Tag Archives: Robert Mueller

The Establishment Strikes Back, by Philip M. Giraldi

Posted on July 20, 2018 | Leave a comment

Philip Giraldi pokes holes in Mueller’s latest indictment of 12 Russian GRU officers. From Giraldi at strategic-culture.org:

There are a number of elements in the recent release of an indictment of twelve named alleged Russian military intelligence GRU officers by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein looking into possible ties between Moscow and the Trump Administration that I find either implausible or even incoherent. But before considering that, it is necessary to consider the context of the announcement.

The Department of Justice, which had, based on evidence already revealed, actually interfered in the 2016 election more that Moscow could possibly have done, continued in that proud tradition by releasing the indictment three days before President Donald Trump was due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Helsinki Summit between the two leaders was critically important to anyone interested in preserving the planet Earth as we know it and there was no reason at all to release a non-time sensitive document that was clearly intended to cast a shadow over the proceedings. In fact, the surfacing of the indictment might easily be explained as a deliberate attempt by a politicized Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Mueller to torpedo President Trump over concerns that he might actually come to some understanding with Putin.

The 30-page long indictment is full of painstaking details about alleged Russian involvement but it makes numerous assertions that the reader is required to accept on faith because there is little or no evidence provided to back up the claims and the claims themselves could be false trails set up by any number of hostile intelligence services to implicate Moscow. From an intelligence officer’s point of view, there are even some significant areas where operational implausibility completely undermines the case being made.

The indictment identifies by name and position the twelve alleged GRU officers who “knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other, and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury (collectively the ‘Conspirators’), to gain unauthorized access (to ‘hack’) into the computers of US persons and entities involved in the 2016 US presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election.”

All twelve alleged GRU officers are described in detail, together with the cover mechanisms they reportedly used and the targets they pursued. But they are all in Russia and there is virtually no chance that they will be extradited to stand trial in Washington, which was certainly understood when the indictment was prepared. That means the “facts” as stated in the document will never be subjected to the normal judicial review process or discovery that takes place whenever someone is accused of a crime, which in turn means that information contained in the indictment will never be challenged.

To continue reading: The Establishment Strikes Back

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Horseshit, Intelligence, Investigations, Politics

Tagged ,

Have Mueller and Rosenstein Finally Gone Too Far? by Thomas Knapp

Posted on July 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

Actually, Rosenstein and Mueller reached “Too Far” long ago. Whether their transgressions will catch up to them is another matter. From Thomas Knapp at antiwar.com:

Friday the 13th is presumably always someone’s unlucky day. Just whose may not be obvious at the time, but I suspect that “Russiagate” special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein already regret picking Friday, July 13 to announce the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers on charges relating to an embarrassing 2016 leak of Democratic National Committee emails. They should.

Legally, the indictments are of almost no value. Those indicted will never be extradited to the US for trial, and the case that an external “hack” – as opposed to an internal DNC leak – even occurred is weak at best, if for no other reason than that the DNC denied the FBI access to its servers, instead commissioning a private “cybersecurity analysis” to reach the conclusion it wanted reached before hectoring government investigators to join that conclusion.

Diplomatically, on the other hand, the indictments and the timing of the announcement were a veritable pipe bomb, thrown into preparations for a scheduled Helsinki summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

House Republicans, already incensed with Rosenstein over his attempts to stonewall their probe into the Democratic Party’s use of the FBI as a proprietary political hit squad, are planning a renewed effort to impeach him. If he goes down, Mueller likely does as well. And at this point, it would take a heck of an actor to argue with a straight face that the effort is unjustified.

Their timing was clearly intentional. Their intent was transparently political. Mueller and Rosenstein were attempting to hijack the Trump-Putin summit for the purpose of depriving Trump of any possible “wins” that might come out of it.

They secured and and announced the indictments “with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”

To continue reading: Have Mueller and Rosenstein Finally Gone Too Far

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Intelligence, Investigations, Politics

Tagged ,

Saboteurs of Peace: On the Road to Helsinki, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on July 16, 2018 | Leave a comment

The recent indictment of the 12 alleged Russian GRU agents is as phony as the rest of the Russiagate “investigation.” From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

If there was ever any doubt that the Russia-gate hoax is a scheme by the War Party to salvage their bankrupt foreign policy, and depose a democratically-elected President, then Robert Mueller’s indictment of twelve alleged GRU agents for “interfering” in the 2016 election settles the matter once and for all. Are we supposed to believe it was just a coincidence that the indictment was made public just as Trump was about to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki?

