For Part 1 (The Kremlin Connections Of The Clinton Campaign)
For Part 2 (Mueller's Obstruction of Justice)
The Russia collusion story was a turning point for this country. When Trump was elected in 2016, I had many concerns, one of which is that, over the years, he had been on every side of every issue (except trade). For instance, he'd criticized Justice Scalia for his position on affirmative action and Mitt Romney in 2012 for being too tough on illegal immigration. I had no idea what he would actually do in office but suspected he could be easily manipulated by the Democrats he'd spent so much time with for decades in New York. Go look at the 1996 Democratic Platform and, with the exception of trade, it reads like Trump's positions in 2016.
That's also apparently what was on mind of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who knew Trump well, in the immediate aftermath of the election. Schumer knew that with the right combination of flattery and friendliness Trump would move in his direction and, for those first couple of days, the senator spoke of Trump as someone he could work with.
Then came an abrupt change in direction and Schumer changed his tune. It was a combination of factors. Hillary Clinton decided to make alleged collusion of Trump with the Russians a permanent issue and a couple of her key staffers were able to raise millions of dollars to set up a permanent organization to undermine Trump's presidency. It helped that the Clinton campaign and its media accomplices managed to create an atmosphere of hysteria and panic about the incoming president among the most committed Democrats. I read and heard about the brownshirt marches and imminent fascist measures that were going to be implemented. And the intelligence community, now panicked that its efforts to defeat Trump would be uncovered in the wake of his unexpected victory, found a common interest with Democrats in destroying his presidency.
Instead of trying to manipulate Trump it was to be total war against him. It wasn't limited to the Russia collusion story; for the first time in American history the opposition party in the Senate obstructed and held up the confirmation of even routine, otherwise non-controversial political appointments, in order to hamper the new administration. But the collusion story was the beating heart of the opposition up until the release of the Mueller Report and Mueller's Congressional testimony in the summer of 2019. And it would have continued for even longer if William Barr had not become Attorney General and finally called a halt to the nonsense. The collusion investigation tied up Administration resources and understandably became a preoccupation of Trump, all the while generating a steady stream of what proved to be bogus stories to be reported by an all too willing media.
As a result, several things happened, none of them good for America.
First, we never got to see the alternative scenario where Schumer & Co schmoozed Trump, though we had one brief glimpse when Schumer and Pelosi charmed and flattered him into temporarily agreeing to an amnesty deal for 1.8 million illegals. Schumer understood the truth about Trump. He doesn't do policy, he does impulses. He also does deals, but doesn't care that much about the substance of the deals. His brand is as a great deal maker and what he most wanted to tell people when he was in business and when President, is that he got a great deal. The deal itself is the victory, Trump's personal trophy. What would that presidency have looked like? Instead, a gullible and conspiratorial minded guy had a real conspiracy created against him.
Second, in their monomaniacal pursuit of Trump, the Democrats, the media, and many of our other institutions ended up degrading and discrediting themselves. They disregarded the truth, exaggerated, and spread as much misinformation as Trump. They proved themselves no better than their opponent. Every poll shows the credibility of every major American institution has declined since 2016.
Third, Trump's opponents helped Putin accomplish his goals of weakening the United States. Hillary Clinton, the Intelligence Community, Adam Schiff, and the New York Times could not have helped Russia more if they'd been paid agents of the Kremlin.
Fourth, they empowered conspiracy theorists on the left and right. I'm allergic to conspiracy theories. If you had told me in 2016 or early 2017 the truth about what was actually going on with the Russia collusion story I would not have believed you. That a conspiracy so immense could really exist was not credible to me back then. But it happened. It was real and proved much worse than I thought even after my first few months of digging into the source documents.
I've also dug into the Stop the Steal accusations. They are nonsense, but I have a lot harder time persuading believers because they can point to the Russia collusion story and other excesses since 2016 and simply say, "these things DO happen". Let's face it, if you really believe Trump is another Hitler, wouldn't you be justified in doing anything you could to prevent his reelection, including rigging the vote? Wouldn't it be immoral not to? And that there has still be no institutional or personal responsibility and accountability for the Russia collusion conspiracy only reinforces the beliefs of the conspiracy minded.(1)
It's why I've spent so much time on this since 2017. We cannot come out of the dismal spiral the country is in until there is accountability for what happened, beginning with the Clinton campaign in 2016.
