Become a part of one of the fastest growing adult communities online. We have something for you, whether you’re a male member seeking out new friends or a new lady on the scene looking to take advantage of our many opportunities to network, make new friends, or connect with people. Join today & take part in lively discussions, take advantage of all the great features that attract hundreds of new daily members!
Each investigator/team is locked in their own private compartment. They’ve got the info they’re collected on their own, and that’s about it. All they’ve got is a handful of unconnected puzzle pieces. There are many such teams, each with their own puzzle pieces that are entirely different from the pieces other teams have collected. In fact, they probably don’t even know exactly how many other teams there are, or how many pieces any of them have. Nobody knows if all the pieces have yet been collected, or even how many pieces the finished puzzle will have.
Enter Sundance. He goes to one investigator/team and borrows their puzzle pieces. Then to the next team and borrows theirs. Then the next, and so on until he’s got them all. But there are still a few pieces missing… fortunately those are pieces that Sundance himself had all along. And once ALL the pieces are in hand, he goes back to the individual teams, dumps the whole mess in front of them, and says “Here, NOW put it together.”
Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics.com,
News reports have downplayed the significance of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea, acknowledging he altered an official document in the government’s Trump-Russia collusion probe. There has been some coverage, mainly because it is so rare to see FBI agents charged with a felony and because it is the first tangible result of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s sprawling investigation of the investigators. But mainstream news outlets have minimized its importance. It’s only one count, they say, and it deals with a relatively minor crime by a mid-level figure.
That’s spin, and it’s wrong. This plea is like finding water seeping from the base of a dam. The problem is not one muddy puddle. The problem is that it foreshadows the dam’s failure, releasing a torrent. That’s what the Clinesmith plea portends.
What Did Clinesmith Admit?
Clinesmith acknowledges he altered an email from the CIA to the FBI, answering a question about Carter Page. Page is an American citizen and a Naval Academy graduate who spent considerable time in Russia. His time abroad raised a question for the FBI’s counter-intelligence division. Was Page a Russian agent? Or was he on our side, helping the U.S. gather intelligence about the Kremlin? The CIA would know.
The answer mattered because the FBI and Department of Justice were preparing warrants to spy on Page as a hostile foreign agent. The CIA gave them a clear answer in August 2016, before the first warrant was issued: Page was working for us. That answer was given to a still-unnamed FBI case agent, and we don’t know what he did with it. Did he show it to those preparing the warrant applications? Why else would he even ask the CIA for the information?
In 2017, after Clinesmith was tasked to the Mueller investigation, their team asked him to clarify Page’s relationship with U.S. intelligence. That’s when he took the CIA document and added a single word, “not.” The altered document said Carter Page was not a CIA asset. It was a deliberate lie.
Clinesmith is pleading guilty to inserting that word and changing the document. That’s a felony. What made his crime more significant is that the altered document was then presented to the secret court overseeing actions taken under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The special counsel included it in the fourth FISA application to spy on Page.
All four were chock-full of deception and dishonesty, but misrepresented to the court as “verified.” All of them said there “was probable cause that [Carter Page] was a knowing agent" of Russia. He wasn’t, and the applications’ authors had plenty of reasons to know it.
Why were they so determined to spy on a relatively minor figure like Carter Page? Because he was involved in Trump’s world and knew many others who were. James Comey’s FBI and Barack Obama’s White House wanted to know everything Trump was doing. Page was one window into that world. (Gen. Michael Flynn was an even better one, and we know he was exhaustively investigated.)
The FISA applications were meant to give some legal cover to this domestic espionage. The FBI first tried to get a warrant on Page in summer 2016, but the judges said it lacked sufficient evidence. They fixed that by adding added the now-discredited Steele dossier and got the first warrant in late 2016. The FBI and DoJ never told the FISA judges that the crucial addition was funded by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, filled with unverified allegations, and produced by a biased, partisan investigator. Clinesmith’s altered email was a later, and relatively minor, addition to this toxic mix.
What really mattered was less the inclusion of Clinesmith’s false document than the omission of the CIA’s truthful one. The truth would have raised a bright red flag. The judges would likely ask, “If Page has worked closely with the CIA, how can you simply ignore that and say he is a Russian agent?” In other words, an accurate document might have killed the warrant renewal and called the previous three into question. The Mueller team wanted to avoid that, so they never let the FISA judges see the authentic document or know about it. Their omission was fateful and almost certainly criminal.
The Bullet Points That Leave a Bloody Trail
Clinesmith’s plea deal matters mostly because it sheds light on Durham’s broader investigation and the malfeasance he’s uncovering. To see that, let’s focus on the “bullet points,” which leave a bloody trail to larger crimes.
