“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy, which has so much economic power?” Sanders asked.
“Probably not,” he said in response to his own question.
Sanders, 83, highlighted several issues he believes the nation has failed to address under the Biden-Harris Administration, from wealth inequality and a worsening standard of living to high prescription drug prices and the lack of guaranteed medical leave.
Though he is an Independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party, and has long championed policies like Medicare for All and a higher federal minimum wage.
Following President Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election, Harrison was nominated by Biden to be the chair of the DNC, succeeding Tom Perez.[23] DNC members elected him on January 21, 2021.[24]
With Trump winning his second term, it is worth noting that there was no absolutely accountability by the Democratic Party when he won in 2016. Losing an election to so dangerous and corrupt a figure as Donald Trump should cause a political party to do some major inward reflection on their own failures of policy and political strategy. Instead, all the Democrats who bore responsibility for the 2016 failure—starting with Hillary Clinton—found a way to blame anyone else but them.
(October 18,2024)
Kennedy, who has become a top surrogate for Trump since dropping out, posed a specific threat to Democrats in that he had a famous name attached to their party but aligned politically with the right on many issues. Stein, however, is to the left of most progressives and, in Democrats’ estimation, comes with her own unique baggage.
That lingering, eight-year-old resentment has prompted an uptick of activity across the party, with Harris’s allies strategizing multiple ways to cut off any support she has in states where 1 and 2 percent support could be decisive.
Imagine if Biden wins with Trump banned or jailed: US sermons about „democracy,“ or condemning Putin imprisoning Navalny, will be seen as an even bigger joke than now.
One of the West‘s key dissidents (Assange) is jailed. They censor dissent. Now they‘re trying to ban Trump.
It‘s always been a huge propagandistic mystery that the US media succeeds in convincing Americans that the US Govt defends freedom as it props up the worst dictators (Saudi, Egypt, etc.).
They‘re now escalating it in desperation: first after 2016, now seeing Trump/Biden polls.
Fear of free populations is a global trend. In Brazil, they imprisoned Lula in 2018 when leading all polls, then banned Bolsonaro from running.
In Pakistan, CIA engineered removal and imprisonment of Imran Khan.
All Western countries are increasing online speech controls.
This is a clip from our show SYSTEM UPDATE, now airing every weeknight at 7pm ET on Rumble.
(03.12.2022)
2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.
3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.
(Dec 2, 2022)
Those of you who’ve been here for years know how seriously I take my obligation to this site’s subscribers. On this one occasion, I’m going to have to simply ask you to trust me. As it happens, there may be a few more big surprises coming, and those will be here on Substack. And there will be room here to to discuss this, too, in time. In any case, thanks for your support and your patience, and please hold me to a promise to make all this up to you, and then som
(May 31, 2022)
Durham has remained at work into the Biden administration. He has brought three cases so far, though the one against Sussmann is the only to have reached trial. A former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was given probation after pleading guilty in 2020 to altering an email related to the surveillance of an ex-Trump campaign aide, and a Russian analyst who contributed to a dossier of Democratic-funded research into ties between Russia and Trump awaits trial on charges of lying to the FBI about his sources of information.
(Fri May 20, 2022)
Robby Mook said he attended a meeting with other senior campaign officials where they learned about strange cyberactivity that suggested a relationship between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which is based in Moscow. The group decided to share the information with a reporter, and Mook subsequently ran that decision by Clinton herself.
„We discussed it with Hillary,“ Mook said, later adding that „she agreed with the decision.“
(24.05.2022)
„The Democrats simply replaced Trump with the same ideology they governed with for 8 years under Obama that caused people to run away from them as fast as they could,“ he said. „And now that people are doing that again, instead of asking ‘why is that happening’ they‘re getting poised to blame the electorate for being stupid — for thinking the economy‘s bad when it‘s actually good.“
„And ultimately they‘ll just say there were ‘too racist’ to vote for Democrats.“
(Feb. 16, 2020)
The DNC ordered and paid for a security audit of the software, which was completed by NCC Group, a Britain-based cybersecurity firm. Out of the review, which also involved threat assessment conducted with the national party as well as officials in Iowa and Nevada, came directions to guard the name of the vendor, and to take the software live as late as possible to prevent it from getting into the hands of hackers, according to multiple people who participated or had knowledge of the exercises.
