Was former FBI Director James Comey pulling a Hoover on Trump to keep him in line? asks Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News
For those interested in evidence — or the lack of it— regarding collusion between Russia and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, we can thank the usual Russia-gate promoters at The New York Times and CNN for inadvertently filling in some gaps in recent days.
Stooping to a new low, Friday’s Times headline screamed: “F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia.” The second paragraph noted that FBI agents “sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”
Trump had been calling for better relations with Russia during his presidential campaign. As journalist Michael Tracy tweeted on Sunday, the Times report made it “not a stretch to say: the FBI criminally investigating Trump on the basis of the ‘national security threat’ he allegedly poses, with the ‘threat’ being his perceived policy preferences re: Russia, could constitute literal criminalization of deviation from foreign policy consensus.”
On Monday night CNN talking heads, like former House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers, were expressing wistful hope that the FBI had more tangible evidence than Trump’s public statements to justify such an investigation. Meanwhile, they would withhold judgment regarding the Bureau’s highly unusual step.
Evidence?
NYT readers had to get down to paragraph 9 to read: “No evidence has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials.” Four paragraphs later, the Times’ writers noted that, “A vigorous debate has taken shape among former law enforcement officials … over whether FBI investigators overreacted.”
Brennan: “I don’t do evidence.” (White House photo)
That was what Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy was wondering when he grilled former CIA director John Brennan on May 23, 2017 on what evidence he had provided to the FBI to catalyze its investigation of Trump-Russia collusion.
Brennan replied: “I don’t do evidence.”
The best Brennan could do was repeat the substance of a clearly well-rehearsed statement: “I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign … that required further investigation by the Bureau to determine whether or not U.S. persons were actively conspiring, colluding with Russian officials.”
That was it.
CNN joined the piling on Monday, quoting former FBI General Counsel James Baker in closed-door Congressional testimony to the effect that FBI officials were weighing “whether Trump was acting at the behest of [the Russians] and somehow following directions, somehow executing their will.” The problem is CNN also noted that Lisa Page, counsel to then FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, testified that there had been “indecision in the Bureau as to whether there was sufficient predication to open [the investigation].’ “Predication” is another word for evidence.
Within hours of Comey’s firing on May 9, 2017, Page’s boyfriend and a top FBI counterintelligence official, Peter Strzok texted her: “We need to open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy [McCabe] is acting [director].” After all, if Trump were bold enough, he could have appointed a new FBI director and who knew what might happen then. When Page appeared before Congress, she was reportedly asked what McCabe meant. She confirmed that his text was related to the Russia investigation into potential collusion.
Comey v. Trump Goes Back to Jan. 6, 2017
The Times and CNN, however unintentionally, have shed light on what ensued after Trump finally fired Comey. Apparently, it finally dawned on Trump that, on Jan. 6, 2017, Comey had treated him to thetime-honored initiation-rite-for-presidents-elect — with rubrics designed by former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
It seems then-FBI Director James Comey rendered a good impersonation of Hoover that day when he briefed President-elect Trump on the scurrilous “Steele dossier” that the FBI had assembled on Trump. Excerpts from an interview Trump gave to the Times(below) after the firing throw light on what Trump says was at least part of his motivation to dump Comey.
To dramatize the sensitivity of the dossier, Comey asked then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper and the heads of the CIA and NSA to depart the room at the Trump Tower, leaving Comey alone with the President-elect. The Gang of Four had already briefed Trump on the evidence-impoverished “Intelligence Community Assessment.” That “assessment” alleged that Putin himself ordered his minions to help Trump win. The dossier had been leaked to the media, which withheld it but Buzzfeed published it on Jan. 10.?
‘This Russia Thing’
Evidently, it took Trump four months to fully realize he was being played, and that he couldn’t expect the “loyalty” he is said to have asked of Comey. So Trump fired Comey on May 9. Two days later he told NBC’s Lester Holt:
“When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”
Comey: Pulled a Hoover on Trump? (Carciature by DonkeyHotey)
The mainstream media and other Russia-gater aficionados immediately seized on “this Russian thing” as proof that Trump was trying to obstruct the investigation of alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. However, in the Holt interview Trump appeared to be reflecting on Comey’s J. Edgar Hoover-style, one-on-one gambit alone in the room with Trump.
Would Comey really do a thing like that? Was the former FBI director protesting too much in his June 2017 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee when he insisted he’d tried to make it clear to Trump that briefing him on the unverified but scurrilous information in the dossier wasn’t intended to be threatening. It tool a few months but it seems Trump figured out what he thought Comey was up to.
Trump to NYT: ‘Leverage’ (aka Blackmail)
In a long Oval Office interview with the Times on July 19, 2017, Trump said he thought Comey was trying to hold the dossier over his head.
