themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

Russian Spy Revelation Raises Questions on CIA Information, Potential Links to Steele Dossier

by

The revelation of the alleged extraction of a Russian CIA spy has raised a number of questions, including how the CIA used the information it received—and the quality of that information.

Notably, the spy appears to have been a key source for the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

A closer examination of the spy’s alleged background, however, paints a complicated picture. The spy’s direct supervisor appears to have been mentioned in the Steele dossier, and it’s possible that information provided by the spy may have been included in the dossier.Continue Reading

Media Reveal Existence of Russian Source for Trump–Russia Allegations Amid Ongoing John Durham Investigation

by

CNN on Sept. 9 reported that in “a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government.”

CNN wrote that “knowledge of the Russian covert source’s existence was highly restricted within the US government and intelligence agencies” and that “according to one source, there was ‘no equal alternative’ inside the Russian government, providing both insight and information on Putin.”

The article alleged that the decision to remove the highly placed mole from within the Kremlin was driven, in large part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and those within his administration had mishandled classified intelligence, thereby compromising the source’s safety.Continue Reading

DOJ Emails Reveal Internal Response to ‘Wiretap’ Allegations Against Rosenstein

by

Newly released emails by the Department of Justice (DOJ) reveal details about the internal response by the agency to allegations that then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted to wiretap President Donald Trump and invoke the 25th Amendment against him.

The allegations were first reported by The New York Times on September 2018. The article, headlined “Rod Rosenstein Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment,” claimed that the “deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.”

The New York Times article included a response statement from Rosenstein, who refuted the story, calling it “inaccurate and factually incorrect”:Continue Reading

Comey’s Trump Tower Meeting Was Used for FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation

by

While the meeting was described by former FBI Director James Comey as a ‘defensive briefing,’ it was used to gain information from Trump, new IG report reveals

Former FBI Director James Comey’s first meeting with then-President-elect Donald Trump appears to have been part of the agency’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.

Comey has described the Jan. 6, 2017, briefing at Trump Tower as a defensive briefing intended to inform the president-elect of salacious allegations contained in the so-called “Steele dossier.”

He had testified to Congress on June 8, 2017, that he “was briefing [Trump] on it because, because we had been told by the media it was about to launch. We didn’t want to be keeping that from him. He needed to know this was being said. I was very keen not to leave him with an impression that the bureau was trying to do something to him.”

Comey’s testimony to Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz, as part of the agency’s investigation into Comey, however, paints a different picture.Continue Reading

Highlights From the IG’s Report on Former FBI Director James Comey

by

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released a report on former FBI Director James Comey’s leaking of personal memos to his attorneys, a personal friend, and the media.

Comey had told the IG that he believed the memos shared with his attorneys did not contain any classified information.

However, the IG noted that specifically: “Memos 1 and 3 contained information classified at the ‘SECRET’ level, and that Memos 2 and 7 contained small amounts of information classified at the ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ level—although Comey redacted all classified information in Memo 7 before sending to his attorneys.”Continue Reading

Focus in Spygate Scandal Shifts to CIA, Former Director Brennan

by

More than 2 1/2 years after President Donald Trump assumed office, focus on actions taken during the 2016 presidential campaign is starting to shift toward the CIA and its former director, John Brennan.

While some observers, including this publication, have pointed out for more than a year that Brennan appears to have played a key role in the scandal that’s become known as Spygate, actions taken by Brennan and the CIA now appear to have become a central focus of investigators.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz was “doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application” and “the behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation.”Continue Reading

FBI Documents Detailing Bruce Ohr Conversations Shed New Light on Spygate Scandal

by

Ohr gave FBI information from Simpson and Steele. Documents highlight state department role, conflicting statements, and information excluded from FISA application

Bruce Ohr, who was serving as the highest-ranking career official in the DOJ in 2016, played a crucial role in passing on unfounded allegations against Donald Trump from former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson to the FBI.

Interactions between Ohr—who at the time was associate deputy attorney general—and Steele were so frequent that Ohr was assigned an FBI handler, agent Joe Pientka, who summarized the conversations in FBI FD-302 forms.

Those 302s were obtained by Judicial Watch and have been made public. Continue Reading

AG Barr Says Epstein Case Will Continue, Says ‘Co-conspirators Should Not Rest Easy’

by

FBI agents raid Epstein’s Little St. James Island

Attorney General William Barr said on Monday during a police conference in New Orleans that there were “serious irregularities” at the Manhattan federal facility where the accused sex trafficker apparently killed himself over the weekend.

Barr, who said he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death, said the case would continue and noted that “any co-conspirators should not rest easy.”

“This sex-trafficking case was very important to the Department of Justice and to me personally, Barr said. It was important to the dedicated prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and to our FBI agents who investigated the case and were preparing it for trial. Most importantly, this case was important to the victims who had the courage to come forward and deserve the opportunity to confront the accused in the courtroom.”Continue Reading

Significant Questions Raised Following Epstein’s Apparent Suicide, Multiple Investigations Opened

by

Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire who had recently been indicted on charges of sex trafficking, has been found dead of an apparent suicide in his jail cell. According to a statement from the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons, “Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell in the Special Housing Unit from an apparent suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center” in New York City at 6:30 a.m.

The Associated Press reported that “Fire officials received a call at 6:39 a.m. Saturday that Epstein was in cardiac arrest, and he was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital.”

The FBI is now investigating the incident.Continue Reading