obama FBI/DOJ. Think about it- Papadopoulos was no good because he never had access to anyone in the Trump Campaign deep enough for a FISA to be useful in the 2-hop regime, and trying to target someone like Flynn, Kushner, or Trump Jr. with a FISA warrant might/would raise the supsicions of the FISA court itself and likely to lead to the denial of the warrant. No, Page was the perfect target- basically a nobody with the right level of access/contact with inner Trump team. That no one ever interviewed Page is the tell- they were never interested in Page as an investigative subject.

Yancey Ward said...

Joe Smith said...

All I get out of it is that Page was a willing participant, and let the Intelligence communities use his name as needed to gain access to other Trump campaign members (2 hop rule). He was an FBI informant in the past as well as a CIA operative. He is feigning outrage now, but I think it's pretty obvious that he was in on the hoax from day one.

I (Francisco D) had never considered that possibility before. It is something to keep in mind as events unfold, if the DNC Media covers it."


I have also entertained this theory about Page over at Mark Wauck's blog, but I eventually discarded it. Page seems a bit too straitlaced to have been a willing participant. I think his laid back approach to what was done to him is more likely just a result of the fact that Mueller never once interviewed him or persecuted him the way they did with Papadopuolos. I also think they never did persecute him because they hoped the FISA warrant would never be publically revealed.

narciso said...

if you recall the departed, which is referenced in my novella, the costello mole in the state police, orders a surveillance of captain queenan, in order to find out who he is contact with, which is dicaprio's character, in the chase, sheen's character falls from the roof, and costigan is in the wind, at the end of the exercise, the mole discovers costigans file and has him deleted, there are also echoes of enemy of the state, with jon voight tagging will smith's character, because of a contact he had,

meanwhile, there was another chinese american operative in the company, found releasing info to the chinese,

Bay Area Guy said...

Not to make pedestrian observations, but if Trump loses reelection, new AG Andrew Weismann or Adam Schiff or Eric Holder (repeat performance a la Barr), shut Durham down and probably set Clinesmith free, if possible.

Ergo, it is imperative that Durham move even more swiftly and/or Trump wins in November to give Durham all the time he needs.

Bruce Hayden said...

“By the time the existence of the FISA warrant became publicly knows, Mueller was looking mainly for process "crimes" that could be used thus to compel people to compose accusations against Trump.”

“After Trump won the election and while Mueller was conducting the witch-hunt, the goal no longer was to find Russian Intelligence communications with Trump's staff members. Rather, the goal was to find Trump associates who might be pressured to compose accusations about anything related to Trump. Mueller hoped that the renewed FISA warrants -- with their two-hop scope -- might be useful along those lines.”

I think that was part of it. But their FISA warrant also gave them access to much of the Trump campaign and transition communications, plus the fruits of the illegal 702 database searching. A reminder that Wiretap Act warrants by district courts require probable cause, FISA warrants do not.

Of course, the Mueller SC investigation, using the dual track criminal/counterintelligence strategy used by the FBI starting in the summer of 2016, was illegal. There is no legal provision for SC counterintelligence investigations, just criminal investigations, under the SC statutes. Alarm bells should have gone off at DOJ, when the Mueller investigation applied for their (June 2017) FISA extension. The three previous FISA warrants had been applied for by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division (CD), which is one of the few divisions in the FBI which can file for FISA warrants. That is their job - counterintelligence. Mueller sidestepped this problem by bringing CD DAD Strzok and CD attorney Clinesmith aboard the Mueller investigation. They also provided the ability to use National Security letters to demand information from third parties, without the need of court issued warrants. But that brings us back to the problem that SC laws require credible allegations of crimes. What crimes, you might ask. Logan Act, FARA, and Obstruction of Justice for firing Comey for lying to Trump about the existence of investigation into him and his top people. They actually had the audacity of using the Lawfare invented misinterpretation of an Obstruction of Justice statute to justify investigating Trump, from whom they derived all of their moral and legal authority, for firing the FBI Director for lying to him about the completely fabricated and illegal Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The alleged Obstruction was Trump’s interference with the completely fabricated and illegal investigation into him by firing one of the masterminds behind it. Sounds circular? Of course it is.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Page was literally always just a conduit for surveillance- the Crossfire Hurricane "investigators" always knew that Page wasn't any kind of Russian agent- he was just the most convenient target for a FISA warrant- he had first person contacts directly with Trump Campaign leadership/transition team, had worked in Russia and with Russian nationals for many years, and wasn't too high a profile Trump person that a FISA court judge might think twice about granting such a warrant to Obama FBI/DOJ. Think about it- Papadopoulos was no good because he never had access to anyone in the Trump Campaign deep enough for a FISA to be useful in the 2-hop regime, and trying to target someone like Flynn, Kushner, or Trump Jr. with a FISA warrant might/would raise the supsicions of the FISA court itself and likely to lead to the denial of the warrant. No, Page was the perfect target- basically a nobody with the right level of access/contact with inner Trump team. That no one ever interviewed Page is the tell- they were never interested in Page as an investigative subject.”

