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They Are Brazen Because They Know They Will Get Away With It
This was tweeted by Rep. John Ratcliffe (R–TX) last night:
Yes, this is the real transcript of my exchange with Jim Comey. No, I didn’t make this up.
The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency. Outside the collusion issue, Trump may very well have some real legal problems, some of them self-inflicted, and ultimately his enemies may take him down.
But the bigger story is how blatantly corrupt those going after Trump are, how unapologetic they have been about their actions, and how they have been broadly applauded by those on the commanding heights in our culture. And they believe, correctly I think, they will never be held accountable.
The question, if they are successful in their quest, is how do you keep a society of more than 300 million people functioning when half of the populace sees this happening openly and without consequence for the perpetrators? Why would any of them place one iota of trust in our political or justice systems after observing them get away with it? This, more than anything Trump has done, is the real crisis for America.
Ratcliffe’s assertions in the transcript are accurate. Comey just doesn’t care. Of course, it’s worse than that. President Obama publicly opined that Hillary Clinton, whom he had endorsed to be his successor, was innocent even as his own Justice Department was conducting its “investigation,” yet no Special Counsel a la Mueller was appointed, even though in Clinton’s case there were actually grounds to believe a crime had been committed.
We now know, despite President Obama’s assertions to the contrary, that he received sensitive emails from Hillary’s illegal server while he was outside the US.
We now know that Obama’s DOJ was handing out immunity passes like candy to Hillary’s associates and allowed Hillary cronies who were fact witnesses to masquerade as attorneys and sit in on interviews of other witnesses.
We now know that Comey drafted his exoneration of Clinton even before she was interviewed and the interview consisted of softballs lobbed over the center of the plate. No perjury traps for her!
We now know AG Loretta Lynch knew Comey would exonerate Clinton before she recused herself and let Comey decide what to do. It was all a show.
And that’s just the email side of the Clinton-Russia story because the two were linked, involving the Clinton campaign and the same principals at the FBI and Justice.
The Clinton campaign colluded with Russian intelligence in the production of the Steele Dossier. The campaign’s outside counsel, Marc Ellis, hired GPS Fusion, which hired Christopher Steele, who hired intermediaries, who contacted Russian intelligence sources to obtain information that ended up in the dossier.
The Russian who met with Fredo Trump, Jr. and Jared at Trump Tower during the campaign, had hired GPS Fusion to do a smear job on a Kremlin opponent, and that same Russian met with Glenn Simpson, head of Fusion GPS, immediately before and after the Trump Tower meeting.
And we recently learned that Steele has admitted in UK legal proceedings that the dossier was designed as an insurance policy for the Clinton campaign if Trump won the election.
Which, of course, now makes sense of the FBI texts, revealed months ago, indicating they had an “insurance policy” in place in the event Trump won.
We now know that the FBI sent several third parties to minor functionaries (Page, Papadopoulos) in the Trump campaign to try to entrap them, it turned out unsuccessfully, into creating the illusion of Russian collusion.
We now know that the FBI and DOJ misled the FISA Court on the origin of the Steele Dossier when it obtained the wiretap authorization on Carter Page.
We now know that Comey misled President-elect Trump when he briefed him on the Steele Dossier.
We now know that Comey was urged to brief Trump by CIA Director Brennan, who once he knew the briefing occurred, leaked the Dossier to CNN which used the briefing as the news hook to justify reporting on it.
We now know that even as Comey was repeatedly assuring the President he was not personally under investigation he was leaking damaging information to the New York Times, but somehow not leaking the assurances he was giving Trump.
We now know that even as Mueller was appointed Special Counsel in May 2017 the gang knew there was no criminal Russian collusion. We now know that because Strzok, who’d been more involved than anyone in the investigation up to that time, had been offered a job by Mueller but wondered if he should take it because, as he texted his lover, “there’s no big there there.” And, by that time, the gang had access to months of wiretaps of Carter Page and everyone he was in contact with, and everyone they were in contact with, and still had nothing. Remember when Trump was lampooned for claiming Trump Tower was wiretapped? It was!
It is mind-boggling that Rod Rosenstein, a fact witness in the firing of James Comey, did not recuse himself before appointing Mueller. It is mind-boggling that Robert Mueller, a long time associate and ally of Comey, a man committed to protecting the reputation of his beloved FBI and DOJ by any means necessary, was appointed to the role. It is mind-boggling that his senior staff lawyer is a well-known partisan Democrat who has been cited by the courts for unethical behavior.
I could go on for much longer but this is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime and it’s going on in full view; the perpetrators aren’t even bothering any longer to hide what they are doing and they are going to get away with it.