(Dec. 10, 2014)
Most of the possible presidential candidates have not plunged into Washington’s debate over the Senate Intelligence Committee’s withering report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s brutal interrogation tactics — and some are ducking questions entirely, illustrating the delicate politics of national security. (…)
For Mrs. Clinton, the challenge is different: She must balance her desire to be seen as tough on national security against pressure from her party’s liberal wing to not only condemn the gruesome tactics but punish those involved.
(23.04.2019)
The result is a small network of companies that have near-monopolies on election services, such as building voting machines. Across the spectrum, private vendors have long histories of errors that affected elections, of obstructing politicians and the public from seeking information, of corruption, suspect foreign influence, false statements of security and business dishonesty. (…)
The party narrative is that Democrats are trying to use the federal government to take over state and local elections; the political angle is that recognizing vulnerabilities or flaws in the election system could raise doubts about the legitimacy of the party’s – and Donald Trump’s – victory in 2016.
Raskin’s bill could affect at least two of the largest election companies. Dominion Voting Systems, which is the second-largest voting machine vendor in the US, is based in both the US and Canada.
(…)
Due to that statement and a litany of other scandals – such as leaving an internet-facing server unprotected and revealing the source code for its machines or by installing unapproved software patches on its machines just before an election – that company, Diebold, sold off the election-machine portion of its company in 2009.
(June 7, 2016)
Given the stakes in the outcome of the American presidential elections, ensuring the integrity of the electoral process is of the utmost importance. Are the results we are witnessing in the 2016 primary elections trustworthy? While Donald Trump enjoyed a clear and early edge over his Republican rivals, the Democratic contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernard Sanders has been far more competitive. At present, Secretary Clinton enjoys an apparent advantage over Sanders. Is this claimed advantage legitimate? We contend that it is not, and suggest an explanation for the advantage: States that are at risk for election fraud in 2016 systematically and overwhelmingly favor Secretary Clinton. We provide converging evidence for this claim.
First, we show that it is possible to detect irregularities in the 2016 Democratic Primaries by comparing the states that have hard paper evidence of all the placed votes to states that do
not have this hard paper evidence. Second, we compare the final results in 2016 to the
discrepant exit polls. Furthermore, we show that no such irregularities occurred in the 2008
competitive election cycle involving Secretary Clinton against President Obama. As such, we
find that in states wherein voting fraud has the highest potential to occur, systematic efforts may
have taken place to provide Secretary Clinton with an exaggerated margin of support.
(June 15, 2016)
What‘s True
Two researchers (presumably graduate students) from Stanford University and Tilburg University co-authored a paper asserting they uncovered information suggesting widespread primary election fraud favoring Hillary Clinton had occurred across multiple states.
What‘s False
The paper was not a „Stanford Study,“ and its authors acknowledged their claims and research methodology had not been subject to any form of peer review or academic scrutiny.
(30.03.2016)
Concerned Sanders would win Nevada, Sen. Harry Reid, the former Senate Majority Leader and most powerful elected official in Nevada, as it later emerged, arranged a plan with owners of Las Vegas casinos, where many caucuses were being held, and other employers, to ensure Clinton would win. The Nevada caucuses were then rigged with massive voting irregularities such as casino owners orchestrating which workers would be allowed to vote and, in clear intimidation, openly monitoring how they voted.
Vote tampering also occurred in other states, most recently in Arizona where on election day, polling locations were sharply cut forcing many voters to stand in line for up to five hours in the heat, with some leaving before casting a vote.
Democrats are feeling confident that 2020 will not be a repeat of 2016 and that polls showing Joe Biden with a comfortable lead over President Trump will not result in another nightmare for the party.
Trump’s 2016 upset of Hillary Clinton after polls showed the Democrats with a slender lead on Election Day lingers fresh in the minds of many Democrats.
But two officials said their calls for declassification have been met with opposition from within the intelligence agencies, with some objecting that such a release would be too close to Election Day.
(25. April 2019)
Angesichts des geradezu obszön undemokratischen Vorwahlsystems der „Demokratischen Partei“ fragten wir uns im Februar, was Bernie Sanders wirklich will – gewinnen oder nur die größte Verräterpartei auf dem Planeten und damit das Zwei-Parteien-System der Vereinigten Staaten retten?
