Fingerprints on Russiagate 'Smoking Gun' Are Ignored
By: J. Peder Zane (RealClearPolitics)
Yes, we all know that Hillary Clinton is not President. That's a good thing, too.
The Clinton campaign created RussiaGate - ho-hum. President Obama was in the loop - ho-hum. The intelligence community lied to Congress and the courts - ho-hum. Robert Mueller led a political witch hunt - ho-hum. The press spread misinformation - ho-hum.
Crime, after crime, after crime. And everyone will get away with it simply because they are Democrats. Remember, Democrats are Stronger Together.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe created a new category of news last week - the ho-hum smoking gun - when he released a letter regarding the Clinton campaign's efforts to generate the Trump/Russia hoax during the 2016 election.
In three short paragraphs addressed to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ratcliffe revealed that U.S. intelligence officials had learned in late July 2016 that the Russians believed Clinton "had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee."
Ratcliffe reported that former CIA Director John Brennan considered the information important enough to share with President Obama and other senior national security officials. In addition, on Sept. 7, 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to then-FBI Director James Comey 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."
The information is ho-hum because it tells us what already we know. By the spring of 2016 the Clinton campaign had hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS and its agent, Christopher Steele, to dig up dirt on Trump's alleged Russia connections. Steele's fishing expedition in Russian waters makes it reasonable to embrace the Ratcliffe letter's main claim: that the Kremlin knew what the Clinton campaign was up to in July 2016 - and so, too, did U.S. intelligence.
And yet, the letter is also a smoking gun because it shows how Obama administration officials willfully ignored all evidence to the contrary in their relentless pursuit of Trump. Even though Brennan had information that Clinton was intent on blaming Trump for the hacking as a campaign ploy, he became one of the prime architects of the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory.
Same goes for Jim Comey. Stunningly, at his Senate hearing last week, Comey claimed he had no recollection of the U.S. intelligence referral that combined the bureau's two most significant probes of 2016: Clinton's emails and Trump's supposed Russia connections.
Brennan and Comey's malfeasance is especially troubling given that the information they ignored about Clinton was true while the disinformation they embraced about Trump turned out to be false. At a minimum, they should have been on high alert about any Trump-related material coming from the Clinton campaign. Brennan, instead, insisted that the Steele dossier be included in the Obama administration's late 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian interference - and then lied about it.
For his part, Comey signed FISA court applications that used the Steele dossier to justify spying on Carter Page and, by extension, the Trump campaign.
The mainstream media was also a prime mover of the Russiagate hoax, and its coverage of the Ratcliffe letter reveals once more how it has used anonymous sources and misleading language to diminish facts that challenged that narrative. Politico reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee "was made aware of that allegation early on in its investigation, and quickly dismissed it, the sources said."
The New York Times went further, reporting that the Senate committee and Special Counsel Robert Mueller "had evaluated and rejected the information in the years since, according to three current and former officials familiar with those inquiries."
Neither publication, however, showed any curiosity about how and why a report that made it to President Obama and was the subject of an intelligence referral to the FBI was rejected. For that matter, the outlets didn't seem to press their anonymous sources to explain how the Senate and Mueller's office were even able to independently "evaluate" highly classified intelligence - which the intelligence community, according to Ratcliffe, has not dismissed.
Instead of exploring the issues raised, the publications and their anonymous sources are trying to shut down any inquiry through a deceptive leap of logic. They are using one aspect of the intelligence that has not been verified - that Clinton herself personally approved the anti-Trump effort - to invalidate the broader point that her campaign originated the Russiagate smear.
This is the same approach they have used regarding Hunter Biden's efforts to cash in on his father's name. Obvious ethical questions about egregious conflicts of interest are sidestepped by narrowly defining the issue as whether there's direct evidence that Joe Biden changed policy to enrich his son.
This deception is especially brazen in the Clinton campaign's case because its pivotal role in Russiagate is long established and beyond dispute. As such, it seems part of a larger strategy to take every opportunity to fog the air and muddy the waters so the public doesn't know what to think - a win for wrongdoers.
