Long time CTH readers are aware of the side-eye position toward Steve Bannon we have always carried. However, that said, this indictment today [pdf here] as contrast against the expressed declaration by AG Bill Barr that “politics will never be allowed to influence prosecutions” seems rather disingenuous. [More on This Later]
At the 30,000 ft level, this action by the Southern District of New York looks timed to create a cloud of demoralization over Trump supporters.
Do not let that effort/intent succeed.
DOJ Press Release: Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced the unsealing of an indictment charging BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA for their roles in defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” that raised more than $25 million.
It’s not an indictment, it’s a Criminal Information with no grand jury, which suggests counsel for defendant approached DOJ to structure an agreement. The plea agreement likely also included an agreement for method of public release. [LINK HERE] Last year John Spiropoulos explained the Clinesmith information for OAN TV. WATCH:
Today the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held a full panel hearing to decide the outcome of the unopposed DOJ and defense motion to drop the case against Michael Flynn.
If you ever read the indictment of SSCI Security Director James Wolfe [pdf HERE] you would notice how FBI Washington Field Office Supervisory Special Agent Brian Dugan conducted his leak investigation that ultimately led to James Wolfe.
As SSA Dugan explains his investigative process, he goes to great lengths to describe how he went to the FISA court to pick up a copy of the Carter Page FISA application on March 17, 2017. Agent Dugan then takes it to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence where he gave it to SSCI Security Director James Wolfe.
Simple Questions: Why did SSA Dugan go to the FISC to pick up a copy?
Why didn’t Agent Dugan just go to Main Justice and pick up a copy from the DOJ-NSD file that contained the FISA application? Why go to the FISA Court for a copy?
This is not supposition; this is the process described and outlined in court records. So, why go to the FISC and not the DOJ?
♦ Secondly, SSA Dugan goes to extreme lengths to draw attention to his copy; he calls the top secret FISA application an “FBI equity” in numerous documents. It’s his equity, his document, because he was the original equity holder of the document.
Agent Dugan was responsible for generating it. Dugan repeats that provenance again, and again in court records throughout 2018: “FBI Equity“.
We have a saying in the south: ‘hang around a one-legged man long enough and eventually you’re gonna start limping‘. This interview is an example of how that cuts through the BS, spin and political chaff and countermeasures. Steven Schrage should be trusted as far as you can spit into a hurricane – which is to say, not at all.
First, in an article to accompany his media effort, Schrage waxes philosophical and woefully about how his years-long good friend and phd supervisor, Stephan Halper, the one-legged character in the metaphor, turned out to be a politically motivated snake and spy. Oh, but all the years previous this wasn’t noticed? Not buying it.
Second, Schrage sat and watched Michael Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova get raked over the coals for three+ years only now, right now, to find his conscience bothered by his participation in assisting the lies pushed by his friend against them? Isn’t that convenient timing?… Yeah, sure. I might have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.
Third, Schrage notes he was interviewed by John Durham. Horsepucky. Durham doesn’t interview anyone; someone else does, someone very specific; and the fact that Schrage has no clue who that person is implies an aspect to the side-show he now presents as total nonsense. In short, this is a distraction story…. Look over there…. shiny things.
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I’ve watched and researched these intelligence characters for so long their M.O. screams like visible strings on marionettes. And yes, once you see the strings it’s impossible to return to a time when you did not see them. This interview is a purposeful ruse.
Today Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsay Graham released a set of talking points [full pdf below – AND here] from the FBI during a briefing on February 14, 2018 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The unknown FBI briefer is informing the SSCI about the reliability of Chris Steele’s primary sub-source, and whether he agrees with the Dossier content & conclusions:
At first blush the impression from the release; and indeed the expressed position as outlined by Graham in the release; is that some unknown entity from the FBI was misleading the SSCI in February of 2018 about Christopher Steele and the perspective of his primary sub-source. However, there’s a deeper story.
Within the release it must be noted the date of the briefing material is February 14, 2018. The unknown FBI briefer is saying, in essence, the primary sub-source doesn’t dispute the Dossier material. Obviously this position is demonstrably false given how the PSS said the Dossier was full of “rumor”, “gossip”, “innuendo” and “bar talk”.
The FBI briefer is misleading the Senate and so today we see the angry position expressed by Graham as he reveals this misleading briefing. However, five days prior to this briefing, on February 9, 2018, the text messages between SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and Chris Steele’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, were released. This frames the accurate context to consider the position of the SSCI and FBI briefer on Feb 14, 2018.
Do not misinterpret anger for defeatism. Truth is the fuel for cold anger, and it’s time everyone begins accepting some painful truths.
What some have called “Spygate” is not a frozen moment in time or a set of dates on a calendar with a beginning and an end. Spygate was the originating process to ensure the DC system did not experience the disruption carried by Donald John Trump; but it was only the originating process….
….The process of opposition against Donald Trump is a continuum.
Those who use DC for influence and affluence control the mechanisms within the self-actuating system. This includes both Democrats and Republicans as they both feed from the same trough. In the effort to remove Donald Trump, both wings of the uniparty bird were aligned with an identical purpose; Democrats carrying out their effort openly, and the republican elements operating covertly as to retain the DC premise.
Specifically, one common misconception is thinking the Mueller special counsel was an outcome of an action by President Trump when he fired former FBI Director James Comey. This is false. The special counsel process was a continuum in the effort to remove the threat that Donald Trump represented back in the early primary days of 2016. The system, writ large, was aligned with this purpose.
There would have been a special counsel investigating the nonsense around ‘Trump-Russia’ regardless of Comey being fired. The special counsel was always part of the plan.
As you absorb just how far the communists running Nashville Tennessee have gone in this story, it is worth remembering this is the same city where people were picked up off the street and forced into involuntary internment/quarantine camps in May. One man jumped the fence and escaped the detention camp. The Nashville police hunted him down and recaptured him. [BACKSTORY] Think about this people !!
In the latest development a non-domiciled Nashville citizen named Joseph Bryant (61) was arrested for refusing to wear a face mask outside. His bail is set at $500 and he has a bond hearing today. Again… THINK ABOUT THIS: This is Democrat Mayor John Cooper.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A 61-year-old man was arrested Wednesday night after police said he repeatedly violated a Nashville public health order requiring masks to be worn in public.
At the 30,000 ft level, this action by the Southern District of New York looks timed to create a cloud of demoralization over Trump supporters.
