Ball of Collusion

by Andrew C. McCarthy

  20. Mueller Report, Vol. I. pp. 114-19.

  21. Ibid.; see also Erik Larson and Bloomberg, “Why the Infamous Trump Tower Meeting Didn’t Take Down Trump” (Fortune, April 20, 2019).

  22. Ibid.

  23. Mueller Report, Vol. II, pp. 98-105; Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman, “Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign” (New York Times, July 8, 2017).

  24. Mueller Report, Vol. II, p. 105 & n.732 (citing remarks by President Trump in June 15, 2018, press gaggle).

  25. Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Curious Case of Natalia Veselnitskaya” (National Review, July 19, 2017).

  CHAPTER 14

  1. Director Comey was scathing in his critique of Mrs. Clinton’s misconduct, even if he announced the conclusion that it did not reach the threshold of criminality worth prosecuting. Lisa Page, who has been portrayed in right-leaning media as the second coming of Emma Goldman, is a law-and-order oriented former organized crime prosecutor who was proud to work in an FBI she regarded as a conservative institution and opined in her House testimony that, while her politics were irrelevant to her professional judgments, she was not a Hillary Clinton fan (though she did not find him as “loathsome” as she described Donald Trump to be—and, like many Americans of diverse sensibilities, she was angered by candidate Trump’s unwise decision to engage in a political back-and-forth with Gold Star Muslim parents (of slain U.S. Captain Humayan Kahn) who dissented from his immigration policies). Page House Testimony, pp. 84-85. Similarly, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr did not tell his direct boss, Obama-appointed Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, about his interactions with Christopher Steele because he thought the matter should be dealt with by career investigators rather than political appointees. Ohr House Testimony, pp. 86-87.

  2. Grassley-Graham Memo, supra, p. 2.

  3. The IG used an analytical formula by which, if there were potentially proper and improper motivations for a particular investigative action, law enforcement officials were entitled to a presumption of proper motivation. As a practical matter, that meant there could be no conclusively biased decision unless the action involved was indisputably improper—in which case, of course, the action would be condemnable irrespective of motive. In most inquiries into abuse of power, that line of reasoning would never find abuse of power. See Andrew C. McCarthy, “The IG’s Report May Be Half-Baked” (National Review, June 14, 2018).

  4. Isikoff and Corn, Russian Roulette, supra.

  5. Lee Smith, “Unpacking the Other Clinton-Linked Russia Dossier” (Real Clear Investigations, April 26, 2018).

  6. James Comey, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership (Flatiron Books, 2018); Matthew Yglesias, “James Comey admits that his read of the polls may have influenced his handling of the Clinton email probe” (Vox, April 13, 2018); cf. Justice Dept. Inspector General Report, supra, p. x (“Much like with his July 5 announcement, we found that in making this decision, Comey engaged in ad hoc decisionmaking based on his personal views even if it meant rejecting longstanding Department policy or practice. We found unpersuasive Comey’s explanation as to why transparency was more important than Department policy and practice with regard to the reactivated Midyear investigation while, by contrast, Department policy and practice were more important to follow with regard to the Clinton Foundation and Russia investigations.”).

  7. Del Quentin Wilber, “In FBI Agent’s Account, ‘Insurance Policy’ Text Referred to Russia Probe” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 18, 2017). The same cannot be said, alas, for any irresponsible person. Katie Leach, “Fox News guest suggests FBI employees plotted Trump’s assassination” (Washington Examiner, Dec. 19, 2017).

  8. Ashley Parker and David E. Sanger, “Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails” (New York Times, July 27, 2016).

  9. Always long on innuendo and short on incriminating proof, Special Counsel Mueller’s prosecutors dutifully alleged that, hours after Trump’s sophomoric statement, a Russian military intelligence unit unsuccessfully targeted candidate Clinton’s personal office with malware, attempting to compromise email accounts. There is, naturally, no evidence offered of a causative link between Trump’s statement and Russia’s malevolence. Not do prosecutors offer an evidence-based reason to believe that anyone (Trump, Russia, anyone) believed the private-server emails—to which Mueller acknowledges Trump was referring—were stored in office accounts. Indeed, Mueller concluded that there was Trump–Russia conspiracy, so he implicitly found that the misconduct he insinuates did not happen—though that doesn’t stop him from making the insinuation, resuscitating the Democrats’ political collusion narrative. Mueller Report, Vol. I, p. 49.

