Mark, while you were crystal clear on the predication problem, I believe you were also pretty confident that there was a strong RICO case that could have been brought against the conspirators at least three years ago. FWIW, Rudy Giuilani thinks so, too.
I don't think I was, but I'll listen because I'm interested. Is Giuliani talking about civil RICO? I don't know much about that. I think I was talking about criminal RICO back then.
I was coming here to make that very same comment. Why not a civil case against the various actors and do it at a personal level and not in “the course of their professional duties”. The plaintiff (Trump) should then file in the state of his residence, Florida, and not some DC kangaroo court. If the bastards can’t be jailed, bankrupt them.
OK, I think he's talking about the Hunter case for RICO for most of the interview, and I can't claim to be on top of all the facts there. Great interview, and I think he's absolutely right about Barr. Anyone who thinks Barr wasn't on top of everything is kidding themself, underestimating Barr. Toward the end Bannon asks him point blank about RICO for the initial Russia Hoax case, before the election. At that point Rudy gets fuzzy and general. He doesn't really say yes. He also conflates it with the email case--talking about smashing hard drives. Bannon's probably not the right guy to get into the technicalities of RICO.
Hans Mahncke and I spent a lot of time on Papadop a few years ago. Hans has seen a lot of non-public documents related to Papadop and says that he's an even worse fabulist than even the most skeptical thinks. Mifsud wasn't mentioned until Jan 2017 interview. At that interview, Papadop was trying to conceal his contacts with Ivan Timofeev, most of which went far outside his mandate with Trump campaign. Timofeev, despite Mueller shade, is a respectable Russian academic who's worked regularly with US think tanks. It's far from clear that Mifsud even said what Papadop attributed to him. Hans is very dubious. He thinks that Papadop may have thrown him under the bus in an effort to conceal his actual (but harmless) contacts with Timofeev. Nobody who's familiar with Papadop file (Hans, TA Frank, myself) thinks that Durham or Barr should have traveled to Rome on his account.
re 1, I suspect that we agree on most aspects. I agree with your point that the rot must have preceded the 2017 operation. However, it was the 2017 operation that did the damage. In wake of Horowitz Report, Barr tasked Durham to report on FBI "irregularities, misstatements and omissions" subsequent to Primary Sub-source interview in Jan 2017 which revealed non-existence of Steele "network". Durham totally neglected those events which remain little known. That's a big issue.
2. Barr and Durham should never have listened to Papadopoulos. He is a fantasist and serial liar. I did a lot of research on Mifsud a few years ago. His employer London Academy of Diplomacy was insolvent and about to go under. His interest in Papadop was nothing more than him searching for a paying gig. Both he and Papadop were grifters, trying to grift each other. Papdopoulos was not "set up". He talked big and was trying to be a hero.
A commenter earlier today argued that the first use of some of the new Deep State powers that were enabled by the Patriot Act occurred against Romney in 2012. I believe that's most likely true. 2012 was the year that the CIA and Mueller's FBI came to an illegal understanding for sharing domestic take from NSA.
as someone who's very deep into the weeds on these issues, it is depressingly difficult to find anything in Report that wasn't already known. However, I strongly disagree with Duran guys that absence of discussion of Mifsud is a serious defect, or even a defect. While Crossfire up to election may have been somewhat unseemly, it was confidential and, if Obama WH, Brennan and CIA had simply accepted results of election and closed the file, it would not have had any noticeable impact. The damage arose from ICA (Intel Community Assessment) and post-election lawfare sabotage of incoming administration. Which Durham neither reported on nor investigated.
"While Crossfire up to election may have been somewhat unseemly, it was confidential and, if Obama WH, Brennan and CIA had simply accepted results of election and closed the file, it would not have had any noticeable impact. The damage arose from ICA (Intel Community Assessment) and post-election lawfare sabotage of incoming administration."
I get that POV, but consider.
1. There is institutional damage done that goes beyond what is noticeable. In fact, one could argue that the entire Russia Hoax points toward institutional rot that had already taken a toll on the FBI. These abuses don't happen in a vacuum. And there had to be a degree of confidence that they could get away with it all. As they, by standards of justice, have. The fact that, far from backing off after Trump won, they doubled down is surely indicative of something.
2. The Mifsud involvement almost certainly points to CIA collusion with MI6--as, of course, does the Downer involvement. Downer was totally Deep State and intel, and a significant Clinton donor. The fact that Bull and Bluto traveled to Rome and London to suss that out--and reportedly came back with a Mifsud recording--is a strong indication of how important they thought that angle was.
