FBI
Chaos: Comey Caught In Lie Over Flynn Investigation; Anti-Trump
"Lovebird" Lisa Page Quits
5
May, 2018
Quite
a bit of FBI-related news broke late Friday;
- A newly unredacted section of a House Intel Committee report reveals that former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told Congressional investigators that the FBI had virtually no case against Mike Flynn
- The same report reveals that James Comey contradicted himself during a recent interview with Bret Baier
- Comey, McCabe and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord gave the committee "conflicting testimony"
- Anti-Trump FBI "Lovebird" Lisa Page (with whom Peter Strzok was having an affaird) has flown the coop, tendering her resignation on Friday
- One of Comey's closest confidants, former FBI top lawyer James A. Baker also resigned Friday
A newly unredacted
version of
the House Intelligence Committee's final report on Russia was
released on Friday, containing bombshell revelations stemming from
the Congressional testimony of former FBI and DOJ officials Andrew
McCabe and James Comey.
For
starters, the redacted section of the report covers
up the fact that former deputy director Andrew McCabe told
Congressional investigators the FBI
had virtually no case against former National Security Advisor
Mike Flynn.
McCabe also says that
former FBI Director James Comey
spearheaded the "ambush" of Flynn at
the White House - in which two FBI agents, one
of whom was Peter Strzok dropped
in unannounced to interrogate him.
Compare the fully redacted version that came out last week to the mostly unredacted version that came out today. Do you see what DOJ/FBI tried to cover up? McCabe said they hadn't substantiated anything against Flynn, and the ambush of Flynn at the WH was directed by Comey.
McCabe told
the committee that "The two people who interviewed [Flynn]
didn't think he was lying[.]" as well as "[N]ot
[a] great beginning of a false statement case."
“Deputy Director McCabe confirmed the interviewing agent’s initial impression and stated that the 'conundrum that we faced on their return from the interview is that although [the agents] didn’t detect deception in the statements that he made in the interview … the statements were inconsistent with our understanding of the conversation that he had actually had with the ambassador,'” the report states.
Compare these two pages. The initial redacted version hid clear testimony that the FBI didn't think Flynn lied. McCabe: "The two people who interviewed [Flynn] didn't think he was lying[.]" And: "[N]ot [a] great beginning of a false statement case[.]"
Next,
we learn that Comey lied (or had a terrible lapse in
memory) when he told Fox News host Bret
Baier that he didn't
tell Congressional investigators what McCabe told them; that the
two FBI agents who interviewed former National Security Advisor Mike
Flynn didn't think he was lying to them.
“Director
Comey testified to
the Committee that ‘the
agents…discerned no physical indications of deception," reads
the new report."They didn’t see any change in posture, in
tone, in inflection, in eye contact. They
saw nothing that indicated to them that he knew he was lying to
them.”
Here's
what Comey told Fox's Baier last week:
Baier: Did you tell lawmakers that FBI agents didn't believe former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was lying intentionally to investigators?
Comey: No. And I saw that in the media. I don't know what - maybe someone misunderstood something I said. I didn't believe that, and didn't say that.
See pages 53 & 54 of the Russia report (those two pages just had redactions lifted from the IC) docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…
As
Sean Davis of The Federalist notes,
the DOJ and FBI "demanded significant redactions to
the document not to protect national security or sources and
methods, but to protect potentially
corrupt officials from accountability"
It’s clear that DOJ/FBI demanded significant redactions not to protect national security or sources/methods, but to protect potentially corrupt officials from accountability for their actions before and after Trump’s election.
The Flynn redactions appear to have been done to protect a false statements case with no evidentiary basis. Others were done to hide apparent conspiracy to spy on and leak against Trump officials out of spite over the election results.
In one section, initially redacted material suggests an investigation against Flynn that, per Comey, should have been closed was kept open because he may have *thwarted* Obama admin plans to provoke Russia into disproportionately attxkinf the U.S.
House
Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) weighed in, pointing out
to Fox
News's
Laura Ingraham that his committee had "been fighting with the
Department of Justice and the FBI, for six weeks, to release this
information to the American people."