“…Look what they did to me with Russia, and it was totally phony stuff. … the dossier … Now, that was totally made-up stuff,” Trump said. “I went there [to Moscow] for one day for the Miss Universe contest, I turned around, I went back. It was so disgraceful. It was so disgraceful.
“When he [James B. Comey] brought it [the dossier] to me, I said this is really made-up junk. I didn’t think about anything. I just thought about, man, this is such a phony deal. … I said, this is — honestly, it was so wrong, and they didn’t know I was just there for a very short period of time. It was so wrong, and I was with groups of people. It was so wrong that I really didn’t, I didn’t think about motive. I didn’t know what to think other than, this is really phony stuff.”
The dossier, paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, relates a tale of Trump allegedly cavorting with prostitutes, who supposedly urinated on each other before the same bed the Obamas had slept in at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton hotel. [On February 6, 2018, The Washington Post reported that that part of the dossier was written Cody Shearer, a long-time Clinton operative and passed it along to Steele. Shearer ignored a request for comment from Consortium News. [Shearer had been a Consortium advisory board member who was asked to resign and left the board.]
Trump told the Times: “I think [Comey] shared it so that I would — because the other three people [Clapper, Brennan, and Rogers] left, and he showed it to me. … So anyway, in my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there. … As leverage.
“Yeah, I think so. In retrospect. In retrospect. You know, when he wrote me the letter, he said, ‘You have every right to fire me,’ blah blah blah. Right? He said, ‘You have every right to fire me.’ I said, that’s a very strange — you know, over the years, I’ve hired a lot of people, I’ve fired a lot of people. Nobody has ever written me a letter back that you have every right to fire me.”
McGovern lays out more details during a 12-minute interview on Jan. 10 with Tyrel Ventura of “Watching the Hawks.”
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. A CIA analyst for 27 years and Washington area resident for 56 years, he has been attuned to these machinations. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
https://medium.com/@janedoe111/revisiting-the-forensicator-50777aca4c2c
With comments like “Would Comey really do a thing like that? Was the former FBI director protesting too much…” and claims (without evidence) of intent to blackmail the president, the amount of innuendo here could fill a swimming pool. And practically every sentence criticizing someone contained derogatory-but-logically-useless character attacks and slanders. Both of these factors make this article useless, manipulative garbage.
But I wouldn’t exepct anything less from the people who let themselves be hoodwinked by the Forensicator scam.
As opposed to people who let themselves be hoodwinked by Crowdstrike?
Despicable! GITMO for anyone involved in this pathetic Russian hoax, against our president! God protect our President and his family!
For me, remembering the beginning is the best place to start.,..over two years ago.,
The emails that exposed the Clinton Campaign was busy rigging the election process against their opponent, the Sanders Campaign.
Hillary Lost to Trump and then the Russians are accused of hacking the emails and causing Clinton to lose and Trump to win..
Never mind the content of the emails that showed the election was already being rigged by the Clinton Campaign ..shhheeesh..
It is in my educated opinion that among Muller’s nefarious attributes in working in the breach Hoover left behind to cary on the FBI dirty works ops not included in the CIA’s MK ultra and other ‘secret’ programs, and working along with Dick
Cheney/ Bush /Saudi 9-11 operation, that Bobby Boy cut his fangs for the current ‘Get Trump’ operation on the ‘Get LaRouche’ game plan initiated by all the same minions of the British Empire. Besides the huge amounts of money received by his actions, he is still contemplating to have the ‘sword placed upon his shoulder’ in a ceremony at Buckingham palace. However as in a Shakespeare tragedy ( tragedy of inability to be human) the blade may be placed upon on the clothed shoulder, only to be drawn crossed, to the other.
Thanks Roger, for the historical Mueller tie-in.
https://larouchepac.com/20170927/robert-mueller-amoral-legal-assassin-he-will-do-his-job-if-you-let-him
Thanks for the link Maxwell. Very interesting and thorough.
I have a LOT of respect for Ray McGovern but, how much SMOKE does there have to be to declare a FIRE???? I’m NOT one who “blames Russia for Trump win”—since there are MANY reasons that Hillary Clinton did not prevail (not the least of which is the antiquated Electoral College). But, how about FOLLOW THE MONEY where Trump & his corrupt cronies & family-members are concerned?
interesting that Giuliani has pretty much said that trump colluded and the only way he can be impeached is if it’s proven that trumpkin was directly involved in hacking the DNC, the one thing he didn’t actually do. Sad!
