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Mueller Russia Probe – Part 1 Dismisses Top FBI Agent
First, a refresher timeline:
- 4/9/2016: Strzok interview Clinton employee Cheryl Mills
- 7/2/2016: Strzok and DOJ attorney David Laufman interview Clinton herself
- 7/5/2016: James Comey issues public statement closing the Clinton e-mail investigation.
- 1/24/2017: Gen. Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor, interviewed by the FBI.
- 3/2/2017: Atty General Jeff Sessions recuses himself from the Russia probe.
- 5/8/2017: FBI summons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump to FBI’s New York headquarters for a meeting with cybersecurity & CIA representatives to inform them of supposed attempted overseas cyberattack on the Trump Organization.
- 5/9/2017: James Comey fired from FBI Director position, citing Rosenstein memo re: Comey’s handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, etc.
- 5/16/2017: James Comey, through a private citizen/friend, leaked memo of notes he’d taken as FBI Director to the New York Times, alleging Trump in an Oval Office meeting in Feb. 2017 asked Comey to end FBI investigation into dismissed NSA advisor Gen Michael Flynn. “I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey.
- 5/17/2017: Deputy AG Rosenstein names Mueller Special Counsel for Russia investigation
UPDATE 1:
- 12/4/2017:
- It is reported (CNN, Fox, etc.) that FBI Agent Strzok, who led the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server as the No. 2 official in the counterintelligence division, is the one who changed Comey’s earlier draft language describing Clinton’s actions as “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”. CNN sources a handful of people reviewed Comey’s draft as edits were made.
- Daily Caller reports Agent Strzok did all of the most significant interviews in the Clinton e-mail case, including HRC aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. Their statements to Strzok and Justice Department attorney David Laufman (Mills April 2016) denied knowing about Clinton’s server until leaving the State Department. E-mail exchanges prior to 2013, however, show both Mills and Abedin either directly discussed or were involved in discussing Clinton’s server. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee hearing held on Sept. 28, 2016, Comey suggested such conflicting recollections of facts were common. Congressman Jason Chaffetz suggested that Mills would have had an incentive to deny knowing about the server during Clinton’s State Department tenure because it would allow her to cite attorney-client privilege to avoid discussing certain aspects of Clinton’s email setup. Mills began working as one of Clinton’s lawyers just after they left the State Department.
- Neither Mills nor Abedin were ever charged with making false statements to the FBI.
- Supporting Strzok’s conflict of interest is fact that his wife, a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney named Melissa Hodgman, has a strong pro-Clinton bias. Her Facebook account shows she’s a member of groups called “We Voted for Hillary” and “Thank You Obama.”
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- Less widely report (only on Fox as of this date), is that the FBI interviewed Flynn without his being aware it was to be an official on-the-record probe, and without an attorney present.
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“According to another source, with direct knowledge of the Jan. 24 interview, McCabe had contacted Flynn by phone directly at the White House. White House officials had spent the “earlier part of the week with the FBI overseeing training and security measures associated with their new roles so it was no surprise to Flynn that McCabe had called,” the source said.
McCabe told Flynn “some agents were heading over (to the White House) but Flynn thought it was part of the routine work the FBI had been doing and said they would be cleared at the gate,” the source said.
“It wasn’t until after they were already in (Flynn’s) office that he realized he was being formerly interviewed. He didn’t have an attorney with him,” they added.
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- Also reported on Tucker Carlson’s show, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch indicated they had received via a FOIA request indication from high-level FBI e-mails that the FBI was more interested in finding out who leaked Loretta Lynch’s meeting with Bill Clinton on the airport tarmac than they were what occurred during the meeting between Lynch/Clinton. FBI believed a Phoenix police officer leaked and were trying to find a way to confirm/”get” him. Fitton states their initial FOIA request to FBI got nothing; FBI told them there were no FBI records of the tarmac meeting. Fitton’s group noted a reference from response to another FOIA request to DOJ.
- KEY FACT: It’s reported that Strzok is the one who interviewed both Hillary Clinton (not under oath and presumably therefore unable to be charged with lying to the FBI when she stated there were no classified e-mails on her server when they later found some), and Michael Flynn (under oath). Additionally, it is also reported that Michael Flynn was interviewed on the basis of the never before used to indict Logan Act and without benefit of an attorney present. It’s presumed this Logan Act interview is what the FBI used to charge Flynn with lying to the FBI.
