[ May 4, 2024 ]
Has there ever been such treachery, such treason orchestrated in and by the Oval office?
Why has no one been arrested?
Outside of Trump, is there one honest man in the Beltway?
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New Docs Show FBI Used ‘Defensive’ Briefing In 2016 To Spy On Trump
By Sean Davis, The Federalist, July 24, 2020:
Newly declassified internal Federal Bureau of Investigation documents prove the top U.S. law enforcement agency used a so-called defensive briefing of the Trump campaign in 2016 to spy on and collect information about Donald Trump himself. The new documents, which are just the latest in a string of declassifications regarding the FBI operation to spy on the Trump campaign and later the Trump administration, detail the FBI’s attempts to use a briefing ostensibly meant to warn the Trump campaign about foreign intelligence threats to spy on the Trump campaign itself.
The documents were formally declassified by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on July 23 then provided to Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
In one of the documents declassified and released on Wednesday, FBI supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka wrote that he deliberately used the briefing to “actively listen for topics or questions” from Trump “regarding the Russian Federation.” Rather than provide the Trump campaign a specific warning that certain campaign principals were being targeted by Russian intelligence, the FBI instead gave a general, non-specific warning that foreign intelligence services might eventually target the campaign.
Pientka’s written summary of the briefing noted that Trump, Michael Flynn, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the only three Trump campaign members in attendance. Christie’s attendance had not previously been disclosed. The August 17, 2016 meeting came the day after the FBI opened a formal counterintelligence investigation against Flynn and just two days after FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok texted his former lover, FBI attorney Lisa Page, about an “insurance policy” he had designed to keep Trump from becoming president.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy [McCabe]’s office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok texted Page on August 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40….”
The very next day Strzok opened an investigation of Flynn then used the pretext of a defensive intelligence briefing to collect intelligence on both Flynn and Trump on August 17.
Pientka’s notes on the meeting stated that it lasted for two hours, beginning at 3:55 p.m. and ending at 5:51 p.m. While Pientka spent only 13 minutes of the two-hour meeting warning Trump, Flynn, and Christie of foreign intelligence threats, he lamented in his notes that other intelligence officials didn’t have enough time to get through their material.
“Due to time constraints, not all ODNI briefers presented their material,” Pientka wrote. He did not say whether his use of the meeting as means of spying on and collecting information against Trump may have precluded other intelligence officials from presenting their material to the attendees.
Pientka was excoriated in a report from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) for his behavior during the FBI’s spy operation against the Trump campaign. Pientka told the OIG that he designed the August 17 meeting to “gain assessment and possibly have some level of familiarity with [Flynn].”
According to the OIG report, Pientka “was selected to provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.”
Pientka told the OIG that he was selected to attend on behalf of the FBI so he could “record” or “overhear” from Trump, Flynn, or Christie “any kind of admission” that they were colluding with the Russian government to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. Pientka also added that he wanted to get a baseline impression of Flynn’s “overall mannerisms” in case he needed to later use that information against him.
Pientka later took part in the FBI’s 2017 interview of Flynn, which became the basis of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case against Flynn. Following the discovery of exculpatory documents that had previously been suppressed by the government, the DOJ moved to dismiss all charges against Flynn. A top federal appellate court panel ordered Emmett G. Sullivan, the judge overseeing Flynn’s case, to dismiss the charges against Flynn, but Sullivan has thus far refused to comply.
Pientka’s account of the meeting was approved by Strzok and former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith. According to the DOJ OIG, Clinesmith fabricated evidence against Carter Page to ensure that a warrant to spy on him would be approved by the federal spy court. Rather than inform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Carter Page had previously worked with a U.S. intelligence agency in its successful efforts to capture and prosecute Russian intelligence officers working against the United States, Clinesmith allegedly changed an e-mail from that intelligence agency to eliminate the agency’s confirmation that Page had worked with them against the Russians.
According to the OIG report, Clinesmith “altered the [intelligence agency liaison’s] email by inserting the words ‘not a source’ into it, thus making it appear that the liaison had said that Page was ‘not a source’ for the other agency.” Clinesmith’s fabrication was included in a spy warrant against Page that was later found to be illegal because it included so much false and fabricated information. Clinesmith is reportedly under federal criminal investigation and is no longer employed by the FBI.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham last year to investigate the entire anti-Trump spy operation launched by the FBI and to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. Durham has not yet indicted any individuals for their roles in illegally spying on the Trump campaign and Trump presidential administration.
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31 Comments
3 years ago
What’s going on A.G. Barr?
Running out the clock o AVOID prosecuting your friends like Mueller in the swamp? It’s sure looking that way…. Prove me wrong. Start with Hillary. I don’t mind being wrong. Redeem yourself and be the tough law and order man you so far pretend to be.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Well said, Felix. I must ask, why does Trump hire such heedless or neglectful people?
3 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
It’s a stacked pipeline and the only ones he can get comfirmed so I guess he just hopes for the best. The pressure is on A.G. Barr….
3 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
Obama openly commented on stuffing the pipeline. He said it would be difficult to undo his legacy. Had Hillary won, she would have appreciated that.
Obama did the same thing with our military. He purged the good ones and promoted his idealogues to carry on. Vindman was one of them…
The corrupt swamp doesn’t mind. They appreciate being protected and agree with Obama’s worldview. They did nothing to stop Obama when they had the majority!
