More background on Rudy Giuliani, Comey and "the letter"

[The_jackalope]

As an FBI agent is transferred out of the Trump-Russia probe, there are new questions about Rudy Giuliani’s role in the Clinton e-mail scandal.

Late on Thursday afternoon, a bombshell dropped inside the normally extremely tight-lipped investigation office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent, was suddenly transferred from the Trump-Russia probe. An official announcement said Strzok was transferred to human resources at the FBI. “I’ve never heard of an agent being moved to the human resources department.” Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent and associate dean at Yale Law School, told the Business Insider.

In October, with Trump’s poll numbers plunging, Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani promised a “surprise”.

On November 4th, a week after Comey sent that letter, Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence investigator who was transferred out of Mueller’s investigation this week, interviewed Hillary Clinton about the e-mails. Three days later, Comey cleared the Democratic Presidential candidate. By then, Clinton’s poll numbers had begun to take a dive and didn’t have much runway to recover before the November 8 election.

Now it seems elements within the Trump campaign with connections to law enforcement had been ratcheting up the narrative of the Clinton e-mails. In addition to Giuiani’s tip of “something up our sleeve,” former Blackwater CEO, mercenary Erik Prince, told Breitbart Radio on November 4th (the same day Clinton was interviewed by Strzok) the NYPD had found explosive evidence on the Weiner hard drive and the FBI national office had refused to follow-up. Citing a source at the NYPD, Prince claimed the NYPD forced Comey to act threatening to take revenge action if he didn’t.

Now that senior FBI investigator Peter Strzok who helmed the Clinton e-mail investigation has been relieved of any counter-intelligence duties, it’s worth asking if the Office of the Inspector General has indeed turned up evidence to suggest elements in the FBI and the NYPD had been working to interfere in the election campaign on behalf of Trump and against Clinton and did the former hero Mayor of New York have a role?

https://narativ.org/2017/08/19/the-mayor/

A number of malcontents here, myself among them, have argued all along that Comey was a "white hat" who had been pressured or blackmailed by a faction within the NYPD and FBI's NY field office, in order to torpedo Hillary's campaign. It's looking as though that may be closer to the truth than the simplistic take of "Comey is a Republican enemy."

[greeny2323]

1. Ornstein

I know Norm Ornstein has also been convinced that Giuliani was the main force (through NY surrogates) of putting pressure on Comey to make public statements.

[brush]

2. Come on, was he in control of his agency or not? Was he that weak that he had to do...

what rogue agents wanted him to do?

Did they put a gun to his head. God!

[pnwmom]

12. It had nothing to do with personal weakness. They were threatening to release information

that would make it appear that the DC FBI was covering up FOR Hillary -- and there wouldn't have been time before the election to recover from a story like that, even if it was fake.

Many FBI people in NY -- Giuliani territory -- hated Hillary.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/fbi-leaks-hillary-clinton-james-comey-donald-trump

Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election.

Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited.

“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent.

This atmosphere raises major questions about how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House.

The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”

SNIP

[brush]

13. So the argument is Comey had to submit to the rogues instead of calling them out publicly?

He's no dummy. He was a US Attorney in NY before, and was also in the Bush admin where he knew how to thwart Gonsalves skullduggery at Ashcropt's hospital bed. That was heroic. He knew how to handle bad actors then.

He was the fu_king director. He had the power over the plotters/Giuliani and should have know how to use it.

What, he forgot how to act when took the Director's job? He got fooled by fake reports to him? He of all people should've known of the Hatch Act and not to get involved in an election that close to its finale.

IMO he was no weak figurehead at the mercy of connivers in his agency. He could have put on the brakes to the whole deal agency-wide with threats of dismissals.

He didn't. He sent that letter and got trump elected because, IMO, he was more loyal to his party than the electoral process and the country. He himself went "cowboy" just as he did in the summer without the AG's knowledge when he publicly chastised Hillary instead of just absolving her in the fake email scandal.

He tried to make up for it later once he realized the monster trump is with his investigation but was turned on by the bastard he helped get in office — hoisted on his own petard.

It's Shakespearean, no doubt, and tragic, but he contributed to his own downfall. He has to live with what his letter wrought, and unfortunately, so do the rest of us.

[pnwmom]

14. Calling them out publicly wouldn't have helped stop the bleeding because there wouldn't have been

enough time.

[brush]

15. I don't agree. Sending the letter on Oct. 28th left us with not enough time.

If the FBI Director instead had publicly stated there was a plot to discredit Hillary with fake, planted emails, IMO things would have turned out differently.

Instead he sent the letter and we got trump.

[The_jackalope]

18. We don't have enough information to answer the "why not" question.

If this was part of a Russian intel op (which it looks to me like it is) there is bound to be a major back-story that is invisible to us at this point.

Making the sorts of conclusions you are without any evidence except the public actions, is likely to be wrong. It's emotionally satisfying to have someone to blame, but usually leads to incorrect conclusions.

[brush]

20. It's not an incorrect conclusion that the Director of the FBI knows about the Hatch Act.

He's no dummy.

He knew the letter would tilt the election to trump.

Why all of sudden the Comey apologists are out again?

We had this argument here last fall.

[The_jackalope]

21. I'm out because the article came out. nt

[dhol82]

3. I have asking about his since it happened

Was hoping that Mueller would ferret out the collaborators in the NY office.
Looks like he did.

[PearliePoo2]

4. What does this mean? Did Mueller discover a rat?

Does this rat have a name? Peter Strzok?

K&R

[The_jackalope]

5. It sure looks like it. nt

[Tatiana]

6. This story goes deep.

Is there a connection between Giuliani and Strzok? Is there a connection between Russian operatives and Strzok?

Why would such an important FBI counterintelligence agent be transferred to HR? He did something. We need to know what.

[Ligyron]

11. That's a major demotion for Strzok whatever else is happening.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Remember what

Malcolm Nance has said,"this is now a Counter Intelligence Investigation",so get ready for some real nasty info to surface. Also,the so called e-mail thing started with a fake e-mail that was planted.

[UTUSN]

8. I'm not getting it. Strzok interviewed Hillary & she was cleared. What's missing here?

[mitch96]

9. " I'm not getting it"

From what I'm reading, Strzok fed Comey fake info on Clintons email, and then retracted it. Clinton did not have enough time to recover from the FBI "ding" to her credibility.. yes?
m

[The_jackalope]

10. That's how I read it too. nt

[SonofDonald]

17. I was wondering why this happened.

Why the head of the counterintelligence department had been demoted?, I've read that Giuliani had insiders in the FBI that hated Hilary enough to break their oathes and commit an illegal act to keep her out of the whitehouse.

The article also said that doctored emails may have been put onto wieners laptop that indicated shady dealings by Hilary, the article was of course supposition but as in all rumors there may have been a kernel of truth involved.

We may see everything that has transpired sometime in the future but it just adds to the really long list of things we don't know but have been hinted about.

It just gets deeper and deeper, better buy shovels in bulk.

It's obvious Mueller is the right man for the job, I just hope he gets them all, every last one of them.

[The_jackalope]

19. I think that's a realistic assessment, based on the little we know at this point. nt

[Crataegus]

16. connections

Is Peter Strzok the source of Rudy Giuliani and Bannons 'inside info?'