Trump and Russia

[row_33]

Mbga was a good and amusing read yesterday

[Nanker]

If only Putin didn't interfere... we could have this as our POTUS:

 

By the way, it was 90° in Boston and she was wearing a heavy overcoat. 

So - back brace? TENS unit? Auto injection mechanism? 

Semi-automatic pistol harness? 

 

You be the judge.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says-u-must-begin-190659655.html

You must or else.    Strong words by Putin.  

 

Has donny tweeted a strong rebuttal?

[4merper4mer]

16 hours ago, DC Tom said:

 

Yeah, see, here's how this PPP experience is going to go for you:

You're going to post rah-rah "feelz" bull **** that is devoid of any real content or information.

People are going to mock you for it.

You're going to whine about how people won't engage you in discussion, and fail to understand that no one's interested in discussing your cheerleading.

People will mock you even more mercilessly.

You'll run away, tail between your legs, complaining about how the liberals on this board couldn't handle your scintillating conservative commentary.  Which will be absolutely hilarious.

 

Or...you can drink a big tall glass of "shut the !@#$ up," and spend some time reading the board to get to know the lay of the land before you spout off.  I'm guessing, you clearly not being the sharpest knife in the drawer (which is fine - we have a few dimwits here,) that this is not going to happen.

 

Welcome to PPP, you idiot.

You left out the part where Tasker tells him he did an Itchy and Scratchy fallacy or whatever he learned in class that day.

[Koko78]

52 minutes ago, ShadyBillsFan said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says-u-must-begin-190659655.html

You must or else.    Strong words by Putin.  

 

Has donny tweeted a strong rebuttal?

 

It's Newsweek. They could tell me that it's Saturday and the sun is shining, and I would have to check both for accuracy.

[Buffalo_Gal]

1 hour ago, Nanker said:

If only Putin didn't interfere... we could have this as our POTUS:

 

By the way, it was 90° in Boston and she was wearing a heavy overcoat. 

So - back brace? TENS unit? Auto injection mechanism? 

Semi-automatic pistol harness? 

 

You be the judge.

Yeah, that really hid the back brace.  ?

The scarf is a pass (I've seen people wear winter scarves in 80+ degree weather the last 10 years, and that is a lightweight scarf). The jacket and pants "could" be lightweight material.  People say she's fat, but to me, she looks like she is doing that old-lady shrink-thing where everyone gets shorter and smaller.

And she wants to run again!? If I were the DNC I'd be pissed as all heck that she is hanging around.

[row_33]

She needs that that Steve Grogan whiplash collar thingamajig

 

 

[row_33]

 

 

Best answer is she keeps Huma stored in there

 

 

[DC Tom]

2 hours ago, Nanker said:

If only Putin didn't interfere... we could have this as our POTUS:

 

By the way, it was 90° in Boston and she was wearing a heavy overcoat. 

So - back brace? TENS unit? Auto injection mechanism? 

Semi-automatic pistol harness? 

 

You be the judge.

 

Body armor.  She's probably deathly afraid that she'll be assassinated by Putin before she can take her rightful place as the 45th President of the United States after Trump is impeached/removed/executed for treason.

[Deranged Rhino]

Nothing to see here.

 

[Deranged Rhino]

 

[/dev/null]

4 hours ago, DC Tom said:

 

Body armor.  She's probably deathly afraid that she'll be assassinated by Putin before she can take her rightful place as the 45th President of the United States after Trump is impeached/removed/executed for treason.

 

More likely she's afraid the DNC is going to whack her before she tries to run again

[Golden Goat]

[B-Man]

Trump lashes out at ´rigged´ Russia probe in pair of tweets The Hill [Washington, DC], by John Bowden

Original Article

 

 

President Trump attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation on Saturday, writing in a pair of tweets that the now year-long investigation into his campaign's alleged ties to Russia was "rigged" against him.

 

The president claimed in his tweets that the probe, which has ended in charges against several former Trump officials, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, was "just an excuse" for Democrats to explain how his opponent, Hillary Clinton, lost characteristically blue like Michigan and Wisconsin.

 

 

 

Quote

 

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

This whole Russia Probe is Rigged. Just an excuse as to why the Dems and Crooked Hillary lost the Election and States that haven’t been lost in decades. 13 Angry Democrats, and all Dems if you include the people who worked for Obama for 8 years. #SPYGATE & CONFLICTS OF INTEREST!

3:41 PM - May 26, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

When will the 13 Angry Democrats (& those who worked for President O), reveal their disqualifying Conflicts of Interest? It’s been a long time now! Will they be indelibly written into the Report along with the fact that the only Collusion is with the Dems, Justice, FBI & Russia?