It was no surprise to learn last week that Kevin Clinesmith had altered an official document. Inspector General Michael Horowitz had already reported it, without naming the culprit. Durham had that information and could have indicted Clinesmith long ago. He didn’t because he was interviewing others about FISA abuses and didn’t want to give them any information from Clinesmith’s indictment. Releasing that information now shows Durham has completed his work on FISA fraud.
Other, more senior FBI officials must have been involved in these FISA abuses, though Durham hasn’t said so yet. Some committed abuse themselves. Others knew about it or should have known. Still others must have discovered the misrepresentations, but failed to report them to the FISA court, as they were required to do. Those failures are felonies.
Clinesmith has said he gave other FBI members the true document, not just the altered one. The 23rd paragraph of the charging information says Clinesmith “provided the unchanged C.I.A. email to Crossfire Hurricane agents and the Justice Department lawyer drafting the original wiretap application.” That’s a smoking bazooka.
How can Durham prove the CIA’s truthful information was circulated and then hidden? By thoroughly checking the FBI’s internal document system. It should record everyone who received Clinesmith’s accurate (unaltered) document and those they later passed it to. If the agents and lawyers merely discussed the falsification, then prosecutors will need several witnesses to substantiate it.
The real leader of the Mueller team, Andrew Weissmann, is still blowing smoke about these mounting legal problems. On Friday, he tweeted, “Clinesmith is charged with adding the words ‘not a source’ to an email about Carter Page, but nowhere does the charge say that is false, i.e. that Page was a source for the CIA.” Notice, Weissmann is not saying he knew nothing or that Page really was a Russian source. He simply saying that a 180-degree change in the document’s wording doesn’t mean what your lying eyes think it means.
Weissmann’s comment shows the Mueller team is sticking with their existing disclaimer. Their report says they won’t speculate on "whether the correction of any particular misstatement or omission, or some combination thereof, would have resulted in a different outcome." In order words, “We don’t see something. We don’t say something. And we don’t know if it matters.”
Clinesmith actually worked on Robert Mueller’s team. He was tasked from the bureau to work with that team, which then submitted his falsified document to the FISA court. That’s crucially important. If attorneys on the special counsel team knew about his crime and did nothing to inform the court, if they continued to use a document they knew was fraudulent, they will face charges. That would implicate Mueller’s team for the first time in illegal activity to undermine the Trump presidency. That’s a much bigger matter than writing a biased report.
We know from other declassified documents that it wasn’t just Mueller’s FISA application that had false information. All four applications did. Indeed, they depended on it, especially on the Steele dossier. Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified that, without Steele, the warrants would not have been granted. Yet none of the agents and prosecutors ever told the FISA court about fraud, misrepresentation, and bias from Steele, Clinesmith, or others.
The Mueller team must have known Clinesmith’s actions were a problem. They didn’t just get rid him, they tried to shift the blame. That’s the meaning of an opaque footnote in their report, which said that the bureau, not the Mueller team, supervised “an FBI attorney" who worked for the special counsel. Hey, it’s them, not us!
This CYA footnote, clever as it is, doesn't mean the Mueller team was ignorant of Clinesmith's fraud when they submitted the FISA warrant application. Nor does it absolve them of responsibility for failing to tell the court promptly when they suddenly “discovered” it was inaccurate.
Did Clinesmith act alone or did anyone tell him to alter the document? That’s a critical question, and Durham has not answered it yet. Nor has he said who knew what Clinesmith had done. Again, the key to proving that is either a paper trail or multiple cooperating witnesses. We should get Durham’s answers when he issues more indictments.
Who Should Be Nervous?
Anyone who worked on Crossfire Hurricane with Clinesmith. You can bet he is telling Durham everything he knows. Any plea deal would require complete disclosure. Durham could have charged him with a more serious crime, requiring a longer prison sentence. Prosecutors don’t grant such leniency without getting something valuable in return (unless they are investigating Hillary Clinton, whose top aides received immunity for free). Durham is no such patsy. He would not go easy on Clinesmith unless he got useful information in return.
Real trouble looms for anybody on the Mueller team or elsewhere at the DoJ and FBI who knew that Clinesmith had altered the CIA email to change its meaning. There’s even worse trouble ahead for those who ordered him to commit a crime. To prove those charges, Durham needs documents or multiple eyewitnesses. Clinesmith can point prosecutors in the right direction, but his word alone won’t do.
What Do We Still Need to Know About the FISA Investigation?
The main questions are “how wide is this corruption?” and “how high up does it go?” Those go well beyond Clinesmith’s altered document. They include all the other lies in the warrants.
Does Durham have enough evidence—and fortitude—to charge senior officials who signed false applications? They will say, as former-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did to Congress, that they relied entirely on subordinates to give them complete, honest information. To rebut that, Durham needs hard evidence. He may also feel he needs evidence of intent. The higher up you go, the more evidence you need. We talk, rightly, about equality under the law, but, in practice, prosecutors want stronger, more unequivocal evidence to charge senior officials.
