Category: Comey Day

Comey Day, President Hatch, Trials, Trump Russia

Rex Tillerson Under Criminal Investigation for ‘Wayne Tracker’ Fraud

Sources with links to the justice system in the state of New York report that Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, is the subject of a major criminal investigation by Eric Schneiderman, the Attorney General of New York.

Tillerson is being investigated for financial fraud during his time at Exxon Mobile, these sources say, because he used a fake name, ‘Wayne Tracker’ to attack climate change scientists that were holding Exxon to account. Exxon then said they ‘lost the emails’ in a court filing to New York State.

Eric Schneiderman is now far advanced in a criminal case against Tillerson that would involve financial fraud charges related to Exxon’s stock price. Sources specified that personal criminal charges against Tillerson himself, as well as corporate action against Exxon, are actively being pursued.

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In Nov 2015 Mr. Schneiderman first subpoenaed Exxon; in March 2017, a state judge ordered the company to cooperate.

Tillerson used the alias account to send and receive information about climate change and other matters, Schneiderman said in a March 13 letter to the court.

Schneiderman said Exxon failed to disclose the “Wayne Tracker” account, and that it had been uncovered during the review of other materials.

The letter also said Exxon had produced 60 documents bearing the “Wayne Tracker” email, but had not said the account was Tillerson’s.

Mr. Tillerson, as Secretary of State, precedes Defense Secretary Mattis in the line of Presidential succession. If tried and convicted, he would not be eligible to serve as President. The same applies to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who attended the “Scot 24” meeting currently under UK and US investigation for Russian money laundering and collusion.

Sources indicated there is a wish to bring any appropriate criminal charges against Tillerson in a timely fashion, should he not agree to a plea, in order that he get nowhere near the Presidency.

As reported elsewhere on Patribotics, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah is first in line to the Presidency after Trump, Pence and Ryan, all of whom are under criminal counterintelligence investigation for collusion with Russia. Should Senator Hatch feel that, in a time of crisis, James Mattis would be the best man for the Oval Office, he may choose to step aside. Both Mnuchin and Tillerson would face criminal charges promptly, sources linked to the intelligence community have said, were they not to to be amenable to deals offered them by prosecutors to step aside and allow the smooth transition of power.

Criminal charges at the state level against Tillerson would not be pardonable by Donald Trump at the federal level. This is particularly important in the case of Tillerson, as the criminal case against him does not relate to Russia. Trump is indicted at Federal level on a RICO case involving Russia, and may not pardon any co-conspirators as it would amount to self-pardon.

His powers of pardon are otherwise untouched, however, and he would have the ability to pardon Mr. Tillerson on financial crimes, not related to Russia, at the Federal level. Mr. Schneiderman has jurisdiction because Exxon does business in New York; the location of many banks in Wall Street, for example, gives Schneiderman power of money laundering that uses accounts in those banks.

Comey Day, Espionage, Hacking, Impeachment, Russia, Trials, Trump Russia

Exclusive: GCHQ Has Recordings of Donald Trump Jr and Kushner’s Russia Meeting

Sources with links to the Five Eyes intelligence communities report that the entire meeting that Donald J Trump Jr and Jared Kushner took with Russian intelligence over Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails is on tape. Multiple recordings and transcripts exist. At least one set of these is in the hands of British intelligence at GCHQ.

It is presumed but not known for certain, therefore, that US intelligence would already have these recordings.

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The Five Eyes agreement prohibits the United Kingdom both from surveilling Americans without judicial permission from the US and from conducting surveillance operations on American soil. However, exploits allowing the phones of every Russian national at the meeting to be used as a “hot mike”, in other words, to record what those around them are saying, had already been placed on the phones of the Russian intelligence agents and assets present. This excludes Boris Epshteyn, who although he is an FSB agent and a long-term Russian asset, these sources say, is also a U.S. citizen.  Mr. Epshteyn, through lawyers, has adamantly denied that he is an FSB agent and has demanded Patribotics remove reporting on him. Although I have updated my stories to reflect his denials, I stand by my reporting. Mr. Epshteyn’s lawyers declined, in writing, to say whether or not he had been advised by the FBI or law enforcement to register under FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, instead asking me who my sources were and when I received my information from them, questions to which I in turn have refused to respond.