3:56 PM - May 26, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

Trump has repeatedly attacked "13 angry Democrats" on the Mueller probe, referring to members of the investigation he believes to be biased against him, and has done so in numerous tweets meant to cast doubt on the investigation.

 

 

The president has claimed that multiple members of the investigation have "unrevealed conflicts of interests" that will be revealed to courts to dismiss the investigation's findings.

 

Mueller is currently negotiating with Trump's legal team on a potential interview with the president, which could lead to the conclusion of the investigation. 

[Deranged Rhino]

On 5/24/2018 at 9:11 AM, Deranged Rhino said:

SPYGATE - the Elevator Pitch

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

So here we go, my elevator pitch for SpyGate told in under 700 words. I call it: Spooky Politics.

 

Every pitch begins with establishing the status quo of our world before the story begins:



 



Then, a complication arises which forces a change in the status quo and kick starts the action of our narrative:

 



 



 

One important aspect of any good story is properly motivating your characters. Rogers' actions in April of 2016 are key to understanding the motivation for everything that came next in the SpyGate saga - it's crucial context that's been overlooked by most journalists and helps clarify the entire scandal:

 



 

Now properly motivated, the Conspirators get to work solving the problems Rogers' made for their illicit operation:

 



 

Every great story has a turn in the mid point of Act II, SpyGate is no exception:

 



 



 

Which leads us directly into our Act II climax, where it appears all hope for the Republic is lost... Until:

 



 

The big twist ending, the one the Conspirators and audience never saw coming:

 



 



 

The Denouement, where our narrative is resolved and unanswered questions get answered:

 



 



 

There you have it. Spygate, the most explosive and wide reaching political scandal in our nation's history boiled down to an elevator pitch. It's got spies, honeypots, high crimes and sedition, and a twist ending no one saw coming. 

 

Who wouldn't want to read that book? 



 

Here is the full pitch, in an easier to share form:





 

I'm working on a much more thorough, yet still succinct, summary of the ins and outs of this scandal. That will be posted as soon as it's done and will provide sources, evidence, and more about the key players and the various phases of the operation. 

 
 

 

 

 

PART TWO: THE EVOLUTION OF A PALACE COUP

 

*Disclaimer: This is a companion piece to the elevator pitch above, an attempt to differentiate the different phases of the illegal surveillance operation during the 2016 campaign for easy reference. This by no means is intended to encompass all the information, evidence, or all the relevant dates and names of the key players in each phase, just the highlights. 

 

This post is a work in progress, I'll be adding to it over the next few days (and might add/revise entire paragraphs as I clean it up) including a detailed timeline as well as more primary sources. Normally I wouldn't post a work in progress but I wanted to get it out the door when people might have more time to read it over the holiday... plus, next week is likely to be quite busy with regards to this story so I wanted to stay ahead of it. 

 

 

A Deeper Dive into the Phases of the Operation

 

Phase One – Political Spying & Election Rigging: (Start unknown - April 18th, 2016)

From at least early 2015 through April 18th, 2016 the FBI, DOJ, the Obama Whitehouse, and the DNC/HRC campaign colluded with one another to run an illegal surveillance operation on multiple presidential candidates during the 2016 campaign. The intent of the intelligence operation was to provide opposition research to the DNC and Clinton campaign, which could then be fed to friendly media outlets to bury her opponents in innuendo and scandal, assuring her victory. It's key to note that while the focus of this post is on the spying during the campaign and primaries, this illegal surveillance operation was likely used for the entirety of 44's two terms in office (and beyond).

 

This surveillance operation primarily relied upon the pilfering of raw 702 NSA data. This was accomplished (with deniability) by still unnamed government contractors working inside the DOJ National Security Division (NSD) and the FBI Counterintelligence Division (CID) who were able to access NSA data without oversight or a warrant. We know for certain this was done routinely from at least November 2015 until April 18^th 2016, but it’s likely – if not probable – this abuse had been going on for years. In mid 2015, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz asked Sally Yates for oversight of the DOJ-NSD - this "request" was a part of his job scope and well within his purview but it was made before Horowitz was fully empowered. For the entirety of 44's terms, first Holder then Lynch changed the interpretation of the law to limit how the IG could perform the oversight required by his job - something that was rectified in December 2016. Yates responded to Horowitz's request by telling him to get lost (1). The reluctance to let the IG see what the NSD was up to implies strongly that both Yates and NSD head Carlin were aware of the illegalities and desired to keep it under wraps. It was paramount to keep the 702 access open as the election drew closer.  

 

This charge is not mere speculation, but one backed by fact and evidence.

