#Igor Danchenko

[bighermie]

#igor danchenko #christopher steele

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Special counsel John Durham’s investigation proved to be a rather embarrassing failure. As The Washington Post reported, it also proved to be quite expensive.

"The special counsel appointed to review the FBI’s investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign has so far cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million, according to a Justice Department report released Friday. ... The special counsel’s work appears to be winding down, but the Justice Department has not yet announced when it will end."

In other words, the $6.5 million figure — in taxpayer money — is where things stand now. It’s difficult to say with confidence how much higher the final price tag will eventually end up.

For those who might benefit from a refresher — you’d be forgiven for thinking, “John Durham’s name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember why I’m supposed to care about him” — let’s revisit our earlier coverage and explain how we arrived at this point.

The original investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, led by then-special counsel Robert Mueller, led to a series of striking findings: The former president’s political operation in 2016 sought, embraced, capitalized on, and lied about Russian assistance — and then took steps to obstruct the investigation into the foreign interference.

The Trump White House wasn’t pleased with the conclusions, but the Justice Department’s inspector general conducted a lengthy probe of the Mueller investigation, and not surprisingly, the IG’s office found nothing improper.

This, of course, only outraged Trump further, so then-Attorney General Bill Barr tapped a federal prosecutor — U.S. Attorney John Durham — to conduct his own investigation into the investigation. That was more than three years ago.

At this point, Durham’s investigation into the Russia scandal investigation has lasted longer than Mueller’s original probe of the Russia scandal.

After an extended period of apparent inactivity, the prosecutor last year indicted cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann for allegedly having lied to the FBI. The case proved to be baseless; Sussmann was acquitted; and one of the jurors publicly mocked Durham’s team for having taken the case to trial.

Five months later, Durham and his team also tried to prosecute Russian analyst Igor Danchenko. That failed too, bringing the probe to an apparent, ignominious end.

The tale of the tape is brutal:

• Two trials

• Zero convictions

• One provocative resignation

• A largely meaningless guilty plea from an obscure figure

• A $6.5 million price tag

By any fair measure, this is the most misguided and inconsequential special counsel investigation in the modern history of American law enforcement.

But the humiliation is not limited to the prosecutor. Every once in a while, Trump still blurts out Durham’s name, hoping the prosecutor might yet bolster some of the former president’s conspiracy theories. As regular readers may recall, the Republican — who predicted that Durham would uncover “the crime of the century” — has even suggested at times that Durham’s probe could serve as a possible vehicle for retaliating against his perceived enemies.

So much for that idea.

Over the summer, The New York Times’ Charlie Savage wrote a report questioning why the Durham investigation existed. He added, “Mr. Barr’s mandate to Mr. Durham appears to have been to investigate a series of conspiracy theories.”

Those theories, however, lacked merit, which is why the Durham probe is ending with an expensive whimper.

There is a degree of irony to the circumstances: For years, Team Trump insisted that the Russia scandal was pointless but the Durham investigation was real. It now appears these Republicans had it exactly backward: The Russia scandal was real, and the Durham investigation was pointless.

#us politics #news #msnbc #maddowblog #2022 #op eds #Steve Benen #durham investigation #john durham #The Washington Post #russia investigation #robert mueller #trump administration #donald trump #bill barr #Michael Sussmann #Igor Danchenko #the new york times

[gettothestabbing]

“Upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.”

“The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information. Further, the FBI did so without (i) any significant review of its own intelligence databases, (ii) collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities, (iii) interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received or (iv) using any of the standard analytical tools typicallv employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence,” the report concluded.

“Had it done so … the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject. In addition, FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials,” it said.

“In the eighteen months leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI was required to deal with a number of proposed investigations that had the potential of affecting the election. In each of those instances, the FBI moved with considerable caution. In one such matter… FBI Headquarters and Department officials required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference,” it said. “In another, the FBI elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable CHSs went beyond what was authorized and made an improper and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated.”

