Do High-Level Leaks Suggest a Conspiracy?

Widespread concern inside Official Washington about President Trump’s unfitness for the job is fueling a campaign of high-level leaks that is taking on the look of a “soft coup,” says ex-CIA officer Philip Giraldi.

By Philip Giraldi

Back in my time in the CIA, there were two places in the headquarters building one could go that were free speech zones — places where it was safe to vent about senior management without necessarily being admonished or even reported. They were the Historical Intelligence Collection room off the library, where no one ever went to look at the books, and the office supplies storage room in the basement.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (right) talks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, with John Brennan and other national security aides present. (Photo credit: Office of Director of National Intelligence)

The supplies room had a lot of dark corners and concealing shelves where it was possible to be anonymous and it was completely unsupervised in the belief that true-blue CIA officers would never stoop to taking even a single pencil more than was actually needed to get the job done.

I don’t know if those rooms still exist, but I sometimes think of them when the subject of government conspiracies come up. I have this vision of two or three conspirators huddled in the corner behind the staplers back in 1975 discussing how one would go about eliminating the likes of Senator Frank Church, who at that time was heading a major congressional investigation into CIA improprieties.

If there had been such a gathering, I would imagine that the Washington Post would have found out about it on the next day as intelligence officers are gregarious and like to talk. This has been my principal problem with the debate in some quarters about the 9/11 Commission. Their report did indeed miss many important angles in order to protect certain governmental interests, but if there had been a genuine conspiracy involving what must have been hundreds of people to demolish the Twin Towers with explosives, it surely would have leaked long ago.

Two months ago, I would have dismissed as fantasy any thoughts of a conspiracy based in America’s national security agencies to bring down Donald Trump. But now I am not so sure. Many of my friends who are former intelligence officers are increasingly asking questions. It is worth pointing out that none of us are fans of what the White House has been doing and saying — quite the contrary.

Defense of the Constitution

Still, alerting the country to concerns over what might be a developing soft coup orchestrated by the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to nullify the results of a national election in no way equates to trying to protect Donald Trump and his uncouth and ill-informed behavior. It is rather a defense of the Constitution.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” He might be right. He was referring to Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein’s appointment of the highly-respected Robert Mueller as independent counsel to investigate “any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”

Trump’s bombast puts everyone but his most tone-deaf supporters on edge, but there are two points that he has been making repeatedly that are essential to any understanding of what is going on.

First, the investigation into Russia and the Trumpsters has been a high priority at FBI and also in Congress for nearly a year. Yet so far no one has produced evidence that anyone broke any law or even that someone did something wrong.

Second, and more importantly, the vilification of Trump and Russia has been driven by a series of leaks that come from the very top of the national security apparatus, leaks that appear not to have been seriously investigated.

This involvement of FBI and CIA in the campaign, whether inadvertently or by design, was particularly evident in the various reports that surfaced and were leaked to the press during the campaign and right up to the inauguration. The leaks of that type of information, to include technical intelligence and Special Access Program “codeword” material, require top-level access as well as the ability to arrange clandestine contacts with major players in the media, something far beyond the reach of most employees at CIA or the FBI.

The Lavrov Leak

Similar leaks have been appearing since that time. I confess to finding Monday’s detailed account of what President Trump discussed with Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, which included corroborating material that likely did more damage than the information that was actually shared, highly suggestive of the possibility that something like a conspiracy is, in fact, functioning.

Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, addresses a high-level meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Sept. 21, 2016 (UN Photo)

Given the really tight-security control of that transcript after it was determined that it contained sensitive information, one might reasonably assume that the leaks to the media came directly out of Donald Trump’s own National Security Council or from the highest levels of the office of the DNI, CIA, or FBI.

On Wednesday, the anonymous sources struck again, revealing that “Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race.” That sort of information had to come from the top level of the FBI and would have been accessible to only a few, but even though the leaks of what constitutes highly-classified information have been recurring for many months, no one has been fired or arrested.

The emphasis on Russia derives from the government and media consensus that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers that led to the exposure of what the DNC was doing to destroy the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. There is also a related consensus that the Russian hacking was intended to damage American democracy and also to help the Trump campaign, a narrative that the President has described as a “made-up thing,” a view that I share. All of these assertions are regarded as unquestionably true as measured by inside-the-beltway groupthink, with even the White House now conceding that there was Russian interference in the election.

Sometimes the hysteria over Russia produces over-the-top stories in the mainstream media, including last week’s completely speculative piece wondering whether the entourage of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had sought to sneak a recording device into the White House during his White House visit. It was the type of tale that might have been inspired by a leak from someone in the National Security Council who personally observed the context of the meeting and was able to provide corroborating details.

Where’s the Beef?

Nevertheless, in spite of the overwhelming groupthink, it has been repeated ad nauseam by people like myself that no actual evidence has been produced to support any of the claims being made about Russia and Trump. There is more evidence that the White House was penetrated by Ankara — through the good services of Michael Flynn — than by Moscow, but Congress has not called for an investigation into Turkey’s lobbying.

President Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan addresses officials at the Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. (Photo credit: CIA)

Ray McGovern, a former senior CIA analyst, is even speculating that the Agency might have been the actual hacker into the DNC, leaving a trail behind that would have suggested that it was done by the Russians. His concern arises from the recent WikiLeaks revelation that the CIA had developed cyber-warfare capabilities to do just that.

McGovern, like myself, is also asking why former CIA Director John Brennan has not been summoned by the Senate Committee looking into Russia-gate. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has testified twice, while former FBI Director James Comey, current NSA Director Mike Rogers, and former Justice Department senior official Sally Yates have all appeared once. Brennan’s absence is conspicuous as he was the senior national security official most closely tied to the Obama Administration, may have had the tools at hand to fake the Russian connection, and has also been plausibly linked to “encouraging” British Intelligence to provide damaging information on Michael Flynn.

I now suspect that there is indeed a group at the top of the U.S. national security system that wants to remove Donald Trump and has wanted to do so for quite some time. If that is true, I believe that they have been operating with that goal in mind for at least the past year. It is not a traditional conspiracy or cabal in that it does not meet and conspire together, but I suspect the members know what they are doing in a general sense and are intervening whenever they can to keep Trump off balance.

Their program is simple: convince the nation that the President and his team colluded with the Russians to rig the 2016 election in his favor, which, if demonstrable even if not necessarily true, would provide grounds for impeachment. They are motivated by the belief that removing Trump must be done “for the good of the country” and they are willing to do what they consider correcting a mistake made by the American voters. They are assisted in their effort by the mainstream media, which agrees with both the methods employed and the overall objective and is completely on board with the process.

Saving the country from Trump is certainly an attractive notion. I suspect the Comeys, Clappers, and Brennans, together with a host of former senior officers who appear regularly on television, if they were involved, see themselves as great patriots. But they must understand that the blunt instrument they are using is far more dangerous than the current occupant of the White House.

A soft coup engineered by the national security and intelligence agencies would be far more threatening to our democracy than anything Donald Trump or even the Russians can do.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest. [This article is re-posted with the author’s permission. It first appeared at The American Conservative at http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/do-high-level-leaks-suggest-a-conspiracy/ ]

74 comments for “Do High-Level Leaks Suggest a Conspiracy?

  1. Dr. Ibrahim Soudy
    May 22, 2017 at 17:11

    Of course the author neglects to mention that the Bin Laden Unit of the CIA was located OUTSIDE the CIA Headquarters…..His argument is based on what happens WITHIN the headquarters!!!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jul/04/usa.alqaida

  2. Anonymous
    May 22, 2017 at 10:26

    The Dramatic Events taking place in our World, indicate that the End of the World may be nearer than we had originally thought.

    How Can we Know these things, and how Can we be Ready for that time.

    While it sounds like a hopeless situation to some People, yet to those those who Believe in God and who Believe the Bible, then they are Certain that God has Provided a Way of Escaping the End of the World.

    There are Many People who Believe that the Invisible Devil and his Invisible Demons want an Nuclear War where All Humans will Die.

    There are People who think that the American Democrats are the Most Likely to be used by the Invisible Devil and his Invisible Demons for this, and that Much of the American Mainstream Media is being Used by the Invisible Devil and his Invisible Demons for this Evil Scheme of the Devil.