So, based on the somewhat frequent exchanges of special agents, DOJ attorneys, 'UKALAT's and the like, we can infer hundreds of players - US citizens and many foreign nationals, knew from very early on the whole thing was bupkiss. Yet trend toward zero of any whistleblowing or resignation in protest. Ought we not infer a culture simultaneously ready to break all norms to get Trump, and absolutely terrified of the personal destruction they expect to result from even lifting their heads up. Toxic.
Sadly, Durham working for the government is limited in what he can do. One day we might have a book from some historian who goes into all the details, and it will be devastating. The American government is no longer to be trusted, and since they run elections unless the citizens get very involved at the local level and do whatever it takes to prevent fraud there will never again be an honest election. Maybe after the coming Great Depression people will turn pro-active. Not only are our politicians crooked, they are also incompetent at running an economy, foreign policy and even the day-to-day tasks of governing.
I am so fricking mad that I can’t even see straight!! It’s a really good thing that “Carrie” was only fiction, because I’m certain that there would be a lot of unexplained and bizarre fatalities all over DC.
Here's a mind map I made to make sense of the Steele Dossier. I work in educational media so it was a good exercise but otherwise unproductive. Developed in real-time when the Durham indictments were dropping, so it's evolved, not planned.
I present this as a relic. Just zoom out and see how all these fine people are connected--what a mess! No other value than that.
Sad but true. Anyone near the Capital is rotting in jail w/o bail in most cases. All these folks are 1000 miles closer to a real coup and insurrection and will all get off scott-free. This isn't done, the American people will not tolerate a two tiered justice process. DOJ and the FBI need a delousing.
This was Phase 1 2016. Hunter laptop was Phase 2 2020 both phases enabled DOJ, FBI and CIA in concert with the Democratic party (under Obama's direction). Biden presidency is Phase 3. Susan Rice just jumped Biden ship to set up Phase 4 - Michelle Obama to the rescue when Biden announces his health decline precludes him from continuing, probably late this summer.
I'm just saying...would you have believed Phases 1-3 could happen?
Hillary, Comey, Struck, Brennan, Morrell and the 51 signers of the Hunter letter et al must all have sec
Not having read CTH's article mentioning Rod Rosenstein, I was thinking this morning that he was one of the protagonists early on who has been hardly mentioned since Barr gave him a departing pat on the head after taking over as AG. Rosenstein was one of the big rats in this nearly successful coup after Comey's firing, giving Mueller and his band of Trump haters free reign to harass and intimidate Trump associates and defenders. And while the coup failed to remove Trump from office, it continues to this day against him using government sanctioned lawfare.
There's a lot of good analysis of the Bull Durham [Not A Real] Report. This one by Paul Sperry is all about Nellie and Bruce Ohr and is an interesting read:
Everyone should read this. Does Durham mention Millian? I would guess not. Maybe he and Misfud are hanging out like Red Stapler guy on a beach with a Mai Tai.
Durham's suggestion that the FBI was being 'manipulated' doesn't pass the laugh test. Maybe some lower level guys like Pientka were, but not the guys at the top and definitely not Comey.
USA - Unmitigated Selective Accountability
E pluribus…bananas.
The Durham Report joins the Warren Commission in pissing on Americas leg and saying It’s raining.
Thats how you’ll be remembered, Bull S Durham
Mark, while you were crystal clear on the predication problem, I believe you were also pretty confident that there was a strong RICO case that could have been brought against the conspirators at least three years ago. FWIW, Rudy Giuilani thinks so, too.
https://rumble.com/v2ob55y-giuliani-on-durham-report-barr-key-person-in-deep-state-cover-up-of-fbi-cor.html
I don't think I was, but I'll listen because I'm interested. Is Giuliani talking about civil RICO? I don't know much about that. I think I was talking about criminal RICO back then.
I was coming here to make that very same comment. Why not a civil case against the various actors and do it at a personal level and not in “the course of their professional duties”. The plaintiff (Trump) should then file in the state of his residence, Florida, and not some DC kangaroo court. If the bastards can’t be jailed, bankrupt them.
Stone is talking about that, but it would be a very expensive venture.
I wonder who has more money, Comey, Strzok, Brennnen……or Trump?
