Just how much trouble could high-ranking officials in the Obama administration have with newly declassified material relating to the Russia-collusion hoax? It’s hard to say at the moment, but one thing is certain — they’re about to find out. Fox News reported this afternoon that the Department of Justice confirms receiving a criminal referral from top intel official Tulsi Gabbard for investigations that could target several top officials connected to the alleged attempt to make corrupt use of the intelligence services to undermine Donald Trump:
The Department of Justice confirmed Monday that it has received Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s criminal referral related to her bombshell claims that Obama-era officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence” to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, Fox News has confirmed. …
“The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic,” Gabbard said Sunday.
“Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic,” she continued.
Just how high will this go, assuming the evidence can establish a criminal conspiracy? Trump suggested it goes all the way to the top:
Fox News thinks it might go higher than that, in its own way. Senate Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley has announced that he plans to declassify an appendix to the Senate report on the affair, which apparently focused more on its source:
Additionally, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also will release declassified documents related to a 2018 DOJ Inspector General report on the Justice Department’s handling of the investigations related to the 2016 presidential election, Fox News confirmed Monday. Grassley will specifically declassify the report’s appendix, which Fox learned focuses specifically on the Clinton email investigation.
In other words, this might implicate most of the Democrat establishment, as well as the bureaucratic state. The stench on this has already been rising over the last several years, and it got bad enough that voters rejected the “no one is abobe the law” line from Democrats in the election cycle. The more of this that gets exposed, the worse it will be for Democrats, or at least the so-called moderate wing that’s been holding off the progressive takeover by the Squad.
That’s already baked in the cake. The bigger question will be whether any of this crossed specific criminal red lines, as just opposed to political corruption of a less-prosecutorial nature. One thing to remember is that the Watergate conspirators went to prison for using the FBI and CIA against Democrats, among other things, so the precedent for criminal prosecution in cases such as this is well established. But does Gabbard’s declassified material meet that evidentiary standard? John Hinderaker isn’t so sure:
The memorandum then describes a White House meeting on December 9, 2016, that was presided over by President Obama and included most of the usual suspects. Following that meeting, the tenor of Obama administration communications on Russian “interference” in the election changed. It became more alarmist, and administration officials leaked assessments of Russia’s activity that were exaggerated and claimed, without any strong support, that Russia had “interfered” in the election in order to help Donald Trump win.
But I see no indication that Obama and his minions said anything that contradicted the intelligence assessment that Russia did not attack infrastructure so as to alter election results. On the contrary, the memo itself quotes Obama on December 16: “President Obama admits there is no ‘evidence of machines being tampered with’ during the election.” …
An increasing body of information on the misuse of the intelligence agencies and the FBI to front for the Democratic Party and to undermine the Trump administration has been made public. Just two weeks ago, the CIA released an important report on this subject that we wrote about here. That report indicates that DNI John Brennan insisted on including the fabricated Steele dossier as the basis for anti-Trump assessments, even though the responsible intelligence professionals said that it “did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards.” There is more, besides, in that report.
So on balance, I don’t think the most recent revelations from the DNI add much to our understanding of the Democrats’ partisan misuse of intelligence. That said, the complete story of that scandal, likely the worst in American history, remains to be written.
Au contraire, argued Matt Taibbi this weekend. What we have already seen has put Obama “at the center of an unprecedented act of political sabotage,” and has made the former president a central figure in the scandal. Taibbi argues that what has already emerged is so significant that the Protection Racket Media may not be able to deflect any longer, now that real investigators have begun looking at criminal liability for those involved. And there are rumors that the sabotage continued right up until Trump’s stunning election win:
Gabbard’s documents show the Obama White House overruling months of reports downplaying Russian interference and ordering subordinates to set a time bomb of manipulated intelligence, with the aim of trying to, as Gabbard described it, “usurp” an incoming president. No longer a tertiary character, Obama is now “center square” in the Russiagate scam, as one source put it.
Mainstream press outlets like the New York Times and Politico have already run pieces quoting Democratic Party mouthpieces shrugging off Gabbard’s reports as “baseless” and an attempt to “change the subject,” but coverage may not matter, as the investigation into the Trump-Russia hoax is no longer about trying to change hearts and minds. Multiple sources say Gabbard’s team is focused on “accountability” by gathering evidence for court-ready cases. The matter may soon need a special prosecutor, putting Obama in the same position Trump occupied in the first two years of his presidency, on the run from a high-profile fox hunt.
The information from Gabbard’s office was not the only news on the Russiagate front. This investigation is not just about “ten-year-old news,” as has been a common talking point, but may also involve never-reported Biden-era issues. A source close to the investigation said yesterday that the DOJ is focusing on conspiracy charges and looking at conduct “from 2016 to 2024.” Another with ties to the administration said “President Trump’s national security team is looking at evidence that members of his 2024 campaign were spied on as well.”
So what’s the verdict? Too soon to tell. However, what we’ve already seen may explain why the intel establishment – ie, the 51 signatories that called the Hunter Biden laptop part of the Russia-collusion effort, et al — were so vocally adamant that Gabbard should not become DNI. The only way to get to this kind of evidence is if outsiders to the intel establishment take control and force these disclosures. With that in mind, it may still take a while to see the complete evidence set … and determine whether crimes were committed, and by whom.
Stay tuned!
Editor’s Note: The Trump administration is exposing Barack Obama and his administration’s Russian Collusion Hoax.
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