An indictment of twelve individuals who will never contest the charges, and which will not have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law – to whom is it addressed? Not to any jury, but to the court of public opinion. It is, in short, pure propaganda, meant to sabotage Trump’s Helsinki peace initiative before it has even convened.

Yet the brazenness of this borderline treason is what makes it so ineffective. The American people aren’t stupid: to the extent that they’re paying attention to this Beltway comic opera they can figure out the motives and meaning of Mueller’s accusations without too much difficulty.

The indictment reads like a fourth-rate spy thriller: we are treated to alleged “real time” transcripts of Boris and Natasha in action, draining the DNC’s email system as well as our precious bodily fluids. This material, perhaps supplied by the National Security Agency, contains no evidence that links either Russia or the named individuals to the actions depicted in the transcripts. We just have to take Mueller’s word for it.

What Mueller is counting on is that the defendants will never show up in court. If they did, following the example of representatives of the indicted Internet Research Agency – accused of running Facebook ads on Russia’s behalf – Mueller would have to provide real evidence of the defendant’s guilt. In that case, the indictment would have to be dropped, because the alleged evidence is classified.

Ominously, the indictment points to unnamed US individuals alleged to have collaborated with supposed Russian agents: Roger Stone has been identified as one of them, and no doubt others have been targeted by the special prosecutor’s office. Anyone who thought the anti-Russian inquisition would be content with mini-big fish Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort, and the little tadpoles they’d managed to corral, is about to be proven dead wrong. This fishing expedition has barely begun.

To continue reading: Saboteurs of Peace: On the Road to Helsinki

Leave a comment

Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Horseshit, Media

Tagged , ,

Trump Should Fire Rosenstein Immediately, by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on July 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

Rod Rosenstein is a political hack who’s out to get Trump and protect the Department of Justice and the FBI. Firing him would indeed be the right thing for Trump to do. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:

Does Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for allegedly hacking Hillary’s emails and interfering in the US election have any purpose other than to throw a monkey wrench in President Trump’s upcoming summit with Putin?

Don’t forget that Rosenstein is implicated in the orchestration of Russiagate as a weapon against Trump, a weapon that serves the interests of the Democratic Party and the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned us 56 years ago to no avail. Rosenstein’s indictment of 12 Russians for allegedly hacking computers is a political indictment aimed at President Trump. The indictment is otherwise pointless as the Russian government will certainly not turn over its military personnel to a Washington kangaroo court. The indictment serves no purpose except to poison the atmosphere of the summit.

If you read the indictment, you will see that it consists of nothing but improbable accusations. There is no way on earth that the US Justice (sic) Department would be able to acquire the information in this fictional story that Rosenstein has presented. Moreover, there is no sign whatsoever of any evidence in the indictment. Rosenstein knows that he needs no evidence, because the accused will never be brought to trial. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/13/rosenstein-says-12-russian-intel-officers-indicted-in-special-counsels-probe.html

Rosenstein has thrown red meat to the presstitutes, who are assets of the military/security complex and Democratic Party, and the presstitutes will pressure the Republicans to get behind Rosenstein’s call for a united front against Russian interference. You can imagine what would happen if Trump and Putin were to have a successful summit and normalize the relations that Washington ruined between the two countries. If your imagination is not working, consult here: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/07/10/the-view-of-russia-in-the-west-paul-craig-roberts/

During the presidential election campaign, I pointed out that Trump was not Washington savvy, did not know who would support his positions, which were antithetical to the interests of powerful interest groups such as the military-security complex and global offshoring corporations, and that Trump ran the risk of being destroyed by his own appointments.

Rod Rosenstein is a Trump appointment. Moreover when Trump’s Attorney General ordered Rosenstein’s resignation, Trump refused to accept it and kept Rosenstein in office. Trump’s miscalculation is so enormously wrong that he deserves the knife in the back that Rosenstein just delivered.