Mittlerweile hat Bernie Sanders bewiesen, dass er tatsächlich gewinnen will. Und spätestens seit seinem Durchmarsch sogar im erzkonservativen TV Sender „Fox News“ muss sowohl dem jetzigen U.S.-Präsidenten, als auch der Nomenklatura, klar geworden sein, dass er gewinnen kann.
Das – und nur das – ist der Grund, warum Joe Biden jetzt antritt. Seine Präsidentschaftskandidatur hat nur den einzigen Sinn und Zweck Bernie Sanders irgendwie zu verhindern. Und das auch um den Preis von vier weiteren Jahren von Donald Trump im Weißen Haus.
Alle, wirklich alle, müssen wissen, dass Joe Biden gegen das Original Donald Trump – der eine lediglich konsequente Umsetzung von Bidens eigenem Charakter darstellt – nur verlieren kann.
Dass Biden es nun genau anders herum darstellt – er müsse jetzt quasi die Welt vor Trump retten, nur er könne das noch – gehört zum Abgrund der Heuchelei und des Verrats, den Biden repräsentiert und dem er jetzt mit der Macht eines Cäsars über die Welt vier oder acht Jahre dienen will.
Obama framed the election as a battle for democracy.
“Our democracy is not gonna work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie every day and just make things up,” Obama said. “This notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship and being responsible — these aren‘t Republican or Democratic principles. They’re American principles. … We need to reclaim them.”
Democrats went to the polls last time certain they would elect the first woman ever to become president, and were punched in the face with a Trump upset. This time they feel the punch coming from a thousand miles away. The worry is visceral and widespread, unassuaged by Biden’s lead in the polls.
(26.09.2020)
Neither Biden or Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris have campaigned in person in Ohio during the general election. That’s a factor the president zeroed in on as he also slammed the latest polling in the state.
“I just saw that we’re tied in Ohio. I don’t think so,” Trump said Monday at a rally in the Toledo suburb of Swanton. “They’re not even campaigning in Ohio, come to think of it. Now, they’re fake polls. They’re almost as fake as the writers themselves. They’re all fake.”
Trump has ramped up his criticism of Barr in recent days as he seeks to make the origins of the Russia probe a major election issue. The president has long cast the Russia investigation as a political hoax meant to undermine him and has called for the indictment of his political enemies, including former President Barack Obama and former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
„She said she had 33,000 e-mails,“ Trump told Fox News on Thursday. „They‘re in the State Department, but Mike Pompeo is unable to get them out, which is very sad actually. I‘m — I‘m not happy about him for that, that reason. He was unable to get — I don‘t know why. You‘re running the State Department and you get them out. But they‘re in the State Department.“
(06.10.2020)
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday said Trump had „tasked me with getting some declassification rolling“ as the president was recovering from COVID-19 at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Officials began releasing documents on Tuesday.
(07.10.2020)
– Recent declassifications by DNI John Ratcliffe: „I thought it was a outrageous, appalling and blatant act of politicization that he released, very selectively, some intelligence that was provided then to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is right now engaged in, I think, a very partisan effort to try to debunk the necessary investigative efforts of the FBI that looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election.“
(30.09.2020)
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence despite concerns being raised by the CIA and National Security Agency, according to people briefed on the matter.
Career officials in the intelligence agencies were concerned about declassifying the information because it was unverified and they believed it could reveal sources and methods. Ratcliffe overrode those concerns and sent the document to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham on Tuesday, the people sa
(30.09.2020)
Graham pointed to the documents declassified Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — which summarized unverified Russian intelligence that Clinton‘s 2016 presidential campaign was trying to „stir up a scandal“ by tying Trump to Russia — arguing they showed the FBI‘s double standard in not investigating Clinton and Russia.
One Republicans senator even asked Comey about the Democratic allegations he had swung the 2016 election to Trump by releasing information about the FBI‘s investigation into Clinton‘s emails.
(29.09.2020)
“According to his handwritten notes, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the ‘alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.’”
„On 07 September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding ‘U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton‘s approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server,’” the letter continues.
