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Lev Parnas Implicates Trump On Eve Of Senate Impeachment Trial


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5 minutes ago, new york kevin said:

Shabs you mean the Bidens were not mentioned in the fabricated fictional writings of the Steele dossier . The paper that was written by Russians,  funneled thru the Ukraine,  sent to HRC and the DNC  cus they paid for it. Then sent to four different venues , who sent it into the FBI or DOJ to launder its connection to the HRC DNC campaign efforts. Then used to spy on private US citizens based on fake info. That Steele dossier ? Is the Biden issue going to be in the dlDurham Report.  Maybe !!! What will be in the report I pray is the irrefutable evidence that connects all Steele dossier parties to the body of work. Outlines the DS conspiracies , and the crimes all are guilty of. If that and charges come out in June. That aughta shatter all trust the Dems and DNC had with most voting citizens in the US. God willing the Repubs will then gain the House back. Keep the Senate and WH. The added plus is that Nancy's impeachment delay will also pull Bidens DNC Senate competators off the Presidential campaign trail. Clearing the way for "her" candidate to secure the nomination. Thus insuring a Trump re-election. Thank you very much. JMHO.

 

Time will tell, Kev......though I have serious doubts that God is involved in securing the entire U.S. government for the Republicans to run roughshod over.  As always, just my opinion.

 

GO RV, then BV

Edited by Shabibilicious
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How Convenient that he just happens to come forward the day before......Where was he for the Schiff Show  or Oompa Lumpa's Nadler's Circus....

 

Schiff was certain he had it all locked down and was going to present a nice tiddy little package and POTUS Trump would be gone....Whoops.

 

Oompa Lumpa also knew he had it lock, stock and barrel and he would be Madame Pelosi Champion and that did fair so well.

 

Madame Pelosi went out in search of her own casting Call and found another Indicted Felon in Deep Crap and most likely going away for a long time.....He will do anything the madame Demands including things......Ooh I wont go there.....Scary thought, to stay out of jail.

 

Has his 6 year old daughter pen a note on a pad someone picked up on vacation and Bingo.....They have new Evidence. They have the Text Messages (they wont Release due to the personal info)

 

So They again have nothing but Impeachment 102, 103 and 104 are on the table and looking for writers to clean up the Script, the Actors and they will need a Producer and well as and Editor......This time they are gonna hit the Big Screen....Maybe Micheal Moore.

 

Karsten

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Shabs you mean the Bidens were not mentioned in the fabricated fictional writings of the Steele dossier . The paper that was written by Russians,  funneled thru the Ukraine,  sent to HRC and the DNC  cus they paid for it. Then sent to four different venues , who sent it into the FBI or DOJ to launder its connection to the HRC DNC campaign efforts. Then used to spy on private US citizens based on fake info. That Steele dossier ? Is the Biden issue going to be in the dlDurham Report.  Maybe !!! What will be in the report I pray is the irrefutable evidence that connects all Steele dossier parties to the body of work. Outlines the DS conspiracies , and the crimes all are guilty of. If that and charges come out in June. That aughta shatter all trust the Dems and DNC had with most voting citizens in the US. God willing the Repubs will then gain the House back. Keep the Senate and WH. The bible does say those who bless Israel, I will bless, and those who curse Israel I will curse. The added plus is that Nancy's impeachment delay will also pull Bidens DNC Senate competators off the Presidential campaign trail. Clearing the way for "her" candidate to secure the nomination. Thus insuring a Trump re-election. Thank you very much. JMHO.      Karsten . OMG . Nadler Oompa Lumpa man. Karsten ... funny stuff.

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Trump again denied knowing Lev Parnas. So Parnas' lawyer posted more robust proof.

 

Despite a warning from Lev Parnas, President Trump claimed not to know him again Thursday. "I don't know Parnas, other than I guess I had pictures taken, which I do with thousands of people," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I don't know him at all, don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from, know nothing about him. ... I don't believe I've ever spoken to him."

 

Jospeh Bondy, Parnas' lawyer, brought the receipts, posting a video taken at Mar-a-Lago in December 2016, where Trump is clearly talking with Parnas, who is standing next to him and also Roman Nasirov, a former Ukrainian official charged with embezzlement.

The Washington Post used that video in a jaunty roundup of Parnas posing, often on multiple occasions, next to Trump and other Republicans who claimed not to know him.

