- None other than Sara Carter, intense, respected, informed investigative journalist “on the case” is at least as suspicious, distrustful
- We still have a glimmer of hope and would love to be proved wrong about our doubts
- Excellent source for the latest on this matter, be sure to bookmark her site as we have
Russia Hoax: Are We All Being Played? Put Up or Shut Up.
By Sara Carter — bold our emphasis
Many people have asked me why I haven’t written a book since the start of my reporting on the FBI’s debunked investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia.
I haven’t done so because I don’t believe the most important part of the story has been told: indictments and accountability. I also don’t believe we actually know what really happened on a fundamental level and how dangerous it is to our democratic republic. That will require a deeper investigation that answers the fundamental questions of the role played by former senior Obama officials, including the former President and his aides.
We’re getting closer but we’re still not there.
Still, the extent of what happened during the last presidential election is much clearer now than it was years ago when trickles of evidence led to years of what Fox News host Sean Hannity and I would say was peeling back the layers of an onion. We now know that the U.S. intelligence and federal law enforcement was weaponized against President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and administration by a political opponent. We now know how many officials involved in the false investigation into the president trampled the Constitution.
I never realized how terrible the deterioration inside the system had become until four years ago when I stumbled onto what was happening inside the FBI. Those concerns were brought to my attention by former and current FBI agents, as well as numerous U.S. intelligence officials aware of the failures inside their own agencies. But it never occurred to me when I first started looking into fired FBI Director James Comey and his former side kick Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that the cultural corruption of these once trusted American institutions was so vast.
I’ve watched as Washington D.C. elites make promises to get to the bottom of it and bring people to justice. They appear to make promises to the American people they never intended to keep. Who will be held accountable for one of the most egregious abuses of power by bureaucrats in modern American political history? Now I fear those who perpetuated this culture of corruption won’t ever really be held accountable.
These elite bureaucrats will, however, throw the American people a bone. It’s how they operate. They expect us to accept it and then move on.
One example is the most recent decision by the Justice Department to ask that charges be dropped on former national security advisor Michael Flynn. It’s just a bone because we know now these charges should have never been brought against the three-star general but will anyone on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team have to answer for ruining a man’s life. No, they won’t. In fact, Flynn is still fighting for his freedom.
Think about what has already happened? From former Attorney General Jeff Session’s appointment of Utah Prosecutor John Huber to the current decision by Attorney General William Barr to appoint Connecticut prosecutor John Durham to investigate the malfeasance what has been done? Really, nothing at all. No one has been indicted.
The investigation by the FBI against Trump was never predicated on any real evidence but instead, it was a set-up to usurp the American voters will. It doesn’t matter that the establishment didn’t like Trump, in 2016 the Americans did. Isn’t that a big enough reason to bring charges against those involved?
His election was an anomaly for the Washington elite. They were stunned when Trump won and went into full gear to save their own asses from discovery and target anyone who supported him. The truth is they couldn’t stand the Trump and American disruptors who elected him to office.
Now they will work hand in fist to ensure that this November election is not a repeat win of 2016. We’re already seeing that play out everyday on the news.
But Barr and Durham are now up against a behemoth political machine that seems to be operating more like a steam roller the closer we get to the November presidential elections. Barr told Fox News in June that he expects Durham’s report to come before the end of summer but like always, it’s August and we’re still waiting.
Little is known about the progress of Durham’s investigation but it’s curious as to why nothing has been done as of yet and the Democrats are sure to raise significant questions or concerns if action is taken before the election. They will charge that Durham’s investigation is politically motivated. That is, unless the charges are just brought against subordinates and not senior officials from the former administration.
I sound cynical because I am right now. It doesn’t mean I won’t trying to get to the truth or fighting for justice.
But how can you explain the failure of Durham and Barr to actually interview key players such as Comey, or former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, or former CIA Director John Brennan. That is what we’re hearing from them.
If I am going to believe my sources, Durham has interviewed former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, along with FBI Special agent Joe Pientka, among some others. Still, nothing has really been done or maybe once again they will throw us bone.
If there are charges to be brought they will come in the form of taking down the subordinates, like Strzok, Pientka and the former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who altered the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application against short term 2016 campaign advisor Carter Page.
Remember DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report in December, 2019: It showed that a critical piece of evidence used to obtain a warrant to spy on Page in 2016 was falsified by Clinesmith.
But Clinesmith didn’t act alone. He would have had to have been ordered to do such a egregious act and that could only come from the top. Let’s see if Durham ever hold those Obama government officials accountable.
I don’t believe he will.
Why? Mainly because of how those senior former Obama officials have behaved since the troves of information have been discovered. They have written books, like Comey, McCabe, Brennan and others, who have published Opinion Editorials and have taken lucrative jobs at cable news channels as experts.
It’s frankly disgusting and should anger every American. We would never get away with what these former Obama officials have done. More disturbing is that the power they wield through their contacts in the media and their political connections allows these political ‘oligarchs’ unchallenged power like never before.
