This editorial was written by a former chief of police and staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- While much of the country is concerned about what color masks to wear amidst the coronavirus media frenzy, information has been coming out of Washington that has much more long-term implications for our country and our Republic.
The information surrounding the Justice Department motion to dismiss the Michael Flynn case shows that the plot to undermine the Trump presidency may have been a lot more far-reaching than originally believed.
A January 5, 2017 meeting at the White House, which included former President Barack Obama and former vice president Joe Biden, has reportedly proven to be significant.
According to Mollie Hemingway in The Federalist, the January 5 meeting saw Obama providing assistance to officials within his administration for the purpose of “protecting his administration’s utilization of secretly funded Clinton campaign research, which alleged Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, from being discovered or stopped by the incoming administration.”
Think about this for a minute. Despite all of the protestations to the contrary, the information that has been released this past week paints a chilling picture of the extent to which officials in the Obama administration appear to have been going in order to further the false narrative of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia,” said National Security Advisor Susan Rice in an email to herself.
Hemingway paints that email as “unusual,” and is speaking to the meeting that also included Biden, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and former FBI Director James Comey.
In the ensuing weeks and months, Hemingway reports, “drastic steps” were undertaken to further Obama’s mandate, noting that shortly afterward, selective information was leaked which supported the alleged Trump-Russia conspiracy, typically leaked from high-level operatives.
At the same time, Lt. General Michael Flynn was setup by the FBI, while incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions was put in the position of having to recuse himself from oversight of the investigations into the Trump campaign and the president himself.
Hemingway continues that because of the selected leaks and other nefarious conduct by officials within the Obama administration, the transition from the Obama to Trump administrations became “chaotic.” Individuals of a quality nature were scared off from working with Trump’s administration, governance was interrupted if not completely derailed, and national security was compromised.
Hemingway noted that after Comey was fired on May 9, 2018, he was a key driver of the Mueller probe which continued for another two years, effectively hampering a lot of Trump’s ability to get things done. The Mueller investigation concluded with him finding zero evidence of any collusion between Russia and any American assets in order to steal the 2016 election.
Once the House shifted control from the Republicans to Democrats, they have spent most of the time since then conducting endless investigations into the Trump administration, culminating in failed impeachment earlier this year.
During 2017 Hemingway noted, a timeline shows a “clear pattern of behavior from federal officials” who were steering the collusion narrative against Trump’s campaign. A series of selected leaks were said to be designed to distract “key law enforcement and intelligence officials” and hamper the ability of the new president to effectively run the country.
The timeline presented by Hemingway is as follows:
January 4: The FBI reopens a case against Flynn, who, in his new role as National Security Advisor under President Trump, would be in the position to review their Russia “collusion” investigation.
FBI officials apparently openly discussed concerns about briefing Flynn, a veteran intelligence official who likely would have seen through their hoax, over what had happened to the Trump campaign and transition team, and what they were planning on doing to the incoming administration.
Believing that Flynn would get to the bottom of their plan to undermine Trump, they believed he had to be dealt with. Hemingway noted that the FBI officials would “memorialize” discussions about the agency’s attempts to “get [Flynn] fired.”
They also determined that since the initial Flynn investigation was never “closed,” they could continue down that road. Information released showed that they felt the mistake was “amazing” and “serendipitously good,” and that they said, “our utter incompetence actually helps us.”
This is also where texts between FBI lovers Peter Strzok, the number two counterintelligence official, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page come in, in reference to the “7th floor” running the show, a reference to Comey and deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe.
January 5: On this date, Yates, Comey CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper held a briefing with Obama on Russia-related matters at the Oval office. Also, in attendance were Biden and Susan Rice. Afterward, all but Yates and Comey were dismissed.
This is key because both of those individuals would be continuing to serve in the Trump administration During this meeting, Obama directed on how to keep the Russia collusion theory investigations moving forward, and also spoke of Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which was confirmed by both Comey and Yates. Hemingway noted that neither Clapper, Comey nor Yates briefed Obama about those calls.
