Fascinating: How Long Has John Durham Been On The Case?

Back in May, 2019, we learned that John Durham, US Attorney for Connecticut, had been picked by the relatively recently appointed Attorney General, Bill Barr, "to examine the origins of the Russia Hoax." I wrote about that event here: US Attorney John Durham To Examine Origins Of Russia Hoax. We were told something vague about this. Durham was "examining" things, or "reviewing" them. Whatever that means. Not the type of thing that prosecutors do.

At that time I pointed out the significance of Barr's pick, and then added some additional details. In this excerpt from the linked post please note, among other things, the word "predication." Barr suspected "something criminal" in the very origin of the investigation, which means in the "predication," which distills that origin. And that criminal taint flows from Crossfire Hurricane to the Team Mueller Witchhunt. Barr has always understood that (as have readers here):

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ADDENDUM: Will Chamberlain says the appointment of Durham--who has a history of having jailed a dirty FBI agent--may have spoiled the day for Comey, McCabe, Strzok. He calls this a "serious escalation" on Barr's part.

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UPDATE 1: John Yoo, speaking to Laura Ingraham:

If I were the Democrats I would be quite worried. And the reason why is by appointing a US attorney Attorney General Barr is essentially signaling that he thinks it’s possible that criminal violations occurred in the start of the whole investigation into any kind of Trump-Russia collusion. As Judge Starr said there is already an inspector general investigation that’s been going on that’s going to come to a conclusion. [An inspector general investigation is] what you’d do if you were just interested in reforming… But you wouldn’t go with a US attorney like Durham or someone of his stature unless the Attorney General thinks actually something criminal might have happened.

In other words, Barr suspects criminality in the predication--the very foundation of the Russia Hoax on which everything else rests.

UPDATE 2: For those wondering "when's Barr gonna do something," it turns out that, according to Fox News, Durham has been at work on the origins of the Russia Hoax "for weeks." So Barr hit the ground running. Or to put it slightly differently, he's operating on the principle that a rolling stone gathers no moss. Question: What happens to someone who finds himself in front of that rolling stone?

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The next thing to note is that, in the UPDATE, we learn that, although this news is coming in May, Durham has been at work on the origins of the Russia Hoax "for weeks." So, Barr became AG on February 14, 2019, and we learn in mid-May that Durham has been on the job "for weeks." Note that: not "for a few weeks," just "for weeks." How many weeks is that, exactly?

The other day we learned that Durham's "review" (or whatever) had morphed into a criminal investigation, with Grand Jury powers. At that time I expressed the view that I would be surprised if Durham's investigation hadn't been a criminal investigation for some time, whether or not a Grand Jury had been empanelled. That was speculation. Today I've come across a twitter thread by Greg Rubini dating back to mid-August which provides fascinating evidence that John Durham may have been on the case not just "for weeks" but "for months." As in, since September of 2018 at the latest!

UPDATED: Hilarious: McCabe Drops His Wrongful Termination Joke Lawsuit

File under: No point throwing good money after bad:

BREAKING: Andrew McCabe has dropped his wrongful termination lawsuit against the DOJ. -Fox News

Only ONE reason for that.

It wasn’t a wrongful termination.

Barr. Durham. Horowitz. They know.

Soon the whole WORLD will know.

T H E   S T O R M   I S   H E R E 🍿

— Jason Bailey 🗯 (@iamjasonbailey) October 26, 2019

UPDATE:

Just to correct some reports I saw yesterday, Andrew McCabe has NOT dismissed his wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI - at least not yet. He dismissed his related *FOIA* lawsuit.

So keep your popcorn on standby for now🍿

THREAD

— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) October 26, 2019

Get more detail at the thread.

Why Predication Matters So Much

I hate to sound like a broken record, but ...

I've been saying for months that the Team Mueller Witchhunt was based on the same bogus predication as the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The Flynn case is similar. If an investigation is fraudulently started--in other words, based on invented predication, predication that's known to be untrue--then there is a strong case for suppressing all information that is gathered from the ensuing investigation. This is all the more true when  the investigation fails to turn up any wrongdoing or when the wrongdoing is strictly of a "process" type.

With that in mind, consider the ruling of Obama judge Beryl Howell. You can get the details at CTH: Federal Judge Beryl Howell Grants House Judiciary Committee Access to Mueller Grand Jury Material. Sundance makes the point that the whole point of Mueller's Grand Jury investigation was to gather evidence for impeachment, to hand over to Jerry Nadler. They found nothing on "Russian collusion." And Barr said, look, firing Comey was not illegal, so you can't claim that that firing obstructed the collusion investigation. And nothing else that Trump did amounted to obstruction.

