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Docmentation of DOJ/FBI/CIA malfeasance in Trump-Russia investigation

John Solomon:

“…Here are 13 of the most important revelations that undercut the FBI’s predicate for opening an investigation targeting the Trump campaign in July 2016, for obtaining a year’s worth of FISA warrants to spy on former campaign adviser Carter Page and for seeking a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, to take over and extend the probe.

1.) The FBI possessed information dating to 2015 in Steele’s intelligence (Delta) file warning that he might be the victim of Russian disinformation through his contacts with Vladimir Putin-connected oligarchs. By 2017, the FBI was warned specific false information in Steele’s dossier was planted by Russian intelligence, according to the declassified notes that became public from Michael Horowitz’s report.

2.) Senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr warned the FBI in August 2016 that Steele held an extreme bias against Trump (he was “desperate” to defeat Trump) and that his information was likely uncorroborated raw intelligence.

3.) Steele’s work on the dossier was funded by Trump’s rival in the election, Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and the Democratic Party, through their opposition research firm, Fusion GPS. Ohr warned the FBI in August 2016 that Steele’s work was connected to the Clinton campaign in some way.

4.) Steele told a State Department official in October 2016, 10 days before the FISA warrants were first secured, that he had leaked to the news media and had an election day deadline for making public the information he had shared with the FBI as a confidential human source.

5.) Steele was fired Nov. 1, 2016 for violating his confidential human source agreement by leaking to the news media.

6.) Information Steele provided to the government was proven, before the FISA warrants were granted, to be false and inaccurate. Specifically, he told State official Kathleen Kavalec in early October 2016 that he believed Russia was funding its hacking operations through its consulate in Miami. The Russians did not have a consulate in Miami, Kavalec reported in her notes.

7.) Steele was caught in October 2016 peddling a false internet rumor also being spread by a lawyer for the Democratic National Committee and a liberal reporter. That rumor claimed Trump and Putin might be communicating through mysterious computer pings at a server tied to Russia’s Alfa Bank. The rumor was dismissed by the FBI as false.

8.) The FBI falsely declared to the FISA court it had corroborated the evidence in Steele’s dossier used in the search warrant application, including that Carter Page had met with two senior Russians in Moscow in summer 2016. In fact, the Page meetings were never corroborated and a spreadsheet that reviewed every statement in the Steele dossier found most were either inaccurate, uncorroborated or information easily found on the Internet.

9.) The FBI interviewed Steele’s primary sub-source in January 2017, who claimed much of the information attributed to him was not accurate, exaggerated or rumor.

10.) The FBI possessed statements of innocence from Page collected by an undercover informer in August and October 2016, including that Page denied meeting with the two Russians and did not play a role in changing a GOP platform position on Ukraine during the Trump nominating convention. The statements undercut two primary allegations made by the FBI in seeking the FISA warrants.

11.) The CIA alerted the FBI that Page was a friendly U.S. asset who had assisted the Agency on Russia matters and was not a stooge for the Russian government. The FBI altered a document to hide this revelation.

12.) The FBI possessed exculpatory statements made by Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in which he told an undercover informer he and the Trump campaign were not involved in the Russian hacking of Clinton’s emails and considered such activity to be “illegal.” The FBI originally opened the probe of Trump campaign on suspicion Papadopoulos was somehow involved in the hacking.

13.) The FBI concluded in January 2017 that Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn was not being deceptive in his interviews with agents and likely suffered from a faulty memory and was not operating as an agent for Russia.

There are many more revelations that expose flaws, lies and misconduct in the creation of a false Russia collusion narrative…”

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Tweet of the day

 

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On expertise and judgement

Victor Davis Hanson:

“…Take any contentious issue—travel bans, the advantages of masks, the Chinese compromising of WHO, the entire industry of grievance politics infecting criticism of China’s despicable behavior, delayed testing by the Centers for Disease Control and FDA, modeling, the efficacy of antimalarial drugs—and our elite seem unable to admit they were wrong, and wrong with a great deal of costly arrogance.

It is no exaggeration to say that most models that the best and brightest offered the public, from the imported Imperial College in London to those from the University of Washington and many more besides, were not just inaccurate, but quite mistaken in two tragic ways: First, they were accepted as gospel by governments and thus their flawed assumptions became the basis for policies that in many cases may prove counterproductive. Second, the modelers themselves either did not promptly correct their warped inputs, or were not completely forthcoming about their data and methodologies, or blamed their flawed assumptions on others or circumstances beyond imagination, or claimed that their mistakes were in fact salutary—if not sorta, kinda planned—in galvanizing a presumably infantile public to accept draconian measures that it otherwise would not…”

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French Doctor Didier Raoult Claims Solid Results in Study of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin

Chris Menahan:

Findings

“…From March 3rd to April 9th, 2020, 59,655 specimens from 38,617 patients were tested for COVID-19 by PCR. Of the 3,165 positive patients placed in the care of our institute, 1061 previously unpublished patients met our inclusion criteria. Their mean age was 43.6 years old and 492 were male (46.4%). No cardiac toxicity was observed. A good clinical outcome and virological cure was obtained in 973 patients within 10 days (91.7%). Prolonged viral carriage at completion of treatment was observed in 47 patients (4.4%) and was associated to a higher viral load at diagnosis (p < 10-2 ) but viral culture was negative at day 10 and all but one were PCR-cleared at day 15. A poor outcome was observed for 46 patients (4.3%); 10 were transferred to intensive care units, 5 patients died (0.47%) (74-95 years old) and 31 required 10 days of hospitalization or more. Among this group, 25 patients are now cured and 16 are still hospitalized (98% of patients cured so far). Poor clinical outcome was significantly associated to older age (OR 1.11), initial higher severity (OR 10.05) and low 2 hydroxychloroquine serum concentration. In addition, both poor clinical and virological outcomes were associated to the use of selective beta-blocking agents and angiotensin II receptor blockers (P<0.05). Mortality was significantly lower in patients who had received > 3 days of HCQ-AZ than in patients treated with other regimens both at IHU and in all Marseille public hospitals (p< 10-2 ).

Interpretation

The HCQ-AZ combination, when started immediately after diagnosis, is a safe and efficient treatment for COVID-19, with a mortality rate of 0.5%, in elderly patients. It avoids worsening and clears virus persistence and contagiosity in most cases…”

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A uniquely American decision

From the narrative introducing Judge Justin R. Walker’s temporary restraining order against Mayor Greg Fischer and the City of Louisville’s prohibition against celebrating Easter.

Judge Walker:

“…On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter. That sentence is one that this Court never expected to see outside the pages of a dystopian novel, or perhaps the pages of The Onion. But two days ago, citing the need for social distancing during the current pandemic, Louisville’s Mayor Greg Fischer ordered Christians not to attend Sunday services, even if they remained in their cars to worship – and even though it’s Easter. The Mayor’s decision is stunning. And it is, “beyond all reason,” unconstitutional…”

On the U.S. Constitution’s promise that government may not interfere with the free exercise of religion

Judge Walker:

“…At the time of that Amendment’s ratification, religious liberty was among the American experiment’s most audacious guarantees. For millennia, soldiers had fought and killed to impose their religious doctrine on their neighbors. A century before America’s founding, in Germany alone, religious conflict took the lives of one out of every five men, women, and children. But not so in America. “Among the reasons the United States is so open, so tolerant, and so free is that no person may be restricted or demeaned by government in exercising his or her religion.”…”

On the juxtaposition of the City of Louisville allowing liquor stores to remain open while attempting to ban religious celebration.

Judge Walker:

“…The Court does not mean to impugn the perfectly legal business of selling alcohol, nor the legal and widely enjoyed activity of drinking it. But if beer is “essential,” so is Easter…”

Finally, an explanation, on a more personal level, of why the Judge decided as he did in this matter.

Judge Walker:

“…Some who read this Court’s opinion will disagree with the Mayor. Others will disagree with the Court. And each camp will include some readers who share On Fire’s faith, others whose conscience calls them to a different faith, and still others who profess no faith at all. Each of them, believers and non-believers, deserves at least this from the Court: To know why I decided as I did. You may not agree with my reasons, but my role as a judge is to explain, to teach, and perhaps, at least on occasion, to persuade.

The Christians of On Fire, however, owe no one an explanation for why they will gather together this Easter Sunday to celebrate what they believe to be a miracle and a mystery. True, they can attempt to explain it. True, they can try to teach. But to the nonbeliever, the Passion of Jesus – the betrayals, the torture, the state-sponsored murder of God’s only Son, and the empty tomb on the third day – makes no sense at all. And even to the believer, or at least to some of them, it can be incomprehensible as well.

But for the men and women of On Fire, Christ’s sacrifice isn’t about the logic of this world. Nor is their Easter Sunday celebration. The reason they will be there for each other and their Lord is the reason they believe He was and is there for us. For them, for all believers, “it isn’t a matter of reason; finally, it’s a matter of love…”

Judge Walker’s full decision

 

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Clarice Feldman on the status of the Russia Fiasco

When you see Brennan on liberal media describing how Trump is afraid, know that this is the type-case of projection. You have to hand it to Brennan that he is willing to maintain his nonsense cover-up of DOJ/FBI/CIA malfeasance in the face of the Durham Investigation.

I will say that it is one thing to uncover the malfeasance, it is another to find a prosecutable case against one or more bad-actors. That may be the source of Brennan’s ongoing blathering.