A final thought. Many of those horrified and disgusted by the Trump/Russia hoax have long been in "Iceman Cometh" mode, hoping tomorrow will deliver that last piece of evidence that convinces even Democrats to hold the wrongdoers accountable.
That day will never come. The Ratcliffe letter is the latest in a long line of smoking guns - including reports from the special counsel, the DoJ inspector general as well as dogged journalists - that have established beyond any doubt that the vast powers of our government were weaponized and politicized to destroy a candidate and then a president.
The crime is as clear as the fact that they got away with it.
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The Democratic Party represents truth, honor, and purity. Hillary Clinton says so.
The country really did dodge a bullet by electing Trump.
Because of pizzagate?
How many FISA warrants were issued? How many intel directors testified before Congressional committees on PizzaGate? Who was the Special Prosecutor that investigated PizzaGate?
You don’t need no stinkin committees or special prosecutors. You got this guy (and tons more just like him):
Intelligence community black ops? Ho-hum.
I wonder how many White Supremacists work for the CIA?
Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you'll believe it...
I'm not telling myself anything. All these ho-hum revelations are coming from the intelligence community.
You would have to have blinders on to not know how much Trump is scamming & fleecing the country.
Head meet warm sand.
When the facts can't be countered with political propaganda then simply ignore them. Ho-hum.
Sure. Let's have an investigation! Oh wait... the Republican controlled Senate already did that 3 times and came up empty. If Durham had something there would be whispers and so far nothing but crickets.
The far right will do and say anything to distract from Trump's actual crimes.
It's funny how Trump's DOJ director, AG, and personal fixer Barr hasn't seen fit to prosecute any of this. Is he afraid of what an investigation might find? Do they just not have enough evidence? Do they not believe in law and order? Trump certainly hasn't kept his promise to "lock her up" that's for sure.
They seem to be smokin' Bull Durham. And the smoke seems to be getting thicker.
John Durham doesn't seem to be making the pundit tour like John Brennan, James Clapper, or even James Comey.
So basically. the guy that was in a lot of the memos (or wrote them) said what they were talking about was a narrative that Russia was putting out about Clinton, and some people are going to run with it....
Hillary Clinton used the intelligence community for political purposes as a candidate. What do you think Hillary Clinton would have done as President?
Ratcliffe is a partisan hack.
No, Hillary Clinton didn't win the election. That's correct. That's also a good thing.
And Brennan isn't?
The man wants to save his own ass at this point. He already knows that Obama and Clinton are untouchable; but the underlings? They might be SOL.
And the horse is neighing about Ratcliffe publicly releasing the information. Brennan is complaining about public disclosure; not about the content of what was disclosed.
Uh huh. Keep telling yourself that...
Lock Him Up!
He explained what was disclosed and it was only a select part of a larger picture.
Right, the bigger picture is why they didn't check with the CIA on Carter Page being an asset. Why they never interviewed Carter Page. And why they allowed the full of shit political hit job Steele Dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign to be used to start an investigation into a political rival.
Nixon had nothing on these POS Democrats. When he was caught the Republicans turned on him. With Obama, Clinton, their hench people in the FBI and lack of Intelligence Agencies, and the mindless TDS driven media; the left is still carrying water on their fairy tale narrative that has been soundly disproven.
Some people think the government submitting false evidence to a Court to secretly spy on an American citizen is a big deal. But those people care about civil liberties and not blind loyalty to a political party..
How a man who supported the American communist party was entrusted with the CIA is a scandal in and of itself.
Being able to laugh at yourself is healthy. Good for you.
Hmm... That sounds familiar. Oh, yeah, now I remember. That's exactly how the FISA warrants were obtained.
No matter what you all say, Page is a fucking nutjob.
And again, no matter what you all say, Russia has been trying to influence elections with massive misinformation campaigns.
The only true TDS is the people that still believe donald is an innocent victim.
So now you are going to skip over to the FISA court?
What Brennan said was accurate, he wrote the memos.