- Less widely report (only on Fox as of this date), is that the FBI interviewed Flynn without his being aware it was to be an official on-the-record probe, and without an attorney present.
UPDATE 2:
- 12/5/2017:
- Daily Caller 12/4/1
- Attorney Andrew Weissmann on Mueller’s team sent e-mail on January 30, 2017 to Acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ commending her refusal to enforce President Trump’s Middle East travel ban executive order stating, “I am so proud. And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects” (source article below). Problem with this may not be so much bias as applauding one of the most ostentatious acts of “resistance” by a government official since Trump took office.
- Daily Beast article published 8/16/17 – Weissmann worked as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York with both Loretta Lynch and Beryl Howell, and was more than casual acquaintances with both.
- Beryl Howell is the federal judge now overseeing Mueller’s grand jury. In 2006 she co-wrote with Weissmann a scholarly law article which argued the overturning of Weissmann’s Arthur Andersen case didn’t mean prosecutors would have trouble bringing obstruction cases thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley. She helped him with a 2007 law journal article he wrote and appeared with him on a 2010 panel. She worked 10 yrs on Senate Judiciary Committee for Patrick Leahy (D) on complex intellectual property issues and the Patriot Act.
- Loretta Lynch also knew Weissmann more than casually as part of a small group that would often go out for lunch and dinner together.
- Catherine Herridge, Fox News, reports that Strzok’s changing Comey’s earlier draft language describing Clinton’s actions as “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” occurred 3 days after the pro-Clinton/anti-Trump texts he exchanged
- Jeannie Rhee identified as another member of Mueller’s team with strong Democratic ties. Democrat contributor who’s done legal work on behalf of the Clinton Foundation. A former senior adviser to former Attorney General Eric Holder and a white-collar crime specialist, she represented Ben Rhodes before the House Select Committee on Benghazi and served as his point of contact with the House Intelligence Committee in its investigation into Russia (Ingraham, Fox News). Ben Rhodes, ardent Trump critic and Obama Admin Deputy National Security Advisor under Susan Rice who along with other Obama employees ramped up unmasking of Trump campaign staff during the summer and transition period when it’s suspected Michael Flynn was recorded speaking with Russian contacts.
UPDATE 3:
- 12/7/2017:
- Devin Nunes, House Intelligence Committee Chair, cleared by House Ethics committee of accusation he divulged classified info in Russia investigation. The Ethics committee cleared Nunes after they brought in experts with classified access to make the determination.
- Bruce Ohr, an Obama administration holdover, was demoted from Associate Deputy Attorney General this week. DOJ originally indicated Ohr was moved because he held two positions and needed to concentrate on one. James Rosen at Fox News learned, however, that it was discovered Ohr had withheld from superiors two meetings last year with Christopher Steele (before the election) and Glenn Simpson (after the election), Fusion GPS company founder who hired Steele to compile the dossier. Ohr still heads organized crime and drug task force. House Intelligence Committee will be issuing a subpoena for Ohr.
- Another conflict of interest reported: Attorney Aaron Zebley, known as Mueller’s right hand man on the task force, previously represented the Clinton employee who set up the home IT server and was interviewed/questioned under the Clinton e-mail investigation.
- News outlets report U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that Judge Rudolph Contreras recused himself, but did not disclose why he had done so. Reuters phrased it “has been recused”. Contreras is one of few FISA court judges. It’s possible that Judge Contreras signed off on the FISA warrant in October 2016 that initiated the counterintelligence wiretapping and surveillance of the Trump campaign. That wiretapping and surveillance ultimately led to the questioning of Michael Flynn; the consequence of which brings Flynn to Contreras courtroom.
Update 4:
- 12/11/2017 Fox News:
- James Rosen reports: House Intel Committee uncovered Ohr meetings with Fusion GPS last week. Also discovered Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr, an academic Russia expert, worked for Fusion GPS last year around time dossier was funneled to FBI and perhaps when dossier funneled to GPS. Bruce Ohr’s contacts with Christopher Steele were thought to go back 10 yrs to about 2006. Mrs. Ohr’s publications on Russia date back farther, which may change her that 10 yr association.
- Catherine Herridge: Sir Andrew Wood, former British ambassador to Russia, was asked by Steele to contact McCain about the dossier. In August, Steele briefed Wood on what was in the dossier. Dossier handed off to McCain in January, who gave it to FBI. FBI already had a copy of the dossier at that time.
