Michael Gaeta's Bombshell Lands Right On Bruce Ohr

Eric Felten has a very good article today that, while focusing on what might at first seem like one small data point in the Russia Hoax, actually opens up major vistas into the overall conspiracy. The article is at Real Clear Investigations, and concerns Michael Gaeta's recently released testimony, comparing it to Bruce Ohr's previously released testimony: FBI's Man in Europe Undercut Ohr's Claim of Limited Russiagate Role.

You'll recall that Michael Gaeta was, in the summer of 2016, stationed at the FBI's Legat office in Rome. He had in the past been Chris Steele's handling agent and when, at the beginning of July he got a call from Steele telling him that he (Steele) had some very hot but unspecified info for him, Gaeta dropped everything and rushed off to London.

That raises all kinds of questions in my mind for which I have no convincing answer at this point. The FBI has numerous Legat offices around the world, but London is certainly one of the largest and most prestigious. They operate on a regional basis, just as FBI Field Divisions in the US operate territorially. Just as an FBI agent would never travel to another Field Division in the US to conduct investigation without notification (there are exceptions to the general rule), likewise no agent at one Legat would simply fly to the territory of another Legat to conduct investigation. In fact we do know that Gaeta sought and received permission for his jaunt from no less a high DoS official than Victoria Nuland, but why an agent stationed in London could not have visited Steele remains unclear to me--as does who at FBIHQ would have been aware of Gaeta's trip.

That said, the main point of Felten's article concerns Bruce Ohr.

Cleveland: OIG Report Fingers Team Mueller

I've been saying for quite some time that everything the Barr/Durham investigation is doing leads inexorably to Team Mueller--and maybe into the Obama White House. Today at The Federalist Margot Cleveland has an excellent article that details the ways in which Michael Horowitz's FISA report points a finger at Team Mueller:

Inspector General Report Shows Special Counsel Replicated FBI Abuses

The report established that the special counsel’s office was complicit in the FISA abuse, the probe was a witch hunt, and its report was a cover-up for systematic government malfeasance.

Here I'll hit what I regard as the highlights.

First, of course, is the matter of the fourth FISA application--a renewal application. That happened on Mueller's watch. FISA renewal applications don't simply piggyback on the previous applications. The same duty of accuracy and full disclosure applies equally to each renewal, as does the obligation to demonstrate that the previous FISA orders are producing new intelligence of value. We now know, of course, that FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith actually falsified documents that were part of that fourth application. Will Clinesmith take a big hit for Team Mueller? We'll find out.

Beyond that, Horowitz documents that when Team Mueller demonstrably identified new information that invalidated the Steele evidence that was relied upon, this information was concealed from the FISA court for many months. The same applies to concealing the fact that, far from being a Russian agent, Carter Page was a US intelligence asset.

Second, the OIG report discovered something that, if it didn't exactly shock me, definitely caused me to sit up and take notice, to even involuntarily raise my eyebrows:

Horowitz Reports Steele Meetings With Clinton Lawyers

What could be less surprising than Chris Steele meeting with the people who were paying him? Still, I'm sure they tried to keep meets to the minimum that were essential.

Here's the date that really interests me. September 23, 2016.

Horowitz reported that Steele met with Perkins Coie in July 2016, on or about Sep 23, 2016 and Oct 2016.  I don't recall this being known previously. Can anyone recall prior reports of Steele-Perkins Coie meetings on these dates? pic.twitter.com/hgVnlx3F8j

— Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) December 15, 2019

As I like to bring up, Steele was part of an extraordinary meeting in mid-September, 2016, that included future Team Mueller hotshots Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad, veteran DoJ Clintonista Bruce Swartz, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok. I've maintained that this looked like a meeting to tell Steele what they needed in the "dossier" so they could get the FISA on Carter Page. It's unquestionably a strategy meeting. And a few days later Steele meets with Michael Sussman, the Dems' real evil legal genius when it comes to elections.

Can I swear that the proximity of the two meetings wasn't coincidence. I suppose not, but I wouldn't want to bet that it is coincidence. In fact, if I were an investigator I'd be operating on the assumption that it sure wasn't a coincidence.

(It's About Pressure Points, passim)

Must Read: Bruce Swartz, Textbook Swamp Dweller

That's the title of an article by Jack Cashill at AmThinker today: Bruce Swartz, Textbook Swamp Dweller. I expect this sort of thing to continue for quite some time. The Horowitz Dossier is a treasure trove of names, facts, and dates. Researchers will be mining it for connections, which is what Cashill has done with Bruce Swartz. What Cashill's research shows is that Swartz has been part of the Clinton Organized Crime Family going back two decades. The continuity is stunning in its revelation of the scope of the Deep State/Swamp.

Swartz has been on our radar here for nearly a year. We first wrote about him in The FBI: Working Hand In Glove With Clinton Operatives and, very recently in connection with the Horowitz Dossier, again just yesterday in an update to AG Barr Speaks. Here's what I wrote in January:

When Ohr met Steele again in either late September or early October, 2016 he did so in company with quite a group: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from the FBI, and three DOJ career officials from the criminal division, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, and Andrew Weissman--currently Robert Mueller's deputy. ... this also probably means that they were planning for the FISA application, given that the application was submitted on October 21, 2016, immediately after Steele's October 20 report--the report in which Michael Cohen's famous trip to Prague for a "clandestine" meet superseded the clandestine Moscow meet of Carter Page, who was no longer with the Trump campaign. Which leads to the supposition that this meeting with Steele was to tell him, inter alia, that more detailed information was needed for the FISA application--which Steele duly provided, in the form of the now famous Cohen-Prague miscue.

All in all, it's an interesting picture: three officials from DoJ's Criminal Division meeting with the second in command of the FBI's CI division (accompanied by the Deputy Director's counsel) to plan for a FISA on--in effect--a candidate for the presidency. Coaching the asset on what was now needed for the FISA to go through, which would be typical Weissman tactics.And all this without informing the Acting AG, Sally Yates. Or so they say.

And yesterday:

More Thoughts On Bruce Ohr's Testimony

My overall impression, derived from reading the recently released full transcript of Bruce Ohr's House testimony rather than just excerpts, is this: I didn't find Bruce Ohr to be a terribly credible witness, and the GOP Representatives who questioned him--most of them former prosecutors themselves--clearly did not trust him.

Margot Cleveland has an article today in which she discusses 11 Key Things Inside The House Interview With Spygate Figure Bruce Ohr. Most of these items have been discussed already, but I want to point out at least one issue that is worth keeping in the conscious part of our minds.

In #2 on her list, Cleveland discusses an issue that clearly troubled the GOP Reps. Just as clearly, they remained unsatisfied and unconvinced by Ohr's attempted explanation. This issue was the fact that during Ohr's one and a half years of serving as the cutout between Chris Steele and the FBI--including after Steele had been "fired" by the FBI--he claimed that he never informed his superior (DAG Sally Yates) of the highly irregular role he was playing. But he did inform other DoJ officials who were somewhat beneath him in rank--people like Andrew Weissmann, Zainab Ahmad, and Bruce Swartz. Weissmann and Ahmad, of course, later became key members of Team Mueller or, from another possible point of view, were key players in recruiting Mueller to serve as the figurehead of their team--since their well known connections to Hillary precluded them from fronting for the lawfare coup attempt.