WSJ Exposes The Real Election Meddling... At The FBI

Tyler Durden's picture

Via The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board,

More troubling evidence of election meddling at the bureau...

Democrats and the media are accusing anyone who criticizes special counsel Robert Mueller as Trumpian conspirators trying to undermine his probe. But who needs critics when Mr. Mueller’s team is doing so much to undermine its own credibility?

Wednesday’s revelations—they’re coming almost daily—include the Justice Department’s release of 2016 text messages to and from Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence agent whom Mr. Mueller demoted this summer. The texts, which he exchanged with senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, contain expletive-laced tirades against Mr. Trump. Such Trump hatred is no surprise and not by itself disqualifying. More troubling are texts that suggest that some FBI officials may have gone beyond antipathy to anti-Trump plotting.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office—that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Mr. Strzok wrote Ms. Page in an Aug. 15, 2016 text. He added: “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”

What “policy” would that be? The “Andy” in question is Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director. FBI officials are allowed to have political opinions, but what kind of action were they discussing that would amount to anti-Trump “insurance”?

In another exchange that month, Ms. Page forwarded a Trump-related article and wrote:

“Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace.”

 

He thanked her and assured: “Of course I’ll try and approach it that way.”

Mr. Strzok, recall, is the man who changed the words “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” in James Comey’s July 2016 public exoneration of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The McCabe meeting came on the heels of the FBI’s launch of its counterintelligence probe into Trump-Russia ties. July is also when former British spook Christopher Steele briefed the FBI on his Clinton-financed dossier of salacious allegations against Mr. Trump. The texts explain why Mr. Mueller would remove Mr. Strzok, though a straight shooter wouldn’t typically resist turning those messages over to Congress for as long as Mr. Mueller did.

Meanwhile, we’re learning more about the political motives of Mr. Mueller’s lieutenant, Andrew Weissmann.

Judicial Watch last week released an email in which Mr. Weissmann expressed his “awe” and praise for Sally Yates, after the then acting AG and Obama holdover refused to implement Mr. Trump’s travel ban.

This should trouble anyone who cares about the integrity of the Justice Department. Ms. Yates had every right to resign at the time if she felt she couldn’t implement Mr. Trump’s order. But she had no authority as an executive branch official to defy a legitimate presidential order. Mr. Weissmann’s support for her insubordination was a declaration that he is part of the “resistance.” This should be unacceptable in a ranking FBI official, much less someone charged with conducting a fair-minded investigation.

Public confidence isn’t helped by the continuing Justice and FBI refusal to cooperate with Congress. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises Mr. Mueller, toed the Mueller-FBI line on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. He repeated FBI Director Christopher Wray’s preposterous excuse that he can’t answer questions because of an Inspector General probe. And he wouldn’t elaborate on the news that Nellie Ohr, the wife of senior Justice official Bruce Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS, which hired Mr. Steele to gin up his dossier.

The man who should be most disturbed by all this is Mr. Mueller, who wants his evidence and conclusions to be credible with the public. Evidence is building instead that some officials at the FBI—who have worked for him—may have interfered in an American presidential election. Congress needs to insist on its rights as a co-equal branch of government to discover the truth.

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Troll Magnet's picture

But what about Russiaaaaaaa?

AlaricBalth's picture
Glenn Simpson - Founder, Fusion GPS Scholar at International Assessment & Strategy Center Washington D.C. Metro AreaResearch Current Fusion GPS, International Assessment & Strategy Center https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-simpson-09969b29 The International Assessment and Strategy Center is a United States-based think tank whose declared purpose is to analyze "medium and long-term security issues and their impact on the security of the United States and her key interests and allies." Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the Center undertakes both open source and classified work on behalf of United States government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Assessment_and_Strategy_Cent... Current and former staff of IASC (among others) Jeffrey Breinholt Douglas Farah Arthur Waldron Glenn R. Simpson Jeff Breinholt - Jeffrey Breinholt has been an attorney with the United States Department of Justice National Security Division since 1990. In 2008, he joined the International Assessment and Strategy Center for a one-year stint as Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Law. Breinholt has been Deputy Chief of the Counterterrorism Section at the U.S. Department of Justice and head of the Department of Justice's terrorist financing enforcement program since shortly before 9/11. He helped to create a special FBI unit devoted to U.S.-based fundraising by international terrorist organizations and the team of financial prosecutors he headed within the Counterterrorism Section is dedicated to prosecuting material support crimes. He was previously Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Utah. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Breinholt The IASC's cause area is Domestic National Security (includes Military and Defense Issues) (Q43) A major donor to the IASC is Trump foe Paul Singer. http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/international_assessment_and_stra... Paul Singer’s Washington Free Beacon website was the first to engage Fusion GPS to probe Trump's background. http://www.newsweek.com/who-peter-singer-billionaire-gop-donor-accused-f... In summary, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS had and has ties to a senior Justice Department official through a think tank called The International Assessment and Strategy Center which is financially supported by US oligarch Paul Singer. The IASC's director is Thor Ronay who is involved with a quite a few counterterrorism foundations and initiatives.  In essence, these people (research shows others as well) seem to be private contractor spooks,sanctioned by the FBI and/or CIA. Executive Order 12333, partially authored by Kennethde Graffenreid during the Reagan Administration, allows U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA, to outsource operations to “private entities” like Fusion GPS and Orbis, and then to deny the resulting relationship. It also governs most of the surveillance activities conducted by U.S. agencies domestically and throughout the globe, and allows responsible officials to deny such activities. Makes sense to me....LOL
macholatte's picture

 

I am tired of this shit.

