In a pathetic attempt to keep pushing the vast Russian conspiracy narrative; and trying to get out in front of growing evidence that former Obama administration, government officials, DNC and weaponized government conspired to assist Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential bid; the DNC has filed a lawsuit against the Trump campaign accusing their opposition of what they are transparently guilty of.

New York – The Democratic National Committee on Friday filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks that alleges a massive conspiracy to swing the 2016 election in favor of the president.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Kremlin to damage Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the DNC’s computers and publishing stolen emails on WikiLeaks.

“No one is above the law,” reads the beginning of the DNC’s complaint, which was obtained by The Post.

“In the run-up to the 2016 election, Russia mounted a brazen attack on American Democracy. The opening salvo was a cyber attack on the DNC, carried out on American soil,” said the lawsuit, filed by lawyer Michael Eisenkraft. (link)

It’s actually a predictable strategy given the nature of the current pendulum swing and the increased likelihood multiple political operatives are about to find themselves in the investigative spotlight.  By driving the political divisive narrative harder, the Democrats will attempt to say any criminal investigative findings are political.

The DNC lawsuit will most likely be dismissed as frivolous.  However, in the event it is allowed the proceed the Trump campaign can stand to gain a great deal of information during the discovery phase.  The Trump team respond:

[…]  If this lawsuit proceeds, the Trump Campaign will be prepared to leverage the discovery process and explore the DNC’s now-secret records about the actual corruption they perpetrated to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Everything will be on the table, including:

♦How the DNC contributed to the fake dossier, using Fusion GPS along with the Clinton Campaign as the basis for the launch of a phony investigation.
♦Why the FBI was never allowed access to the DNC servers in the course of their investigation into the Clinton e-mail scandal.
♦How the DNC conspired to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination over Bernie Sanders.
♦How officials at the highest levels of the DNC colluded with the news media to influence the outcome of the DNC nomination.
♦Management decisions by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Brazile, Tom Perez, and John Podesta; their e-mails, personnel decisions, budgets, opposition research, and more. (link)

Generally I would not refer so strongly to a prior discussion thread if the latest information did not absolutely confirm was was originally suspected.

On January 10th, 2017 we discussed “The Anatomy of a Modern Political Smear“, where we connected the dots, as they were happening in-real-time between James Comey, the Obama intelligence community and the media, specifically CNN. {Please See Here}

Yesterday, two events happened which absolutely confirm -with demonstrable certainty- what we immediately saw over 15 months ago.  The first event was the appearance of James Comey on CNN to discuss his book. In part of the questioning by Jake Tapper, Comey admitted his January 6th briefing of the Steele Dossier content was ONLY about the Russian hookers, pee-tapes, and ridiculous sexual accusations against the President-elect. [CNN Transcript]:

TAPPER: So, let’s talk about the investigation and what you can talk about it. In January, 2017 when you met with President Trump and you did that oral presentation of what’s in that two page memo, summarizing the Steele dossier. We know from the book that you talked about these unverified allegations involving him and prostitutes.

Did you brief him about any — any of the other things in the Steele dossier, claims that his associates, Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort, were potentially working with the Russians? Or was it only about the prostitutes?

COMEY: It was only about the salacious part of it.

TAPPER: Why? Why only about that?

COMEY: Because that was the part that the leaders of the intelligence community agreed he needed to be told about because we knew it and thought it was about to become public. And if it was true, we didn’t know whether it was true, it would be important to let him know this as part of a defensive briefing. (link)

The second event, was the actual release of the Comey memo describing that January 6th, 2017, briefing as directed by “the leaders of the intelligence community”.  We now know exactly who was giving that instruction:

That’s the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.

So, exactly as we anticipated in January of 2017, the entire briefing of the President was a set-up to create a media narrative.  After affirming that Comey carried out the objective, James Clapper then leaked the salacious details of the story to CNN.  CNN then ran with the story using the hook of ‘the president has been briefed on this material’ etc.

Immediately thereafter, literally hours later, Buzzfeed published the Clinton-Steele Dossier under the auspices of it being newsworthy because CNN was now reporting on it.