To continue reading: Trump Should Fire Rosenstein Immediately

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Geopolitics, Investigations

Tagged , , ,

Two Big “Russia! Russia!” Stories Released Days Before Trump-Putin Summit, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on July 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

That the Deep State has to resort to such transparent machinations just before the Trump-Putin summit shows how weak, stupid, and desparate it is. From Caitlin Johnstone at medium.com:

I have said it before, and I will say it again, and I will keep saying it and saying it until it becomes mainstream conventional wisdom: it is the US intelligence community’s job to lie to you.

In an article for The Nation dated July 11, the internationally renowned US-Russia relations expert Stephen F. Cohen warned of possible attempts by peace-hating beltway stalwarts to sabotage the Helsinki peace talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that is scheduled for this coming Monday.

“There is a long history of sabotaging or attempting to sabotage summits and other détente-like initiatives,” wrote Cohen. “Indeed, a few such attempts have been evident in recent months and more may lie ahead.”

And, lo and behold, right before the summit we are seeing two major news stories loudly promoting Russia hysteria blasted onto the front pages on the very same day.

An indictment of 12 Russians has finally been issued by the Robert Mueller Special Counsel on various charges of conspiracy against the United States, an action the counsel has been sitting on for months. The indictment contains no evidence and will likely never be defended in any court of law, the correct response to which, in a post-Iraq invasion world, is always to dismiss the story and file it under “Noises US government officials sometimes make with their face holes.”

The complete absence of evidence has of course failed to deter establishment propagandists and Capitol Hill war whores from loudly and aggressively advancing the galaxy-brained narrative that these new claims ought to either cancel peace talks between two nuclear superpowers, or at least make them much more hostile and contentious.

“President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world,” said Senator John McCain in a statement, more determined than ever to start World War Three before he finally fucking dies. “If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward.”

“POTUS should either publicly demand extradition of these 12 Russian officials to stand trial or call off his summit,” tweeted Congressman Joe Kennedy III. “@realDonaldTrump should not lend legitimacy to an adversary that attacks our democracy.”

To continue reading: Two Big “Russia! Russia!” Stories Released Days Before Trump-Putin Summit

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Investigations, War

Tagged , ,

The True Meaning of ‘Collusion’, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on July 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

Raúl Ilargi Meijer dismisses Robert Mueller’s eminently dismissable recent indictment of twelve Russians. From Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

 

The indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose task it is to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and ‘Russians’, that was released yesterday by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, raises so many questions one has to be picky.

Many people have already stated that the report contains no proof of anything it claims, and that Mueller doesn’t have to prove a thing, because the 12 Russians he accuses will never show up in a US court. Many of course also have at least questioned the timing of the release, 3 days before the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki, of information Mueller and Rosenstein have allegedly been sitting on for months.

The idea that the event was not coordinated to inflict maximum damage to the summit seems indeed far-fetched. But something else struck me in the report: the role of WikiLeaks (labeled “Organization 1”). Mueller very much focuses on both Julian Assange -though he doesn’t get named and is not indicted- and his presumed links to the indicted Russians, who -allegedly- posed as Guccifer 2.0:

Use of Organization 1

47. In order to expand their interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Conspirators transferred many of the documents they stole from the DNC and the chairman of the Clinton Campaign to Organization 1. The Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, discussed the release of the stolen documents and the timing of those releases with Organization 1 to heighten their impact on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

a. On or about June 22, 2016, Organization 1 sent a private message to Guccifer 2.0 to “[s]end any new material [stolen from the DNC] here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing.” On or about July 6, 2016, Organization 1 added, “if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic] days prefable [sic] because the DNC [Democratic National Convention] is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after.” The Conspirators responded, “ok . . . i see.” Organization 1 explained, “we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary . . . so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting.”

To continue reading: The True Meaning of ‘Collusion’

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Horseshit, Investigations

Tagged , ,

Deep State Sideswipes Helsinki Summit with Mueller Indictments, by Tom Luongo

Posted on July 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

Twelve unreachable Russians are indicted a few days before Trump’s summit with Putin. Undoubtedly a coincidence. (SLL does not use what’s become the common internet convention of telling readers when we’re engaging in sarcasm. SLL readers can figure it out themselves, or they shouldn’t be on this site.) From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me.

