OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Earlier this month we reported that the founder of Just The News, John Solomon, believes Special Counsel John Durham is planning to take the FBI on.
In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Solomon talked about the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion hoax and Durham’s next steps.
Here’s a portion of the transcript of Solomon’s and Bartiromo’s discussion:
Former FBI counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok: Whether intentionally or not, when you look at the balance of those pages, they have subtle dog whistles to these pro-Trump conspiracy theories, statements like the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign relied on certain things. Well, there was never an FBI investigation of the Trump campaign. Unless you listen to some kind of far-extreme-right commentators or of folks in Congress who assert there was, but that’s nonsense.
BARTIROMO: Of course, John, there was no pushback from Rachel Maddow. To say there was no investigation of the Trump campaign. Your reaction? Mind-boggling.
SOLOMON: Listen, Pete Strzok’s opening electronic communication which starts the Crossfire Hurricane investigation states they are looking at whether individuals associated with the Trump campaign were coordinating and conspiring with Russia. When they put the first FISA in, in October, the Trump campaign is mentioned a dozen times in the first FISA, and as I mentioned in the last segment, the allegation is a well-developed conspiracy between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and Russia to hijack the election. Of course, it was about the campaign. Peter Strzok’s own words said it was about the campaign. He was lying the other night. There’s no other way to say it politely.
BARTIROMO: Of course, they continue to renew FISA warrants against the Trump campaign, and they based those warrants to wiretap people like Carter Page, based on that dossier which they knew was false and made up. So I ask you now, what do you think the indictments will look like in the future? Do you think that John Durham is going to indict people at high levels, big fish, within the FBI?
SOLOMON: There’s no doubt there is activity inside the grand jury right now aimed at looking at top-level officials of the FBI, and it’s based on this evidence. We all look at the fact that Denchenko was interviewed by the FBI on January 17, and disowned a lot of the things that were said to him. A lot of people said that should have been the point where the FBI stopped.
Now to today.
According to federal court documents, the FBI is investigating the possible withholding of exculpatory information in the investigations into Donald Trump and his campaign collectively known as the Crossfire Hurricane.
While testifying on May 24, Agent Curtis Heide said he is under investigation by the FBI as part of an internal investigation into Crossfire Hurricane for not including exculpatory information or information that negates an allegation or allegations in an application to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
According to him, the information consisted of “various consensual recordings.”
In an appearance on Fox News, former Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos, who was spied on by an FBI source in the run-up to the 2016 election, referred to the FBI investigation as an “incredible twist.”
“Did the FBI willfully take information that they knew was tainted to obtain these fraudulent warrants, or were they duped?” he questioned.
In the weeks before the 2016 election, the FBI was allowed to spy on Carter Page, another Trump campaign associate. Furthermore, the bureau was granted three renewals, enabling it to continue spying on Page for months.
The Inspector General of the Justice Department, Michael Horowitz, an Obama appointee, noted numerous errors and omissions in the four applications. In addition to citing fragments of the discredited dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele without verifying them, he neglected to mention Page’s work as a CIA asset, which would have exonerated him.
Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI lawyer working on Crossfire Hurricane, was the first person charged by John Durham. Clinesmith admitted that he faked a CIA email in order to change its original statement that Page was an asset to say he wasn’t. He received no jail time for his crime.
Among the others under investigation are former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was charged by Durham. During Sussmann’s trial, Heide testified. A charge of lying to the FBI was brought against Sussmann when he claimed to have contacted the bureau of his own volition regarding Trump and Russia. Later, he said he was acting on behalf of a client.
“That is a serious allegation, that you intentionally withheld information that could help prove an individual’s innocence,” Sean Berkowitz, a defense attorney for Sussmann, told Heide at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse.
Under oath, Heide denied intentionally withholding information from the surveillance court.
Several problems were uncovered in a more recent audit of the FBI’s court applications. Woods files, which are supposed to ensure the accuracy of statements, were found to be missing or incomplete on 183 applications.
Despite not commenting on ongoing investigations, the FBI made it clear after that audit was released that it has already made “significant changes” to how it handles applications as a result of the problems identified by Horowitz’s office.
Source: The Republic Brief