    We have seen how the American Democrats have said that Russia was responsible for the Election result of 2016, even though there has been No evidence for this Allegation and this Lie.

    However, this has Not discouraged the American Democrats from wanting to perpetuate this Lie and for looking for False evidence to try to support these Lies.

    The Establishment Democrats have their own Secret Nuclear Shelters, and so they do Not care what happens to other Americans.

    The Establishment Republicans have their own Secret Nuclear Shelters, and so they do Not care whats happens to other Americans.

    The Lying Journalists of the American Mainstream Media have their own Secret Nuclear Shelters, and so they do Not care what happens to other Americans.

    The Leader of the American Green Party said during the Election Campaign that a Hillary Clinton Presidency means Nuclear War, and this could be true of any President that is an Establishment Democrat or an Establishment Republican, and this is Why the Establishment Democrats and the Establishment Republicans want a Coup on President Donald Trump, and this is Why there are Many Americans who want a Third Political Party.

    God is aware of the Evil Schemes of the Invisible Devil and of the Invisible Demons, and the Bible tells us that God will put the Invisible Devil and the Invisible Demons to Death, as the way to save the Human Race (Revelation 20:10).

    Americans Should Realise that Much of the American Mainstream Media Lies approximately 50 % of the time, and so Americans Should Know this, and I Avoid the Mainstream Media as Much as possible, and I Know that Nearly on Anything they say, that it Could Very Easily be the Opposite of what is Real, because they are Hardened and Habitual Liars.

    We have seen how Robert Mueller has been appointed to investigate a matter for what there is No evidence after all this time, and that is, if there was any collusion between Candidate Donald Trump and a foreign Country in America’s Election, and it has been said that Mueller is a Puppet of the American Shadow Regime, and that he Participated in Covering Up for the American Intelligence Agencies for the President George Bush the second Administration, and he helped create the post 9/11 National Security Surveillance State, and helped facilitate the Iraq War Propaganda Machine, and he a Very Good Friend of Comey, and this Alleged memo may have been created by Comey only a few days ago for Mueller to be appointed, and there are Many People who think that he has been Puppetized by the American Shadow Regime.

    The American Shadow Regime Knows how to Bribe, Intimidate, and Deter People from giving Evidence with regards to the Fact that it was Seth Rich who Leaked those Emails to WikiLeaks, and they Know how to Cover Up these Facts to the Unwary, but those who have Studied the Clinton’s Criminal History and Methods, Know the Facts of these matters.

    There are Many Americans who Know that there is Much Evidence that President Donald Trump is the Legitimately Elected President of America.

  3. Max
    May 21, 2017 at 07:55

    The former G-Men can become X-Men and work against Trump and Russia. Newspapers can operate like high tech X HQ’s.

    “The bad apples are at the top. They enjoy murdering the innocent people.”

  4. Bill Bruford
    May 21, 2017 at 00:18

    Trumps removal by “this group” has its motive. Trump is soft on Syria, Iran and Russian and Israel/AIPAC/Fleet St. re:Rothschild Inc want war with Iran and usurp Russia that they lost when their financed Communist Revolution was subverted by Stalin. Wall St. Kuhn Loeb Trotsky/Bernstein was supposed to follow Lenin and “they” lost control of “their” Russia. Hillary was their puppet stooge. They want Donald out. They got the Ukraine but they want more and will not stop at anything Our Country is lost.

  5. zonefreezone
    May 20, 2017 at 10:16

    There is no longer any possible way for Americans to get to the heart of any of this or trust what they’re told. The system runs itself. It is the mission of the intelligence community to make things look whichever way they want.

    The future? It’s multiple conspiracy theories battling each other. The truth – well, it’s in there somewhere.

    We are lost.

  6. Zye.Zxe
    May 20, 2017 at 09:57

    Miss Hillary lost the 2016 General Election to sheer incompetence. She didn’t think she needed the democrat base because her social conservative message would easily capture blue-dog democrats and social conservative republicans. She also thought fear of a President Trump would be a rallying cry for moderate Democrats and Republicans to vote for her. And as election day drew near, she ignored pleas from the on-the-ground people in critical states they needed money and her presence.

    Simply put, she lost an election that anyone else could have won if they had paid a little attention to the dynamics.

    So ” the-russians-hacked-me ” is a hollow scream for help from a victim of their own folly. The Russian ” may ” have hacked her system and may ” not ” have too. It doesn’t matter simply because she had already lost the election before it had started.

    As for the ” Russian Influence “, I’m of the assumption their interference is nothing more than collateral damage … accidentally discovering the entire internet was wide open to manipulation because of lax security. Note, nothing released was a smoking gun … just confirmation what many had already suspected was true that Miss Hillary refused to be transparent about.

    Finally, it seems all the stuff concerning the Trump campaign is nothing more than business as usual, skirting the rules in the pursuit of profits. And if Trump hadn’t ran for and won the election, no one would have ever been aware of the quasi-legal/illegal activities being used to make profits.

    So Miss Hillary will never get the justice she believes she’s owed, and Trump may find his business activities are illegal and can be punished which may disqualify him to hold office.

  7. Max
    May 20, 2017 at 07:22

    Maybe it’s as simple as the Trump people are a just a bunch of jerks burning down their own operation to entertain smug Russians.

  8. Adrian Evitts
    May 19, 2017 at 21:13

    The US establishment plotting to rid itself of a democratically elected Head of State of which it does not approve is hardly news … it’s been doing this throughout the world for generations.

  9. ltr
    May 19, 2017 at 20:45

    The continual stream of leaks from the White House strike me as unprecedented. So much so that even after reading this fine essay I do not understand what is happening. Every word of the president is almost immediately leaked.

  10. peon d. rich
    May 19, 2017 at 19:58

    The ever obnoxious meme “Ready from day one” of the Killary show remains the subtext of the bourgeois naivete of the ‘resistance’. Impeach for war crimes, put them all on notice, not an impeachment “of choice”.

  11. LJ
    May 19, 2017 at 17:02

    I agree with this writers assessment. It’s obvious the last leaks came from the inner circle with a hand from intelligence. . But there is still the nasty sticking point that no laws have been broken and there is no smoking gun, no smoke, no fire . No circumstantial evidence even . All there is is innuendo. Trump doesn’t seem to have the people in place to get on top of this and the Intelligence Agencies and FBI are pretty clearly indifferent to him serving out his term. The ultimate question is what about the day after? It would harm the Republicans to get rid of Trump. Pence could never win a National Election in a million years. So they would almost certainly have lost the House, the Senate and the Presidency in 2020. The Republicans have to muzzle people like McCain,Corker ,Graham and stop McCarthy and Ryan from making stupid and counterproductive remarks that they obviously do not understand the potential repercussions of unless they are interested in losing control of the Federal Government. Of course, Trump did step on a lot of toes in becoming President. Ryan, Romney, the Bush Family, Lindsey Graham . Kasich, Cruz, Rubio, He doesn’t have a lot of real allies anywhere it seems I think that this fiasco may ultimately become a case of “Watch what you ask for you just might get it”. The remedy could be worse that the disease of Trump in the White House but the people in politics and intelligence are self righteous egotists not philosophers , logicians or intellectuals. They may cut their own noses off to spite their own faces.

    • Joe Tedesky
      May 19, 2017 at 23:44

      I was just thinking today to what if Trump had picked some D.C. Insiders to be his inner circle, instead of Bannon, and Jared & Ivanka, and would it have made a difference?

      The other thing I can’t get out of my memory banks, is how rude and mean spirited Trump was during both the Primary and the General Election. Seriously, calling out McCain’s heroism, George W Bush’s handling of 911, Low Energy Mommy’s Boy Jeb, and to top it all off Crooked Hillary. I mean why wouldn’t this type of insulting of established political aristocracy while stumping make you an enemy of those victims of your assault? Think about this, do your really think these are the kind of people who are going to just let these kind of remarks, such as Trump made, just let his wisecracks roll off their backs?

      What should be of concern, isn’t so much Trump’s being vulnerable to Russian influence, as his being compromised from within. This brings me to wonder why suddenly Trump increased the Defense Dept. Budget by 54 billion dollars. Was his 59 Missile Strike an appeasement of somekind, and if it was then to whom was Trump playing up too?