OK, I think he's talking about the Hunter case for RICO for most of the interview, and I can't claim to be on top of all the facts there. Great interview, and I think he's absolutely right about Barr. Anyone who thinks Barr wasn't on top of everything is kidding themself, underestimating Barr. Toward the end Bannon asks him point blank about RICO for the initial Russia Hoax case, before the election. At that point Rudy gets fuzzy and general. He doesn't really say yes. He also conflates it with the email case--talking about smashing hard drives. Bannon's probably not the right guy to get into the technicalities of RICO.
Glad you reference the Susan Schmidt blog. Found it an excellent summary. Taibbi shared it on his Substack.
As far as Bull? He screwed up the Whitey Bulger prosecution protecting the Feds then too.
Hans Mahncke and I spent a lot of time on Papadop a few years ago. Hans has seen a lot of non-public documents related to Papadop and says that he's an even worse fabulist than even the most skeptical thinks. Mifsud wasn't mentioned until Jan 2017 interview. At that interview, Papadop was trying to conceal his contacts with Ivan Timofeev, most of which went far outside his mandate with Trump campaign. Timofeev, despite Mueller shade, is a respectable Russian academic who's worked regularly with US think tanks. It's far from clear that Mifsud even said what Papadop attributed to him. Hans is very dubious. He thinks that Papadop may have thrown him under the bus in an effort to conceal his actual (but harmless) contacts with Timofeev. Nobody who's familiar with Papadop file (Hans, TA Frank, myself) thinks that Durham or Barr should have traveled to Rome on his account.
Where did you say Mifsud is? What makes you think the travel was really about George?
Wasn’t Mifsud a CHS then recording Papodop’s interactions and conversations?
You're thinking of Stefan Halper.
Oh. Snap.
re 1, I suspect that we agree on most aspects. I agree with your point that the rot must have preceded the 2017 operation. However, it was the 2017 operation that did the damage. In wake of Horowitz Report, Barr tasked Durham to report on FBI "irregularities, misstatements and omissions" subsequent to Primary Sub-source interview in Jan 2017 which revealed non-existence of Steele "network". Durham totally neglected those events which remain little known. That's a big issue.
2. Barr and Durham should never have listened to Papadopoulos. He is a fantasist and serial liar. I did a lot of research on Mifsud a few years ago. His employer London Academy of Diplomacy was insolvent and about to go under. His interest in Papadop was nothing more than him searching for a paying gig. Both he and Papadop were grifters, trying to grift each other. Papdopoulos was not "set up". He talked big and was trying to be a hero.
A commenter earlier today argued that the first use of some of the new Deep State powers that were enabled by the Patriot Act occurred against Romney in 2012. I believe that's most likely true. 2012 was the year that the CIA and Mueller's FBI came to an illegal understanding for sharing domestic take from NSA.
https://www.propublica.org/article/everything-we-know-so-far-about-obamas-big-data-operation
Followed by:
https://theintercept.com/2014/08/05/watch-commander/
as someone who's very deep into the weeds on these issues, it is depressingly difficult to find anything in Report that wasn't already known. However, I strongly disagree with Duran guys that absence of discussion of Mifsud is a serious defect, or even a defect. While Crossfire up to election may have been somewhat unseemly, it was confidential and, if Obama WH, Brennan and CIA had simply accepted results of election and closed the file, it would not have had any noticeable impact. The damage arose from ICA (Intel Community Assessment) and post-election lawfare sabotage of incoming administration. Which Durham neither reported on nor investigated.
"While Crossfire up to election may have been somewhat unseemly, it was confidential and, if Obama WH, Brennan and CIA had simply accepted results of election and closed the file, it would not have had any noticeable impact. The damage arose from ICA (Intel Community Assessment) and post-election lawfare sabotage of incoming administration."
I get that POV, but consider.
1. There is institutional damage done that goes beyond what is noticeable. In fact, one could argue that the entire Russia Hoax points toward institutional rot that had already taken a toll on the FBI. These abuses don't happen in a vacuum. And there had to be a degree of confidence that they could get away with it all. As they, by standards of justice, have. The fact that, far from backing off after Trump won, they doubled down is surely indicative of something.
2. The Mifsud involvement almost certainly points to CIA collusion with MI6--as, of course, does the Downer involvement. Downer was totally Deep State and intel, and a significant Clinton donor. The fact that Bull and Bluto traveled to Rome and London to suss that out--and reportedly came back with a Mifsud recording--is a strong indication of how important they thought that angle was.
