Tag: russiagate

The Indictment of Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer is an Indictment of the Russiagate Wing of U.S. Media

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was indicted on Wednesday with one felony count of lying to the FBI about a fraudulent Russiagate story he helped propagate. Michael Sussman was charged with the crime by Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by former President Trump to investigate possible crimes committed as part of the Russiagate investigation and whose work is now overseen and approved by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Sussman’s indictment, approved by Garland, is the second allegation of criminal impropriety regarding Russiagate’s origins. In January, Durham secured a guilty plea from an FBI agent, Kevin Clinesmith, for lying to the FISA court and submitting an altered email in order to spy on former Trump campaign official Carter Page.

The law firm where Sussman is a partner, Perkins Coie, is a major player in Democratic Party politics. One of its partners at the time of the alleged crime, Marc Elias, has become a liberal social media star after having served as General Counsel to the Clinton 2016 campaign. Elias abruptly announced that he was leaving the firm three weeks ago, and thus far no charges have been filed against him.

The lie that Sussman allegedly told the FBI occurred in the context of his mid-2016 attempt to spread a completely fictitious story: that there was a “secret server” discovered by unnamed internet experts that allowed the Trump organization to communicate with Russia-based Alfa Bank. In the context of the 2016 election, in which the Clinton campaign had elevated Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin to center stage, this secret communication channel was peddled by Sussman — both to the FBI and to Clinton-friendly journalists — as smoking-gun proof of nefarious activities between Trump and the Russians. Less than two months prior to the 2016 election, Sussman secured a meeting at the FBI’s headquarters with the Bureau’s top lawyer, James Baker, and provided him data which he claimed proved this communication channel.

It was in the course of trying to lure the FBI into investigating this scam conspiracy theory when Sussman allegedly lied to Baker, by concealing the fact — outright denying — that he was peddling the story in his role as lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign as well as a lawyer for a “tech executive” hoping to be appointed as the top cybersecurity official in the soon-to-be-inaugurated Clinton administration. Sussman’s claims that he was just acting as a concerned private citizen were negated by numerous documents obtained by Durham’s investigation, including billing records where he charged the Clinton campaign for his work in trying to disseminate this story, including his meeting with Baker at FBI’s headquarters.

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House Republicans Say Schiff Is ‘Blocking’ The Release Of Dozens Of Secret Russia Transcripts

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee called on Rep. Adam Schiff Tuesday to release 53 transcripts of interviews from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, saying that the California Democrat has blocked the release of the documents.

The Intelligence Committee voted to release the transcripts in September 2018. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reviewed the transcripts to redact all classified information and completed that process in May 2019. A spokesperson for the office told The Daily Caller News Foundation on May 31, 2019, that the review would be completed “very soon.”

But Schiff, who chairs the Intelligence Committee, has withheld the release of the documents for reasons he has yet to explain.

The transcripts include interviews with Obama administration officials, FBI officials who worked on the Trump-Russia probe, current and former Trump administration officials, and individuals who have insight into the infamous Steele dossier.

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Same FBI That Chased Russia Collusion Hoax for Years Covered Up Sexual Abuse of USA Gymnasts

This story is awful on so many levels that it should probably come with a trigger warning.

The public has known about the many and horrific crimes of former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar for a few years now. What the public has largely been unaware of is the role that the Federal Bureau of Investigation played in attempting to prevent us from knowing about any of it.

The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—In a litany of reports and documents, the four women who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday have for years been referred to by initials or numbers: “Athlete B,” “Gymnast 1”,  “Athlete A,” “Gymnast 3.”

On Wednesday, the women—elite gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman—gave U.S. senators an emotional and unsparing account of how the Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee failed to investigate or act when they emerged as potential victims of sexual assault by former national team doctor Larry Nassar.

“I can imagine no place that I would be less comfortable right now than sitting here in front of you, sharing these comments,” said Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts in her sport’s history. She then paused in tears, before adding: “To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar but I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”

Let us refresh our memories on the exact nature of the FBI’s mission. This is from the official FBI website:

The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.

That’s it. A mission statement that is completely free of any ambiguity.

Also, one that the agency seems to have almost abandoned in recent years.

