Posted on 09/29/2020 3:47:53 PM PDT by gattaca
This increased the likelihood that the Clinton operation — and the FBI investigation that relied on Clinton-funded opposition research — was tainted by deliberate Russian disinformation. Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway By Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 Not only were Russian officials aware of Hillary Clinton’s campaign plan to accuse Donald Trump of being a Russian asset, top U.S. intelligence authorities knew of Russia’s knowledge of Clinton’s plans, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe disclosed to congressional officials on Tuesday. Before they launched an investigation into whether Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia, intelligence agencies learned that Russia knew of Clinton’s plans to tarnish Trump with the collusion smear.
At one point, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan personally briefed then-President Barack Obama and other top U.S. national security officials that Russia assessed Hillary Clinton had approved a plan on July 26, 2016, “to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” according to Brennan’s handwritten notes.
Fired former FBI Director James Comey and fired former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok were even sent an investigative referral on September 7, 2016, regarding Russia’s alleged knowledge of Clinton’s plans to smear Trump as a treasonous Russian agent, Ratcliffe wrote. Rather than investigate at the time whether Russian intelligence had infiltrated the Clinton operation’s anti-Trump campaign and sowed Russian disinformation within it, the FBI instead used unverified gossip from a suspected Russian agent to obtain federal warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.
There is no evidence the FBI ever investigated the Clinton campaign’s documented use of Russian agents and intelligence assets to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, raising questions of whether the top federal law enforcement agency may have itself interfered in the election by using its powers to arbitrarily target the campaign of the outgoing administration’s political enemy.
In a letter provided on Tuesday afternoon to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ratcliffe wrote that Russian intelligence officials knew about Clinton’s plan to “stir up a scandal” against Trump by “tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”
“In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin,” Ratcliffe wrote in his summary of U.S. intelligence findings.
On September 7, 2016, U.S. intelligence authorities “forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding ‘U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server,'” Ratcliffe noted.
Brennan personally briefed President Barack Obama and other top U.S. national security officials about Clinton’s campaign plan and Russian knowledge of it. Just five days after the date on which the Russians believed Clinton had personally authorized the collusion smear against Trump, the FBI formally opened its anti-Trump collusion investigation, codenamed “Crossfire Hurricane.”
That investigation relied heavily on a dossier of anti-Trump allegations compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent. Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, a Democrat opposition research firm that had been hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to manufacture and spread claims that Trump was secretly working on behalf of Putin.
At the time, both Steele and Fusion GPS were simultaneously working on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. In his infamous dossier, which has been thoroughly discredited and debunked since it was published in early 2017, Steele relied heavily on a single source for the most salacious and explosive allegations against Trump.
Dubbed the dossier’s “Primary Sub-Source,” that individual was responsible for laundering the false claim that Trump had personally hired prostitutes to defile a Moscow Ritz Carlton bed that had previously hosted Obama and his wife, Michelle. The sub-source claimed, without evidence, that Russian intelligence authorities had obtained video of the incident and were using it to blackmail Trump to do Putin’s bidding. No evidence exists that the alleged incident occurred or that video of it exists.
The identity of that sub-source — Russian national Igor Danchenko — was publicly confirmed in late July 2020 after FBI summaries of his conversations with the FBI in early 2017 were declassified and publicly released. According to the FBI summaries, Danchenko claimed that he merely viewed the allegations as drunken gossip and unsubstantiated rumors and never meant for them to be shared as viable intelligence. New documents declassified and provided to Congress last week show that U.S. authorities suspected Danchenko of being deeply connected to Russian intelligence.
In fact, the FBI had previously investigated Danchenko to determine whether he was a formal Russian intelligence agent and had characterized him as a potential threat to national security. According to the declassified summary of previous federal investigations of Danchenko, the federal probe lasted nearly two years and included allegations from Americans who had interacted with Danchenko that he might be a Russian spy. The investigation against Danchenko was eventually closed by the FBI, but only because he had left the country and was presumed to be back on foreign soil in Russia.
