The Trump transition lasted between November 9, 2016 and January 20, 2017 at which time the outgoing Obama administration, from its highest levels, plotted to overthrow the incoming President-elect. Jeff Carlson noted,
“ | For only the second time in our nation’s history a standing political party attempted to block the peaceful transition of power following an election. The first being President Lincoln's 1860 election – leading into Civil War on April 12, 1861.[1] | ” |
Lisa Page - CNN projecting FL for Trump.
Strzok - Damn
Lisa Page - And there it is.
Lisa Page - Analogous to the public editor article Bill [Priestap] handed out. n\nNews Media Yet Again Misreads America\u2019 Complex Pulse http://nyti.ms/2eCqXVM
Strzok - Too hard to explain here. Election related. Which is also godawful bad. n\nSure
Lisa Page - Are you even going to give out your calenders? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society.
Lisa Page - And Christ, we should just hit those thumb drives now. Their opinion is totally irrelevant.
Strzok - No. And yes.
Lisa Page - I'll mention to Andy [McCabe].
Strzok - Omg I am so depressed
Lisa Page - Yes, maybe. I need to see what [redact] wants to do first.
Susan Rice's interest in unmasking FISA surveillance transcripts accelerated.
Facebook CEO & founder Mark Zuckerberg called the Clinton campaign and the Deep State's theory that Russian fake news influenced the election "a pretty crazy idea."[2][3]
Leftist dupe Michael Moore attended a Russian organized BlackMattersUS march on Trump Tower.[4]
On November 17 Strzok texted Lisa Page "Sessions for AG," along with a profanity. Page replied, "Good god." Congress renewed calls for perjury charges against DNI boss James Clapper.[5]
By November 22 Hillary's "computer scientists" were urging a recount.[6]
On December 4 New Zealand's Prime Minister resigned after caught paying $13.7 million in taxpayer money to the Clinton Foundation to buy access.[7]
On December 19 the Electoral College met in 50 state capitals and certified Donald Trump as the new president.
The information the FBI collected, and the material Christopher Steele and FusionGPS manufactured, were used to create the fake news Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, and to manipulate the FISA court into granting a FISA warrant - what Peter Strzok called “the insurance policy” against Trump's election. When James Comey reopened the Clinton investigation ten days before the election in October 2016, and Hillary's lead in the polls started to drop, the "insurance policy" became operational: leaks alleging collusion between Trump and Russia became rampant.[8]
James Comey asked for a private meeting in January to brief Trump on Hillary Clinton's fictionalized opposition research. Comey only briefed Trump on the sexual allegations and presented it as a supposed US intelligence product. Comey did not utter a word about Carter Page, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen targeted as "agents of a foreign power" under the FISA Act.
According to Comey, he acted on the instructions of John Brennan and James Clapper.[10] Clapper dutifully leaked the fact that Trump had been briefed on allegations that he consorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013 to Jake Tapper of CNN.[11] CNN reported the made-up news from the supposed "intelligence report" and linked to its full contents on BuzzFeed, claiming it was some sort of official document in the hands of the US intelligence community that the Obama administration was acting on.
November 17 NSA Director Mike Rogers made a trip to Trump Tower to meet with President-elect Trump without notifying Clapper or the White House first.[12] Rogers warned Trump of the Obama administration's illegal spying on Trump and the transition team. Trump immediately moved his transition headquarters to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey the same day. Interviews to fill the most sensitive positions in Defense, State, CIA, and ODNI we're ongoing.[13]
Two days later the Washington Post reported DNI James Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recommended to the White House that Dir. Rogers be fired. Rogers meeting with Trump "caused consternation at senior levels of the administration, according to officials."[14]
Trump-Russia and Clinton email investigator Kevin Clinesmith messaged several FBI employees, “I am numb.” He added, “I am so stressed about what I could have done differently.” Clinesmith messaged another FBI employee that he was “just devastated” over Trump’s victory and launched into a rant: “I just can’t imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years. ACA is gone. Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls, and crap is true. I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally. This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also Pence is stupid." The active Russiagate investigator added weeks later, “Viva le resistance."