Well, shouldn't that Grand Jury material remain secret? I think it should, and the ruling will surely be appealed.

But there's another angle to this, and it's one that comes to the fore now with the revelations in the Flynn case of egregious misconduct in the Team Mueller prosecution of Flynn. And then there's Powell's contention that I cited as "key": That the FBI had no basis in the first place to investigate Flynn at all.

We also know that "predication"--or, more specifically, the lack thereof--is at the heart of Barr's investigation. He's said so himself. That means he's questioning whether there was any basis for opening Crossfire Hurricane, and that must also mean that he questions the predication for its continuation: The Team Mueller Witchhunt.

If that's true, and if Barr has evidence at this point to make that argument, then he has a very strong argument to ultimately overturn Judge Howell's politically motivated ruling. Because the Grand Jury material produced by Mueller's witchhunt was based on a fraudulent investigation. Remember: Lead investigator Peter Strzok said just before the Witchhunt started up, we know there's "no there there." It was illegal, and the GJ material should be the fruit of a poisonous tree--and should be suppressed. Even destroyed.

This is why predication is so important.

Jack Posobiec: James Baker Has Flipped

Smart move if true. Baker, of course, was Comey's in-house counsel at the FBI:

BREAKING: Former FBI general counsel James Baker has reportedly ‘flipped’ and is now cooperating with the Barr-Durham investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation - @OANN

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 25, 2019

“Andrew McCabe was offered a pre-indictment plea agreement and turned it down. So US attorney Durham has impaneled a grand jury...John Brennan and James Clapper should be put under oath and questioned too.” — @marklevinshow

— Rich Valdes 🇺🇸 (@RichValdes) October 25, 2019

Larry Johnson On The Meaning Of Last Night

Before we get to Larry Johnson, I want to briefly recap the core of Dan Bongino's show today (h/t commenter Cassander). The core of Bongino's show, Why is John Brennan Melting Down? is the big picture of the Russia Hoax. I've written about much of this at one time or another, as have others, but Bongino gathers all the threads together into a coherent presentation. Here's how it works, in outline:

The Russia Hoax was an operation of the Hillary campaign. 

As such, it was largely the brainchild of Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS, with help from Nellie Ohr. 

But a major role was played by George Soros. Soros wanted to run Ukraine as a private fiefdom and, of course, enrich himself further. To that end, Soros, as usual provided lots of money to the Dems running the US government, who obligingly harassed Soros' rivals in Ukraine. In return, Soros ensured Ukrainian cooperation against Trump. 

John Brennan provided Christopher Steele. The reason Steele was needed was that, in order to instigate an FBI investigation of Trump/his campaign, a frontman with credibility was needed--an ex-MI6 spook was perfect. An oppo research firm like Fusion GPS would never have worked.

The buck for all of the US government cooperation with Soros stops, of course, in the Oval Office. We know that Obama was in on the planned coup. All the rest of what we've been following falls under this umbrella. Some of this may take a bit of a different shape, but I believe that as a big picture it works.

One last thing before Larry Johnson. Many of you saw John Ratcliffe on Fox last night. Ratcliffe stated as fact that the nearly simultaneous announcement from IG Horowitz that his report would be coming out shortly with minimal redaction and from DoJ that Barr/Durham was now a criminal investigation with Grand Jury powers was not a coincidence. The announcements were related.

With that in mind we turn to Larry Johnson, whom I've cited several times in the past. I picked this up from Gateway Pundit and you can read the entire thing there: Bill Barr Has Pulled the Trigger and Altered the Landscape – The Deep State Does Not Truly Understand the Peril They Now Face. Johnson has been a longtime Deep State observer and I believe him to have good sources. Read this in light of the big picture that Bongino provides:

Why The Republican National Committee Has Dems "Freaking Out"

That's the theme of an article at RCP: Dems Beware -- the RNC Is Crushing It. If you thought the Flynn case was as much good news as you could handle in a day, read on:

... the Republican National Committee’s formidable operation has Democrats freaking out. 

For months Democrats have worried about a potentially lethal combination of Trump’s incumbency advantage coupled with the unparalleled strength of the GOP organization -- and that was before their newfound fear that they may not end up with a suitable nominee to take on even a deeply embattled Trump. While he rants on Twitter and holds campaign rallies, Democrats in a primary race get little notice or coverage. Meanwhile the Trump campaign is carpet-bombing Facebook with ads and the RNC is spreading a volunteer army across key swing states, all while breaking fundraising records allowing them to deploy critical resources nearly a year before a Democrat is nominated. 

