Posted on 05/15/2018 12:56:13 PM PDT by Mount Athos
New revelations that FBI agents pressed a Russian oligarch with ties to independent counsel Robert Mueller to help build an election collusion narrative only reinforce the likelihood of a conspiracy to frame President Donald Trump, according to a former federal prosecutor.
Joseph diGenova, who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia under Ronald Reagan, reacted to a report in The Hill that FBI agents met with Oleg Deripaska in September 2016. They were in search of information that Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort was conspiring with the Russian government to throw the presidential election to the Republican nominee.
Despite an ongoing legal dispute with Manafort, Deripaska reportedly laughed at the notion.
“What’s going on now is the unraveling of a very substantial plot that had two goals — to exonerate Hillary Clinton illegally and, if she lost the presidency, to frame Donald Trump and his associates of crimes they did not commit,” he said Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
“Robert Mueller has produced not a scintilla of evidence that anybody in the Trump campaign engaged in any illegal activity regarding illegal contact with Russian officials.”
After a year on the case, it is fair to ask what Mueller is investigating, diGenova said.
"The answer seems to be — anything but that," he said.
DiGenova (pictured above) said the FBI agents who talked to Deripaska most likely "crossed a number of lines."
According to The Hill's report, Mueller was FBI director when the agency persuaded Deripaska to put up millions of dollars of his own money to try to free a CIA agent held captive in Iran.
That history creates a definite conflict of interest for Mueller, diGenova said. He noted that the indictment charging Manafort with a number of financial crimes involves activities involving the aluminum industry magnate.
"And yet, Bob Mueller kept Deripaska's name out of the indictment completely," he said. "There was no reason to do that. There was no reason to keep his name out, other than to cover up the fact that Mueller had been dealing with him for years."
DiGenova spread blame around but directed the majority of it at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man who appointed Mueller. DiGenova accused Rosenstein of acting not based on a legal judgment but out of a pique of anger because the president undercut the official justification for the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Rosenstein had prepared a memo outlining Comey's violations of Department of Justice (DOJ) policy during his handling of the FBI's investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official government business. But then Trump told "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt that the real reason was the Russia investigation.
"At that point, that is when Rod Rosenstein, I am told by people in the department, got mad, was embarrassed by what the president had said — and, therefore, made him look like a fool — and it was that day he decided to appoint Mueller, whom he had interviewed the day before, to be the next FBI director [for a second tour] to replace James Comey," he said.
DiGenova called Rosenstein "an incompetent liar." He said his sources indicate that neither Rosenstein nor Attorney General Jeff Sessions are secure in their jobs.
"Jeff Sessions — a man who I love dearly and have known for years — is clueless," he said.
Related: Oligarch Laughed at FBI's Trump-Russia Collusion Theory
Former CIA Director John Brennan is the worst director that agency ever has had, diGenova said. Not only has he "denigrated" the agency, diGenova added, but it also has become clear that he lied about the genesis of the counterintelligence investigation that morphed into the Mueller probe.
Part of the justification was a dossier prepared by a retired British spy working for an opposition research firm hired by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
DOJ officials used that dossier — filled with salacious allegations against Trump — to obtain a warrant to conduct surveillance on his associates. But the Justice Department evidently did not specify the source of the material when it asked a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court for the warrant.
"This is without a doubt the greatest political scandal in American history," diGenova said.
That has been a part of the process since the FBI first started, and I think for good reason.
These were going to be people that must be of the highest possible character, and above reproach.
It’s not that that shocks me. It’s knowing that sort of thing took place before someone could be approved, and all these problems are coming to light anyway.
This is a total betrayal of the FBI code of conduct, and it’s not people way down in the dark corners who are committing the infractions.
People at the highest levels of the FBI have been committing top level actionable offenses.
We all have our grumbles when it comes to government, but this beats anything I ever thought might take place.
It's past time for Sessions to step up to the plate. This is becoming an existential threat to the FBI and it's only getting worse with time.
"This is without a doubt the greatest political scandal in American history," diGenova said.
That it is. Take Watergate, throw in a little Teapot Dome, leaven it with Aldrich Ames and Alger Hiss, and you've only got a pale imitation. This one is beyond disgusting.
I agree 100%. My TS was 1967. Then a TSN in 69.
Thanks. Good for you and congrats for meeting those standards.
Thanks for your period of service within the agency.
bttt
“This is without a doubt the greatest political scandal in American history,” diGenova said.”
Well there ya go, Joe DiGenova is an American hero. Full stop.
We used that in school when I was a kid. Gelatin in a cookie sheet, then indelible pencil to make original, soak original on gelatin tray wet it down. After indelible pencil soaks into the gelatin begin copies by placing paper on gelatin and wet it down. Remove copy and hang to dry.
Those were the days. Unless you got suckered on the Super Secret spy telescope with a secret code sender ring, you haven't lived.
The biggest blunder of the Trump Administration was when he went on a phony news outlet like NBC a few days later and completely contradicted Rosenstein's memo.
DiGenova suggests Rosenstein appointed Mueller because he was losses off at Trump, but I said at the time that he had no choice in the matter. The chain of events that played out made it look like Rosenstein and Trump colluded to fire Comey for nefarious reasons.
LOL, no I haven’t lived evidently.
I think we got the gheto version of that in my school.
It was a very small school, and it was about 8.5 x 11.
I know what you mean.
Those could be cool even today, and it would seem a relatively simple DYI project.
Sorry ... “he was PISSED off ...”
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