Sometime around Thanksgiving, Glenn Simpson of FusionGPS met with Assistant Attn. Gen. Bruce Ohr. Ohr and Simpson discussed the Clinton campaign's Steele dossier, the Russia meddling investigation, and what Simpson considered the distressing development of Trump's victory. Ohr's wife, Nellie Ohr, a former employee of the CIA, worked for FusionGPS also.[17]
After hearing from Rogers and Flynn, Trump took to Twitter and harshly criticized Brennan's CIA. The IC responded. By "walking back" negative statements and "going along" with congressional investigations on Russian meddling, Trump could gain cooperation of career civil service employees who wanted re-appointments. With Trump's promise to drain the swamp, Brennan and Clapper's intelligence community were "going to war" if Trump refused to "walk back" his comments. Trump was subtlety reminded the IC has the power to make or break a candidate, like Hillary Clinton in #EmailGate.
With the creation of ISIS, the Obama White House and intelligence community had much to hide.[18] The Benghazi massacre derailed their plans to present Hillary as a world statesman for the 2016 elections; rather than a quick overthrow of Assad, their plans led to expanding Russian troops beyond Russian borders into Syria in a continuing war of attrition. Unlike the 2012 election,[19] Russia suddenly became the bogeyman because of their own failures. Anyone involved fomenting the atrocity which became the Syrian war, the crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, felt vulnerable. Former Obama DIA chief Mike Flynn, who was fired for opposing Obama's alliance with Islamists and jihadis to overthrow Mubarak, Gaddafi, and Assad,[20] knew the intimate details and now had Trump's ear.
On December 10 IC goon John Schindler issued a series of threats and ultimatums. Schindler used the old stand-by, "the Kremlin is behind Wikileaks," to blame everything embarrassing on.[21]
ATTN @realDonaldTrump: going to war with the IC is a truly colossally stupid thing to do, per this tweetstorm https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/10/politics/donald-trump-response-russian-hacking/ … /1 5:47 AM - 10 Dec 2016The animosity and hatred felt toward Flynn was further compounded by the fact that Flynn volunteered as a witness in support of a sex discrimination lawsuit brought two years earlier by Counterterrorism Specialist Robyn Gritz against the FBI leadership and Andrew McCabe, who was advancing rapidly through the FBI ranks.[24]
I've been telling you for years—esp last few months—that the Kremlin is behind Wikileaks. Now the IC is saying so openly. Big deal. /2 5:48 AM - 10 Dec 2016
IC has hard proof at [Top Secret]+ level that Moscow used Wikileaks to hurt Hillary and help Trump in 2016. These are facts that will not go away. /3 5:49 AM - 10 Dec 2016
The investigation demanded by Congress will reveal what we already know—that Putin wanted US political chaos & if possible a Trump win /4 5:50 AM - 10 Dec 2016
Team Trump now has to decide to go along with the investigation of Russian interferences or fight it; seems they have chosen the latter. /5 5:50 AM - 10 Dec 2016
Publicly attacking the IC as Trump has just done will end very badly for Don. Remember what happened when Hillary attacked the spooks? /5 5:51 AM - 10 Dec 2016
Have you really forgotten about #EmailGate already, @realDonaldTrump? Mocking the IC in public will result in big things you won't like. /6 5:52 AM - 10 Dec 2016
The IC dislikes you intensely and they hate Flynn. The spooks have much more on you than they had on Hillary. This is a #YUGE mistake. /7 5:53 AM - 10 Dec 2016,
Only way Trump can make the issue of Russian interference worse is by impugning American intelligence. Which Don just did. Get popcorn /8 5:54 AM - 10 Dec 2016
IC knows the full picture of what happened this year. They're not happy with you, @realDonaldTrump. You have the weekend to walk it back. /9 5:55 AM - 10 Dec 2016
If Don won't walk back his foolish attack on the IC, watch for leaked terms like KGB, FSB, SVR, kompromat, Mogilevich, Organizatsiya... /10 6:00 AM - 10 Dec 2016
As of December 5, 2016, the Obama administration said nothing about an attempt by Moscow to influence the election in favor of Trump. However, four days later on December 9, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Greg Miller of the Washington Post reported that Brennan's CIA concluded a new assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump. Obama ordered a full presentation in 30 days.
