Uh Oh! Is This Why Andrew Weissmann Is Freaking?

I can't recommend highly enough that you read Shipwreckedcrew's latest:

New FBI Document Released by Senate Judiciary Comm Shows FBI — AND Mueller — Deliberately Misled Senate About Steele Memos

Two points, however.

1) Unfortunately, Shipwreckedcrew screws up big time in his crucial timeline--thus missing an important point: Andrew Weissmann. And this also means he misses something about AG Bill Barr.

2) For a bit of perspective and corrective, please read CTH's two posts today re the Senate and especially re Lindsey Graham, who released this document today. You have to ask yourself:

If this document had been released a bit earlier, what would have become of Team Mueller and the Fake Impeachment?

Is it just possible that a lot of what's playing out in DC is not only about the Dems going after Trump but also about the GOPe trying to control Trump? If so--and I think it is--the Impeachment Theater was probably in large part about that GOPe effort. And this also shows how important an ally Bill Barr is for Trump. As I've stressed: Bill Barr is all about protecting the Executive. Period. He will work with Lindsey Graham and others, but he will not compromise on principle, and Executive powers are his principle. We all know that. Everyone in DC knows that.

So, what's up with this new document? Here's how CTH describes it:

Today Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsay Graham released a set of talking points [full pdf below – AND here] from the FBI during a briefing on February 14, 2018 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. 

The unknown FBI briefer is informing the SSCI about the reliability of Chris Steele’s primary sub-source, and whether he agrees with the Dossier content & conclusions: 

At first blush the impression from the release; and indeed the expressed position as outlined by Graham in the release; is that some unknown entity from the FBI was misleading the SSCI in February of 2018 about Christopher Steele and the perspective of his primary sub-source. However, there’s a deeper story. 

Within the release it must be noted the date of the briefing material is February 14, 2018. The unknown FBI briefer is saying, in essence, the primary sub-source doesn’t dispute the Dossier material. Obviously this position is demonstrably false given how the PSS said the Dossier was full of “rumor”, “gossip”, “innuendo” and “bar talk”.

As sundance observes, in effect: So the FBI lied to the Senate about the Danchenko interview. Should we be surprised? But there's more to it, of course, and sundance gets that.

Did you notice that date? February 14, 2018.

Here's another date: December 9, 2019. That's the date of the Horowitz report, which tells the real story about the Danchenko interview. Which would also be the date after which the Senate would be on notice that the Russia Hoax and the Steele dossier was, officially, a hoax.

Here are two more dates:

December 18, 2019: That's when the Dem House voted a fake impeachment of President Trump.

January 16, 2020: That's when the fake impeachment trial began in the Senate.

Now, I know that the proximate cause of the fake impeachment was the Ukraine Hoax, but we all know that in the background was the Steele Dossier and the resultant Mueller Dossier. If the GOP had raised holy hell about the FBI lying to them in this way, would it not have made a difference? Convince me otherwise, if you can.

OK, now comes Shipwreckedcrew and his timeline--he starts with the significance of that first date, February 18, 2018:

February 2018 is one year after the FBI learned of the dubious sourcing behind Danchenko’s most explosive claims. 

February 2018 is seven months after Christopher Wray was confirmed to replace Jim Comey as FBI Director. 

February 2018 was nine months after Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel by Rod Rosenstein. 

February 2018 was one month after William Barr was confirmed as Attorney General replacing Jeff Sessions. 

February 2018 was ONE MONTH BEFORE Andy McCabe was fired from the FBI, and two weeks after he was placed on leave pending retirement in late March 2018. 

What cannot be overlooked here is that AG Barr pledged to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing that he would not take any steps to impede the investigation that was in the hands of Robert Mueller.

Shipwreckedcrew is all over the big point--on February 18, 2018, any lying to the Senate about the Steele dossier was done by Team Mueller. They had complete control over the Russia Hoax by then, courtesy of Rod Rosenstein. That's a hugely important point. And we also know that the guy who was the real driving force behind Mueller--and I'm NOT saying that Mueller is senile--was Andrew Weissmann. Weissmann would have known about this. Here's how Shipwreckedcrew puts it:

To the extent this memo misled the Senate, that was Robert Mueller’s SCO misleading the Senate — plain and simple.

But, no hiding the ball here. Shipwreckedcrew's big screwup is this:

Bill Barr was confirmed as AG on February 14th, 2019. I know this because I checked it in Wikipedia.

So, forget about that business about Barr pledging not to "interfere" in the Mueller witchhunt. He didn't interfere. He shut it down. That pledge not to interfere was NOT a pledge not to do his job. Ha ha! Joke's on you, Senate!

But something else happened a month after Barr came on board. Andrew Weissmann announced he'd be leaving not just Team Mueller but DoJ. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was Bill Barr who personally told Weissmann not to let the door hit him in the ass on the way out. Barr is a regular Rolling Stone--gathering no moss.

Is this why Weissmann is freaking? Did he get a heads up that this connection had been found and would be coming out? I wouldn't be at all surprised. It's the kind of thing that could get you prosecuted.

Contrary to reports, I believe John Durham has some material to work with.