The Decline & Fall of the FBI?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ethics Re-Posted May 29, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

When James Comey just spoke to Trump, he took notes. When he formally interrogated Hillary, he claimed he never took notes. Those who question if there has already been a coup by the Deep State should rejoice in this testimony before the Home Land Security Council.

FBI Asst Director, “It just doesn’t add up” – that the FBI Doesn’t Know Who the J6 Pipe Bomber Is


Posted originally of the CTH on May 24, 2023 | Sundance 

Within the letter from congress [pdf HERE] you might note this line, “One former FBI assistant director observed, “[i]t just doesn’t add up . . . [t]here’s just too much to work with to not know who this guy is.

What they are talking about is the J6 “pipe bomber,” the person who planted the phony pipe bombs in Washington DC, presumably to enhance a domestic terrorism narrative.

The scenario is clearly one of the more transparent points highlighting how a political FBI doesn’t want to know things that run against the interests of the highly political FBI. The investigators previously tracked the bomber to a ‘MetroRail SmartTrip’ Card, and then to an identified vehicle via CCTV monitoring. However, for some curiously odd reason, the FBI still has not arrested the individual.

Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs are asking the FBI what’s going on?  [LETTER LINK]

Lee Smith Discusses the Durham Report and the Purposeful Intent of Bill Barr


Posted originally on the CTH on May 18, 2023 | Sundance 

Lee Smith is one of a very select DC journalists and authors who appropriately understands the full context of each aspect he discusses.  During an interview with Steve Bannon {Direct Rumble Link Here}, Lee Smith puts the focus of the Durham silo directly on the shoulders of Bill Barr.  Smith is 100% correct. WATCH:

Lee Smith: We don’t want a Durham Report we want indictments.

Durham Report Explained – Everything was a Lie


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted May 18, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Special counsel John Durham revealed in his report that all American intelligence agencies knew the Trump-Russian collusion story was a lie. You can read the full 300-page report here. Hillary Clinton needed a way to take the heat off of her email scandal and was the mastermind behind this plot. The CIA and FBI knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Steele Dossier was a lie designed by Clinton to take down Trump. The FBI then leaked deliberate misinformation to the press to condemn Trump on behalf of Hillary and the Democrats.

Christopher Steele was bribed $1 million to write his fictional Steele Dossier. Igor Danchenko was known to be Russian intelligence. Intelligence agencies paid Danchecnko a quarter of a million USD to reveal classified information to back Steele’s claims. He could not provide any evidence since it did not exist, but he was paid anyway. Former intelligence chair Shiff said he saw first-hand evidence of Russian collusion — a complete lie.

Will anyone be held accountable for these extreme crimes? All Americans should be completely outraged that we were lied to by our intelligence agencies and media outlets in an attempt to alter our election. This is a direct attack on our freedom and electoral process. Hillary knows she is above the law and can commit crimes in the open without penalty or even criticism. Obama, Biden, the FBI, the CIA, and numerous politicians knew that everything regarding “Russian collusion” was a complete lie. Trump was correct — this has been one of the biggest witch hunts in American history.

Durham Finds the Importance of Nellie Ohr


Posted originally on the CTH on May 17, 2023 | Sundance 

Paul Sperry at RealClearPolitics has an article today citing one part of the Durham report that deserves a little CTH attention.

I hope you will forgive my indulgent snickers, as the graphic you see below was created by me in early 2018, a full five years before the release of this Durham report.  I even referred to the Steele Dossier as the Nellie Ohr Dossier. lol

As noted by Sperry, “According to the 306-page report, former Justice Department prosecutor Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr first plowed the ground for the dossier with a series of research reports she wrote for Fusion GPS, the D.C.-based opposition research firm the Clinton campaign commissioned to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia.”

[…] Durham suggests Nellie Ohr planted the seeds of sourcing for the most explosive allegations leveled by the dossier against Trump, including the oft-cited notion that he and his campaign were engaged in a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” with the Kremlin. The dossier attributed this, falsely, to Millian. Durham found that the Belarusian-American realtor was never a source for the dossier and was simply invented as one, along with the allegations attributed to him.

