Firing Of Peter Strzock Is A Cowardly Capitulation To Dotard and GOP Quislings

Peter Strzok - 22 year veteran and former head of the FBI counterintelligence unit, the latest victim of Trump's covert purge on the Mueller investigation.


"One by one, the law enforcement and counter intelligence leadership actually in charge of the (Mueller) investigation - that has produced indictments - have been peeled off, destroyed in their careers. Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andy McCabe and now Peter Strzok's firing - the head of the FBI's counter intelligence division, added to the list."  Rachel Maddow last night.

We've  known for sometime that 22 year FBI veteran Peter Strzok has been a political punching bag for the Right's Trump-protecting extremists.  We knew that but didn't believe his own agency would kowtow to the traitors and toss him under the bus. But now with his firing  it's clear the Bureau totally capitulated to Trump and his GOP quislings who grilled Strzok in House hearings last month. The claim that  the firing was "by the book" is pure, unadulterated hog swill - not fit for intelligent consumption.

Recall in his stellar appearance last month, and despite all the wacko, unhinged Reeptard assaults on Strzok and his character -  even at one point threatening him with "contempt of congress" if he didn't answer a specific question (when he was forbidden to do so by the FBI)-   he kept his cool. In fact, more than kept his cool, in powerful, articulate rebuttals,  basically gutting all the GOP mean-spirited minnows with each response. Oh, as well as the riled rowdy Southern turd Trey Gowdy,

described aptly by one blogger as  "dripping so much venom against Strzok he needed a bedpan under his foaming lips". 

The ostensible PR reason for firing Strzok was an exchange of text messages with FBI colleague and lawyer Lisa Page. Page wrote in ome frenzied text: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Whereupon Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it."  

Indeed, Strzok gave an exhaustive explanation for the texts which fell totally within the purview of first amendment protections - which evidently his own Bureau doesn't believe in. He told the gathered lawmakers at the hearing:


"In terms of the text, 'we will stop it', you need to understand that was written off the cuff and in response to a series of events that dated from insulting an immigrant family whose son was a war hero.  And my presumption, based on this disgusting behavior, is that the American population would not allow someone demonstrating that behavior to become president of the United States. It was in no way, unequivocally, with any suggestion,  that me or the FBI would take any action to improperly impact the electoral process.  For any candidate. So I take great disagreement to your assertion to what that text was or wasn't.  That was clearly a statement made in jest and using hyperbole, realizing that millions of Americans were likely to vote for candidate Trump and I acknowledge that is absolutely in their right and that is what makes our democracy the process that it is.

But to expect to parse down a text like it's some sort of contract or talk is simply not consistent with my or most people's use of text messaging.

I can assure you, Mr. Chairman, at no time in any of these texts did those personal beliefs enter into the realm of any action I took. Furthermore, this isn't just me sitting here, so you don't have to take my word for it.  At every step, at every investigative decision, there were multiple layers of people above me, assistant director, deputy director, director of the F.B.I., and multiple layers of people below me, section chiefs, unit chiefs and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions. They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me anymore than I would tolerate it in them. That is who we are as the FBI. And the suggestion that I, in some dark chamber in the F.B.I., would somehow cast aside all of these procedures, all of these safeguards and somehow be able to do this is astounding to me.  It simply couldn’t happen. And the proposition that that is going on and it might occur anywhere in the FBI deeply corrodes what the FBI is in American society. The effectiveness of their mission and it is deeply destructive."

And  his most damning indictment of the day:

“I understand we are living in a political era in which insults and insinuation often drown out honesty and integrity. I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart.'

Let me note here the inspector general’s office found no evidence that the attitudes reflected in the texts affected investigatory work, but said the pair’s text messages “cast a cloud” over the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.  Trump and his allies nevertheless blasted Strzok, making him the poster boy for their claim that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a “witch-hunt”. I suspected then, as now, the FBI acted precipitously in response - both to cut ties with Andrew McCabe, and now Strzok.

In Strzok's case the firing never should have been, and represents a historical miscarriage of justice by an agency that ought to have had his back. Yet it now appears to have knuckled under to the kooks and extremists of the GOP. Strzok’s lawyer,  Aitan Goelman,  said FBI deputy director David Bowdich ordered the firing on Friday – overruling the bureau’s office of professional responsibility and going against the recommendation of the career FBI official (Candace M. Will)  responsible for employee discipline.  Ms. Will  had said Strzok should be suspended for 60 days and stripped of his supervisory responsibilities.

Did Trump or one of his henchmen get to Bowdich? Did Devin Nunes or any of his gang play a role?  If so how? Inquiring minds want to know and there are many - especially after a super patriot is taken down.  In the words of Aitan Goelman, Strzok's lawyer:

“The decision to terminate was taken in response to political pressure, and to punish Special Agent Strzok for political speech protected by the first amendment, not on a fair and independent examination of the facts.”

