Is it at all conceivable that the WSJ's stable of pro -Trump minions will finally admit he really did enlist the Russians to help get elected in 2016? Not bloody likely, as we see today's WSJ lead editorial 'Durham Cracks The Russia Case', p. A12) claiming DOJ special counsel John Durham finally, finally broke open "Russiagate" and that his indictment "tells the real story of the 2016 collusion". Uh, no, lunkheads, it doesn't. That collusion - actually conspiracy of Trump and Co. with the Russkies- still stands, but you are just too dense and hard headed to admit it. The point being that whatever Hillary lawyer Michael Sussman distorted (i.e. in presenting documents purporting to show secret internet communications between the Trump organization and Russia -based Alfa Bank) still does not nullify what Trump, his odious campaign and family members did.
Two years ago MSNBC host Chris Hayes nailed this bunkum in connection with then AG Barr trying to tie the FBI into the anti-Trump "conspiracy" to bring him down, noting:
"Remember this, during the campaign the only investigation that became public was the one regarding Hillary Clinton, which arguably lost her the election. The FBI was investigating Trump at the very same time but no one uttered a word about it. If they were so desperate to bring Trump down you'd think someone would have said something. They didn't. So the whole conspiracy theory doesn't even hold together."
This is something the serious political conspiracy analyst needs to register. Why - if operation 'Crossfire Hurricane' was so intent on bringing Trump down - did it only succeed in taking out Hillary instead? Apart from that none of the WSJ squawkers, including Holman Jenkins Jr. ('Durham Delivers on Russiagate'', p. A13 today) is uttering a word concerning the July 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between 5 Russians, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, and three top members of the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort (who already has been nailed for under the table dealing with the Russians).
Also unmentioned, the multiple foreign intercepts that disclosed Trump crony and hireling Carter Page met with Russian GRU agents. Of course in this case the Right's screech monkeys went ballistic because the feds had "unmasked" Page. But this was necessary after accessing the foreign intercepts. It was these intercepts and related documents - including FISA warrants- that disclosed just how deep the Trumpies were in with the Russkies. For more on those connections and even the methods used and conspiracy to toss the election to Trump, read the Senate Intelligence Committee report final volume, entitled : “Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities,”
We now know of Barr and Durham's hijinks in trying to upend these earlier investigations, i.e. a top aide to Durham (Nora Dannehy) had resigned (WSJ, Sept. 10, 2020, p. A4). A colleague of Ms. Dannehy's said: "the resignation was especially surprising because of her close relationship with Mr. Durham with whom she worked on complex and sensitive investigations."
But perhaps what she saw as Durham's betrayal of the rule of law, and especially cooperating with Barr in its destruction("investigating the investigators") , was a bridge too far. She likely was especially motivated to ditch the cesspool Durham was involved in after Barr told NBC News at the time that "others would be criminally prosecuted in connection with the probe". That includes anyone and every one involved in operation Crossfire Hurricane. Naturally, in the wake we would expect a full tilt fishing expedition to find anything to try to further undermine Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller Report. And oh yeah, lest I forget, the 434-page report issued by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it initiated its investigation into the Trump campaign. In doing so, Horowitz implicitly rejected GOP assertions that the case was launched out of political animus, or that the FBI broke its own rules on using informants. (N.B. Sussmann was not technically an 'informant' here.)
Let's also recall Trump declaring his own treason openly, betting no one would take him seriously, pleading with the Russians to hack Hillary's emails i.e.
"I will tell you this, Russia if you're listening, I hope that you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."
I mean, you don't have to be a Mensa member to get it! Then not long after there were the GRU's spearphishing actions, leading to Robert Mueller's GRU indictments. Mueller not only defined a conspiracy in the case of his indictment filed against 12 GRU agents in 2018, but made it public, E.g.
These were cited by former prosecutor Mimi Rocah last year, e.g.
"On or about July 27, 2016, the conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts on a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clinton's personal office. They also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign. '
National Security specialist and counterinsurgency expert Malcolm Nance also reaffirmed at the time how Roger Stone was the "bridge and link for that information" passed from the Trump campaign to Russian intelligence. Adding: "This is a critical, critical indictment. They're saying they've identified the link."
How much more evidence of Russiagate does an intelligent and aware person need? Wait, there is also the Michael Flynn connection. Flynn was indicted - and later jailed- for his collaboration with the Russkies and even admitting guilt. Indeed, the report from the FBI Flynn interview, known as the FBI 302, showed clearly Flynn was not coerced in any way, and further was given every chance to take an honorable out.
To that end during the interview the agents gave Flynn every opportunity to come clean, even parroting back his own words to try to jog his memory. But Flynn insisted on lying about his conversations with the Russian ambassador Kislyak - regarding U.S. sanctions and a UN vote. Given the FBI had intercepts of the phone conversations the FBI couldn't help but notice they conflicted with the public account.
What's more, the statement filed at the time of Flynn's guilty plea showed Flynn coordinated the substance of his calls to Kislyak with a senior member of the Trump transition team. A collusion no brainer, hell a conspiracy no brainer.
None of this has a thing to do with what HRC lawyer Sussmann said or didn't say independently to the feds. It's time the WSJ and the Right's toads and Trump assets cease trying to find excuses for the necessary investigations of that Traitor. Do not use Durham, or Sussmann, to try to deflect focus from what happened in 2016!
See Also:
Watch Out for Bill Barr's Flunky John Durham to Fabricate a Report That Would "Absolve" Russia of 2016 Election Interference
And:
No comments:
Post a Comment