Ratcliffe On The Brennan Memo

The John Ratcliffe interview with Maria Bartiromo became available as I was nearly the end of an already lengthy post this afternoon. As it happens, the interview feeds right into one of my major points: Don’t be fooled by Durham’s indictments into thinking that Durham believes that the FBI was entirely a victim of the Russia Hoax and, specifically, of the Clinton Dossier. Yes, as an institution, as a government agency, the FBI was used and abused—it was victimized. But key FBI officials willingly participated in that. Nobody knows that better than John Durham.

Here is that interview. Below you’ll find a summary/transcript of Brennan’s words from about the 2 minute mark to about the 7 minute mark, which will give you the important substance (the indented portions are direct quotes from two Brennan documents). I’ll follow that with some discussion.

In what follows note that Brennan twice, within the span of about a month, wrote memos and briefed the White House about Hillary Clinton’s plans to “vilify” Trump. The words in which Brennan’s memos are framed clearly indicate Brennan’s skepticism, his belief that Clinton’s “claims” are false: “stirring up a scandal claiming” etc. Clinton was approving this plan to distract attention from her own criminal wrongdoing, not because any of the claims were true. Also, please note the importance of predication in what Ratcliffe says. If these Brennan docs are as described, then the FBI knew there was no predication, and that can be proven. That’s a very big deal in a conspiracy prosecution of this sort:

"We're getting additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED]"

"CITE [summarizing] alleged proposal approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers [Jake Sullivan?] to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."

"Any evidence of collaboration between Trump campaign + Russia."

John Brennan and the Intelligence Community knew about the Russia Hoax ahead of time. We had specific intelligence that Hillary Clinton was creating a plan to vilify Donald Trump, to falsely accuse him of ties to Russia, and the Intelligence Community and the FBI knew this. President Obama, Vice President Biden, were briefed by John Brennan and James Clapper and Jim Comey in early August of 2016. It all should have stopped at that point. Everything related to the Steele Dossier was known to be untrue, but yet it was the predicate for moving forward with an unjust, unfair, and--ultimately now, everyone accepts--a criminally negligent investigation against the Trump campaign. It was a crime to investigate Donald Trump because there was no probable cause, as FBI Director Christopher Wray has admitted under oath. There was no probable cause for those FISA applications, because they used the Steele Dossier, and it was phony.

Then comes the CIOL from Brennan to Peter Strzok at the FBI--a Counterintelligence Operational Lead. In effect, a referral to the FBI to open an investigation. That was in September, 2016, before any FISA application was submitted.

"[REDACTED] An Exchange [REDACTED] US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of private email server [REDACTED]."

The referral went to disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok who had, just weeks before receiving that referral, had sent text messages promising to "F Trump," to "Stop Trump," to make sure Trump would never become president. Strzok buried the part having to do with Hillary Clinton. He submitted a FISA application that he knew to be illegal and used it to perpetuate and investigation that went on for four years, that misrepresented everything to the American people. And that's why everyone associated with the Steele Dossier--with its creation, its peddling to the FBI, and its use by Law Enforcement authorities against the Trump campaign illegally--is in criminal jeopardy right now.

In addition to the declassified material Ratcliffe provided to Durham, Ratcliffe also gave Durham over a thousand still classified documents that "include intelligence that goes specifically to this criminal activity, that would be the basis for further indictments." "This goes to the highest levels of our government, and the government agencies involved."

Three things jump out at me.

The first is that Strzok’s role in this appears to be too crucial for him to get a free pass, even if he cooperates fully. Durham may offer him some sort of a deal, but it’s hard to see it being a free pass.

Secondly, Peter Strzok was a third tier official at FBIHQ. I find it impossible to believe that a guy at that level could receive a communication recommending a CI investigation from as experienced and high ranking an IC official as John Brennan—and simply quash it. He had to have run this past others. Did he bypass Bill Priestap and go directly to his mentor Andy McCabe? Possibly. The key—and I’m sure Durham has already done this—is to determine who knew what about Brennan’s referral. And who should have been told about it but wasn’t. 

Third, Jim Comey clearly knew enough from Brennan that, when the issue came up of a FISA that would be, in effect, on the Trump campaign, Comey should have stopped it. And then everything that happened after the election to the day Comey was fired … Jimbo is in really deep doo-doo.

All this could make for a fun 2022.