In reviewing various leaks before and after the November 8, 2016 election, a trend becomes evident: prior to the election, leaks of classified information focused on Russia's attempts to sow discord with the U.S. presidential election. Leaks after the election focused on an alleged desire of Russia for Trump to win, rather than for the sole purpose of undermining confidence in the U.S. electoral system.[25] Leftist media hysterically reported that Russians stole the election by hacking voting machines, and Putin stuffed the ballot box for Donald Trump.[26]
On December 5 Obama ordered Brennan to prepare a report on Russian meddling.[27] Meanwhile, Brennan's liaison with the FBI, Peter Strzok, delivered a false and misleading briefing to House Intelligence Committee investigators into the origins of the Steele dossier. House investigators later were contacted by an informant suggesting that there was “documentary evidence” that Strzok was obstructing the House probe into the Steele dossier.[28]
On December 15 DNI Clapper signed off on a directive for new rules of circulating raw wiretapping evidence; Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch signed off just after News Yesrs. The new rules permitted the dissemination of “raw signals intelligence information" - the identity of American citizens "incidentally collected" in surveillance operations - throughout the government.[29] "In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections," the New York Times reports on 12 January.[30] This constituted Obama amending Executive Order 12333.[31] The expansion of the order made it more difficult to narrow in on leaks.
On January 4 Brennan completed the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), both classified and public versions. Congressional investigators later found portions of Brennan's ICA "did not employ proper analytic tradecraft" and "deviated from established CIA practice."[32] Brennan attached two pages of sexual innuendo from the Clinton-Steele dossier to the assessment.[33] The assessment itself contained this crucial admission: ‘Judgments are not intended to imply that we have proof that shows something to be a fact. Assessments are based on collected information, which is often incomplete or fragmentary, as well as logic, argumentation and precedents.’[34]
Disgraced FBI Director James Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the DNC refused multiple requests to examine their servers after alleged hacking.[35] As of 2018, the FBI never examined the servers to determine if it ead hacked or an inside job. The DNC denies the FBI ever made a request.[36] Trump tweeted, "The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia.”[37] And a follow up tweet, "So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?”[38]
Comey additionally lied to Congress in a classified setting about the true origins of the Steele dossier.[39]
John Brennan attached Hillary Clinton's opposition research dossier to the official Presidential daily intelligence briefing (PDB) for Obama. Obama ordered two pages of the summary to be shared with Trump. The special classified briefing was then leaked to the Washington media, allowing them to use the presidential briefing to justify publication of unsubstantiated claims which by journalistic standards prevented them from using up to that point.
When Jake Tapper of CNN broke the story of the dossier's sensational allegations co-written by Evan Perez - a friend and former colleague of FusionGPS principal Glenn Simpson, it cleared the way for BuzzFeed to publish the entire dossier, and signaled that the intelligence community was implementing the "insurance policy". This completed a circular echo chamber, binding the intelligence community - chartered to steal and keep secrets, to the media - embodying the right to free speech.
Russiagate was no longer part of Hillary Clinton's political campaign directed at Trump, it was now a disinformation operation aimed at the American public, as the pre-election media coverage resonated more fully with the Steele dossier in the open. The mainstream media now implied all the innuendo published about Trump and Putin was really true—there's a document proving it. What the press corps neglected to add was that they’d been reporting the same Clinton talking points and innuendo from the same opposition research since before the election, and were now parroting the same unsubstantiated “evidence” to prove it was true.
On Tuesday January 10, 2017, CNN stated President-elect Trump was briefed on the Clinton-Steele dossier. An hour later Buzzfeed published the dossier. The next day, Wednesday January 11, Trump said he was not briefed on the dossier. NBC confirmed Trump wasn't briefed. Fox News confirmed Trump wasn't briefed. Later that night Wednesday January 11, DNI James Clapper issued a press statement noting that he had only just now briefed President-elect Trump on the dossier moments before. Clapper's press release stated, “The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable," yet Clapper's intelligence community used the same dossier, with no other evidence, to obtain a FISA warrant for surveillance on the Trump campaign three months earlier. The fact the "evidence" originated as a political smear campaign from the Clinton campaign and Democratic party was never told to the FISA court.