Published in General
Let me ask Google for you… </sarc>
The onus is on the person making the assertion to substantiate it. If you have evidence, present it.
A big part of this problem has two sides.
The first is that some people cannot make the distinction between interference and collusion. There is no doubt that the Russian government ran a disinformation campaign designed to hurt both candidates. This Russian campaign was also used in the French presidential elections, the Catalan separatist movement, and has resurfaced in an attempt to restart the Scottish independence movement.
To a certain extent the disinformation campaign has worked far better than the Russian’s could have hoped for. Clapper, Brennan, Comey, and Mueller are now doing the heavy lifting in the paralysis, and ill will in DC. Another benefit is the mistrust that Americans have in either Trump, or the bureaucracy.
The second side of the problem is that Mueller, and Comey are not law enforcement officers. The FISA warrants were obtained by omitting facts that prevented a judge from making a fully informed decision on whether a warrant was justified.
An investigation should not start with the conclusion. Evidence should be used to reach a true conclusion, not to protect a conclusion that was the starting point of an investigation.
I think a better characterization is that the gang consists of those who, regardless of party, believe the Federal government and its bureaucracy rightfully belong to them.
“That is an assertion, nothing more”
If this is your position on the origins much less the contents of the Steele Dossier then why debate the issue any further.
“We have no idea what Mueller has learned”
The Mueller Special Counsel leaks on a schedule which coincides with the MSM news cycle, if Mueller had something damaging involving actual(or even tangentially tied to) Russian collusion it would be out there in the news cycle (ie: the Roger Stone/Jerome Corsi Wikileaks relationship). So while we may not know everything, I would surmise if there was more we would not be totally in the dark about it.
“If there is malfeasance on the part of others deserving investigation, the DOJ is headed by Trump appointees who can initiate such an investigation.”
I am happy when we can find an issue we can agree on.
However, it is believed that Trump has been advised that going down this path(investigating malefactors) at this time could be considered interfering with (obstructing?) the Mueller Special Counsel investigation and Trump is waiting for the Mueller investigation to conclude ( …. good luck with that …. what would be Mueller’s motivation to ever conclude ….)
Here.
That does not suggest what you asserted. The fact the Clinton campaign did not challenge the results argues against your interpretation.
Although I do love the credibility you credit Steele with in this instance while seemingly granting him none in anything else.
What leaks have come out of Mueller’s office? You are speculating and your speculation is premised on assuming Mueller’s motives.
Back to speculation.
They haven’t challenged the validity of the election? The day after the election Clinton was yapping about the Russians! The Dossier was leaked during this period. The Obama Administration began its active sabotage efforts after the election and before Jan 20. Weren’t you reading the media back then? The last two years have been about challenging the validity of the election and using the lever of the Dossier and Comey to open an unrestricted investigation in an effort to, at a minimum, disrupt the Trump Administration or, in a best case scenario, get him out of office.
I can understand not liking Trump and regretting he is President. I can understand not liking the people he has surrounded himself with and believing he’s broken the law in some of his personal dealings.
What I don’t understand is resolutely ignoring everything we have learned over the past two years, and the lack of outrage over the Mueller/Comey gang getting away with this.
What I don’t understand is ignoring what I would have doubted before, but is clear now, the link between the need to clear the way for Hillary by whitewashing her crimes and then creating the insurance policy in the event she unexpectedly lost the election. And, don’t forget, that even during the campaign we were hearing about active Russian ties to Manafort, Page etc which I thought credible at the time and turned out to be completely bogus.
There is no there there on collusion for the reasons I’ve discussed above. Indirectly, Mueller has proven this. Look at the indictments of Manafort, Flynn, Papadopoulos et al. In none of them is there a conspiracy charge which is the predicate if Mueller were building a case against Trump.
Good grief. The terms “legitimate” and “good faith” have no place in any true description of this travesty. You may not like Trump, and apparently you don’t, but is hurting him worth turning us into a banana republic to you? The election didn’t go your way, so let’s just let the FBI turn into the Praetorian Guard or the Stasi?
No, there has been no challenge. Hillary concedes and no results have been challenged.
No legal challenge has been brought in any state.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/14/mueller-leaks-hearing-trump-586555
https://nypost.com/2017/11/06/robert-muellers-leak-problem/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/corsi-sues-mueller-over-alleged-grand-jury-leaks-seeks-350m-in-damages-report
They are systematically trying to overturn an election and quash the voice of the voters, and we had better see this for what it is: a coup d’etat.
Now you are being, to quote Andy Dufrense, “Obtuse. Is it deliberate?“
More conspiracy nonsense.