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/rudys-new-line
Someone suggested I have a look at this site. Glad I did, it’s just great to hear Americans and others discussing great issues in a rational and fair manner. Behind all this controversy about Russia and America et al there is a catastrophe looming, the environment kicking back against humans’ materialism and sort of living above nature and not with it. It’s time the US, Russian, Chinese, EU and other oligarchs who are leading us to destruction were pulled into line by our elected representatives and reminded that we need to live spare, fair and aware. All power to people who are speaking out and trying desperately to get our endangered world on track. tony mate bozich.
This is treason. Why are these people still walking around?
This is sedition. can only have treason during (REAL, declared) War.
Fascinating. General Flynn and others get indicted for the felony of “lying” to the FBI for mis-remembering inconsequential events in a clear perjury trap set by Mueller, but Brennan seems to think he can skate, suffering no consequences, for repeatedly lying to not only the FBI but the entire American mass media. His response to what were clearly bogus accusatory statements by himself targeting Trump and associates for colluding with Russia to steal the election is worthy of Roseann Roseannadana at her finest: “never mind.” His “I don’t think I said that” is priceless. The dog apparently ate much more than Brennan’s homework. There ought to be severe consequences for the attempted coup in which Brennan, Clapper, Comey and Mueller have engaged, but this is America and we know there won’t be.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201901161071539614-Ex-CIA-Chief-Pushed-Russiagate-Backs-Off-Collusion/
Wow. Great link, Realist. Watching MSM news shows makes me nauseous, so I generally avoid it. The downside is that I miss some of this stuff until I find out about it from alternate sources on the web.
The concept of a perjury trap was invented by Trump and his co-conspirators to give themselves media cover about being caught lying to the FBI about facts that were indeed material and consequential to the ongoing investigation.
lol at linking to sputniknews
Just email the Kremlin direct, Skip
Go cash your check from whatever three letter agency you shill for T T.
TT
Here is a link to a paper from 1981 explaining the concept of the “perjury trap”. If Trump and his co-conspirators invented it, they did it a long time ago.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://en.wikipedia.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1169&context=lawfaculty
BTW, to be taken seriously, you need to actually READ links and refute the CONTENT. Simply casting aspersions on the source being Russian doesn’t fly. I find articles on RT and sputnik to be more deeply thought out than most MSM corporate mouthpieces like the NYT and WaPo, and considering their history of acting as mouthpieces for, and being infiltrated by the CIA, I believe seeking some countervailing views is prudent.
It looks like the NY Times is upping the ante with even more stories about Trump meeting with Putin.
Here I have spanked the mainstream media purveyors of such Russiagate nonsense, and as a bonus so has Moon of Alabama. Enjoy!
http://opensociet.org/2019/01/16/putin-asks-and-trump-delivers-a-list-of-all-the-good-things-trump-did-for-russia/
I am amazed that so many have inside information that Mueller has found nothing, absolutely nothing about Trump. That’s just
a Republican/Trump/Guiliani talking point that may or may not be true, but certainly we have learned a great deal about
the actions of members of the Trump family and others who were close to him. More than enough to say “”lets wait for the report
before passing judgement”. As to whether or not the Russians have something on him its quite possible. After all here is a
man with few if any scruples, a chronic liar, a hustler, and one who brags about sexual assault. Russian money certainly
went in huge amounts into Trump interests and Donald Jr. bragged about it. His known associates are unsavory.
More likely than the Russians having something are the Israelis if you consider Trump’s association with the pedophile Epstein
and Epstein’s girl friend the daughter of Robert Maxwell who was alleged to have ties to both MI 6 and the Mossad.
I’m not sure where Mr. McGovern is coming from. I have a great deal of respect for him but his stance on this leaves me puzzled.
You shouldn’t be puzzled. For many reasons, it’s vital that we understand whether or not Trump colluded with Russia.
Before we get to that, I don’t think anyone disputes that Trump is unlikeable and corrupt. But being unlikeable is of little import. As for being corrupt, so were Obama and Clinton. You don’t really believe they came into their post-Presidency fortunes honestly, do you? Is Trump’s corruption materially different from Obama’s and the Clintons’? Not to me. (And Epstein is more an issue for Clinton than for Trump.)
It’s the issue of collusion that is vital. If there was collusion, then perhaps Clinton was cheated out of her victory (as she claims). That has implications for what Democrats do in 2020. If there was no collusion, then Clinton lost because of her failures as a candidate and perhaps the Democrats should rethink their messages
If there was collusion, then perhaps Trump can’t be trusted in trying to improve relations with Russia. If there was no collusion, then perhaps we should support his efforts at detente. That would be a blessing for the entire planet. If there was no collusion, then perhaps his efforts at improving relations with N. Korea and troop withdrawal in Syria and Afghanistan deserve real consideration and support.
If there was collusion, then the media deserve our appreciation and thanks for their relentless coverage of “Russiagate.” If there was no collusion, then our media can not be trusted and must be studied more carefully to understand their motivations and manipulations.