In fact, Durham says that Millian initially wasn’t even on the radar of Steele and his dossier “collector” Igor Danchenko, a former Brookings Institution analyst who’s admitted much of the information he provided Steele was alcohol-lubricated gossip. Millian was called to their attention by Nellie Ohr, who the prosecutor said “implicated” Millian through her own reports. Durham suggests Steele and Danchenko merely followed her leads

[…] Bruce Ohr, an anti-Trump Democrat, pushed his wife’s reports that cited Millian — 12 in all — onto the Crossfire Hurricane team at FBI headquarters that was investigating Trump and his campaign for possible espionage. Agents used her reports as a source of corroboration for the Steele reports they received in the summer and fall of 2016, even though it was circular reporting. 
 
“The reports prepared by Ohr and others at Fusion GPS were ultimately provided to Crossfire Hurricane investigators by Ohr’s husband, Bruce Ohr,” according to the Durham Report. 
 
Durham notes that Danchenko was tracking leads on Millian from Nellie Ohr within “approximately one week” of Fusion GPS retaining Steele to compile the dossier. He concludes that this “strongly supports the inference that Fusion GPS directed Steele to pursue Millian.” 
 
In other words, Steele was not the catalyst behind the dossier’s central claims. Rather, it was Clinton’s contractor Fusion GPS — but more specifically, the wife of a senior DOJ official who worked for Fusion. So the FBI wasn’t really investigating “Crown reporting,” as officials referred to Steele’s dossier, implying it was British intelligence. More accurately, it was investigating information from inside its own department that was laundered through Steele and his dossier. (read more)

Smart fella that John Durham.

Nellie Ohr – a former CIA open-source expert on all things Russia; a woman who used HAM radios for communication; a woman who approached Fusion GPS owner Glenn Simpson for a job in December 2015; she was the impetus for the information that ended up in the Chris Steele Dossier.

Gee, go figure.

Darned Suspicious Cats, always being, well, suspicious…

I wonder if Durham tracked down the Michael Cohen art dealer in New York (😂), the guy that went to Prague on business.

Live your best life and laugh more than a little.

How Corrupt Is Our Current Situation? It’s Worse Than Most Can Fathom…


Posted originally on the CTH on May 4, 2023 | Sundance 

The football spiking by AG Merrick Garland today deserves some context, and I am going to take you through a story that will highlight just how bad the situation really is.

Everything that preceded the 2020 federal election was a complex system of control by a network of ideologues, federal agencies, allies in the private sector, financial stakeholders and corrupt interests all working toward a common goal.  There’s no need to go through the background of how the election was manipulated and how the government and private sector, specifically social media, worked to influence the 2020 outcome because you have all seen it.

Whether it was local election officials working to control outcomes, federal agencies working to support them (CISA, FBI, DHS), financial interests working to fund them (Zuckerberg et al), or social media platforms controlling the visible content and discussion (Twitter Files, Google, Facebook etc.), the objective was all the same.  It was a massive one-sided operation against the freewill of the American voter.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, those same system operators, govt officials, corporate media, private sector groups and social media platforms then circled the wagons to scatter the evidence of their conduct.  If you questioned anything you were a threat.  That’s the context to the dynamic that unfolded.

Lawfare operatives joined forces with Democrat staffers, and allies in social media platforms all worked in concert to target the voices of anyone who would rise in opposition to the corruption that was stunningly clear in the outcome of the election process.  Corporate media then labeled, isolated, ridiculed and marginalized anyone who dared to point out the obvious.

When AG Merrick Garland says this of January 6, 2021: […] “the Justice Department has conducted one of the largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in our history. We have worked to analyze massive amounts of physical and digital data. We have recovered devices, decrypted electronic messages, triangulated phones, and pored through tens of thousands of hours of video. We have also benefited from tens of thousands of tips we received from the public. Following these digital and physical footprints, we were able to identify hundreds of people.” {link} The targeting operation needs context.

Do you remember on April 27th when DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz recently said, “more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government.”  The result was “more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans that were illegal and non-compliant,” and over “10,000 federal employees have access to that database.” {OIG Testimony}.

Put the statement from Garland together with the statement from Horowitz, and you get an understanding of what was done.

Hundreds of stakeholders in the Lawfare network joined forces with hundreds of people who became staff researchers for a weaponized Congress.  Hundreds more social media background agents then poured thousands of hours into feeding private information to the DOJ, FBI, J6 Committee and all of their hired staff working on the project.

How do I know?

I was one of their targets.

Before telling the rest of the story, some background is needed.

I am well versed in the ways of the administrative state and the corrupt systems, institutions and silos that make up our weaponized government. I can (a) see them; (b) predict their activity; and (c) know where their traps and operations are located.

