The FBI’s Trump-Russia Investigation Was Formally Opened on False Pretenses

[Zorro!]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

 

[Oddball]

 

[BULLDOG]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.

You bet. The right has been digging for something, anything, to support their crazy claims for a long time. You think this time will be different?​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

 

[edthecynic]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

 

[Zorro!]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

Andrew C. McCarthy is one of the Nation’s most prominent voices on legal and national security issues.

For 18 years, Mr. McCarthy was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. From 1993 through 1995, he led the prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman and his jihadist cell for waging a terrorist war against the U.S. – a war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks, obtaining convictions that incarcerated the Blind Sheik for life, for the First World Trade Bombing.

During the last five years of his tenure, he was the chief assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Southern District’s satellite in White Plains. During that time, he was also heavily involved in the investigation of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City. In 2004, he served at the Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Mr. McCarthy began his law-enforcement career in 1979, serving as a Deputy United States Marshal in the federal Witness Protection Program while he attended Columbia College. He later graduated with honors from New York Law School, which he attended in the evenings while working days as an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He has been an Adjunct Professor at both New York Law School and Fordham University’s School of Law, teaching trial advocacy and a constitutional law course focused on criminal justice issues.

Mr. McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award (in 1996, for the Abdel Rahman terrorism prosecution) and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (in 1988, for the historic “Pizza Connection” mafia prosecution).

Mr. McCarthy’s articles have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Criterion, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, USA Today, and many other publications. He is frequently featured as a commentator on television and nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, and has testified before Congress on various national security issues.

If you prefer the ignorant rantings of Rachael MadCow or the clowns on CNN and MSLSD, what are you doing on this discussion topic based on a source that actually knows what he is talking about?

 

[edthecynic]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andy McCarthy is a radical corrupt CON$ervoFascist hack in the mold of Giuliani.

 

[candycorn]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

Andrew C. McCarthy is one of the Nation’s most prominent voices on legal and national security issues.

For 18 years, Mr. McCarthy was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. From 1993 through 1995, he led the prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman and his jihadist cell for waging a terrorist war against the U.S. – a war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks, obtaining convictions that incarcerated the Blind Sheik for life, for the First World Trade Bombing.

During the last five years of his tenure, he was the chief assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Southern District’s satellite in White Plains. During that time, he was also heavily involved in the investigation of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City. In 2004, he served at the Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Mr. McCarthy began his law-enforcement career in 1979, serving as a Deputy United States Marshal in the federal Witness Protection Program while he attended Columbia College. He later graduated with honors from New York Law School, which he attended in the evenings while working days as an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He has been an Adjunct Professor at both New York Law School and Fordham University’s School of Law, teaching trial advocacy and a constitutional law course focused on criminal justice issues.

Mr. McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award (in 1996, for the Abdel Rahman terrorism prosecution) and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (in 1988, for the historic “Pizza Connection” mafia prosecution).

Mr. McCarthy’s articles have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Criterion, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, USA Today, and many other publications. He is frequently featured as a commentator on television and nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, and has testified before Congress on various national security issues.

If you prefer the ignorant rantings of Rachael MadCow or the clowns on CNN and MSLSD, what are you doing on this discussion topic based on a source that actually knows what he is talking about?

You guys used to post he same glowing stuff about Napalitano…before he said something anti-Trump. Now you want him jailed with everyone else.

 

[BWK]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

 

[Oldstyle]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

So why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for his "involvement" with Russia, BWK? Oh, that's right...there was never anything to that! It was simply another made up excuse for the Obama Justice Department to spy on the Trump Campaign.

 

[Oldstyle]

The truth is...the Obama Justice Department kept returning to the FISA court with accusations that they KNEW were totally fabricated...because they wanted wire taps on the Trump campaign. It's the most blatant case of political spying by an Administration since the "Plumbers" were sent to the Watergate Hotel!

 

[BWK]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

So why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for his "involvement" with Russia, BWK? Oh, that's right...there was never anything to that! It was simply another made up excuse for the Obama Justice Department to spy on the Trump Campaign.

He was working for Russia. Why would that be an excuse?

 

[Oldstyle]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

So why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for his "involvement" with Russia, BWK? Oh, that's right...there was never anything to that! It was simply another made up excuse for the Obama Justice Department to spy on the Trump Campaign.

He was working for Russia. Why would that be an excuse?