Whoever thought this fight would start in the general election campaign had it all wrong. This terrifying realization is now causing allies of former Vice President Joe Biden to mull the creation of a super PAC since he is not only struggling to raise adequate sums but has been forced to fend off attacks by Trump months before the first votes in the primary contest will even be cast. 

In August, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez acknowledged the threat after the RNC tripled the amount the DNC raised in July. In an email he sent supporters sounding the alarm, he wrote that “our eventual nominee won't stand a chance against Trump and the GOP’s fundraising machine unless we start making strategic, early investments right now.” 

It was clear in September, when the RNC quadrupled the DNC total, that those investments have yet to materialize. September was the best non-election-year month for the RNC in history for either party, raising $27.3 million to the DNC’s $6.9 million. The RNC is carrying no debt; the DNC is carrying $7.2 million. The RNC has $59.2 million cash on hand while the DNC has $8.6 million. The RNC’s 2019 total is $168.7 million while the DNC has raised only $66.5 million this year. 

The combined total raised online from small donors in the third quarter between the RNC, the Trump campaign and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee was $45 million, with a surge of 313,000 first-time small-dollar donors just in that quarter. 

Impeachment has been a boon to GOP fundraising and grassroots organizing. Since the official start of impeachment, $10.3 million has been spent between the RNC and the Trump campaign in ads on air and online and the RNC has held 60 events in swing or Trump districts held by Democrats, and in Senate and gubernatorial races, just since Sept. 30. 

Yes, I highlighted this in red, but I'll repeat it: Impeachment has been a boon to GOP fundraising and grassroots organizing. And it will only get better with the steady drumbeat of revelations about the Russia Hoax.

The Real Key In The New Flynn Revelations

The big story of the day, and the big story until IG Horowitz's FISA report comes out, is of course the latest filing by Sidney Powell in the Michael Flynn case. And, of course, the shockwaves from this filing aren't about to fade away, because they go to the very heart of the Russia Hoax--the targeting of "four Americans" associated with the Trump campaign, the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane "enterprise counterintelligence investigation," and the continuation of the entire hoax in the Team Mueller Witchhunt.

The first section of Powell's reply in support of her motion to compel the production of Brady (exculpatory) material is shocking, of course. It had long been known that the FBI and prosecutors had engaged in egregious misconduct--criminal misconduct--to secure the conviction of Flynn and compel him to cooperate against President Trump to force Trump from office. Expected as these revelation were, nevertheless, speaking from the perspective of nearly 30 years as a Special Agent of the FBI, I still find myself stunned by these revelations. These were not the rogue actions of a lone agent. This was a conspiracy that involved, essentially, the entire top management of the FBI and large elements of the DoJ.

Still, for me the key is the second section, in which Powell makes the point that--all other misconduct aside--the FBI had no legitimate reason to be investigating in the first place. Here is the beginning paragraph, with its associated footnote, which sums it up:

What was going on here is that, in the words Powell uses to describe the way in which the FBI prepared to interview Flynn:

high-ranking FBI officials orchestrated an ambush-interview of the new president’s National Security Advisor, not for the purpose of discovering any evidence of criminal activity—they already had tapes of all the relevant conversations about which they questioned Mr. Flynn—but for the purpose of trapping him into making statements they could allege as false.

First Prediction: Michael Flynn On Speaking Tour Through 2020

Yes, that presumes that Flynn will have all charges dismissed--I can't see that not happening at this point.

Flynn will have a lot to talk about, a lot of payback to dish out, and it will all be directed at Democrats. Think about it. A decorated general whose career was gratuitously destroyed by Leftists of the Deep State--FBI, CIA, DoJ--sworn enemies of President Trump, touring the country and speaking about what the Dems did to his life, his son, etc. Ugly. Very ugly.

And there's another group I hope he takes on--military types speaking out for the Dems, interfering in politics: Now the Generals Speak Up? The Left has trotted them forward to attack Trump, and I definitely want to see Flynn calling them out by name.

Big losers? All Dem candidates, starting with Biden, who was at the Oval Office meetings when the coup was being plotted.

Top questions to come out of the Flynn case, which--remember--goes back to 2014: Obama, Biden, Hillary--What did they know and when did they know it.

Mueller and Weissmann should be in the crosshairs over this, along with many others in the top levels at DoJ and FBI.

Anyone seen or heard from Rod Rosenstein recently? Wanna bet he's been singing like a bird to Barr/Durham? I hope he's done a Mifsud and put it all on tape.

