Tag: John Durham

The Latest Turn in the Michael Flynn Case

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Well, I guess I might as well put in my two cents on General Flynn’s case.  With the release of the latest withheld notes between the various FBI and DOJ actors in this tragedy it is now obvious to anyone but the willfully blind that this was a takedown without any crime to justify it.

Strzok, McCabe and Comey engineered the prosecution as part of their strategy of undermining faith in the Trump administration and crippling its effectiveness by removing a competent man.  This was part of the whole Russian collusion myth.  Now every man on the street can read the details of how they did it.  The only question is what will be done to punish those who perpetrated it?

Will these criminals be allowed to walk away scot free?  Between this and the Mueller investigation, three years of the Trump presidency was bombarded with false innuendo by the hostile media and the various partisan deep state actors who leaked the fake news to the press.  These unelected tyrants hijacked our country and held hostage the workings of our government.  Strzok, McCabe and Comey should pay a heavy price. They need to go to jail.

And there are other parties that had a direct hand in this conspiracy.  John Brennan and James Clapper are up to their elbows in this thing.  Letting them walk away unscathed would be a travesty of justice.  With respect to the echelons above them, I assume they’ve insulated themselves and only a confession by Comey, Brennan or Clapper could shed light on higher level culpability.  I’ll leave that for later consideration if we ever see justice reach as far as the mid-level criminals.

Strzok, McCabe and Comey should go to prison.  But will they?  Six months ago, I would have said yes.  But it’s six months later and nothing has happened.  Barr made a lot of noise about spying and the inappropriate actions taken by the FBI.  He appointed Durham in May 2019, a year ago, to look into all aspects of the Russian collusion scam.  And what has happened?  As far as I can tell, nothing.  My belief is that Barr and Durham are collecting evidence and waiting to see who wins the 2020 election.  If Trump wins maybe they’ll slap a few wrists and publish a report about how to stop such atrocious things from ever happening again.  If the Dems win, they’ll publish a report saying that everything was done by the book and the system works beautifully.

I had thought that I was as cynical as it was possible to be.  I was wrong.  I now believe that the deep state is basically immune to reform.  Barr is an insider.  He has done nothing and that is all he intends to do.  It will take an outsider who tears it down with a wrecking ball to make it change.  I only hope that when President Trump is re-elected that he appoints a new attorney general whose background is in the military and this man demolishes the alphabet bureaus from the top down and rebuilds them with honest men.  But that is probably a fantasy that will never be realized.

Understand, I would like nothing better than to be proven completely wrong about Barr’s intentions.  If I looked at the news tomorrow morning and it had a photo of Comey being frog-marched out of his house in his pajamas at 3 a.m. I would be the happiest man in the world.  Hearing that Peter Strzok was turning state’s evidence and had implicated his boss McCabe in treason would make me giddy with delight.  But with every passing day I think it’s more and more clear that President Trump is the only honest man in Washington.  And because he is, I guess that the only honorable treatment that General Flynn will experience in this whole travesty is a pardon from the President when everyone else fails to serve justice.

Here’s an Essay That Jibes with How I Think Durham Will Attack This Problem

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Professor Charles Lipson wrote an article on Real Clear Politics called “Unraveling the Criminal Web at Comey’s FBI and Beyond.”  In it he discusses the way that the FBI conspirators falsified the facts in the Carter Page and other Russiagate fishing expeditions in order to obtain FISA Court warrants and maintain them.

His opening sentence lays out what I also think is how this investigation is being handled:

“The way to unravel a criminal conspiracy is to begin with the weakest links, the ones already doomed by convincing evidence. Knowing they face serious jail time, these “weak links” have powerful reasons to cooperate with law enforcement. Flipping on their fellow conspirators is the best way, perhaps the only way, to lessen their own sentences.”

And then he pinpoints who that weakest link is:

“So, who are the weakest links as Durham’s investigation moves forward? One is surely Kevin Clinesmith, a lawyer in Comey’s FBI who is highlighted in the Horowitz Report (pages 186-190). Sen. Lindsey Graham mentioned those pages in his Tuesday press conference. In them, Horowitz presents evidence that Clinesmith not only altered official documents, he completely changed their meaning. The altered documents painted Carter Page as a foreign spy; the originals said there was no evidence for that. The exculpatory evidence was hidden from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts. The lies helped gain a secret warrant to spy on Page.”

