Posted on 07/06/2018 6:32:35 AM PDT by markomalley
Multiple reviews of whether FBI agents’ political bias affected the Russia-Trump collusion case remain in their infancy, but investigators already have unearthed troubling internal communications long withheld from public view.
We already know from FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok’s now-infamous text messages with his fellow agent and reported lover, Lisa Page, that Strzok — the man driving that Russia collusion investigation — disdained Donald Trump and expressed willingness to use his law enforcement powers to “stop” the Republican from becoming president.
The question that lingers, unanswered: Did those sentiments affect official actions?
Memos the FBI is now producing to the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general and multiple Senate and House committees offer what sources involved in the production, review or investigation describe to me as “damning” or “troubling” evidence.
They show Strzok and his counterintelligence team rushing in the fall of 2016 to find “derogatory” information from informants, or a “pretext” to accelerate the probe and get a surveillance warrant on figures tied to the future president.
One of those figures was Carter Page, an academic and an energy consultant from New York; he was briefly a volunteer foreign policy adviser for the GOP nominee’s campaign and visited Moscow the summer before the election.
The memos show Strzok, FBI lawyer Page, and others in counterintelligence monitored news articles in September 2016 that quoted a law enforcement source as saying the FBI was investigating Page’s travel to Moscow.
The FBI team pounced on what it saw as an opportunity, as soon as Page wrote a letter to then-FBI Director James Comey, complaining about the “completely false” leak.
“At a minimum, the letter provides us a pretext to interview,” Strzok wrote to Lisa Page on Sept. 26, 2016.
Within weeks, that “pretext” — often a synonym for an excuse — had been upsized to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant, giving the FBI the ability to use some of its most awesome powers to monitor Carter Page and his activities.
To date, the former Trump adviser has been accused of no wrongdoing despite being subjected to nearly a year of surveillance.
Some internal memos detail the pressure being applied by the FBI to DOJ prosecutors to get the warrant on Carter Page buttoned up before Election Day.
In one email exchange with the subject line “Crossfire FISA,” Strzok and Lisa Page discussed talking points to get then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to persuade a high-ranking DOJ official to sign off on the warrant.
“Crossfire Hurricane” was one of the code names for four separate investigations the FBI conducted related to Russia matters in the 2016 election.
“At a minimum, that keeps the hurry the F up pressure on him,” Strzok emailed Lisa Page on Oct. 14, 2016, less than four weeks before Election Day.
Four days later the same team was emailing about rushing to get approval for another FISA warrant for another Russia-related investigation code-named “Dragon.”
“Still an expedite?” one of the emails beckoned, as the FBI tried to meet the requirements of a process known as a Woods review before a FISA warrant can be approved by the courts.
“Any idea what time he can have it woods-ed by?” Strzok asked Lisa Page. “I know it’s not going to matter because DOJ is going to take the time DOJ wants to take. I just don’t want this waiting on us at all.”
Until all the interviews are completed by Congress and DOJ’s inspector general later this year, we won’t know why counterintelligence agents who normally take a methodical approach to investigation felt so much pressure days before the election on this case.
Were they concerned about losing a chance to gather evidence at a critical moment? Or maybe, as some Republicans long have suspected, they wanted to impact the election?
The agents got the Carter Page warrant in October and, within two weeks, Democrats in Congress such as then-Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and some media members were raising questions about the FBI withholding word of a probe that could hurt Trump. FBI agents monitored those reports, too.
The day after Trump’s surprising win on Nov. 9, 2016, the FBI counterintelligence team engaged in a new mission, bluntly described in another string of emails prompted by another news leak.
“We need ALL of their names to scrub, and we should give them ours for the same purpose,” Strzok emailed Lisa Page on Nov. 10, 2016, citing a Daily Beast article about some of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s allegedly unsavory ties overseas.
“Andy didn’t get any others,” Lisa Page wrote back, apparently indicating then-Deputy Director McCabe didn’t have names to add to the “scrub.”
“That’s what Bill said,” Strzok wrote back, apparently referring to then-FBI chief of counterintelligence William Priestap. “I suggested we need to exchange our entire lists as we each have potential derogatory CI info the other doesn’t.” CI is short for confidential informants.