On November 17 Obama instructed the UN ambassador to vote against a Russian sponsored resolution "Combating glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."[41]
Within a few weeks the Global Magnitsky Act[42] and the Inspector General Empowerment Act were passed. The OIG now had access once again to all information the Obama administration had been refusing to Inspectors General which created the FISA abuse scandal.[43]
On December 22 right after an anti-Istaeli resolution was proposed at the UN by the US, a “very senior member” of Trump's transition team — who has been identified as Jared Kushner directed Michael Flynn to contact officials of the various foreign governments on the UN Security Council to inform them Trump opposed an Obama orchestrated resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity. Russian Amb. Sergei Kislyak informed Flynn that Russia would not vote against the Obama administration's resolution condemning Israel despite Trump's opposition to it.[44]
On December 23 Obama signed an executive order with a new round of sanctions against Russia. Flynn sought guidance from K.T. McFarland about what to tell Kislyak. Flynn and McFarland discussed how the sanctions might affect Trump foreign-policy goals. McFarland told Flynn that the transition team did not want Russia to escalate the situation — meaning, not to respond aggressively to Obama's move.
Flynn called Kislyak, asking that Russia not escalate — that it restrict itself to a measured, reciprocal response.
The following day Obama announced the new sanctions as retribution for alleged hacking activities. From this date until Trump's inauguration January 20, the White House aggressively pumped into the media two streams of information: one about Russian hacking; the other about about alleged collusion with Trump. The two streams were merged into one by mainstream media reporters.[45] The mainstream fake news rose to an hysterical pitch over "Russian vote hacking."[46]
The Washington Post falsely reported on a Russian effort to penetrate the electrical grid by hacking into a Vermont utility. The story offers a senior administration official speculating on Russian motives. The infrastructure hack is reported to be part of a broader hacking campaign that includes election hacking. The story then moves to Trump: “He…has spoken highly of Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite President Obama’s suggestion that the approval for hacking came from the highest levels of the Kremlin.”[47] The story is repeated by news organizations throughout America. Only later the false claims about the power grid were retracted, but the speculation and slanders about Trump and innuendo of Russian collusion and "vote hacking" never were retracted.[48]
By the end of the month CrowdStrike's claim of Russian hackingthe DNC, reiterated by the Obama White House, was debunked.[49] And Perkins Coie, the surrogate law firm acting on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to write the Steele dossier, made a payment of $58,669 to FusionGPS. Payments total $1,024,408 since May. Donna Brazile later revealed the Clinton campaign was in control of the DNC budget since mid 2015.
Susan Rice sent a CYA email to herself about a secret Oval Office meeting where the Clinton-Steele dossier is discussed;[50][51][52] (the email was written and sent to herself 15 minutes after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20):[53]
"On January 5, following a briefing by IC leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 Presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present. President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities "by the book". The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book. From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia. [Redacted section] The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would."[54] |
The following day DNI James Clapper released a public version of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA, also referred to as the Joint Analysis Report), a joint Brennan, Clapper and Comey document consisting of recycled reports on RT with two pages of sexual innuendo from the Clinton-Steele dossier. NSA Dir. Adm. Mike Rogers dissented from the conclusions and did not attend the day prior meeting in the Oval Office.[56] WaPo was assured by Obama intelligence bosses that "the sources involved in the [Clinton-Steele dossier's] reporting were credible enough to warrant inclusion in the highly classified [presidential] report.”[57] Brennan however, in public testimony months later, said the dossier and its sources were not credible enough to incorporate in the Joint Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference publicly leaked by the administration. Brennan swore the Clinton-Steele dossier did not “in any way” factor into the CIA's assessment that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump. Congressional investigators suggest a classified version of the Intelligence Community Assessment contradicts Brennan's sworn testimony.