The resulting recordings form a complete record of the meeting. If, as must be assumed, British intelligence has passed them to their American counterparts, the evidence would be fully legal as any Americans on tape would be “incidental collection” to the targeting of the Russian spies Kushner, Trump Jr and Epshteyn met with in order to commit espionage against the integrity of a US election with a foreign power.

Comey Day, Espionage, Mike Flynn, Money Laundering, Trials, Trump Russia

EXCLUSIVE: SIGINT on Kushner/Ivanka Inside Russian Embassy

Yesterday we published part one of the Cliff Notes to Treason: A short guide on what SIGINT US allies have on which parts of Trump’s team. Many of the principals in the Trump Russia effort are listed in that piece.

As previously, I emphasize that all of this is sourced from various people with links to the intelligence communities of various nations. It is not meant to exclude further SIGINT that patribotics does not know about.

Jared Kushner

Various hostile intelligence agencies have SIGINT on Kushner; the UK and US recorded him in the Russian Embassy when he was discussing his ‘back channel’ to Russia. The Russian Embassy to the United States in Washington D.C. is Russian sovereign territory. Although the UK is barred by the Five Eyes agreement from spying on US soil, the Russian Embassy is not US soil. Again I remind readers of my exclusive report that Sergei Kislyak’s phone was hot miked and was recording everybody it came into contact with.

Erik Prince

At least the UK and the USA have Prince on SIGINT. He was intimately connected with the Carolina Conspiracy and with the Alfa Bank and Spectrum Health servers. The ‘back channel’ to Russia is those servers. Prince was deeply involved with the Carolina Conspiracy.

Betsy DeVos

Is on SIGINT by the USA and UK in relation to the use of the Spectrum Health server. It is important to say here that Ms. De Vos herself is a suspect, according to my sources with links to the intelligence community.

Maria Putin

The daughter of Vladimir Putin. She heads an endocrinology charity. Michigan’s facility, where the Spectrum Health server was located, is an endocrinology center. I reported in my Nov 7th 2016 report on the two FISA warrants, which Naveed Jamali publicly tweeted he was a source for, that Putin’s own daughters were involved in the activities of the server.

Oleg Deripaska

As a Russian, Deripaska is on SIGINT with multiple foreign allies including the UK and France. Mr. Deripaska particularly hates Hillary Clinton, who denied his visa to America in 2009. I reported some of this SIGINT in my recent piece about Sheriff Clarke being taped in Russia with associates of Deripaska, ordered to attack Black Lives Matter. Mr. Deripaska runs many assets in the United States, in the media. He is on SIGINT over the Carolina Conspiracy, as are some of his associates who are American. He is on SIGINT over Putin’s daughters and the Alfa and Spectrum servers.

Jack Posobiec

Mr. Posobiec, sources with links to US intelligence report, is a Russian agent of influence who has been working with Rebel Media. He boasted of publishing the “Macron Leaks” that turned out to be fake. France’s DGSE, or CIA equivalent, hacked Rebel Media’s server in Canada. They discovered material relating to the Carolina Conspiracy that forced the Comey letter. They have all Mr. Posobiec’s communications with Erik Prince, Oleg Deripaska’s agents in the media in the USA, and Team Treason as well as Sputnik and various hackers.

Sources were not specific about who precisely is implicated in France’s wholesale lift of Rebel Media’s servers, but indicated that the net is pretty broad, and that more or less everybody in Trump Russia is involved.

Sources report that Rebel Media was involved as Russia’s agents of influence in the Carolina Conspiracy that forced James Comey’s letter. All of the subsequent intelligence from those servers has gone to the USIC, sources report. This forms a companion piece to France’s recordings of Donald Trump Jr. talking to Russian agents in France before his father was inaugurated.

Paul Manafort

Mr. Manafort was taped by Estonia in April discussing how Russian money could be washed into Donald Trump’s campaign. I am waiting for permission to report more on Mr. Manafort, who proved a rich vein of SIGINT especially on Mike Pence.

Carter Page

As I reported, Carter Page took a tape of Donald Trump to Moscow promising policy shifts in exchange for hacking help.

In my last piece I discussed which nations hold SIGINT on Page. Ukraine and Germany both directly hacked Page’s phone. I do not know if they were able to hot-mike it. Germany holds a treasure trove of Carter Page SIGINT, because they are not bound by the Five Eyes agreement.