So, based on the somewhat frequent exchanges of special agents, DOJ attorneys, 'UKALAT's and the like, we can infer hundreds of players - US citizens and many foreign nationals, knew from very early on the whole thing was bupkiss. Yet trend toward zero of any whistleblowing or resignation in protest. Ought we not infer a culture simultaneously ready to break all norms to get Trump, and absolutely terrified of the personal destruction they expect to result from even lifting their heads up. Toxic.
Sadly, Durham working for the government is limited in what he can do. One day we might have a book from some historian who goes into all the details, and it will be devastating. The American government is no longer to be trusted, and since they run elections unless the citizens get very involved at the local level and do whatever it takes to prevent fraud there will never again be an honest election. Maybe after the coming Great Depression people will turn pro-active. Not only are our politicians crooked, they are also incompetent at running an economy, foreign policy and even the day-to-day tasks of governing.
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/190509161413-02-rod-rosenstein-farewell-0509.jpg?q=x_3,y_65,h_1253,w_2228,c_crop/h_540,w_960/f_webp
All grins for a job well done!
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/09/politics/rod-rosenstein-doj-goodbye/index.html
Cass; did you need to do this? So depressing.
Two insufferable pukes!
I am so fricking mad that I can’t even see straight!! It’s a really good thing that “Carrie” was only fiction, because I’m certain that there would be a lot of unexplained and bizarre fatalities all over DC.
Here's a mind map I made to make sense of the Steele Dossier. I work in educational media so it was a good exercise but otherwise unproductive. Developed in real-time when the Durham indictments were dropping, so it's evolved, not planned.
I present this as a relic. Just zoom out and see how all these fine people are connected--what a mess! No other value than that.
But Joseph Mifsud made the cut.
https://coggle.it/diagram/YgmuvjieqDCcT98o/t/steele-dossier/4ef4b87f37b51249627236af9665e33031c3aa966d02174d516413ffcc9e03e8
“Good exercise but otherwise unproductive”. Sounds familiar.
Great chart Dan. But you need to add in Obama, Clinton and Biden.
Sad but true. Anyone near the Capital is rotting in jail w/o bail in most cases. All these folks are 1000 miles closer to a real coup and insurrection and will all get off scott-free. This isn't done, the American people will not tolerate a two tiered justice process. DOJ and the FBI need a delousing.
This was Phase 1 2016. Hunter laptop was Phase 2 2020 both phases enabled DOJ, FBI and CIA in concert with the Democratic party (under Obama's direction). Biden presidency is Phase 3. Susan Rice just jumped Biden ship to set up Phase 4 - Michelle Obama to the rescue when Biden announces his health decline precludes him from continuing, probably late this summer.
I'm just saying...would you have believed Phases 1-3 could happen?
Hillary, Comey, Struck, Brennan, Morrell and the 51 signers of the Hunter letter et al must all have sec
Not having read CTH's article mentioning Rod Rosenstein, I was thinking this morning that he was one of the protagonists early on who has been hardly mentioned since Barr gave him a departing pat on the head after taking over as AG. Rosenstein was one of the big rats in this nearly successful coup after Comey's firing, giving Mueller and his band of Trump haters free reign to harass and intimidate Trump associates and defenders. And while the coup failed to remove Trump from office, it continues to this day against him using government sanctioned lawfare.
Chilling Summary is appropriate.
And add Gov entrapment (Whitmer kidnapping, Jan 6, etc), ignoring election fraud, industrialized censorship, leftist lawfare, propaganda / brainwashing in school, Dei/crt, and Covid Lies.
Unbelievable.
I’m not sure where we are going.
We are in the trunk of the car.
There's a lot of good analysis of the Bull Durham [Not A Real] Report. This one by Paul Sperry is all about Nellie and Bruce Ohr and is an interesting read:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bruce-and-nellie-ohr-had-bigger-roles-dossier-known-durham-report
As Keith Jackson would say “Woah Nellie”.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-leadership-sabotaged-clinton-foundation-investigations-durham-report
Everyone should read this. Does Durham mention Millian? I would guess not. Maybe he and Misfud are hanging out like Red Stapler guy on a beach with a Mai Tai.
The whole Benjamin Weingarten thread is an awesome read. Confirms Bull intended to protect the establishment.
Durham's suggestion that the FBI was being 'manipulated' doesn't pass the laugh test. Maybe some lower level guys like Pientka were, but not the guys at the top and definitely not Comey.