I ask again...why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for "working with Russia" to undermine our elections?

 

[Zorro!]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

So why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for his "involvement" with Russia, BWK? Oh, that's right...there was never anything to that! It was simply another made up excuse for the Obama Justice Department to spy on the Trump Campaign.

He was working for Russia. Why would that be an excuse?

I ask again...why wasn't Carter Page ever charged for "working with Russia" to undermine our elections?

Because Carter Page was innocent. He's never been charged with a crime because no prosecutor has ever had probable cause to believe he committed a crime.

But even prior to Page they were engaging in shenanigans with young Papadopoulos.

There are 2 parts to their theory that they used against him: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

The source for the email component of the story is George Papadopoulos. Mueller report confirms that he is an unreliable witness: To inflate his importance, he overhyped his credentials and misled his Trump-campaign superiors regarding his discussions with people be believed had connections to the Russian regime — who they were and what they were in a position to promise.

Other than Papadopoulos’ claim, there is no evidence — none — that he was told about emails by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic whom the FBI and the Mueller investigation deceptively portrayed as a Russian agent. Because the investigation could not establish that Mifsud was a Russian agent, Mueller’s charge against Papadopoulos is artfully framed to obscure this weakness (let no one tell you that Dirty Bob Mueller isn't a dirty bastard). Carefully parsed, Mueller allegation is that Papadopoulos had reason to believe Mifsud was a Russian agent — not that Mifsud actually was one.

If Mifsud is the asset of any foreign intelligence service, it is Britain’s

Mueller's report (Volume I, p. 193) says Mifsud was interviewed by the FBI on February 10, 2017, a couple of weeks after the bureau started interviewing Papadopoulos. Mifsud denied that, when he met Papadopoulos in London on April 26, 2016, he either knew about or said anything about Russia’s possession of Clinton-related emails.

The Trump-Russia investigation continued for over two years after the FBI’s interview of Mifsud. Mueller took over the probe in May 2017. During his 22 months running the investigation, Mueller charged many people (including Papadopoulos) with lying to the FBI. But he never charged Mifsud. The government has never alleged that Mifsud’s denial was false.

There appear to be very good reasons for that.

First, there is no evidence in Mueller’s report that Mifsud had any reason to know the operations of Russia’s intelligence services.

Second, prior to being interviewed by the FBI in January 2017, Papadopoulos never reported anything about Russia having emails — neither to his Trump-campaign superiors, to whom he was constantly reporting on his conversations with Mifsud; nor to Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat whose conversation with Papadopoulos was the proximate cause for the formal opening of the FBI probe. (As further detailed below, Papadopoulos told Downer the Russians had damaging information; he did not say emails.)

It was only when he was interviewed by the FBI in late January 2017, nine months after his conversation with Mifsud, that Papadopoulos is alleged to have claimed that Mifsud said the Russians had “thousands” of “emails of Clinton.” There is no known recording of this FBI interview, so there is no way of knowing whether

(a) Papadopoulos volunteered this claim that Mifsud mentioned emails or
(b) this claim was suggested to Papadopoulos by his interrogators’ questions.
​

We have no way of knowing whether Papadopoulos is telling the truth (which, for no good reason, he kept hidden from his Trump-campaign superiors) or if he was telling the FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear (which is what he often did when reporting to the Trump campaign).

But the email component is only half the concocted story.

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

The FBI, DOJ's current story is that it was Papadopoulos' that was the genesis of the FBI/DOJ opening up an investigation on and trying to plant spies in the Trump campaign. As it doesn't add up, is probably also contrived, their latest lie, but, it is earlier in time than their Page lies.

 

[Zorro!]

Government Spying on US Persons is allowed, even of rival Political Campaigns, but only in cases of National Security based on unimpeachable verified evidence of the highest quality. The Obama State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos’s claims — which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
​

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.​

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions​

Mueller carefully describes not what Papadopoulos said to Downer, but what Downer understood Papadopoulos had “suggested,” namely that

the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.​

In Mueller's sleight of hand the “Trump Campaign” here is just Papadopoulos; the “Russian government” is Mifsud. But Papadopoulos was as low-ranking as it got in the Trump campaign, and Mifsud — the source of the “indications” — was not part of the Russian government at all. If Mifsud is an agent of any government, it's Britain.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation | National Review

We need to keep digging until we get to the bottom of why an incumbent Administration spied on a rival Presidential Political Campaign.

Where felonies were committed by high ranking individuals, indictments need to be brought.

The spying was on Carter Page and his involvement with Russia, not the campaign. Trump-Russia came later when the FBI warned Clinton and Trump that Russia may be trying to infiltrate the campaign. Clinton listened to the warning while Trump tried to use it to his advantage. Even Clinton herself knew it at the time. After that, everyone knew it,, and realized that the center of the Russian involvement was to get Trump elected. The investigation was totally warranted, and would have been derelict of duty to ignore it. This OP is totally fos.

That simply isn't true. “Crossfire Hurricane” was opened on July 31, 2016. The Page warrant was even after that. Months earlier they were investigating Papadopoulos in January of 2016 and Mifsud in Feb of 2016. This was long before the Page warrants. Following the DOJ and FBI's ever evolving story of how they came to spy on Trump and even try to plant spies in his campaign at one point started with Page but the story starts well earlier than that, currently with Papadopoulos, but as Barr notes, we are still getting to the bottom of what caused the FBI and DOJ to start this investigation and what was the involvement by Crapper, Brennan and The State Department?

Those that began to spy on Trump did so on a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign’s purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.

The saga of George Papadopoulos, is fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The FBI's working theory held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia’s possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton’s campaign.

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia’s intentions and the FBI/DOJ/State Department and likely Crapper and Brennan had them both wrong.

I. Papadopoulos Knew Nothing about the DNC Emails — and Probably Nothing about Any Emails

II. Papadopoulos Had No Knowledge of Russia’s Intentions

I covered the email component extensively in an earlier recent post and that is only half the concocted story. The second thing the FBI's contrived working theory had no basis for was the assumption that 27 year old Papadopoulos had any knowledge of Russia's intentions.

There is no evidence whatsoever, including in the 448-page Mueller report, that Papadopoulos was ever told that Russia intended, through an intermediary, to disseminate damaging information about Clinton in a manner designed to hurt Clinton’s candidacy and help Trump’s. There is no evidence that Papadopoulos ever said such a thing to anyone else — including Downer, whom he met at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London on May 6, 2016.

The claim that Papadopoulos made such a statement is a fabrication by Downer, the Australian diplomat.

On July 22, 2016, the eve of the Democratic National Convention and two months after Downer met with Papadopoulos, WikiLeaks began disseminating to the press the hacked DNC emails. From this fact, Downer drew the unfounded inference that the hacked emails must have been what Papadopoulos was talking about when he said Russia had damaging information about Clinton.

Downer’s assumption was specious, for at least three reasons.

1) In speaking with Downer, Papadopoulos never mentioned emails. Neither Downer nor Papadopoulos has ever claimed that Papadopoulos spoke of emails.

2) Papadopoulos did not tell Downer that Russia was planning to publish damaging information about Clinton through an intermediary. There is no allegation in the Mueller report that Mifsud ever told Papadopoulos any such thing, much less that Papadopoulos relayed it to Downer.

In neither the Mueller report nor the “Statement of the Offense” that Mueller filed in connection with Papadopoulos’s plea (pp. 6–7) have prosecutors claimed that Mifsud told Papadopoulos what Russia was planning to do with the “dirt,” much less why. And Mifsud denied telling Papadopoulos anything about emails; Mueller never alleged that Mifsud’s denial was false.

3) Papadopoulos says the emails he claims Mifsud referred to were not the DNC emails; they were Clinton’s own emails. That is, when Papadopoulos claims that Mifsud told him that Russia had “dirt” in the form of “thousands” of “emails of Clinton,” he understood Mifsud to be alluding to the thousands of State Department and Clinton Foundation emails that Clinton had stored on a private server. These, of course, were the emails that were being intensively covered in the media (including speculation that they might have been hacked by hostile foreign intelligence services) at the time Mifsud and Papadopoulos spoke – i.e., April 2016, when neither Mifsud nor Papadopoulos had any basis to know anything about hacked DNC emails.

FBI Used False Premise to Open Trump-Russia Investigation

 

[Zorro!]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

Andrew C. McCarthy is one of the Nation’s most prominent voices on legal and national security issues.

For 18 years, Mr. McCarthy was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. From 1993 through 1995, he led the prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman and his jihadist cell for waging a terrorist war against the U.S. – a war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks, obtaining convictions that incarcerated the Blind Sheik for life, for the First World Trade Bombing.