Under no circumstances can the election be overturned. Trump’s impeachment and removal would give us Pence, not Clinton.
I can’t tell if you’re really this naive or what. Mike Pence wouldn’t last five minutes. The funny part to me is the way they all made such a big deal over whether Trump would “accept the results of the election.” Hah.
The smell coming from DC.
Yes, in this instance as described in my comment I am clearly speculating … so what.
I agreed with your comment in the first place and I was only offering up a possible theory as to why what we both think should happen(ie: Trump DOJ investigate malefactors) has not occurred yet.
At this point it appears you are simply playing the part of the disagreeing guy, which is getting a little ridiculous.
So no more posts about the Russia conspiracy that Mueller is pushing, right?
For 10 years I lived on a small Island that had only 250 permanent residents that could vote. Other than for politics it was paradise. However just a few short years after the founding of a town government the local politics got so bitter and toxic that we moved from the island and we weren’t even involved other than by secret ballot. Private investigators were hired to dig up dirt. It wasn’t an issues based problem it was strictly personal. It’s no small wonder this same thing happens on a national scale. Luckily the good guy won on the Island.
You are delusional.
Mueller was hired to investigate, he isn’t pushing anything.
So what this proves is that Comey cannot consider Mueller a reasonable prosecutor since he prosecuted (successfully) Flynn and Papdopoulos on weaker cases than these.
Good point. That would make conspiracy even less likely, either. However, they are all acting in their own and each other’s interests to protect the deep state or ruling class, or whatever you want to call it.
And in case you are one of those people who question the deep state concept, understand that ever since the Progressive Era started in the late 19th century, it has been an explicit program of progressives to take governance away from elected officials and turn it over to professional and expert managers at all levels of government. This has been openly discussed ever since then. What has not been much discussed is that these “managers” form an interest group and power base of its own, looking out for its own interests in preference to those of the people who hired them, and that it will take its own side in any conflicts. This development of a managerial class that looks out for its own interests in preference to those of stockholders has been much discussed in relation to private corporations, but the same people who explain this to us have not applied the concept so much to government. (I have known people who understand instinctively that it applies in either case).
It is not to be unexpected that one political party will align itself more with the managerial class than the other, forming a “deep state.” And there is nothing strange about factions from either party aligning themselves with the deep state. And it is not to be expected that there will not be conflicts and rivalries within the deep state. But it will act together against an existentialist threat from the outside. Donald Trump, a traitor to his class, forms such a threat.
I could go on and explain the connection with academia, the media, and celebrityland, as best I can. But I’ve got to stop now. You don’t have to invoke conspiracies to explain what is going on, and you don’t have to invoke conspiracies to explain the degree of coordination that the deep state that is an organic development.
What crime?
I’m unable to access beyond the paywall to the WSJ article linked in this NRO alert, but in any event, FYI for purposes of further consideration on this thread:
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/donald-trumps-ag-pick-william-barr-claims-robert-mueller-misunderstands-obstruction-of-justice/
From the sound of it, Barr’s argument seems at least partially aligned with what Andrew McCarthy has been contending for many months now as well, about the utter absence of a clear probable-cause predicate capable of justifying Mueller’s appointment in the first place.
Both McCarthy’s argument and Barr’s corollary together lead me to wonder just who it was who drafted the Special Counsel appointment documentation in the first place. What I mean is, yes, Rod Rosenstein *signed* that appointment (as well as a CYA, after-the-fact appendix document in the wake of the Manafort house raid) — but did he draft it? After all, even though Rosenstein signed the fourth and final FISA/FISC surveillance warrant renewal application, it’s been debated whether he took any particular care to really scrutinize it before putting pen to paper. Possibly this was the case as well when DAG Rosenstein signed off on the Mueller hunting party.
Leading me to wonder whether Andrew Weissmann drafted that document.
(And yes, I know that CTH/Conservative Treehouse has been positing for a while know that Weissmann, Strzok, ex-DOJ James Baker and others were indeed precisely positioning the whole situation circa Spring 2017 for the deployment of the “insurance policy” via Special Counsel appointment — I just can’t recollect whether CTH has gone so far as to contend that the appointment documentation itself emerged from that so-called “small group.”)
Because what the heck — Norm Macdonald, prophet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAl97bMOdOw
Agree completely. This degree of corruption at the highest levels spells the end. People are right to utterly mistrust these institutions. Obama and the Left are the Great Destroyers. And, of course, if any of these perps were to face consequences, Trump would be accused of political persecution. We’re screwed.
You are delusional ….
Hey I like that … adds nothing to the debate, but enjoyable none the less.