Traveling the deep investigative weeds of the administrative state eventually gives you a set of skills.  When people ask how the outlines on this website can seem so far ahead of the sunlight that eventually falls upon the outlined corruption, this is essentially why.  When you take these skills on the road, you learn to be a free-range scout, and after a long while you learn how to track the activity.

When I was outlining how the Fourth Branch of Government works and/or Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop and the DHS system operating inside it, I wasn’t shooting from the hip. However, people will always seek to dismiss the uncomfortable truth.

Sometimes you just have to wait for the evidence you know exists to surface, or for a situation to unfold that is driven by a self-fulfilling prophecy. The bizarre CTH predictions turn out to be the truth of the issue because they are based on the factual evidence of the issue.

That level of how the system works came in very handy when I received this subpoena from Chairman Bennie Thompson and the J6 Committee.  Warning, things are about to get very uncomfortable if you don’t accept the scale of corruption that exists.

Pay attention to the red box on the page shown. This is essentially the probable cause that justifies the subpoena itself.  I have redacted a name in the box for reasons you will see that follow.

I was never in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, nor did I work with or communicate with anyone who was involved in any of the activities that are subject to the J6 committee investigative authority.

I’m going to skip a lot of background noise, irrelevant legal stuff, jurisdictional issues, discoveries from discussions with lawyers and the experience gained in association with this ridiculous subpoena.  I am going to focus on the biggest story within it.

Sticking to the information in the Red Box above, notice how the J6 committee has evidence, “public-source information and documents on file”, showing my participation, communication, and contact with people and technology that are material interests to the committee.

Here’s the kicker…. I had no clue what the hell they were talking about.  There’s not a single aspect of their outline that I had any knowledge or connection of.

I had no idea what Zello was. I had no idea who 1% watchdog might be. I had never heard of “Stop the Steal J6” or associated “channel.”  I had never heard of the person redacted, and I had never communicated with any Oath Keeper, any communication system, or platform, or anyone or anything – nothing – that is outlined in that subpoena.

Those points of evidence outlined in the subpoena had no connection to me at all.

The subpoena might as well have been asking me to appear in Michigan because my Red Ferrari was involved in a hit and run accident, during my trip to Detroit.  I don’t own a Ferrari; I have never been to Michigan; I certainly never had an accident; I wasn’t on a trip and have never visited Detroit.  The entire construct of their probable cause for the subpoena was silly. Complete and utter nonsense.

That said, how could there be “public records” and “documentary” evidence of something that never happened?

At first, I thought this was some silly case of mistaken identity and they just sent a subpoena to the wrong person.  However, the investigators were adamant the evidence existed, and the need for testimony was required.

After taking advice from several smart people, and after discovering the costs associated with just the reply to the committee and/or representation therein; suddenly I realized there might be more value for me in this subpoena than the committee.  After all, how can there be public-records and documents that I own a red Ferrari and went to Michigan when I don’t and never did.

After several back and forths I discovered, through their admissions of their own research, and through documents they extracted as an outcome of their tasks to prove the merit of their claims, that someone *inside* Twitter had created a fictitious identity of me associated with the networks and communications as the investigators described them.

Think about what was discovered here.

Someone inside the Twitter platform, an employee of Twitter, had made a decision to target me. As a result: (a) they had been doing this for a long time with a specific goal in mind; and (b) they created an elaborate trail of background activity and identity that was entirely fabricated.

Eventually, my assigned investigative unit admitted this.

Once, the federal investigators realized what took place they wanted to get rid of me -and my snark filled curiosity- with great urgency.

They also had an ‘oh shit’ moment, when they contemplated everything, including what they had revealed to me from the outset of my contact, now several months prior.

What I discovered in this experience was that DHS, and by extension DOJ/FBI and the January 6 investigators, had direct administrative level backdoors into all social media platforms.

Overlay the Twitter files now, and then expand your thinking….

In their quest to prove that I owned a Red Ferrari, traveled to Michigan and had a hit-and-run accident, these investigators outlined to me how the United States Government, through their DHS authority, has employees, agents and contractors with open portals into all social media platforms.

Yes, the federal government is inside the mechanics of the systems (Twitter, Facebook, Meta, Instagram, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp, Zello, etc) and they have administrative access in real time to monitor, review, extract and evaluate everything, soup-to-nuts.