“And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI’s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server,” it said.

“Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos.”

“Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting. Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration.

“The FBI learned that Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, Igor Danchenko, to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the reports. Specifically, our investigation discovered that Danchenko himself had told another person that he (Danchenko) was responsible for 80% of the ‘intel’ and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.”

“In December 2016, the FBI identified Danchenko as Steele’s primary sub-source. Danchenko agreed to meet with the FBI and, under the protection of an immunity letter… the FBI conducted multiple interviews of Danchenko regarding, among other things, the information he provided to Steele,” it said. “Danchenko was unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations, and further, described his interactions with his sub-sources as ‘rumor and speculation’ and conversations of a casual nature. Significant parts of what Danchenko told the FBI were inconsistent with what Steele told the FBI during his prior interviews in October 2016 and September 2017. At no time, however, was the FISC informed of these inconsistencies. Moreover, notwithstanding the repeated assertions in the Page FISA applications that Steele’s primary sub-source was based in Russia, Danchenko for many years had lived in the Washington, D.C. area.”

“The FBI knew in January 2017 that Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011. In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money. According to one employee, Danchenko believed that he (the employee might be following a mentor into the incoming Obama administration and have access to classified information. During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information.”

“The FBI converted its investigation into a full investigation after learning that Danchenko (i) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (ii) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers… at that earlier time, Agents had interviewed several former colleagues of Danchenko who raised concerns about Danchenko’s potential involvement with Russian intelligence. For example, one such colleague, who had interned at a U.S. intelligence agency, informed the Office that Danchenko frequently inquired about that person’s knowledge of a specific Russian military matter.”

You can read the report here.

#Durham report #Russia #FBI #collusion #Daily Wire #corruption #Hillary Clinton #Luke Rosiak #George Papadopoulos #John Durham #Steele dossier #Crossfire Hurricane #Clinton Foundation #Christopher Steele #Carter Page #Trump administration #Peter Strzok #Paul Manafort #Andrew McCabe #Igor Danchenko

[gwydionmisha]

#John Durham #Igor Danchenko #FBI #Trump-Russia #News

[martinwilliammichael]

#kash's corner #igor danchenko #kash patel #john durham #mar-a-lago

[cultml]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Little Trumpanzee can’t prove Trunt’s lies are true.

[eurekadiario]

Putin concluye que “el futuro orden mundial está siendo creado ante nuestros ojos”

Fracasaron las políticas alucinantes de Paul Wolfowitz y los neoconservadores straussianos, en su aplastante mayoría jázaros –demostrado por Jeffrey Sachs . El secretario de Estado Antony Blinken, también jázaro, admitió con eufemismos acrobáticos el fin del orden unipolar en el Nuevo Centro Hopkins Bloomberg” . ¡Hopkins con Bloomberg: la mezcla bélica perfecta!

Al borde de la depresión, Blinken confesó que “una Era está acabando” y una nueva empieza, y las decisiones que tomemos ahora conformarán el futuro. El taciturno Blinken asentó que “varias de las principales suposiciones que conformaron nuestro abordaje en la Era de la post- guerra fría ya no son válidas” cuando las décadas de estabilidad geopolítica relativa han dado lugar a una intensa competencia con autoritarios poderes revisionistas. Blinken pretende resolver la hipercomplejidad geoestratégica con vacuos adjetivos axiológicos desde su patente inmoralidad.

En su aburrida conferencia, carente de sustancia, salvo su expletiva moral de supremacismo paleo-bíblico, consideró que los desafíos como la guerra de Rusia contra Ucrania, los esfuerzos de China para reconfigurar el orden mundial, el cambio climático y la inseguridad alimentaria (sic) son inmensos para que EEUU los pueda resolver solo, por lo que hoy más que nunca es importante la diplomacia

El problema hoy con EEUU es que carece de verdaderos diplomáticos, que alcanzaron su acmé con el inconmensurable George Kennan. Lamentablemente, el Departamento de Estado se encuentra infestado por los pugnaces apparatchiks neoconservadores straussianos, en su aplastante mayoría jázaros, proclives a su maniquea teología solipsista.