This was transparently a set-up at the time we saw it happening, and the current releases of information confirm exactly that.  The intelligence apparatus, namely DNI James Clapper and FBI Director James Comey, conspired to weaponize false intelligence in order to create a media narrative that would damage the incoming president and his administration.  There is no other way to look at these events.

The reason we know James Clapper (DNI) and John Brennan (CIA), not James Comey, was the structured leak to CNN was specifically because CNN made a subtle mistake.  On January 10th, 2017, CNN claimed the intelligence briefing included giving President Trump a two-page document:

[…]  The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. […]    CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump (link)

…However, we know from James Comey’s memo and his own statements about the briefing there were no documents provided.   That means the two national security officials that were leaking details to CNN, and made the mistake about Comey giving Trump the documents, were John Brennan and James Clapper.

As Michael Horowitz investigates the Comey memos, and their subsequent leaking to Daniel Richman, there’s a strong possibility this connection will be made by his investigative unit.  Heck, if not, they just read it right here.

Additionally, at the time media were fixated on President Trump’s push-back against the media reports of the dossier specifically because President-elect Trump was focused on the ‘Pee-tape” aspect.  We now know the reason for that perspective was simply because Comey never briefed the President-Elect on any other part.  He only discussed the Russian hookers, and ridiculous nonsense.

Again, back to the not-so-subtle errors in the January 10th, 2017, CNN report, because they were relaying information from Clapper and Brennan:

[…] The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. (link)

No, actually, President-elect Trump was never briefed on “Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.”  James Comey, stated he never mentioned anything except the Russian hookers and pee-pee nonsense.  So again, CNN was reporting on what Clapper and Brennan thought Comey had done and they were getting some of the more nuanced details incorrect.

This entire set-up is particularly Machiavellian when you look at what DNI James Clapper was saying publicly at the time.  Remember this release:

Publicly DNI James Clapper is saying the next day (Jan 11th) the intelligence community does not have any confirmation as to the reliability of the Clinton-Steele dossier.  Yet the previous day Clapper was leaking details of that dossier to CNN.

Lastly, and perhaps more consequentially, remember the FBI used the dossier to get the FISA warrant against Carter Page on October 21st, 2016 claiming to the FISA court the information therein was reliable.  However, the DNI is saying three months later the dossier is NOT reliable.

Bastards.

All.Of.Them.

Timeline:

♦ January 10th, 2017 – CNN Frames “Russian Narrative” – The anatomy of a media smear (link).
♦ January 11th, 2017 – President Trump confronts CNN – “You are fake news” (link)
♦ January 12th, 2017 – Confronted by the Trump Transition Team, independent NBC and Fox News Reporting, CNN’s Anderson Cooper attempts to defend CNN Propaganda (link)
♦ January 15th, 2017 – Bob Woodward calls out CNN, Jake Tapper, John Brennan and James Clapper for false statements and indefensible politicization of institutional U.S. intelligence agencies (link)

In essence the week beginning January 10th, 2017 was the origin of the vast ‘Muh Russia’ conspiracy/collusion narrative against the incoming administration.  The CNN report pushed by Jake Tapper was the distribution of leaked information James Clapper and John Brennan.  This false narrative was specifically the origin of the “collusion” angle.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376855452/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-OzRxMFpl7rNk07sKZZlv

With Inspector General Michael Horowitz submitting a criminal referral for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; and with knowledge of federal prosecutor John Huber paralleling Horowitz for months within the investigation; it might be worthwhile going through the names of some officials likely to surface in the next few days/weeks.

The most interesting people in the ongoing investigation are those principals who clearly were in/around the center of 2015/2016 activity; were caught in 2017, yet remain inside the FBI and DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) ie. Main Justice.

♦James Baker – The former FBI chief legal counsel and close adviser to FBI Director James Comey.  In addition to coordinating the “small group” activity to exonerate Hillary Clinton, Baker was also a recipient for some of the Comey Memos of recent release. This puts Baker in a position to understand the “insurance policy” described by FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page. Additionally, Baker would be able to identify the level of knowledge and participation of Director Comey, and is therefore perhaps the biggest risk to Comey specifically.  December 21st, 2017, Baker was removed from any responsibility but remains inside the FBI in some capacity; he is therefore considered a cooperating co-conspirator for the FBI Inspection Division (INSD), IG Horowitz and likely prosecutor Huber.