If there was collusion, then the role of Assange and Wikileaks is troubling. If not, then Assange and Wikileaks performed a real service for US democracy.
So, while Trump is certainly unsavory, the question of collusion is the central issue.
As Mr. McGovern stresses, there is no publicly available information that supports a charge of collusion. The initial claims came from a so-called DNC hack. There is no evidence that such a hack took place and no evidence that the Russians had anything to do with it. There was no 17-agency consensus that the DNC servers were hacked. The DNC servers were never made available to the government and they have since been destroyed. The stench of Russiagate, for many of us, significantly exceeds the odors that emanate from Trump.
So, for many of us, it is vital to know whether Trump colluded with the Russians. Most of the evidence, as McGovern states, does not support the charge.
Still puzzled?
Excellent analysis, mbob!
When Trump ordered the exchanges between Strzok and Page released, the FBI quickly claimed they were lost (the Justice department OIG released the ones they had). When outside experts asked the NSA, which supposedly monitors all e-mail (and phishing) traffic from overseas to clarify the DNC hacks, there was only silence. When Trump rhetorically asks Russia to release Hillary’s erased e-mails during his rallies, that is taken as evidence of that he is colluding with Russia?? When Hillary says during the debate that Trump is a puppet for Putin, that is accepted as gospel by the MSM. The faith-based, evidence-free (if there was anything serious to National Security, wouldn’t Obama have acted immediately?) slandering of the President (who I did nor vote for, but he won) just shows to what lengths government agencies will go to hide their illegal activities. I have no problem with investigations but they should be bi-partisan in their targets:
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/russian-collusion-hillary-clinton/
Michael, just so there is no misunderstanding, I am right there with you concerning Russiagate. I was an engineer by training, which required hard data in the decision making process, while allowing little room for error. I also have some knowledge of psychology, human nature and its motivations. Since day one, I’ve not come across any Russian collusion claim that has caused me to rethink my original hypothesis: that it was a PSYOP masterminded by the DNC, White House, Deep State, and media for the purpose of overturning the Trump election. It also serves to deflect attention from the “real” collusion (and criminality) of those same parties. In fact, I once referred to it the “Swiss Army Knife of PSYOPs” because of the many functions it serves.
My shout-out to mbob was in reference to his “if-then” analysis, which I thought was emotionally healthy and intelligent. This is a rare ability, because most are still emotionally attached to their opinions, making them unwilling to even look at the other side of an issue.
Maxwell —
Thank you and thanks also for the comment below. I don’t believe there was collusion and I’d be surprised if there is any objective evidence that supports it. I think we’d have already seen the evidence if it exists. I also very much like Michael’s compendium of facts regarding the implausibility of collusion, many of which are new to me.
I believe the Russiagate narrative serves many purposes but that uncovering the truth is *not* one of those purposes.
But, on this issue, and every other one, I may be wrong. If if turns out that collusion took place and the evidence supports that conclusion, I’ll admit I was wrong.
However, if it turns out there is no such evidence, I don’t believe that the Russiagate zealots, the Maddow groupies, will ever acknowledge that they were misled.
Let me be brief: there is by far more credible evidence that 911 Twin Towers was primarily an implosion demolition job from the inside than the Russia-gate saga has provided.
The lack of any sort of connection between Trump, Russia and the 2016 election is overwhelming.
As far as guessing what Mueller has or not: total distraction. We saw this in the Fitzpatrick investigation of the Bush II administration. Zip. Don’t hold your breath.
Entrapment and unindictable Russian clickbait sockpuppets and “bombshells” that the NYT retracts the next day or eventually states no evidence, is the basis of mass propaganda vintage Goebbels. Keeping a sensational, baseless story “alive”.
And don’t forget the implosions & collapse of WTC Building 7, the third WTC skyscraper to come down at free-fall speed into its own footprint on 9/11 (and still standing when the BBC reporter announced – prematurely – its collapse).
Wow!
The term cognitive dissonance comes to mind.
Your ability to ignore that Hillary hired a foreign national, Christopher Steele, who colluded with actual Russians to fabricate a dossier out of whole cloth is astounding.
If you want to talk about collusion with Russia it’s been found.
Just not in the place you were hoping.