It took the DOJ and the FBI 6 weeks to lift redactions on 2 pages of the Russia report. What info was initially redacted? Comey & McCabe saying that agents did not believe Flynn was lying. @DevinNunes explains. See Pg 53 & 54 of Russia report intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
Flynn,
who has been cooperating with Mueller's investigation, was forced to
resign as Trump's National Security Advisor last February after
pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about perfectly legal and
to-be-expected conversations he had with Russian ambassador
Sergey Kislyak during the transition.
So why would
Flynn plead guilty?
Some have suggested that
Flynn pleaded guilty due to the fact that federal
investigations tend to bankrupt people who aren't filthy rich -
as was the case with former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo, who
told the Senate Intelligence Committee "God
damn you to hell"
after having to sell his home due to mounting legal fees over the
inquiry.
“Your investigation and
others into the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia
are costing
my family a great deal of money — more than $125,000 — and making
a visceral impact on my children."
Thus, it's entirely
possible Flynn pleaded guilty in order to avoid financial ruin -
though like Caputo, he didn't escape having to sell
his house in
March.
Is it not possible he just plead guilty because of the financial burden it created and is creating on our family?? twitter.com/renato_mariott…
Another
thought is that the FBI simply called Flynn's bluff and said they
caught him in a lie. While perhaps a stretch at
this point and certainly unconfirmed, some have
suggested that Andrew McCabe instructed Peter Strzok and the other
FBI agent who interviewed Flynn to alter their "302"
forms - the document FBI investigators use to
document an interview.
Investigative journalist Sara Carter has reported that FBI sources maintain the FBI’s deputy director under Comey, Andrew G. McCabe, may have asked FBI agents to alter or change their findings in their 302s; Carter alleges that OIG Inspector General Michael Horowitz is looking into this. -The Hill
So we know that innocent
people plead guilty all the time,
and that Flynn faced significant financial pressure were he to remain
in the Trump administration and fight the claims against him. Also
recall that
during December 2016, when Flynn spoke with the Russian
ambassador, the
Russiagate narrative was in a full frenzy.
It's possible that although Flynn and Kislyak's contact was perfectly
legal and to-be expected, he
may have been hesitant to tell the FBI about some or all of his
communications out
of an abundance of caution. It should also be noted that Flynn may
have considered the obviously pro-Clinton top brass of the US
intelligence community to be "the enemy" and been
hesitant to tell them the full truth.
Until
we know more, we can only speculate.
In other FBI
news - Lisa Page and James Baker quit on Friday
Two
top Comey advisors announced their departure from the FBI on Friday,
leading to speculation that some bad information is about to come out
regarding the pair.
Resignations
were handed in by James Baker -
former top lawyer for the NSA specializing in FISA matters before
becoming the FBI's top lawyer, and lawyer Lisa
Page - one of the two "lovebirds" who
sent anti-Trump text messages with her co-worker with whom she was
having an extramarital affair - special agent Peter Strzok
(who spearheaded the Clinton email investigation, the
early Trump investigation and interviewed
Mike Flynn).
Mollie Hemmingway of The
Federalist notes
that Page and Baker quit as a highly anticipated report by the
DOJ's Inspector General is "looming," suggesting that
the report will reveal violations of the law egregious enough to call
for both
of them to hand in their resignations on the same day.
Lisa Page quit today. James Baker quit today. IG report looming. mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/us/…
One Twitter user takes it a step further...
Baker was NSA Gen Counsel specializing in FISA matters. After you hired him, the @FBI engaged in a palace coup attempting to rig a presidential election, then overthrow a President via FISC abuse. Baker was instrumental. You're both going to prison. twitter.com/Comey/status/9…
And,
oddly, James Comey forgot to mention Page's name when he was praising
Baker on Friday night:
Now do a tweet about Lisa Page twitter.com/comey/status/9…
Perhaps
Page and Baker can set up legal defense funds like Andy McCabe and
convince people to give them a half-million dollars to cover upcoming
expenses.
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