The United Kingdom also has recordings of Carter Page in Moscow discussing the hacking of the election with Sechin, Diveykin and others. The Five Eyes agreement prevents the UK from directly hacking Americans abroad without a legal arrangement with the USA, such as a request and a FISA warrant. However, the UK routinely records Russians inside the Kremlin and their boardrooms. UK surveillance on the Russian end, both official and by private firms, captured everything Page said in Russia, and captured him playing the tape of Mr. Trump’s words, sources said.

Patribotics hopes to expand reporting and commission other writers. If you would like to donate, there are buttons around the site, or you could make a contribution here.  

More of our ground-breaking reporting:

  1. EXCLUSIVE Reince ‘Wanted to Run’ – NATO SIGINT on Trump’s Treasonweasels
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Sheriff Clarke ‘Attacked Black Lives Matter on Deripaska’s Orders’
  3. Carolina Conspiracy: Jack Posobiec and the Fakes that Forced Comey’s Hand
  4. HostKey West: Trump’s Miami Red Square
  5. EXCLUSIVE: Sessions Ordered Two Comey Memos; Rosenstein Will Not Recuse
Comey, Comey Day, Dana Boente, Impeachment, Trump Russia

EXCLUSIVE: Sessions Ordered Two Comey Memos; Rosenstein Will Not Recuse

Exclusive: According to sources with links to the Justice Department and intelligence community, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was ordered by Russian hacking suspect, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to write two separate memos regarding Director Comey; one that argued for Comey’s strengths as FBI Director and the second, which Sessions used in his obstruction of justice to fire Director Comey.

This means that it is Jeff Sessions who is directly responsible for obstructing justice by misusing Rosenstein’s pro and con Comey memos, and not Donald Trump. The Deputy Attorney General made a point of saying that even in his ‘negative’ memo, he would not recommend that Donald Trump fire Director Comey. On the night James Comey was fired by Trump, using the Sessions memos, Rosenstein had to be persuaded not to resign himself, so angered was he that Jeff Sessions had tricked him and misused only one of his two memos.

However, DAG Rosenstein was persuaded that it would be madness to resign and allow a right-wing partisan loyal to Trump, and only confirmed on a party-line vote, take his position overseeing the inquiry. Sessions had been forced to recuse, and the game was now to eliminate Rosenstein. Instead, the Deputy Attorney General immediately appointed Special Counsel Mueller, and left any decisions on recusals to him.

As I reported on Twitter at the time, both Andy McCabe and Rod Rosenstein had Director Comey’s full confidence – and they still do.

The concerted effort to concoct a forced recusal – which will not happen – is seen by sources as a push from Russian interests using selected commentators in the US media, some of whom may not realize they are being used in this way, because only one of the Rosenstein “Comey Memos” was ever used (and abused) by Jeff Sessions.

Sources say that the USIC has indeed long been playing a game of chess with Mr. Putin. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham confirmed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, these sources say, deliberately in order to trap both Trump and Sessions. Both men were well aware of the “conflicts” Sessions had with Russia, and Senator McCain, who gave to US intelligence a much fuller version of the Steele Dossier, in particular, knew some of the reported signals intelligence on meetings Sessions had had with pro-Russian lobbyists. By confirming Sessions as Attorney General they removed him from the Russia inquiry, and this was deliberate.

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Sources with links to the intelligence community report deep anger at what is seen as a push by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has both close ties to Vladimir Putin and funds PR companies in the United States, to push for the forced “recusal” of DAG Rosenstein on spurious grounds that he is a “witness” to obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. Donald Trump tried to boost the flagging  ‘recusal’ narrative in the mainstream media by tweeting:

I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt

Of course, this is exactly the tactic Trump tried to use against Judge Curiel in the Trump University case. Trump tried to catfish Curiel into recusal by tweets and abuse:

I have a judge in the Trump University civil case, Gonzalo Curiel (San Diego), who is very unfair. An Obama pick. Totally biased-hates Trump

The pattern of calling bias, adding insults and generally creating smoke in order to remove a ‘troublesome priest’ is both annoying and ineffective, Justice Department sources say. Sources pointed out that DAG Rosenstein had already set out the legally correct position – he would recuse himself if Mueller, not Trump, decided he needed to do so. Thus, any recusal would only be determined by the Special Counsel.

It is plain to see that Mr. Trump would always be able to cherry-pick Justice Department and other third branch personnel if he were able to force them into recusal merely by picking a quarrel with them, these sources say. Special Counsel Mueller is unmoved by media parlor games incited by Mr. Deripaska, who is currently, whether he knows it or not, under the spotlight by the United States Intelligence Community, who resent Putin’s ongoing attempted intervention in their work.