Clapper briefed CNN on the Clinton-Steele dossier before Comey briefed President-elect Trump.
I think it’s pretty sad when intelligence reports get leaked out to the press. First of all, it’s illegal. These are classified and certified meetings and reports. I’ll tell you what does happen. I have many meetings with intelligence. And every time I meet, people are reading about it. Somebody is leaking it out.
So I said, “Maybe it’s my office. Maybe my office.” Because I’ve got a lot of people … Maybe it’s them.
What I did, is I said I won’t tell anybody. I’m going to have a meeting, and I won’t tell anybody about my meeting with intelligence.
I had my meeting. Nobody knew – not even Rhona, my executive assistant for years. She didn’t know – I didn’t tell her. Nobody knew.
The meeting was had. They left, and immediately the word got out that I had a meeting. So, I don’t want that. It’s very unfair to the country. It’s very unfair to our country what’s happening. That report should never have been…that should never ever happen.[58]
When CNN and BuzzFeed publicized the Steele dossier, Trump confronted Clapper. Clapper lied to the President-elect by phone and the American people in a press release about the leak.
In later testimony Comey said he thought it inappropriate to speak alone with Trump, nonetheless on the morning he requested to speak privately with Trump, his chief of staff Jim Rybicki sent to an email to unspecified recipients about a "sensitive matter" team: "the director is coming into HQ briefly for an update from the sensitive matter team."[59]
The following day of the Oval Office meeting with Obama, where what was to be shared with Trump was discussed, Brennan, Clapper, and Comey travelled from Washington to Trump Tower for a briefing with President-elect Trump on the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) of Russian election interference. Trump told no one of the impending intelligence briefing. Included were two pages of the salacious material from the Steele dossier. At the end of the meeting Comey asked for a one-on-one briefing with Trump.
Comey only spoke of the salacious allegations with no mention it had been manufactured by the Clinton campaign. Comey did not inform Trump of the FBI's surveillance of Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen based on the same Hillary Clinton opposition research. Comey represented the information as supposed "intelligence". According to Comey, he acted on the instructions of Brennan and Clapper.[60][61][62] In his June 2017 Congressional testimony Comey swore the dossier was "salacious and unverifed," yet the FBI/DOJ used it to obtain FISA warrants on the Trump campaign three months earlier.
Comey's memo notes,I said there was something that Clapper wanted me to speak to the PE [President-Elect] about alone or in a very small group.The media had widely dismissed the Steele dossier as unsubstantiated and unreportable. Clapper's second leak to CNN - after Comey reported mission accomplished to Clapper - created the news hook CNN was looking for.[63] McCabe sent an email to Comey, Rybicki, press officer Mike Kortan and David Bowdich with the subject line "Flood is coming". A flood of reporter's questions. McCabe wrote "CNN is close to going forward with the sensitive story...the trigger for them [CNN] is they know the material was discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment." Forty-five minutes later McCabe gave a heads up to Sally Yates and PADAG Matthew Axelrod of the impending leaks with the subject line "News." McCabe wrote, "Just an FYI, and as expected, CNN is close to running a story about the sensitive reporting."
I then executed the session exactly as I had planned. I told him [President Trump] that I wanted to meet with him to tell him more about what is in the reports written by [redacted – likely Steele]. I said that the written reports themselves were [redacted] and the content known at IC senior level and that I didn’t want him to get caught cold by some of the detail.