Please, EVERYONE with a Twitter account send this message:

Mr. President, the time to purge the Obama-Clinton holdovers has long passed. Please get rid of them at once. Fire at least 100 top officials from DOJ - State - FBI. Hire Bill Black as Special Prosecutor

send it to:

@realDonaldTrump

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black

 

Bigly's picture

I would do this but I have no Twitter, Facebook accounts.  Please all do so if you do have an account. I agree. He should have purged 10 months ago.

Handful of Dust's picture

This is trivial compared to the horror of Trump's calling someone fat 42 years ago in the locker room.

JSBach1's picture

Let's just get to it:

Rosenstein was a stooge planted to put in place the "911 Mutinous Mole Mueller" who stacked-the-deck with the most pestilential partisans opus party of permanent pirates pontificating post-election political pandemics via a preponderance of proof prepositioned as-case-in-point; pointedly poignant?

Now it's time for these parasites to walk the plank into their posthumous post-presence!

A Sentinel's picture

That’s a lot of p’s.

JSBach1's picture

alliteration...by design...for those who appreciate such tools in literature....

Billy the Poet's picture

A plethora of Ps prodigiously proffered.

BetterRalph's picture

100? what about 101?

The spririt of what your saying I am with.
I would go more drastic on FBI, DEACTIVATE THEM.

Cman5000's picture

Your post gave me Glaucoma.

AlaricBalth's picture

Here it is cleaned up. My bad for posting it without formatting. Just posted raw data from my notes.

Glenn Simpson is the Founder of Fusion GPS, and is a Scholar at International Assessment & Strategy Center Washington D.C.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-simpson-09969b29

The International Assessment and Strategy Center is a United States-based think tank whose declared purpose is to analyze "medium and long-term security issues and their impact on the security of the United States and her key interests and allies."

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the Center undertakes both open source and classified work on behalf of United States government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Assessment_and_Strategy_Cent...

Current and former staff of IASC (among others)

Jeffrey Breinholt
Douglas Farah
Arthur Waldron
Glenn R. Simpson

Jeff Breinholt - Jeffrey Breinholt has been an attorney with the United States Department of Justice National Security Division since 1990. In 2008, he joined the International Assessment and Strategy Center for a one-year stint as Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Law. Breinholt has been Deputy Chief of the Counterterrorism Section at the U.S. Department of Justice and head of the Department of Justice's terrorist financing enforcement program since shortly before 9/11. He helped to create a special FBI unit devoted to U.S.-based fundraising by international terrorist organizations and the team of financial prosecutors he headed within the Counterterrorism Section is dedicated to prosecuting material support crimes. He was previously Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Utah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Breinholt

The IASC's cause area is Domestic National Security (includes Military and Defense Issues) (Q43) A major donor to the IASC is Trump foe Paul Singer.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/international_assessment_and_stra...

Paul Singer’s Washington Free Beacon website was the first to engage Fusion GPS to probe Trump's background.

http:www.newsweek.com/who-peter-singer-billionaire-gop-donor-accused-f...

In summary, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS had and has ties to senior Justice Department officials through a think tank called The International Assessment and Strategy Center which is financially supported by US oligarch Paul Singer.

The IASC's director is Thor Ronay who is involved with a quite a few counterterrorism foundations and initiatives. 

In essence, these people (research shows others as well) seem to be private contractor spooks, sanctioned by the FBI and/or CIA.

Executive Order 12333, partially authored by Kennethde Graffenreid during the Reagan Administration, allows U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA, to outsource operations to “private entities” like Fusion GPS and Orbis, and then to deny the resulting relationship. It also governs most of the surveillance activities conducted by U.S. agencies domestically and throughout the globe, and allows responsible officials to deny such activities.

Makes sense to me....LOL

JSBach1's picture

+1 ;-)

Nonetheless, you want to refer to what I wrote about the Washington "Free Beacon" here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-27/republican-group-helped-finance...

dunce's picture

Reagan signed the order but Bush was a former head of the CIA and must have been the author. Prior to being president Reagan had never served in the federal government and could not know the swamp.

RumpleShitzkin's picture

Nixing EO 12333 should be pretty high on Don’s to-do list.
Swipe of a pen.