The partisan nature of the ‘investigation’ is troubling. It’s as if Establishment politicians and bureaucrats are above the law and even if caught lying under oath face no consequences. Flynn, as incoming security director, asked Russia to vote on Israel’s behalf (Russia refused). While acting on Israel’s behalf may be a problem, lying about it to the FBI (which cost him his job, his savings, and jail time) plaes compared to Mueller lying under oath about WMDs in Iraq during Congressional hearings, and Clapper and most other Intelligence Agency heads lying under oath about surveiling American citizens (a 4th Amendment violation). The Justice department (the Ohrs) working with Fusion GPS, involved with the fake dossier manufactured and bought by Hillary , the basis for the FISA secret warrants to spy on the opposition presidential candidate. Fusion GPS was working closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met with Trump’s campaign, to likely entrap those people, or more likely to further help the DNC get ‘kompromat’ on Trump. Dmitri Alperovitch, the Russian working with the DNC’s servers who destroyed any possible evidence (not that the FBI would have worked against the DNC anyway, as made clear by their “investigation” of Hillary’s emails and servers as Secretary of State mixed in with her Clinton Foundation, bringing in massive money from foreign dictators, laundered through Canada (pedophile Epstein claims he co-founded the Clinton Foundation). Slimy Manafort rightly goes to jail, but the slimy Podesta Group and Greg Craig are somehow immune from the same crimes? It is clear that everyone in DC knew Hillary would win and broke a number of laws on her behalf to ingratiate their agencies with her, and now are obfuscating and covering up their crimes (an the coverup is always much worse than the crimes). The double standard is sickening.
Is it not about time that dossiers were drawn up on very senior CIA/FBI insiders to show their links to very rich puppet masters?
Wherevis rhis evidence that CIA/FBI players are so clean, so loyal, so patriotic, but politicians are so dirty, so disloyal, such traitors?
The CIA has a long history of drug smuggling to build up black slush funds, right?
The CIA has a long history of assassination protocols and operations. Right?
The CIA has a long history of funding terrorists. Right?
So why are the CIA and FBI such angels and Donad Trump such a traitor?
Why??
The very rich puppet masters are the same people who decide our vital “national security interests”. Their biggest “vital national security interest” is to protect their profits and keep the rest of us in begging for crumbs.
Another ‘ace’ comment by ace Skip Scott, with a couple of power punches thrown in. Well done, Skip! Let’s keep clearing the fog.
“The very rich puppet masters are the same people who decide our vital “national security interests”. Their biggest “vital national security interest” is to protect their profits and keep the rest of us in begging for crumbs.”
And don’tcha know, Skip Scott, that these so-called “vital national security interests” that are tossed around so irresponsibly by the politicians, the press and the think tanks to justify one military “surge” after another are kept out of the public policy debate for reasons of “national security”. shhhhhh…….
Heaven forbid we have some serious, probing, open, policy discussions on WTF our national security interests really are and why?
Instead the knee jerk acceptance that war is the answer (to what question I don’t know) has wreaked havoc around the world with no benefits except, as you say, enriching what Eisenhower called the MIC.
3 card monty, anyone?
Yeah, Skip Scott, and that’s what’s so sad about this whole daily hysterical drumbeat that Russia is a big threat….Andrew Bacevich says Russia as a foreign power is a tier down from the U.S., China, India and Europe which supposedly will comprise the 4 major economic superpowers in a ‘new” multipolar world.
I hope the new young activist members of Congress push for a debate on foreign policy – let’s have the reasons why Russia is a hu
The “Russiagate” hoax is as transparent as a penny-stock promotion. The only thing keeping this blimp of a scam inflated is the dishonesty and corruption of our corporate press.
Former FBI agent Coleen Rowley has well-stated the sham that is the myth of integrity of Mueller and Comey eg. “No, Robert Mueller And James Comey Aren’t Heroes: The former FBI directors have acceded to numerous wrongful abuses of power in the post-9/11 era.” (Find that essay on Consortium.news and Huffington Post.)
The false DNC “hack” attribution of huckster Dimitri Alperovitch and co. at CrowdStrike is just one of several false pillars of this hoax. (Lots of good sources that debunk CS’s myths eg. Jeffrey Carr, Adam Carter ++)
Then there’s convicted tax-evader Bill Browder whose networks deceive 24/7 in their propaganda campaign to convince people it’s all Russia, Russia, Russia.
And on.
If there’s a single journalist of intelligence and integrity in the legacy media, this whole, dangerously rotten, scam will swiftly fall to ground. If there’s zero journos of such character today in the corporate/state press, the fraud is still going to collapse – just more incrementally.
Many thanks, Ray, to you and your VIPS colleagues for always standing up and speaking out for truth.?
The “Russiagate” hoax is as transparent as a penny-stock promotion. The only thing keeping this blimp of a scam inflated is the dishonesty and corruption of our corporate press.
Former FBI agent Coleen Rowley has well-stated the sham that is the myth of integrity of Mueller and Comey eg. “No, Robert Mueller And James Comey Aren’t Heroes: The former FBI directors have acceded to numerous wrongful abuses of power in the post-9/11 era.” (Find that essay on Consortium.news and Huffington Post.)