Agree 100%.

Birkel said...

It was a conspiracy to deprive US citizens of civil liberties.
It was an effort at a coup.
It was seditious.

Clinesmith should be forced to allocute his many crimes and the entirety of the conspiracy effort.

The conspirators include Mueller and his DOJ/FBI corrupt crew.
It includes Brennan, Clapper, Coney, Rice, and more.

Hopefully we get a few more pleas and indictments.

Narayanan said...

Joe Smith said...

Not sure if this applies to Federal cops, but I've known some, and it seems true to me...from ABC news:

"N E W L O N D O N, Conn., Sept. 8, 2000 -- A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.
---------=============
going by that story what is best guess on IQ difference between George Floyd and cops trying to arrest him?

Michael K said...

the meeting between Papadopoulos and Downer is extremely suspicious, even without Downer having known Mifsud for years. He was one of Australia’s most senior diplomats, their retired ambassador to the Court of St James, and head of the Commonwealth. Diplomats at his level just do not meet with low level functionaries from another country for drinks. He might have plausibly met thus with Gen Flynn, the incoming NSA, and Trump’s chief foreign intelligence advisor at the time. But not Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulis, in his book, describes an interrogation by Downer and others concerning his ideas about a gas pipeline from Israel to Greece. That was something he actually did know about. It seemed that Downer and several others were very hostile to the idea of bypassing Turkey and Cyprus. The operation they ran against Popadopoulis with the $10,000 cash "retainer" sounds like an operation to benefit Turkey and harm Israel. I have seen no discussion of this.

dreams said...

I'd love to see some of these crooked liberal journalist go to prison for their crimes when it's all over.

Jon Ericson said...

You might be good at basketball
You might be good at track
But when it comes to politics
You might as well step back
Might as well step back
Say what?
You might as well step back
Can't hear you
Might as well step back
Go Times!

bagoh20 said...

" the average IQ for people with guns is 104 should make you nervous and afraid..."

So above average then.

I wonder what the average I.Q is for people who are victims of armed robbery, rape, car jacking, kidnapping, and home invasion. If it's higher than 104, then that should make them feel better, assuming they are still alive.

gadfly said...

If you have read the balanced Adam Goldmith's NYT report compared to the bias spewing from Trump supporter Mollie Hemingway's attack on anyone who might logically believe that Trump and the Russians had a deal, you would come to the conclusion that GOP honesty no longer exists.

Mr. Clinesmith’s argued that he did not change the document in an attempt to cover up the F.B.I.’s mistake. His lawyers argued that he had made the change in good faith because he did not think that Mr. Page had been an actual source for the C.I.A. Neither DOJ IG Michael Horowitz nor Durham appear to believe this story. Durham quotes the CIA liaison saying that Clinesmith had no basis to formulate that belief.

From Durham's court filing:

Specifically, on or about June 19, 2017, the defendant altered the Office of General Counsel CIA Liaison’s June 15, 2017 email by adding that Individual #1 “was not a source” and then forwarded the email to the Supervisor-Special Agents, when in truth, and in fact, and as the defendant well knew, the original June 15, 2017 email from the OGA Liaison did not contain the words “not a source.”

