Trump responds to Columbia Journalism Review of Steele Dossier

“Donald Trump slammed the media for its failings over the notorious Steele Dossier following an 18-month investigation by the Columbia Journalism Review, claiming it also led to his 2020 presidential loss.

The report, published Monday, details shortcomings in the media's coverage about Christopher Steel's dossier linking Trump's 2016 campaign to Russia.

Taking to Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said the report highlighted the failings of the mainstream media and that it 'had a huge impact on the 2020 presidential election, just one of the many ways that the elections was rigged and stolen.'

The former president added: 'This proves, once again, that the corrupt, woke, radical Democrats stole the 2020 Election, making it impossible for that fact to be called "The Big Lie," as the Marxists and Communists in our country attempt to portray it.' …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/11704413

https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/...rigger-russia-probe/

Charles “Charlie” McGonigal , 54, was among the first FBI officials to learn that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that Russia had “political dirt” on Clinton.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jonathan Moffa told Senate Judiciary Committee staffers in 2020 that he got a July 2016 email from McGonigal which “contained essentially that reporting, which then served as the basis for the opening of the case.”

The FBI investigation, dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane,” led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller and a 22-month, $32 million probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential ties to associates of Trump, now 76.

Shortly before Mueller was appointed, McGonigal also sent a message to an FBI colleague that discussed how agents were interviewing another Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

now:

https://www.washingtonexaminer...es-mcgonigal-scandal

This column can report that what McGonigal did on that fateful trip to Albania was considerably worse than the federal authorities or media have admitted. High-level Albanian sources who witnessed McGonigal’s appalling conduct while he was in that country recount that the FBI senior official worked a shakedown operation on wealthy Albanians for personal profit.

McGonigal told successful Albanians, not all of whom were in the good graces of the Rama government, that they were facing imminent U.S. sanctions, which would destroy their businesses, seize their bank accounts, and end their foreign travel. However, McGonigal could fix this problem for a modest fee of a few million dollars . The message was clear: Pay me or I will destroy your life. The worried Albanians took this threat seriously, given McGonigal’s FBI position, and many of them paid up. Some paid "only" 3 million euros. Others paid much more.

Sources tell me that McGonigal shook down Shefqet Kastrati, Albania’s top oil magnate, for 12 million euros, worth nearly $15 million in 2017. Apparently, McGonigal also attempted to get bribes from Samir Mane, a leading Albanian businessman, in a similar fashion. Balkan sources say that McGonigal’s haul from this shakedown was on the order of 30 million Euros, though that presumably was split with his Albanian partners.

Where did the money go? This was unlikely to have been a cash operation, given its sensitivity, and Balkan intelligence sources tell me that cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, was involved. Those sources say that McGonigal attempted similar shakedown operations in Albania’s neighbors, Macedonia and Montenegro, both of which contain significant ethnic Albanian minorities.

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...usion-investigation/

Durham Report: FBI Should Never Have Begun ‘Russia Collusion’ Investigation

The long-awaited report by Special Counsel John Durham tasked to look into the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for Russian collusion was released Monday, concluding that the FBI should have never launched an investigation into the Trump campaign.

Durham’s 300-page report found a damning conclusion: “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.”

“Our investigation also revealed that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities,” Durham’s report said, in apparent reference to the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Fusion GPS “pee dossier” alleging collusion that the FBI relied on to investigate Trump.

Durham said before the allegation from an Australian diplomat that then-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told him the Trump campaign had dirt on Clinton, there was no evidence of any Trump campaign collusion with Russia. But despite this “unevaluated intelligence information,” the FBI “swiftly opened an investigation, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Durham wrote:

In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump. The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information.

Durham said the Justice Department and FBI acted without “appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power,” he said. He also said the FBI used a different standard when it came to looking at Clinton’s campaign.

“The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign,” the report said.

The report also said the FBI received “highly significant intelligence” from a trusted foreign source that the Clinton campaign had a plan to “vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.”

“Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information…the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information,” Durham said.