 

Calling Parnas a "Giuliani associate" is "way too limited — he is a full-fledged member of Trump Co," Chris Cuomo said on CNN Thursday night. As he ran through the details, he showed photo after photo of Parnas and Trump or members of his family and inner circle. "There are so many that I had to leave pictures out," Cuomo said.

 

In fact, Parnas' connection to Trump stretches back to the 1980s, when he sold real estate for Trump's father, Fred Trump, The Washington Post reported in October. "When Parnas was 16, he worked at Kings Highway Realty, selling Trump Organization co-ops." Adam Entous elaborated at The New Yorker. Parnas told The New Yorker that job "was my first time knowing who Trump was, but, growing up in that area, you knew who Trump was, because his name was all over the place." After Parnas moved to Florida in 1995, Entous added, "on visits to New York, he stayed at Trump properties."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-again-denied-knowing-lev-082300872.html

 

 

That's quite a long relationship for someone he doesn't know!

B/A

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"Hey tell Vlad, I'll have more flexibility after the election", I just need time to finishing running the economy into the ground, run up more debt than ALL Presidents since Washington combined, trade some terrorist in GITMO for a US Army traitor, cut a worthless nuclear deal with my muslim buds in Iran and give them as much money as they need (a lot in cash on pallets) to continue to fund ME terror, while crapping on Israel and making sure Obummercare bankrupts most of our middle class. Then Vlad and I can party like it's 1999 with Prince!!

 

 

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5 minutes ago, md11fr8dawg said:

"Hey tell Vlad, I'll have more flexibility after the election", I just need time to finishing running the economy into the ground, run up more debt than ALL Presidents since Washington combined, trade some terrorist in GITMO for a US Army traitor, cut a worthless nuclear deal with my muslim buds in Iran and give them as much money as they need (a lot in cash on pallets) to continue to fund ME terror, while crapping on Israel and making sure Obummercare bankrupts most of our middle class. Then Vlad and I can party like it's 1999 with Prince!!

 

 

 

Image result for what about obama card

 

GO RV, then BV  ;)

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Politics

Trump surrounded himself with yes-men who treated him like a cult leader. As his impeachment trial looms, that could prove a disaster.

 
Business InsiderJanuary 17, 2020, 2:12 AM EST
 
 
Analysis banner
Analysis banner

Business Insider

TRUMP COHEN PARNAS GRAPHIC
TRUMP COHEN PARNAS GRAPHIC

AP/Business Insider

  • President Donald Trump is on the back foot thanks to an intervention by Lev Parnas, a onetime supporter involved in the Ukraine shadow diplomacy that prompted Trump's impeachment.

  • Ahead of Trump's trial in the Senate, Parnas emerged with a slew of allegations that make the president's position even more difficult to defend.

  • In a tell-all interview, Parnas described a cult-like devotion to Trump that inverted after he was discarded.

  • The dynamic echoes that of Michael Cohen, another zealous Trump ally who turned on him.

  • Relying on, then discarding, hyper-loyal followers has smoothed Trump's path in the short term but proved damaging further down the line.

  • Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.

As President Donald Trump heads closer to becoming only the third president in US history to weather an impeachment trial in the Senate, a familiar pattern is emerging in the associations that got him in this position.

At the same time, expectations that he could speed through the process with a fast, clean acquittal are beginning to evaporate.

A striking interview with a figure from the Ukraine pressure campaign underpinning the case of impeachment helps illustrate how Trump finds himself in this bind.

Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, gave a long interview to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow this week in which he described at great length the mechanics and experience of enacting shadow foreign policy on behalf of the White House.

Pursued by federal prosecutors on unrelated charges of campaign-finance violations, Parnas broke his silence for reasons he is yet to fully explain.

According to Maddow, he seems motivated mainly by fear, and perhaps the prospect of lenient treatment.

Speaking out now, he told Maddow he felt like somebody who had just emerged, blinking, from a cult.

 

.@RudyGiuliani associate Lev Parnas tells @Maddow that he did believe @JoeBiden did something illegal in Ukraine, but says he doesn't feel that way now.

He blames an almost "cult-like" atmosphere around @realDonaldTrump and evidence given to them at that time.