During the last five years of his tenure, he was the chief assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Southern District’s satellite in White Plains. During that time, he was also heavily involved in the investigation of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City. In 2004, he served at the Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Mr. McCarthy began his law-enforcement career in 1979, serving as a Deputy United States Marshal in the federal Witness Protection Program while he attended Columbia College. He later graduated with honors from New York Law School, which he attended in the evenings while working days as an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He has been an Adjunct Professor at both New York Law School and Fordham University’s School of Law, teaching trial advocacy and a constitutional law course focused on criminal justice issues.

Mr. McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award (in 1996, for the Abdel Rahman terrorism prosecution) and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (in 1988, for the historic “Pizza Connection” mafia prosecution).

Mr. McCarthy’s articles have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Criterion, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, USA Today, and many other publications. He is frequently featured as a commentator on television and nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, and has testified before Congress on various national security issues.

If you prefer the ignorant rantings of Rachael MadCow or the clowns on CNN and MSLSD, what are you doing on this discussion topic based on a source that actually knows what he is talking about?

You guys used to post he same glowing stuff about Napalitano…before he said something anti-Trump. Now you want him jailed with everyone else.

Back up your claim that I want judge Nappy jailed, or retract it.

 

[candycorn]

National Review

Nationalist Review, now there's credible source for you. NOT!

Andrew C. McCarthy is one of the Nation’s most prominent voices on legal and national security issues.

For 18 years, Mr. McCarthy was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. From 1993 through 1995, he led the prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman and his jihadist cell for waging a terrorist war against the U.S. – a war that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks, obtaining convictions that incarcerated the Blind Sheik for life, for the First World Trade Bombing.

During the last five years of his tenure, he was the chief assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Southern District’s satellite in White Plains. During that time, he was also heavily involved in the investigation of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City. In 2004, he served at the Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Mr. McCarthy began his law-enforcement career in 1979, serving as a Deputy United States Marshal in the federal Witness Protection Program while he attended Columbia College. He later graduated with honors from New York Law School, which he attended in the evenings while working days as an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He has been an Adjunct Professor at both New York Law School and Fordham University’s School of Law, teaching trial advocacy and a constitutional law course focused on criminal justice issues.

Mr. McCarthy is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice Department’s highest honors: the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award (in 1996, for the Abdel Rahman terrorism prosecution) and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (in 1988, for the historic “Pizza Connection” mafia prosecution).

Mr. McCarthy’s articles have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Criterion, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, USA Today, and many other publications. He is frequently featured as a commentator on television and nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, and has testified before Congress on various national security issues.

If you prefer the ignorant rantings of Rachael MadCow or the clowns on CNN and MSLSD, what are you doing on this discussion topic based on a source that actually knows what he is talking about?

You guys used to post he same glowing stuff about Napalitano…before he said something anti-Trump. Now you want him jailed with everyone else.

Back up your claim that I want judge Nappy jailed, or retract it.

Lets play a game:

Which of the quotes below are from Napalitano?
Which of the quotes below are from Schiff?
Which of the ones below are from James Comey?


So when Mueller says the president of the United States did about 12 things to slow down, impede, negate or interfere with the criminal investigation of his campaign of or his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, that’s a serious allegation of criminal activity.

So when the president asked his former advisor K.T. McFarland… to write an untruthful letter to the file, knowing the government would subpoena it, that’s obstruction of justice.

When the president asked his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to get Mueller fired, that’s obstruction of justice.

When the president asked his then-White House counsel to get Mueller fired and then lie about it, that’s obstruction of justice.

When told Don McGann to go back to the special prosecutor and change his testimony, that’s obstruction of justice.

When he dangled a pardon in front of Michael Cohen in order to keep Cohen from testifying against him, that’s obstruction of justice

Why not charge him? Because the attorney general of the United States would have blocked such a charge. Because the attorney general is of the view that obstruction of justice can only occur if you’re interfering with a criminal investigation of yourself. But that’s not what the obstruction statute says. And that’s not what law enforcement believes. And that’s not what prosecutors do. Prosecutors prosecute people who interfere with government functions. And that’s what the president did by obstruction.

 

[edthecynic]

If Mifsud is the asset of any foreign intelligence service, it is Britain’s

well here is what the Brits say.

How Joseph Mifsud fits into Trump Russia inquiry