Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Is Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation

op-ed in the WSJ tonight:

Mueller Exposes Spy Chiefs
Did our intel leaders have any evidence when they pushed the Russia collusion line?
By
William McGurn
March 25, 2019 7:15 p.m. ET

Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has found that no one in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, Democrats are busy moving the goal posts. But this is a distraction from the real reckoning that needs to come.

The one we need is for all the intelligence officials—including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe—who pushed the Russia conspiracy theory. The special counsel has just made clear they did so with no real evidence.

Mr. Mueller could have said he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute. Instead he was categorical: “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

This wasn’t for lack of trying on Moscow’s part. “Despite multiple offers” from Russia-affiliated individuals to help their campaign, Mr. Mueller reports, the Trump people didn’t take them up on it.

So why do 44% of Americans—according to a Fox News poll released Sunday—believe otherwise? Part of the answer has to be that the collusion tale was egged on by leading members and former members of the American intelligence community.

Intelligence professionals are trained to sift through the noise and distractions in pursuit of the truth. In this case, however, they went all in for a tale that the Russian government had somehow compromised Mr. Trump or his close associates. In peddling this line, their authority rested on the idea they had access to alarming and conclusive evidence the rest of America couldn’t see. Now it appears they never had much more than an unverified opposition-research dossier commissioned by Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

Nevertheless, they persisted. Start with the FBI’s Mr. McCabe, who boasts that he is the man who opened the counterintelligence probe into Russia and President Trump. Today the question has to be: On what evidence was this extraordinary step predicated, apart from Mr. Trump’s saying things the G-man didn’t like?

As recently as three weeks ago, Mr. McCabe—sacked by the bureau for a “lack of candor”—told CNN that he still thought it “possible” President Trump was a “Russian asset.” Again, on what evidence?

Ditto for Mr. Clapper, who said he agreed “completely” with Mr. McCabe that Mr. Trump could be a Russian asset. He added only that he couldn’t be certain whether it was “witting or unwitting.” Coming from a former director of national intelligence, this is a grave accusation. But on what evidence?

Or consider Mr. Brennan. After a presidential press conference in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin in which Mr. Trump refused to acknowledge Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Brennan tweeted that the president’s behavior was “nothing short of treasonous.” Not “wrong,” not “outrageous,” but “treasonous.”

It wouldn’t be the last time he invoked the “t” word. Mr. Brennan also used it after the president pulled his security clearance last August. During a subsequent appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd suggested that a former intelligence chief might wish to be a little more circumspect with his accusations.

“You are the former CIA director accusing the sitting president of the United States,” said Mr. Todd. “It’s not a private citizen. A lot of people hear the former CIA director accusing the sitting president of the United States of treason—that’s monumental, that’s a monumental accusation.” Mr. Brennan said he regretted nothing, and cited for his judgment his training as an “intelligence professional.”

Finally there’s Rep. Adam Schiff. As ranking member and now chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Schiff has been claiming for some time that there’s “plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight.” This past weekend on ABC’s “This Week,” he said there’s “significant evidence of collusion.” Does anyone else think there’s a credibility problem when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee starts sounding like O.J. Simpson vowing to find the “real killer”?

In light of Mr. Mueller’s findings, there are only two ways to interpret these actions and statements from senior members of the intelligence community. The first is that they got played because they were incompetent. Anyone who reads the compromising texts between FBI master spy Peter Strzok and his FBI lover, Lisa Page, might well find the clown argument persuasive.

But there’s something even worse than an intelligence community that has been played. It’s an intelligence community that chose to play along simply because its members hated Donald Trump. For a full reckoning, America will need an accounting of the evidence used to launch that counterintelligence probe, the unmasking of officials, the leaks, and the likely abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.

The lesson here is this: Be careful what you wish for. Because the questions this special prosecutor has unleashed might yet yield federal criminal indictments. Just not for the people the fantasists of Russian collusion expected.

Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
​

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-exposes-spy-chiefs-11553555713?mod=hp_opin_pos1

 

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pr...raham-continues-investigation-into-fisa-abuse

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting documents related to potential abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process.

“… the Committee is concerned that the Woods procedures and a full presentment of material and relevant facts may not have occurred with regard to the applications for FISA warrants for (and the opening of the underlying investigations on) Carter Page and other individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” wrote Graham.

 

Why do you post so many Tweets?

 

That shows a request and concern from a Trump lapdog. It doesn't show any proof that the application was in any way fraudulent or misleading. I have yet to see any proof that the FISA warrants were obtained under false pretenses.

 

trying to catch up to @NewRoxFan , he's my hero

 

So lets see them right? Just like the Mueller report, lets get out everything.

 

Odds are we are going to find out they’re all a bunch of crooks if they release everything.

 

I don't have a problem having them come out. The only difference is that there was evidence enough to warrant the Mueller investigation. I haven't seen any such evidence regarding the FISA warrants.

 

Trump probably did. But it’s not collusion.

 

The fall out from these deranged lunatics is so satisfying.

Pin all their hopes and dreams on the results of this investigation.

Investigation does not show them what they wanted to see. "ZOMG MORE COLLUSION TRUMP GOT TO HIM RUSSIA GOT TO HIM OMG MORE MORE MORE INVESTIGATIONS"

Trump won't need to do a single thing to get reelected from here on out.

Just let the front and centre Democratic lunatics do the work for him.

The fact there's people who think Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi and the 5 year old AOC are good people, means Trump in a landslide. I love it.

 

WSJ editorial board is who runs this particular section ; Especially Mr Green forgot.

 

You're right there in post count..... but you win on frequency. You're the ultimate NEWROXFAN!!!

 

Then Schiff and McConnell are talking about two different reports?

 

I thought you tweeted out to wait for the report..... And here you are editorializing before the report?

 

Trump went in front of reporters in Helsinki and publicly stated he believed Putin didn't meddle in our elections standing right next Putin....

Again.... the president publicly state he believed Russian intelligence over US intelligence regarding the 2016 election that we know Russia meddled in.

 

Seriously??? Is that all you got out of it? Stick your head deeper into the sand.

She didn’t even plead guilty to the FARA act stuff because they didn’t have anything on her. She plead to bs conspiracy after nearly THREE MONTHS in solitary confinement.

 

??? What are you talking about?

 

Maddow is going in on mueller tonight. She needs receipts.