The essay ends with some advice for Clinesmith and his associates:

“Clinesmith, for one, has compelling incentives to say who knew what and when. He was apparently caught red-handed changing official documents. His lawyer ought to be seeking ways to lessen the criminal consequences. The only way to do that is to come clean.

Anybody who worked with Clinesmith should be thinking the same thing. It would be good for them and it would be good for the country.”

This fellow Clinesmith sounds like he is in for a world of hurt.  Will he flip on his buddies?  Gee, I hope so.  Man, I hope he gives up Comey.

 

U.S. Attorney Durham Disagrees

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Here is the text of Durham’s reaction to I.G. Horowitz’s report:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, December 9, 2019

Statement of U.S. Attorney John H. Durham

“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff.  However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department.  Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.  Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

For me the informative statement is, “last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”  Durham has the evidence and he’s going to find out who will be forced to take responsibility for abusing the FISA mechanism.  I wonder how soon the grand jury will be empaneled?  My longer-term readers know I am a vindictive so and so.  It would give me the greatest pleasure to hear that the lucky recipient of the Grand Jury’s attention decided to sell his fellow conspirators down the river.  Is it too much to hope for some action as a Christmas present?  Sigh.  Time will tell.

But the bigger picture is how this will impact the Democratic Primaries, the Impeachment Fraud and the 2020 Election.  Once again, I think we have to assume the Democrats are depending on the Media to downplay any negative impact from the investigation.

With respect to the primaries the biggest risk is for Biden.  If the overseas investigation touches on the Ukraine crimes then he won’t be the Democrat candidate in 2020.  I’m not sure Ukraine will actually show up in the investigation.  We’ll have to depend on Rudy Giuliani and the Senate to play up that angle.

As far as the Impeachment nonsense, it’s clear that the Attorney General’s investigation (through Durham) is what really caused the impeachment decision.  Possibly the Ukraine call was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Clapper and Brennan must be pretty scared.  But the Impeachment will be finished off pretty soon because if they don’t start soon it’s going to knock the various Senators running for president out of the race.  So possibly the investigation won’t get into high gear until the Senate exonerates the President.  Waiting that long is really annoying so I hope it’s not the case.

Finally, with respect to the 2020 election, if the investigation uncovers a true smoking gun, e.g., if one of the mid-level or higher conspirators turns state’s evidence, then President Trump will win in a landslide and the Republicans will end up with sizable majorities in the Congress.  If the investigation is only the normal trial of overambitious bureaucrats then the President will still win but more in line with his 2016 win.

So, let me end with an exhortation to Durham and Barr.  Hey boys, get to work!  Life is short and as one of my friends always says to me whenever I get excited about the Durham investigation, “it’s not enough unless they frog-march Comey and company out of their houses at 3am like they did to those poor guys whose only crime was they wouldn’t lie about Trump.”

 

Horowitz’s Report Available

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The IG’s Russiagate Report has been published and is available

https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf

Two of the recommendations seem to point at who Durham will be starting with:

The Department’s Office of Professional
Responsibility should review our findings related
to the conduct of Department attorney Bruce Ohr
for any action it deems appropriate. Ohr’s
current supervisors in CRM should also review
our findings related to Ohr’s performance for any
action they deem appropriate.

The FBI should review the performance of all
employees who had responsibility for the
preparation, Woods review, or approval of the
FISA applications, as well as the managers,
supervisors, and senior officials in the chain of
command of the Carter Page investigation for
any action it deems appropriate.

 

The first recommendation is specific to Bruce Ohr.

The second one is for the Carter Page FISA team.  Looks like those are the sacrificial lambs.  Barr and Durham, go get ’em.

 

post script – Durham says he has more and better info than the IG:

 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/statement-us-attorney-john-h-durham

 

Go get ’em Mr. Durham!

post post script

 

And Barr also says “not so fast!”

 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-william-p-barr-inspector-generals-report-review-four-fisa

 

Go get ’em Mr. Barr.

 

30NOV2019 – OCF Update

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So we’ve survived Thanksgiving and have today and tomorrow to recover sufficiently to stagger back into work on Monday.  Bravo, congratulations!

Looking ahead, The British General Election is a week from Thursday (December 12th) and by all accounts Boris Johnson will get his majority and the Brexit that it’s based on.  Supposedly he has all the Tory candidates sworn to a blood oath to vote for Brexit when they are elected.  As always, wait for the outcome but there may be some very good news for the English people by Christmas.