 
Embedded video
 
 
 
 

He described a sense of unthinking idolatry when doing Trump's bidding and belief that the president would help protect him. He told The New York Times that he "thought by listening to the president and his attorney that I couldn't possibly get in trouble or do anything wrong."

Parnas even had a shrine to Trump in his house.

This cult-like devotion in those who surround Trump is not unique to Parnas. Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer and attorney, also described a fanatical dedication to the president.

michael cohen
michael cohen

Associated Press/Craig Ruttle

A friend of Cohen's, cited last February by The Times, said Cohen "would describe it as being something akin to a cult" and "got sucked into it."

The person went on: "And his life is in shambles because of it."

It led Cohen to unquestioningly make an illegal payment of hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels, for fear of her going public about her relationship with Trump (which Trump denies) in the fractious 2016 election campaign.

It also led him to help for years to conceal the payment, under intense pressure, in the hope of a pardon that never came.

James Comey, the former FBI chief, has spoken of what he considered an attempt by Trump in the early days of his presidency to draw him into this dynamic, compromising the traditional firewall between the FBI and the White House.

James Comey
James Comey

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File

Comey said the closest comparison he could imagine was the New York mobsters he prosecuted earlier in his career.

It is undeniable that this devotion is useful in the short term — especially when creating loyal group of Republican lawmakers to defend him, fearful of retribution.

Trump is notoriously unimpressed by people who call on other loyalties as they question or frustrate his agenda. And he prizes a close group of loyal foot soldiers, often his children, who streamline the process of getting things done.

Until they don't.

Cohen, like Parnas, turned on Trump in public interviews at a moment of maximum damage.

In a congressional hearing timed to steal the limelight from Trump's ultimately frustrated efforts to build bridges with North Korea, Cohen called Trump a liar and a racist, who he claimed asked him, in turn, to lie and threaten on his behalf.

Now the pattern has repeated with the allegations brought forth by Parnas, who sought to confirm that the shady Ukraine agenda apparently pursued by Trump was more extensive than previously known, both in scope and by the sheer number of Trump officials Parnas claims were involved.

The stakes are far from academic. As the Senate trial looms, Republican leadership will try its utmost to enforce discipline and use its three-seat majority to acquit Trump as swiftly as possible. This would limit the damage of impeachment and open the way — as with the Russia investigation — for the president to claim "total exoneration."

But this unity is shaky. Three Republicans in toss-up seats seem willing to side with Democrats to defy Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and call witnesses to testify in the trial. A fourth would make it a reality.

Witness testimony could mean more revelations from the likes of John Bolton, the former national security adviser who is widely believed to have information that could damage Trump.

The president, while complaining bitterly of his impeachment, has also tried to wear it as a badge of honor, fundraising hard on the spectacle of what he still characterizes as a partisan witch hunt.

Despite Trump's famed resilience to scandal, this strategy becomes less and less tenable if credible and damaging information is brought into the public domain and chips away at his support within the GOP.

Trump's base, which he sorely needs to carry him into a second term come November, is famously loyal. But, as Parnas and Cohen have ably proved, loyalty has its limits.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-surrounded-himself-yes-men-071224616.html

 

GO RV, then BV

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Shabs, nice try on the Obama card, but the results of his 2 terms and Trumps first term speak volumes for how much better off the country happens to be now. Got a card for that?? And by the way, the Obama card has not expired. We are still feeling the affects of his 8 years, though (thank God) much less affect than if the HillDawg had succeeded him.

Edited by md11fr8dawg
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2 minutes ago, md11fr8dawg said:

Shabs, nice try on the Obama card, but the results of his 2 terms and Trumps first term speak volumes for how much better off the country happens to be now. Got a card for that??

 

Trump should thank Obama for a fantastic economic recovery from one of the worst recessions in history and for giving himself a strong foothold to do his thing....that being greasing the deep pockets of big business.  No card, just truth.  ;)

 

GO RV, then BV

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16 hours ago, nstoolman1 said:

Will this be covered in the Durham report?

 

Certainly should be.

Durham will not have a report. He has convened a Grand Jury and the only thing you will see from him is unsealed indictments, but no report. His investigation has turned into a criminal investigation.