 

According to an internal NSA audit and a FISC investigation into these abuses (2,3), 85% of the 702 query requests made by these contractors were illegal. These abuses increased in frequency the closer the primaries got to being completed, signaling their true purpose. The audit and FISC memo were declassified and released to the public in early 2017 by DNI Coats. It received little to no attention at the time yet will come to serve as a key piece of evidence in the prosecutions to come. The admissions in these two documents are key to understanding how this long running illegal operation worked, how it was destroyed, and how it will be prosecuted.

 

That a long-running, illegal surveillance operation had existed unchecked since at least 2015 and was being used to spy on political opposition in order to benefit the Clinton campaign is undeniable. But why was it necessary? Anyone paying attention to the primary action knew it was going to be Clinton v Trump by March (even though it wasn't official until June) - and nearly every expert believed Clinton would be able to trump Trump in a walk come November. So why take such a risk if the election was going to be a lock? Part of the answer is hubris - the other part of the answer is Bernie Sanders. Sanders exposed the chink in the Clinton armor, she wasn't unbeatable - hell, she was barely likable to most of the voting public - and the higher ups running this operation knew it. The primary battle with Sanders showed them that Clinton was highly vulnerable and thus the extra level of security (cheating) was necessary to assure her victory. 

 

Phase One of this operation would come to a screeching halt on April 18th, 2016 when Admiral Mike Rogers landed the first MI counter punch against the conspirators...

 

KEY TRIGGERING EVENT – NSA Audit of 702 Queries: (April 18th, 2016)

At some point in 2015 - either on his own or through the work of the IG - Admiral Mike Rogers was made aware of the 702 abuses across agencies and ordered a tightening of control of that data and a host of new internal rules at NSA to protect Americans from privacy violations. Yet, despite this clamp down, the NSD and CID abuses continued - something Rogers discovered when, in early 2016, he ordered a full audit on 702 compliance (which was completed in October 2016) and shut down both the CID and NSD access to 702 data (4). 

 

In other words, just weeks before the election went from primaries to the main event, Rogers took away the primary surveillance (and blackmail) tool of the conspirators. They were not just locked out from accessing the 702 data, now Rogers, the IG, and the FISC were asking them to justify all previous abuses. 

 

In the clip below from June 2017, Admiral Rogers lays out the timeline of how he came to learn of the 702 abuses and the steps he took to remedy them. Note the dates mentioned here, particularly in October of 2016 - a time frame we will discuss in more detail in the next phase of the operation. 

 

 

Immediately after Roger’s shut off the 702 access, multiple FBI/DOJ employees and government contractors were exposed to legal jeopardy for their actions. In turn, that exposed much bigger fish. It also made Clinton vulnerable to losing the election without their secret surveillance weapon at their disposal to tilt the field in her favor. This cannot be stressed enough: Every move made by the conspirators after April 18^th, 2016 was an effort to justify their previous illegal surveillance and re-open the surveillance pipeline into Trump’s campaign. It had nothing to do with exposing/stopping Russian election interference and everything to do with covering their own asses. In fact, the conspirators colluded with Russian intelligence assets in order to lay the Russian Collusion narrative at Trump's doorstep.

 

Starting April 19th, 2016 - when the wife of Glenn Simpson Mary Jacoby visited the White House - the Obama administration began a hurried and risky plot to back-engineer probable cause and justify their illegal actions, using private contractors, the CIA, State Department, and colluding with foreign intelligence services including MI6 and others to do so – and thus shifting us into a new phase of the scandal. 

 

 

Phase Two – Engineering a "Crossfire Hurricane" & A Frame-up: (April 19th, 2016 - November 8th, 2016)

Once the conspirators lost access to their favorite spying tools, a three pronged race began to back engineer legal justification for their previous queries and to turn back on the surveillance spigot. It didn't matter much if the justification was a sham that wouldn't hold up to scrutiny because once Hillary won none of it would be investigated, they just needed to create enough of an illusion of legitimacy to pass muster with the notoriously easy to please FISC and any rogue IG or Congressman who wanted to poke around. The third prong of this phase revolved around framing Trump's campaign with Russian Collusion stink to shift the narrative. This was done in case any of the abuses did come to light, it would allow the Obama administration to downplay any violations they committed by claiming they only did so to protect national security and the election from Russian interference (a canard they've already begun to use in the press). 

 

Key events in this time period to note: 

April 19th, 2016:  One day after Rogers shuts down access, Mary Jacoby visits the White House for an undisclosed reason. 

Late April, 2016:  Fusion GPS is hired by the Clinton campaign and paid through Perkins Coie. 