Follow this link for a good Geraldo interview that ends up focusing on 'How High Does It Go?'

Geraldo predicts a 'run' on DC defense attorneys as Durham's probe of Trump-Russia investigators deepens

Here's another really big loser: James Clapper, last heard from urging David Ignatius of the WaPo to take the "kill shot" on Flynn by publishing highly classified information that was leaked to Ignatius. How would you like to go in front of a jury to explain that--urging a "kill shot" on a decorated general who has been put through hell on known to be false charges? Clapper better have something really good to offer Barr/Durham.

And speaking of David Ignatius ...

The media--Big Losers. David Ignatius revealed as a Dem hitman? Wanna bet that's not the last similar revelation.

This will all be playing through 2020.

Commenting will be slower than usual

Apologies in advance. I've got lots of reading today. I think we all know the implications, we've known all along, but now it's happening.

For a few hours I'll try to enable comments regularly. However, I do like to respond to people who take the time to comment, and that may be slower than usual today.

Big New Flynn Filing Out With Major Revelations

It wasn't available before bedtime (mine) last night, but is now. It's long and detailed and will take time to digest. Early reviews appear totally devastating. I have some reading to do.

ADDENDUM: I've only read the summary at CTH so far, will spend the morning reading the whole thing. "Totally devastating" seems a pretty fair initial assessment.

This strikes at the heart not only of the original Russia Hoax but it's Team Mueller continuation.

NYT: Barr/Durham Open Criminal Investigation On ... DOJ!

Nine o'clock EDT, from the NYT--Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Russia Investigation:

WASHINGTON — For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal even months after the special counsel closed it. Now, Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began.

Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges.

I'm not sure how much of this is really true or not. I've been saying all along that the whole big deal in the Russia Hoax is--PREDICATION. What predication really was there to open Crossfire Hurricane at the end of July, 2016. But as I've also been saying endlessly, given that the Mueller Witchhunt was explicitly a continuation of Crossfire Hurricane--we have Rod Rosenstein's word in writing for that--then you can't investigate the one without impacting the other. If Crossfire Hurricane's predication was bogus, then so was the predication for the Mueller Witchhunt bogus.

The only two questions are: Who knew that, and when did they know that? Conveniently, we have two of the founding members of Team Mueller texting each other--Strzok and Page, the dynamic duo--and Strzok says they both know there's "no there there." If Strzok, the lead agent for Crossfire Hurricane, knows that it's all a hoax immediately before the startup of the Mueller Witchhunt, then how could it possibly be that McCabe, Rosenstein, and Mueller wouldn't also know that? Either Strzok was playing them and is the evil genius behind it all, or they were all in on it. And, anyway, each of them had an independent duty to determine whether the predication was good or not, so I'm betting that they were all in on it.

Bill Barr gets this, and always has. The NYT article quotes him to that effect:

UPDATED: Is McConnell Falling Into Line?

The Hill is reporting that Mitch McConnell has come out in support of Lindsey Graham's resolution condemning the ongoing Impeachment Theater. The Graham resolution, according to Salon, claims that Impeachment Theater is "unconstitutional" as regards actual impeachment. More interestingly, he suggested, as I have, that if the House should now forward an impeachment article to the Senate the Senate should dismiss it without a trial:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., claimed that any impeachment article against President Donald Trump should be “dismissed in the Senate without a trial." 

Graham, who recently criticized Trump for abandoning America’s Kurdish allies in Syria, appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Tuesday to defend the president against the ongoing impeachment inquiry. (Hannity is known as an informal adviser to the president.) 

"What the House of Representatives is doing is a process of political revenge. It is alien to American due process,” Graham said. "It should be dismissed quickly in the United States Senate." 

Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the probe was “unconstitutional” and “illegitimate,” because Republicans have allegedly [!] been prevented from calling witnesses. Graham said he would introduce a resolution condemning the impeachment inquiry, which will state that any impeachment articles should be dismissed “without a trial.”

“We cannot allow future presidents and this president to be impeached based on an inquiry in the House that has never been voted upon, that does not allow the president to confront the witnesses against him, call witnesses on his behalf and cross-examine people that are accusing him of misdeeds,” Graham said.

Obviously, the resolution won't get the needed 60 votes, but it's still of interest in putting GOPers on record in a significant way. One theory would welcome a Senate trial as an opportunity to garner greater public attention for a wide ranging inquiry into the entire plot against Trump--starting with the Russia Hoax. The other view is that as a constitutional matter these House Dem shenanigans shouldn't be dignified by a Senate trial. That would be a public rebuke that could have political impact.