It was only because the investigators and forensic data knuckleheads have these portals, that they were able to locate the source of the fabricated evidence they were originally attributing to me.  This was an investigative process and research discovery being conducted in the data processing systems of Twitter in real time as they questioned me.

Once they realized what had taken place, and as soon as I started asking how they were making these admissions (now carrying an apologetic certainty), suddenly the investigators wanted no further contact or communication with me.  You’re good, whoopsie daisy, our bad, sorry.

Now, take some time to fully digest and absorb what I have just shared.

The U.S. government is worried about TikTok, because U.S. citizen data might be extracted?

Meanwhile, the U.S. government, at a fully unrestricted administrative level, is inside Twitter, Facebook, Meta, Insta, YouTube etc., running amok and extracting anything – including private messages… and they’re somehow worried about protecting us from TikTok data collection.  Think about it.

Provide your thoughts in the comments and I will try to fill in any blanks or questions you might carry.  In the interim, live your best life.

Ears of an elephant, eyes of a mouse.

Wall St Journal Outlines Documents from Jeffrey Epstein Showing Contact with Highly Influential People, Including Current CIA Director Bill Burns and Clinton/Obama Lawyer Ruemmler


Posted originally on the CTH on April 30, 2023 | Sundance

Despite no one knowing ‘how’ Jeffrey Epstein actually made his money, one of the great mysteries amid a labyrinth of rabbit hole mysteries, the network of government officials and high-profile names who associated with and met Epstein has never been fully outlined or absorbed.

Other than a few random and specific names that surface from time-to-time, the lack of media curiosity into the bigger context of the Epstein story has always been somewhat perplexing.  One would ordinarily think the opportunity for a Pulitzer might entice an intrepid media outlet to do a lengthy dive into the matrix of Epstein; alas, no effort toward that objective ever surfaced.

Today, another fragment in the story seemingly finds its way to the surface as the Wall Street Journal outlines a list of names that were not included in the “black book” story, but nonetheless were intertwined with Epstein *after* his first conviction as a sex offender [STORY HERE].

Two of the names within documents, schedules and calendars attributed to the Epstein life include current CIA Director Bill Burns and former White House lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler.  In addition to being the White House legal counsel, Ms. Ruemmer was also the foundation lawyer for Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as the personal lawyer for Susan Rice.

(Wall St Journal) – The nation’s spy chief, a longtime college president and top women in finance. The circle of people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was a convicted sex offender is wider than previously reported, according to a trove of documents that include his schedules.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein’s townhouse in Manhattan.

Kathryn Ruemmler, a White House counsel under President Barack Obama, had dozens of meetings with Epstein in the years after her White House service and before she became a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2020. He also planned for her to join a 2015 trip to Paris and a 2017 visit to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.

[…] The documents show that Epstein arranged multiple meetings with each of them after he had served jail time in 2008 for a sex crime involving a teenage girl and was registered as a sex offender. The documents, which include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017, haven’t been previously reported.

[…] Mr. Burns met with Epstein about a decade ago as he was preparing to leave government service, said CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp. “The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” she said. “They had no relationship.”

Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein in connection with her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and didn’t travel with him, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. Epstein introduced her to potential legal clients, such as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the spokesman said. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ms. Ruemmler said.

A spokeswoman for Latham & Watkins said Epstein wasn’t a client of the firm.

[…] Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state.

A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.

Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. “The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,” she said.

The following month, October 2014, Mr. Burns stepped down from his role at the State Department to serve as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. He ran the Carnegie Endowment until he was nominated in early 2021 by President Biden to serve as CIA director.

The documents show that Epstein appeared to know some of his guests well. He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. “See if there is a first class seat,” he wrote, “if so upgrade her.”

[…] Epstein and his staff discussed whether Ms. Ruemmler, now 52, would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse, the documents show. Women emailed Epstein on two occasions to ask if they should avoid the home while Ms. Ruemmler was there. Epstein told one of the women he didn’t want her around, and another that it wasn’t a problem, the documents show.

Ms. Ruemmler didn’t see anything that would lead her to be concerned at the townhouse and didn’t express any concern, the Goldman spokesman said.

[…] Over the next few years, Ms. Ruemmler, then a partner specializing in white-collar defense at Latham & Watkins, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein, including for lunches and dinners.

“In the normal course, Epstein also invited her to meetings and social gatherings, introduced her to other business contacts and made referrals,” the Goldman spokesman said. “It was the same kinds of contacts and engagements she had with other contacts and clients.”