In her opening statement (which I will provide in full at the end of the post), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) had zero you-know-whats to give when offering her brutal assessment of the Bureau’s (as well as the coaches’ and Team USA officials’) behavior in the case, saying: “Every single person in authority who turned a blind eye to these young athletes’ allegations is complicit in Nassar’s crime, and each one of them should be considered a predator.”

To say that the FBI has lost its way would involve taking a trip to someplace far on the other side of understatement. The Bureau now functions more like a highly politicized domestic attack dog than a security agency. The FBI had already been involved with concocting and “investigating” the bogus Trump/Russia collusion leftist fantasy for a year when it finally got around to documenting the very real allegations of sexual assault against Nassar.

We never seem to stop finding out reasons why James Comey — who was head of the FBI when all of this was happening — should be in jail. As of this writing, he is still a much-revered darling of the same people who tell us to “believe all women” in cases of sexual abuse.

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Ben Rhodes’ Book Proves Obama Officials’ Lies, and His Own, About Edward Snowden and Russia

Ever since Edward Snowden received asylum from Russia in 2013, Obama officials have repeatedly maligned his motives and patriotism by citing his “choice” to take up residence there. It has long been clear that this narrative was a lie: Snowden, after meeting with journalists in Hong Kong, intended only to transit through Moscow and then Havana on his way to seek asylum in Latin America. He was purposely prevented from leaving Russia — trapped in the Moscow airport — by the very Obama officials who then cynically weaponized his presence there to imply he was a civil-liberties hypocrite for “choosing” to live in such a repressive country or, even worse, a Kremlin agent or Russian spy.

But now we have absolute, definitive proof that Snowden never intended to stay in Russia but was deliberately prevented from leaving by the same Obama officials who exploited the predicament which they created. The proof was supplied unintentionally in the memoir of one of Obama’s senior national security advisers, Ben Rhodes, entitled The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. It is hard to overstate how dispositively Rhodes’ own book proves that Obama officials generally, and Rhodes specifically, lied blatantly and cavalierly to the public about what happened: a level of sustained and conscious lying that can be explained only by sociopathy.

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One Year On… Navalny Poison Pulp Fiction – Surprisingly – Provides a Real Conclusion

There is no doubt Navalny is an asset for Western intelligence agencies assigned to subvert Russia from within with his scripted media antics.

The hallmark of a shoddy, pulp fiction story is it quickly fades from memory. It’s a bit like lots of other made-for-fast-consumption experiences: fast-food, trashy news, infotainment, drugs, or indeed propaganda stunts. It’s sold brashly with gaudy packaging but the intended substance is lacking. Hence, in a short period, the experience and memory vanish leaving a disappointing void.

The alleged poisoning of Russian blogger and political gadfly Alexei Navalny is a case in point. It was one year ago that he dramatically fell ill while on a flight from Siberia. He was rushed to hospital where the Russian doctors stabilized his condition. The medics found nothing extraneous in his body fluids and suggested he was suffering from a medical reaction. Two days later, Navalny was permitted by the Russian government to be flown on a private airplane for treatment in Germany. Within days, the Berlin authorities were claiming he had been poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. (After body samples had been analyzed at a Bundeswehr military laboratory!)

This was the same nerve poison that was allegedly used by Kremlin assassins against Russian traitor-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in March 2018. Remember the Western media kerfuffle over that drama, the diplomatic expulsions and sanctions? Where have all the expressions of concern about that obscure incident gone? Indeed, where are the Skripals now? The British authorities like a conjuror refuse to disclose the whereabouts of the disappeared. The silence is beyond bizarre.

As with the Skripal case, there then followed a torrent of accusations from Western governments and media claiming that Navalny had likewise been the victim of an assassination plot by the Kremlin. There were grave demands for Moscow to conduct a criminal investigation into the alleged poisoning of Navalny.

One year on, Western governments and media have stopped playing to the gallery with unsubstantiated claims about Navalny. Even the blogger himself, who is now serving three years in a Russian jail for financial corruption, has stopped talking about it. Last year, while allegedly convalescing in Germany for five months in violation of his probation terms for an earlier suspended conviction by a Russian court, Navalny made sensational claims that President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered his assassination. Western media indulged and amplified the slander. Then he returned to Russia in January, whereupon the Russian prison authorities detained him and converted his suspended sentence into jail time. Rightly so, too.

Laughably, the prisoner has been free to give interviews to prominent Western media outlets. So much for him being “persecuted in a penal colony”!

