FBI Still Trying To Hide Russia Hoax Predication

Long time readers, or at least those who were reading MIH during the Russia Hoax years, will recall that my thesis on the entire Mueller Witchhunt was that it basically piggy backed on the Crossfire Hurricane predication—which was based on Hillary’s Russia Hoax. For those not familiar with the concept of “predication” it boils down to this.

The FBI needs to have actual reasons based in fact before it can open an investigation. Or, put it this way. This FBI needs an “articulable factual basis” to believe that some subject matter falls within its investigative mandates before it can open an investigation. Not just a theory—there must be facts that reasonably support any theory. At various stages of any investigation that predication is reviewed both internally at the FBI as well as by DoJ attorneys.

Now, there are a number of different levels or types of investigations, and some of the preliminary types of investigations come with restrictions on the investigative techniques that can be used. You’ll recall that the Russia Hoax investigation involved the use of FISA—a National Security form of “wiretap”. A FISA order requies very specific predication requirements that must be satisfied before it can be instituted, and which must be approved by a special “court” (of somewhat dubious constitutionality). FISA orders can only be approved if a full investigation has already been approved. Applications for FISA orders are gone over with a fine tooth comb at every step of the way before they land before the FISA court (FISC)—by the FBI and by DoJ. Everyone involved has specialized training in such matters.

That’s the simple version. Without the requisite predication, any investigation is illegal—and my contention was that there was no such predication. And that the FBI and DoJ and Rod Rosenstein and Bob Mueller and Bluto Barr and just about anyone else you care to name—did I mention McConnell as well as the entire Senate Intel Committee?—also knew that there was no predication. It was all about railroading Trump. You can browse the archives on all this to your hearts content by following this link.

The reason I bring this up again is because Aaron Maté has a new article out at Real Clear Investigations, based on the new release of a significantly redacted FBI document that covers those matters of predication:

FBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate, Newly Released Document Shows

The first few paragraphs zero in on the predication issue

As Donald Trump re-enters the White House on a pledge to end national security state overreach, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is still hiding critical details on the Russia conspiracy investigation that engulfed his first term.

In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by RealClearInvestigations in August 2022, the FBI on Dec. 31, more than two years later, released a heavily redacted copy of the document that opened an explosive and unprecedented counterintelligence probe of the sitting president as an agent of the Russian government.

The Electronic Communication, dated May 16, 2017, claimed to have an “articulable factual basis” to suspect that Trump “wittingly or unwittingly” was illegally acting on behalf of Russia, and accordingly posing “threats to the national security of the United States.” The FBI’s “goal,” it added, was “to determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation.” It additionally sought to uncover whether Trump and unnamed “others” obstructed “any associated FBI investigation” – a reference to Crossfire Hurricane, the initial FBI inquiry into the Trump campaign’s suspected cooperation with an alleged Russian interference plot in the 2016 election.

But the predication is redacted. We learn from the document, which Maté reproduces, exactly what you just read—the simple assertion that there is an “articulable factual basis,” minus the actual factual basis. Maté goes through the approval process, naming the usual suspects: McCabe, Priestap, Baker. That’s all in the FBI, but there were other people involved at the DoJ. What I want to do here is simply quote what Maté writes that confirm my thesis—that everything that happened during Trump 1.0 was based on the initial fraudulent predication intended to railroad Trump.

Here it is. The May 2017 case was the case that the FBI opened because President Trump had fired Jim Comey for cause. That was what then led to the Mueller Witchhunt. But the predication all goes back to Crossfire Hurricane—by that time a known hoax:

As with Crossfire Hurricane, the May 2017 case was opened as a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation, and also deemed a “Sensitive Investigative Matter” to reflect Trump’s status as the nation’s top public official. The FBI document indicates that it was launched as a full investigation, which would have granted investigators targeting Trump with sweeping surveillance powers.

To be a bit more exact, the mere fact of opening a full investigation does not automatically grant “sweeping surveillance powers.” The opening of a full investigation—which has its own predication requirements—is a prerequisite to applying for a FISA order, but the FISA has additional requirements beyond what is needed to open a full investigation. There’s usual overlap, but …

While the declassified document records the FBI’s theory that then-President Trump might be involved in illegal – and potentially treasonous – behavior, the “articulable factual basis” for this suspicion is redacted. Only a few paragraphs of the six-page document have not been withheld.

In other words, they’re still hiding the ball, so to speak. Now, here comes the “piggy back” part. Nothing new was learned about Trump during Crossfire Hurricane. In fact, the FBI’s investigation debunked the Russia Hoax (as Maté later notes), yet the FBI/DoJ conspirators reused the same fraudulent non factual predication.

Along with Crossfire Hurricane, the May 2017 counterintelligence probe was folded into the Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller, who was appointed just one day after the FBI began portraying Trump internally as a possible Russian agent or conspirator. Mueller’s final report “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

But the real point is this. The FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation had already exposed the fraudulent nature of the entire Hillary Russia Hoax—there was no predication (no articulable factual basis) for the Special Counsel investigation at all, so it should hardly be surprising that the Mueller Witchhunt “did not establish” jack shit. Fraudulent investigations aren’t opened in order to establish anything. They’re opened to smear and railroad innocent people.

Asked about his reasoning for opening the probe and related matters, McCabe, who now works as an on-air commentator at CNN, did not respond to RCI’s emailed questions by the time of publication.

Details about the FBI’s motivation can be gleaned, however, from other public disclosures.

According to a January 2019 account in the New York Times, which first revealed the FBI’s decision to investigate Trump, the Steele dossier – a collection of conspiracy theories funded by Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton – was among the “factors” that “fueled the F.B.I.’s concerns.”

Yeah, I guess that does suggest something about the motivation. So do all those internal communications, texts, etc. This next paragraph is extremely damning:

Just two days before McCabe opened the May 2017 probe, the FBI, via Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, renewed contact with dossier author Christopher Steele despite having terminated him as a source back in November 2016. As RCI’s Paul Sperry has previously reported, this sudden outreach to Steele right before the opening of a new Trump-Russia conspiracy investigation indicated that the FBI was seeking to re-engage the Clinton-funded British operative to help it build a case against the president for espionage and obstruction of justice. At the time, the FBI was still relying on Steele’s fabrications for its surveillance warrants against Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. The following month, the FBI filed the last of its four FISA court warrants based on Steele’s material. The Justice Department has since invalidated two of those warrants on the grounds that they were based on “material misstatements.”

I’m here to tell you, however, that the first two FISA applications were also fraudulent. The FBI and DoJ knew they were getting “facts” from a political operative.

The FBI re-enlisted Steele despite possessing information that thoroughly discredited him. Five months before it newly sought Steele’s help to investigate the sitting president, the FBI interviewed Igor Danchenko, whom Steele had used as his dossier’s key “sub-source.” In that January 2017 meeting, Danchenko told FBI agents that corroboration for the dossier's claims was “zero”; that he had “no idea” where claims sourced to him came from; and that the Russia-Trump rumors he passed along to Steele came from alcohol-fueled “word of mouth and hearsay.” The FBI had also been unable to corroborate any of Steele’s incendiary claims.

Yes, it was all a witchhunt, from start to finish. If you needed any confirmation, this should convince you how necessary it is for Tulsi, Kash, and Ratcliffe to get confirmed and work together to get the whole truth out to the American people.