I said I wasn’t saying this was true, only that I wanted him to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands. I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook. I said it was important that we not give them the excuse to write that the FBI has the material or [REDACTED] and that we were keeping it very close-hold. [bolden added]
An hour after Clapper's leak, CNN linked to BuzzFeed making the Clinton-Steele dossier public.[64] The Clinton opposition research is presented to the public as some sort of official "intelligence report" with mysterious origins that the Obama administration was acting on.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, who with the DNC paid FusionGPS $1,024,408 for the Clinton-Steele dossier, secretly meet with FusionGPS boss Glenn Simpson the same day.[65]
On January 11 Trump responded to Obama IC bosses smears on Twitter: "I win an election easily, a great "movement" is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state! ... Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”[66] Trump stated that he was not briefed on the full contents the Clinton-Steele dossier or its origins. NBC News independently verified Trump's account,[67] as did FOX News.[68]
Later that day DNI Clapper issued a press release stating that he only now, not days earlier on January 6, discussed the Clinton-Steele dossier with Trump.[69]
The Clinton-Steele dossier ignited a firestorm with denials on both sides - Trump on its veracity and Obama operatives on its origins. Trump attorney Michael Cohen denied that he had ever been to Prague as Christopher Steele had alleged, which cast doubt on the documents veracity. Jake Tapper reported that government sources confirmed it was the wrong "Michael Cohen" in Prague,[70] and provided evidence that Steele had received raw FISA 702 "About queries" from the FBI that captured the wrong "Michael Cohen" to write his dossier.
The first 90-day renewal of the FISA warrant alleging the soon-to-be inaugurated Trump administration was an agent of a foreign power occurred on January 12; former NSA official John Schindler tweeted, "When @IgnatiusPost speaks, Langley's 7th floor lips are moving. They are taking traitor Trump out now."[71] Langley's 7th floor is John Brennan's office.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post published a felonious leak with the unmasked details of Michael Flynn's phone call with the Russian Ambassador which was obtained by the Obama DOJ abuse of the FISA court. "What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions?" Ignatius asked. "The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about 'disputes' with the United States."[72] Susan Rice “unmasked” Flynn's name and it was leaked to Ignatius.[73] The leaking of the unmasked identity of a US citizen's name gathered in a foreign intelligence operation is a criminal and civil rights violation.[74]
On January 15 famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward criticized Jake Tapper, James Clapper, John Brennan and CNN for false statements and politicization of the intelligence community. Four political operatives at CNN Jake Tapper, Jim Sciutto, Evan Perez and Woodward's former colegue Carl Bernstein, colluded with two highly politicized top level Obama administration intelligence officials, ODNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan, under the auspices of leaks from “anonymous senior intelligence officials” – on the construct of Russian narrative to undermine the incoming presidency of Donald Trump."[75]
At the same time Comey was personally scrutinizing the president during meetings in the White House and phone conversations from the FBI, he had an agent inside the White House working on the Russia investigation, where he reported back to FBI headquarters about Trump and his aides.[76] Comey carved out an extraordinary new position for the agent, Anthony Ferrante,[77] who specialized in cyber crime, which allowed him to remain on reserve status at the FBI while working in the White House as a cybersecurity adviser. Ferrante left the White House around the same time Comey was fired and joined a security consulting firm, where he contracted with BuzzFeed to lead the news site’s efforts to verify the Steele dossier, in connection with a defamation lawsuit.[78]
Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller identified FusionGPS, Christopher Steele's employer, and Glenn Simpson its founder as the same group that illegally lobbied on behalf of the Kremlin in July 2016 for efforts to repeal Russian sanctions - the Magnitsky Act, to remove the name “Magnitsky” from the Global Magnitsky Act, delay the bills passage, and to cast doubt on the Justice Department's version of events prior to the passage of the Magnitsky Act.[79] The defrauded complaintant referred to Simpson, who was hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC, as "a professional smear campaigner.” “Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences.”[80] Ross stated that part of Simpson's work involved passing stories to his deep network of journalism contacts in order to undermine Russian sanctions.
The first "insurance policy" was the Carter Page FISA warrant to cover up Obama administration's illegal spying and activities during the 2020 presidential election. Extending the FISA warrant beyond President Obama's term of office into President Trump's term of office also gave power to disrupt the new administration's agenda, and control the president's personnel appointments. That dealt with President Trump's first term. A second insurance policy, however, was implemented to ensure against Trump's re-election.
On January 9, 2017, eleven days before Obama left office, the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy lifted a ban on funding gain-of-function research and weaponization of the bat coronavirus.[81] The research could make the bat coronavirus transmissible to humans.[82] A research grant was eventually delivered to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the Peoples Republic of China by Dr. Anthony Fauci,[83] the United States top medical advisor.
Two days after lifting the ban on this highly dangerous and unethical research,[84] Anthony Fauci made a presentation at Georgetown University stating that there is “no doubt” Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency.[85] Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain was at his side, and also made a presentation: "It’s hard to think of a more important time to show a willingness to speak out in the public health community and the global health community than it is right now on the eve of Donald Trump becoming our next president. The risks have never been higher, and the question of his perspective on these issues has never been more dubious than it is with Donald Trump.” [86]
Three days later a mandatory transition briefing took place behind closed doors. The subject was a hypothetical pandemic. Politico reported,
"in the words of several attendees, the atmosphere was “weird” at best, chilly at worst....top officials from both sides — whether they wanted to be there or not — were forced to confront a whole-of-government response to a crisis. The Trump team was told it could face specific challenges, such as shortages of ventilators, anti-viral drugs and other medical essentials, and that having a coordinated, unified national response was “paramount” — warnings that seem eerily prescient given the ongoing coronavirus crisis.[87] |
Simultaneously Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz began a review of the Hillary Clinton email scandal and Andrew McCabe's conflict of interest.[88][89] McCabe, who assisted in writing the bogus Benghazi talking points for Susan Rice, is married to a candidate for the Virginia state Senate who took $700,000 from Terry McAuliffe's PAC during the ongoing Clinton email investigation. McAuliffe himself was under FBI investigation by McCabe's office at the time for pay-to-play schemes involving a Chinese businessman and donations to Clinton, yet the investigations were never merged.[90] McAuliffe ran Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign which was marred by a foreign influence peddling scheme known as Chinagate. McAuliffe was Hillary's 2008 campaign manager.
The Inspector General looked into the Obama FBI's misconduct, and allegations that DOJ “policies or procedures were not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to” Comey's announcement that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would not be charged in her use of a private email server while secretary of state. The investigation uncovered the conspiratorial Strzok-Lisa Page text messages.[91]
Former Clinton era DOJ Inspector General Michael Bromwich welcomed Inspector General Horowitz's investigation of Andrew McCabe and the DOJ. Bromwich later was hired to defend McCabe. Bromwich writes in a WaPo op-ed:The announcement by the Justice Department’s inspector general that his office will look into FBI Director James B. Comey’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails reopens painful questions about the 2016 election, but it is also welcome news. The country needs this — an objective, independent and thorough investigation of issues that have roiled the country for months and continue to stir heated debate.
The investigation will address allegations that Comey violated established Justice Department and FBI policies and procedures in his July 5, 2016, public announcement concerning the Hillary Clinton email investigation. And it will explore allegations that Comey’s Oct. 28 and Nov. 6 letters to Congress, which jolted the presidential election — and may have changed its outcome — were improper. The impact of Comey’s actions can never be definitively known. But it is important, for the Justice Department and for the country, to obtain a detailed accounting of what happened and why; to assign blame where it is warranted; and to understand how similar situations can be prevented.
In addition to looking into the actions of the FBI director regarding the email investigation, the probe will look into whether the FBI’s deputy director [McCabe] should have recused himself from the investigation because of his wife’s political involvement; whether a high-ranking Justice Department official or others improperly disclosed non-public information to both the Clinton and Trump campaigns; and whether the timing of the FBI’s election eve Freedom of Information Act disclosures relating to Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of Marc Rich was based on inappropriate considerations.[92]
Obama removed Dana Boente from succession as acting Attorney General by Executive Order the same day, placing Sally Yates in his stead.[93]
On the eve of inauguration the New York Times carried a frontpage headline, Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides. The article stated "investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.[94] The headline has been changed for its online version.[95] WaPo reported Obama's top intelligence and law-enforcement deputies met to talk about Mike Flynn's conversation with Amb. Sergei Kislyak.[96] Trump was sworn in the next day.
Categories: [United States Political Scandals] [Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax] [Obama Administration] [Barack Hussein Obama] [Obama Presidency] [2010s]