There was a “predisposition to open an investigation into Trump,” the report said.

Durham slammed the integrity of the FBI.

“The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI’s guiding principles of ‘Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity’ are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI’s mission of ‘Protect[ing] the American People and Uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States,” he wrote.

The report comes as Trump is running for reelection as president. He and his administration faced constant scrutiny under then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The allegations of collusion and ongoing investigation sidelined some administration officials, such as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Establishment media outlets also hyped the allegations, putting the Trump administration under non-stop scrutiny.

Democrat members of Congress such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell also repeatedly claimed there was evidence of collusion, but failed to produce any. Earlier this year, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy kicked both members off the House Intelligence Committee due to their repeated and unfounded accusations of collusion, as well as an alleged sexual relationship with a Chinese spy in Swalwell’s case.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted: “We’ve reached out to the Justice Department to have Special Counsel John Durham testify next week.”

a bit more

"Neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," the report states. "FBI records prepared by [Peter] Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.”

Durham found that the Steele dossier, which was developed by the Clinton campaign with foreign spy Christopher Steel and then used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants and by the media to deem former President Donald Trump guilty of collusion, was extremely flawed and untruthful.

"Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting," Durham writes.

The FBI knew Steele Dossier source Igor Danchenko's claims about Sergei Millian were lies, which is why they never tried to even corroborate them. And yet, the FBI still put the false allegations in multiple illegal FISA warrant applications against Carter Page.

Inside the Obama administration, a number of officials were involved and briefed on the Clinton campaign's efforts to falsely tie Trump to Russia.

" In late July 2016 , U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S Presidential candidate Hillary 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," the report states. "According to his handwritten notes, CIA Director Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the 'alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services."

Brennan knew the conspiracy theory of Russian collusion was politically motivated and yet, briefed President Obama and continued to make accusations of collusion for years on MSNBC.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...5/15/durham-n2623276

Shocking I say. Shocking!

Re: “The long-awaited report by Special Counsel John Durham tasked to look into the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for Russian collusion was released Monday”

Released to who? I recall reading that Biden’s DoJ was opposed to the release of Durham’s full report.

ETA: ‘…
Durham submitted his report to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday. After reading it over the weekend, Garland sent it to Congress at 2 p.m. Monday "without any additions, redactions, or other modifications." …’

https://www.usatoday.com/story...d-trump/70179728007/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pipe Smoker,

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Released to who?

The undead

from Durham report

Durham documents TWO investigations into Hillary Clinton - one involving the Clinton Foundation and one involving illegal foreign contributions to Clinton’s Campaign.

In February 2016, FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe directed the Clinton Foundation investigation to be shut down. He walked that back after receiving push-back, but McCabe made sure that his approval was required for any further investigative steps.

The New York Field Office was called on behalf of FBI Director Comey and informed to “cease and desist” from the Clinton Foundation investigation.

The FBI and DOJ restricted both of those Clinton investigations, making sure that “essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election.” In comparison, the FBI opened a full investigation into the Trump Campaign based on unvetted “intelligence”.

The CIA had direct knowledge of the Clinton plan (“Clinton Plan”) to vilify Trump by linking him to Putin and Russia. On August 3, 2016, CIA Director John Brennon met with President Obama, VP Biden, and other senior Administration officials, including but not limited to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey. At that meeting, Brennan informed them of the Clinton Plan

the FBI did nothing to vet or investigate the Clinton Plan - even though they were using parts of the Clinton Plan (the Steele Reports) - to investigate the Trump Campaign. Durham writes: “No FBI personnel who were interviewed by the Office recalled Crossfire Hurricane personnel taking any action to vet the Clinton Plan intelligence.”

In fact, it was as if the CIA’s Clinton Plan memo was somehow buried within the FBI. Most members of Crossfire Hurricane “had never seen the intelligence before”. And, as we have previously discussed, it was never disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in contravention to that court’s local rules.