      What I cannot get over, is to how Trump should have had back channel staffers talking to Comey staffers, and to not approach Comey with such directness. This brings me back to how Trump would have been wise to have an experienced D.C. Politico to turn too for advice. In fact, where was Pence in regard to all of Trump’s bombastic political wrangling?

      • Realist
        May 20, 2017 at 02:31

        There were some pretty harsh words exchanged, Joe, but really not that different in kind from the back-and-forths between Romney and Obama, or McCain and Obama. In fact, the incessant, escalating negative campaigning has bothered me since Tricky Dick hauled out the insults and BS nearly sixty years ago against JFK. It also never stops once a winner is declared and assumes office. As a rational man, I can never fathom why a truce cannot be declared for the good of the country (and the world). EVERYTHING is couched and decided in the light of strict hyperpartisanship in this country, though lip service is always given to “bipartisanship.” The only truly bipartisan action taken in Washington is the endless gratuitous bashing of Russia, in which every agency, every interest group and the even the sleazy hypocrites in the media join in, because that is only a “win” for all concerned with no down side (except possible nuclear annihilation).

        Sadly, Hillary Clinton has never been a gracious loser, she’s not even a fair fighter. So, it’s not surprising that she and her party would absolutely refuse to cooperate with Trump in any way. What’s extraordinary is that she has been able to recruit every faction in the nation at loose ends after the election to sabotage Trump’s every move, even if it is at the expense of the integrity of our constitution, the stability of our nation, and the very existence of civilisation in the face of the nuclear threat. The Dems were much more rational and disciplined in opposition to Ronald Reagan, Bushdaddy and even Bushbaby, though they arguably posed bigger threats to Democratic liberal policy and world peace than anything Trump even dreams about.

        Perhaps the problem is simply that, since Bill Clinton was relentlessly hunted and ultimately impeached for what basically amounted to partisan bullshit and a BJ, the process of impeachment, like the filibuster which is now routinely applied to every piece of legislation, has become–as they say–fully weaponized. Dubya was threatened with impeachment, and Obama was threatened with impeachment, though the trigger was never pulled in either case.

        Tricky Dick’s ouster, basically an outgrowth of the confounding Vietnam War, without which both he and LBJ would have been considered highly effective presidents, was brought about by bringing impeachment proceedings, though he resigned before that could play out. That was the first time impeachment had been broached since the days of Andrew Johnson in the aftermath of the Civil War! And, it seems like it’s been toyed with as a tool of revenge in nearly every administration since. (Even Saint Ronald Reagan came close to the edge because of Iran-Contra, only his incipient Alzheimer’s probably saving him. He claimed to have forgotten more than you’d ever know about anything. If you remember.)

        In other countries, winners rule and losers sit on the sidelines, perhaps for generations. In America, everything is adversarial, from our system of governance to our system of justice. The competition never ceases, it seems to only escalate as some hyperbolic function with a limit of infinity. As Vince Lombardi said and as America fully internalised, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” It’s to the point where personal destruction in the service of partisanship is acceptable (no, it’s expected!) and capital punishment without appeal is demanded by winning prosecutors even in the face of mitigating evidence. (Scalia argued that as long as a trial verdict was handed down, the condemned got as much due process as he deserved, even if new evidence proving his innocence should arise. New evidence alone does not justify an appeal. His conscience was clear even if he knew an innocent man was to be executed–one of his quirks that made the old buzzard so lovable.) But that’s our system, our American way…

        • LJ
          May 20, 2017 at 16:22

          That dirty Turk Pachulia stuck his foot under the San Antomio’s Spurs Leonard’s injured ankle on purpose (NBA fu) . The aim of course, like every year, is to beat the dreaded Lebron James Cavaliers in the Finals. Every year different sports same thing. We are a tribal species and we like to watch, (Chancy Gardener?). Scarce resources make life adversarial by the very nature of the case. My favorite sports moment was when the French Algerian Zidane head butted that Italian mobster to the ground in a heated World Cup Finals at Berlin Stadium in a 1-1 deadlock. The referee mustered the courage to send him off with a Red Card and as he descended down the stairs past the World Cup trophy with the crowd whistling in disapproval I was waiting for a Jonathan E. > Rollerball Revolution. I was ready. That was humanity’s last hope. Zidane, Zidane, Zidane. Now he coaches Real Madrid , Ronaldo is the best player and they are about to win not only the Spanish League but the Champions League Trophy as well. Que sera, sera. PS Doris Day was hot.

          • Realist
            May 20, 2017 at 17:49

            Sure, sure, everyone knows about evolution through natural selection based on the competition for limiting resources in the physical world. Humans like to think we have transcended the use of such brute force in organizing and operating our societies on the supposed basis of reason and compassion for our fellow sapient beings. At least we are constantly congratulating ourselves for dragging our existence up from the slime by means of our cerebral bootstraps. There are whole philosophies and religions built on the notion, to which we universally claim to subscribe in one form or another. You can read about them on the internet if you don’t have a library card. I’m just asking the human race to practice what it preaches… for once. If you don’t expect more from your fellow humans, I am not here to convert you. Enjoy what you seize from others until you lose your edge, but know there’ll be no Riddick to unwittingly save you by fortuitously overturning the existing order.

  12. Curious
    May 19, 2017 at 16:33

    A couple of quick thoughts:

    I didn’t notice in the article, nor in the comment section, the fact that this information release was done by the Israelies. Why? And have they bugged the Oval Office too? The fact this was released by the Israelies is important since people are only mentioning the top dogs in the intelligence world. An Israeli chatting in the closet of the CIA? I highly doubt this. But the Post is not one known for verification, only anonymous chatter.

    Also, one can easily assume the Russians are very well versed in laptops and terrorism. Let’s not forget their own plane downed in Egypt by some form of explosive.

    Lastly, why would a computer with a bomb inside the luggage hold be better than inside than the cabin? One can’t build such a device independent of the pressurization in the cabin? This is all much to do about very little.

    • Curious
      May 19, 2017 at 16:37

      ps. Intentional spelling of Israel-lies

    • Skip Scott
      May 20, 2017 at 07:38

      Presently they check laptops by making you turn them on. This bomb design would allow that for a short period, thereby disguising it’s explosive potential. Supposedly the laptop would have to be turned on to detonate. To do so remotely would be an additional challenge. So it would need to be carried on.

  13. Anonymous
    May 19, 2017 at 15:57

    We have seen Further Evidence of why it was Proper that the former Director of the FBI be replaced with someone else.

    This Evidence is provided by the Alleged Memo of the former Director of the FBI, if the memo is accurate and if it took place as is Alleged by the Bribed and Corrupt American Puppet Mainstream Media.

    The conversation between President Donald Trump and the former Director of the FBI took place on 14 January 2017, and we do Not know what was said, and at this time, we do Not know if there was memo, because if the only ‘proof’ that there was a memo is the Hardened and Habitual Lying Mainstream Media, then that is Not proof of any type, and we do Not know at this time, and we may Not know if that memo was written after it was mentioned in the Media, or on what day it was written, unless Reliable experts can examine the ink to see how old it is, and if the Computer date has been altered to make it appear that the Alleged memo was written at what time for the former Director of the FBI to recall what was Allegedly said with Alleged accuracy and with Alleged honesty, and we Know that an employee of Hillary Clinton’s went on the Internet to ask for how he could change the details and text of some of Hillary Clinton’s Emails, and the American Shadow Regime Knows how to do that, and would do that for any Comey memos.

    We Know that Comey while he was yet Director of the FBI, said to a Senate Judiciary Committee under Oath on 3 May 2017, and he said that he had Never experienced any Public Official trying to halt an FBI Investigation, and after he was dismissed from his position, then the Alleged memo was mentioned.

    It appears that the former Director of the FBI used what he thought was the insinuation of that Memo, as his Pay to Play Scheme, because while I am Not a Lawyer, yet I have read that if the former Director of the FBI had thought that such a remark was improper, then he Should have by Law mentioned it to others to take appropriate measures, or he Should have informed President Donald Trump immediately or as soon as practical as to what the proper standards are concerning these matters, because President Donald Trump is Not a Lawyer as is the former Director of the FBI.

    Perhaps Criminal Charges should be considered on the former Director of the FBI, for failing in his Lawful Responsibility, and let a Jury determine if he had any Intent to be like John Edgar Hoover, who had his own version of Pay to Play.