„Unfortunately those releases and declassifications according to multiple sources I‘ve talked to are being blocked by CIA director Gina Haspel who herself was the main link between Washington and London,“ Davis said. „As the London station chief from John Brennan‘s CIA during the 2016 election. Recall, it was London where Christopher Steele was doing all this work. And I‘m told that it was Gina Haspel personally who is blocking a continued declassification of these documents that will show the American people the truth of what actually happened.“
The RealClearPolitics average had Clinton +6.5 in Wisconsin on Election Day in 2016. In August of that year, she had been +11.5. Not a single poll featured on RCP during the entire campaign showed Donald Trump winning the state. Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden has a +3.5 average right now — which is to say, he is underperforming Clinton in the middle of a pandemic and ensuing economic collapse. This is the case in several battleground states
‚If I were running the campaign, there‘s no way Joe wouldn‘t have been in Kenosha,‘ said one. Another added that Biden‘s campaign were ‚not allowing‘ people in who hadn‘t worked for Hillary
An official in Ratcliffe’s office, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Saturday the office was “concerned about unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information following recent briefings”.
The move drew a heated rejoinder from House Democrats, who have focused on foreign efforts to sway the presidential election in 2016 and again this year.
„I believe this approach helps ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that the information ODNI provides the Congress in support of your oversight responsibilities on elections security, foreign malign influence, and election interference is not misunderstood nor politicized,“ Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote in a letter to congressional committee heads.
In a joint statement released Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Congress had been set for briefings on election security in mid-September. But briefings for members of Congress, including the House and Senate intelligence committees, by Ratcliffe‘s office have now been called off, they said.
„This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public‘s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy,“ Pelosi and Schiff said in the statement.
The documentary film-maker Michael Moore has warned that Donald Trump appears to have such momentum in some battleground states that liberals risk a repeat of 2016 when so many wrote off Trump only to see him grab the White House.
“Sorry to have to provide the reality check again,” he said.
„Wenn Sie glauben, dass die Dinge unmöglich noch schlimmer werden können, vertrauen Sie mir, das können sie. Und das werden sie, wenn wir bei dieser Wahl nichts ändern. Wenn wir irgendeine Hoffnung haben, dieses Chaos zu beenden, dann müssen wir für Joe Biden stimmen, als ob unsere Leben davon abhängen.“
In another exchange, the president said Democrats will struggle to unite at their convention this week, as many of the more progressive members of the party balk at a ticket including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
„These are the same people I beat last time and they‘re not gonna unite because they can‘t unite, they don‘t know how to unite,“ Trump said. „Also, Bernie [Sanders] is very unhappy, but actually, Biden went further left than Bernie wanted him to and Bernie‘s still unhappy.“
(13.08.2020)
Krystal Ball compares Joe Biden‘s campaign to Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 campaign, highlighting recent polling predicting a Biden win in November.
House Intelligence Committee Position Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., instructed “Sunday Early morning Futures” in an distinctive job interview that “we’ve now expanded our investigation, full-blown investigation, into the Brookings Institute.”
The fabulist behind the infamous and discredited anti-Trump dossier has finally been exposed. His name is Igor Danchenko.
He is not some mysterious Russian agent operating in the bowels of the Kremlin. Danchenko is a Ukrainian-born resident of the United States who worked as a senior research analyst for the Washington D.C. liberal think tank, Brookings Institution.
(Oct 10, 2015)
The president spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in San Francisco, where the hip hop artist will later perform. Mr. Obama has a few political nuggets to pass on for West‘s 2020 bid for the presidency.
(28.03.2016)
For more than four decades, Davis has been one of most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States. An icon of the 1970s black liberation movement, Davis’ work around issues of gender, race, class and prisons has influenced critical thought and social movements across several generations. She is a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a fugitive on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list more than 40 years ago. Davis talks about the “fascist appeal” of Donald Trump and explains why she is not officially endorsing any candidate in this election. “I believe in independent politics,” she says. “I still think that we need a new party, a party that is grounded in labor, a party that can speak to all of the issues around racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, what is happening in the world. We don’t yet have that party.”
