Free Republic

The FBI division overseeing the investigation of former President Trump's handling of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago residence is also a focus of Special Counsel John Durham's investigation of the bureau's alleged abuses of power and political bias during its years-long Russiagate probe of Trump. The FBI's nine-hour, 30-agent raid of the former president's Florida estate is part of a counterintelligence case run out of Washington – not Miami, as has been widely reported – according to FBI case documents and sources with knowledge of the matter. The bureau's counterintelligence division led the 2016-2017 Russia "collusion" investigation of Trump, codenamed...

Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” former FBI agent Peter Strzok weighed in on the department’s recent raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Trump described the raid as putting his home “under siege” in a move “that has never happened to a President of the United States before.” Host Joe Scarborough asked Strzok if there was any reason the American people should not trust the FBI. Strzok said that “the American public should trust what the FBI is doing” in seizing documents from Trump’s home.

The raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate coincides with developments in the civil lawsuit he filed against Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and the entire cabal of DOJ, FBI and Clinton campaign operatives via the fake Trump-Russia collusion hoax known as ‘spygate’. It doesn’t take a deep political analyst to look at the 108-page lawsuit, consider the evidence that would be needed to prove the lawsuit at trial, then overlay the timing of the court case and FBI raid to see both the content of the files at Mar-a-Lago and the motives of...

The FBI deceived the House, Senate and the Justice Department about the substance and strength of evidence undergirding its counterintelligence investigation of President Trump, according to a recently declassified document and other material. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta A seven-page internal FBI memo dated March 8, 2017, shows that “talking points” prepared for then-FBI Director James Comey for his meeting the next day with the congressional leadership were riddled with half-truths, outright falsehoods, and critical omissions. Both the Senate and the House opened investigations and held hearings based in part on the misrepresentations made in those FBI briefings, one of which...

Several individuals connected to a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign plot to cast Donald Trump as a covert Kremlin collaborator are working in high-level jobs within the Biden administration—including at least two senior Biden appointees cited by Special Counsel John Durham in his “active (and) ongoing” criminal investigation of the scheme, according to recently filed court documents. Jake Sullivan, who now serves as Biden’s national security adviser, and Caroline Krass, a top lawyer at the Pentagon, were involved in efforts in 2016 and 2017 to advance the Clinton campaign’s false claims about Trump through the media and the federal government, documents...

A federal judge on Friday dismissed five former FBI officials -- including former director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe -- from a lawsuit that former President Donald Trump filed against them and other political opponents related to the Russia investigation. Judge Donald Middlebrooks granted the Justice Department's request to substitute itself as defendants for the former FBI officials, after finding that Trump's lawsuit covered actions that they took while acting within the scope of their government employment. This is a victory for the former FBI officials, who no longer have to battle Trump in the civil litigation, which...

The FBI deceived the House, Senate and the Justice Department about the substance and strength of evidence undergirding its counterintelligence investigation of President Trump, according to a recently declassified document and other material. A seven-page internal FBI memo dated March 8, 2017, shows that "talking points" prepared for then-FBI Director James Comey for his meeting the next day with the congressional leadership were riddled with half-truths, outright falsehoods, and critical omissions. Both the Senate and the House opened investigations and held hearings based in part on the misrepresentations made in those FBI briefings, one of which was held in the...

On Sept. 21, 2016, two days after Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann gave then-FBI General Counsel James Baker info about a supposed digital back channel between the Trump Organization and Moscow-based Alfa Bank, agent Joe PIENTKA texted colleague Curtis Heide: “People on 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this server.” Snip “Did you guys open a case? Reachout [sic] and put tools on?” Pientka asked. “If not I will call Dan as Priestap says its [sic] not an option – we must do it.” Later in the day, PIENTKA told Heide that a unit would be...

Kash Patel, a former top House Intelligence Committee aide, said he believes special counsel John Durham has figured out the "insurance policy" discussed by leading FBI officials in the heat of the 2016 presidential election. A text message sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok to then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page in August 2016 mentioning an "insurance policy" is integral to what Republican investigators have long suspected to be part of a so-called plot to undermine then-candidate Donald Trump — a view rejected by ex-top FBI brass involved in the matter. Strzok and Page, who were romantically linked, have filed separate lawsuits...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is currently on trial for lying to the FBI about his role in pushing data pertaining to alleged communications between Trump and the Russian Alfa Bank. According to Special Counsel John Durham, Sussmann lied when he brought that data to the FBI’s General Counsel James Baker as part of the Clinton campaign’s efforts to trigger an FBI investigation of her opponent, Donald Trump. Specifically, Sussmann allegedly wrote Baker a text message claiming he was not representing anyone in providing the information when, in fact, he was representing the Clinton campaign. In a surprising move,...