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Rachel Maddow’s revealing interview with Lev Parnas — a key figure in the impeachment of Donald Trump — drew the show’s biggest audience ever on MSNBC Wednesday night, with 4.5 million viewers tuning in at 9 p.m. The interview on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” during which Parnas was accompanied by his lawyer, had been announced earlier on Wednesday. It was Parnas’s first television interview about his involvement in the Ukraine scandal.

“Maddow” was the most-watched show on cable Wednesday, beating Fox News’ “Hannity” (3.7 million viewers). The program drew 844,000 viewers in the the key news demographic of adults 25 to 54. The program had a halo effect for MSNBC, with both “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” at 10 p.m. and “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” finishing first in their time periods.

 

People are interested...

B/A

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New Records Bare Extensive Links Between Devin Nunes Aide And Lev Parnas

Newly released documents reveal extensive contacts between a key aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.

The frequent communications between Parnas and Nunes’s aide Derek Harvey were revealed in records provided by Parnas and released Friday night by the U.S. House.

The information is particularly problematic for the GOP congressman — the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee — because of his role in the House impeachment hearings concerning Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to announce an investigation into the president’s political rival Joe Biden. Nunes participated in the hearings and strongly defended Trump, even though the records indicate he may have been involved in the operation. Nunes has denied any role in the scheme to press Ukraine to investigate Biden.

But text messages released Friday between Parnas and Harvey indicate that Nunes’s office was aware of the operation at the heart of the impeachment inquiry and that he sought to use the information Parnas was collecting. Texts show that Parnas was working last spring to set up calls for Harvey with the Ukrainian prosecutors who were allegedly providing information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter to Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. 

Parnas, who has been indicted for alleged campaign finance violations, worked to strong-arm Ukraine into launching a Biden investigation. He said he was following Trump’s wishes, communicated to him by Giuliani. 

Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow earlier this week that, although Nunes “couldn’t be in the spotlight,” he “wanted to help out” in the Ukraine operation. (See the video above.) Parnas said he was put in touch then with Harvey, who “knew everything” already when the two men talked, according to Parnas.

Parnas wrote to Harvey in a text on April 19: “Do you want to interview the general prosecutor who got [ditched] by Biden? Also the anti corruption prosecutor? Let me know.”

“Does tomorrow work?” Harvey responded, according to a text.

Texts also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump hotel in Washington. Parnas told Maddow he met “several times” with Nunes at the hotel.

Parnas told Maddow he was “in shock” when he watched the impeachment hearings and “saw Devin Nunes sitting up there” with Harvey. “I texted my attorney. I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening’ ... because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden.”

He added: “It’s hard to see them lie like that. It’s scary.”

A House report last month on Trump’s impeachment also noted several direct calls between Nunes and Parnas, according to logs.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/devin-nunes-lev-parnas-trump-aide-053624344.html

 

Ouch

 

B/A

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On 1/17/2020 at 3:57 PM, Shabibilicious said:

 

Thanks Enigma.....I've seen those.  I thought maybe you had something current I haven't read.  Thanks again.  :peace:

 

GO RV, then BV

Shabs, an update for you on Durham.

 

https://saraacarter.com/john-durham-criminal-probe-gathers-steam-investigating-post-election-docs/

 

John Durham Criminal Probe Gathers Steam Investigating Post Election Docs

By
 Sara Carter
 -
January 20, 2020
 
US-Attorney-John-Duham-Investigate-Russi

Department of Justice appointed federal prosecutor John Durham’s expanded criminal probe into the FBI’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign is focusing on a slew of government documents that surfaced during the first several months of Trump’s presidency. The documents, which are being kept close hold, were hinted at by Attorney General William Barr in an interview he did with NBC in December and reported on by CBS News Friday.

On Friday, Catherine Herridge senior national security reporter with CBS first reported that a ‘strong paper trail’ of documents is being reviewed by Durham. Those documents span a time period from January, 2017 until May 2017, just before the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

 
 

However, Barr has already suggested at the expansive nature of Durham’s probe in December and hinted at the discoveries. And in October, 2019 reports revealed that Durham had expanded the scope of his investigation and would investigate not only the origin of the bureau probe into Trump’s campaign but also the post-election timeline.

Barr said in an interview with NBC in December, that Durham “should spend just as much attention on the post-election period” noting that the probe will not just focus on the origins of the investigation.

Barr said he asked Durham to look at the post Trump election because “of some of the stuff that Horowitz has uncovered which to me is inexplicable.”