FBI Director James Comey was deeply interested in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and micromanaged it, demanding the Carter Page FISA warrant, telling Assistant Director Andrew McCabe: “Where is the FISA, where is the FISA?”

The FBI knew, relatively early, that its Carter Page FISA warrants were dubious. That FBI knowledge only intensified by 2018, as FBI analysts discussed how “Steele’s subsources could have been compromised by the Russians.” They were going to prepare their findings in a memorandum. FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Dina Corsi, met with the review team and directed them not to document any recommendations, context, or analysis in the memorandum they were preparing.”

https://technofog.substack.com/p/the-durham-report

Remember the summer of 2016 environment. Polls were strongly predicting a Clinton win. The FBI squashed investigations into Clinton, and created completely phony investigations into Trump.

When Trump won, they had to cover their tracks. Two people had to be taken out quickly - AG Jeff Sessions and Intelligence lead Michael Flynn. In retrospect, getting those two out of the picture was their top priority

From Hans Mahncke:

People who declined to be interviewed by Durham:

Peter Strzok
Bill Priestap
James Comey
Andrew McCabe
Kevin Clinesmith
Rodney Joffe
Marc Elias
Glenn Simpson
"certain FBI officials"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

Fantastic essay today on Powerline Blog. POSTED ON MAY 16, 2023 BY ELIZABETH STAUFFER IN 2016 ELECTION, 2020 ELECTION, 2024 ELECTION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, DONALD TRUMP, FBI
THIS IS END OF REPUBLIC STUFF AND AMERICA CAN’T SURVIVE IT
The Durham investigation has concluded what most of us knew all along. There was no legal basis for the FBI’s 2016 probe into the Trump campaign or the Mueller investigation that followed. It was all a lie. The FBI, once a highly-revered American institution, teamed up with the Hillary Clinton campaign to (try to) rig the presidential election.

And they were all in on it. Then-President Barack Obama was briefed on the plan by his CIA Director John Brennan in July 2016. Two months later, Brennan alerted then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok to the scheme via a CIA investigative referral. Still, they allowed the charade to go on for nearly three years until former President Donald Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, intervened in the spring of 2019 to bring the investigation to an end. Had Barr not interceded, there’s no telling how long the probe would have continued.

The problem is that the Department of Justice and the FBI’s “fail[ure] to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law” when it comes to Trump has never stopped. Their malfeasance before and after the 2016 election was just the beginning.

The 22-month-long Mueller investigation cast a shadow over the first two years of Trump’s presidency and impacted his ability to govern. It also loomed large over the 2018 midterm elections. The Democrats credibly portrayed the president as an agent of Russia who could not be trusted.

The 2020 presidential election saw additional interference. Last year, at least a dozen FBI whistleblowers reached out to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and now-House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), to inform them that, in the months leading up to the election, bureau insiders tried to scuttle the investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business adventures. Their modus operandi was to label the story as Russian disinformation.

We recently learned that after the New York Post’s explosive story of Hunter Biden’s laptop was published in October 2020, which insinuated that then-candidate Joe Biden was not only aware of his son’s overseas influence-peddling activities, but may have benefited financially, current secretary of state Antony Blinken, then a Biden campaign adviser, took action. He called former acting CIA Director Mike Morell and within a day, a letter signed by 51 former high-ranking intelligence community officials claimed the Hunter Biden laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

This was no small thing. Their pivotal letter arguably saved Biden’s candidacy. The Biden campaign and the spies who signed the letter knew the leftist media would pick up their narrative, and they were not disappointed. Politico immediately published the letter with the headline, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former officials say.”

Just days after the letter was released, then-candidate Joe Biden used it to shut down questions from then-President Donald Trump, who had raised the matter of the Biden family’s alleged overseas influence-peddling operations in a critical debate.

Election interference? You bet.

Under Attorney General Merrick Garland’s leadership, the corruption that began during the Obama administration has become more deeply entrenched. The DOJ’s prosecution of Jan. 6 protesters was elevated to priority status. The FBI altered its classification system to make it appear as though domestic terrorism — from MAGA Republicans, no doubt — was a major threat to the U.S.