So, imagine my shock, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted twelve Russian intelligence officers on the eve of a summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Despite his oh-so-earnest protestations to the contrary, Rod Rosenstein, of all people, knows there are no coincidences in politics.

Trump is on a search and destroy mission all across Europe right now attacking the pillars of the post-WWII institutional order.

While in Washington, Congress devolved into an episode of Jerry Springer during the Peter Strzok hearings yesterday.  Both Strzok and Rosenstein have literally destroyed their credibility by stonewalling Congress over the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server, which, conveniently Mueller now has enough information to take to the Grand Jury.

In my mind, this is a level of panic and desperation unseen in the annals of Washington D.C. coverups. Both Strzok and Rosenstein know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is completely compromised and can do nothing to stop them from obstructing investigations and turning our justice system into something worse than farce.

And why do I think this is a desperate move by Mueller?  Because the indictments go out of their way to preclude any Americans having any involvement in these ‘hacking events’ at all.

So, this does nothing at all to strengthen Mueller’s investigation of Trump himself.  It actually weakens his mandate as Special Counsel.

On the other hand, it does a bang-up job of shifting the news cycle away from Trump’s heavy-handed but effective steam-rolling Germany and the UK over NATO spending, energy policy and Brexit.

Trump continues, in his circuitous way, to stick a fork in the eye of the globalists whose water politicians like Angela Merkel and Theresa May have carried for years.

Now with Trump prepared to sit down with Putin and potentially hammer out a major agreement on many outstanding issues like Syria, arms control, NATO’s purpose, energy policy and terrorism the Deep State/Globalist/Davos Crowd needed something to saddle him with to prevent this from happening.

The reasoning will be (if not already out there as I write this) that Trump would be a traitor for sitting down with Putin after these indictments.

To continue reading: Deep State Sideswipes Helsinki Summit with Mueller Indictments

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, Horseshit, Investigations

Tagged ,

Rosenstein conflicts undermine legitimacy of Mueller’s investigation, by Sharyl Attkisson

Posted on July 3, 2018 | 2 comments

Looking at the tangled web between Rod Rosenstein and the Mueller investigation, there is no way the results, no matter what they are, will ever be free of the taint of partiality and bias. From Sharyl Attkisson at thehill.com:

In his recent testimony to Congress, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein undoubtedly intended to sound reassuring. “I am quite confident,” he proclaimed, “about my conduct throughout this investigation.”
Rosenstein may have reason to feel confident. He’s in a difficult position and his conduct may indeed be above board. And, under normal circumstances, Congress and the public might be comforted by his guarantee.
But that’s the rub: These circumstances are far from normal.
We’re in the midst of one of the most important scandals in memory: Our intel agencies and some public officials within them are suspected of abusing power and misusing sensitive tools under their control as political weapons. The allegations reach far beyond the 2016 campaign and transcend party politics, which makes them all the more insidious in nature.
Combine that with the probes into Trump-Russia “collusion” and Hillary Clinton’s classified email practices, and the result may well be the most tangled web of overlapping investigations and competing conflicts of interest we’ve ever seen.
In this context, it seems unreasonable to be expected to uncritically accept assurances from Rosenstein or other figures and federal agencies — such as the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) — whose behavior is under the microscope. Yet, they currently control much of the evidence at issue and are making crucial determinations about everything from what to turn over to Congress and what to withhold or redact, the propriety of wiretaps and other surveillance, possible prosecutions, whether they should recuse themselves for conflicts of interest, to appointment(s) of special counsel(s) who could investigate their conduct.
For his part, Rosenstein has several potential conflicts of interest— at least in perception. And in the realm of legal ethics, perception counts.
Rosenstein recommended that President Trump fire FBI Director James Comey — then handpicked Robert Mueller to investigate why Trump fired Comey. It’s akin to you or I being allowed to hire the guy who’s going judge our own actions. Not only that, Rosenstein’s pick — Mueller — is a longtime colleague of Comey’s, whose own behavior was found to be “extraordinary and insubordinate,” according to the recent DOJ’s inspector general report.