We asked the OGC Attorney [Clinesmith] if he read the documents identified by the Liaison in her June 15, 2017 email. The OGC Attorney told the OIG that he “didn’t know the details of…the content of the [documents]” and did not think he was involved in reviewing them. He also said he “didn’t have access to the [documents] in the OGC space,” but that the investigative team was provided the list of documents and that they would have been reviewing them.

We asked the Liaison whether the Liaison ever told the 0GC Attorney that Page was not a source. The Liaison said that, to the best of the Liaison’s recollection, the Liaison did not and would not have characterized the status of a “[digraph]” without either first reaching out to the other agency’s experts responsible for the underlying reporting, or relying on the proper supporting documentation for an answer. The Liaison stated, “I have no recollection of there being any basis for [the 0GC Attorney] to reach that conclusion, and it is directly contradicted by the documents.”

We asked the OGC Attorney about the instant message exchange with SSA 2 in which he told SSA 2 that Carter Page was never a source. The OGC Attorney stated, “That was my, the impression that I was given, yes.” We also asked why he told SSA 2 in the instant message exchange that the other U.S. government agency [CIA] “confirmed explicitly that he was never a source.” The OGC Attorney explained that his statement was just “shorthand” for the information provided by the other agency about Page and that he had no particular reason to use the word “explicitly.”

Later that same day, the OGA Liaison responded by email in which the liaison provided the defendant with a list (but not copies) of OGA documents.

Still, the only proof offered as far as the public record shows rests with the CIA liaison’s imperfect memory of that conversation. He says, she says. Not a strong case that Clinesmith intentionally changed the email to mislead.

So how, a number of Durham skeptics are rightly asking, can Clinesmith possibly allocute to guilt in changing the document, when he has consistently claimed he did not intend to mislead anyone by changing the email.

Jon Ericson said...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Joe Smith said...

@Greg the Class Traitor

"Gee, I wonder why he didn't release them?"

You needed to go one step further...

Putin didn't release Hillary's emails (every intelligence agency in the world has all of them along with everything on Wiener's laptop) because he was certain, as was everyone else, that Hillary would win.

He would then have spectacular blackmail material on her. Not that he wouldn't have rolled her on every negotiation anyway, but it would have been the icing on whatever cake Russians eat.

Joe Smith said...

@Yancey Ward

But they claimed that Page was an honest-to-God Russian spy! An American traitor helping Moscow 'fix' a presidential election.

Prosecuting him, if he was what they said he was, would have been the greatest prosecutorial coup ever. Think of the headlines! There wouldn't be enough hours in the day for CNN to broadcast the breathless accounts.

The only problem? He wasn't a Russian spy, but instead an FBI/CIA functionary just happy to lend a hand.

I will check out your guy's blog. If you don't already know, check out Sundance at the Conservative Treehouse. Yes, lots of Trump supporters, and some a bit obsequious, but he knows more about this stuff than the Congressional committees...

Joe Smith said...

@Yancey Ward

Good point about them not thinking the warrant would be revealed...but everything leaks in DC.

Jon Ericson said...

Especially the crossword puzzles.

narciso said...


Hired back by the bureau in 04


https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-officer-arrested-and-charged-espionage

boatbuilder said...

So a mid level lawyer falsified a CIA report as part of a submission to the FISA court seeking authorization for surveillance on THE PRESIDENT of THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA .

And nobody else knew about it.

Remarkable.

Birkel said...

No single word of gadfly's series of lies can be construed as truth.

Every opportunity to pretend gadfly cares about facts was avoided.

Jon Ericson said...

Brother's headin' that way now, I guess
He just read somethin', made his face turn blue
Well I got nothin' 'gainst the press
They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true

Quaestor said...

Drago writes: Howard will be the last person in the US to take down his Tigerbeat poster of corrupt Stasi-wannbe lovebirds Strzok and Page.

LIES! Howard has no poster of Lisa Page.

Michael K said...

gadfly said...
If you have read the balanced Adam Goldmith's NYT report compared to the bias spewing from Trump supporter Mollie Hemingway's attack on anyone who might logically believe that Trump and the Russians had a deal, you would come to the conclusion that GOP honesty no longer exists.


gadfly has jumped the shark. Never go full gadfly. I don't think even Inga still thinks Trump and the Russians "had a deal."