The Starting Point: HillaryLand
It
all started with Hillary Clinton's private email server on which she
conducted government business in violation of legal requirements. That
server, set up upon her becoming Secretary of State in early 2009,
evaded government requirements in order to make it more difficult for
anyone in the American public to obtain her communications under the
Freedom of Information Act. The downside was it increased the chances
that outside parties, such as Russia or China, could access her
communications. Clinton apparently felt her desire for privacy from her
fellow Americans was worth the risk of America's enemies accessing her
emails. Or perhaps, in determining priorities, she was confusing her
fellow citizen with her enemies. We need to start here because it was all the trouble the emails were causing Clinton in 2016 (along with the leak of internal Democratic Party emails) that led to her campaign deciding to construct a Russia collusion story around Donald Trump in order to distract the public from Hillary's problems.
One of Clinton's priorities on joining the Obama administration was to, in her words, "reset" the relationship with Russia. During the campaign and after, Obama and Clinton blamed the deterioration on U.S.-Russia relations (in 2008, Russia invaded U.S. ally Georgia) solely on George W Bush. For this reason, along with his hatred of John McCain, Putin openly backed Obama in the 2008 election.
Announced with great
fanfare, the reset was designed to open a new and cooperative era
between America and the Kremlin. Below, we see Clinton giving a "reset" button to Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov on March 5, 2009. Lavrov is still Foreign
Minister and a vocal supporter of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. The
first act in the reset was NATO's restoration of relations with Russia,
after they were suspended in the wake of the Georgia invasion the year
before.
Meanwhile, during her time as Secretary of State, the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars of contributions from Kremlin-connected oligarchs, and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 for a speech in Moscow. It was also during Obama's first administration that efforts to negotiate a nuclear compact with Iran began, and a improved relationship with Russia was seen as essential in accomplishing that role because of the Kremlin's good relations with the Mullahs.
As a result, the Kremlin, even more openly than in 2008, supported Obama in the 2012 election. Putin must have enjoyed Obama's mocking of Mitt Romney's claim that Russia was our #1 enemy, and then the President was caught on an open mic with Soviet President Medvedev, asking him to "tell Vladimir" he'd "have more flexibility after the election". This was a reference to the portion of the missile defense interceptor system to be based in Eastern Europe, a program announced by the Obama Administration in 2009. However, in 2013 after Obama's re-election, the administration announced it was cancelling the SM-3 Block IIB program, to the dismay of Poland and Romania where it was to be installed, and to the joy of the Russians as it was the part of the interceptor program most vociferously objected to by the Kremlin.
In early 2013, Clinton left the Obama administration to prepare for her 2016 presidential run. Once outside the administration, she displayed hostility to the Russian regime and Putin. Meanwhile, in pursuit of the Iran deal, the Obama administration acquiesced in the Russian intervention in Syria and settled for a perfunctory protest, and weak sanctions, in the wake of Putin's 2014 takeover of the Crimea.
Awareness of the irregularities in Clinton's handling of the emails was an offshot of the Congressional Benghazi investigation and by early 2015, the Clinton email server began to make news, with CNN reporting in March that she wasn't publicly registered as the owner of the domain and server used to operate her personal email, making it difficult to trace the account back to her. Accounts were registered in her aides' names, and she used a proxy company to shield her involvement.
A DOJ investigation began, along with others. On January 4, 2016, in a letter to congressional intelligence committees, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III wrote that emails on Clinton’s private server had been flagged for classified information, some of which was considered the highest “top secret” level of classification.
Meanwhile, in late 2014, the FBI learned from a "well-placed CHS [Confidential Human Source]" that a foreign government was planning to send a individual to contribute to Clinton campaign "as way to gain influence with Clinton". Application for a FISA warrant "lingered" because, according to agent, "everyone was super more careful" "scared with the big name" and "pretty tippy-toeing around HRC because there was a chance she would be the next President" (Durham Report, p.69)(2). The FISA was eventually approved, but on condition Clinton campaign get a defensive briefing. Later, a similar incident from another country was discovered (p.74), and most startingly of all, the CHS made illegal contributions to the Clinton campaign that were not documented by FBI handlers. (p.76).