2 Comments

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Intelligence, Investigations

Tagged , ,

Poof. There Goes the Mueller Investigation, by Kurt Nimmo

Posted on June 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

SLL has said from day one that the Mueller investigation would find nothing because there was nothing to find. Now it’s obvious. From Kurt Nimmo at kurtnimmo.blog:

The corporate media is reporting intrepid crusader Robert Mueller is preparing to do a Pontius Pilate on his special council investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign.

According to WaPo, Mueller has beefed up his team with a number of prosecutors and the job of prosecuting Russian nationals for supposedly influencing the 2016 election will be fobbed off on them.

“The Post reports that the new hires are the first indication of Mueller preparing for the end of his investigation,” WaPo reported.

The Trump component is in the process of performing a disappearing act in slow motion. The investigation petered out months ago. Democrats continued to pound on it. Because it’s all they have. The establishment Resistance run by Pelosi and Schumer is treading water and looking toward the midterms.

It’s like simple math. There is no evidence Trump or his associates colluded with Putin and the Russians to somehow—through the exaggerated influence of social media—throw the election in his favor.

This nonsense was dispelled early on.

It’s true. Enterprising Russians ran a lucrative clickbait scheme on social media—just like hundreds of other entrepreneurs. It took the the Democrats—fresh off a humiliating defat to a casino and real estate windbag—to make up a fantasy deserving of a novel discount bin.

Establishment Dems counted on the corporate media to whip up the required hysteria and frenzy among already hysterical and frenzied liberals,. Many apparently sought trauma counseling after the election.

Even with the media lavishing coverage on the Mueller investigation, it has failed to do much of anything except get Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and others in trouble—not for working under Putin’s direction to get the MAGA candidate elected, but for alleged bank fraud and violation of campaign finance laws.

This is pretty routine stuff in Washington.

Mueller doesn’t have a case and he knows it. Now he will save face by passing off the investigation to underlings.

Meanwhile, the rest of us get respite—until the next drummed up load of horse manure masquerading as high crimes and misdemeanors appears on the scene.

To continue reading: Poof. There Goes the Mueller Investigation

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Investigations

Tagged

Senate: Two-Tiered Justice System in FBI Clinton/Trump Investigations, by Sara A. Carter

Posted on June 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

There would have been multiple indictments against Clinton and crew if the FBI had applied the same standards that are being applied by Mueller’s team. From Sara A. Carter at saraacarter.com:

Highlights

  • Had Horowitz not discovered the anti-Trump texts between Strzok and Page, they would still be investigating the Trump campaign
  • IG confirms his office is handling investigation into Comey’s leaking of personal memos to his friend and the New York Times
  • There was a clear breakdown in the FBI culture, with senior agents being wined and dined by reporters

***DEVELOPING STORY***

Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee outlined the stark double standard at Monday’s much anticipated hearing on the FBI’s handling of its investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for government business and the bureau’s highly partisan investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Grassley stated “justice should be blind” but contended that it was not in the case in the FBI’s handling of the Clinton and Trump investigations. He noted that based on the evidence collected in the 568-page report released by Inspector General Michael Horowitz last week, along with information and evidence collected by numerous Congressional committees, evidence of bias against Trump was insurmountable.

Grassley stressed, “most of the time, evidence of political bias is not so explicit. The details in this report confirm what the American people have suspected all along. Hillary Clinton got the kid-glove treatment.”

“I’m not buying that the Clinton email investigation is on the up and up…”

Grassley stressed, “most of the time, evidence of political bias is not so explicit. The details in this report confirm what the American people have suspected all along. Hillary Clinton got the kid-glove treatment.”

“The contrast to the Russia probe is stark,” Grassley stated. “The biggest difference, of course, is the appointment of a Special Counsel. Attorney General (Loretta) Lynch refused to appoint one. The appearance of political influence was inevitable.”

Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray were grilled by lawmakers during the hours-long hearing, which consisted of questioning regarding the use of FBI informants in investigations, the handling of the Clinton investigation, and the extraordinary bias in the FBI by senior special agents in the field.

To continue reading: Senate: Two-Tiered Justice System in FBI Clinton/Trump Investigations

Leave a comment

Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Government, Investigations

Tagged , , ,