New Documents As Durham’s Criminal Probe Continues

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told SaraACarter.com she could not comment on Durham’s ongoing investigation. She gave no indication as to when, or if, a report will be issued on his criminal probe. Barr, who has been given full declassification authority by Trump, eluded in an interview that Durham may finish his probe by Spring or early this summer.

According to sources, the documents already uncovered by Horowitz and the alleged new documents discovered by Durham are significant. Those documents will expose the intent of those involved in the malfeasance at the FBI and the continued operation to spy on Carter Page, a short term Trump campaign volunteer. Further, Durham’s probe is focused on actions of former senior Obama Administration officials that targeted Trump and his team, according to numerous former and current government sources that spoke to SaraACarter.com.

 
 

Those being looked into by Durham are former CIA Director John Brennan, fired FBI Director James Comey, fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, among others. Durham’s team has already interviewed numerous personnel at the CIA and according to sources “those questioned are very nervous about the direction of Durham’s investigation.”

Durham is looking into the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia, in which Brennan has stated that the CIA did not use former MI6 spy Christoper Steele’s debunked dossier. Horowitz discovered during his office’s investigation of the FBI FISA review that the uncorroborated dossier was used in obtaining the warrant to spy on Page. Horowitz’s explosive report also revealed that significant information on Page was omitted from the report and that other information was altered by FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith. Page had actually assisted the CIA in reporting on Russia – a significant fact that was omitted and changed in the application that was submitted to the secret court.

Durham Probe Expands To Pentagon

SaraACarter.com first reported that Durham has expanded his investigation to include the Pentagon’s Office Of Net Assessment, which contracted former FBI informant Stefan Halper, who had contacts with four Trump campaign officials. The Office of Net Assessment awarded Halper multiple contracts that totaled over $1 million dollars. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s most recent report described interviews with FBI agents that said it was “serendipitous” that Halper new all the sources of their Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In fact, the report stated that they “couldn’t believe [their] luck” that [Halper] had contacts with three of their four subjects. Those subjects included short term campaign advisors Carter Page and George Papadopolous, as well as Gen Flynn.

Moreover, Barr has already hinted at the fact that Durham has acquired new and possibly damning documents as he suggested in a NBC News interview in December when he said Durham is “looking at the issue of how it got started. He’s looking at whether or not the narrative of Trump being involved in the Russian interference actually preceded July and was in fact the precipitating trigger for the investigation, and he’s also looking at the conduct of the investigation.” Barr also said there “are some things that were done in the investigation that are not included in [DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz’s report. And he’s looking at those things.”

Barr and Durham have traveled to England, Italy and interviewed senior foreign intelligence  officials for their investigation last year. Durham’s team is tight lipped about the investigation but according to sources witnesses have been questioned about their role in the bureau’s investigation. Horowitz’s report, which Durham and Barr stated some objections too, did not suggest bias in the FBI’s investigation into Trump and his campaign.

Republican lawmakers strongly disagreed with Horowitz’s finding that there was no bias in the actions of the agents despite strong evidence to the contrary.

 
 
 
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2 hours ago, Enigma2a said:

Shabs, an update for you on Durham.

 

https://saraacarter.com/john-durham-criminal-probe-gathers-steam-investigating-post-election-docs/

 

John Durham Criminal Probe Gathers Steam Investigating Post Election Docs

By
 Sara Carter
 -
January 20, 2020
 
US-Attorney-John-Duham-Investigate-Russi

Department of Justice appointed federal prosecutor John Durham’s expanded criminal probe into the FBI’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign is focusing on a slew of government documents that surfaced during the first several months of Trump’s presidency. The documents, which are being kept close hold, were hinted at by Attorney General William Barr in an interview he did with NBC in December and reported on by CBS News Friday.

On Friday, Catherine Herridge senior national security reporter with CBS first reported that a ‘strong paper trail’ of documents is being reviewed by Durham. Those documents span a time period from January, 2017 until May 2017, just before the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

 
 

However, Barr has already suggested at the expansive nature of Durham’s probe in December and hinted at the discoveries. And in October, 2019 reports revealed that Durham had expanded the scope of his investigation and would investigate not only the origin of the bureau probe into Trump’s campaign but also the post-election timeline.