The Durham Report drew a number of contrasts between how the FBI handled these situations versus its approach in 2016 towards Trump. Hillary's campaign was afforded a defensive briefing, in which it was made aware of the potential illegal contributions from a foreign government so it could be on the alert, while Trump's campaign was not given a defensive briefing. Further:
"The FBI's and the Department's measured approach to these foreign influence allegations involving Clinton also stands in stark contrast to the speed with which the FBI undertook to include the Steele Report allegations in the FISA request . . . targeting [Carter] Page". (p.73)
"Contrasted with the FBI's rapid opening of CH [Crossfire Hurricane, the Trump investigation], the FBI appears to have made no effort to investigate the possible illegal campaign contribution (which allegedly was a precursor to the contribution of a significant sum of money) . . . on behalf of Foreign Government-30, or the Clinton campaign's purported acceptance of a campaign contribution that was made by the FBI's own long-term CHS on behalf of . . . ultimately, Foreign Government-3" (p.77)
In January 2016, three different FBI field offices opened investigations into "possible criminal activity involving the Clinton Foundation". (p.78)
"The reporting, which in itself is not proof of wrongdoing, was a narrative describing multiple funds transfers, some of which involved international bank accounts that were suspected of possibly facilitating bribery or gratuity violations. The transactions involved occurred between 2012 and 2014, and totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars." (p.79)
On Feb 22, 2016 a meeting was chaired by Assistant Director McCabe to hear from field offices. "McCabe initially direct field offices to close their cases, but following objections, agreed to reconsider the final disposition of the cases". McCabe's approval would be needed before any further investigative steps taken and it was not granted. (p.79)
The FBI was beginning preparations to interview Hillary Clinton regarding the emails, prompting an email from FBI lawyer to Peter Strzok, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, who was leading the investigation into Clinton's emails, and later led the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Page and Strzok were having an affair, and she reminded him:
"One more thing: [Clinton] may be our next president. The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear. You think she's going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?"Meanwhile, on March 2, Bryan Pagliano, the former Clinton staffer who helped set up her private email server, agreed to provide an interview with investigators and accepted an offer of immunity from the FBI and Justice Department, a highly irregular procedure since he had made no proffer of what we would testify to.
It is at this point that Trump emerged as the front runner for the GOP nomination, his campaign took steps to set up a foreign policy advisory board, and the timeline of relevant events in both campaigns begin to merge which will be covered in the next installment in this series.
--------------------------------------------------------------
(1) One of the few examples of "accountability" only reinforced the conspiratorial minded. DOJ Inspector General reported that a junior DOJ lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, deliberately altered a communication from the CIA to the FBI, regarding whether Carter Page had been a voluntary informant for the CIA regarding Russia. The CIA notified Clinesmith that Carter Page had been approved by the CIA as an operational contact, but Clinesmith informed those putting together the FISA application on Page that the CIA said Page "was never a source". As a result, the FISA application omitted material information that may have impacted whether the warrant was approved. (p.185). Durham reports that a few days after the 2016 election, Clinesmith sent a email to a colleague proclaiming, "vive la Resistance". Despite the lawyer deliberately lying in a matter that resulted in the issuance of a surveillance warrant for those close to the newly elected President, Clinesmith was only sentenced to 12 months probation. The normal practice for the DC Bar Association is to automatically suspend convicted members. However, in this instance, the DC Bar only did so after a reporter asked questions of it a couple of months after the conviction. The DC Bar also requires those suspended to reapply for admission before they are reinstated. However, in the case of Clinesmith it did so automatically without asking him to reapply.
(2) In 2006 or 2007 I was in a meeting with the corporate communications team of the company I worked for. The team told us that the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) had requested our CEO appear at one of its events. We were informed that our CEO did not want to attend, but we needed to provide someone senior for the event because "you know, she might be president some day". The Clinton Foundation and CGI were always a "pay to play" scheme, with their viability to attract donor funds resting on Hillary's potential political future. Do you think companies were paying Hillary $250,000 per speech because of her brilliant insights?
No comments:
Post a Comment