Were all the lies and misinformation a concerted effort, a true criminal conspiracy? That will be one of Durham’s toughest calls, and it would need approval from Attorney General William Barr. Such a charge would ignite a political firestorm, fueled by partisan media. But, then, so does everything these days.
To return to the metaphor of the endangered dam... the Clinesmith indictment is a telling puddle where the ground should be dry. It’s a troubling omen for those who violated Carter Page’s rights, spied on the Trump campaign, and systematically abused the powerful tools of law enforcement. They are living downstream, and they should be worried.
so mueller is implicated in this fiasco.. they knew it was bullshit and didn't bother to tell the fisa court
nice people aren't they....
No, not really. Weisman knew and was the ring leader. Rosenstein was a water boy for him. Mueller didn't know jack-shit. Have you seen him interviewed by Congress? Never heard of the Steele dossier, etc., etc. The Big Ugly question will be; who told Clinesmith to falsify the document? To get a plea deal, one typically has to give a lil sumpt'n-sump'n and it's got be more than your basic HoeHummer job. Juss say'n
When we see that justice is measured, not by due process, but by compulsion; when we see that in order to invoke our right to due process, we need to obtain permission from those who rebuke the constitution; when we see that justice is determined by those who leverage, not in law, but in politics; when we see that representatives get power over individual liberty by graft and by scheme, and our representatives don’t protect us against them, but protect them against us; when we see corruption holding influence and individual liberty so easily dispatched and nullified; we may well know that our freedom too is soon to perish….
WATCH:
.
As we bear witness, anyone trying to convince us this entire assembly of our union is headed in the right direction, well, they might want to revisit their proximity to the 2020 election ballpark. Because they’re not just out of the city – they’re also out of the same state the election ballpark is located in….. Then again, the media know that.
David Mamet had a famous saying, essentially: …‘in order for democrats, liberals, progressives et al to continue their illogical belief systems they have to pretend not to know a lot of things’… By pretending ‘not to know’ there is no guilt, no actual connection to conscience. Denial of truth allows easier trespass.
This hate-filled and manipulative Democrat ideology relies on our willingness to accept their lies, falsehoods, and scripted presentations; and then demand we grant benefit amid their seeds of doubt.
There’s a level of anger far deeper and more consequential than expressed rage or visible behavior, it’s called Cold Anger.
Cold Anger does not need to go to violence. For those who carry it, no conversation is needed when we meet. You cannot poll or measure it; specifically because most who carry it avoid discussion… And that decision has nothing whatsoever to do with any form of correctness.
We watched the passage of Obamacare at 1:38am on the day before Christmas Eve in 2009. We watched the Senate, then the House attempt passing Amnesty in 2014. We know exactly how it passed, and we know exactly why it passed. We don’t need to stand around talking about it….
We know what lies hidden behind “cloture” and the UniParty schemes.
We watched the 2009 $900+ billion Stimulus Bill being spent each year, every year, for seven consecutive years. Omnibus, Porkulous, QE1, QE2, Bailouts, Crony-Capitalism. We know exactly how this works, and we know exactly why this ruse is maintained. We don’t need to stand around talking about it…. We’re beyond talking.
We accept that the entire Senate voted to block President Trump’s ability to use recess appointments in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Every.Single.Democrat.And.Repu blican.
Cold Anger absorbs betrayal silently, often prudently.
We’ve waited each year, every year, for twelve years, to see a federal budget, only to be given another Omnibus spending bill by “CONservative” politicians.
We’ve watched the ridiculing of cops, the riots, and the lack of support for laws, or their enforcement. We’ve been absorbing all that. We’ve been exposed to violence upon us by paid operatives of the organized DNC machine. We know; the media trying to hide it doesn’t change our level of information.
Cold Anger is not hatred, it is far more purposeful.
We watched in 2012 as the Democrat party thrice denied God during their convention. The doors to evil enterprise opened by official proclamation and request.
Cold Anger takes notice of the liars, even from a great distance – seemingly invisible to the mob. Cold Anger will still hold open the door for the riot goer. Mannerly.
We’ve watched our borders being intentionally unsecured.
We’ve watched Islamic Terrorists slaughter Americans as our politicians proclaim their uncertainty of motive. We know exactly who they are, and why they are doing it. We do not need to stand around discussing it…. we’re clear-eyed.
Cold Anger evidenced is more severe because it is more strategic, and more purposeful. Eric Cantor’s defeat, Matt Bevin’s victory, Brexit, Donald Trump’s highest vote tally in the history of presidential primaries or President Trump’s victory might aide your understanding.