Yates in fact said she learned about the calls from Obama himself during the Jan. 5 meeting. Comey also testified that he didn’t brief Obama about the calls, which is odd because the intelligence was actually obtained by the FBI.
For her part, Rice had initially publicly lied about the use of unmasked intelligence at the end of Obama’s administration, however later under oath admitted to the practice.
Hemingway says that it was Rice who likely briefed Obama on the calls since she would have had access to the intelligence. This meeting was when Comey mentioned the Logan Act.
This was the meeting when Rice memorialized the email to herself in which she claimed that Obama had told the meeting attendees to do everything “by the book.”
However, more disturbing was where Rice reportedly said that a major point of discussion at that meeting was whether or not they should withhold national security information from the incoming Trump national security team. That information would have likely included information and details about the investigation into the president-elect himself.
January 6: On this date, a briefing about alleged Russian interference efforts was given to President-elect Trump. Afterward, Comey had a private meeting with Trump in which he mentioned the “pee tape” allegation in the reportedly phony dossier compiled by Christopher Steele.
The dossier, of course, was used as a basis to obtain FISA warrants on Carter Page, who was working on the Trump campaign. Comey alleged to Trump that he was letting him know because CNN was looking to publish a story about Russia allegedly having “compromising information” on him, and that he “wanted to warn Trump about it.”
Comey didn’t mention that the dossier was unverified, nor the fact that it was funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign.
January 10: Despite what Comey told Trump on Jan. 6, CNN published the Russia claims after a someone in the Obama intelligence community leaked that Comey had briefed Trump on the dossier. The information was believed leaked from a high-level Obama intelligence operative.
The leak, which was repeated by CNN reporters such as Jake Tapper, Carl Bernstein and others, served to do significant damage to the incoming administration.
The leak of the briefing by Comey served to somehow legitimize the dossier full of bogus allegations which the FBI reportedly knew were false and which other news organizations had blown off due to the lack of substantiation.
However, it served the purpose of putting a dark cloud over Trump’s campaign and his incoming administration by pushing the narrative he was being blackmailed by Russian assets.
January 12: This was the day that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s downfall started. In yet another leak from intelligence sources to the Washington Post, the allegation was that Flynn had called Kislyak as a “civilian,” which was alleged to be a violation of the Logan Act, a 1799 law which prohibits private individuals from discussing foreign policy with foreign governments.
The Logan Act has only been used twice before and was never prosecuted and is believed to possibly be unconstitutional.
The Post reporter, David Ignatius, wrote, “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (although never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about ‘disputes’ with the United States. Was its spirit violated?”
As incoming National Security Advisor, Flynn was well within his rights to speak with Kislyak. This call led to fuel the so-called Russia collusion conspiracy. Hemingway notes that prior to that leak, there was reportedly a lot of conversation at the FBI on how to use the Logan Act against Flynn.
Likewise, the FBI would use the Ignatius column as justification for the later “ambush” interview of Flynn at the White House.
January 23: In yet another leak, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller of the Washington Post published an article headlined, “FBI reviewed Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit,” which was possibly intended to put Flynn at ease about the FBI’s stand on the calls, with the purpose of later ambushing him in their interview.
In fact, within the article, it said, “Although Flynn’s contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Keslyak were listened to, Flynn himself is not the active target of an investigation, U.S. officials said.”
This, of course, was a lie.
Emails prior to that date confirmed that Flynn was their primary target. The article served as justification and was cited by McCabe as to why the FBI was justified in lying to Flynn about the real purpose of their interview.
January 24: Comey later admitted that he broke FBI protocol by sending agents to interview Flynn for the sole purpose of trying to catch him in a lie. Hemingway noted that FBI officials had discussed how to make sure that Flynn didn’t know he was the target of an investigation or ask for an attorney to represent him in the interview.
The Jan. 23 article in the Washington Post served to be a key strategy in lowering Flynn’s defenses so that the FBI could accomplish those goals.