There is no underlying crime here.
Yup, that's what Nixon said, too.
John Brennan wrote the memos to be delivered to President Obama. Obama was briefed on Clinton's political scheme to use the intelligence agencies for political purposes. At the least, Obama acquiesced because the rest is history.
Everyone involved in Clinton's political scheme are getting religion. They're becoming quakers.
Brennan was "giving examples of the type of access that the US intelligence community had to Russian information and what the Russians were talking about and alleging ". He was not confirming that Clinton had approved "a proposal" to vilify Donald with ties to Russia.
The facts show dozens of contacts between Russian agents and the Trump campaign. They show that the campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort, did in fact "secretly share internal Campaign information with (Russian Intelligence agent) Kilimnik.". The recent full bi-partisan Senate investigation makes it clear, the "Russia thing" was not a hoax, there was coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. The only thing missing was the smoking gun of Trump on tape telling Putin specifically what he would give in return for the illicit aid.
“The committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president,” the report states. “Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.”
"The report, redacted in parts, detailed extensive contacts between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who worked closely with Manafort for years. The report labeled Kilimnik a "Russian intelligence officer," and said Manafort, for reasons the committee could not determine, sought on numerous occasions to "secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik." It also said the committee obtained "some information" linking Kilimnik to Russian intelligence services' efforts to hack and leak information to damage Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party."
"The report states that “while the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump’s electoral prospects. To do so, the Trump Campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks.”
These are now undeniable facts that apparently the Trump sycophants just refuse to accept even when it comes from a bi-partisan Senate investigation. They are blindly loyal to their dear Leader and do not care about the facts and continue to push wild nonsense conspiracy theories about Clinton being the one "colluding" which is pure insanity. The facts show that much of the Steele dossier was confirmed, it has not been debunked as many on the right repeatedly claim. There was no conspiracy from Democrats to fabricate some connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, there WERE numerous connections that have now been verified by the Senate investigation. Anyone continuing the lie that it's all some fantasy "deep state" or conspiracy theory to connect Trump to the Russians is in a deep state of denial.
You can tell some people over and over and they refuse to see.
No matter what you say Page was illegally spied on. Page was a CIA asset, and Obama's FBI failed to due it's due diligence and get that information rather than rush full speed into believing the bogus Steele Dossier. No matter what you say neither Comey or Mueller ever interviewed Page to get the truth. Of course if they had done that their entire BS investigation would have fallen apart. No matter what you say Page was completely innocent.
Really? Russia also staged anti Trump events as well. Remember the Pink Pussy Hat Protest after Trump was elected? That was a Russian bot organized protest. Russia doesn't give a fuck about Trump. Trump never colluded or conspired with Russia; not even Mueller could find evidence of it in his overreaching investigation into everything Trump.
The only TDS sufferers are those that believe it is OK to us the FBI to spy on an opposition candidate. Even if it is Trump.
A load of nothing...Page an asset Haha More like he was used by the CIA because of his Russian contacts.
Putin himself had more or less admitted he wanted donald in office.
Putin was afraid of Hillary for many years so enacted a years long propaganda campaign against her aided by far right wing American traitors. She was a conscientious long standing public servant who as president would have boxed Putin's ears and he knew it.
From the bogus Whitewater investigation to this very day Putin's propaganda machine doesn't miss an opportunity to slander her.
Hillary would have made a much better president for America than Putin's lap dog Trump.
Still curious as to what kind of serious blackmail that Putin has over Trump.
Don't forget the far left traitors at the Putin organized Anti Trump rallies; and those that supported and aided the Putin backed Bernie Sanders.
There were more convictions from Whitewater than the faux Russia investigation. They were also much closer to the Clintons; and low and behold actually guilty of the crime they were being investigated of. Not a bunch of offshoot crimes that had nothing to do with Whitewater.
The military industrial complex agrees with you. Hillary never met a military engagement she didn't want to stick the US into. Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and more- she was for all of them. She knew better than the Generals concerning Syria.
