Just when you think politics can’t get any weirder, lo and behold, you find out you are wrong. The latest right-wing blowback is from Real Clear Investigations, which is a right of center website, according to Media Bias. They’re known for a pro-Trump stance but they’re not known for making things up out of whole cloth, so let us proceed with that in mind. At least this story isn’t being presented as “shock and awe” breaking news on Red State, unlike John Durham’s last highly publicized outing.
Thursday Real Clear Investigations wrote,
The FBI division overseeing the investigation of former President Trump’s handling of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago residence is also a focus of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation of the bureau’s alleged abuses of power and political bias during its years-long Russiagate probe of Trump.
The FBI’s nine-hour, 30-agent raid of the former president’s Florida estate is part of a counterintelligence case run out of Washington – not Miami, as has been widely reported – according to FBI case documents and sources with knowledge of the matter. The bureau’s counterintelligence division led the 2016-2017 Russia “collusion” investigation of Trump, codenamed “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Although the former head of Crossfire Hurricane, Peter Strzok, was fired after the disclosure of his vitriolic anti-Trump tweets, several members of his team remain working in the counterintelligence unit, the sources say, even though they are under active investigation by both Durham and the bureau’s disciplinary arm, the Office of Professional Responsibility. The FBI declined to respond to questions about any role they may be taking in the Mar-a-Lago case.
Alright, just going so far in, and this is paragraph three, there is hardly a blockbuster here. The biggest factual revelation is probably the fact that the FBI team in question is running out of Washington and not Miami. That’s an inaccuracy, but scarcely an earthshattering one. No, in fact, it’s not even surprising given all the FBI work done on Trump issues out of the Washington bureau. And some of the people involved with the raid are indeed people that John Durham had his eyes on during his bogus investigation. Also not earth shattering news.
But, all that said, Trump has this story front and center on Truth Social, so look for this to be headline news at Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting and I would say Fox News, but nowadays it’s impossible to call any shot of theirs vis a vis Trump.
And you know where we’re going next, right? Where we must go? The place which is the new Rome, all roads lead there? Yes. Hunter’s laptop.
In addition, a key member of the Crossfire team – Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten – has continued to be involved in politically sensitive investigations, including the ongoing federal probe of potentially incriminating content found on the abandoned laptop of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden, according to recent correspondence between the Senate Judiciary Committee and FBI Director Christopher Wray. FBI whistleblowers have alleged that Auten tried to falsely discredit derogatory evidence against Hunter Biden during the 2020 campaign by labeling it Russian “disinformation,” an assessment that caused investigative activity to cease.
Auten has been allowed to work on sensitive cases even though he has been under internal investigation since 2019, when Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred him for disciplinary review for his role in vetting a Hillary Clinton campaign-funded dossier used by the FBI to obtain a series of wiretap warrants to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz singled out Auten for cutting a number of corners in the verification process and even allowing information he knew to be incorrect slip into warrant affidavits and mislead the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.
This level of blowback was entirely expected. Never forget that in the world of politics there are always internal intrigues and many areas of grey. Trump of course, being Trump, is desperate to clutch at straws and label everything that he can as Witch Hunt! so that he can keep the base enraged and pumping out donations.
This is a good article to read in its entirety because this is where the battle lines are being drawn. This is the new talking point: “All told, dozens of boxes and containers were removed from Trump’s residence, very few of which actually contained classified information, the sources said.”
So Donald Trump wuz robbed, he’s been misused, abused, by the “common criminals” at what right-wingers are calling the Fascist Bureau of Investigation.
That was two days ago. They “grabbed everything in sight.” Today we see this published:
Although Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that the DOJ seeks to “narrowly scope any search that is undertaken,” details of the warrant reveal agents had the authority to seize entire boxes of records – including those potentially covered by attorney-client privilege and executive privilege – if just a single document inside the container were marked with a classified marking.
Agents were allowed to also seize any containers or boxes “found together with” ones containing classified papers, according to ATTACHMENT B (“Property to be seized”) of the warrant. In addition, the FBI agents were given the authority to confiscate “any government and/or presidential records created between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021,” which covers Trump’s full term in office. That meant they were able to take any item related to the Trump administration.
And that would be no problem, taking any item related to the administration, in an administration which had been on the up and up and doing things by the book. As a matter of fact, if things had been done by the book, there would not have been boxes of material removed from the White House and we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. But that basic premise gets lost, always, in the right-wing defensive roar.
This is the lay of the land. Get used to it. A lot of people are worried about what the FBI and DOJ might uncover. This is the initial blow back and it will only get worse.
We’re in the end days of Donald Trump and it is not going to be pretty. Expect the end times to be as stupid and ugly as the man himself and his actions.
Durham is notoriously bad at his job.
Agree. Nobody should sweat that Durham is going to find anything. This is the “both sides do it” concerto and it must be played.
why does Durham still have his job?
Actualy the number of classified documents involved is totally irrelevant (although they can lead to other charges). The search was to recover government documents which had been illegally removed and they were the property of the National Archives.
Don John had no right whatseover to remove ANYTHING – even the burger order for the Clemson Tigers was a ‘government document’
I thought he was investigating UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, & where the leprechauns stash their gold.
Durham is just another dumbass with a law degree that is going to prison.
I can hardly wait to see what will happen if the Senate goes Rep this time. What whacky reason can they find to reopen Hilary Clintons involvement in the Benghazi attack. Lets spend another 12 million rehashing that! Oh yes and we want Merrick Garland in jail too? There’s another 12 million or so. Oh and we can’t forget Dr. Fauchi? He’ll be a tough nut to crack? Better lay out 30 or 40 mill for that bad guy? And last but not least we got to nail Biden cause he’s a pedophile you know, and he could pardon some of those other pedo crime bosses??? We’ll get em alllllll!!!! Watch them all take the fifth? Not like TrumpyBear the honest guy that he is, most honest Pres since Honest Abe?? Some are saying?