Most notably, three months prior to the 2022 election, Garland himself ordered the FBI’s dramatic raid on Mar-a-Lago to search for classified documents Trump had removed from the White House when he left office.

And now, as we head into the 2024 presidential election, the DOJ and the FBI are gearing up to ensure a Biden victory. First, they are trying to contain the fallout from some pretty compelling evidence of the Biden family’s alleged pay-to-play scheme presented by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee last week. And they are making sure Trump remains under a copious number of investigations from now until Election Day.

Although no one will be held accountable for the government’s now obvious transgressions, the DOJ and the FBI have been utterly disgraced by the Durham report. Public trust in these agencies has been shattered. And, after the origin of the letter signed by the “Dirty 51” was revealed two weeks ago, the CIA isn’t faring much better.

Between the very real evidence of corruption the Republicans have exposed (and will continue to expose) and the devastating conclusions in the Durham report, the asymmetric application of the law in America can no longer be denied.

Will voters finally see what’s happening right in front of their eyes? Let’s hope so, because this is end of republic stuff. And America can’t survive it.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/...-cant-survive-it.php

Good article, but it only one addresses one element of obiden’s deliberate destruction of the country.

maybe someone should work to nullify a certain impeachment, if that's even possible.

Schiff doesn’t like it (Too bad, pencil neck)

“New revelations have continued to emerge since Monday's release of Special Counsel John Durham's 300-page report following his four-year $6.5 million investigation that concluded the FBI 'failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.'

Buried inside the dense document, which blasts the FBI for opening a full-blown investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign based on 'raw' intelligence tips, are insights into how the Russia probe got started, and links between people in Hillary Clinton's orbit and the stream of information on Trump's Russia contacts.

It also points out what Durham calls an unfair discrepancy: why the Trump camp didn't get a 'defensive briefing' on Russia's efforts to influence his campaign when the FBI did provide a briefing to Clinton when a foreign actor sought to influence hers.

The report is now being denounced by some of the people who appear in its pages. Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff on Tuesday night blasted it as 'four years of wasted effort, and worse than that, we have for years, I think, of undermining the department and a political prosecution.'

The California Democrat spoke even as a passage in the report came to light detailing how a university researcher who met with Schiff's own staff felt threatened by the request to provide analysis of a news article about the Trump Organization and Russia-owned Alfa Bank. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/12090325

It is so sad that we know so much of what these lying corrupt traitors did, but none of them saw any significant punishment.

Comey is still off teaching "ethics". Strzok is teaching at another university. on and on. Even Klinesmith got his law license back.

McCabe got all his retirement money.

Sussmann was found "not guilty". I think that was a DC jury. Danchenko was found "not guilty" (another DC jury).


Saw below on Powerline. A quote from a sociologist Robert Nisbet. Nisbet died in the 1990s. Hw probably wrote this in the 1950 s or 1960s


“There is no substitute for punishment in a social order, and that means holding human beings accountable, treating them as human and therefore responsible.

Concern for human rights is rampant these days, but a right is possible in the strict sense only for beings who can be rationally regarded as responsible.

The celebrated dignity of man oozes away in an atmosphere where man is so little prized for his unique mental and moral qualities as to be classified from the start a victim.

Rights, duties, responsibilities, restraints, consciences, moral codes, all of these are visibly softening and decaying under the influence of victimology — no longer a specialty of criminology but a gigantic malaise of Western society.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/...ty-of-punishment.php

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/...-corruption-n2623420

A new and lengthy report released by the House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Thursday morning shows FBI supervisors retaliated against agents blowing the whistle on corruption and partisan misconduct.

"Whistleblower testimony highlights that the FBI’s partisan leadership is currently engaging in a 'purge' of agents who hold conservative political beliefs. Particularly, the testimony from Friend demonstrates the agency’s blatant targeting and dismissal of conservatives within its ranks," the report continues. "In Friend’s case, he was indefinitely suspended and had his security clearance suspended for simply asking why the FBI was unnecessarily using force to arrest individuals suspected of participating in the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021."