    This is because it appears that for as long as the former Director of the FBI could keep his job, then this Memo whether true or false or if it is a variant of what was said, would remain Private, thus making it a Pay to Play scheme.

    This is Proof to Many People of another example of the Obstruction of Justice, Perverting the Course of Justice, and of the Obstruction of the Proper Governing of the Country by the former Director of the FBI.

    We All Know that the Cover Up by the former Director of the FBI with regards to Hillary Clinton’s Espionage Investigation, is probably his best Known example of the Obstruction of Justice, Perverting the Course of Justice, and the Obstruction of the Proper Governing of the Country.

    President Donald Trump spoke of Recordings on Tape, and that can be used to Parse exactly like the word Wiretapping was Parsed, because these days Recording are done electronically, and we Should assume that it is probable that the former Director of the FBI has made a Secret Recordings of the conversations between himself and the President.

    The former Director of the FBI will Not go to jail for his Crimes, because the American Shadow Regime will Reward him, if it can be Proven that President Donald Trump lied, and the Sensible thing to do is to be Honest.

    We Know that all of the things that were said in such Lengthy conversations Cannot be remembered, and so it is best Not to say anything, except that there was Never any thought to intentionally do anything improper.

    The reason why it is best to say nothing, is Not because there is something to conceal, but because there will be a lot of Lies said on this by the Mainstream Media, and whether it is done intentionally or unintentionally, then the Result is the same, and it will make any findings harder to be understood, because of all of the intentional or unintentional Disinformation by the Puppets of America’s Shadow Regime, and Voters want their Elected Representatives to do some work for the Country, because the Unemployed Need jobs, and the Homeless Need housing, and the Puppets of the American Shadow Regime in the Congress and the Senate and the Puppet Mainstream Media have Enough Money, and yet they want even More Dirty Money by being Better Puppets of the Unelected and Unconstitutional American Shadow Regime.

    We Know that General Michael Flynn has Served his Country with Distinction, and that he did Not do anything that was Treasonous like Hillary Clinton did, and the former Director of the FBI and others Covered Up Clinton’s Crimes, while President Barack Obama even Campaigned for Crooked Hillary Clinton.

    The Bribed and Corrupt Puppet Mainstream Media is saying that President Donald Trump said the following to the former Director of the FBI with regards to General Michael Flynn: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

    There is a saying that says that we see what you do, and we hear what you say, but what is the real motive behind it.

    We do Not know as yet if these things were said all in one sentence, or if they are bits that were said at different times and with different contexts, and we do Not know the tone of the words as to whether they were said sarcastically, while pretending to be caring, and what the motive was for saying that if it was said that way, because President Donald Trump Knows that Comey is a Puppet of the American Shadow Regime, and so if he could deceive Comey, then he might be able to deceive the American Shadow Regime, who are Not the Servants of the American People.

    This is because the Transition from the Puppet Obama and Clinton Administration to the Trump Administration was a difficult transition because the American Shadow Regime does Not like anyone Honest, and perhaps President Donald Trump may have had to engage in some questioning of Comey to better understand the Shadow American Regime’s Treasonous Schemes for a Coup on President Donald Trump, because General Michael Flynn was definitely a liability to his Presidency after he was Spied upon by the Obama and Clinton Administration, and so we may never know what the motives were, but I think that anyone who has observed the American Shadow Regime, Knows the difficulties that any Honest Person will experience with them, and it is because someone Honest does Not want to be a Puppet of the American Shadow Regime, but they Want to be a Servant of the American People.

    There are People who think that the former Director of the FBI may have Recorded the conversations with President Donald Trump, either with his Mobile Phone, and the FBI Knows how an FBI Agent can have a Secret Concealed listening device, and that recording may be Falsely claimed to have been made by President Donald Trump, and Falsely claimed to have been Leaked to the Internet by Donald Trump or someone from his Administration, while it may have been Leaked by a Puppet of America’s Shadow Regime to make it appear like Watergate, and this may be a matter of the word of President Donald Trump or that of the former Director of the FBI, and it would be difficult for President Donald Trump to remember All of that distant conversation, because the President has many More Important things to think of every day, and unless that conversation was Accurately recorded, then it is best to Not comment on it until there is certainty as to what was really said, because writing an account is Not as certain as electronically Recording an account, because subtle word changes can be made with a written account that give an entirely different impression than what actually occurred, and these days even electronic Recordings can be altered as to what was said, and as to what the real account is, and we may Not be able to know that, and there are People who think that the former Director of the FBI is less honest on these matters than what that the President is, and I do Not think that President Donald Trump made a recording of that conversation, but only said those things regarding the recording of conversations, to encourage the former Director of the FBI to Not leak Lies to the Lying Media, and as a Lawyer, the former Director of the FBI Knows how to misleading maneuver others into saying some things that they did Not really want to say, or did Not want to say it that way, and which can easily be misrepresented, especially if the written account is a modified version of the original account of what was said, and of how it was said.

    It has been said that there will be a Subpoena for the Alleged correct version of the text of that Alleged memo, which may or may not match what has been published in the Puppet Mainstream Media, and which is Government Property, because they were created as a result of the Salary that was Paid to the former Director of the FBI, and there are People who think that the Congress Should Demand by means of a Subpoena, rather with an invitation or a request, All of the memos and other works of the former Director of the FBI, especially with regard to the former Attorney General and Hillary Clinton, and who ever else was involved with the Entire Clinton Servergate Scandal.

    This is because the Comey memos and all of his other work can be Investigated for matters of Consistency, and Integrity, and Impartiality in dealing with People of different Political Parties, and these are Federal Records under the Federal Records Act.

    If the wording of that Comey memo is different to what the Media Alleges, then this Proves that there is No need to talk too much to the Media, and if it sounds worse than what has been Alleged, then it reflects even worse on Comey for Concealing this, and in the John Edgar Hoover manner in which he concealed it, and if the wording of the Alleged memo is idle chatter, then it Proves that Comey allowed all of this Fuss on this matter to occur by Not Promptly handling that matter at the time he Should have dealt with it, if it was perceived to be of concern, and because of Not promptly and voluntarily giving that Alleged memo and all All other works of his with regards to the private conversations that he had with President Donald Trump, because the motive was his version of a Pay to Play scheme.

    The Voters want Congress and the Senate to do some work for the Country, rather than Scheming a Coup on President Donald Trump.

    We have seen how Robert Mueller has been appointed to investigate a matter for what there is No evidence after all this time, and that is, if there was any collusion between Candidate Donald Trump and a foreign Country in America’s Election, and it has been said that Mueller is a Puppet of the American Shadow Regime, and that he Participated in Covering Up for the American Intelligence Agencies for the President George Bush the second Administration, and he helped create the post 9/11 National Security Surveillance State, and helped facilitate the Iraq War Propaganda Machine, and he a Very Good Friend of Comey, and this Alleged memo may have been created by Comey only a few days ago for Mueller to be appointed, and there are Many People who think that he has been Puppetized by the American Shadow Regime.

    We Know that the Shadow American Regime and their Puppets including Establishment Republicans and the Establishment Democrats, do Not want Americans to Realise the Obvious, and that it was a former employee of the Democratic National Committee who Leaked those Emails to WikiLeaks, because they want to Corruptly Cling to Power, even though that is Unconstitutional, and in order to continue Exploiting the American People, and to bring Dictatorship to America.

    There are Many Americans who Know that there is Much Evidence that President Donald Trump is the Legitimately Elected President of America.

    • backwardsevolution
      May 19, 2017 at 17:41

      Anonymous – after typing all that, you must be completely emptied out! But you make some excellent points. Courts are loath to accept tape recordings just because they can be tampered with. And let’s assume that Comey came back from a meeting with Trump and wrote down the gist of the conversation and then had it legitimately date-stamped. It still doesn’t make it the truth. And you’re right, not only are notes not inclusive of the whole conversation, but they don’t allow for sarcasm, tone, or perhaps innocent questions on Trump’s part (as he’s not a lawyer). That’s why most of these scum politicians are lawyers; they know how to protect themselves and what they can use against others who are not knowledgeable about the law.