Predictably, the Traitor Doh-Turd exulted over the firing, dispatching the typical excrement peculiar to this  lying thug:

“Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI – finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction – I just fight back!” 

Why wouldn't he exult, given the Mueller investigation's ancillary support leaders have been "peeled off" as Maddow noted (top quote).  As she puts it clearly then, deputy director David Bowdich has been an accessory after the fact in helping to carry out Trump's desires to eliminate the critical FBI staff as Mueller's noose closes in. There can be no other interpretation: it was a political hit job.  Don't believe me? Look at the list of those disposed of, shown in one graphic last night on Maddow's show, i.e. the corroborating witnesses for former Director Comey:

FBI Director - James Comey (FIRED)

FBI Deputy Director - Andrew McCabe (FIRED)

FBI Chief of Staff - James Rybicki  (Quit Under Fire) 

FBI General Counsel - James Baker (Quit Under Fire) 

FBI Deputy Director & Chief Counsel - Lisa Page (Quit Under Fire) 

FBI Exec, Director for National Security - Carl Ghattas (Quit Under Fire) 

FBI Assoc, Deputy Director: David Bowdich (STILL there) 

And we see that Bowdich, the only one still with a job, is the one who disposed of Strzok. Coincidence? You tell me.   As Maddow put it:

"With all of these guys picked off now, who's going to back up James Comey? Once you work your way through all the witnesses who might testify otherwise ...well, then you're free to tell any story you want regarding what happened between the president and the FBI Director."

In other words, one crucial thread of Mueller's investigation (to do with obstruction of justice) has been gutted from within, i.e. by domestic enemies. Bowdich? Don't make me laugh. He will probably be given the same ultimatum as with Strzok: "Do what I say or you will be gone next!"

WHO is the mysterious "I"? I'd place my bet on AG Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Doing the traitor's dirty work from behind the scenes, when he's supposedly recused.   

One positive aspect of all this is that Peter Strzok's  GoFundMe page., to cover his legal expenses, has now topped a quarter million dollars. At least We the People are aware of the side of justice the latest victim of Trump's purge is on. And it is emphatically not the same side as Trump or his henchmen.

Devin Nunes Ought To Be Hung As A Traitor If He Releases Classified Memo

The slimy, traitorous rat Devin Nunes who's tried previously to sabotage investigations. Now he wants to release a classified memo against the warnings of the Dept. Of Justice. The reckless POS ought to be hung as a traitor if he does release his material - especially without the context of the Democrats' counter memo.

Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks appearing on 'All In'  made no bones about the fear she felt earlier this evening at the actions of consummate rat and traitor Devin Nunes. He had ostensibly recused himself from the House Intelligence Committee- but has now threatened to release a classified memo which he'd already been warned was "reckless". This warning was from the Department of Justice and its reasoning is sound: the purported memo contains critical information - all classified - on the mode of operations employed in serving FISA warrants. It applies with special force to the unmasking of a known Russian agent, Carter Page, whose several meetings with known FSB agents had been brought to the attention of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. This was largely thanks to separate intel intercepts dispatched from a number of European nations (e.g. the UK,  Netherlands, Germany).

While the blowhard Right opinionists,  e.g. Daniel Hoffman, WSJ today ('The Steele Dossier Fits the Russian Playbook',  p. A17)  insist it's all a Kremlin -hatched plan to overthrow Trump, we know better. We know instead this is all part of the Right's  (and Trump's)objective to discredit the ongoing Mueller investigation into the real collusion (more accurately the conspiracy) with the Russians, to insert Trump into office. But the useful idiot Hoffman - contrary to all we know from the CIA, DIA, FBI etc. - claims former M16 spy Christopher Steele was basically a Kremlin stooge .

Meanwhile,  Devin Nunes' reckless memo - to be released in the next twenty or so hours -   without any context and with names of sources - is part of this nefarious network. In this case to debase the FBI and the DOJ, or as former DOJ special agent Matt Miller it put it,  "to attack the rule of law".

Hoffman focuses his venting on the Steele Dossier per se, which I have already read and concluded is totally what an informed MI6 operative would write. He ignores the original independent information regarding the meeting between the Russkies and Trumpies - as brought to the attention of then CIA chief John Brennan.  For example, Hoffman notes that Carter Page insisted while he was in Moscow he never attended any secret meetings.  Hoffman then blabs:

"This is exactly what you'd expect if the Kremlin followed its usual playbook, accurate basic facts provided as bait to convince Americans that the fake info is real."

In other words, Page was in Moscow - that is the genuine info - but that he attended secret meetings as asserted in the Steele Dossier, was "fake".  Disinfo crafted by the renegades in the Kremlin who actually used it to dupe an experienced British spy!  The point Hoffman misses is that the secret Carter Page meetings were actually out there long before the Steele Dossier contents were known. His meetings indeed had been intercepted by different intel agencies across Europe including by the Swiss Spezialdienst  of which my Swiss friend Rolf had once been a member.  As Rolf put it soon after John Brennan had noted the foreign intel origins of Page's antics:

"They'd have known everything, even each time he had to leave the room to go to a restroom"

So, in other words, Hoffman's op ed is simply another in a long line of hit pieces on the Steele Dossier and its author.