The request to shelve the vote was the latest hurdle for legislation reauthorizing authorities from the 2001 Patriot Act that‘s been squeezed both by FISA opponents who have pushed for more civil liberties protections and by the President and his allies furious over the role of the FISA court in the Russia investigation and the misconduct with warrants obtained on former Trump adviser Carter Page.
„I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!“ Trump tweeted on Tuesday evening.
“I believe many, many others were spied on but do not know” said Attkisson. “It was only thanks to help from intelligence contacts that I even learned that government agents were spying me. Otherwise, I never suspected it or would have known.”
According to the email, then-FBI Director James Comey suggested to President Barack Obama in a Jan. 5, 2017 meeting that the National Security Council (NSC) might not want to pass „sensitive information related to Russia“ to Flynn, then Rice‘s designated successor.
The note was fully declassified by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and transmitted to the Justice Department. Fox News obtained a copy Tuesday from Johnson‘s office, which had sought access to the document.
(23.03.2017)
Am 12. März äußerte sich dann jemand, der Ahnung hat: Rand Paul. In der „CBS“-Sendung „Face the Nation“ rückte Rand Paul, unter vielem Hin und Her und Ach und jaa-nee, endlich mit der Sprache heraus (Links wurden hinzugefügt):
„Der Weg wie es funktioniert ist – das F.I.S.A.-Gericht, mittels Section 702 (Anm.: vom Patriot Act), hört Ausländer ab und hört dann Amerikanern zu. Es ist eine Durchleuchtung von Amerikanern durch die Hintertür. Und weil sie so viele Daten haben, können sie abhören — tippen sie Donald Trump in ihre gewaltigen Ressourcen (Anm.: Datenbanken) über Leute ein, die sie in Übersee abhören, und sie kriegen alle seine Telefonanrufe.
Und so haben sie das mit Präsident Obama gemacht. Sie — eintausendzweihundertsiebenundzwanzig Mal haben sie Präsident Obamas Telefonanrufe belauscht. Dann maskieren sie ihn (Anm.: anonymisieren seine Daten). Aber hier ist das Problem. Und General Hayden hat dies am anderen Tag gesagt. Er sagte, sogar niedere Angestellte können den Anrufer demaskieren (Anm.: die Daten wieder einer bestimmten Person zuordnen). Das ist vermutlich dass, was Flynn passiert ist.
Sie zielen nicht auf Amerikaner. Sie zielen auf Ausländer. Aber sie tun das absichtlich, um an Amerikaner heran zu kommen.“
Nov. 18, 2016:
Trump announces Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his choice for National Security Adviser. Over the next few weeks, Flynn communicates with numerous international leaders.
Nov. 30 – Dec. 28, 2016:
Two dozen Obama administration officials make requests to unmask the name of National Security Adviser designee Flynn, who was „incidentally“ captured by intel surveillance. The officials include: U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan.
Jan. 5, 2017:
Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough requests Flynn unmasking.
Intelligence Community leadership, including FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, CIA Director Brennan and Director of National Intelligence Clapper, provides classified briefing to President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and National Security Adviser Susan Rice on alleged Russia hacking during 2016 campaign, according to notes later written by Rice.
After briefing, according to Rice’s notes, President Obama convenes Oval Office meeting with her, Comey, Biden, and Yates. The „Steele dossier“ is reportedly discussed. Also reportedly discussed: Flynn‘s intercepted talks with Russia‘s ambassador.
Saagar blasts Joe Biden for being among the Obama administration officials who „unmasked“ former national security adviser Michael Flynn, despite his wavering stance on involvement in the prosecution.
‚It amounts to illegally eavesdropping for political purposes‘ says Rand Paul discussing new information that Obama officials unmasked Michael Flynn
Sen. Rand Paul called for acting Director of National Intelligence Rick Grenell to testify about a list of Obama administration officials, including Obama and Biden, involved in the „unmasking“ of then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn‘s communications after the 2016 election.
Speaking to members of the press, Paul also said he wanted testimony from the officials on the list, including James Comey and James Clapper.
“Here is the concern: If you don’t have a national security reason, you’re basically spying on a political opponent,” the South Carolina Republican said on the news show.
“What is the national security reason to unmask Gen. Flynn in transition? I can’t think of one. But, I do believe, given their behavior, they’re looking to get rid of Flynn and if they used our intelligence apparatus to basically act on a political vendetta, that’s chilling to every American and would be very wrong.”
