Maria Bartiromo did a fascinating interview with Kash Patel today. I’ve transcribed Patel’s remarks, with summarized lead ins from Maria. I’m glad to be on the same page with Patel re Fiona Hill, Clinesmith, and the possibility of more indictments at the FBI. Notably, Patel repeatedly states that Chris Wray and Rod Rosenstein intentionally withheld critical information from Devin Nunes.
Re Fiona Hill's denial to Congress of any knowledge about the origins of the Clinton Dossier--"no knowledge whatsoever. ... None. I just want to say that":
Real quick on Fiona Hill, I think John Durham is on the case here, because Fiona Hill has a credibility problem. I believe she lied to Congress there [referring to her remarks on screen], under oath. She connected the main Clinton political operative--who Devin [Nunes] and I had never heard of, because DoJ and FBI withheld those documents from us, intentionally, I believe so--and now John Durham has exposed that. She [Hill] connects the Steele operation to the Democratic party, and she has the gall to go on national TV or in closed door testimony and say, 'I don't know what's going with Steele.' But John Durham's on that case and I think we're gonna get there.
As to the three indictments that John Durham has issued, I believe he's built a sort of triangle of indictments, as I like to call 'em. At the top of the pyramid you have Sussmann, who represents an indictment of the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC, the law firm, and Fusion GPS. Following tens of millions of dollars to perpetuate the biggest fraud in American history into the FBI.
The bottom two pillars of the Durham triangle, John Durham's indictment of the FBI attorney [Kevin Clinesmith], which I believe is literally an indictment of the FBI, and now a criminal conviction for lying to a federal court [the FISC] to perpetuate a fraud and get a FISA warrant falsely.
The last leg of the Durham triangle comes in the form of his recent indictment of Danchenko. Who's Danchenko, and why does it matter? Danchenko is Steele's main "source", introduced to Steele by Fiona Hill, who Steele relied on to write his Dossier, in which he said he--Steele--received credible information from Danchenko. We now know Danchenko's a liar. We also know--because of the Durham investigation--Danchenko provided NO credible information to Christopher Steele. So his credibility has been destroyed, and these Merchants of Menace are finally coming to light, thanks to John Durham's great work. And he's [Durham's] got a long way to go, and I'm glad he's getting the indictment--excuse me--the information that Rod Rosenstein and Chris Wray intentionally withheld from Chairman Nunes in OUR investigation during the Russiagate probe.
Re whether the Clinesmith indictment is the end of indictments in the FBI. Maria suggests that Clinesmith couldn't have acted on his own, something I've always maintained--nobody at that level goes out on that kind of a limb, at such great risk of discovery, generally speaking:
Yeah--you're absolutely right. Look, I think that all roads lead to Andy McCabe, the former Deputy Director of the FBI, who was caught lying three times by the [DoJ] Inspector General [Michael Horowitz] during his [McCabe's?] tenure there. Kevin Clinesmith--a mid-level FBI attorney--cannot pull off the greatest political scandal in history alone. He needs direction from his supervisors, he's a convicted felon, he doctored a piece of paper for the FISA Court. Now I, as a former National Security prosecutor who did FISAs, know how horrendous and how egregious that type of conduct is. But, more importantly, I know that it cannot be done alone. It is virtually impossible to get that information to a federal judge for a secret surveillance warrant without the Deputy Director of the FBI knowing it, and I think all roads lead to Andy McCabe. His credibility's in question--not to mention that of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Andy McCabe, who orchestrated the "insurance policy" to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. That's their own text messages.
Kash Patel took Jake Sullivan's [Zhou's national security adviser] deposition. "Those who abused power are now IN power." "Jake Sullivan was peddling and disseminating the Dossier."
He was, and he has the gall to come into Congress and--as you mentioned, I took so many of those depositions--and he [Sullivan] had no idea, like Fiona Hill, how the Dossier was created or how the ten million dollars Jake Sullivan and the DNC were paying was being utilized to collect foreign intelligence information. So I think John Durham's on HIS case. And, Maria, wouldn't it be the irony of all ironies for the current National Security prosecutor to get charged with an actual felony based on real information and fact, and not have this Department of Justice withhold exculpatory evidence like they did to the former National Security Adviser under Donald Trump? I think that's the accountability that the American public so desperately needs, and I think that's where this road is going and where John Durham's taking us--so stay tuned, because I think we're only 60 to 70 percent of the way there.
60-70% there? Does this imply no one higher than Andy McCabe is going to be held to account or exposed?
And sleeting/snowing in PA. I've returned to watching Maria on Sunday mornings as she is one of the few at Fox that never gave up on getting to the truth on Russia, Russia, Russia... Patel's insider perspective is persuasive.