  10. Later, at their Helsinki summit, Trump appeared to side with Putin against the conclusion of American intelligence agencies that Russia is responsible for hacking Democratic emails; moreover, he seemed to take seriously Putin’s laughable offer to have Russia’s investigators work with Special Counsel Mueller on the hacking case. And at a cabinet meeting at the start of 2019, the president made the astonishingly ignorant claim that the reason the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 “was because terrorists were going into Russia.… They were right to be there.” Andrew C. McCarthy, “Trump Bites on Putin’s ‘Incredible Offer’” (National Review, July 21, 2018).

  11. Donald J. Trump Tweet, May 25, 2019.

  12. Phillip Rucker and Josh Dawsey, “‘We fell in love’: Trump and Kim shower praise, stroke egos on path to nuclear negotiations” (Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2019).

  13. “‘Journalism for rent’: Inside the secretive firm behind the Trump dossier” (Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2017).

  14. Simpson further told congressional investigators that his post-election contact with Ohr was either at Ohr’s request or orchestrated by Steele. In fact, it was set in motion by Simpson, who asked to meet Ohr on December 10, gave Ohr a memory stick that Ohr believed contained Steele’s dossier, and pressed Ohr to have the Justice Department investigate the Alfa Bank server connection that purportedly served as a Trump–Russia back-channel. Bruce Ohr House Testimony, pp. 13, 40-42, 73-74, 175-89; Simpson House Testimony, pp. 77-80; Byron York, “Ohr, Simpson—with Russian oligarch in the background” (Washington Examiner, Aug. 8, 2018).

  15. York, “Ohr, Simpson—with Russian oligarch in the background,” supra; “Judicial Watch Uncovers DOJ Records Showing Numerous Bruce Ohr Communications with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele” (Judicial Watch, March 7, 2019).

  16. Gubarev et al. v. Orbis and Steele, Defendants’ Response to Claimants’ Request for Further Information, supra. p. 8; Chuck Ross, “Here’s How the Steele Dossier Spread through the Media and Government” (Daily Caller, March 18, 2019).

  17. Michael Isikoff, “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin” (Yahoo News, Sept. 23, 2016).

  18. Micah Morrison, “Hillary Clinton’s rogue agenda: Why Sidney Blumenthal matters” (New York Post, Oct. 31, 2015); John Cook, “Hacked Emails Show Hillary Clinton Was Receiving Advice at a Private Email Account From Banned, Obama-Hating Former Staffer” (Gawker, Oct. 1, 2015); David Goldstein, “2 Clinton supporters in ’08 reportedly shared Obama ‘birther’ story” (McClatchy, Sept. 16, 2016).

  19. Shearer’s brother-in-law is Strobe Talbot, President Clinton’s close friend from Oxford who was a deputy secretary in Clinton’s State Department, and his brother was a Clinton State Department ambassador. Shearer and his sister are alleged to have worked with Clinton enforcer Terry Lenzner to intimidate women positioned to accuse President Clinton of sexual improprieties. Shearer was also enmeshed in a bizarre controversy during the Bosnia war, in which he persuaded Serbian elements to pay him $25,000 to orchestrate negotiations with the Clinton administration that would prevent President Radovan Kardzic—the war criminal who directed the Srebrenica genocide—from being captured by military forces. Shearer worked closely with Blumenthal over the years, and was involved in composing the confidential intelligen
ce memos about Libya that Blumenthal emailed to Clinton. Brendan Bordelon, “Meet Cody Shearer, the Strangest Character in Hillary’s Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy” (National Review, June 1, 2015); Rowan Scarborough, “Clinton’s ‘Mr. Fixer,’ ally Sidney Blumenthal emerge on list of Russia collusion figures” (Washington Times, Jan. 31, 2018).

  20. Lee Smith, “Unpacking the Other Clinton-Linked Russia Dossier” (Real Clear Investigations, April 26, 2018).

  21. Jonathan M. Winer, “Devin Nunes is investigating me. Here’s the truth.” (Washington Post, Feb. 8, 2018).

  22. Jack Crowe, “Gowdy Claims FBI Relied on Clinton Ally Blumenthal to Corroborate Steele Dossier” (National Review, May 15, 2019).

  23. Susan B. Glasser, “Victoria Nuland: The Full Transcript” (Politico Magazine, Feb. 25, 2018).

  24. Eric Felten, “Victoria Nuland Can’t Keep Her Steele Story Straight” (Weekly Standard, June 21, 2018).

  25. Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Hero or hired gun? How a British former spy became a flash point in the Russia investigation.” (Washington Post, Feb. 6, 2018); Glenn Simpson Senate Testimony, supra, pp. 174-5.

  26. Hamburger and Helderman, “Hero or hired gun,” supra; Isikoff and Corn, Russian Roulette, supra, pp. 232-33; Jane Mayer, “Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier” (New Yorker, March 5, 2018).

  27. Byron York, “Years later, Trump dossier still frustrates verification efforts” (Washington Examiner, March 21, 2019).

  CHAPTER 15

  1. Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Wall Truth” (National Review, April 19, 2004).

  2. See U.S. Const., Amendment VI (“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed …”).

  3. The firm later dubiously claimed that Sussmann was not involved in the firm’s representation of the DNC and the Clinton campaign at the time of the meeting with Baker. As we have already detailed, Sussmann was the Perkins Coie lawyer who retained CrowdStrike on behalf of the DNC when its computers had been hacked. Baker testified that he had read in the press that Perkins Coie was representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, but he did not recall whether Sussmann told him that at the time of their meeting. Baker House Testimony, supra, pp. 52-53.

  4. James Baker Testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees (Oct. 3, 2018), pp. 43-51.

  5. Baker House Testimony, supra, pp. 43-51, 113-17. The House Intelligence Committee later noted in its report on Russia’s interference in the election that Baker had taken anti-Trump information from a person—now known to be Sussmann—who was concurrently supplying that information to the press. House Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Active Measures, supra, p. 57 & n.43; Kimberley A. Strassel, “Who Is Michael Sussmann? FBI’s general counsel met with a Clinton lawyer in September 2016” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 11, 2018).

  6. At the time of his testimony, Baker was under investigation for media leaks. He admitted sharing information related to the Russia investigation with Corn, but declined to say what the information was. Baker House Testimony, supra, pp. 35-51. See also Jeff Carlson, “Baker Testimony Reveals Perkins Coie Lawyer Provided FBI With Information on Alfa Bank Allegations” (Epoch Times, Jan. 21, 2019).

  7. David Corn, “A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump—Has the bureau investigated this material?” (Mother Jones, Oct. 31, 2016); FBI Director James Comey Letter to Various Senate and House Committee Chairmen (Oct. 28, 2016).

  8. House Report on Russian Active Measures, supra, p. 143 (Nunes Memo, supra, at p .2).

  9. Glen Caplin, “Hillary for America Statement on Bombshell Report About Trump Aide’s Chilling Ties to Kremlin” (Milwaukee Courier, Sept. 24, 2016).

  10. Carter Page Letter to FBI Director James Comey (Sept. 25, 2016).

  11. Carter Page Letter to Frank Walter-Steinmeier, Chairman-in-Office, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and Dame Audrey Glover, Head of OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, United States (Oct. 28, 2016).

  12. Page-Strzok Texts, supra; Andrew McCabe-Lisa Page Texts, Oct. 12-15, 2016; Sharyl Attkisson, “Senate probes FBI’s heavy-handed use of redactions to obstruct congressional investigations” (The Hill, June 14, 2018); Gregg Re, “FBI clashed with DOJ over potential ‘bias’ of source for surveillance warrant: McCabe-Page texts” (Fox News, March 22, 2019); John Solomon, “Steele’s stunning pre-FISA confession: Informant needed to air Trump dirt before election” (The Hill, May 7, 2019).

  13. Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo, “Court Approved Wiretap on Trump Campaign Aide Over Russia Ties” (New York Times, April 17, 2017) (FISC issued the warrant, an unidentified government official said, “after investigators determined that Mr. Page was no longer part of the Trump campaign, which began distancing itself from him in early August”; “The Justice Department considered direct surveillance of anyone tied to a political campaign as a line it did not want to cross, the official added”; “The official was not aware of any instances in which an active member of Mr. Trump’s campaign was directly surveilled by American law-enforcement or spy agencies, though some Trump associates were swept up in surveillance of foreign officials.”

  14. See Page Letter to Walter-Steinmeier et al. (Oct. 28, 2016), supra (“I am not currently affiliated with any political campaign”); David Cohen, “Conway denies Trump campaign ties to Russia figure” (Politico, Sept. 25, 2016); Margot Cleveland, “Carter Page: Obama’s FBI, DOJ May Have Spied on Trump Admin, Not Just Campaign” (Federalist, May 21, 2019) (Page continued to stay in touch with Trump officials, including during transition and into new administration).

  15. See, e.g., Gina Stevens and Charles Doyle, “Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping” (Congressional Research Service, Oct. 9, 2012) (see especially Chapter 121, “Stored Communications Act,” explaining that standards for government access to stored wire and electronic communications are less demanding than showing required for real-time eavesdropping warrants); Stored Communications Act, Title 18 U.S. Code, Sec. 2701 et seq.; compare Edward C. Liu, “Surveillance of Foreigners Outside the United States Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)” (Congressional Research Service, April 13, 2016) p.2 (noting that focus on “electronic communications” includes “electronically stored information”).

  16. Nicholas Fandos and Adam Goldman, “Barr Asserts Intelligence Agencies Spied on the Trump Campaign” (New York Times, April 19, 2019).

  17. In re Carter W. Page, a U.S. Person, U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, four warrant packages.

  18. ee, e.g., House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, p. 142; Gregg Re and Catherine Herridge, “FBI clashed with DOJ over potential ‘bias’ of source for surveillance warrant: McCabe-Page texts” (Fox News, March 22, 2019).

  19. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes Letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions (March 1, 2018); Nick Short, “FISA Court, Woods Procedures and Carter Page” (PoliticallyShort.com, April 20, 2019); Sharyl Attkisson, “Nunes memo raises question: Did FBI violate Woods Procedures?” (The Hill, Feb. 4, 2018).

  20. On May 23, 2019, President Trump issued an order conferring on Attorney General William P. Barr the authority to declassify documents. The exercise of that authority is taking place in consultation with relevant intelligence agencies to ensure the safeguarding of intelligence that should remain classified, particularly intelligence methods and sources. The fact that information may be declassified, moreover, does not mean that it will perforce become public. It may be a long time before we have a full picture—or as full as we will be permitted to have. The White House, “Presidential Memorandum on Agency Cooperation with Attorney General’s Review of Intelligence Activities Relating to the 2016 Presidential Campaigns” (May 23, 2019); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Bill Barr’s Declassification K
erfuffle” (National Review, May 28, 2019).

  21. See, e.g., Grassley-Graham memo, supra; House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, p. 51.

  22. Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous, “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump advisor Carter Page” (Washington Post, April 11, 2017).

  23. Compare the testimony of Director Comey’s then-general counsel, James Baker, who explained that he reviewed only the probable cause section of the application, not the accompanying sections mandated by statute. Baker House Testimony, supra, at pp. 94-95.

  24. Title 50, U.S. Code, 1804.

  25. The other eight sections do not bear on probable cause. They direct the government to supply: the identity of the applying officer and the target, a statement of the “minimization procedures” the FBI will use to avoid unauthorized monitoring, a description of the nature of the information sought (i.e., foreign intelligence), certifications by high-ranking national-security officials that the government is seeking foreign intelligence, an explanation of how the eavesdropping will be carried out, a recitation of any prior applications related to the target, and a statement of the proposed duration of the surveillance.

  26. The FBI’s then-General Counsel, James Baker, explained that when he reviewed the FISA warrant application, he confined himself to the section addressing probable cause because most of the rest of the application deals with legal requirements that are standard in all FISA applications. Baker House Testimony, supra, pp. 93-95.