Clarice Feldman:

Crossfire Hurricane Team — A Tool of Russian Intelligence

Despite the best efforts of the intelligence agencies involved in the shameful conspiracy to destroy the Trump campaign and then his presidency to hide the extent of their perfidious illegal surveillance, it is finally coming to light. Among the most serious of the team’s failing were those in the classified footnotes to Inspector General Michael Horowitz’ report which this Friday were partially declassified.  They reveal that Christopher Steele, with the knowledge of the FBI, may well have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Key FBI officials failed to review an intelligence file identifying Christopher Steele’s ties to Russian oligarchs and were later advised some of the information he provided agents in his dossier appeared to be misinformation planted by Russian intelligence, according to declassified information made public Friday. [snip]

One of the newly declassified footnotes highlights a glaring misstep early in the Russia case, when key officials failed to review the intelligence control file for Steele, a former MI6 agent who approached the FBI with unverified allegations about Trump after he was hired to do opposition research by the firm working for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

Checking such files is a basic procedure in a counterintelligence probe when an informant is involved, officials told Just the News.

The footnote states that an FBI intelligence analyst and a supervisory special agent working on the Crossfire Hurricane probe admitted they “did not recall reviewing information in Steele’s Delta file documenting Steele’s frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarchs in 2015.”

“In addition to the information in Steele’s Delta file documenting Steele’s frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarch[s], we identified reporting the Crossfire Hurricane team received [redacted] indicating the potential for Russia disinformation influencing Steele’s election reporting,” a second footnote revealed. [snip]

That same footnote reveals a separate report to the FBI, dated 2017, “contained information … that the public reporting about the details of Trump’s [REDACTED] activities in Moscow during a trip in 2013 were false, and that they were the product of RIS ‘infiltrat[ing] a source into the network’ of a [REDACTED] who compiled a dossier of information on Trump’s activities.” RIS is an acronym for Russian intelligence services. [snip]

Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who worked to get the footnotes declassified, said Friday the information withheld from the American public for two years confirms the FBI collusion probe that dogged the Trump administration was flawed from start to finish and covered up by a false narrative driven by news media leaks.

Attorney General William Barr has signaled that the probe of U.S. Attorney into these matters has turned up “far more troubling evidence” and John Solomon reported this week that multiple subpoenas have been issued by Durham’s office for testimony before a D.C. grand jury. (For those wondering why the grand jury is in D.C., an unfavorable jurisdiction for trying members of the Obama-Biden administration’s election interference gang, it’s because by law that, unfortunately, is the appropriate venue.)

Mark Wauck, a retired FBI special agent, explains the import of Barr’s remarks as Barr defended the firing of CIA Inspector General Michael Atkinson and loosed the news about the Durham probe:

    1. The Durham investigation — evidence gathering — is nearing a conclusion;
    2. The language Barr used indicates there were multiple people engaged in illegal activities and it’s likely we’ll see a “sprawling” conspiracy case.
    3. It’s likely that in addition to prosecutions we will get a report detailing what happened.
    4. “Crossfire Hurricane was initiated for the purpose of developing a narrative that could derail and sabotage a presidential election. But that baseless investigation nevertheless served as the predication for what Barr says he has found “even more concerning”: “…what happened after the campaign — a whole pattern of events while [Trump] was president… to sabotage the presidency.”

Wauck concludes:

From this I think we can readily gather why this Durham investigation is so “sprawling.” What happened after the campaign? The attempt to frame Michael Flynn and to sabotage the presidency through the frame job on Flynn, at the very inception of the administration, to tar it as “colluding” with Russia, rather than conducting foreign policy. The continued renewals of the Carter Page FISA, known to be fraudulent, which implicate the highest levels of the FBI and of DoJ — McCabe, Comey, Yates, Boente, Rosenstein, and many more. The bogus Intelligence Community Assessment, the development of which we’re told Durham has spent so much time examining.

And lastly but far from least, the entire Mueller Witchhunt — which, as framed by Rod Rosenstein, purported to be a continuation of the baseless FBI investigation, Crossfire Hurricane. The release of the Papadopoulos transcript not only is a dagger in the heart of the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and the Carter Page FISA, a dagger in the heart of the FBI’s role in the conspiracy. It is also a dagger that, along with the final FISA renewal, we may learn is directed at Team Mueller through its pursuit of George Papadopoulos.

And no doubt there is much more to come.

More than the CDC must be swept clean to resurrect the Republic and make us strong again. The intelligence community requires a strong disinfectant.

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Burbank Water and Power property near Empire Center, watch

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Glenn Reynolds on “Disconcerting” Coronavirus treatment

Glenn Reynolds:

“DISCONCERTING.” COVID-19 Patients Given Unproven Drug In Texas Nursing Home In ‘Disconcerting’ Move.

A friend on Facebook comments: “Washington (Kirkland) nursing home: No hydroxychloroquine, 35 deaths out of 120 residents. Texas nursing home: Treatment WITH hydroxychloroquine, 1 death out of 135 residents.”

Maybe what’s “disconcerting” is the prospect that Trump might be right.

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Alexa rips Democrats praises Trump, watch and listen

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Cruz rips Feinstein and she deserves it

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They are very tricky. Trump treats them like the rest of the worthless media nitwits.

They have to register with the White House for press credentials. I am sure Trump is tipped-off before the briefings about their presence. The President calls on them anyway and fields their gotcha questions like he does with the rest of the liberal press corps. Just another biased fool to deal with.

Doug Santo