GUS100CORRINA's picture

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

Anyone see Alan Dershowitz (liberal professor)  on Fox News lately? He is spose to be a constitutional expert.

Tonight, he was on actually defending Hilllary Clinton's "CRIMINAL" actions while at the State Department.

FOX NEWS needs to find a CONSERVATIVE constitutional expert. I will bet that this GUY supports SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY.

His comments were DISGUSTING!!

ThePhantom's picture

He is also implicated in the jefery epstein case... he's playing both sides so that regardless of who's in power he will still have a friend. he's a huge piece of shit as far as i can tell.

A Sentinel's picture

But Dershowitz denies it.

Therefore he must be innocent.

DaiRR's picture

Yes, on Lou Dobbs Fox Business  tonight ADershowitz excused all the anti-Turmp crimes of the DOJ, FBI and Obama Administration as "ethics violations" and totally outside the realm of criminal violations.  Lou and I were both incredulous.  Our nation cannot survive if deep state crimes and politically motivated sabatoge of the Constitution cannot be stopped with criminal law.  We are doomed if liberal apologists like Alan Dershowitz prevail.

nunyabidnez's picture

And Tucker Carlson agreed with most everything Alan said....really disappointing, but the fact Holder sent out the threat to the GOP tells me they're shitting themselves its going to reach Obama, by getting rid of Mueller means the truth would prob come out.

OldPost's picture

The break in the story is the WSJ telling Amerika what the Conspiracy theorists already knew....

MrPalladium's picture

Dems will be Dems.

nmewn's picture

Gosh, what is that awful smell?

I'm getting that unmistakable smell of..."collusion" ;-)

chunga's picture

We're clearly at the point now that ok, what are we going to do about this.

Secret Weapon's picture

I think Treason is the word that you are looking for.

Automatic Choke's picture

technically no.   conspiracy and sedition, yes.   good enough for a hanging judgement in any case.

Osmium's picture

Could be.  I thought I smelled assholes.

A Sentinel's picture

You are good at enunciating as significant what I overlook as obvious.

MrSteve's picture

How about Congressional Hearings? Or cutting off the funding for the FBI? The nation's budget masters should grow some spine.

bobdog54's picture

How many times do we need to witness that NOT working??

Ghost who Walks's picture

I'm not American, and I can see that taking action is a necessity.

I followed the Watergate hearings when I was young, and I'm looking forward to seeing a proper house cleaning.

Does Trey Gowdey have what it takes to push this?

Or is he constrained by the swamp mud?

chunga's picture

To the best of my knowledge his specialty is sensational lip service. Of course someone can come along and correct that, and site examples of how he and his majority colleagues do anything but.

A Sentinel's picture

Any second now, Ryan, McConnell and all of our “leaders” will be sprouting spines and they’re going to look like big sperm.

dunce's picture

There have been hearings on many things going back to McCarthy, but i can not remember any effective action as a result.

LetThemEatRand's picture

As many here like to remind me based on prior admissions, I voted for Obama back in 2008.  This is a MUCH bigger story than Watergate, and few are covering it.  Even Drudge has it buried on the electronic equivalent of page 5.  Thanks Tylers for making it front and center here.

MuffDiver69's picture

Drudge destroyed his site for good about ten months ago going anti trump. Trump campaign gave it new life, but what he turned into he can’t get back..

Lord Raglan's picture

Excellent observation.  I was thinking something has been wrong with Drudge Report but couldn't put my finger on it.

Matt Drudge is Jewish.  What do you expect?  Gotta go with the Tribe.  And the Tribe says Trump is authoritarian and dangerous because they can't control him.   Jews seem to have a gene for the "Democrat Party."  I don't get it.  Krauthammer is just a Zionist pig.  Wants our kids to die so he and his ilk like William Kristol can "nation build" and be part of the Jewish ruling class.  What a joke.  I don't dislike Jews.  I just don't like them controlling our country.  

RumpleShitzkin's picture

Drudge is also a man pleasing faggot.

Try this site instead.

https://thelibertydaily.com/

Mactruck's picture

"I voted for Obama back in 2008..."

Kill yourself

LetThemEatRand's picture

I took it one step further and voted for Trump in 2016.  Doubling down on my stupidity turns out to be stupid.

chunga's picture

Hindsight is 20/20 sure, looking back Deez Nutz was the best choice.

A Sentinel's picture

Adequate remorse indicates a willingness to rectify the error.

hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

Integrity of the Justice Department?

A Sentinel's picture

I’ve never even *met* an honest judge in the us. To expect that the ones turned technocrat are possibly better is probably crazy enough to merit involuntary psychiatric hospitalization.

By the way- I’m a big fan of your articles. I don’t read zh daily: have I missed a recent one?

just the tip's picture

hillary has already stated that she can not be charged with anything because it would be a violation of the law.

but prosecuting trump for nothing is good.

. . . _ _ _ . . .'s picture

That photo is troubling.