      Maybe Comey wrote down that Trump asked him if he could “let Flynn go”, but perhaps just prior to this Comey might have said, “I’ll see what I can do. After all, it doesn’t appear that General Flynn had any intention to deceive. He seems like a good guy.” That’s why parties get in front of judges, and seasoned judges (if they’re not crooked too) listen and start to see inconsistencies or, more likely, no intent.

      If Trump were a lawyer, this would be a different ball game right now. He’s flying blind. But had Trump done anything wrong at all, Comey had an obligation to report it immediately. He didn’t. Case closed.

      Trump needs to sack the heads of every intelligence agency right now, get rid of them, and then charge them.

      And you’re right, while all this lying is going on, the business of the country is not even being looked at.

  14. Iowa Scribe
    May 19, 2017 at 15:37

    Some in Washington would like Americans to believe they must choose between shadowy “Deep State” (aka the War Party, aka the Anglo-Zionist empire) actors allied with major media organizations on one hand, or, on the other, the incompetent Donald Trump who wants nothing so much as to improve relations with Russia and China and prevent WWIII. That is a false choice and one so limited and limiting that its very presentation represents a flagrant denial of core American values. It’s the kind of unacceptable choice that emerges from a broken political system corrupted by foreign and special interest influence and money, a system ruled by politicians in thrall to a few, politicians who do not represent the best interests of the many. The Republican and Democratic parties are but feuding groups of political spoilsmen who have more in common with each other – primarily vested interests – than with the American people.

    With Trump having declared that Joe Lieberman, aka “the Senator from Israel”, is at the top of his list of prospective appointees to replace James Comey as Director of the FBI, the assertion that a soft coup engineered by the national security and intelligence agencies would be more threatening to our democracy than anything Donald Trump or even the Russians might do seems increasingly doubtful. Lieberman would be a disaster for U.S. law enforcement and counter-intelligence efforts. It is difficult to imagine a more overtly political appointment or a more counter-productive choice to head the FBI. Lieberman distinguished himself in no small measure by turning a blind eye to and preventing investigations of waste, fraud, and abuse as chair of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (2001-2003) and again as chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2007-2013), the Senate’s chief investigative and oversight committee and the only Senate committee whose chair is authorized to issue subpoenas on his own authority, without a committee vote. But then, perhaps Lieberman’s history of forestalling investigations is precisely what Trump finds so appealing.

    https://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/03/14/12312/waste-fraud-and-abuse-commonplace-iraq-reconstruction-effort

    • mike k
      May 19, 2017 at 19:19

      The appointment of Lieberman would trump all of Trump’s other dissasterous appointments. What a horrific choice! Trump has to be the most inept president to ever hold the office. If he does get ousted, he has only himself to blame.

      • Bill Bodden
        May 19, 2017 at 19:33

        The appointment of Lieberman would trump all of Trump’s other dissasterous appointments.

        Not for Israel. Lieberman in charge of the FBI would be a dream come true for Israel’s right wing and the Lobby.

    • Abe
      May 19, 2017 at 22:17

      “The former senator is the most prominent and outspoken member of the small ‘advisory board’ of the new, AIPAC-created group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran (CNFI)—to which $20-$40 million dollars have reportedly been committed—which is continuously running factually challenged ads on network and cable news shows. CNFI’s director, Patrick Dorton, used to work for AIPAC, according to the Sunlight Foundation. Lieberman also serves as co-chair with former Republican Sen. John Kyl of the ‘American Internationalism Project’ at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an organization that not only promoted, but also provided key architects of the Iraq War. In addition he is a Distinguished Adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies with which readers of this blog are already well acquainted. And let’s not forget that Lieberman also served as co-chair of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) the neo-conservative group established by the Bush administration for the express purpose of mobilizing support for the Iraq war. (For those who are noting the overlap between Iraq war promoters and Iran deal saboteurs, Lieberman is your man.)”
      http://lobelog.com/iran-deal-uani-samore-go-their-separate-ways/

  15. cmp
    May 19, 2017 at 15:25

    Remember Joe Nacchio? He was the CEO of Qwest Communications whom the FBI visited a full 8 months before 9/11.

    Joe was the only head of a communications company (Qwest) to demand a court order, or approval under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, this in order for Qwest to turn over his company’s communications records to the NSA.

    He was then convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in Qwest stock on April 19, 2007. The charges, his defense team claimed – were U.S. government retaliation for his refusal to give customer data to the National Security Agency back in February, 2001. But, his defense was not admissible in court because the U.S. Department of Justice filed a Limine motion, which is often used in national security cases, to exclude information which may reveal state secrets.

    Insider Trading? … (I thought Justice Was Blind. (.. too BIG to jail..))

    Eight months before 9/11??

    * * * * *
    But: … Let’s stick with the Chuck Berry thing…:
    I’m gonna write a little letter,
    Gonna mail it to my local DJ
    It’s a rockin’ rhythm record
    I want my jockey to play
    Roll Over Beethoven, I gotta hear it again today

    You know, my temperature’s risin’
    And the jukebox blows a fuse
    My heart’s beatin’ rhythm
    And my soul keeps on singin’ the blues
    Roll Over Beethoven
    ….. and tell Tchaikovsky the news

    So:
    How do you shake down the mighty US multi billion dollar Intelligence Community??
    The original ‘Guccifer’ is a cab driver from Romania. He reportedly had no hacking experience and used a standard NEC brand computer set up in his house. He attained access to his targets accounts by finding out low level info (.. ex: name of your dog) and then used his patience and persistence for the passwords and the security questions..
    (..smile..)

    Now, with Hillary’s State Department emails, here is the brief initial timeline – back in 2013:
    * February 1, 2013 – Clinton leaves the State Department.

    * March 20, 2013 – Clinton’s private email address, [email protected], is made public when a Romanian hacker named ‘Guccifer’ (whose real name is Marcel Laz?r Lehel) hacks into the longtime Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s AOL email account and leaks the images of his inbox – including some emails from Clinton.

    * June 2013 – Hillary’s team shifts control of the email domain to an outside IT contractor in Denver called Platte River Networks, and sends the original server hardware to a data center facility in New Jersey, where it is erased.

    In 2013, Platte River Networks was located in a loft apartment, and their server was housed in the bathroom closet.
    ~ Daily Mail Online spoke to former employees of the firm, including Tera Dadiotis, who was a customer relations consultant between 2007 and 2010.: “..At the time I worked for them they wouldn’t have been equipped to work for Hillary Clinton because I don’t think they had the resources, they were based out of a loft, so it was not very high security, we didn’t even have an alarm..”

    Where was (the Executive Branch, the State Dept, DOJ, FBI, etc.) in 2013, and why would any of ’em – allow Hillary 3 months to transfer and destroy Government property?

    … unless at least one (or maybe more) of these Departments wanted her too..

    *****
    As I understand it, Mueller is to look only at Russia, and nothing else. .. If true, isn’t that convenient?

    • backwardsevolution
      May 19, 2017 at 16:53

      cmp – thanks for posting. Very interesting.

  16. Bill Bodden
    May 19, 2017 at 15:06

    A soft coup engineered by the national security and intelligence agencies would be far more threatening to our democracy than anything Donald Trump or even the Russians can do.

    Let’s not forget the soft (?) coup at the CIA when George Tenet and others, including Colin Powell, fixed the intelligence to make the case for war on Iraq that damaged the United States and what remains of its democracy immeasurably.

  17. Bill Bodden
    May 19, 2017 at 14:57

    I confess to finding Monday’s detailed account of what President Trump discussed with Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, which included corroborating material that likely did more damage than the information that was actually shared, highly suggestive of the possibility that something like a conspiracy is, in fact, functioning.

    Jeffrey St. Clair over at CounterPunch notes that Russian and Israeli intelligence work together so what Trump relayed to Lavrov probably wasn’t news to Lavrov.

    :But this is a ludicrous scenario for the very simple reason that the Russians almost certainly knew about ISIS’s laptop bomb plant and they probably learned all about it from…the Israelis! As Gareth Smythe reported for the Guardian in April, the Israelis and Russians have been actively sharing intelligence on Syria for many months now. Former Mossad agent Yossi Alpher said that Russian and Israeli coordination on Syria was “a major strategic development in the Middle East.”” – http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/the-secret-sharer/

  18. Bill Bodden
    May 19, 2017 at 14:46

    First, the investigation into Russia and the Trumpsters has been a high priority at FBI and also in Congress for nearly a year. Yet so far no one has produced evidence that anyone broke any law or even that someone did something wrong.