Fusion GPS pushed dossier to 5 media outlets: The New York Times (twice), The Washington Post (twice), CNN, The New Yorker and Yahoo News (twice).
On Saturday, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that top FBI official Peter Strzok, assigned to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe, was removed from the team in July over anti-Trump/pro-Clinton text messages exchanged around the time of the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation.
- The text messages were exchanged with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Strzok, deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, was having an extra-marital affair at the time he was also a key player in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Strzok also played a key role in the original FBI investigation (under Comey) into the Trump-Russia matter.
- Ms. Page worked for Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (whose involvement in investigating Clinton e-mails at all has been questioned due to hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations made by a key Clinton ally to McCabe’s wife, a 2015 candidate for political office in Virginia).
- Ms. Page also worked on the Mueller team but left two weeks before it became aware of the text message allegations.
- During the Clinton email investigation, Ms. Page was a regular participant in Comey’s meetings with a small group of advisers who met to address sensitive cases.
- Strzok was given a job in the human resources division of the FBI after being removed from Mueller’s team; widely considered a demotion.
- The House Intelligence Committee (chaired by Devin Nunes) more than three months ago issued a broadly worded subpoena for information related to the so-called Trump dossier that covered information about Strzok’s demotion.
- Since that time, in multiple follow-up meetings on the scope of the subpoena, the committee has specifically requested information about Strzok and his reassignment, which FBI officials have denied. (On November 20, 2017, Nunes requested and was denied a meeting with Strzok even though on November 17, Strzok met with the Senate Intelligence Committee.)
- Both the WaPo and the NYT this weekend published the reason for Strzok’s demotion, along with concerns that the revelation might help President Trump.
WaPo: “Among federal law enforcement officials, there is great concern that exposure of the texts they exchanged may be used by the president and his defenders to attack the credibility of the Mueller probe and the FBI more broadly”
NYT: “the existence of the text messages is likely to fuel claims by Mr. Trump that he is the target of a witch hunt.”
- Hours after the press reports on Strzok’s dismissal appeared, DOJ notified Nunes that it would meet some of the committee’s demands for information that it had been refusing for months.
- Based on FBI/DOJ stonewalling and obstruction of the House investigation, Nunes threatened a contempt of Congress citation for Rosenstein and for FBI Director Christopher Wray before the end of December unless the FBI and DOJ meet all of the committee’s outstanding demands. (Note: Speaker Ryan five months ago declared at a microphone that the FBI and DOJ “stonewalled” the House, and demanded that they comply immediately with the Intelligence Committee.)
I’ve been paying closer attention to Devin Nunes since the unmasking drama. Contrary to how he’s been portrayed by media, he is actually well-versed and well-suited to intelligence oversight, and not the spinmeister/placeholder type some of the other committee members and chairs appear at times. Victor Davis Hanson knows and thinks highly of him, which is a high recommendation in my book.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is accepting whatever DOJ decides to feed them, and is, in fact, issuing statements criticizing the White House but nothing of substance to report to Americans. Nunes is the one in Congress who has been getting info on the agencies they apparently do not want Congress to know. In fact, I remember recognizing the name of one of the agency employees who alerted Nunes (per media, not from Nunes himself) to the Obama admin unusually high rates of unmasking in the months during the transition, buried in a news blurb as being moved from his position. The guy who did exactly what he was supposed to do — alert Congress oversight committee of possible agency violations — was quietly removed after doing so. Meanwhile, no word on who in intelligence unmasked Flynn or leaked like a sieve during early days of Trump admin, and probably still have their intelligence access.
Mueller gets no credit from me for removing a biased FBI agent from his team. I wonder instead why he selected for a purportedly independent investigation people who were so intertwined with Comey and previous investigations of the key subjects. There is no way that any product they produce could be considered a fresh look or reliable. Nevermind his apparent disregard for bias in the selection of his team members.
Unlike what Flynn might know or be saying that might implicate Trump, this is a factual indication there are serious problems with the FBI, DOJ, and the special counsel investigation. This should be headlining newscasts, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does.
Something is always hopping with the Trump White House, but I have noted that leaks about Mueller’s special counsel activity (a potential negative impact on Trump, of course) have tended to occur during or around something that would normally be positive headlines for Trump, like a highly significant foreign policy trip or passage of the first key legislation under the Trump administration out of the US Senate.