It’s an extraordinary exchange, if for no other reason than this: The very day after Trump wins the presidency, some top FBI officials are involved in the sort of gum-shoeing normally reserved for field agents, and their goal is to find derogatory information about someone who had worked for the president-elect.
As the president-elect geared up to take over, the FBI made another move that has captured investigators’ attention: It named an executive with expertise in the FBI’s most sensitive surveillance equipment to be a liaison to the Trump transition.
On its face, that seems odd; technical surveillance nerds aren’t normally the first picks for plum political assignments. Even odder, the FBI counterintelligence team running the Russia-Trump collusion probe seemed to have an interest in the appointment.
These and other documents are still being disseminated to various oversight bodies in Congress, and more revelations are certain to occur.
Yet, now, irrefutable proof exists that agents sought to create pressure to get “derogatory” information and a “pretext” to interview people close to a future president they didn’t like.
Clear evidence also exists that an investigation into still-unproven collusion between a foreign power and a U.S. presidential candidate was driven less by secret information from Moscow and more by politically tainted media leaks.
And that means the dots between expressions of political bias and official actions just got a little more connected.
I've never understood why this is a question. They were communicating about what they were doing, wha they were working on, etc. Under the #metoo standard of evidence, they would already be in jail.
Very good point. It would seem that misappropriating department money is a bigger transgression than treason.
Something is not right here.
It appears from the outside looking in that the CIA, British intel, and State Dept were just as involved and invested in this thing as the 7th floor of the FBI was. We have heard pretty much nothing about it. Nunes is obviously aware of the State Dept, but the CIA and DNI offices have escaped scrutiny to this point. Why? Even John Solomon and Sara Carter, who have arguably been the two most focused investigative journalists on this have said almost nothing about the CIA.
Another great article by Solomon.
The basis for the special counsel continues to erode.
Good comments on the Intel agencies — they are the elephant in the room.
JEdgeresque FIB frame-up job.
Peter and Lisa were simple foot-soldiers in this plot. They will be sacrificed, but this started way above them and it did not start within the FBI - it started within the intel community and State Department.
If this investigation stops on the 7th floor of the FBI we will never learn what happened. That is a fact. This in no way excuses the actions of the “special matters group”, but it increasingly appears to me that they were willing dupes at the start acting on information that was being pushed to them by CIA, State, MI-6, Clinton Camp, and the office of the DNI/prior administration.
“Members of the U.S. Government were involved in a conspiracy to prevent, obstruct, and remove the duly elected President of the United States.
It’s as simple as that.
The list of those involved are MANY!”
With undeniable exposure to sunlight this cannot be swept under the rug. When this is played down as nothing to see here because of whatever leftist talking point then the rule of law is finished we know what we have to do.
El-Boom!
Friken WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Collusion, alright. Friken Seditious Conspiracy!
This is about as clear a case of interference with the election as you can get. These people conspired against Trump in the election process and are still doing so.
All that is going on now is making a spectacle of it all.
Paging Jeff Sessions.
It’s time to resign while you still have a tiny shred of honor.
L
“I think Sessions was the insurance policy. He is a Deep State plant.”
Sign the petition, and spread it around:
This really says it all. And it really hasn't been settled.
what is a low level nobody like Carter Page doing writing a letter to a high level person like FBI Director Comey in the 2016 time frame
I believe you are right. Trump could fire Rosenstein and Mueller right now and we’d all stand firmly with him on it. Jeff Sessions probably would not, though. He might resign. But, at this point, eff him if he did.
These people conspired against Trump in the election process and are still doing so.
******************
Yes, anyone who thinks this seditious cabal has gone underground is sadly mistaken, if not naive. You can be certain that the conspiracy continues as of this moment.
Moreover, Obama is still quietly pulling strings and calling shots from his compound located not far away from the White House.
Trump could fire Rosenstein and Mueller right now and we’d all stand firmly with him on it.
*************
If Trump fires them he should also, at the same time, declassify whatever it is that the congress wants to see. Turn it all over so the American people can see what went on. Go big; do it all with one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that Trump is willing to do it. Avoiding necessary action is not good for the country in my opinion. We need to clean house and get to the bottom of, and fully expose, the members of this seditious cabal and their nefarious tactics. Either that, or history will repeat itself and we will have learned nothing.
same. Just what the hell is Sessions doing?
That is the face of a punk who didn’t get busted in the nose as a child, and according lacks perspective.
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