The false DNC “hack” attribution of huckster Dimitri Alperovitch and co. at CrowdStrike is just one of several false pillars of this hoax. (Lots of good sources that debunk CS’s myths eg. Jeffrey Carr, Adam Carter ++)
Then there’s con-man, convicted tax-evader, Bill Browder whose networks deceive 24/7 in their propaganda campaign to convince people it’s all Russia, Russia, Russia.
And on.
If there’s a single journalist of intelligence and integrity in the legacy media, this whole, dangerously rotten, scam will swiftly fall to ground. If there’s zero journos of such character today in the corporate/state press, the fraud is still going to collapse – just more incrementally.
Many thanks, Ray, to you and your VIPS colleagues for always standing up and speaking out for truth.
“If there’s a single journalist of intelligence and integrity in the legacy media, ” surely we would not see the shameful behavior of working journos turning upon Julian Assange, whose record over ten years is of telling the truth,from all sorts of sources (the USA pretends the articles about it are somehow the only ones) including those of US “enemies” like Russia, but the “journos”are selective in their use of facts and lies.
Once a lie like those of the Russophobes in the USA/UK/EU is printed/uttered, all the other media slavishly repeat it then continue to elaborate (Luke Harding in the Sycophant (formerly Guardian!!) is typical for Skripal, Collusion, Assange.
Evidence huh? Given the strange conclusions you draw on the basis of strange speculation, one wonders what concern you have for evidence. You also draw conclusions based on wrong or bad evidence, making claims about the dossier which a less polite guy than me might call “lies. “ I think the most likely conclusion a sincere person might ask is, “are you by any chance a Russian cut out?” When I went to send this though, I was confronted with a ‘donate’ button. Awh, I see. I’ll be amazed if this comment ever sees the light of day.
You may have missed that interview with Clinton’s State Department lackey, Evelyn Farkas. On a national television broadcast, she said that she was encouraging everyone on Capitol Hill to get as much information out as they could before the inauguration, because “…if they found out how we knew…” Shortly thereafter, Valerie Jarrett sent that mysterious email to herself indicating that President Obama wants it done “…by the book.” It may have escaped you that, under The U.S. Constitution, there is supposed to be something called “due process”. Evidence of a crime is supposed to be identified first, which is then used to justify an investigation. In this case, the intelligence agencies were used – illegally – to find an unspecified and perhaps nonexistent crime which could then justify the investigation already in progress. This would be analogous to the legal system under Josef Stalin. His chief law enforcement officer, Lavrentiy Beria, was famous for saying, “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.” The use of intelligence agency assets to discredit a political opponent represents a felony. This case is perhaps the gravest violation of Constitutionally guaranteed protections in the history of The United States. It represents an unprecedented subversion of the democratic process specified by Constitutional mandate.
Here we go again, another Russiagater labeling skeptics as Russian assets or stooges. All that we request is hard evidence of collusion or meaningful interference by Russia in the 2016 election. If you have such evidence, then please present it to us here and now. We are all waiting with bated breath. If there is a stooge in this scenario, it just might be you.
Oops, my post above was intended to be a reply to Mike Harris.
That was Susan Rice that sent the email to herself.
Yeah, you’re right – I realized it as soon as I submitted, but it went into moderation, so nothing I could do. The point remains valid nevertheless. Actually, it’s maybe worse, because Jarrett was White House CoS. Rice was UN Ambassador, and trusted to be capable of thinking.
Your comment did see the right of the day!!! Now back to the topic. The evidence please….
Mike, we have Consortium to thank for airing your comments, their reasons much different than you might hope.
To Mike K comment re: this is old news. Could you please expand on your comment. It’s “old news” therefore what? What was your conclusion? What was CNN’s conclusion?
For the first time, I’m frightened for this country…..all these forces coming together to erase this President (if it were Bernie Sanders, this erasure would be taking place now, too, I’m sure). We simply can’t let the Deep State take us over this way. And with anti-war Tulsi Gabbard recently announcing her candidacy for President bringing out Republican and Democratic hatred alike with the vilest kinds of names for her, I feel as shocked as Trump must have felt with the Steele Russia Dossier in his face.
Pravda on the Hudson is really upset that Trump has kept secret (TOP SECRET) notes from his discussion with Russian President Putin as if all secrets that are held should be released, but not by Wikileaks.
Personally, I would be more interested in the notes from the August 1990 meetings between Margaret Thatcher and George HW Bush which to my estimation got the United States to go to war with Iraq over Kuwait.
My memory of early August 1990 news is that the US had not decided how to respond to Iraqs invasion and occupation of Kuwait, BUT THEN Margaret Thatcher came to the United States to give President George H.W. Bush “backbone.”