John Haughey of The Epoch Times twitter feed with live updates John Haughey @JFHaughey58 · 1h Deliberations begin Tuesday morning at the E. Barnett Prettyman U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in Michael #Sussmann's trial for allegedly lying to the FBI about the #Trump Organization's purported ties to a Russian BankThere will actually be 16 jurors seated during the trial with four not knowing that they are alternates and will not be "in the room" when the case goes to the jury for a verdict.Lengthy discussion regarding the infamous #SteeleDossier ...former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele cannot be compelled to...

Newly released notes taken by high-level Department of Justice (DOJ) officials during a March 6, 2017, meeting with FBI leadership expose some of the lengths the FBI engaged in to cover up its spying on the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump. The notes were released on May 8 by lawyers representing former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann as part of an effort to clear him on charges of having lied to the FBI. The notes, in reality, appear to do little to exonerate Sussmann but do provide quite a bit of information on the FBI. The meeting at...

Cases handled by special counsel John Durham have produced a flurry of notable discoveries that shed more light on the sprawling yearslong investigation. Durham so far has three indictments and one guilty plea under his belt, with some indications that there may be more in the pipeline. Durham was tasked around March-May 2019 with reviewing the 2016-2017 FBI investigation of alleged nefarious ties between candidate and later President Donald Trump and Russia. In October 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham a special counsel. In February 2021, Durham resigned his position as a federal prosecutor after 35 years with the...

Former President Trump is suing Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and several others over allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. “The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison,” a complaint filed Thursday said.

Attorney and former U.S. Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said that former President Donald Trump is potentially facing a "five-year felony" over allegations that he took classified national security documents from the White House when he left office last year. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirmed in a Friday letter to the House Oversight Committee that some 15 boxes Trump returned last month after being requested to do so, contained classified national security documents. "NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes," archivist David Ferriero wrote. Previously, The New York Times reported that classified...

Mr. Sussmann will face a trial judge who appears to have background connections to the FBI‘s original Russia investigation. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, who is overseeing the case against Mr. Sussmann, is married to attorney Amy Jefress, who represented former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Just The News first reported Monday. Ms. Page was a top lawyer on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in the FBI‘s Trump-Russia investigation, and became best known for anti-Trump tweets to her former paramour, now former FBI agent Peter Strzok. “It seems the two-tiered system of justice continues — how can a judge oversee...

The Evidence Thus Far. In this post I’ll be detailing the evidence, testimony, and documents we know – or can assume – Special Counsel John Durham has obtained during his investigation. By no means is this an exhaustive list; certainly, he has more information, documents, correspondence, etc. than we realize. There are unknown witnesses who have testified before a grand jury or have been interviewed by Durham’s team. There are issues he’s investigating out of the public knowledge. His investigation is remarkably tight-lipped. As far as we know, they aren’t leaking to the press for publicity or to put pressure...

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has previously said he knew Sussmann in the 1990s The judge in the case of recently indicted Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann is married to the lawyer who represented a disgraced former FBI official that worked on the Donald Trump-Russia probe that Sussmann played some role in advancing. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia, who is presiding over the Sussmann case, is married to lawyer Amy Jeffress, who represented FBI lawyer Lisa Page in a civil case. Cooper, an Obama-appointee, and Jeffress, a former top aide to Attorney General Eric Holder, are...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced Melissa R. Hodgman, currently an Associate Director in the Commission’s Division of Enforcement, has been named Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement. “Melissa’s dedication to investor protection, broad experience in the Division, and proven track record of collaboration and creative problem solving make her ideally suited to this role,” said SEC Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee. “As Associate Director, Melissa has overseen a wide range of complex and programmatically important matters, and has been a leading voice in the Division on critical issues of diversity, hiring, and labor-management relations. She is highly...

Christopher Wray will spearhead Dems’ offensive against Trump supporters in the wake of January 6. “We have not to date seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribed to Antifa in connection with the sixth. That doesn’t mean we’re not looking, and we’ll continue to look, but at the moment we have not seen that.” That was FBI boss Christopher Wray testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Wray claimed the FBI doesn’t care about ideology, but he left more than a reasonable doubt about how hard the FBI had been looking. According to a January 13...