Late April, 2016:  Fusion GPS hires Nellie Ohr, former CIA and wife of Bruce Ohr DOJ associate AG. 

Early May, 2016:  Bill Priestap, Deputy Director of CID, flies to London at the same time Downer meets with George Papadapolous. 

May 23, 2016: Nellie Ohr applies for a HAM radio license (likely to communicate with Steele off the NSA's radar. This did not work as planned)

June 15 (?), 2016: Fusion GPS hires Christopher Steele (*Note no specific hiring date has been released, my research puts it here others put it in May)

June  2016:  Peter Strzok goes to London to (possibly) meet with Christopher Steele and share intelligence.

June 20th, 2016: Steele submits his first few memos of what would become the dossier.

Late June, 2016: First attempt to get a FISA warrant is denied.

 

This timeline shows a clear attempt, and a race, to create cause. This was done specifically with the "Steele" dossier. I put Steele's names in quotes because he likely wrote little to nothing of the early memos included in the dossier. Instead, the early memos were likely compiled from the previous information uncovered by the 702 abuses, strung together in such a way to paint the picture of criminality by Russian CIA expert Nellie Ohr working with Glenn Simpson. The intel was fed to Steele through a HAM radio exchange, then passed back to Strzok in London in June, effectively laundering the intelligence. 

 

 

 

This phase of the operation included multiple attempts to entrap Trump team members, including Don Jr at the infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9^th, 2016, George Papadapolous, Carter Page, Sam Clovis, and others through the use of human intelligence sources (HUMINT) placed into the orbit of Trump's campaign. Some of these HUMINT sources were linked to Russian intelligence (Natalia Veselnitskaya), some were linked to British intelligence (Christopher Steele, Richard Dearlove), others were linked to Langley itself (Stephan Halper). It's not a coincidence that all of the alleged "collusion" meetings happened after April 18th. Taken all together these attempts show a clear desire to entrap Trump's team, even colluding with the Russians (and in Steele's case paying Russians directly) in order to do so.

 

One of the least reported on elements of this phase revolves around the use of our 5-Eyes partners, specifically the UK and MI6, to get around the 702 shut down ordered by Rogers. The 5-Eye nations jointly share intelligence and can spy on American citizens without violating their own national laws or protocols. This is exactly what began happening in April of 2016, with a request from either POTUS or Brennan, GCHQ used their surveillance tools to spy on Trump team members and fed that intelligence back to the Obama White House, allowing Obama and company to circumvent Rogers, the IG, the FISC, and the Constitution. Evidence of this comes in the sudden resignation of GCHQ head Robert Hannigan who stepped down immediately after the results of the election: 

 

Quote

His sudden resignation – he informed staff just hours before making this decision public – prompted speculation that it might be related to British concerns over shared intelligence with the US in the wake of Donald Trump becoming president. (5)

 

This collusion with the British Intelligence services ties directly into the use of human intelligence sources (SPIES) by the FBI and CIA both - in this case, Halper. Halper, as discussed in several other threads, has strong ties to not only CIA but also British intelligence and Downer. Much more of the collusion between British intelligence and the Obama administration will be coming to light over the next several weeks. 

 

The scramble during this time period also included the (still unexplained) use of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect electronic surveillance on Trump prior to the FISA warrant’s approval; and working with media cut-outs including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Yahoo News, and Mother Jones to leak to the public “salacious” and “unverified” intel in order to launder it and bolster its merits in the eyes of the FISC as well as set the hook in the public's mind for the Russian Collusion Delusion.

 

The official FBI-CID investigation was opened on July 31^st, 2016 – after being denied FISA warrants at least twice between June and July. These denials are significant for two reasons: 1) The FISC has a 99% approval rate on warrants, meaning the bar to get one is seemingly low, 2) Despite having an illegal surveillance operation in place since (at least) November 2015 through July of 2016 – which included the use of NSLs, meaning they had all the access they could possibly hope for into Trump and his team’s electronic communications – the FBI-CID was unable to show the FISC enough evidence to merit a FISA warrant.

 

It was not until Christopher Steele’s dossier was completed (October 20^th, 2016) and (likely) bolstered by Halper’s confirmations and Isikoff’s September 23, 2016 Yahoo News article, that the FISC granted a Title I FISA warrant on Carter Page. Note: the FISA on Page allowed the FBI-CID two (possibly three) legal hops in communications – backwards and forwards – meaning they could go back through each and every email/call/communication Page or anyone Page directly communicated with made. A Title I warrant on Page effectively gave the FBI-CID unfettered electronic surveillance on every single member of Trump’s team, including Trump himself, for a full year – from October 21^st, 2016 through three renewals which went on while Trump was a sitting POTUS, and finally expired in October 2017. It's also important to note they had access to AG Sessions during this period as well - in other words, they were able to snoop on the investigators looking into their crimes - and thwart them... which could explain why Sessions recused himself (for OPSEC purposes).  