I recall a former French President in a book divulged that Margaret Thatcher came to him demanding the deactivate codes for French made Exorcet missiles purchased by Argentina and Thatcher told the French President if he did not comply she would order the use of nuclear weapons against Argentina.
By the way, Britain had a mutual defense treaty with Kuwait, the US has no treaty.
Given the press at the time was saying that Iraq had the 4th largest military in the world I have this strange belief that Margaret Thatcher told President George H.W. Bush if the US does not FORCE Iraq out of Kuwait then I will order the use of nuclear weapons against Iraq to comply with our defense treaty with Kuwait.
Why hasn’t Pravda on the Hudson gone after the meeting notes which have gotten us into war?
Thatcher Kuwait role is what happened. I remember it.
Thank you, Ray.
Why do you think Trump has not ever, apparently, said to the FBI, “I order you to bring me the DNC server, immediately!”?
As you say, he was very slow to recognize that Comely was clearly threatening the President-elect with the information that the FBI had a “dossier”.
Perhaps Trump has yet understand that ordering the FBI to produce the server would, very likely, cause immense chagrin in various quarters, especially if it turned out to no longer exist.
Must we assume that Trump has no one around him wise enough to suggest that course of action?
Were it to turn out that the server is still existing somewhere, what excuse could the FBI make use of to fail to deliver to the President?
Should the server be brought to Trump what might he then do to protect it and have it examined by qualified individuals?
Frankly, I would suggest that Trump would be well advised to turn it over to VIPS and whomever VIPS might consider able to successfully determine what the server might reveal.
Of course, that might well lead to further and even more interesting consequences.
I suspect that a great deal of very serious attention to whatever might be found would result.
Thank you, Ray, and all your colleagues at VIPS, for the critical information you have made available to the general understanding of very many of us.
Comey not Comely.
Certainly not Comely!!!
Neither is Clapper, Brennan or Mueller!!
Comey was so subtle in his extortion with the fake dossier from the Russians that Trump didn’t even realize he was trying to scare him until much later. Guess Trump has dealt with people who get straight to the point. The FBI and Justice Department were/are just playing partisan politics, and McCame and his wife, Bruce Ohr and his wife working at Fusion GPS with the Russian lawyer, trying to entrap Trump’s campaign workers, and the lovebirds Page and Strzok exchanging hateful messages about Trump while trying to exonerate Hillary Clinton (one of their own). Flynn is arrested and jailed for lying to the FBI about a call on Israel’s behalf; Mueller lied under oath about Iraq WMDs, and Clapper and most of the Intelligence Chiefs have repeated lied to Congress, but with no repercussions. The Establishment swamp creatures are above the law; sadly politics comes before their jobs and reflects badly on the ones doing the real work.
Yes, this is no different than how the moneyed interests control most of world already. Trusted players, like political appointees, judges, dictators, etc. are installed into positions of power so that others (the puppeteers) can control entire organizations remotely. Like French President Emmanuel Macron, their positions of leadership are not earned by merit, but they are sold with slick packaging, deception, and political intrigue, or else installed by brute force.
This is the big lie.
https://opensociet.org/2019/01/15/the-big-liars/
Great stuff here Ray.
Sorry but while reading this I could not but help thinking of J Edgar confronting Bobby Kennedy over his brothers affair with Sam ‘Momo’ Giancana’s lady friend Judith Campbell Exner. Maybe JFK should have fired J Edgar Hoover on National TV … but there again we’re not talking JFK but Trump.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/judith-exner
The Mueller investigation. Much like the Hillary email investigation and the Amerithrax investigation.
Not really investigations at all. Really just poorly staged PSYOPS with a predetermined outcome.
How else do you explain not talking to the key witnesses (Assange and Craig Murray) in the DNC server LEAK?
How else do you explain handing out immunity like candy for no indictments? Or, writing the exoneration before even interviewing Hillary?
And, in my personal experience. How do you explain ignoring a victim/witness that gave one of the field agents, Eric Davis, (now Special Agent Eric Davis) of the Charlotte FBI the last name of the FBI’s “person of interest” 7 months before his name became public? And, explained what Otillie Lundgren and Kathy Nguyen have in common besides being poisoned to death with Anthrax?
The FBI needs to be SHUT DOWN PERMANENTLY!