    If the Mueller investigation fails to find any evidence and the report concludes there is no supporting evidence there should be lots of embarrassed people in the political and media cabals, but there won’t be. Psychopathic and congenital liars are not capable of embarrassment.

    • backwardsevolution
      May 19, 2017 at 15:19

      Bill – could be one of the reasons they brought in Mueller in the first place. I had read that it was starting to get very embarrassing to the witch hunters that they hadn’t found any wrongdoing. I mean, how long can Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow keep making stuff up? Anderson’s pink face was turning redder by the day, and Rachel’s psyche was no doubt one psychologist’s appointment away from unraveling. You can’t spin forever. After awhile, even the most ardent supporters start to ask questions, like: where’s the goddamn evidence?

      MSM were losing it, and Mueller was probably brought in to take the heat off them. Whew! Washington Post was fast becoming Washington Toast, along with their sidekick, the New York Crimes.

      He’s probably going to find something on Trump or one of his associates only if Trump goes off the rails. If Trump doesn’t go off the rails, nothing will be found. He’s a gatekeeper (or whatever you want to call it) protecting the Deep State. “Don’t push it, Mr. Trump, or I will find something, even if I have to make it up.”

  19. John wilson
    May 19, 2017 at 14:22

    One thing that Trump’s presidency has shown us for sure, is that America really is run by the deep state and forces of the night. Of course, we knew this already but somehow we just couldn’t quite believe it, but after Obama and now Trump its hard to concluded anything else. It was obvious that Obama twas like something out of a punch and Judy show, completely controlled by the hand up his rsole controlling his every move. It would seem that voting is a waste of time.

    • backwardsevolution
      May 19, 2017 at 14:32

      John wilson – agreed. “One thing that Trump’s presidency has shown us for sure, is that America really is run by the deep state and forces of the night.”

      I’d maybe add one more thing Trump’s presidency has shown us for sure: that there really are a lot of dumb, blind people out there who, if they had an anvil fall on their head, still wouldn’t get it. These people still believe the media are honest, the intelligence agencies are totally above board, and there’s no deep state. Truly scary.

    • Tomk
      May 19, 2017 at 14:43

      I thought JFK’s murder by the “lone gunman” showed us that….

  20. backwardsevolution
    May 19, 2017 at 14:11

    Philip Giraldi – thanks for the good article.

    In this case, the upper levels of the security machine open their mouths and leak, on purpose:

    “The leaks of that type of information, to include technical intelligence and Special Access Program “codeword” material, require top-level access as well as the ability to arrange clandestine contacts with major players in the media, something far beyond the reach of most employees at CIA or the FBI.”

    In another case, the upper levels of the security machine keep their mouths shut, on purpose:

    “This has been my principal problem with the debate in some quarters about the 9/11 Commission. Their report did indeed miss many important angles in order to protect certain governmental interests, but if there had been a genuine conspiracy involving what must have been hundreds of people to demolish the Twin Towers with explosives, it surely would have leaked long ago.”

    If they used outside help, perhaps the dancing Israelis, the British (or whoever), how would a lowly agent be the wiser?

    I don’t buy that Oswald was solely responsible for JFK’s assassination (although I do think he was there, set up to take the fall). If I’m right, then who killed JFK would most likely be known by the upper levels of the security machine, who are again keeping their mouths shut, on purpose.

    People can keep their mouths shut. I know, I’ve done it for years. Not everything has to leak. It only leaks when the security machine wants it to leak.

    Where am I going wrong in my thinking?

  21. Ash
    May 19, 2017 at 13:57

    Re: ” That sort of information had to come from the top level of the FBI and would have been accessible to only a few, but even though the leaks of what constitutes highly-classified information have been recurring for many months, no one has been fired or arrested.”

    Not true. Thanks to the EO from Obama in last days raw data is now accessible by 16 agencies, making the assumption that only top level people get stuff no longer true. Now if this data is not what they get, that’s something else. If anyone here knows, would like clarification.

  22. Bill
    May 19, 2017 at 13:55

    It’s a fight a to the death, either Trump goes or the rats behind this go. Trump needs to out the rats, then prosecute them, and send some to harsh treatment for their treason. He’ll be doing us all a favor by putting the various agencies back into their place, which is supposed to be subservient to the President.

  23. nimue
    May 19, 2017 at 13:25

    And I forgot to say that as far as the Russia thing goes, just follow the money for motive. I’m sure you’ll find real criminality there.

    • mike k
      May 19, 2017 at 13:42

      Following the money leads directly to the deep state, not Russia.

      • nimue
        May 19, 2017 at 17:40

        Binary thinking.

        • Gregory Herr
          May 19, 2017 at 19:32

          Mike’s comment is a simple assertion. He is not considering just two possibilities and choosing one.

          By the way, consideration of multiple possibilities is only as good as the plausibility of the possibilities. I can’t decide if you need more imagination, or less. Figure that one out bright guy.

  24. nimue
    May 19, 2017 at 13:23

    As much as I adore Ray McGovern, the idea that the CIA hacked into the DNC and Podesta emails to wound Clinton’s chances married with the idea that the CIA wants to perform a soft coup on Donald Trump isn’t even coherent. It’s wildly incoherent.

    The idea that Comey spilled so many beans about Clinton’s crimes while saying nothing about the investigation they had into Trump yet they’re leaking stuff out of Donald Trump’s meetings to destroy his presidency is also wildly incoherent.

    I, too, was skeptical at first about the Russia hacking narrative. However, the idea that the Russians couldn’t have been behind the hacking because they left Russian fingerprints doesn’t take into account they may have been using reverse psychology. They may have left those fingerprints for the sole purpose of making people doubt it was them. If that’s the case, their manipulation worked brilliantly on a lot of people that I know who are absolutely certain they’re in possession of all the facts, even though they haven’t seen any potential classified information on the subject. Furthermore, if I were Putin, there’s no way in hell I’d allow any communication with Trump or his campaign to be intercepted, so the only communication I’d allow on that particular subject would be face to face with no chance of any kind of listening device and would be extremely limited. This would explain how they could have colluded without there being any direct evidence. He may be able to get away with a superficial appearance of hacking non-governmental emails but the actual collusion would be considered more of an act of war and serve as a way to oust the person he’d prefer in the oval office, which is something he’d likely prefer to avoid. I personally think there was a combination of hacks and leaks.

    As far as leaks out of the white house is concerned, I think some of them are likely coming from the intelligence community but what I really think is they’re coming from inside. Bannon has been really open about his feverish wet dream to destroy our entire system of government. Not just the individuals or agencies he disagrees with but the whole way our government functions. I have no doubt he’d even try to sabotage Trump. I even think he may have the offices bugged and if I were to investigate, he’d be the very first person I would start with.

    This is all just my speculation from thinking about this from every angle I can imagine. I think if you’re not confused by what’s happening, you’re really not paying attention to it and giving it any kind of deep thought. I see a lot of group think on this subject on opposite poles of either believing everything the media reports or believing absolutely none of it and having an absolute panicky shrieking fit if anybody even dares to post an article from MSM on social media.

    I will have to disagree with those who say that a soft coup on this presidency (if there even is one) is a greater danger to our democracy than Trump. I don’t think true democracy was even at play at all in this election to begin with. I worry more about our food, water and air, the environment and the impact that has on the whole world, our health care, our economy, our education system, our housing, the wars Trump promised when he said he’d “bomb the shit out of them” and take their oil as the “most militaristic person” he claimed repeatedly to be, his assaults on the first amendment, and on and on, to be far greater threats to this country than some slight bruises to our already unfair election system. If their is some kind of coup going on, that sucks but they may really are saving us from something far worse, all things considered.

    • mike k
      May 19, 2017 at 13:40

      First you doubt there is a soft coup going on. Please get your glasses checked, it’s proceeding right in front of your eyes. Then you say that if there is one in progress maybe it’s a good thing. You fit the profile of those who think Trump is so evil that it is acceptable to lie and use any undemocratic means to unseat him. The next step in that logic is just to have the CIA kill him as it has done so many other leaders – for the “good of the nation.”

