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Connecting Dots in Clinesmith’s Russiagate Guilty Plea
nationalreview ^

Posted on 08/14/2020 7:31:42 PM PDT by janetjanet998

.........Flimsy Counterintelligence or Flimsy Criminal Investigation?

One more aspect of the charge filed by U.S. Attorney Durham is intriguing. He describes the Bureau’s Trump-Russia probe as a criminal investigation from the start:

On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened a Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) investigation known as Crossfire Hurricane into whether individual(s) associated with the Donald Trump for President Campaign were witting of and/or coordinating activities with the Russian government.

Yet, when then FBI director James Comey (quite stunningly) acknowledged the investigation in March 2017 public testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, he described it as a counterintelligence investigation:


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: obamascandals; softcoup; spygate
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In the half century preceding its sudden invocation by Mueller prosecutors, the Justice Department had only charged FARA seven times, with just three convictions. Instead, it was DOJ practice to encourage people doing work for covered foreign powers or entities to comply with the law, not to indict them for failure to do so...

...In the Trump-Russia investigation, the FBI resorted to FARA and the even more absurd Logan Act (in connection with Michael Flynn), which is prosecuted even less frequently than FARA — never a single indictment in the history of the Justice Department. Otherwise, the FBI relied on FISA, on the premise that Trump campaign officials, and the campaign itself, were clandestine agents of Russia, complicit in the Kremlin’s cyberespionage. This outlandish claim was supported by scant evidence and Democratic Party opposition research. Durham’s continuing investigation is trying to establish how and why that happened.

1 posted on 08/14/2020 7:31:42 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: janetjanet998

others picking up on this point...

Catherine Herridge
@CBS_Herridge
#Durham In Clinesmith docs page 1, Durham says FBI opened a “Foreign Agents Registration Act” case called “Crossfire Hurricane,” July 31, 2016. FARA is criminal. But when Comey disclosed the probe’s existence in 2017, he emphasized its “counter-intelligence” nature to gather info

https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1294450817760661509


2 posted on 08/14/2020 7:33:43 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: janetjanet998

I don’t mean to be stupid, but what is the significance of this?


3 posted on 08/14/2020 7:37:12 PM PDT by sissyjane
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To: sissyjane

It means Comey lied to Congress. Get a rope.


4 posted on 08/14/2020 7:39:11 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: sissyjane

I don’t mean to be stupid, but what is the significance of this?


I think it means the bar is higher to open a FARA ( criminal case)

bar talk with George P wouldn’t do it so they called it a “counterintelligence investigation”

but they were looking for something criminal from the start?

keep in mind the Trump team was never briefed on this “counterintelligence investigation”


5 posted on 08/14/2020 7:45:40 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: lodi90

It means Comey lied to Congress.

***************

Note how he prefaced his lies with “I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm...” which implies they told him to say it. What a weasel he is.


6 posted on 08/14/2020 7:48:42 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: sissyjane

and also George P has claimed this was a FARA investigation aimed at him and Flynn and started well before July of 2016


7 posted on 08/14/2020 7:48:51 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: lodi90

Ok, I know NOTHING about Cross Fire Hurricane other than what I read here on FR and watch on Fox News.
But even with my VERY limited knowledge/understanding, it seems to me that Comey tried to turn a FARA investigation into a Counter Intel investigation, mainly to get a FISA warrant on Flynn so the DEEP STATE could get him out of the way before he exposed the dirty dealings of the Xero’s admin.
Right—or way off base?


8 posted on 08/14/2020 7:53:46 PM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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To: milagro

Right—or way off base?


Yes that may be the main point of this?

no FISAs with a pure FARA investigation


9 posted on 08/14/2020 7:55:18 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: janetjanet998

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations
June 19, 2020
Newly released documents reveal the FBI never had even preliminary evidence of a Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia, and instead used a rarely enforced statutory relic – the Foreign Agents Registration Act – as the legal rationale for opening investigations in 2016-2017 and surveilling Trump campaign aides.

On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened a counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Russia – nicknamed Crossfire Hurricane – not under espionage conspiracy laws but under FARA.

The recently disclosed documents, which surfaced thanks to declassification efforts, court filings and FOIA lawsuits, reveal that the initial target of the probe – then-Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos — was suspected of working for Israel, not Russia. Other FARA cases involved alleged ties to Turkey (Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn), Ukraine (campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates) and Egypt (Trump Mideast adviser Walid Phares).

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/06/23/no_evidence_needed_for_collusion_probe_just_an_obscure_pretext_spearheaded_by_this_man_124020.html


10 posted on 08/14/2020 8:09:19 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: janetjanet998

So though it was Clinesmith who altered the doc re Carter Page to get a FISA warrant, he probably did so because Comey, and others, wanted to conduct a C I investigation, not a FARA one, right?


11 posted on 08/14/2020 8:19:21 PM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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To: milagro

So though it was Clinesmith who altered the doc re Carter Page to get a FISA warrant, he probably did so because Comey, and others, wanted to conduct a C I investigation, not a FARA one, right?


No the 2nd FISA renewal that was part of was well after the horse left the barn as far as CI vs FARA case


12 posted on 08/14/2020 8:23:28 PM PDT by janetjanet998
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To: milagro

Ok, just opened and skimmed the info on the link you provided (thank you!!), and it confirms my conclusion.
Really DIRTY, and SCARY!


13 posted on 08/14/2020 8:25:59 PM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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To: janetjanet998

Ok, got that, now. But looks like the FIB’s justification for starting the C I investigation are being looked at, and evidence is mounting to reveal the REAL spies guilty of “COLLUSION” against a duly elected President are NOT FOREIGN!


14 posted on 08/14/2020 8:34:41 PM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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To: sissyjane

Several Things.

1. Counter-Intelligence allows the use of some things that aren’t legal with criminal investigation. That is a huge factor in what they did with the FISA database.

2. Comey lied before Congress.


15 posted on 08/14/2020 8:57:06 PM PDT by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right..........)
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To: Bryan24

Comey has long checked all the “eligibility boxes” for a DNC office somewhere.


16 posted on 08/14/2020 9:06:03 PM PDT by patriotfury ((May the fleas of a thousand camels occupy mo' ham mads tents!))
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To: Bryan24

No, you have it backwards. They used FARA so they could go to the FISA court and get a warrant under title VII of the foreign intelligence act instead of Title I. Under title I, Carter Paige would have been considered as helping a foreign agent and they could listen in on his phone calls only when he was speaking with a non US citizen. Under Title VII he is considered a foreign agent and they could listen in on any of his phone calls regardless of who he was talking to. They could also listen in on the phone calls of people he had talked to, and in some cases the people those people talked to. This is how they were able to listen in on Trump and his campaign staff.

Trump knew this and it is why he said they tapped his phone. They did under the warrant they got for Carter Paige as a Soviet spy.


17 posted on 08/14/2020 9:21:20 PM PDT by CMAC51
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To: janetjanet998

Can we get him to roll?


18 posted on 08/14/2020 10:15:42 PM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: milagro
All of the (illegal) surveillance/FISAs were undertaken because Adm. Rogers (NSA) had shutdown the previous illegal surveillance (database queries) in April of 2016. None of what the Democrats did had any basis in reality, nor was it legal.
19 posted on 08/14/2020 10:26:22 PM PDT by Major Matt Mason (America has a DemocRat and RINO problem.)
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To: janetjanet998

First Domino falls - what’s next - bump for later...


20 posted on 08/14/2020 11:03:49 PM PDT by indthkr
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