Jon Ericson said...

https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-923-18-usc-371-conspiracy-defraud-us

Drago said...

The Poor Man's LLR-lefty Chuck, gadfly: "If you have read the balanced Adam Goldmith's NYT report...."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

I didn't think it was possible, but gadfly is actually regressing.

n.n said...

So, what were they hiding. What are they hiding behind witch hunts, warlock trials, protests, etc. Did Obama lead or go along. Extraordinary... progressive corruption.

0_0 said...

Assertions without evidence"
That's the Left/ BLM/ rioters/ media since before 2014.

cubanbob said...

Let's see if Dunham starts arresting a number of high ranking and former high ranking officials.

Big Mike said...

@Meade, I'm impressed. I didn't even know that a young punk kid like you knew who Conway and Loretta were. Very good, sir.

Here's some Bryan Lewis with information about dogs and Democrats.

Original Mike said...

Is gadfly claiming Clinesmith altered the CIA email because Clinesmith "knew" the CIA was lying?

Number 1, of course, he doesn't get to to that, but number 2, why would the CIA do that? Is this actually their argument, or am I misunderstanding this?

Quaestor said...

I don't think even Inga still thinks Trump and the Russians "had a deal."

But does she finally realize Hillary and the RUSSIANS HAD A DEAL?

Quaestor said...

Here's the deal: Help us (i.e. Bill and Hill) smear Trump with that "dossier" and we'll outlaw fracking.

The Gipper Lives said...

Attorney General Weissman had Clinesmith forge the documents in order to obtain yet another phony FISA warrant.

To summarize: The previous Democrat President, his CIA Director, his FBI Director, his Attorney General, the Democrat Candidate and all their agencies, press toadies, Uni-Party stooges and Perma-Blob minions entered into a seditious conspiracy to thwart George Washington's Peaceful Transfer of Executive Power and rig the People's presidential election by wiretapping and framing Candidate and then President Donald Trump and his team.

This Attempted Coup is the Greatest Political Scandal in American History. And yet it is only one aspect of the vast criminal enterprise to deprive you of your country and your freedoms.

Any election interference by Russian Intelligence pales into nothingness compared to the massive and unprecedented criminal election interference by the entire American Intelligence Apparatus.

Congratulations--you are now an expert on #ObamaGate. Tell all your friends!

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
The Russia hoax hoax is so 2019

8/17/20, 12:47 PM


Is that the function you purport to serve here? Calling cadence?

Terry Ott said...

Blogger mikee said...
I, for one, would fall over laughing if this year the October Surprise is perp walks for everyone involved in the Resistance.

Well, mikee, actually that outcome would make me so happy I’d pee my pants, bigly. Depends (Maximum) would not even come close to containing the downpour. We are talking 1000-year flood here, folks.

Oso Negro said...

Are people uncomfortable as yet, because all they are seeing is this old man on camera?

SAGOLDIE said...

Propaganda!! The story is that the US and, then Communist Poland faced each other in a dual track meet. US won and the Polish press reported, "Poland came in second; the US finished next-to-last."

Don't ask for a citation, sorry.

Of course I can't rule out the possibility that the story was a bit of anti-Commie propaganda . . . .

Anon Y Mous said...

Consider that the CIA actually told the FBI that Page was a NOC. Why would they do that? The only reason I can think is that he was such a valuable NOC the CIA didn't want to lose him so they were trying to get the FBI to back off. In other words, the person the FBI persecuted (Page) for "helping Russia get Trump elected" was actually a valued source for the USG to know what Russia was doing in the first place. Alas, not any longer. Would that a journo would look into where all of the people Page met with/passed intel on are now - I bet the results would be telling.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

gadfly said...
If you have read the balanced Adam Goldmith's NYT report compared to the bias spewing from Trump supporter Mollie Hemingway's attack on anyone who might logically believe that Trump and the Russians had a deal, you would come to the conclusion that GOP honesty no longer exists.

