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Attorney General: Spying on Trump occurred; investigation begun

These two stories gleaned from yesterday’s House testimony by Attorney General William Barr at first glance might seem unrelated:

Of course these stories are related. The spying occurred in conjunction with the FBI’s effort to pin the fake Russian collusion accusation on Trump.

If a legitimate investigation occurs here, then a number of people will be facing jail time, for perjury, for abuse of power, for actually conspiring to overturn a legal election. Moreover, it appears the investigation might not be limited to actions by the FBI. According to Barr’s testimony today at a Senate hearing, multiple intelligence agencies are implicated.

While it is important that the top law enforcement in the United States publicly acknowledged that the Obama administration and its intelligence agencies surveilled its domestic political opponents during the heat of a presidential election, it is what [Barr] said next that was most startling: that the CIA and other federal agencies in addition to the FBI may have been involved. “I’m not talking about the FBI necessarily, but intelligence agencies more broadly,” he said.

This whole Russian-collusion scam was corrupt from the get-go. Its only benefit is that it has revealed the depth of corruption in the executive branch of the federal government, which tried to set itself up as an American Praetorian Guard, with the right to anoint its favored political leaders as president, rather than the voters.

More importantly, this investigation is going to find out how much the Democratic Party, and its leader at the time, Barack Obama, were involved in this scam. We know already that the Washington bureaucracy is highly partisan and Democratic. What we don’t know is if that unhealthy partisanship was weaponized by Obama to generate this scam.

Barr might very well find out.

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15 comments

  • Klystron

    Let’s see how much daylight this gets in the MSM…

  • Klystrom: You are joking of course. No one expects these Democratic Party mouthpieces to cover this, except in a manner that might discredit the investigation.

    The solution is that the general public must find alternative news sources (such as mine!) to get more fair-minded reporting.

  • Cotour

    If you remember during the transition between the Obama administration and the Trump administration there were conversations in the media about how there were things being done within the intelligence and security agencies and the policies that controlled them that allowed for this abuse of power. There were many discussions in the media on the subject I believe related to Samantha Powers and Susan Rice and others including Obama.

    On another subject, I found this Bill Barr questioning and his answers during the most recent questioning by Congress very interesting.

    https://youtu.be/H3-tnTKLv64

    Bill Barr plays a very cagey game and he understands well who and what he is up against and must deal with. “IT” is now well on its way and the new Attorney General understands that the entire country and our Constitution relies completely on his judgement and upon his shoulders.

    Who will go down initially? Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzock, Page, Lynch (?) and several others. Why? Because they exist in the Pedestrian realm and have a fiduciary responsibility related to their jobs, they are employees. However Obama and Ma Barker who are as we all understand at the center of all of this will need a higher degree of evidence because they are a part of the Political realm. Obama because he is a former president and Hillary because she was a senator, a politically empowered position and Secretary Of State which was a political appointment and a defeated presidential candidate that garnered many millions of votes.

    Obama will skate, unless there is overwhelming evidence of bad acts and will be tarnished. Hillary will have a more complex road because she has bridged between the two realms. Both of them IMO are guilty as hell and have both thrown the Constitution out the window in order to 1. Win and 2. Do anything to damage Trump, a duly elected president.

    “IT” approaches in earnest.

  • Cotour

    Bill Barr, a walking talking legal heart attack.

    https://youtu.be/VCa5lefvLls

    He will however cut both ways, let the chips fall where they may.

    And this, what will be coming down the road, is why America and its Constitution is the difference that creates the distinction and hope for salvation between America and all others. The structure of the Constitution allows for people to become politically empowered and gives them their fiduciary responsibilities related to their empowerment. And if they decide to abuse it they run the risk of being embarrassed at the minimum or much worse at the maximum.

    The temptation is great to abuse power, it is the nature of man to do so. And the Founders understood this well and structured something so simple to counter balance that nature.

    Embrace the contention and chaos, it is the only way and is the only antidote.

  • Wodun

    A key problem is that the Democrats were so effective in their propaganda that people still think there was Russian collusion, despite zero evidence, and that the Obama administration was justified in spying on the Trump campaign because of suspicion Russian collusion.

    There isn’t a good way to deprogram this because people don’t know, or care, that they were lied to by journalists, politicians, and current/former government workers.

    Another key problem is that many Democrats think a coup and other abuses of power are justified because they think Trump is Hitler.

    The psychological manipulation through carefully crafted deceits is unprecedented in our history and the method that would be used to disseminate the truth willingly and knowingly participated in the coup, so they can’t be honest now or risk their own destruction.