Barr said in an interview with NBC in December, that Durham “should spend just as much attention on the post-election period” noting that the probe will not just focus on the origins of the investigation.

Barr said he asked Durham to look at the post Trump election because “of some of the stuff that Horowitz has uncovered which to me is inexplicable.”

New Documents As Durham’s Criminal Probe Continues

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told SaraACarter.com she could not comment on Durham’s ongoing investigation. She gave no indication as to when, or if, a report will be issued on his criminal probe. Barr, who has been given full declassification authority by Trump, eluded in an interview that Durham may finish his probe by Spring or early this summer.

According to sources, the documents already uncovered by Horowitz and the alleged new documents discovered by Durham are significant. Those documents will expose the intent of those involved in the malfeasance at the FBI and the continued operation to spy on Carter Page, a short term Trump campaign volunteer. Further, Durham’s probe is focused on actions of former senior Obama Administration officials that targeted Trump and his team, according to numerous former and current government sources that spoke to SaraACarter.com.

 
 

Those being looked into by Durham are former CIA Director John Brennan, fired FBI Director James Comey, fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, among others. Durham’s team has already interviewed numerous personnel at the CIA and according to sources “those questioned are very nervous about the direction of Durham’s investigation.”

Durham is looking into the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia, in which Brennan has stated that the CIA did not use former MI6 spy Christoper Steele’s debunked dossier. Horowitz discovered during his office’s investigation of the FBI FISA review that the uncorroborated dossier was used in obtaining the warrant to spy on Page. Horowitz’s explosive report also revealed that significant information on Page was omitted from the report and that other information was altered by FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith. Page had actually assisted the CIA in reporting on Russia – a significant fact that was omitted and changed in the application that was submitted to the secret court.

Durham Probe Expands To Pentagon

SaraACarter.com first reported that Durham has expanded his investigation to include the Pentagon’s Office Of Net Assessment, which contracted former FBI informant Stefan Halper, who had contacts with four Trump campaign officials. The Office of Net Assessment awarded Halper multiple contracts that totaled over $1 million dollars. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s most recent report described interviews with FBI agents that said it was “serendipitous” that Halper new all the sources of their Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In fact, the report stated that they “couldn’t believe [their] luck” that [Halper] had contacts with three of their four subjects. Those subjects included short term campaign advisors Carter Page and George Papadopolous, as well as Gen Flynn.

Moreover, Barr has already hinted at the fact that Durham has acquired new and possibly damning documents as he suggested in a NBC News interview in December when he said Durham is “looking at the issue of how it got started. He’s looking at whether or not the narrative of Trump being involved in the Russian interference actually preceded July and was in fact the precipitating trigger for the investigation, and he’s also looking at the conduct of the investigation.” Barr also said there “are some things that were done in the investigation that are not included in [DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz’s report. And he’s looking at those things.”

Barr and Durham have traveled to England, Italy and interviewed senior foreign intelligence  officials for their investigation last year. Durham’s team is tight lipped about the investigation but according to sources witnesses have been questioned about their role in the bureau’s investigation. Horowitz’s report, which Durham and Barr stated some objections too, did not suggest bias in the FBI’s investigation into Trump and his campaign.

Republican lawmakers strongly disagreed with Horowitz’s finding that there was no bias in the actions of the agents despite strong evidence to the contrary.

 
 
 

 

Thanks...interesting stuff.  Another DOJ investigation desperately in search of a crime.....seems to be the norm in the D.C. swamp with it's ever revolving door.

 

GO RV, then BV

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1 hour ago, coorslite21 said:

 

 

I don't know how others feel, but in my world being a "God Parent" to somebody's precious child is a very heartfelt, intimate, family type situation....not an honor given out or accepted frivolously.  People who share the utmost trust and respect in one another, earned over many years enter into "God Parent" situations.  Neither one of these two, Parnas or Rudy, pass the smell test.  As always, just my opinion.

 

GO RV, then BV

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Pretty thorough article from ABC......

 

Kind of funny though that the summary paragraph at the end concludes the opposite of what they have laid out in the article......typical....   CL

 

The facts behind GOP claims about Ukraine and 2016 likely to surface this week
By Mike LevineNov 12, 2019, 4:44 PM ET

 

191111_nwo_impeachment_hearings_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg
WATCH: The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and his Ukraine call enters a new phase with public hearings for several key witnesses set for this week.