My article  “Reclaiming the Family – Part 3 – Recruit Grandma and Grandpa” seems to have been well received when I posted it on Tuesday.  I take particular pleasure in this because, from my point of view, advocating for practical and constructive action is greatly preferable to just spouting anger and predicting gloom and doom.  Not that there isn’t plenty to be angry and worried about but if you’re not going to do anything about it then just dig a hole and jump in.  I’ll try to expand the series when I have something useful to add.

Like everyone else I’m waiting impatiently for Durham to show some progress on his investigation.  Your guess is as good as mine on this whole thing.  We’ll just have to wait.

On the 2020 election things seem to be moving in the right direction.  The House is stuck with their impeachment fiasco.  Even the MSM has sort of gotten bored and wandered away from their freak show.  I don’t want to get too positive but it’s starting to look like the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate field is barren.  Even if Mrs. Clinton or Mrs. Obama “surprises” us by joining the race I don’t think that it will move the needle much at all.

So between now and Christmas there may be several very interesting stories developing.  Once I recover fully from the several hundred thousand calories I ingested this week I’ll diligently report on and bloviate about what I think they mean.

And of course I’ll faithfully update my Star Trek series.  The schlock shall not dry up.

Stay tuned.

President Trump Has a Very Good Day

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I watched President Trump announce the successful operation that eliminated al-Baghdadi.  I was struck by just how elated he sounded.  Apparently, this was something that he valued very highly and the superlative laden but well-deserved praise that he heaped on the special forces and other military personnel underscored how proud he was of their accomplishment.  President Trump also praised the Turkish, Russian, Syrian and Iraqi governments for wisely showing restraint when he informed them that he was sending an air force through their territories.

Of course, the President never misses an opportunity to throw a punch at his adversaries so when he also praised the Intelligence department personnel for the excellent job they had done, he made sure he mentioned that there were other intelligence personnel who were doing things that were less than praiseworthy.  And when he talked about the secrecy needed to protect the mission, he added that he kept Congress out of the loop because of their reputation for leaking secrets.

And when President Trump describes the final moments of the ISIS leader, that is when the discussion he provides differs from anything a typical politician would deliver.  Listen to his description, “He died a coward — crying, whimpering, screaming, and bringing three kids with him to die a certain death. And he knew the tunnel had no end. I mean, it was a — it was a closed-end — they call it a closed-end tunnel. Not a good place to be.”  His plain spoken and impolite way of describing his enemies is off-putting to many people who were raised to be polite even to monstrous individuals.  I guess I see what bothers them.  But I see that as their problem not his.  President Trump doesn’t believe in false modesty or misplaced politeness.  Al-Baghdadi was a monster.  The brutal murders of thousands of people, many recorded and televised on the internet are proof that this man was either completely insane or a remorseless murderer who valued human life not at all.  The fact that President Trump went out of his way to insult al-Baghdadi for cowardice is fitting.

After watching the interview, I followed up by watching an interview that Lindsay Graham did discussing the al-Baghdadi operation.  Despite Graham’s initial criticism of President Trump’s withdrawal of US troops from the Syrian “safe zone,” the Senator now sees the value in moving US soldiers away from a flash point between Turkish, Syrian and Kurdish forces and instead position them where they could provide strategic value without making themselves a target for any potential provocateurs in the region.  It’s remarkable how often the President’s positions start out being disparaged by the experts and pundits but end up accepted because they work.

This was a good day and despite all the impeachment hullaballoo, it was a good week too.  News from the NY Times that Durham’s investigation has been elevated to a criminal investigation seems to confirm that the long wait for results of all the evidence that Durham has been sifting through will soon be over and indictments will be forthcoming.  The nervousness displayed by Clapper and company tells me something too.  I don’t think they believed it would ever move forward to where we are now.

The rumor that James Baker has agreed to provide Durham with cooperative testimony while less certain is potentially the bigger story.  If one of the big or medium fishes in the cabal decides to provide state’s evidence it will be devastating for everyone on the Left.  That includes cabalists, the Media and probably some members of Congress that have been in on this up to their elbows.  While I’m not convinced that the rumor is true, the timing of it would make a lot of sense.  Finding out that you will be required to provide sworn testimony would be terrifying to someone like Clapper who has lied under oath a number of times and now would be forced to reconcile his various inconsistent testimony under penalty of a perjury conviction.

So, the past week was extremely good and I expect next week to be even better.  But what we’re all waiting for is Durham and Barr to get the party started.