Cold Anger does not gloat; it absorbs consistent vilification and ridicule as fuel. This sensibility does not want to exist, it is forced to exist in otherwise unwilling hosts – we also refuse to be destabilized by it.
Transgender bathrooms are more important than border security.
Illicit trade schemes, employment and the standard of living in Vietnam and Southeast Asia are more important to Wall Street and DC lobbyists, than the financial security of Youngstown Ohio.
We get it. We understand. We didn’t create that reality, we are simply responding to it.
The intelligence apparatus of our nation was weaponized against our candidate by those who controlled the levers of government. Now, with sanctimonious declarations they dismiss accountability.
Deliberate intent and prudence ensures we avoid failure. The course is thoughtful vigilance; it is a strategy devoid of emotion. The media can call us anything they want, it really doesn’t matter…. we’re far beyond the place where labels matter.
Foolishness and betrayal of our nation have served to reveal dangers within our present condition. Misplaced corrective action, regardless of intent, is neither safe nor wise. We know exactly who Donald Trump is, and we also know what he is not.
He is exactly what we need at this moment.
He is a necessary, defiant and glorious fighter.
He is our weapon.
Cold Anger is not driven to act in spite of itself; it drives a reckoning.
When the well attired leave the checkout line carrying steaks and shrimp using an EBT card, the door is still held open; yet notations necessarily embed.
When the U.S. flags lay gleefully undefended, they do not lay unnoticed. When the stars and stripes are controversial, yet a foreign flag is honored – we are paying attention.
When millionaire football players kneel down rather than honor our fallen soldiers and stand proud of our country, we see that. Check the NFL TV ratings – take note.
When a school community cannot openly pray, it does not mean the prayerful were absent.
When a liar seems to win, it is not without observation. Many – more than the minority would like to admit – know the difference between science, clocks and political agendas.
Cold Anger perceives deception the way the long-term battered absorb a blow in the hours prior to the pre-planned exit; with purpose.
A shield, or cry of micro-aggression will provide no benefit, nor quarter. Delicate sensibilities are dispatched like a feather in a hurricane.
We are patient, but also purposeful. Pushed far enough, decisions are reached.
[…] On the drive to and from the East Coast, I paid attention to the billboards and bumper-stickers. Folks, the people in “Fly over” country are PISSED, from the guy that guides hunters, to the mayors of towns and cities, to state senators congressmen and Governors who are voting to arrest and imprison federal law enforcement officials for enforcing federal gun laws that don’t agree with state law … The political pendulum has never, in the history of humanity, stayed on one side of a swing. The back lash from over reach has always been proportionate to how far off center it went before coming back … right now we’re staring at a whole hell of a lot of the country (about 80-90% of the land mass, as well as about 50+% of the population) that is FED UP. You really don’t want those guys to decide that the only way to fix it is to burn it down and start over… (more)
It’s too late…
This man has faced opposition that would overwhelm any other President. Our chosen President is constantly attacked by those holding a corrupt, conniving and Godless leftist ideology. It is our job now to stand with him, firm on his behalf.
To respond we must engage as an insurgency. We must modify our disposition to think like an insurgent. Insurgencies have nothing to lose. If insurgents are not victorious the system, which controls the dynamic, wins. However, if insurgents do nothing, the same system, which controls the dynamic, also wins.
Do nothing and we lose. Go to the mattresses, and we might win. The choice is ours.
Right now, through November 2020, every day is Saint Crispins day.
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
The awakened American middle-class insurgency, led by Donald Trump, is an existential threat to the professional political class and every entity who lives in/around the professional political class. Their entire political apparatus is threatened by our insurgency. The political industry, all of corrupt governance, is threatened by our support through Donald Trump.
Decision time.
You know why the entire apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why the corrupt Wall Street financial apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why every institutional department, every lobbyist, every K-Street dweller, every career legislative member, staffer, and the various downstream economic benefactors, including the corporate media, all of it – all the above, are united against Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is an existential threat to the existence of a corrupt DC system we have exposed to his disinfecting sunlight. Donald Trump is the existential threat to every entity and institution who benefits from that corrupt and vile system.
They too have nothing to lose; their desperation becomes visible within their apoplexy; and they’re damn sure displaying it.
Do not look away.
Throw aside the sense of discomfort and bear witness to the evil we oppose. Do not turn your eyes from the hatred focused in our direction. Stand firm amid the solace of our number and resolve to the task at hand.
Leftists who oppose our efforts hold positions that are weak, push back against them. They rely on fear…. they relish misery and despair… do not give it to them. Let them stare into the Cold Anger furnace.
Makes no mistakes — the REAL Americans whose anger yous seek to avoid have about the same attention span as your orange colostomy bag, so the only thing that’s benefitting by your daily deeps dive into conspiracy and propaganda is your own wrist, bud.
It’s important to exercise during the pandemics, eh?
44