The agents who interviewed Flynn said that he had not given any indicators showing he was lying; he was later induced to plead guilty to lying in the interview. Yates went to the White House on Jan. 25 and suggested Flynn get fired.
February 9: Another day, another leak. This time, reporters Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post were the recipients of leaked information. This article, headlined “National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say,” ended up getting sourced to people who had identical views of senior FBI leadership on the Logan Act.
The article was also sourced from criminal leaks of top-secret information of phone call intercepts, and also showed why “Flynn’s contacts with a foreign adversary were a problem.”
The article contained no context for the calls which indicated that such calls were routine. Neither did the fact that improved relations with Russia during a time when China, North Korea and Iran were posing increasing threats was beneficial to the U.S.
February 13: Flynn was fired, which removed him from being able to review the FBI’s campaign to undermine the Trump campaign, transition team and administration.
March 1: After the deep state got Flynn out of the way, the next apparent target was Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had a solid Department of Justice background and was a Trump loyalist. As AG, Sessions would need to be briefed on the efforts to undermine Trump unless he could be eliminated from the process.
In fact, Comey himself admitted that just after Sessions began his tenure, he deliberately excluded Sessions from Russia-related information, arguing that “it made little sense to report it to Attorney General Sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related investigations.”
This led to yet another leak, once again to Entous, Nakashima, and Miller at the Washington Post. In this case, the leakers were apparently attempting to paint Sessions as a secret Russian asset, and the headline was spun as, “Sessions spoke twice to Russian envoy: Revelation contradicts his testimony at confirmation hearing.”
Even though one meeting was a random passing and the other occurred in his position as a U.S. Senator, this served as enough given the hysteria and conspiracy theories being shown in the left-leaning media, to suggest Sessions was somehow compromised.
That led to the idea that he was unable to oversee the DOJ’s counterintelligence operations involving Russia. This particular article was the first place that the idea of a “special counsel” was pushed.
March 2: This was the date when Sessions recused himself from oversight of the FBI’s anti-Trump operation, which removed any “meaningful oversight to an operation that would be spun into a Special Counsel by mid-May.”
Once any Trump loyalists were removed from the chain, there was nobody left to oversee the FBI’s apparent ongoing attempts to undermine the Trump presidency and remove him from office.
Hemingway noted that after Comey was fired by Trump on May 9, more leaks were forwarded to the New York Times, reportedly ordered by Comey, in order to push for a Special Counsel filled with anti-Trump left-wingers who ran the operation with literally zero oversight for the next two years.
Hemingway says that the process to undermine the Trump administration was not merely a dispute involving political ideology, or an example of explicit media bias between political foes. Rather, she notes this operation was “a deliberate and direct attack on the foundation of American governance.”
In short, she says, it was a borderline coup d’état.
It should be noted, she says that the newly declassified documents released relative to the January 5 meeting at the White House “is essential to understanding the full scope and breadth of the corrupt operation against the Trump administration.”
Unfortunately, we do not have an honest media in this country. When the Nixon administration conducted the Watergate burglary of DNC headquarters in 1972, there was a media apparatus in the country that seemed to put politics aside and was interested in the truth. That is no longer the case.
For the most part, today’s media, comprised mainly of left-leaning political ideologues has no interest in the truth. What happened in the past three plus years should scare Americans silly.
The sad part about this is the fact that in the first two years of the Trump administration, Republicans held the majority in both the House and Senate.
As such, they had control of committee chairmanships and should have had the ability to look into what was clearly an intelligence community bag job on President Trump and his administration.
The federal government, or at least the Republican-controlled senate should look into what exactly happened in that Jan. 5, 2017 meeting at the White House, including demanding answers from all in attendance, as Hemingway suggests.
That list should include Obama and Biden.
—
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!
The post Editorial: Did this Oval Office Obama administration meeting set the stage for Russia collusion hoax? appeared first on Law Enforcement Today.