 

A final point on this phase - the October 21st, 2016 date is interesting when recalling the testimony of Rogers linked above. On October 20th, 2016 the full audit Rogers ordered was completed and the findings relayed to the Admiral. On the 26th of October, five days after the FISA was approved, Rogers personally informed the FISC of the 702(17) violations. As referenced in the above elevator pitch, it's my contention that a MI counter-intelligence operation was watching the Obama abuses and logging evidence of their crimes. Waiting until after the conspirators got a FISA (with illegally obtained and purposefully misleading intelligence product) boxed them in legally. It exposed the conspirators to more dramatic legal jeopardy than they otherwise would have been had Rogers acted sooner. The timing of this is too neat to be coincidental in my mind... 

 

 

Phase Three – Activation of the Insurance Policy, The Palace Coup: (November 9th, 2016 - Present)

The shocking loss of the election backed the guilty parties into a corner. Without the continued cover of the White House, every corner they cut, every move they made during Phase Two of the operation was now exposed. It was not just the little fish who found themselves vulnerable in this phase, it was the biggest fish in the pond: Brennan, Clapper, Obama, Hillary, Kerry, Rice, Lynch, and Comey. These folk were on the hook for major felonies and even charges of sedition. Not just their legacies were on the line, but also their freedom and even their lives. Drastic measures needed to be taken… or, in other words, the “insurance policy” was needed.

 

During 44’s last lame-duck months in office, he coordinated with his Intel Chiefs to really set the Russia hook in the minds of the people and his media lackeys. This included dramatic expulsions of Russian diplomats, entrapping General Flynn, and the compilation of the now thoroughly debunked ICA report by a small group of handpicked Intelligence officers, and a massively coordinated media campaign designed to inflame the situation and smear any push back on the narrative as being the "work of Putin's useful idiots". 

 

The goal was simple: overthrow the incoming POTUS, or at least hobble him to the point of impotence, before he could expose the crimes of the previous administration.

 

As we are learning more and more every day - this attempt failed.

 

(More to add to this section...)

 

Primary Sources:

1. DOJ Response Memo: https://www.ignet.gov/sites/default/files/files/OLC IG Act Opinion - 7-20-15 .pdf

2. NSA IG Report: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/51117/NSA_IG_Report_1_7_16_ST-15-0002.pdf
3. NSA IG Compliance Review: https://cryptome.org/2017/09/nsa-oig-fisa-702-jan-2016.pdf

4. FISC Opinion Memo: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/51117/2016_Cert_FISC_Memo_Opin_Order_Apr_2017.pdf

 

Linked Sources:

5. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/23/gchq-chief-robert-hannigan-quits

 

Worth reading/Related sources: (Note, some of the info here is dated but still worth examining)

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/05/operation-condor-how-nsa-director-mike-rogers-saved-the-u-s-from-a-massive-constitutional-crisis/

https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/01/10/an-american-hero-the-death-of-a-fisa-narrative/

https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/01/15/the-uncovering-section-702-about-queries-independent-contractors-a-new-narrative/

 

Earlier posts/threads on topic: 

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Deranged Rhino

[Nanker]

I want an autographed copy of the book when you publish it Greg. 

[/dev/null]

12 minutes ago, Nanker said:

I want an autographed copy of the book when you publish it Greg. 

 

Same here

 

And I want an autographed glossy of you in the "I'm not saying it was Aliens" pose

[Koko78]

#methree

 

...and it better not be a paperback copy you sign, you cheap bastard!

 

?

[3rdnlng]

8 minutes ago, Koko78 said:

#methree

 

...and it better not be a paperback copy you sign, you cheap bastard!

 

?

My guess is Greg's research started out as a movie plot but will have to be a mini series if that. There are too many characters involved to do this story justice in a couple of hours.  Unless it's fictionalized it'll be a tough sell to LaLaLand deciders, so I think Greg is considering a book first if he isn't able to sell this as a mini series. Or I could be fullofshit.

[Koko78]

12 minutes ago, 3rdnlng said:

My guess is Greg's research started out as a movie plot but will have to be a mini series if that. There are too many characters involved to do this story justice in a couple of hours.  Unless it's fictionalized it'll be a tough sell to LaLaLand deciders, so I think Greg is considering a book first if he isn't able to sell this as a mini series. Or I could be fullofshit.

 

Eh, just have Michael Bay direct it. Overdo it with explosions. and no one will care about the laborious plot.