Comey, McCabe, Lynch, Rosenstein--Liars All?
It certainly seems likely, based on the facts developed by IG Horowitz's FISA investigation--and, of course, it was always likely simply as an a priori assumption. Today TGP continues the deep dive into the facts assembled by Horowitz that's being conducted by independent internet researchers, and they come up with some goodies for the holiday season: IG Report Reveals Someone’s Not Telling the Truth – AG Lynch, Comey, McCabe and Rosenstein All Caught in Conflicting Accounts .
With regard to disgraced former FBI execs Comey and McCabe vis a vis former AG Loretta Lynch, the issue is whether Lynch was ever briefed on Crossfire Hurricane and the Carter Page FISAs. She says she didn't know anything about the FISA--which can't possibly be true--but that Comey told her about the investigation of Page as a Russian agent. That, of course, is highly likely, but Lynch says that happened in "spring of 2016." Woops! Not good for Comey and McCabe, since they claim they weren't doing much of anything until the end of July, so they have to deny Lynch's story. Uh oh! Deep State, we have a conflict!
As interesting as all that is--and TGP has lots of details--the Rosenstein information is, to me, the most fascinating for the long run, because it inevitably leads right into the Mueller Witchhunt. I've called Rosenstein a "weasel" in the past, but I've never suggested he's stupid. But you'd have to be stupid yourself to believe the things he told the IG. Check this out:
Rod Rosenstein made some suspect claims as well concerning this topic. Again, on page 74 of the FISA Report:
Rosenstein claims that he was “most focused on information that had developed into criminal investigations”. Rosenstein recalled Page was suspected of being a foreign (Russian) agent and didn’t recall details of what was the predication for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
This too doesn’t make sense because there were already three FISA warrants signed out on Carter Page by the time Rosenstein arrived in office as DAG. You would think Rosenstein would be fully briefed and aware on all aspects of that issue? Also, they were calling somebody a foreign spy which no doubt qualifies as a criminal investigation.
And Rosenstein didn’t even find out until 2018 the predication for Crossfire Hurricane?
Think about that. Rosenstein finds out that there's a big FBI investigation that everybody knows is all about Trump , and he tells the FBI and his DoJ subordinates--"OK, guys, just tell me about any criminal investigations on little people like Carter Page that are ongoing and don't bother telling me how it all got started."
As TGP points out, since there were FISAs on US persons, that means we know there were criminal violations being alleged --so none of what Rosensteing said there makes any sense at all. Since the FISAs arose out of Crossfire Hurricane related cases, CH would have had criminal elements, too. And then, to compound the idiocy of this narrative, Rosenstein wants us to believe that he didn't know what the predication for Crossfire Hurricane was until 2018? Excuse me, but RR approved the Mueller Witchhunt in May, 2017, and that investigation was explicitly a continuation of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation that Comey had described to Congress in March, 2017. Rosenstein approved a Special Counsel--and, once again, no matter what was said, everyone knew this was all about Trump --without knowing the predication for it all? Really?
I'm not buying it, and I'll bet Barr/Durham aren't buying it either. Durham's going to be having some very interesting conversations with this collection of liars, and his grand jury will be having some fun trying to work all this out.
UPDATE: Commenter Monsieur America has clarified matters re Loretta Lynch on his Twitter thread . One thing needs to be clear up front, however: Loretta Lynch was NOT "recused" from "all matters FISA/@carterpage." She simply delegated FISA matters to Sally Yates. However--and this is a big however--there was nothing to stop Sally from telling Loretta , Hey, we just got a FISA that will cover Trump's campaign and transition. In fact, Sally would be a complete moron not to have done so and memorialized that conversation in writing. In that light, note that Loretta says, over and over, "I don't have any recollection." Not about FISA. Maybe Sally did tell her, but she can't recollect. Very careful.
OTOH, Loretta does remember that as soon as Carter Page joined the Trump campaign she started getting briefings from Comey and McCabe--under the bus you go, guys!
Now, note carefully what Monsieur America points out and what we've also noted--that the focus on Carter Page long predates Page's famous trip to Moscow and his appearance in the Steele "dossier":
In earlier testimony to Intel Committee (vs Judiciary), Lynch ALREADY testified that Comey was briefing entire NSC cabinet **by JUNE 2016** about @carterwpage .
That predates both Carter's July trip to moscow, any Dossier claims, or Papa's predicate to open Investigation. pic.twitter.com/NJpoiisYdp
— ❌Austere Scholar Monsieur ❌ (@MonsieurAmerica) September 3, 2019
In fact, there were two such meetings, and the first one was as far back as March 21, 2016: