Obama referred to DOJ for criminal charges

[DaisyDay]

This is rather spicy news. Dan Borgino, the deputy director of the FBI, is "shocked to the core" by what's been uncovered:

3 minute short:

Benny "Russian-Bought" Johnson reading the tea leaves!

 

[Always in His Presence]

Benny "Russian-Bought" Johnson reading the tea leaves!

Of course - unlike the Republicans - you actually have proof of that. Your link is from a year ago - certainly substantiated proof, charges filed - a guilty verdict has been reached -

or is this no different thank what you are mocking?

 

[Say it aint so]

Of course - unlike the Republicans - you actually have proof of that. Your link is from a year ago - certainly substantiated proof, charges filed - a guilty verdict has been reached -

or is this no different thank what you are mocking?

For the sake of accuracy. Benny Johnson is a right wing podcaster commenting on Dan Bingino, a known right wing conspiracy theorist.

 

[DaisyDay]

Of course - unlike the Republicans - you actually have proof of that. Your link is from a year ago - certainly substantiated proof, charges filed - a guilty verdict has been reached -

Are you saying that Benny Johnson did not accept money from RT or are you complaining that last year is so long ago that it doesn't count? The article includes a link to the indictment.

or is this no different thank what you are mocking?

I'm laughing at the idea of using a Youtube Benny Johnson, admitted Russian dupe, as serious evidence. It's just him reading tea leaves (his phrase, in the clip). If you can't see the difference between using an unreliable "influencer" and laughing at using an unreliable "influencer" seriously, I probably can't help you, try as I might.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Are you saying that Benny Johnson did not accept money from RT or are you complaining that last year is so long ago that it doesn't count? The article includes a link to the indictment.

I'm not clear either. I think because the indicted Russians are 'at large' and presumably back in Russia, they haven't been convicted in a court of law, and therefore the allegations are unproven, despite Johnson and others portraying themselves as unwitting victims of Tenet Media and its Russian backers.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

These people said the same things about rigged election nonsense. What ever happened with the rigged election of 2020?

Ironic statement because people to this day believe the 2016 election was rigged by the Russians and that Trump was complicit. We are now starting to discover that Trump was telling the truth about the Russian collusion witch hunt the entire time. So what ever happened to the Russian rigged 2016 election that resulted in the greatest DNC election disappointment in American history?

 

[DaisyDay]

I'm not clear either. I think because the indicted Russians are 'at large' and presumably back in Russia, they haven't been convicted in a court of law, and therefore the allegations are unproven, despite Johnson and others portraying themselves as unwitting victims of Tenet Media and its Russian backers.

Since they admitted to taking large wads of moolah in exchange for using pro-Russia talking points, that part is not in question. This is merely sleazy ethics, not criminal, on the influencers' part.

 

[PatrickTate]

DOJ receives Gabbard's criminal referral on bombshell Russia claims | Fox News

Gabbard released unclassified documents that reportedly show "overwhelming evidence" that President Barack Obama and his team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia probe.

www.foxnews.com

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 Department of Justice declined further comment, but confirmed to Fox News that the department received the referral.

Gabbard released unclassified documents Friday that reportedly show "overwhelming evidence" that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump-Russia collusion probe after Trump's election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In my opinion this may be some of the best news that I have seen in my sixty six years!

 

[ozso]

For the sake of accuracy. Benny Johnson is a right wing podcaster commenting on Dan Bingino, a known right wing conspiracy theorist.

The deputy director of the FBI is just some conspiracy theorist?

 

[RocksInMyHead]

The deputy director of the FBI is just some conspiracy theorist?

He's not just a conspiracy theorist, but he is one nonetheless. His appointment as the FBI deputy director doesn't change that fact, and we should keep it in mind when he starts talking about conspiracy theories.

 

[Say it aint so]

The deputy director of the FBI is just some conspiracy theorist?

The election was stolen.
Biden should be in jail for treason.
Epstein was murdered.
Yes, he is a conspiracy theorist.
And it shows the state of lunacy at today's Trump DOJ.
Pam Bondi was part of that Rudy Giuliani Four Seasons press conference next to the porn shop.
From her, to Kash Patel to Bongino, the Trump DOJ is just a cadre of crazy.

 

[eclipsenow]

The deputy director of the FBI is just some conspiracy theorist?

The DIRECTOR of the FBI Kash Patel is just some conspiracy theorist - a "Big Lie Believer" that the 2020 election was stolen. So it would not surprise me that any underline was also into this rubbish.

 

[eclipsenow]

Honestly - America continues to amaze me. The evidence is in - but the 'alternative-right' echo-chamber just swallows the lies coming out of the White House and beg for more! What happened to wanting to 'drain the swamp'? Is human corruptibility limited to the left only? Doesn't Trump's very nature give the Christian-right pause for concern? His demonstrated history of sexual assault, tax evasion, fraud, encouraging treason on Jan 06, all of it? Even down to the little things - like having his golf caddie drop the ball outside the sand so Trump can cheat at golf! Doesn't the raw narcissism of all this cause concern?