Danchenko’s claims against Trump, as retold by Steele in his dossier, were used as a primary basis for federal spy warrants against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign affiliate whom the federal government spied on for a year as part of the FBI’s collusion investigation. The federal spy court that reviews and approved those warrants were never informed that the source of the allegations against Page and Trump was a suspected Russian intelligence agent who had previously been targeted by the FBI.
Ratcliffe wrote that the intelligence community “does not know the accuracy of [Russia’s] allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” However, the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee did contract with Fusion GPS for its Steele dossiers, which were disseminated to friendly media outlets and U.S. agencies.
Clinton personally pushed the Russia collusion claims on multiple occasions. Following her surprising defeat, she immediately pivoted to a campaign of blaming Russia for election meddling with Trump’s assistance. Within the last few weeks, Clinton has repeated her claim that Trump stole the election from her with Russia’s help.
While Comey, Strzok, and other Obama-era FBI officials have claimed that the investigation of Trump was legally predicated, U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is investigating the propriety of the entire Crossfire Hurricane operation, has publicly stated, based on evidence he has obtained, that he does not necessarily believe that to be the case.
So, are the Russians insulted that Clinton maligned them?
US officials knew about it...
You and I knew about it...
Various Republican Congress-critters knew about it - and whines to us about it...
But the DOJ didn’t know about it?
NOBODY who was in a position of authority to enforce the LAW of our nation seemed to know about it either...
Or... maybe they just didn’t care.
I have been telling people that the Trump campaign is going to have to wait till literally the last minute to dump the napalm on the Dems - because their Media Machine newspuppets will throw their own bodies on the flames to put out the fires...
So basically this proves that the Russians had hacked the Clinton/DNC email servers, then learned of their plans against DJT, then US counterintelligence found out about it, and Obama administration instead spun it all into a huge “get Trump at all cost” scandal.
Of course they knew the resistance plan was hatched on 11/14/16 with Soros and other donors at the DC Mandarin Oriental Hotel during a 4 day Soros Conference.
I wonder if John McCain knew about it?
Won’t make a bit of difference. The media have their narrative, and that’s not gonna change. Big shot Democrats could execute old women and little children in full view, and the media would never run with the story. And, if FOX News tried to put the story out, Adam Schiff would show up on all the big media to explain how its all made up by Trump. Nothing would ever happen to a Democrat.
The Obama/Biden Administration/Applicable Agencies’ Directors and certain MSM “journalists” need to be arrested, tarred, feathered and then hanged.
What difference does it make now?
No one in a position to enforce laws about this type of criminality are going to do a damn thing about it, if you haven’t been paying attention.
Barr has succeeded in running out the clock by doing nothing other than saying “we can’t comment about ongoing investigations”.
We ‘peons’ should be happy with ‘bread & circus’ because nothing even approaching justice will ever come out of DC and the sooner we accept that reality the happier we will be.
Democraps are in a panic, they know if Trump wins a lot of them are going to jail, this is why Hillary told Biden “Do not concede no matter what”
So, will Wallboy bring this up tonight?
U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is investigating the propriety of the entire Crossfire Hurricane operation, has publicly stated, based on evidence he has obtained, that he does not necessarily believe that to be the case.
Ah then, It Ain’t Necessarily So
I hope Americans get more for the millions spent than a Showboat.
Ol Man River?
I’ll never accept it and be happy. The whole darned Democrat party, and media are corrupt. We are doomed!
Danchenko’s fraud was known at the beginning. It’s fascinating the the Durham invest crew has decided to promote a Three-Minute Hate against a Soviet squatchik rather than actually issue indictments against Comey, Stroke, Page.
I want to see Trump and Putin riding horseback together, shirtless, like in the photo shopped pic. Only for real. Promoting Glasnost, or whatever. They loved Gorby for it, but THIS would make the Dems’ heads explode.
Thank you, Rush, for coining the word “Gorbasm”.
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