In 2015, she was scheduled to fly with Epstein to Paris and in 2017 he planned to stop in St. Lucia to take her to his island home in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the day, according to the documents. (read more)

Sketchy… All of it!

Dirty people, working amid a system that trades dirt as currency…

Only One Question Remains as Susan Rice, Biden’s Shadow President, Leaves the White House


Posted originally on the CTH on April 24, 2023 | Sundance 

In the game of test-match cricket, a game that can last three days at peak professional level, you have to ‘get out‘ to ‘get in‘.   You have to ‘get out‘ of the clubhouse in order to ‘get in‘ to the game.  The same is true for this story about Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan Rice, leaving the Biden administration.   Rice has to get out of the administration in order to get in to the 2024 game.

Readers here will likely remember all previous discussion about the likely Democrat field for 2024.  Susan Rice and Gavin Newsom are both key players in the DNC big club game.  There is only one question at the core of the dynamic you need to ask, how will they off-ramp Joe Biden?

First, the White House announcement: […] “As the only person to serve as both National Security Advisor and Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan’s record of public service makes history. But what sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards action and results, and the integrity, humility and humor with which she does this work. I thank Susan for her service, her counsel and her friendship. I will miss her.” (link)

Susan Rice is the pliable foot soldier, the protege’ of the Lightbringer, Chicago Jesus.  Rice is the female version of the entire apparatus of the Obama team.  Susan Rice is Barack Obama in female form, and as Ric Grenell said eloquently, Susan Rice is “the shadow president.”

A Newsom/Rice or Rice/Newsom ticket is a no brainer.  Both are foot soldiers for the Lightbringer movement’s fundamental change agenda, although Rice is the apex player and Newsom is the ideological, intellectual and cognitive equivalent of John Fetterman with better style.  Most people still do not understand that Barack Obama is not just a person, he is a complete political construct -a movement in a box- consisting of multiple component groups all working in synergy.

The focus of the Obama movement is domestic and ideological.  The “fundamental change“, as outlined previously by the front man for the group, is domestic – exclusively domestic.  The Lightbringer doesn’t care about foreign policy stuff; all of that angle is sold to the multinationals and highest bidders.

Foreign policy is not a thing for Teh One true bringer of enlightenment; their focus is USA domestically centered. In her capacity as Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan Rice was the guiding hand behind every element of Biden domestic policy.

The microphone from the Obama basement does not transmit into the earpiece of Biden; it communicates into the two-way radio of Rice.

If Susan Rice is departing, the question becomes how the club removes Biden from the 2024 race?  There are a multitude of approaches and leverages available for the Lightbringer’s team, which includes Deputy AG Lisa Monaco at Main Justice.

The criminal activity of Hunter Biden, and the potential for outcomes – or lack therein, can be leveraged.  The direct connection to the action of the principal, “the big guy” Joe Biden, could be leveraged.

The Biden administration’s interference in any number of related investigations can be leveraged, and… keep in mind…. it is not coincidental the evidence of the interference is manifest by the same team that would remove the principal.  Yeah, think about that for a moment.

Put aside the 2024 contest participants for a moment (ie. the shiny things), and instead focus on what peripheral risks exist to Joe Biden that could be deployed at any moment to push him to a graceful off ramp.

There are many club-installed insurance policies, political landmines all around Joe Biden.  Which one will they show him?

President Trump Reacts to Fox News Firing Tucker Carlson – Full Interview


Posted originally on the CTH on April 25, 2023 | Sundance 

President Trump appears on Newsmax with Greg Kelly {Direct Rumble Link} for an extensive interview.  The first question from Kelly to President Trump is a reaction about Fox News and Tucker Carlson.  Additional questions about current events.  President Trump’s remarks about Ron DeSantis are interesting.  WATCH:

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BREAKING, Thundershock – Fox News Fires Tucker Carlson, Last Show Was Last Friday. This is the End of the First Amendment and “Free” speech.


Posted originally on the CTH on April 24, 2023

In a stunning development at Fox News, it appears they have fired the #1 television news host/pundit in the industry.

In a terse statement [LINK HERE]:

NEW YORK — April 24, 2023  FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.

Tucker Carlson had the number one rated news and broadcast show across the entire media industry.

An immediate firing with no further shows?

This is a stunning breaking development!

Then again….

….. There are Trillions at Stake!