♦Lisa Page – The former designated counsel from Main Justice assigned to assist Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.  We know from open-sourced information; from her own released text messages; and from congressional releases, that Lisa Page was the person who provided the text messages to INSD and the Inspector General. Page’s account of the media leak instructions she received from McCabe conflicted with her boss, and ultimately led to the proof of McCabe’s false statements.  Lisa Page was the connective bridge within the team joining the DOJ-NSD to the FBI operation.  Obviously Page and FBI Agent Peter Strzok were working closely at the heart of the “small group” activity.  They were the footsoldiers carrying out the orders passed down from Lynch/Yates (DOJ) and Comey/McCabe (FBI).   After cooperating with the INSD and IG investigation, Page quit the Mueller team mid-summer 2017.  Lisa Page is still employed within the DOJ.

♦Peter Strzok – The responsibility within the FBI operation to clear Clinton and open an investigation against political opponent Donald Trump fell heavily upon FBI Agent Peter Strzok.  Strzok was advanced to the #2 position within the FBI counterintelligence unit as an outcome of his participation.  In addition to working with FBI counsel Lisa Page, underneath Andrew McCabe, Strzok was the FBI contact and liaison with Christopher Steele and the foreign intelligence apparatus that were assisting in their goals.  When the INSD and IG evidence of the conspiracy began to surface Peter Strzok was removed from the Mueller investigation and demoted within the FBI.  However, Strzok remains employed within the FBI and is likely another cooperating witness/co-conspirator.

♦Bruce Ohr – Former Deputy Asst. Attorney General Bruce Ohr is the most exposed official on the DOJ-NSD side of the operation. Bruce Ohr has been questioned at least 12 times about his involvement by INSD and IG investigators.  Ohr has been demoted twice as an outcome of those sessions.  It is likely Ohr was the central Main Justice official for the use of gathering intelligence and sharing with Fusion-GPS and Christopher Steele.  Bruce’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was also a participant and was hired by Fusion-GPS in May 2016 during the apex of opposition research into Donald Trump and the campaign team.  With Nellie Ohr’s subject matter expertise of Russian spy and trade-craft, together Bruce and Nellie are likely the central figures in the creation of, and laundry for, the Clinton/Steele Dossier and the larger Russian narrative.  Bruce Ohr remains employed within DOJ-NSD in some function; and likely a cooperating witness along with his wife.

♦Bill Priestap – The only central character within the FBI leadership apparatus that remains entirely intact despite his central role in the counterintelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump.  Priestap was agent Peter Strzok’s immediate boss; however, it is unknown how much influence Priestap held over the activity of Strzok.  Released text messages indicate Strzok was reporting more to Andrew McCabe during both the Clinton and Trump operations. All officials at the top of the FBI have either been removed or quit, with the exception of Bill Priestap.  It is highly likely he has been cleared for any intentional wrongdoing and has no issues cooperating with INSD and IG investigators.  Because of the importance of his role, Priestap likely knows the full context of how the FISA Title-1 application against U.S. person Carter Page was assembled and used.  Priestap is also mentioned in the Nunes memo contradicting the claims of Comey, McCabe, Brennan (CIA) and Clapper (DNI).

♦Dana Boente – The former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia [EDVA] during the Clinton and Trump operation, the view of Boente as seen from the top tier officials conducting the political operations was that Boente was not in alignment with their goals. After Sally Yates was fired from the DOJ, the Trump administration used Dana Boente as a temporary AG until Jeff Sessions could be confirmed.  After Sessions confirmation Boente remained the head of the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) until the end of 2017.  In his positions throughout 2016 and 2017 Boente likely knows the political activities that were ongoing within Main Justice.  Dana Boente left the DOJ at the end of 2017 and was hired by FBI Director Christopher Wray to replace James Baker as chief legal counsel in the FBI.