      • nimue
        May 19, 2017 at 15:22

        That’s right. Trump! Trump! Trump at the cost of literally everything! No, I’m not into this conspiracy theory as much as you guys are. There are some leaks but likely most are coming from his own administration. You guys think the “deep state” are against trump because he’s just such a wonderful guy! I mean, why else would they possibly be against him?!? LOL! So many people have gone way beyond being able to rationally assess a situation and see what’s worse. So many people have gone truly wacky.

        Good luck with your paranoia.

        • backwardsevolution
          May 19, 2017 at 16:43

          nimue – “Why else would they possibly be against him?!?”

          Because Trump got elected to do things that they don’t want him to do, like stop the perpetual wars, secure the borders, bring jobs back to America, make healthcare more affordable, and most of all DRAIN THE SWAMP!

        • Sam F
          May 19, 2017 at 17:23

          No article here has suggested that Trump is “such a wonderful guy.” The secrecy in government means that we are all speculating, and warrants the speculation that secret agencies, or those who control specific actions, have their own agenda here. I would not suggest that speculations are inappropriate, so long as all sides are acknowledged.

          • nimue
            May 19, 2017 at 17:46

            Thanks for the rational response. I think there’s a combination of things going on and people are either at one extreme or the other and not looking at other possibilities. I see other possibilities and am keeping my mind open. So I expect to get hammered from both sides.

    • Brad Owen
      May 19, 2017 at 14:19

      The rejection of Hillary by the Deep State was for Bill, a back-door agent of influence who might revive his desires for “a new financial architecture” and pursuing friendly relations with Russia, and a “peace dividend”. These were the reasons why HE was impeached and character-assassinated and sand-bagged during his time in office. Trump was singing the same tune during his campaign…and this is the coherence you seek in equating Hillary and Trump as “rejected” by the Deep State…oh yeah, it was Bill who freed LaRouche from prison, after the Bush gang put him there, and who has been fighting the Deep State assets of the City-of-London/Wall Street Empire before it was even called that.

      • zonefreezone
        May 20, 2017 at 10:05

        ?? Hillary was NOT rejected by the Deep State. The DS were in her corner. The voters? – they did it wrong and gummed up the machine.

    • Tomk
      May 19, 2017 at 14:42

      Oh please, Crowdstike the biased company hired by the DNC came up with the “Russia did it” “evidence”, and experts have been laughing since, the FBI has made itself a joke by not doing its own investigation of the server which is unprecedented and shows that this whole thing is a set-up against Trump from day one….http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/01/crowdstrikes-russian-hacking-story-fell-apart-2-dni-report-faked-sources.html
      In fact Crowdstrike has a history it seems of phony work…: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/23/cybersecurity-firm-that-attributed-dnc-hacks-to-russia-may-have-fabricated-russia-hacking-in-ukraine/ Like or hate Trump, and obviously you hate him, we are seeing a “soft” coup with the “intelligence” agencies, Globalist media, Obama hacks — Brennan, Comey, Clapper — doing as much as possible to hurt Trump and this bodes very badly for the future of “freedom” in this country if these interests (criminals?) are allowed to pull it off, reversing an election they don’t like–who do these unelected hacks think they are? Kennedy was right the CIA should have been smashed to pieces back when he suggested it before his head was blown of in that “not-soft” coup….Trump’s real offense was his statements indicating he might try to end the burgeoning new Cold War with Russia the Neocons have given us for their financial and other interests and which don’t mind if it turns hot it seems…..If Mueller is totally in the bag, and given his Comey relationship and protection of the FBI…..”Evidence” will be found, of something, to get Trump out….

      • nimue
        May 19, 2017 at 16:35

        Did I even say I thought it was Russia because of what Crowdstrike said? No, I didn’t. I said nothing like that. The idea that it was a sloppy job that left fingerprints pointing back to Russia, which I would suspect that would be found by anybody who examined it, could be reverse psychology. And if I’m right, and I’m not insisting I am, you fell for it. The idea is that if it looks like Russia, it can’t be Russia, because they would NEVER be so sloppy. That’s what everybody has been screaming about. I’m sure if this all goes to trial, trump’s attorneys will try to make just the exact same argument you’re making. However, it might be a trick in itself and nobody is even thinking about that. The simple fact is none of us knows for sure.

        And yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard all this nonsense about them being against trump just because he wants to end some cold war and play nice with Russia because he’s such a great guy. I don’t buy that either. Trump’s “love” for Russia has to do with how much money he owes them and his money laundering, etc.

        He’s compromised and it shows. I don’t know how this isn’t glaringly obvious to everybody else.

      • zonefreezone
        May 20, 2017 at 09:57

        This is such a key to the puzzle. The DNC is hacked but refuses to turn over their computer to the FBI for examination. (No brainer – there’s too much incriminating and/or embarrassing information on it.) The DNC decides that Crowdstrike, a compromised entity will do the examination and pass on their findings to the FBI.

        The FBI chooses to allow Crowdstrike to serve as fact-finder for the most critical information sought – who hacked the DNC???
        Would Elliot Ness be OK with this? Hell no! But Comey is no Elliot Ness.

        FBI’s basic position: “If Crowdstrike says Russia, we’ll go with Russia.

    • backwardsevolution
      May 19, 2017 at 14:51

      nimue – “However, the idea that the Russians couldn’t have been behind the hacking because they left Russian fingerprints doesn’t take into account they may have been using reverse psychology. They may have left those fingerprints for the sole purpose of making people doubt it was them.”

      Or maybe it was this:

      “The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch’s UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.

      With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.”

      Or maybe the emails weren’t hacked, but leaked, and maybe the leaker was Seth Rich, a former DNC staffer, who was brutually murdered shortly after Wikileaks released the emails?

      Where is Professor Plum with his candlestick when we need him?

      • nimue
        May 19, 2017 at 17:39

        The malware used was already available on the deep web and good hackers have long been able to hide their tracks and mask their IPs. There’s nothing new about that. I thought that was basic knowledge. I don’t think that Wikileaks exposed anything about the situation that wasn’t already under consideration. We had to assume the CIA had the capabilities of any other good hacker.

        I have doubts about the Seth Rich story. Why didn’t they get his copy of the emails if they were going to go to all that trouble to kill him? Seems like his home should have been ransacked, doesn’t it? Correlation does not equal causation. None of it makes any sense. Even if 100% true, that only explains one set of emails and not all the rest. Like I said, I think it may have been a combination of hacks and leaks. I don’t 100% trust Assange when he says it’s not Russia. Maybe he’s seeking to prevent a really ugly situation from getting out of control. I just don’t know and neither do any of us. And no, I don’t buy the private investigator’s story at all. I think he’s just cashing in on a tragedy and that’s disgraceful.

        Look, this was most certainly not a free and fair election by any stretch of the imagination. If it were, Bernie Sanders would be president right now. But I have to note that all those who cheered at every leak on Clinton, corrupt as she was, claimed they were against her only because of corruption. I get that. I didn’t want her as POTUS either. And they cheered when that Piewazzhisname said it was a CIA soft coup against Clinton to keep her from winning an election and that was just fine at the time. They all claimed they DIDN’T CARE where the leaks were from as long as they were getting the truth. But now those same people are absolutely outraged at every leak about Trump and his corrupt government? Why the double standards? Why weren’t they outraged that there was an ongoing soft coup on the election against one candidate? Those same people don’t get to claim any moral high ground because now they are thoroughly engaged in a hellova lot of whataboutism. What was an outrage from Clinton before is now perfectly acceptable when Trump does it. Maybe it would have been a bit more of a fair election had we known that Trump was also under investigation and that fact was hidden from us. Comey claims he doesn’t reveal when someone’s under investigation, but he did with Clinton. Did she deserve to lose because she had rigged the primaries? Yes, most certainly. Do all of us deserve to lose everything we stand to lose because she rigged the primaries? Most certainly not.

        And they didn’t care about the corruption all along. They’ve made that quite clear with their glaring double standards.

        • Bill Bodden
          May 19, 2017 at 19:27

          Look, this was most certainly not a free and fair election by any stretch of the imagination.

          Can you name one that ever was?

        • Joe Tedesky
          May 19, 2017 at 21:36

          I find your comments challenging nimue. You certainly raise the bar with your take on things, and your questions. You give me a lot to think about.