Blinken alucina que EEUU debe preservar su liderazgo desde una posición de fuerza. ¿Cuál fuerza? ¿Dónde queda entonces la insuperable diplomacia que debería practicar frente a Rusia y China?

Impacta que Blinken nunca aborda la irresistible desdolarización.

El analista opositor ruso Igor Danchenko, del Brookings Institution, quien se inmoló con su fake Russiagate armado por Hillary Clinton, divulgó hace 17 años el verdadero pensamiento geoeconómico/geofinanciero de Putin –más que un vulgar espía de la KGB, como lo denigran los multimedia de Occidente, estudió leyes con especialidad en comercio internacional y posee un doctorado en economía con una tesis basada en los recursos minerales: “la divisa final que un funcionario ruso puede tener a su disposición son materias primas (…). Él vislumbra los recursos minerales de Rusia como las únicas ‘divisas duras’ que aseguran la seguridad política y económica y la supervivencia misma de Rusia (…). Los recursos minerales son el último seguro para superar cualquier crisis”.

Ya el año pasado, el mismo presidente Putin sentenció que “la economía de entidades míticas (sic) es inevitablemente sustituida por la economía de valores reales y activos (…). Pronto sucederá la venta de reservas foráneas locales (…). Serán convertidas de divisas débiles a recursos reales como alimentos, activos de materias primas de energía (…). Este proceso provocará la inflación global del dólar”. Putin concluye que el futuro orden mundial está siendo creado ante nuestros ojos.

Mientras se escenifica la definitoria batalla global entre la “divisa hard” y las míticas “divisas fiat (cuyo significado perentorio es ‘así sea’)”, el mandatario de Norcorea, Kim Jong-un, visitó a su homólogo ruso durante el foro poco publicitado de la Unión Económica Euroasiática, en Vladivostok, lo cual provocó trepidaciones mentales en los multimedia globalistas anglosajones.

Tres días después del epitafio de Blinken al viejo orden unipolar de la anglósfera, frente al ascenso irresistible de la multipolaridad global, se celebró la Cumbre del G-77 + China en Cuba –a 368 kilómetros de Miami y donde asistieron ¡134 países!– que (en)marcan la dinámica del Nuevo Orden Mundial del Siglo XXI.

#Putin #concluye #futuro #orden #mundial #está #siendo #creado #ante #nuestros #ojos

[ridenwithbiden]

A #Vote For The #GQP Is A Vote For More Fake #Investigations

#KevinMcCarthy Promised More As #SpeakerOfTheHouse 

#REPUBLICONS #FakeInvestigations Track Record

1- #Whitewater 7 Years = Nothing (3 Investigations) 

Ending In #Impeachment (Lying about a Blowjob)

2- #Benghazi 2.5 Years = Nothing (Email-October Surprise)

3-#RussiaGate #SteeleDosser = Nothing (#Whataboutism)

Starting With The #FBI Lying, Ending With Lying To the #FBI

[bighermie]

#igor danchenko #john durham

[vomitdodger]

Igor Danchenko: Acquitted after lying to FBI about Trump/Russia.

Michael Sussmann: Acquitted by jury of Clinton donors after lying to FBI about Trump/Alpha bank.

Kevin Clinesmith: Walking free and law license restored after pleading guilty to lying in warrants to spy on Trump

[89845aaa]

[gwydionmisha]

#Trump-Russia #Igor Danchenko #John Durham #Steele File #News

[martinwilliammichael]

#kash patel #kash's corner #russiagate #igor danchenko #hunter biden

[cultml]

[deltamusings]

When the left has created a government and communities of people who hate the very country they are sworn to serve, justice is an impossibility.