The four officials removed but remaining inside both the FBI and DOJ are likely cooperating witnesses for the FBI Inspection Division investigative unit (INSD), DOJ Inspector General Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor John Huber.  Those four key officials are: James Baker (FBI), Lisa Page (DOJ/FBI), Bruce Ohr (DOJ) and Peter Strzok (FBI).

Additional investigative information from key officials with insider knowledge would come from Bill Priestap (FBI) and Dana Boente (DOJ/FBI).

The former administration officials with varying degrees of legal risk, who clearly participated in the politicization of the DOJ and FBI, would include:

♦AG Loretta Lynch (quit); ♦AAG Sally Yates (fired); ♦DOJ-NSD Head John Carlin (quit); ♦DOJ-NSD Head Mary McCord (quit); ♦Deputy Asst. AG David Laufman (quit); ♦FBI Director James Comey (fired); ♦FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (fired); ♦FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki (quit); ♦FBI Director of Communications, Michael Kortan (quit).

Each of these DOJ and FBI officials are specifically outlined with knowledge of the activity that was taking place within the operation to clear and advance the campaign of Hillary Clinton and block and impede the campaign of Donald Trump.  However, these are only the DOJ and FBI officials.

Within the larger intelligence apparatus – the CIA Director, John Brennan, and Office of Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, are also participants. A key figure to reveal their prior corrupt activity is current NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.

Additionally, there are known former State Department and White House officials who understood, supported and likely directed much of the activity.

The key to reaching the wider network of Obama officials is to work outward from the known corrupt “small group” within the center of the DOJ and FBI operation.  IG Horowitz and Prosecutor Huber appear to be focused on exactly that approach.

The added investigative element of the FISA application and fraud upon the FISA court is where the expanded investigative element will surface.  FISA abuse, and the subsequent political unmasking of people therein, will extend the investigation beyond the DOJ/FBI and into the larger intelligence community and other Obama cabinet officials.

Washington, D.C. – Today House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Ca.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) issued the following statement:

“We have long argued former Director Comey’s self-styled memos should be in the public domain, subject to any classification redactions. These memos are significant for both what is in them and what is not.

Former Director Comey’s memos show the President made clear he wanted allegations of collusion, coordination, and conspiracy between his campaign and Russia fully investigated. The memos also made clear the ‘cloud’ President Trump wanted lifted was not the Russian interference in the 2016 election cloud, rather it was the salacious, unsubstantiated allegations related to personal conduct leveled in the dossier.

The memos also show former Director Comey never wrote that he felt obstructed or threatened. While former Director Comey went to great lengths to set dining room scenes, discuss height requirements, describe the multiple times he felt complimented, and myriad other extraneous facts, he never once mentioned the most relevant fact of all, which was whether he felt obstructed in his investigation.

The memos also make certain what has become increasingly clear of late: former Director Comey has at least two different standards in his interactions with others. He chose not to memorialize conversations with President Obama, Attorney General Lynch, Secretary Clinton, Andrew McCabe or others, but he immediately began to memorialize conversations with President Trump. It is significant former Director Comey made no effort to memorialize conversations with former Attorney General Lynch despite concerns apparently significant enough to warrant his unprecedented appropriation of the charging decision away from her and the Department of Justice in July of 2016.

These memos also lay bare the notion that former Director Comey is not motivated by animus. He was willing to work for someone he deemed morally unsuited for office, capable of lying, requiring of personal loyalty, worthy of impeachment, and sharing the traits of a mob boss. Former Director Comey was willing to overlook all of the aforementioned characteristics in order to keep his job. In his eyes, the real crime was his own firing.

The memos show Comey was blind to biases within the FBI and had terrible judgment with respect to his deputy Andrew McCabe. On multiple occasions he, in his own words, defended the character of McCabe after President Trump questioned McCabe.