          > what if the killers of Seth Rich were assigned that task to only murder his poor soul?
          > what if Seth Rich’s computer was too be confiscated by the FBI upon the notice of Seth’s murder?
          > should we be skeptical of any IP address, considering what we know about from ‘Vault 7’?
          > why not investigate Trump and his people for Russian ties?
          > if Trump or his people were interacting with Russians then what concerns are to be warranted as vital to U.S. National Security?

          I’m just throwing it out there for conversation. So let’s all take an alternate view of these situations and see where this conversation may lead us. I don’t have answers but I am intrigued by it all.

        • Skip Scott
          May 20, 2017 at 07:15

          Nimue-

          It sure is confusing, and many questions remain unanswered. I think a possibility is that they killed Rich and didn’t bother with the laptop because the info was already out there. He had already leaked it to wikileaks. They control the MSM so well, that they wanted to send a message to the few of us that dig for the truth that this is what happens to you when you go up against power.

        • zonefreezone
          May 20, 2017 at 09:41

          Not knowing Trump was under investigation?

          You can’t make Russian hacking a campaign issue if the State Department does business by way of the laundry room.

          And of course he was not going to win.

    • Miranda Keefe
      May 19, 2017 at 22:39

      Nimue wrote, “However, the idea that the Russians couldn’t have been behind the hacking because they left Russian fingerprints doesn’t take into account they may have been using reverse psychology. They may have left those fingerprints for the sole purpose of making people doubt it was them. If that’s the case, their manipulation worked brilliantly on a lot of people that I know who are absolutely certain they’re in possession of all the facts, even though they haven’t seen any potential classified information on the subject.”

      If that is what the Russians did than they are totally stupid and they failed in their hoped for task at a massive scale.

      For I’m sure you know, nimue, that the dominant narrative in the US, a narrative that completely controls the major TV networks, the major daily newspapers, the major weeklies, and is being spouted by people from Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to John McCain and Lindsay Graham.

      So the Russians succeeded in duping a few fringe bloggers who are not part of the mainstream media and not allowed even to question it in a way that anyone out there can hear.

      You realize that we are not the ones who are providing some thesis that we need to prove and you are so bold in questioning it. They are providing a narrative with no evidence and we have the audacity to question it. It is required of them to provide evidence to support their narrative, not on us to say “There is no there there.”

      It seems to me that despite you assertions you doubted this at first, that the reality is that however it started, that you are now feeling a need to defend the dominant narrative and yet act as if those questioning the dominant narrative are the ones with a dominate narrative they aren’t providing evidence for and you are being so bold to question it.

      This isn’t hopscotch, nimue. This is the ratcheting up of hatred, antagonism, antipathy, and possible aggression against the other major nuclear power on the globe. There are consequences to this anti-Russia narrative and so the wise thing to do is question it, question it, question it, lest it overwhelm us and destroy us all. Yet here you are questioning the questioning.

      It’s a little strange, I must say.

      • Miranda Keefe
        May 19, 2017 at 22:40

        “For I’m sure you know, nimue, that the dominant narrative in the US, a narrative that completely controls the major TV networks, the major daily newspapers, the major weeklies, and is being spouted by people from Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to John McCain and Lindsay Graham.”

        Edit that to:

        “For I’m sure you know, nimue, what is the dominant narrative in the US, a narrative that completely controls the major TV networks, the major daily newspapers, the major weeklies, and is being spouted by people from Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to John McCain and Lindsay Graham.”

      • Sam F
        May 20, 2017 at 07:00

        Well said.

  25. D5-5
    May 19, 2017 at 13:22

    I’m not as pleased with this piece by Giraldi as I usually am. To begin, his continual, simplistic dismissal of 9/11 is a glaring bit of denialism under the righteousness of the “not going for conspiracy theories” rhetoric. If you can’t deal seriously with the questions that event raises why even bring it up? Secondly, to seriously suggest (apparently approvingly) whatever move is going on to oust Trump is “for the good of the country” is again simplistic and misleading, especially since the methods chosen for this noble cause are so slimey. Perhaps “rationale for” would be more effective language versus motivated “by the belief that” as though patriotism is the driving force. Further, we have the glaring contradiction of using an obviously phoney Russia story to get after Trump while entirely leaving Clinton’s sins aside and not investigated. I call on Giraldi to get after his connections to do more leaking to help the cause–as with getting after Seth Rich computer evidence.

    • Gregory Herr
      May 19, 2017 at 19:01

      Right Giraldi, Foreknowledge of the demolitions “must have involved hundreds of people.” And the Commission sucked because “governmental interests” were being protected. Well, in a sense he may have a point on that one.
      Thanks for noting the “for the good of the country” claptrap as well.

  26. May 19, 2017 at 12:50

    For years the bandits in power and their sycophants have been “getting away with murder” as the saying goes. I believe what we are seeing is: “The Open Criminality of the Establishment and its Political Puppets”
    [A plethora of info at link below]
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-open-criminality-of-establishment.html

  27. akech
    May 19, 2017 at 12:12

    There is a powerful unelected fourth branch of US government running the country and is currently determined to neutralize the constitutionally elected POTUS in order to implement policies that do not serve the interests of ordinary Americans!

    This is the body that control what the US policies must be. All those elaborate elections which the public is urged to participate in are merely masquerade s!

  28. Tom Welsh
    May 19, 2017 at 11:02

    “That sort of information had to come from the top level of the FBI and would have been accessible to only a few, but even though the leaks of what constitutes highly-classified information have been recurring for many months, no one has been fired or arrested”.

    Apparently the USA, 220 years or so after its creation, is coming to the end of its rope. The Roman Empire lasted about twice as long, and the Roman Republic three times as long. Anyone who has read Gibbon will immediately see the parallel between the behaviour of the FBI and the CIA and that of the Praetorian Guard, which began to overthrow emperors whom they personally disliked and to choose their successors, often by an open process of auction.

    • mike k
      May 19, 2017 at 13:29

      Yes Tom, power corrupts whether it be Americans or Romans. When the powerful squabble among each other, as is inevitable – heads will roll!

  29. Zachary Smith
    May 19, 2017 at 10:38

    “The Lavrov Leak”

    It seems to me there couldn’t have been all that many people in the room for this meeting, so unless the place was thoroughly “bugged” how did the information get out? I can’t imagine any motive the Russians would have had for releasing the information to the neocon newspapers.

    • Tomk
      May 19, 2017 at 14:32

      A memo was circulated as to what was discussed at the meeting to the NSC it seems, so many more had access….

  30. May 19, 2017 at 10:22

    Looks like the words below are coming true:
    ————————————————————–
    “If 2016 taught us anything, it is that if the establishment’s hegemony is imperiled, it will come together in ferocious solidarity — for the preservation of their perks, privileges and power. All the elements of that establishment — corporate, cultural, political, media — are today issuing an ultimatum to Middle America: Trump is unacceptable.”
    Patrick J. Buchanan, August 12, 2016, The American Conservative.
    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/yes-the-system-is-rigged/

    • mike k
      May 19, 2017 at 13:24

      Thanks Stephen. I have always admired Pat Buchanan’s forthright expression of what he knows are unpopular views, in spite of many issues I disagree with him on. In the quote you shared, he is right on.

  31. May 19, 2017 at 10:07

    I believe there is something evil afoot.
    See link below:
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/11/something-is-very-evil.html

  32. Skip Scott
    May 19, 2017 at 09:52

    Great article. Especially the last two paragraphs.

    Here is a link where Dennis Kucinich speaks to the same issue.

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/18/kucinich_deep_state_trying_to_take_down_trump_our_country_is_under_attack_within.html

    I can’t believe that I’m actually recommending a Sean Hannity interview, but that’s how upside down the MSM has become with this Russiagate BS.

  33. Sam F
    May 19, 2017 at 09:41

    Very well stated. A soft coup “engineered by the national security and intelligence agencies …threatening to our democracy” is also unconstitutional in the extreme, and would also likely serve interests other than “a defense of the Constitution.”

    More likely such a cabal is associated with the same interests that control the Dem and Rep parties, the Israel/KSA/MIC/WallSt interests that bribe politicians with campaign “donations.” That this economic war upon the US is not considered treason is an oversight of the Constitution, due to the fact that such concentrations did not exist when it was written.

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