  • wayne

    HOPPEWAVE
    “The Intellectuals So to Speak”
    https://youtu.be/LaDNHN_3oHU
    6:02

  • Edward

    As I recall, the New York Times announced, two years ago, that Trump’s campaign was being spied upon, so Trump tweeted that he had been wire tapped. I also seem to recall that the FBI said that they had surreptitiously placed someone into the Trump campaign, too. And that does not count the text messages in which high level government officials said they were working against the Trump campaign. These are definitely signs that the government took sides in the 2016 presidential election. Just like the IRS did in 2010 and 2012. And if the IRS harassed some of the members of the political groups that they were discriminating against, then the IRS used applications political groups as a means to spy on those groups.

    Wodun wrote: “Another key problem is that many Democrats think a coup and other abuses of power are justified because they think Trump is Hitler. The psychological manipulation through carefully crafted deceits is unprecedented in our history and the method that would be used to disseminate the truth willingly and knowingly participated in the coup, so they can’t be honest now or risk their own destruction.

    But who was it in Europe, last century, that used psychological manipulation through carefully crafted deceits? Not Trump, but … It looks it is not Trump who is acting like Hitler in this country.

    What kind of country has a coup rather than a peaceful transition of power? Certainly not this country.

  • Peter Francis

    https://thefederalist.com/2017/10/29/obamas-campaign-gave-972000-law-firm-funneled-money-fusion-gps/

    Even more evidence that the concertation came from the top ;

    “Obama’s Campaign Paid $972,000 To Law Firm That Secretly Paid Fusion GPS In 2016”.

    “The Washington Post reported last week that Perkins Coie, an international law firm, was directed by both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to retain Fusion GPS in April of 2016 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump.

    OFA, Obama’s official campaign arm in 2016, paid nearly $800,000 to Perkins Coie in 2016 alone, according to FEC records. The first 2016 payments to Perkins Coie, classified only as “Legal Services,” were made April 25-26, 2016, and totaled $98,047. A second batch of payments, also classified as “Legal Services,” were disbursed to the law firm on September 29, 2016, and totaled exactly $700,000.

    FEC records as well as federal court records show that Marc Elias, the Perkins Coie lawyer whom the Washington Post reported was responsible for the payments to Fusion GPS on behalf of Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, also previously served as a counsel for OFA. In Shamblin v. Obama for America, a 2013 case in federal court in Florida, federal court records list Elias as simultaneously serving as lead attorney for both OFA and the DNC.”

    Too many dots to not connect.

  • Peter Francis

    Oh I forget to add to the above;

    “At the same time that Hillary’s campaign, Obama’s campaign organization, and the DNC were simultaneously paying Perkins Coie, the spouse of one of Fusion GPS’s key employees was working directly for Obama in the West Wing. Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post reporter-turned-political operative, was serving as a top communications adviser to Obama while the Obama administration was reportedly using information from the dossier to justify secret surveillance of Trump campaign staff. Murray is married to Neil King, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who was hired by Fusion GPS in December of 2016. While at the Wall Street Journal, King worked alongside Fusion GPS’s core team, even sharing bylines with Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS executive who personally hired Steele to probe Trump’s alleged Russia connections.”

  • Cjones1

    Mueller was FBI Director when the IRS interfered in the 2012 election, Hillary committed national security violations, and as she ran her “pay to play” diplomacy. There was a whole lot of Russian collaboration under his watch. Was he on her call or email list?
    His former Obama administration colleagues were still at election interference in the 2016 election as they covered up Hillary’s national security violations with rampant official misconduct including obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, perjury, and sweetheart immunity deals. If Lanny Davis had been subjected to the prosecutorial fury that Cohen experienced, the whole Clinton NDA, bribery, intimidation, dirty money operations would have been exposed. Hillary’s lawyers, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson were granted immunity and then had the audacity to demand NDAs of the FBI agents.
    Mueller’s former Obama administration colleagues collaborated with foreign operatives (Russians, diplomats, and covert agents) to set up Trump associates and disseminate the Russian sourced, Clinton campaign financed, Steele dossier. They influenced the election, illegally conducted espionage on Trump associates, leaked Steele dossier unverified innuendos, unmasked names, and undermined the transitioning Trump administration.
    Mueller’s investigation was founded on official misconduct and espionage. His team of investigators were Clinton and Obama kangaroos – as were the SDNY team – and their ham sandwich prosecutions likely ran out the statute of limitations on holding many of those responsible accountable.
    Hopefully AG Barr can clean up the rampant official misconduct and the dereliction of duty. I worry his personal contacts with the Mueller family may influence his professional responsibilities.
    I looked at the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 and I am curious whether those charged by Mueller and SDNY will be able to seek redress and compensation since their prosecutions were founded on official misconduct and corruption of the government.