 

If whistleblowers wish to contact patribotics they are encouraged to get in touch on Twitter or via the contact form elsewhere on this site.

Comey, Comey Day, Espionage, Hacking, Impeachment, Mike Flynn, Russia, Trump Russia, Wikileaks

EXCLUSIVE: Russian Ambassador Kislyak’s Phone Hacked by Five Eyes

Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak’s phone was both hacked and turned into a ‘hot mike’ for recording conversations by a Five Eyes intelligence agency,

Sources with links to Western intelligence report that a similar ‘SS7’ exploit as that used by consent on the phones of James Comey, and other FBI agents, by the FBI and Justice Department, was placed on the phone of Sergei Kislyak – most certainly without consent – and that the Russian Ambassador to the US not only had his phone bugged, but that his phone was being used as a microphone to record those with whom he was speaking.

Sources do not say when the exploit was placed on Kislyak’s phone. One source speculated that Ambassador Kislyak had only survived in his position in America ‘because of optics’.

The Five Eyes intelligence agreement prevents members of the world’s premier intelligence alliance – America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom – from spying on each other’s territories and citizens. However, crucially, embassies, such as those of Ecuador in London and Russia in Washington DC, are regarded as sovereign territory of their native countries. The NSA is free to spy within the Ecuadorean embassy in London, and GCHQ, its British equivalent, is free to spy within Russia’s embassy in DC. The Five Eyes alliance is the closest intelligence partnership in the world. Recently Canada assisted DGSE, France’s CIA, in spying on Rebel Media on behalf of M. Macron, the then French Presidential candidate. Sources report that both the FBI, NSA and Britain’s GCHQ assisted Canada in this operation, because of the involvement of the Trump-Russia partisan Jack Posobiec.

In his testimony to the Senate today, Jeff Sessions, who as Patribotics reported in February, was a suspect in the Trump Russia hack, suddenly changed his tune, admitting that he “might have” had a conversation with Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel.

As I reported exclusively earlier this year, Page, Manafort, Epshteyn and Kislyak, along possibly with Donald Trump himself, were recorded by US intelligence discussing the tape promising a policy shift in exchange for help with the elections, at the Mayflower. If Sessions was there, he was recorded too. Sources with links to the U.S. intelligence community now report that the group of men played the tape that was to be played in Moscow by Page and then, literally, had a discussion about trading it for hacking help, a discussion which is in the possession of US intelligence. It is not known however if this tape was recorded via a Five Eyes SS7 exploit placed on Mr. Kislyak’s phone, or by normal surveillance of any Russian Ambassador on US soil that is always carried out by the American authorities.

Sources with links to Western intelligence would not give any details of when the exploit was placed or how long it had lasted.

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Sources with links to US intelligence confirmed, as I exclusively reported on Patribotics, that Speaker Paul Ryan was taped speaking to Sergei Kislyak at the GOP Convention, as was Reince Priebus, agreeing to accept laundered or ‘dark’ Russian funds for the GOP. Sources with links to the Justice Department earlier confirmed that a RICO case is being prepared against the entire Republican party on the basis of Russian money and intelligence, in the form of Wikileaks stories, being given to it as a body. Director Comey, who consensually allowed the SS7 exploit on his phone, testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Jeff Sessions would always have had to recuse himself on the Russia inquiry because serious concerns were known to him, Comey, about Sessions’ conduct with Russia.

Mr. Sessions has always been a prime suspect in the Trump Russia inquiry, long before he was nominated as Attorney General, as I reported in February on the day of his confirmation. He will now be wondering – along with the Russians – just how much intelligence Five Eyes has managed to gather, and for how long, from Mr. Kislyak’s phone.

Western intelligence sources said that their motives for speaking on background on this matter were to warn Mr. Trump and his associates that further covering up or attacks on the U.S. intelligence community, particularly on Director Comey’s integrity, would not be tolerated. Laws governing intelligence ‘leaks’ or whistleblowing do not apply to the sovereign allies of the United States, many of whom, both inside and outside Five Eyes, have hard signals intelligence on Donald Trump and his family. DGSE, who as a NATO ally outside Five Eyes are not prevented from spying on Americans by treaties, have recordings of Donald Trump Jr speaking to Russian intelligence in France, as one example.