As an Australian looking on - I can only shake my head in horror at the threats to America's democracy - and the integrity of so many churches - because of Trumpism. EG: The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material she claimed proved a “treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.​

​

As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a 5-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community’s conclusion Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.​

​

Russia’s activities during the 2016 election remain some of the most examined events in recent history. The Kremlin’s campaign and the subsequent U.S. government response were the subject of at least five major investigations by the Republican-led House and Senate intelligence committee; two Justice Department special counsels; and the department’s inspector general.​

​

Those investigations either concluded — or accepted the conclusion — that Russia embarked on a campaign to interfere in the election through the use of social media and hacked material.​

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The House-led probe, conducted by Trump allies, also concurred Russia ran an election interference campaign but said the purpose was to sow chaos in the U.S. rather than boost Trump. Several of the reports criticize the actions of Obama administration officials, particularly at the FBI, but don’t dispute the fundamental findings Moscow sought to interfere in the election.​

​

The Associated Press has reviewed those reports to evaluate how Gabbard’s claims stack up:​

Russian election interference​

CLAIM: “The intelligence community had one assessment: that Russia did not have the intent and capability to try to impact the outcome of the U.S. election leading up to Election Day. The same assessment was made after the election.” — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday.​

​

The documents Gabbard released do not support her claim. She cites a handful of emails from 2016 in which officials conclude Russia had no intention of manipulating the U.S. vote count through cyberattacks on voting systems.​

​

President Barack Obama’s administration never alleged voting infrastructure was tampered with. Rather, officials have said, Russian operatives hacked emails of prominent Democrats that were subsequently released through WikiLeaks and launched a covert social media campaign to sow discord and inflame U.S. public opinion. More than two dozen Russians were indicted in 2018 in connection with those efforts.​

​

Republican-led investigations in Congress have affirmed that conclusion, and the emails that Gabbard released do not contradict that finding.​

​

Shift in assessment?​

CLAIM: “There was a shift, a 180-degree shift, from the intelligence community’s assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald Trump won the election that completely contradicted those assessments that had come previously.” — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday.​

​

There was no shift.​

​

The emails Gabbard released show that a Department of Homeland Security official in August 2016 told then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper there was “no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count.”​

​

The public assessment the Obama administration made public in January 2017 reached the same conclusion: “DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.”​

​

Putin’s intent​

CLAIM: The Obama administration “manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false promoting the LIE that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government helped President Trump win the 2016 election.” — Gabbard on Truth Social Wednesday.​

​

The material declassified this week reveals some dissent within the intelligence community about whether Putin wanted to help Trump or simply inflame the U.S. public. That same question led to a partisan divide on the House Intelligence panel when it examined the matter several years later.​

​

Gabbard’s memo released last week cites a “whistleblower” who she says served in the intelligence community at the time and who is quoted as saying that he could not “concur in good conscience” with the intelligence community’s judgment that Russia had a “decisive preference” for Trump.​

​

Such dissent and debate are not unusual in the drafting of intelligence reports. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee examined whether there was any political interference in the Obama administration’s conclusions and reported that “all analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper.”​

​

In 2018, Putin directly addressed the question of whether he preferred Trump at a press conference in Helsinki even as he sidestepped a question about whether he directed any of his subordinates to help Trump.​

​

“Yes, I did,” Putin said. “Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.”​

​

Steele dossier​

CLAIM: “They used already discredited information like the Steele dossier — they knew it was discredited at the time.” — Gabbard to Fox News on Tuesday.​

​

The dossier refers to a collection of opposition research files compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats during the 2016 election.​

​

Those files included uncorroborated tips and salacious gossip about Trump’s ties to Russia, but the importance to the Russia investigation has sometimes been overstated.​

​

It was not the basis for the FBI’s decision to open an investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the Justice Department’s inspector general found. Some of the records released by Gabbard this week also reveal that it was a Central Intelligence Agency human source close to the Kremlin that the agency primarily relied on for its conclusion that Putin wanted to help Trump and hurt Clinton, not the Steele dossier.​

​

FBI agents on the case didn’t even come to possess the dossier until weeks into their inquiry. Even so, Trump supporters have seized on the unverified innuendo in the document to undercut the broader Russia investigation. Many of Steele’s claims have since been discredited or denied.​

​

It is true, however, that the FBI and Justice Department relied in part on the Steele dossier to obtain surveillance warrants to eavesdrop on the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser, the inspector general found. FBI agents continued to pursue those warrants even after questions arose about the credibility of Steele’s reporting.​

​

The dossier was also summarized — over the objections of then-CIA Director John Brennan, he has said — in a two-page annex to the classified version of the intelligence community assessment.​

​

 

[DaisyDay]

In my opinion this may be some of the best news that I have seen in my sixty six years!

Why would a bogus referral to distract from the president's woes delight you that much?