Here’s one of the latest examples. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s top prosecutor Andrew Weissmann just went after Barr in a New York Times editorial on Wednesday. He went so far as to ask the Justice Department employees to ignore any direction by Barr or Durham in the Russia investigations.
I think Barr and Durham need to move fast if they are ever going to do anything and if they are going to prove me wrong. We know now that laws were broken and our Constitution was torched by these rogue government officials.
We shouldn’t give the swamp the time-of-day to accuse the Trump administration of playing politics or interfering with this election. If the DOJ has evidence and is ready to indict they need to do it now.
If our Justice Department officials haven’t done their job to expose the corruption, clean out our institutions and hold people accountable then it will be a tragedy for our nation and the American people. I’m frankly tired of the back and forth. I’m tired of being toyed with and lied to. I believe they should either put up or shut up.
From Weissmann’s New York Times Opinion Editorial
Today, Wednesday, marks 90 days before the presidential election, a date in the calendar that is supposed to be of special note to the Justice Department. That’s because of two department guidelines, one a written policy that no action be influenced in any way by politics. Another, unwritten norm urges officials to defer publicly charging or taking any other overt investigative steps or disclosures that could affect a coming election.
Attorney General William Barr appears poised to trample on both. At least two developing investigations could be fodder for pre-election political machinations. The first is an apparently sprawling investigation by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, that began as an examination of the origins of the F.B.I. investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The other, led by John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, is about the so-called unmasking of Trump associates by Obama administration officials. Mr. Barr personally unleashed both investigations and handpicked the attorneys to run them.
But Justice Department employees, in meeting their ethical and legal obligations, should be well advised not to participate in any such effort
For the past two days you guys have bemoaned nothing is happening and you have managed to miss an ongoing investigative operation that is outlined in this linked twitter thread. https://twitter.com/drawandstrike/status/1291802483682168834. Copy and post and go thru the entire thread. Then quit whining and hold on to your hats.
It is not just us but also Sara Carter who has been investigating the matter, has reliable sources and has broken related stories. September is probably too late for “political justice.” It is not about whether indictments will be determinative of the election ( Trump has so much to recommend him and the Dems are overreaching) but indictments of significant personages will help. That is political justice in that the culprits did it to subvert our political system. We remain skeptical of the true independence of Durham because we have been disappointed by so mauch hype and testimonies regarding the merits of others, from Sessions to Supreme Court Justices to congressional leaders (Lee, Harold Watson Gowdy III, Graham and more). This is far beyond examples of Durham’s vaunted prosecutorial independence, there has been nothing like it for anyone ever. He should not see himself as a weigher of “social impact” as to his prosecutorial decisions (quotes from speech he gave) — judging what the people can handle or how disruptive his revelations prosecutions will be. If someone broke the law in this situation it is incumbent on the people to be the jury as regards the political punishment as this is largely a politically motivated crime. Now if he means to weigh the necessity to protect our system of government from these crimes and point to the ring leaders then we will sing his praises if he does not pull his punches to protect a certain level of the establishment as Carter fears.
Mr.Pries,
We’re with you, and your Twitter friend, Mr. Cates, and we hope that, indeed there’s a “readiness to pounce”. Further, we hope that there is not just a readiness to, but that there’s some “pouncing” actually occurring…SOON!
Unfortunately, “ready” is not the same as “doing”… or “pouncing”.
Cates cites all the possible things… “A WHOLE LOT OF THE DC SWAMP would be frantic to keep from being exposed”. Little, if anything, we are not aware of. In fact there is that which he cites, and much more probably, with real evidence having been uncovered and even publicly reported.
It’s not “whining”, Mr. Pries , to note that Barr and Durham can have a mountain of ‘stuff’ the “Swamp” doesn’t want exposed, all with solid evidence to back it up, but, if the necessary action to hold wrongdoers accountable isn’t taken …soon!… it may not be taken at all.
We are not the only people “bemoaning”. As Roger has noted, Sara Carter, an excellent reporter and one who has made known to the public much of the evidence so far uncovered, has concerns similar to ours. And there are others, close to the investigation, who have such concerns.
Lindsey Graham, just this week, revealed that “newly declassified FBI documents from 2018 show that the bureau lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee about Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier.”
The closer to the election we get, however, the more likely the Democrats, the Swamp, and the media are going to intensify their efforts to discredit and downplay the significance of whatever action Barr, and his DOJ takes…all to the advantage of the Democratic Party, their pathetic ticket, and, especially, to the Biden candidacy.
To wait until “after the election”, so as not to be accused of being “political”, will possibly leave Mr. Cates, John Durham, and Bill Barr “all ready”, but unable, “to pounce”!
You may choose to “hold your hat’, but we intend to keep doing our part to encourage real and decisive action soon! With the same ultimate objective as yours. dlh