The testimony of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears to have gone long but came up short on details. According to sources on the Committee, McCabe stated that he could not recall critical details on the famous dossier that was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier contained information given to a former British spy by Russian government and other sources, including salacious details against then candidate Donald Trump. I have repeatedly stated that I do not agree that the current facts warrant the calls for the firing of McCabe. However, some of the gaps in his testimony are likely to trigger a new round of subpoenas to dive deeper into these issues.
McCabe’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was most interesting on the dossier, which McCabe reportedly insisted was largely confirmed by his team. However, according to reports, McCabe only cited one fact as verified: that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had traveled to Moscow. The dossier had a great deal of highly disturbing allegations against Trump that have not been confirmed.
What is also interesting is the alleged gaps in recollection on when McCabe became aware that Clinton and the DNC had funded the dossier. This would seem one of the more critical facts in evaluating the reliability of a dossier. If it were funded by the main political opponent of the target, it would certainly taint the document.
Obviously, more will be learned by the testimony of demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker. However, a new subpoena will reportedly issue for FBI counsel Lisa Page who had an affair with Peter Strzok, a senior counterintelligence investigator at the F.B.I., and exchanged the disturbing text messages against Trump.
These complete testimonies should be public. The FBI has passed the point of usefulness in their demands for secrecy.
If everybody knew about the skullduggery plotted by these people within the Deep State entities of our government, there would be a lot less of this happening.
kevinbeck2015 – I watched a panel discussion by Judicial Watch yesterday and one of the panelists said he would rather refer to it as The Permanent State. These are GS-15s who are entrenched in their position and there is no way you can fire them. They can block just about anything you want. The report that thousands of employees are leaving the EPA actually gets rid of a level of The Permanent State in that agency.
Since there was a subthread involving the Muslim Brotherhood I thought this might be interesting.
“The United Kingdom just designated two Muslim Brotherhood groups as terror organizations. British Ambassador to Cairo Johan Casson said December 22 that Hasm and Liwa Al-Thawra are now proscribed terrorist organizations. Hasm is the Egypt-based, armed wing of the Brotherhood.
While most Muslim Brotherhood terror is carried out in Egypt and by Hamas based in the Gaza Strip, the Brotherhood has Washington, D.C. firmly in its political cross-hairs. There’s also a growing feeling among analysts that elements within the Brotherhood are pushing a more violent global agenda.”
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The following article is from Shareblue .
A senior FBI official who can reportedly verify that Donald Trump pressured former FBI Director James Comey to clear him in the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference was quietly reassigned by Trump’s FBI director, according to an explosive new report by the Washington Post.
In a sudden and unexpected move, James Baker — the FBI’s top lawyer — was just reassigned by FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. Baker told colleagues he will be “taking on other duties at the FBI,” the Post reported Thursday night.
Wray was installed as Trump’s chosen FBI director after Comey was fired.
Baker has served as the head of the FBI’s Office of General Counsel for years, but now the transfer is occurring as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has secured several convictions and indictments of senior Trump campaign officials.
The Post notes that Baker is “very close” to Comey.
Previous reporting indicates that Baker is one of very few senior officials with whom Comey consulted after Trump leaned on him to clear his name in the Russia probe.
Vox reported that Baker, along with Comey chief of staff Jim Rybicki and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, were told about the encounter between Trump and Comey.
Comey has testified to Congress that Trump demanded that he show him loyalty, drop the investigation into Michael Flynn, and publicly clear Trump of involvement in the Russia scandal.
Comey refused to bend to Trump’s pressure and was fired after.
Vox reporter Murry Waas said his source, a senior law enforcement official familiar with the Trump-Comey-Baker saga, told him that Baker “had more than one discussion” about Trump’s reported attempts to coerce Comey before firing him. His source also said Baker “almost certainly made extensive notes about those deliberations.”
Baker has been a target of Trump’s right-wing media allies. Circa, the news service operated by the pro-Trump Sinclair network of television stations, claimed that Baker was a “suspect” in an investigation of Department of Justice leaks.
Breitbart, run by former Trump campaign chairman and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, amplified Circa’s report, highlighting claims that the investigation was “criminal” in nature.
Trump has been known to take political cues from his media allies. He has repeatedly pushed issues – no matter how crackpot – after they were featured on Fox News, and is fond of repeating disproven conspiracies circulating on the right.
The latest news adds another piece of critical evidence suggesting that Trump was attempting to obstruct justice while the FBI and other entities within the government were trying to get to the bottom of Russia’s actions with the Trump campaign.
And with each new move, Trump is giving investigators even more to work with.
The Shareblue article above was written by Oliver Willis on December 21, 2017.
Re: “McCabe’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was most interesting on the dossier, which McCabe reportedly insisted was largely confirmed by his team. However, according to reports, McCabe only cited one fact as verified: that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had traveled to Moscow. The dossier had a great deal of highly disturbing allegations against Trump that have not been confirmed.”
The only alleged fact (from Steele’s trump dossier) that McCabe cited as having been verified was that Carter Page (the ex Navy intel dude) had traveled to Russia. Page resides and works in Russia. This reminded me of the scene in USUAL SUSPECTS when the federal agents grill Todd Hockney (played by Kevin Pollak). See the scene in URL, below
LOL!
Quiet reassignment of top FBI lawyer who had knowledge of Comey discussions with Trump = evidence of obstruction? (Shareblue)
Linda, the blawg won’t accept the link to the article when the title of the article is identical or nearly identical to the words in your post.
Try giving me keywords, phrases and names that don’t match the title in the web address too closely, but will be enough to lead me to the correct article anyway. Remember the article about the Christian evangelical woman from Texas who was being shunned for opposing Trump, and use your post on that topic as an example of how to direct me to the source.
Let’s try this one again and see.
https://shareblue.com/unemployment-is-rising-in-swing-states-that-voted-for-trump/
Anything from a David Brock publication like ShareBlue must be worth posting multiple times.
Sources like ShareBlue, Rush Limbaugh, etc. are bound to be objective and accurate.😂
If the FBI agent can “reportedly verify” that Trump tried to pressure Comey to clear him, that FBI guy should do so.
If Mueller thinks this guy is credible and can “reportedly verify” his accusations, he will in all likelihood obtain testimony from him, if he hasn’t already done so.
It was reported by POLITICO and others that the re-assigned FBI agent, Baker, was in contact with David Corn of MOTHER JONES in the weeks prior to the 2016 election.
It was noted before in this thread that MOTHER JONES published information about the existence of the dossier, and some of the allegations it contained, 8 days before the election.
This information is according to “GOP sources”, and David Corn has denied that Baker was the source of the leaked information published by MOTHER JONES.
The re-assignment of Baker was said to have occured within a few days of discovering the alleged contacts with David Corn.
At this point it’s not clear if Baker was allied with Peter Strzok, or if he was acting independently in allegedly contacting David Jones.
I hope that there are public where Jones and others testify about these issues.
The Mad Hatter @ the Tea Party, “Move Right! Move Right!”