In session after session behind closed doors last month, House Republicans repeatedly suggested that President Donald Trump’s push for Ukraine to launch a series of criminal investigations into Joe Biden and alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election was about rooting out corruption, not investigating his political rival.

 

According to some of Trump’s staunchest allies, it was Ukraine, not Russia, that truly meddled in American democracy three years ago.

 

"Public reporting shows how senior Ukrainian officials interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign in favor of Secretary Clinton and in opposition to then-candidate Trump," Republicans wrote in a memo of "key points" distributed Tuesday ahead of the House impeachment inquiry's first open hearings this week.

 

But behind closed doors, many of the witnesses who recently testified to House investigators balked at any such comparison to Russia's efforts.

 

“We're talking about a completely different scale of interference,” Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a National Security Council expert on Ukraine, testified.

At the Kremlin's direction, Russia's intelligence services waged a pro-Trump disinformation campaign on social media and secretly stole tens of thousands of private emails from the Democratic National Committee, the U.S. intelligence community concluded.

 

That government-backed campaign was a “deep” and “insidious effort to undermine a foreign country’s elections,” Vindman said. In fact, last year the Justice

 

Department indicted 25 Russian operatives for their alleged roles in election interference during the 2016 campaign – none has been taken into custody yet.

 

“What a couple of actors in Ukraine might do in order to tip the scales in one direction or another is very different," Vindman noted.

 

Nevertheless, based on the new Republican memo, questions to witnesses behind closed doors, and the Republicans' proposed witness list, Trump's House allies are likely to promote such instances during this week's hearings.

 

As Republicans see it, Ukrainian "interference" in the 2016 campaign contributed to Trump's "deep-seated" skepticism of Ukraine, any delay in Trump engaging with Ukrainian leadership earlier this year was not about pressuring them to launch politically-charged investigations, it was about Trump's "reasonable" concerns, according to the Republican memo distributed Tuesday.

Here are the instances of alleged Ukrainian interference that Republicans might raise during this week’s public testimony:

Ukrainians disclosed the 'black ledger'

In August 2016, three months before the U.S. election, a Ukrainian anti-corruption office and a Ukrainian journalist-turned-lawmaker, Serhiy Leshchenko, released records showing that Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, had received millions of dollars in payments suspected of coming from ill-gotten proceeds in Ukraine. The records – part of a so-called “black ledger” – were found at the past estate of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president who hired Manafort as a political consultant and then fled to Russia in 2014 amid allegations of corruption.

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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is escorted into court for his arraignment in New York Supreme Court in New York, June 27, 2019.

The release of the “black ledger” forced Manafort to resign from the Trump campaign. Leshchenko has given conflicting accounts of what drove him to make the documents public, but in September he insisted in The Washington Post that he was “angry at Manafort” for protecting a corrupt leader and “was motivated by the desire for justice.”

 

Whatever his motivation, Leshchenko and the head of the anti-corruption office were investigated and convicted in December 2018 of violating Ukrainian law by releasing the documents. Meanwhile, around the same time, Ukraine’s top prosecutor was also feeding allegations about former vice president Joe Biden to Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who then launched a shadow campaign to have the allegations investigated.

 

Several months after Leshchenko was convicted, a Ukrainian appeals court threw out the case and overturned the conviction. But in closed-door testimony last month, Republicans wanted to know why U.S. diplomats didn’t do more to investigate Leshchenko’s actions.

 

“Here we have a conviction of U.S. meddling, and you just viewed that as not being significant and you just dismissed it?” Rep. Gordon Perry, R-Penn., asked Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine who was removed after Giuliani and others launched what she and her colleagues called a “smear campaign” against her.

Yovanovitch said it was “our view” that the case against Leshchenko wasn't “credible.”

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Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist turned lawmaker shows a copy one of the once-secret accounting documents of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin party that were released and purporting to show payments of $12.7 million earmarked for Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort, during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, Aug. 19,2016.

“I didn't believe the charges,” she said. “I thought that they were politically motivated … [And] I really felt that we wanted to stay away from what seemed to be internal Ukrainian political fights kind of using us.”

 

In March, conservative U.S. media began promoting claims that the Manafort-related documents made public may have been fake. The allegations were investigated and the documents were “declared to be valid,” but questions about them were still “in the public domain,” Volker testified, without specifying who validated the documents.