Multiple, separate sources with links to the intelligence communities of more than one nation, used the phrase ‘gloves off’ when describing the situation with Russia and Trump. Vladimir Putin has attempted to intervene in Brexit, in the French election and in elections all over Europe, and has personally exposed all of Russia, and that nation’s economy, to the intense rage of the far richer and more powerful Western world. Understanding the principle of ‘deniabilty,’ intelligence sources inside and outside the US intelligence community have suggested that leaks of information by allied nations may serve US intelligence by freeing them from blowing the whistle themselves. Sources linked to one specific Five Eyes intelligence partner noted that ‘deniability’ is designed to allow witnesses to tell the truth on the stand. If, theoretically, British intelligence sources were to disclose information on Mike Flynn – as retired MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove did to the Financial Times – US intelligence would not be consulted, even through a back channel, these sources said.

If whistleblowers wish to contact patribotics they are encouraged to get in touch on Twitter, or via the secure email listed here

Sources reported that Director Comey was regarded with affection throughout allied intelligence, and that Donald Trump’s scornful attitude towards NATO – since Trump is perceived as a mere proxy of Russia, without thought or direction of his own, by the west – has enraged allied intelligence services, who are more than prepared to judiciously release intelligence at strategic times (such as Mr. Sessions’ testimony) to make it clear that Russia and Trump standing in the way of the FBI and Director Mueller’s inquiry will not be tolerated.

 

Comey, Comey Day, Hacking, Impeachment, Leaks, Trump Russia

EXCLUSIVE: Director Comey Legally Taped Calls, Meetings With Trump

EXCLUSIVE: Sources with links to the Justice Department confirm that U.S. intelligence has legal copies of all Donald Trump’s “tapes” of his meetings with Director Comey – and that Comey had his own phone legally hacked in order to record suspects, including Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, for over a year.

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On June 9th, in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of New York, Judge Orenstein slapped down Jeff Sessions as he attempted to force the service provider on James Comey’s phone to assist Sessions with continuing an SS7 exploit placed there by the consent of James Comey, and lawfully, in order to help Comey in his criminal investigation of Donald Trump and Russia.

Separate sources with links to the intelligence and justice communities are clear that the ‘witness’ in this case is James Comey, the ‘software solution’ is the SS7 exploit used on his phone by consent, and that his phone was recording, again, by consent, and as part of a lawful criminal investigation that included Donald Trump, all his conversations for well over a year. This would mean that the FBI had essentially used Director Comey’s cell phone to monitor suspects in the Trump Russia case since before the beginning of June, 2016. This is very, very bad news for Mr. Trump.  If Trump, as he is openly threatening, prepares to fire Special Counsel Mueller, parts of these tapes may be leaked to the general public. The court case itself, with the names of the witness and his cell phone provider redacted, is open, public record, but sources linked to the intelligence community have confirmed the witness to be Director Comey, giving the document an extraordinary significance.

First we can see that the ‘hot mike’ phone was provided to Director Comey by Federal Agents, in or before the summer of 2016, as part of a criminal investigation, and in order to assist him in that investigation:

As part of an investigation into suspected criminal activity, the government has secured the agreement of the Witness to engage in monitored communications with subjects of the investigation. Beginning over a year ago, agents provided the Subject Telephone to the Witness, who in turn provided written consent to the interception and recording of all calls made and received over that device

Second, we can see that Director Comey had renewed his written consent on this ‘several months later’ and again just two days before Trump fired him. The day after this consent was renewed, Comey interviewed Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump about the Kelhios botnet operating out of Trump Tower, which they both had knowledge of.  This conversation too was legally recorded and likely was the immediate spur for Trump to obstruct justice by firing Comey.

The Witness again provided written consent to the monitoring of the Subject Telephone several months later, and then did so a third time two days ago; in this most recent writing, according to the government, the Witness again committed “not [to] allow third parties to use the telephone.” Id. at 7 & Ex. A.3

It is clear that the government, by which we mean Jeff Sessions, submitted to the court that he needed help finding out how Director Comey’s cell phone had been monitored as the “software based solution” (ie, the SS7 hot mike of the phone) had been discontinued. Intelligence sources familiar with the matter were scornful of the idea that the consensual monitoring of Director Comey’s phone would be continued after he was fired for investigating Trump’s sons and the Kelhios botnet used in Russia’s hack of the U.S. election. (In point of fact, sources laughed aloud at the suggestion).