Really presidential of her. Like Libya and Yemen that would have ended in disaster as well.
The same material he has over Biden, Sanders, Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Obama, and the rest of the Democrats.
Andy McCarthy also offered a nice summary of what happened:
To summarize what happened here, in late July 2016, at precisely the time our spy services learned that Russian intelligence was saying Hillary Clinton was scheming to blame the DNC hacking on a Trump-Russia conspiracy, the FBI formally opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation – on the theory that the Trump campaign may have conspired in Russia’s hacking of the DNC emails.
And in September 2016, around the time Brennan was nudging Reid to pressure Comey to aggressively investigate a possible Trump-Russia conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election, the CIA was formally providing the FBI with a memo outlining that Clinton (who was expected to be the next president) wanted Trump investigated for conspiring with Russian hackers to interfere in the 2016 election – which, conveniently, could distract the voters’ attention from her own email scandal. This was information the FBI already had but, according to Reid, was not acting on.
Within days of getting the CIA memo, the FBI began preparations to apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant to monitor Carter Page. After describing the July publication of DNC emails which it accused Russia of hacking, the bureau’s FISA warrant application stated: “[T]he FBI believes that the Russian Government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with [Donald Trump’s] campaign.”
The CIA did not want the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton. T he CIA – with the Obama White House and Reid in the loop – wanted the FBI to act on Hillary Clinton’s unfounded allegation that Donald Trump had conspired with Russia to hack the DNC. And the FBI willingly obliged. Because it had no actual evidence implicating Trump in Russia’s cyberespionage operations, the FBI had to rely on the Clinton campaign-sponsored Steele dossier, which either made up that allegation out of whole cloth or based it on disinformation from a “primary subsource” who, it turns out, the FBI suspected was a Russian asset .
That's not what the bi-partisan Senate investigation found. That is pure bullshit opinion straight from the dumb shits at the right wing conservative National Review.
Here are the actual facts.
“The committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president,” the report states. “Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.”
"The report, redacted in parts, detailed extensive contacts between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who worked closely with Manafort for years. The report labeled Kilimnik a "Russian intelligence officer," and said Manafort, for reasons the committee could not determine, sought on numerous occasions to "secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik." It also said the committee obtained "some information" linking Kilimnik to Russian intelligence services' efforts to hack and leak information to damage Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party."
"The report states that “while the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump’s electoral prospects. To do so, the Trump Campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks.”
You should read what McCarthy wrote again. Nothing in your apparently random excerpt contradicts it.
The information that has been disclosed reveals that the Russian knew what the Clinton campaign was trying to do. A Russian agent was feeding information, contained in the dossier, to the Clinton campaign.
Once the Russians knew, to some extent, Clinton's intentions, the Russians began making contact with the Trump campaign to manufacture evidence that fit Clinton's narrative.
Have you considered that the Russians expected Hillary Clinton to win the election?
Pretty sure that contradicting far right wing lies and propaganda is useless.
Have you considered that's why Putin made sure that Trump won?
Trump grew up mafia. His father was mafia. Trump grew up a thief.
He is destroying this country just like every business he's ever tried to run.
How many times have we heard that Clinton received more votes than Trump? If Russia is that adept at manipulating electoral politics then Russia doesn't need Trump and would have no worries about Clinton.
The bottom line is that Russia accommodated Clinton by manufacturing evidence to support her political narrative. Russia scratched Clinton's back and was expecting the same from Clinton.
It is actually public knowledge.
You should do the research.
Seems Putin doesn't care who he uses.
The KGB chief has fun manipulating Trump the egotistical fool.
He is doing a great job of it. Any better and Russia would be completely broke and isolated.
Trump administration increased sanctions on Russia.
Trump put more troops into Syria; and instead of removing them he caved to right win neo-cons and newly minted left wing chicken hawks. They stayed took over a Syrian oil field; and the bombing continues.
Trump authorized the sale of lethal weapons to the Ukrainian government. Something the Obama never did after instigating a coupe there.
Facts are completely against your narrative.