  • wayne

    In the Alternate Universe, all these perpetrators would be rendered off-shore.

  • Cotour

    When ever I hear how outraged the Democrats are because someone dares to call into question the actions of the FBI leadership and the plain to see favoritism that they dealt out I ask myself. “Are the Democrats suggesting that the FBI and its leadership are above the law and can do as they please and see fit? Which would include the choosing of who the president of the United States shall be and shall not be?”

    Because that is certainly what they sound like they are saying.

    Many Democrat leaders and some Republican are outraged that these FBI bad actors are called into question. And the FBI leadership intentions may have been to some degree pure, but their are sure and fast rules that exist that ensure certain rights to the public and they must never be trod on. There are sure and fast rules and policies under girded by duly passed law based in the Constitution. And they IMO have flushed them down the toilet and made themselves the sole arbiter, essentially an all powerful fourth branch of government.

    I missed the paragraph in the Constitution where the Founders created the FBI and gave them this awesome history altering power.

    Abuse of power by the leadership of the FBI, Not the rank and file, is what we have all witnessed and this is exactly what is expected in an agency that has such awesome power. This is abuse of power of the first order and party affiliation should have no effect on the analysis. It is what it is.

    Bill Barr will be the second main element in how the American people will rescue the Constitution and the country from the clutches of corrupted partisan government actors and their abuse of power and the surrendering of their fiduciary responsibilities and the tyranny that accompanies it.

    The first element of the saving of the Constitution and the country was the moment that D.J.Trump was elected president and forced it all to come out into the light of day instead of the darkness of the corrupt wink and a nod under world that grows rotten with power. Who here can imagine our country under the control of the likes of a Hillary Clinton? If not for the electoral college, an equalizing and anti gaming the system mechanism that is exactly what our reality would be.

    These two main players first Trump and now Barr will deliver us through the chaos that is sure to ensue in the fast approaching future. And it is all by design and it will be beautiful. And I do not mean that in a vindictive way, not at all. Why? because both party’s are equally likely to be perverted and corrupt and will tend to foster tyranny. Each would foster their own flavor of tyranny.

    The Founders will be vindicated once again through what is about to happen, to what ever degree that it will evolve. Will everyone be happy with the results? Of course not, but again, that is by design.

    (And it is beyond me whether all of these counter balances to the abuse of power was entirely by design or that the design was as close to all inclusive because of its simplicity. What ever the answer the result was brilliant!)

  • Cotour

    PS: This has now migrated into the more solid and tactile black and white Legal realm and has left the more gray ethereal and fluid Political realm. And in doing so some level of justice and reconciliation can occur.

    And that is exactly what we all need.

    Coming “IT” is.

  • Cotour

    Something down the road approaches.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/barr-assigns-us-attorney-in-connecticut-to-review-origins-of-russia-inquiry/ar-AABjF9U

    Bill Barr is moving in the correct general direction. Why has Comey been so high profile in the media and on talk shows? He attempts to spin in the mind of the public that he was justified in spying on the Trump campaign because he had a warrant.

    Or do I mean surveilling, or was it really spying because the warrants were fraudulent from the jump?

    And what of his self admitted leaking of secure presidential information to one of his friends with the intent of triggering a special prosecutor? Oh what a tangled web Mr. Comey has spun for himself.

  • Cotour

    And what can we see in this associated story featuring Mr. Rosenstein, who IMO is golden.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/rod-rosenstein-slams-former-fbi-director-james-comey-in-speech-11557792860

    Mr. Rosenstein is well in the clear here regarding any corrupt activities towards the president by the Obama FBI hierarchy. And judging by the retirement speech that Attorney General Barr gave him at his retirement ceremonies they are best buds and in lock step.

    This is real pedestrian realm legal trouble for Comey and many others in the mostly all fired for cause former leadership of the FBI and the DOJ. Lets hope that Brennan and Clapper are included in the party.

    Who here thinks that Rachel Maddow will be driving down this road any time soon? God Damn it, Trump was not suppose to win! This was all suppose to go away when Ma Barker was crowned.

    Ma Barker was correct, they very well may, “All hang by nooses if Trump wins”.

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