Until recently, the agents consensually monitored the Subject Telephone’s communications and location by using “a software-based solution” that did not require the Provider’s participation. Id. at 7 n.6. The government reports that the latter product was recently “discontinued” without explaining how that discontinuance renders the product it was already using ineffective (although I assume that it must be so).

The translation of this passage is that intelligence agents who consensually hacked the phone switched off their exploit the second Trump fired Comey, and Jeff Sessions was whining to the court that he could not get back in.

In the dry language of the ruling, judge Orenstein told Sessions that Comey was using this exploit to investigate a crime and that hacking his phone without consent was completely unnecessary. He told Sessions to go and boil his head.

The third discretionary factor is necessity. In N.Y. Tel. Co., the Supreme Court observed that “without the Company’s assistance there is no conceivable way in which the surveillance authorized by the District Court could have been successfully accomplished.” 434 U.S. at 175. The record before me shows no such necessity. The government has demonstrated only that for over a year, it was able to monitor the Witness’s communications over the Subject Telephone without the Provider’s assistance, and that the particular product it used to do so has been discontinued. It has not asserted, much less established, that there are no other alternatives available that will allow it to accomplish its investigative goal without forcing the Provider to furnish technical assistance against its will. The complete lack of any showing of necessity weighs heavily against the government.

The front-facing of Director Comey’s identity to Patribotics may be taken as a warning shot on Mueller. As I have previously reported, Donald Trump is under a criminal indictment, and Director Comey decided he himself might need to be fired in order to advance the narrative away from himself and towards Donald Trump’s criminal actions. Sources report the Articles of Impeachment being considered by the Judiciary Committee have now advanced further and the language of them is presently being worked upon for presentation to Congress, at which point, the criminal indictment granted against Trump will be made public.

Come for the Bishop, best not miss.

If whistleblowers wish to contact patribotics they are encouraged to get in touch on Twitter, or via the secure email listed here
Comey, Comey Day, Impeachment, Russia, Trump Russia

Comey Day: ‘Meticulously Executed’ Testimony Was Counterintelligence Plan

Exclusive: Sources familiar with James Comey’s thinking say that today’s explosive testimony was planned in advance as part of the counterintelligence operation against Russia’s attack on the United States.

James Comey knew in advance he was going to be fired, these sources say, when Trump threatened him. At that point, the Director set in place countermeasures to protect the FBI”s investigation from Trump’s interference.

These included discussions with future key players at the Department of Justice and the FBI, these sources say, including Acting Director McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.

It was further anticipated by Director Comey, these sources say, that the Trump team would both try to access FBI data and pass it to Russian intelligence. As we earlier reported exclusively, data from Director Comey’s computer was both taken by the Trump Team and passed to the Russians. The property of the United States was then recovered, these sources say. Separate sources with links to the Justice Department say, without being definitive, that it is thought that Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered an IT ‘audit’ of Director Comey’s electronics, and so the data may have been lawfully collected in a way that would not raise suspicions. Removable media containing data from Director Comey’s computer was then passed to the Russians, sources with links to the intelligence community confirm, adding that the said data has been recovered.

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Director Comey anticipated further both that Donald Trump would boast he had tapes on him, and that he, Comey, would be called to Congress to give the sensational testimony he has given today under oath. Comey is highly sensitized to the value of television and the news cycle, sources familiar with his thinking say. He had reluctantly become so, after understanding the crucial role the data laundering of Donald Trump played in the election. Comey therefore decided to wait until his live televised hearing to reveal some of his knowledge about the Russian hacking investigation to the public in order that its impact not be diminished. Indeed, with partisans of both parties seeking to blame Comey for their failures, the Director had become convinced that if he were not dismissed the investigation might focus too much on him and not enough on the foreign and domestic enemies of the United States. While he was angered at the manner of his firing, sources report, Director Comey regarded the situation with the dispassionate eye of a chess player sacrificing a rook to back his opponent into a corner. Both Donald Trump and his Russian handlers fell into line, up to and including their concentration on lines in yesterday’s written testimony, which catfished Russian partisans into repeating ‘obstruction of justice’ until the concept was firmly affixed in the public’s mind. This left Comey open to detailing how Trump obstructed justice without using the term, today.

Director Comey was able to tell the public, using the GLOMAR technique, that both Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions are under criminal investigation for treason with Russia, and that both obstructed justice. Such a killer blow could not have been dealt – at least not so easily – had Trump and his Russian allies had the good sense to leave Director Comey to do his job.