Holy cow. This NY Times story is just littered with seismic earth-shakers sure to rattle the windows
This is The Hoarse Whisperer..a thread that was hard to put together for our format...it says a lot...and in chronological order..
Holy cow. This NY Times story is just littered with seismic earth-shakers sure to rattle the windows at the White House. Yowza. My very quick first-blush take on the meaty nuggets... Let’s dive in!
In the days after Comey’s firing, the FBI opened a COUNTERINTELLIGENCE investigation of Trump himself. WOW! Unlike the initial Trump-Russia investigation (which was looking primarily at events in 2016), the counterintel investigation was basically surveillance in 2017+.
Naturally, deciding to basically turn your national security and intelligence magnifying glasses on the President of the United States is a BIG DEAL. The FBI didn’t enter into it lightly. 3/
But then Trump fired Comey... AND... did two more things that raised red flags. The first: he wrote a letter on Comey’s firing and mentioned Russia. The subtle Easter egg there: the FBI had the draft of the unsent letter. 4/
Now, tie that together with the fact that this story was broken by Mike Schmidt of the NYT. As I’ve said often in the past, I am of the belief that former White House Counsel Don McGahn is Schmidt’s source for these big bombshells.
If that is indeed the case, McGahn may very well have been working with Mueller months earlier than we ever knew. Somehow, the FBI had a draft of an unsent letter immediately. If not McGahn, it could well have been turned over by Rosenstein. Regardless, the FBI was on it. 6/
Moving right along, the implications of this are potentially enooooormous. Mueller didn’t just inherit ONE investigation focused on what happened before. He also inherited a second which was actively tracking Trump’s actions AS THEY WERE UNFOLDING. 7/
That counterintelligence investigation would have required approval at the DOJ. I can’t see how that would have been possible without Jeff Sessions’ buy-in, or at minimum, awareness. I’d be shocked if that all went down without Sessions even hearing about it. 8/
Maybe Rosenstein parlayed Sessions’ recusal into keeping all this a secret. If that’s the case, expect Trump to be looking for Rosenstein’s head on a platter any minute now. If he goes off on Rosenstein, Rod knew. Jefferson Beauregard didn’t.
Anyway, I digress. Another doozy of this now-revealed real-time counterintel probe of Trump itself: It basically served as a safety net the entire time we sat fretting about Trump firing Mueller.
The FBI was investigating potential crimes... while also monitoring the chief potential criminal in case he tried to interfere with their work. Think about that... the FBI’s counterintel resources were trained on the guy who had a “private chat” w Putin in Helsinki.
We don’t know what actions that investigation took. It is fair to assume it included mining ongoing intel from our own resources at the NSA, etc., as well as from allies. That would have the effect of putting relevant work-product of any ally’s spying in Mueller’s hands.
Meaning, even if we weren’t eavesdropping on Trump’s convo w Putin, his late-night phone calls, his admin’s back-channel contacts with Russians, etc... someone was. Whether it was the UK, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Israel, Australia or whomever, EVERYONE spies on Russia...
...and Mueller had an open folder just waiting to be filled with whatever tasty nuggets those eyes and ears happened to pass our way. Think: A real-time Steele dossier with updates baked fresh daily.
Bringing it down out of Tom Clancy “Hunt for Orange October” territory to a more modest, conservative takeaway, we can count on at least this much: The counterintel investigation makes it highly likely Mueller has obstruction charges nailed six ways to Sunday.
Why? The CI work was essentially spying or tracking from Comey’s firing foreward. At minimum, it would have provided intel on the obstruction effort as it unfolded... and, at minimum, that would have guided Mueller’s interviews.
Remember all those witnesses who came out of meetings w Mueller saying he knew EVERYTHING? He did. Erik Prince, Stone, Corsi, McGahn, et al. He knew everything when they walked in. He had people paying attention after they walked out. 17/
Okay, I’m spinning like a top here so let me bring this in for a landing: Trump has spent the last two years trying to obstruct an investigation into 2016 events... ...and little did he know, his biggest problem would prove to be what he was doing in 2017-2018.
I think we now better understand why Mueller never called in Kushner or Junior. They were caught up in a live counterintel sweep. Questioning them would have given that away. That earth-shaker is about to sink in for them. Their problems just got 10x bigger. 19/
Last comment. Sry for rambling. Knowing all of this, I virtually guarantee Mueller turned an insider or two. Flipped informants. Not just witnesses. Informants. Don McGahn is a prime candidate. Mueller likely turned someone in the Admin itself. I’d bet many beers on it.
The Hoarse Whisperer Retweeted The New York Times
Oops. Forgot the link. Here it is.
The Hoarse Whisperer added,
The New York TimesVerified account @nytimes
President Trump’s actions so alarmed the FBI after James Comey’s firing that it began investigating if he was working on behalf of Russia
Okay, okay, okay, I can’t stop. I’m too amped up now. I’m practically oscillating. Here’s a delicious little karmic dessert to round out this sumptuous info feast... Remember the guy who was president before the Marmalade Menace took office? This guy... #44. Obama
On his way out the door, we all were wallowing in our winter of discontent, Obama signed an executive order... It went largely uncovered but I noted it at the time. It was like when you’re watching Law & Order and they zoom in on a paperweight in Minute 5 of the show...
You just know that paperweight is gonna come back into play around Minute 55. Foreshadowing! Pretext! Other words meaning “that’s gonna matter!” Anyway, the point is... Obama signed an EO as a parting shot one week before leaving office.
The order revised the rules around intelligence sharing among our intel community. Specifically, it made the firehose of raw intelligence collected by the NSA directly accessible to the FBI and CIA. Instead of having to ask for intel and getting what they filtered down...
The FBI and CIA could directly access the unfiltered “SigInt” or signals intelligence. Intercepted phone calls, emails, raw intel from human sources. Everything our vast intelligence vacuum hoovers up, available directly... but only for counterintel and foreign intel purposes.
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