 

“Can you understand why [Trump] would want Ukraine to investigate why perhaps these ledgers were fabricated, if he had that belief?” a House Republican investigator asked Volker.

“Yes,” Volker responded.

Asked during his testimony whether Leshchenko’s actions would “constitute election interference” as it’s currently understood, Vindman said: “I don't think it would.”

 

A U.S. federal jury last year convicted Manafort of financial crimes related to his work for Ukraine’s disgraced former president. The charges were brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who had been investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Ukrainian’s ties to 'dossier' firm

Republicans are also interested in Leshchenko because he was once a source of information for Fusion GPS, the research firm behind the controversial “dossier” that alleged members of Trump’s campaign were coordinating with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.

 

A former researcher at the firm, Nellie Ohr, told lawmakers last year that Fusion GPS would pursue leads provided directly by Leshchenko.

Ohr’s husband, Bruce, is the senior Justice Department official who acted as a conduit between the FBI and the author of the “dossier,” former British spy Christopher Steele. Republicans now want Democrats to call Ohr to testify in the impeachment probe.

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Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who set up Orbis Business Intelligence and compiled a dossier on Donald Trump, is seen in London, March 7, 2017.

DNC contractor connected to Ukrainians

Republicans have also repeatedly asked in recent closed-door sessions about Alexandra Chalupa, who during the 2016 presidential campaign worked as a contractor for the Democratic National Committee running what she called “an ethnic engagement program.”

 

Years earlier, while working for a different client, the Ukrainian-American based in Washington began researching Manafort’s ties to Ukraine, and after Trump announced his candidacy in late 2015 she began looking at Trump’s ties to Russia, occasionally sharing some of her findings with officials at the DNC, Chalupa later told Politico in a 2017 interview.

 

In March 2016, she also shared some of her findings with Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, she told Politico.

And in an email two months later, she told a DNC spokesman that she had been “digging into Manafort” and was “working with” a prominent U.S. journalist whom she “connected” with “the Ukrainians.”

 

That email was among the tens of thousands of internal emails stolen from the DNC in 2016 and published online.

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters stands in Washington, D.C., Oct. 9, 2018.

In a statement to CNN at the time, Chalupa insisted, “I was not an opposition researcher for the DNC, and the DNC never asked me to go to the Ukrainian embassy to collect information.” And in May, Chaly told The Hill newspaper that the Ukrainian embassy "got to know Ms. Chalupa because of her engagement with Ukrainian and other diasporas in Washington, D.C., and not in her DNC capacity. We've learned about her DNC involvement later."

 

Chalupa's interest in Manafort was "her own cause," and the embassy "refused to get involved in any way," Chaly added.

 

Still, her efforts have raised concerns among Republicans, who want Chalupa to testify this week.

 

So “[Chalupa] may be another data point to the president's uncomfortable posture towards Ukraine?” a House Republican investigator asked Volker.

“It's possible,” Volker responded.

Public comments about Trump

In closed-door testimony last month, Republicans wondered what U.S. diplomats knew about public criticism of Trump from Ukrainian government officials.

 

Among other episodes, Republicans asked about an August 2016 op-ed published by Chaly, then the Ukrainian ambassador, who strongly criticized then-candidate Trump’s pro-Russia rhetoric. In the op-ed, Chaly said Trump's comments "call for appeasement of an aggressor.”

 

Similarly, Ukraine’s minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, posted what one House investigator described as “disparaging remarks about the President on Twitter and Facebook.”

But Vindman rejected claims that those comments reflected any type of election interference from Ukraine, insisting acts of election interference “are not open public displays.”

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President Donald Trump exits the Oval Office and walks toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 6, 2019.

In her testimony to House investigators, former National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia, said senior White House officials, including then-homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, tried early on in Trump's presidency to tell Trump that “the alternative theory" of Ukrainian election interference was false.

 

"I'm aware of the [allegations], but that doesn't mean that that amounts to an operation by the Ukrainian Government," she said.

Bossert, now an ABC News contributor, recently said the "conspiracy theory" of Ukrainian election interference "has got to go."

 

"It is completely debunked," he told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" in September. "They have to stop with that. It cannot continue to be repeated in our discourse."

 
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