The list includes then-Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan; the requests came after Russian interference in U.S. election.
The numbers reflect how frequently national security and intelligence officials use this tool in their work. Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens‘ conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community. The U.S. citizens‘ identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens‘ names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights. In the typical process, when officials are requesting the unmasking of an American, they do not necessarily know the identity of the person in advance.
Burr‘s decision, which will go into effect on Friday, comes at a crucial moment for the committee. It‘s expected to vote next week on Rep. John Ratcliffe‘s nomination to be the next director of national intelligence and the committee is expected to release its final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election by the August recess.
Saagar Enjeti blasts former President Obama after it was revealed in transcripts he was the person who told then-deputy attorney general Sally Yates about Mike Flynn‘s intercepted phone call with the Russian ambassador, Joe Biden responds to Flynn claims on Good Morning America.
Another source familiar with the intelligence told Fox News that Grenell is moving to declassify several pieces of intelligence in stages, with this being one part of it. Asked if former President Barack Obama‘s name is on the list of officials involving in unmasking Flynn, the source would not say but stressed the list would make waves.
President Trump’s top intelligence adviser has declassified and may release the names of Obama administration officials who requested the “unmasking” of former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, an action that identified him from intelligence reports following Mr. Trump’s election in 2016, a senior government official said.
Release of the list, which would be an unprecedented move, is likely to resurrect a partisan debate over an episode that had roiled the early days of Mr. Trump’s presidency …
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee with oversight of the FBI, noted that “we’ve got a problem at the FBI.”
“Clearly, we had some people, and maybe still have some people, that don’t understand the rule of law, and nothing’s been done,“ Kennedy said.
How would you like to be investigated by the FBI because you disagreed with the president’s policies? Sounds a little KGB-ish, you might think — and you’d be right, because the FBI has zero authority to conduct such an investigation. But the more we learn about the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn, the more it appears he was targeted precisely because, as the national security adviser to the incoming Trump administration, he signaled that the new administration might undo Obama administration policies — which is kind of what the American people voted for in 2016.
WASHINGTON – The “central and essential” evidence used to justify invasive surveillance of an American citizen in the FBI’s probe into Russian interference was, itself, an example of Russian interference, according to once-secret footnotes declassified at the urging of two U.S. Senators. The footnotes, part of the Justice Department Inspector General’s postmortem of the FBI’s flawed operation to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page, were released just hours after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) renewed their push for transparency. The senators expect a fuller declassification in the coming days.
(…)
“It’s ironic that the Russian collusion narrative was fatally flawed because of Russian disinformation. These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign – the Clinton campaign, not Trump’s.”
The IG report detailed how the FBI’s application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Page relied heavily on an unverified dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS, which was conducting opposition research for the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. According to Footnote 302, in October 2016, FBI investigators learned that one of Steele’s main sources was linked to the Russian Intelligence Service (RIS), and was rumored to be a former KGB/SVR officer. However, the FBI neglected to include this information in its application, which the FISA court approved that same month. Two months later, investigators learned that Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, told a Justice Department attorney that he assessed the same source “was a RIS officer who was central in connecting Trump to Russia.” In January, the FISA warrant was renewed.
(10.04.2020)
Declassified footnotes to a Justice Department inspector general report show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation team investigating members of the Trump campaign received classified reports in 2017 identifying key pieces of the Steele dossier as products of a Russian disinformation campaign. This might be only the tip of the iceberg because other recently declassified information demonstrates that even more disinformation may have been planted in Christopher Steele’s reporting.
(July 2, 2019)
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska said he previously employed Christopher Steele, the author of the Trump dossier.
Deripaska said he hired Steele through his attorneys in London to work on an unspecific legal proceeding.
Steele investigated the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.
(10.04.2020)
Footnote 350 in the IG report addresses the FBI‘s knowledge of Russian contacts with Steele and the potential for disinformation. Steele had „frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarchs, we identified reporting the Crossfire Hurricane team received from (redacted) indicating the potential for Russian disinformation influencing Steele‘s election reporting.“
The footnote also indicates that warnings to the FBI‘s Russia probe became more pronounced over time.