Last week, he wrote an opinion piece for the British Guardian and this week gave an interview to the New York Times. Strangely, however, he barely mentions the purported assassination plot that Putin had allegedly ordered. That shows, inadvertently, that not even Navalny has any conviction in peddling the preposterous story.

The contradiction and absurdities in the Navalny saga, as with the Skripal “prequel”, are legion. A detailed account of official communications from the Russian foreign ministry demonstrates how the German authorities have refused to follow basic standards of informational exchange with Moscow on the provenance of claims made by Navalny that have been amplified by Berlin and other Western governments. That refusal, like the British one over the Skripal affair, is a shocking dereliction of diplomatic standards and due process.

As with so many other anti-Russian tropes – from election meddling to cyber attacks – there is an absolute dearth of evidence provided to back up accusations. The accusations are recklessly repeated over and over and thereby take on the appearance of being established facts (The Big Lie technique of Josef Goebbels no less). When in fact the claims are always fiction.

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Did Biden Just Cut Off Ammo Supply to Law-Abiding Americans?

Let’s take a break from the chaos in Afghanistan to discuss what the Biden administration just did that could impact law-abiding Americans’ access to ammunition. We’re already being pinched. The price of copper has reached historic highs. Stephen Gutowski of The Reload has been covering this story noting that we might not see some calibers, like 9MM and .223/.556 ammunition readily available for up to two years. Yes, the Biden administration’s anti-gun agenda is impacting the situation, but the COVID pandemic saw nine million Americans become first-time gun owners. The latter part is a good thing, but increased demand, coupled with a White House that’s antagonistic towards Second Amendment rights and the price of materials has pinched the market. Now, the latest sanctions on Russian arms could compound the issues centering on access to ammunition. Our own Cam Edwards said that one should now worry…for now. After a couple of years, however, it’s a different story.

Here’s the portion of the new sanctions Edwards highlighted, pursuant of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.

“Restrictions on the permanent imports of certain Russian firearms. New and pending permit applications for the permanent importation of firearms and ammunition manufactured or located in Russia will be subject to a policy of denial.”

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Biden Bans Importation of Russian Ammunition in Backhanded Swipe at Gun Owners

President Joe Biden’s State Department announced it would deny all importation permits for ammunition manufactured in Russia on Friday, with the department citing the alleged 2020 poisoning of Russian political dissident Aleksy Navalny. 

The ammo ban serves as a de facto punishment for American gun owners for alleged corruption and misconduct on the part of the Russian government. Ammunition manufactured in Russia has consistently been the cheapest available since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, with brands such as Tula and Wolf offering steel-cased rounds in the .223 caliber at prices well below their western competitors. Steel-cased ammo is easier to manufacture than rounds cased in materials such as copper. 

The anti-gun measure may leave blue-collar shooters without means to practice using their weapons, although it’s possible the forcible exit of Russian manufacturers from the US commercial exit will enable American manufacturers to fill the void of affordable rifle ammunition. 

The backdoor attack may represent the most impactful attack on the Second Amendment during Biden’s tenure on the presidential throne, with luxury liberals increasingly realizing that direct attempts to criminalize civilian gun ownership are a lost cause and that backhanded measures are more effective. 

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After Russiagate, Why WOULDN’T People Be Skeptical About Covid?

You hardly ever hear about Russiagate anymore. The last time it made a blip in the radar was when disgraced Collusion author Luke Harding published a very thinly-sourced story in The Guardian claiming to have proof that Donald Trump was a Kremlin asset, but other mass media outlets barely touched it and it vanished as quickly as it came.

Looking at mainstream news outlets in 2021, you’d hardly know they’d recently spent years hammering the story into public consciousness that Vladimir Putin had infiltrated the highest levels of the US government, day after day after day after day after day.

But they did. Vast fortunes were raked in off the public interest generated by click-friendly stories about the latest BOMBSHELL revelation involving some peripheral member of Trump’s associates perhaps maybe having some kind of contact with a Russian national at some point. Entire careers were built on this.

Then the Mueller investigation invalidated the entire claim by failing to indict a single American for conspiring with the Russian government, and the mass media who’d spent the previous few years bashing everyone in the face with that story just kind of slowly sidled away from it.

And now they act like it never happened.

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