Finally, former Director Comey leaked at least one of these memos for the stated purpose of spurring the appointment of Special Counsel, yet he took no steps to spur the appointment of Special Counsel when he had significant concerns about the objectivity of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

As we have consistently said, rather than making a criminal case for obstruction or interference with an ongoing investigation, these memos would be Defense Exhibit A should such a charge be made.”  (link)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376855452/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-OzRxMFpl7rNk07sKZZlv

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A few hours ago the DOJ released five memos to congress from the files of fired FBI Director James Comey.  The total number of memos and emails is uncertain, presumably seven, however the DOJ released five (full pdf below).

Several of the emails and memos are sent to the Former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker (now a cooperating witness with IG Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor Huber); and/or Comey’s chief-of-staff James Rybicki (he resigned after the Page/Strzok texts surfaced).   The publicly released versions contain redactions due to their classified nature:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376855452/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-OzRxMFpl7rNk07sKZZlv

Fired FBI Director James Comey appears on CNN for an interview with Jake Tapper and states [@03:20] he doesn’t know how many memos he may have written? …What?

We can see the growing legal risk to James Comey by the severity of his professional obfuscation.  Despite flooding the media with interviews the overall Comey book tour is a significant narrative fail; he will find few defenders during an indictment.

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Institutional media quickly noted the public opinion shift on Comey as the American people’s BS-meter pegged Comey as condescending and self-interested.  Politically democrats are not attempting to utilize Comey because he’s a known toxic commodity. Comey is left drowning in his own sanctimony, and his lack of self-awareness is pathetic.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani previously served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Giuliani told the Washington Post:

“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview.

Guiliani joining team to negotiate exit of Special Counsel Robert Mueller is confirmation of earlier analysis on Mueller “referee” intent. The investigative and indictment balance was always between Hillary Clinton allies and President Donald Trump.

Robert Mueller was recruited by Clinton and Washington DC allies and those within the small group; and was/is generally facilitating the investigation of Trump as leverage.

If you look at Robert Mueller from the position of trying to protect his cherished Deep State institutions from horrible Trump swamp draining…. things begin to take a more accurate context. The only way for Mueller to protect his Swamp Allies and Institutions, was to generate leverage against Trump.

Having established only political leverage, nothing factually unlawful or illegal, the Mueller investigation begins to dry up. Leverage diminishes.

Without direct leverage against President Trump, Team Mueller moved to position leverage against those Trump cares about… that’s a secondary approach; but the secondary leverage approach is fraught with public noting Mueller is on a “witch hunt”… the investigation into outlying Trump allies becomes transparent in motive. Support for Mueller erodes amid independent-minded people.

Enter Rudy Giuliani, a political and legal Subject Matter Expert – with direct knowledge of evidence held by NYPD and NY FBI field office of gross criminal conduct by Hillary Clinton. (Weiner Laptop etc) Buried by SDNY Clinton Allies.

With Special Counsel Mueller having exhausted most of his investigative leverage, Giuliani enters to negotiate Mueller’s exit and discuss his team’s path of retreat and image face-saving.

The discussion from Mueller’s perspective will not center around Trump, but rather center around how much risk to Hillary Clinton, and by extension political allies within FBI and DOJ – including Obama White House, Mueller will permit.

Mueller will be looking to protect the interests of Obama, Clinton, Lynch, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, etc. and negotiating degrees of risk to the institutions each represents. This is the political horsetrading phase. The leverage cards held by each participant are laid on the table for discussion. Low leverage officials will be sacrificed by Mueller to protect those holding more leverage.

Giuliani is a well qualified person to present the Trump administration position within these negotiations. They are essentially negotiating who faces criminal prosecution and who doesn’t.

Ultimately protecting Obama and Clinton will be of higher importance to Mueller. If Mueller doesn’t protect Clinton, he knows her team will destroy everyone if she goes down. That scorched earth approach is a historic part of Team Clinton’s leverage. The stronger the evidence is against Clinton the more people Mueller will have to give up to protect her. The stronger the evidence against the corrupt institutions, the bigger the officials Mueller will have to sacrifice to save them.

Negotiating all this with Robert Mueller will likely be Rudy Giuliani’s primary job.

Likely the general public will never know the ultimate deal decisions. We will only be able to gauge the scale of corruption by the officials Mueller agrees to sacrifice.