If Trump and the Russians had a deal, the Russians would have released Hillary's emailsto America, or to the Trump campaign, sometime in October 2016

The Russians have never released Hillary's emails

Therefore, Trump and the Russians did not have a deal

So anyone who "logically believe[s] that Trump and the Russians had a deal" is a moron or a liar, because there's no logic justifying the claim

Thank you for playing, gadfly, you get the same lovely parting gift as Mike S: 4 more years of Trump

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Joe Smith said...
Putin didn't release Hillary's emails because he was certain, as was everyone else, that Hillary would win.
He would then have spectacular blackmail material on her.

Yep. Which is why every claim that "Putin wanted Trump to win" is such obvious garbage. Putin wanted the easily blackmailed, and even more easily bought, Hillary Clinton as President of the US.

The Wikileaks emails were released just as a way to show incoming President Hillary how easily Putin could spread his dirt on her, if she balked

Original Mike said...

"Putin didn't release Hillary's emails because he was certain, as was everyone else, that Hillary would win.
He would then have spectacular blackmail material on her."


Easy to forget the fact that there are Hillary emails to release demonstrates her utter corruption.

Bruce Hayden said...

“The Wikileaks emails were released just as a way to show incoming President Hillary how easily Putin could spread his dirt on her, if she balked”

That very much presupposes something that is unlikely - that the Russians had anything to do with the Wikileaks disclosure of the 2016 DNC emails. The only real evidence in favor of that theory is that a cabal of Never Trumper government officials pushed the story in order to hurt Trump, or at least lessen the stench of what the DNC had done to Bernie Sanders in order to give Crooked Hillary their nomination. Originally, it was DNI Clapper with his two henchmen: CIA Dir Brennan and FBI Dir Comey. Later it was picked up and assumed to be the truth by the Mueller prosecutors.

Keep this in mind - the only people to have had actual access to the server worked for the DNC’s Crowdstrike contractor. The FBI helpfully offered to have their experts help investigate. Some of the best forensic computer experts work for the FBI, and they had access to other expertise at the NSA, CIA, even DOD. Nope. Crowdstrike was confident with their results, which were based on finding Russian hacker ”fingerprints” on the hacked server. Nothing more, except that it was more convenient for the DNC to have it be Russian hackers, than an inside job. Turns out that the CIA had had some of its hacking tools made public, that incriminated the Russians by leaving fingerprints of Russian hackers behind. But the funny part was that some of the Russian hacker fingerprints released come from an attached Word template that started out with on the computer of one of Ukrainian Joe Biden’s foreign policy advisors. Not quite the Obama White House, but adjacent to it in the Biden EOB.

On the other side of the debate, Wikileaks is run by Julian Assange, and he has been adamant- it wasn’t Russian hackers, but an inside job. He is the one guy who would know the truth. And he then spent the next three years of his life hiding in fear of his life in an embassy. Which may have been prudent, given the very convenient murder of DNC employee Seth Rich. Something that came out looking closely at the hacked emails is that the timestamps in the hacked emails almost require that the hacking be an inside job. First, the time stamps are all even. Every one. Which means that they were copied onto a FAT drive at one point. Very likely a Flash drive. Second, the transfer speeds were high enough that they were barely feasible from DC to Eastern Europe using dedicated links - which the NSA would have noticed, and didn’t. Too fast for either encryption or a virtual circuit. On the flip side, the transfer speed would easily fit within the capabilities of a Flash drive attached to the server via USB. Easy Peasy.

So, did Russian hackers do it? The Mueller investigators claimed that was so, based on the joint conclusion of the DNI, CIA, and FBI. It should be noted that the people involved in making that determination were (unusually) hand picked by the top management in the agencies. Which is why no one was surprised that the FBI part of the investigation was run by non other than the ubiquitous Peter Strzok. Yes, the same Peter Strzok in charge of both the Clinton email and Trump Russian Collusion investigations. What are the odds? 35,000 FBI employees, and one guy managed to run all three of these high profile investigations. But the really funny part of it was that the Mueller prosecutors very publicly charged some Russian government associated hackers with the theft of the DNC emails, knowing that none of them would ever be served to be formally charged. Except that they charged a Russian corporation, that did respond, accepted service, pled not guilty, and proceeded to completely embarrass the Mueller team by demanding discovery on, among other things, the actual factual basis of the charges. Ultimately, they had to drop the charges, after their excuses for denying discovery ran out, but hilarity ensued for a bit.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Good points, Bruce. Thank you