Your absolutely correct Ray, Mueller needs to “put up or shut up” & end this Russiagate nonsense? The simple truth is, he has nothing or nothing of substance, because if he did , the MSM would have had it leaked to them by now, rather than printing their endless speculations & falsehoods published on a 24 hr news cycle of rinse & repeat with the same story of nothingness & absurdity! This slanderous farce has gone on, long enough & everyone is thoroughly sick to death of it! The MSM can speculate, postulate & fill in the blanks all they like but the simple fact is you can’t put lipstick on a pig & dress up something that stinks? The Russiagate lie is a pig of a narrative that has no basis in reality! But what has been getting exposed & revealed, the longer this drags out, is the attempt to conduct a soft coup by the Intelligence Agencies in League with the losing Democrats to delegitimise & overturn the 2016 Election results & get Trump impeached & removed from office via this Russiagate lie? So they continue to sabotage Trump’s character via MSM & Political character assasination which continues unabated & Mueller procrastinations on releasing his report? The Democrats ridiculous notion of Trump/Russian collusion is because they can’t admit they lost a Election in a historic & embarrassing defeat to Trump, a Reality TV carnival showman so can’t blame themselves for the loss so who else to blame but Russia & Putin? How pathetic & sad! The only Election meddling & interference/collusion that occurred was between the FBI & the Democratic Party, being caught out doing their illegal FISA investigation into Trump & creating a shell game diversion to cover it up by blaming Russia for it? If in doubt, go to the “go too” excuse?? Blame the Russians for everything excuse? How sickening, pathetic & sad that you have to blame a innocent Country for the most corrupt, fraudulent, undemocratic system of governance called American Democracy!
Thanks for the refresher, Kiwi. It’s obvious that the media and other ‘resistance’ players are still getting mileage out of this old, worn-torn psyop. How else can one explain the endless delay in wrapping up Mueller investigation?
It reminds me of the Plate Spinner acts that occasionally appeared on old TV variety shows. Just as the first plate began to wobble on its stick, the performer would hurry back to spin it up again so it wouldn’t fall. Similarly with Russiagate, just when you think the story has no more life in it, the WaPo, NYT, or Guardian comes out with a new angle on the story, breathing new life into it – a total fiction, of course, but most readers don’t know that, and the newspapers don’t seem to care anymore about their credibility.
This is really much more than a farce. This is worse than what Nixon did during watergate. The Obama administration used the FBI and its justice department to spy on his party’s political opponent. The FBI had British intelligence agencies spying on Trump’s campaign because they didn’t have cause to do so and then they took that information to get their FISA warrants.
Then there’s Hillary paying for Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier to get more warrants. Either Rice or Powers unmasked the people who the FBI were spying on which was unconstitutional. The website Moon of Alabama has a great essay describing how far the Obama administration went to do that. There is another essay there that shows all of the things that Trump has done to Russia to debunk his doing things that help Russia.
If we had a functioning justice system lots of people from the Obama administration would have been hauled in front of congress just like people from Nixon’s were.
The question that needs to be asked, far more frequently and forcefully, is who has the power to shut down the press, create a coordinated smear campaign against a sitting president, corrupt the intelligence agencies and corrupt the Department of Justice. While Clapper, Mueller, Rosenstein, are powerful within their own domain, they are not powerful enough to orchestrate this systemic corruption and certainly, dont have the kind of deep pockets necessary to bribe everyone into doing their bidding.
The Saudi’s have been the scapegoat since 9/11, but Khashoggi clearly illustrates that they are disposable and hence, not the chief architects.
It goes back to the quote, “If you want to know who rules you, find out who you can’t criticize.”
I think you have to follow the money. Trump’s suggestion of having better relations with the Russians threatened billions upon billions of dollars in two ways. First the MIC needs to have a bogeyman, and the escalating nuclear brinksmanship with Russia feeds that beast to the tune of Billions. Then the Billions that were being looted during the Yeltsin years by people like Bill Browder was halted by Putin, and resulted in the Magnitsky Act as retribution. Better relations with Russia would potentially lead to an easing of sanctions, leaving the western based multinationals, hedge fund operators, IMF, and all the other looters out in the cold. They desperately want Putin out, and a new Yeltsin-like puppet in.
It is beyond simple bribery. These folks own the MSM, and all the advertising dollars that support it. Therefore they get to write the script, and make sure that only people who support their narrative get any airtime. Clapper, Brennan, Mueller, et. al. are just the muscle, the hit men.
Amen, Skip!
and yet trump owes the Russians millions…but couldn’t possible be bribed by them…
Bribed to do what Will? Let your imagination fly!
This is old news for those of us who hang out at CN.
Hello!
“Russia-gate Evidence, Please”, this will never happen. There is not any real non-fabricated evidence because there was no collusion.
The degree of unreality has become beyond breathtaking. Everybody knows what the correct answer is and they are just looking for it. Mueller hasn’t found any evidence of election meddling or collusion in two years – a few tweets and facebook ads don’t really count and picking 12 names from the GRU phonebook whilst not interviewing the two people who actually know where the DNC e-mails came from is equally unimpressive. When are they going to put an end to this farce?
“When are they going to put an end to this farce?”, well until 2020 at least, because if Trump wins in 2020 than it will go on till 2024.