The report gives several examples of inappropriate requests by politically motivated FBI supervisors to agents and retaliation against those who questioned their legitimacy or potential violation of American civil liberties. Special Agents O'Boyle, Friend, and Allen are on Capitol Hill Thursday to testify about retaliation and their experiences inside the Bureau.

Lee Smith Discusses the Durham Report and the Purposeful Intent of Bill Barr

Lee Smith is one of a very select DC journalists and authors who appropriately understands the full context of each aspect he discusses. During an interview with Steve Bannon, Lee Smith puts the focus of the Durham silo directly on the shoulders of Bill Barr. Smith is 100% correct.
WATCH:

quote:

Purposeful Intent of Bill Barr

What does that mean?

The Durham Report confirmed what we already knew. It was the job of Bill Barr to prosecute. He didn't just drop the ball, he completely neglected his duty.

Democrats Reacting to the Durham Report
AwakenWithJP

sadly, I agree w Lee Smith

Barr/Durham owed us indictments, not a report

You could spend a few days on the internet and frame out a very comprehensive overview of what actually went down

And yes FBI/DoJ massively interfered in the 2016 and the 2020 elections

The biggest value of the Durham report is that Donald Trump can use it to demonstrate how federal govt offices have continually been used to falsely attack him since 2016.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
sadly, I agree w Lee Smith

Barr/Durham owed us indictments, not a report

You could spend a few days on the internet and frame out a very comprehensive overview of what actually went down

And yes FBI/DoJ massively interfered in the 2016 and the 2020 elections

The biggest value of the Durham report is that Donald Trump can use it to demonstrate how federal govt offices have continually been used to falsely attack him since 2016.

As I stated when Durham was first appointed to investigate the Russian Collusion hoax, he failed miserably to hold senior FBI managers responsible when he was supposed to be investigating the James "Whitey" Bulger matter, so why expect anything else from him in the "Russian-Collusion" matter? John Connolly was filed on federally (by Durham) for relatively minor charges involving the assistance he provided Bulger in what was clearly an attempt to forestall the pending state charges for MURDER. Durham gave Connolly's supervisor (John Morris) immunity for his testimony, even after Morris admitted accepting bribes from his subordinate. What happened afterwards? Morris kept quiet about his managers' knowledge and involvement, he was retained by the FBI, PROMOTED and transferred to Los Angeles (about ten minutes drive from where Bulger and his girlfriend were living under assumed names), and assigned as SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF AN "ANTI-CORRUPTION" UNIT!!!

John Durham covered for Robert Mueller and his managers in the Bulger matter just as he did with Robert Barr and FBI managers in the Trump matter. In both instances he wrote reports that were (in the case of Bulger-See Page One of Inspector Michael Horowitz's Report of November 2019) ignored by FBI management after Bulger and will be ignored by current FBI management (regarding the "groundbreaking" issues exposed in the Trump case).

The FBI considers itself above Congress and the courts. They hid or allowed Bulger to remain at large (in Santa Monica) so as to avoid arrest for 19 filed counts of MURDER, when they had the statuary obligation to arrest him for the warrants and bring him to court.

They're currently refusing to honor subpoenas issued by Congress to answer valid questions about the criminal investigations which relied upon information they KNEW wasn't reliable to obtain FISA warrants on Trump and his supporters and they refused to obey President Trump's order to release all documents they held (regarding "Russian Collusion"), even though the President had and used his authority to declassify it.

The FBI insists that they stand for "Fidelity-Bravery-Integrity", but "Fidelity" to who? Certainly not the public at large. They are only faithful to their organization and whoever their administration deems to be their benefactor. See what they've done to agents that lived up to their oath of office like Steve Friend, who actually had reason to believe they'd respect "Whistleblower" laws enacted to protect personnel that testify before Congress truthfully as a last resort!