By L.J. Keith, Dec 9, 2019

US Attorney John Durham trumped the IG report, adding his weight to Attorney General Barr’s assertion that there was bias and criminality in the surveillance and persecution of Donald Trump.

Durham forcefully contradicts the IG Horowitz report

The IG report began the day asserting that the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the FISA process was properly predicated. This was followed almost immediately with a statement from the Attorney General saying the IG didn’t have enough evidence to reach that conclusion.

John Durham’s statement put the succession of contradictions to rest, making clear that he had found improprieties both in the origins go the Russia Hoax and in its subsequent implementation.

Barr makes clear FBI spying was not predicated

Specifically, William Barr endorsed the harsh critique of the deficiencies found in the FISA warrants. He rejected firmly the assertion that the FBI had an adequate prediction to launch “Operation Crossfire Hurricane” in July 2016. (DOJ watchdog finds no bias in launch of Trump-Russia probe, but uncovers ‘significant’ FBI errors)

“The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,” Barr says in a statement.

“It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration.”
Durham makes it crystal clear: This is not over by a long shot

John Durham’s office made it abundantly clear that he was in full agreement with Barr that the IG Report was shortsighted and made irrelevant by the multiple streams of additional information he has uncovered.

“Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.,” Durham says.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

Durham and Barr trump Horowitz and impeachment
In the greater scheme of all things, it is not the Horowitz report that matters. It is Durham’s determination of criminality that counts. Those disappointed by IG report conclusions should remember he had previously whitewashed the Hillary Clinton investigations. (Did the watchdog report finally end the Clinton email scandal? Congress doesn’t think so)

Horowitz has provided the lowest bar excuse that as long as overt minimalist procedures were followed he has no choice but to ignore the luridly anti-Trump Strzok Page texts. The mass accumulated intrusions into a major Presidential candidate. The wholesale atonement of FISA standards or accountability.

The coup will not be whitewashed

So it was important that Barr immediately let it be known that he disagreed vehemently with the importance of the scope and scale of the wrongdoing that occurred. In the immediate aftermath, the final voice to drop was Durhams. Earlier fake news reports had reported that Durham and Horowitz were in agreement on key questions such as Joseph Mifsud.

Durham has now made clear that the information he has goes well beyond what IG Horowitz was looking at. That John Brennan and the Obama White House conspired to use Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan Halper, and an FBI Informant to entrap George Papadopoulos.

It was, in effect, a CIA operation directed at Donald Trump. Run from the Obama Oval Office. Working with the Italian, British and Australian intelligence services.

Crossfire Hurricane, unmasking, spying on Americans

The launching of “Crossfire Hurricane” was predicated on fabricated evidence from that operation. Both that evidence and the Steele Dossier was used to acquire the FISA warrants for nefarious purposes. (Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation)

That unmasking and political surveillance and the abuse of NSA FISA 702 authority was a constant ongoing activity of the Obama White House.

That:
-- Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes and Samantha Powers had unmasked thousands of Americans.
-- John Brennan and James Clapper had illegally conspired to abuse FISA 702 surveillance authority with James Comey to spy on over 32500 Americans between 2012 and 2016.
-- Admiral Mike Rogers had uncovered the abuse which was now a subject of Durham’s investigation.
-- That FISA Judge Rosemary Collier documented in her April 2017 ruling.

ICA estimate and the Steele Dossier

That the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference was not the result of 17 intelligence agencies. It was written largely by John Brennan and Peter Strzok and not subjected to circulation before its submission.

The ICA assessment improperly incorporated the Steele Dossier in order to slant its conclusions. Mike Rogers and the NSA only had moderate confidence in any preordained conclusions. That the deliberations and use of that document is the subject of Durham’s investigation.

The truth prevails lest the heavens fall

Both Barr and Durham have made clear that this is the beginning of a much more serious phase of the Durham Probe. That the IG Horowitz report is a whitewash that will not stand any test. That the people who need to be held accountable will be. At long last.

The ongoing three-year coup against Donald Trump by the security state must be held to account. Durham has signaled that Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, and Strzok are not out of the woods.

On a day when the credibility of the Republic has been called into question Attorney General Barr and John Durham have sent a clear signal that justice will be done, the guilty will be punished.

We are truly about to find out what kind of country we live in. We look forward to the Durham report and the coming indictments.

https://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/...-coming-125172/

Quote: algernonpj wrote in post #2

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IMHO pretty damming but it gave Wray an out, i.e. review and modify procedures.

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