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Barack Obama must become the first to face impeachment; it is he who was the catalyst with the aiding-and-abetting ot copious others. Have a great weekend, Felix, stay healthy and safe.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Agreed. Remember his saying his administration didn’t have “one smidgen of corruption”?
My, how the smidgens have grown.
3 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
Obama openly commented on stuffing the pipeline. He said it would be difficult to undo his legacy. Had Hillary won, she would have appreciated that.
Obama did the same thing with our military. He purged the good ones and promoted his idealogues to carry on. Vindman was one of them…
The corrupt swamp doesn’t mind. They appreciate being protected and agree with Obama’s worldview. They did nothing to stop Obama when they had the majority!
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
I’d like to see Trump get Sidney Powell on it but I know that is wishful thinking. She would get something done.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
I’d like to see Trump get Sidney Powell on it but I know that is wishful thinking. She would get something done.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Were justice to actually begin being served Washington, DC would suddenly experience a critical shortage of rope and lamp posts. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
As Marcellus the guard said in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Patience…
The people forget fast – it would be early enough to start and push in September.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Considering how willing Barr’s been to corrupt the DOJ to protect Trump, it’s far more likely he’s found nothing to accuse them of.
3 years ago
Meanwhile: This one was near an IRGC military residential site, East of Tehran. The area has been hit before.
3 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
Thanks, DR, let’s hope it is something that will, in turn, put smiles on our faces.
3 years ago
The plot and the evidence thickens but any chance of indictment of treason, or the Democrats’ unmitigated corruption, subversion remains on hold. If it were the Republicans under scrutiny, and such evidence founded the indictments would already be served. The Democrats, Obama, and the entirety of this perfidious party not only act as if they are above the law but treated as thus.
What the hell is wrong with this Republic? A rhetorical question that copious Americans recognize the answer but their opinion bears no influence, as they are conservatives.
The so-called Democrats and its legions of malcontents, terrorists, anarchists have hijacked the Constitution. They, in turn, will hijack the presidency, that too is a given. One does not need psychic capabilities to predict the spurious party’s intent.
3 years ago
The American Left, led by their Godfather and former HNIC, Barack Obama control the House, most major US cities, MSM, academia, and many US multinational corps including all of Big Tech.
It’s an impressive portfolio but lacks a key ingredient. The ability to impose control through force and the threat of violence.
20th century Communists secured absolute power by controlling police, military and private weapons. American Leftists don’t control any levers of force. Ironically, most of their private weapons are in hands of black urban criminals. At least they know where they are.
Obama and his Keystone Commies are proving to be pretty incompetent revolutionaries.
3 years ago
“Why has no one been arrested?”
Good question, especially considering you and I would be already two years into our BOP incarceration for 10% of this kind of lawlessness…
3 years ago
Judge Sullivan still REFUSES to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn after being ordered to do so, two times by other judges!
3 years ago
Not going to read the article. Tired of hearing about all the illegal and unethical things done to the president. I want to see some action, like prosecutions.
3 years ago
Reply to
anonQ
The Deep State conspirators are Seditious and Treasonous and can all be arrested using RICO laws.
Someone should whisper that fact to AG Barr so as not to embarrass him!
3 years ago
Reply to
CharlieSeattle
I think Barr knows this already. Something is holding him back. The factual evidence is overwhelming and mostly irrefutable and all we hear is talk.
3 years ago
Reply to
anonQ
The Deep State conspirators are Seditious and Treasonous and can all be arrested using RICO laws.
Someone should whisper that fact to AG Barr so as not to embarrass him!
3 years ago
This is ALL, outright TREASON, and they must ALL die for their High Crimes …. if they don’t – this will NEVER stop.
3 years ago
Many of us knew from the very start that the russian crap was all BS and STILL NO INDICTMENTS OR HANGINGS YET!! A DECORATED 3 STAR GENERAL FLYNN AND LOYAL AMERICAN DONALD TRUMP RUSSIAN ASSETS? These TRAITOR’S are NUTS AND NEED A NECKTIEPARTY!!!!! barr is deep state and won’t do in his secret society buddies. The STALL game is still on! Hang the TRAITOR’S!!!!!!! AND LET ALL THE NEW CITIZENS KNOW, WE LOVE THIS COUNTRY AND DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS OR US!!!!!!!!!!
3 years ago
Not only that, but Joe Biden was known as the “American Gangster” in Ukraine, and was involved in laundering the 4 billion dollars in aid money that went to Ukraine during the Obama years.
A lot of the money went to the DNC and American officials back in the US, while much of it was used in bribes.
So of course they had to get rid of Trump because if Trump won, possibly the criminal enterprise that laundered the 4 billion dollars in American aid money to Ukraine would be exposed.
FBI agents, maybe even lawyers in the DOJ may have been in on it.
People are saying these people were leftists, progressives, what ever, but as more is exposed about what Joe Biden was doing in Ukraine, it just looks like a regular criminal enterprise, the only thing different is the money involved was billions rather than millions.
Bill Barr has already said Joe Biden and Obama aren’t being investigated.
It’s the crime of the century, and Joe Biden pulled it off.
You better give Joe Biden credit.
While he may seem to have some problems reading the teleprompter, the mask is helping him to keep his mouth shut.
3 years ago
Great question – one we’ve been wondering for years now –