Final note: The May 8, 2017, FBI summons of the Trump brothers to FBI NY headquarters is not discussed in these articles. It’s always stood out to me as an event that happened so close to Comey’s firing: something no one expected, not even the uber-connected Comey. The meeting was never verified by either brother, and on paper appears like a simple notification. A warning of an imminent threat to a family’s livelihood (and the ability of an external entity, like the US government, to access private financial/personal records) can appear many ways in person based on facial expression, voice tone, and body language. While the Trump brothers may not have known much about the archaic Logan Act, I have little doubt New York real estate moguls used to dealing with some tough customers have no trouble recognizing a Vito Corleone act if they see one.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/politics/peter-strzok-james-comey/index.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-bob-mueller-placed-a-controversial-legal-bulldog-on-his-team
Flynn’s judge recused https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/12/08/the-big-ugly-why-u-s-district-court-judge-rudolph-contreras-recusal-from-mike-flynn-case-is-a-big-deal/
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/judge-recuses-himself-from-michael-flynns-case/article/2642920#!
Sir Andrew Wood gives dossier to McCain http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/11/inside-trump-dossier-handoff-mccains-go-between-speaks-out.html
Published in Politics
Posted Update 2 with 12/5/2017 events. Stuff coming so quickly can hardly keep up with it all.
*duplicate post*
Good point. I’ve heard legal eagles say not being under oath protected her, and definitely that changing “gross negligence” to extremely careless reduced her liability.
My understanding of Flynn interview was that FBI had been working with the incoming administration so that when McCabe called him in regular course of business to say 2 agents were coming over, Flynn thought nothing of it and didn’t arrange to have a lawyer present. He realized at some point during the interview it was not a routine course-of-business conversation.
There was a brief news report 12/5 referring to Strzok and Clinton case. Something about Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills both stating early on they knew nothing of Clinton’s home server, then later in the case evidence proving they actually did know and never being charged with the discrepancy in their responses.
It does seem pretty clear Flynn was not treated with the same standards Strzok observed for the Clinton e-mail case. There’s also the illegal leaking of his unmasked name that seems to have been dropped somewhere along the way.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/363598-rosenstein-to-testify-before-house-judiciary-committee-next-week
Rosenstein is testifying
also thinks Mueller is doing a good job.
Why is Sessions keeping him around.
These two statements are not related, but could be
Along with whatever specifics they want to know from him, I hope Judiciary Committee drills down and nails him on what he’s going to do about the scope and what has he done to ensure objectivity in Mueller’s team. There’s a serious problem arisen that existed at the team’s inception, and the team’s buck stops with Mueller. Rosenstein above anyone else is responsible for making sure it’s been thoroughly addressed.
And I’d make the man sweat, like fogged glasses collar tight sweat, about why Congress had to find out from the newspapers about a problem which required demoting a team member. Particularly when they’d (House) asked and been refused the information.
If they want information out of him, they probably should hire Judicial Watch to do the questioning.
Ooh, picture this…
Grassley:
“Mr. Rosenstein, today we will be joined by attorney Paul Weiss who will be asking you a few questions on behalf of the committee. As you may know, Mr. Weiss is well versed in charges of lying to a federal official, having represented former White House staff member Scooter Libby.
“Mr. Weiss, please begin your examination of Mr. Rosenstein. We’ll take our first break in 2 hours, and every 2 hours thereafter until this committee receives the answers to which we’re entitled.”
<Fade Out as Rosenstein swallows, loosens his tie, reaches for the nearest water glass>
A thousand times this. Most of these Congressional investigations are a complete waste of time because it’s all a TV show instead of a real investigation.
My prediction with the rat, Rosenstein: The congressmen will fight over how many minutes each of them get and will bring this point up repeatedly. No news will be made and Rosenstein will go back to plotting against Trump.
If I remember earlier hearings correctly, such as those conducted by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and the Kefauffer committtee investigating organized crime, the questioning was done largely by the committee counsel, who was infinitely better prepared and more persistent than tthe members in almost every case.
The change hasn’t been for the better and seems to have been made to afford the committee members a chance to play to the cameras.
Deleted / Duplicate comment
Edited original post to add Update 4 based on today’s Fox News report regarding Bruce Ohr’s wife.
I’ll soon be submitting a new post Mueller Russia Probe – Part 2 to include