As for Nunes, his traitorous ways in releasing classified material precede him, and we last saw that performance in March, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/03/devin-nunes-leaks-classified-info.html

As I noted therein:

"Nunes by his feckless and reckless actions confirmed once and for all what many of us already believed: he is merely a Trump toady doing his master's work. After all, this turkey  served on Trump’s national security transition team, so why would he not seek to do all possible to cover for his Fuhrer?"

Why indeed? Because when all is said and done it is actually Trump attacking all the ancillary investigators on either side of Robert Mueller. We've already lost (two months' early) Andrew McCabe  - who resigned today - and now Rod Rosenstein is being subjected to pressure. Or soon will be.  The take of both Matt Miller and Jill Wine -Banks is that the memo the traitor Nunes is about to release will single out Rosenstein for getting a FISA warrant on Carter Page  -after his shenanigans in Moscow became known via foreign intel agency intercepts .

Included in the release will be the underlying workings of exactly how FISA warrants are obtained, the detailed methods used and names of sources (and  the name of the judge who issued the FISA warrant). In other words, it amounts to exposing the trade craft of our intelligence agencies and likely that of the Europeans too. Even one hundred years ago such transgression would be met by a fusillade of bullets from a firing squad.  Three hundred years ago in England, the rat would have been hung, drawn and quartered. Meaning he is first hung by the neck - but released before expiring - then lain prone as his belly is gutted and intestines dragged out, and then each of 4 limbs chopped off in turn as the culprit remains semi-conscious - but screaming.

Personally, I think the bastard should just be hung - no waste of any bullets.  No waste of extra energy in chopping off limbs or removing guts.

Janice, wifey, just came into the room in tears after watching Rachel Maddow and echoed Jill Wine -Banks that she "never felt more afraid at what's happening in the country." Especially as Nunes and His Rat Reepos are prepared to release this totally cherry picked memo (but with classified content where it serves his purpose) without even permitting the House Intel Democrats to release a counter memo providing the context.   As Matt Miller put it: "This would be like a prosecution making a case at a trial, and not allowing the defense to be heard."

So, in other words, Nunes and cohort are doubly  traitorous!

I've told Janice to leave the sequence of political shows she usually watches (All In, Maddow, Last Word) and try to catch her breath and change perspective. Maybe watch one of the Xmas movies she still has on the DVR list. Well, this she decided to do, which is just as well as she's been experiencing chest pains and arrhythmia since last night - again - all part of this political upheaval.

We both sometimes wonder how nice, how grand it would be,   to be ensconced in a little burg somewhere in a sane nation like Canada.  Smug and snug in a beautiful little bubble beyond the toxic Trump world.

Alas, that is not our fate.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/77490/of-trump-nunes-and-the-bigliememo

Update (1/31):  As usual the WSJ in its editorial ('The House Memo, The FBI and FISA') skews and distorts the facts as when it writes at the very end:  "The same progressives who demanded accountability for FISA courts after Edward Snowden exposed federal snooping now want President Trump to shut down the House's limited attempt at transparency".  Which is mixing chalk and cheese. In fact, as per my post of 4/2/14 the bone of contention with the FISA- Snowden issue was NSA head James Clapper's admission to a Senate Intel committee that NSA "performed warrantless searches on Americans' emails and phone calls."  This was revealed by Snowden's exposure of the Muscular, Xkeyscore etc. programs.  Hence, it was not that progressives "demanded" anything out of the blue for a bogus "transparency"-  as Nunes is doing - but rather merely going by James Clapper's own acknowledgement that 4th amendment protections were violated.  Also, in the process, Snowden never disclosed any sources, methods in his releases. These were carefully redacted. Nunes' memo does no such thing which is why FBI head Christopher Wray made the unusual public statement about having "grave concern" over its release. The traitor Nunes, then, unlike Snowden,  has not only revealed our trade craft methods to the Russian FSB and GRU, but also will be giving the names associated with the FISA warrant process. 

Update 2/3:  The memo release turned out to be anticlimactic in terms of being a document Dotard can use to fire Rod Rosenstein. Why?  Because the last page in reference to George Papadopoulos makes it clear HIS disclosures of the Russia associations to an Australian diplomat preceded any Steele Dossier revelations. In addition, former Bush Jr. security advisor Fran Townsend confirmed yesterday on CBS Early Show that foreign intercepts had also been used, again long before the Steele Dossier became known.  The biggest travesty of this whole political PR stunt remains Nunes' release of classified information - making him a "treasonous rat" as Bill Maher put it on Real Time.