Sol Wisenberg Re The Ukraine Hoax
I just came across a good interview on Fox with Solomon "Sol" Wisenberg , who's a very knowledgeable prosecutor in the field of corruption and fraud. He was Deputy Independent Counsel under Ken Starr, so he learned by investigating pros. I find his comments very pithy and to the point. No news, but I think you'll enjoy it. My transcript shortens or omits some of the questions:
October 1, 2019, re the Ukraine Hoax phone call :
Q: Where do you think we are right now in trying to understand the story?
Sol Wisenberg: Well, to me the big part of the story is, I see this as an effort from the beginning really to shut down John Durham's investigation of how the intelligence agencies were used against candidate Trump in the 2016 election.
Sol Wisenberg: I can't prove it, but there's been a concerted effort to go against Barr, particularly since he said he thought it was a 'big deal'--remember his comment! 'It's a big deal when the party in power uses intelligence agencies to spy on the candidate of the opposing party.' He's got an impeccable prosecutor he has hired who's respected by both sides of the aisle to investigate this, and I think they're scared to death, certain elements of the intelligence community and the Democratic party about what he is going to find. That doesn't mean that President Trump's phone call wasn't foolish, but I think this is what it's all about, and they were simply waiting for an opportunity to pounce.
Q: They can't shut down a prosecutor who acts on his own authority.
Sol Wisenberg: Well, they don't have the authority--he [Durham] works for Bill Barr--but they can try to smear him, and they smear him by smearing Barr.
...
Sol Wisenberg: If you can dirty up Barr, and indirectly the investigation and Durham through that, you kill its effectiveness. People will say, 'Oh, that's just Bill Barr! That's Bill Barr doing something he shouldn't be doing!' when in fact he has set it up exactly the way you should set it up, by putting a guy like Durham in charge of it. And all Bill Barr did was go to some foreign law enforcement officials and said, 'Durham--this is my man, can you help him? We would like your help.' That's totally appropriate for the top law enforcement official in this country to do.
[Video clip of Trump saying he hopes Barr goes to a laundry list of foreign countries to get to the bottom of the hoax that was perpetrated on the country.]
Q: Do you seen anything wrong in what you just heard in that sound bite?
Sol Wisenberg: Not only do I not see anything wrong, but the fact that he said it back in May shows that it's not, y'know, he's been very up front about what he wants Barr to do. Now, he misspoke. He didn't declassify all that stuff. He gave Barr the authority to declassify if necessary. Don't you think that's something that should be investigated? When the incumbent political party opens a counterintelligence investigation on the candidate of the opposing party? I think that's a very big step [opening a CI investigation on the opposing candidate]. You don't take a step like that unless you've really got good evidence. I have no problem ...
Q: [Re Michael Mukasey's op-ed in the WSJ.] He implies that Ukraine might be in the middle of this matter, a lot more than Democrats have suggested.
Sol Wisenberg: I have no idea on whether that's accurate or not, but I just know that the idea that you wouldn't want to investigate that is appalling to me. Investigate the whole intelligence effort against Trump and let the chips fall where they may. Just like the Democrats'll let the chips fall where they may in this investigation of the phone call and circumstances surrounding the phone call with the president.