Ball of Collusion

by Andrew C. McCarthy

  27. October 21, 2016, FISA Warrant Application, pp. 15-17 n.8.

  28. Schiff Memo, supra.

  29. Smith, “Unpacking the other Clinton-Linked Russia Dossier,” supra.

  30. Schiff Memo, supra.

  31. October 21, 2016 FISA Warrant Application, pp. 23 n.18.

  32. January 2017 FISA Warrant Renewal Application, p. 17 n.8.

  33. FISC Rules, supra, Rule 13 (p. 5).

  34. Margot Cleveland, “Has the DOJ Closed Its Inquiry Into Dossier Fabulist Christopher Steele” (Federalist, April 19, 2019); Elena Schor, “Grassley, Graham release copy of request for criminal probe of dossier author” (Politico, Feb. 5, 2018).

  35. Inspector General’s Report, supra, pp. xii, 395-424 (describing “cultural” problem: “although FBI policy strictly limits the employees who are authorized to speak to the media, we found that this policy appeared to be widely ignored during the period we reviewed”). Note that Deputy Director McCabe was fired after the inspector general found that he “lacked candor” in answering investigator’s questions during a leak investigation. See U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Inspector General, “A Report of Investigation of Certain Allegations Relating to Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew Mc-Cabe” (Feb. 2018); Andrew C. McCarthy, “McCabe: Leaking and Lying Obscure the Real Collusion” (National Review, April 21, 2018). Moreover, as this book goes to press, the inspector general has released a curt investigative summary indicating that a thus-far unidentified Bureau official who matches the description of Strzok (a former FBI deputy assistant director) committed misconduct by leaking sensitive information to the media, though the Justice Department declined to prosecute. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Inspector General, “Findings of Misconduct by an FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Unauthorized Contacts with the Media, Disclosing Law Enforcement and Other Sensitive Information to the Media, an Accepting a Gift from the Media” (Investigative Summary, May 29, 2019). As already noted, the FBI’s former General Counsel James Baker refused to answer some questions by House investigators, explaining that he was under criminal investigation in connection with media leaks.

  36. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Practice Manual, “Electronic Surveillance—Title III Affidavits”; see also Title 50, U.S. Code, Section 1804(a)(6)(C) (FISA); Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 2518(1)(E) (Title III criminal wiretaps).

  37. As we saw in Chapter 13, the Russians had far better ways to approach Trump, such as the Kremlin-connected oligarch Aras Agalarov, who had a personal relationship with the now-president and orchestrated the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

  CHAPTER 16

  1. Letter of Senators Charles E. Grassley and Lindsey O. Graham to The Honorable Susan Rice (and counsel) (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Feb. 8, 2018), excerpting Rice email-to-self (Jan. 20, 2017, 12:15 p.m.).

  2. Jeff Jacoby, “Obama repeats the myth that his administration was free of scandal” (Boston Globe, March 6, 2018).

  3. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Completely Missing the Point on Lisa Page’s Obama Text” (National Review, Feb. 18, 2018).

  4. Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Strzok-Page Texts and the Origins of the Trump–Russia Investigation” (National Review, May 14, 2018).

  5. Jack Holmes, “Here Are Some of the Propaganda Facebook Ads Russia Ran During the 2016 Election—Some are funny, but they’re all sad” (Esquire, Nov. 1, 2017).

  6. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), “Report on Russian Active Measures” (March 22, 2018), pp. 44-45; Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, and Adam Entous, “Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault” (Washington Post, June 23, 2017).

  7. Isikoff and Corn, Russian Roulette, supra; Christian Datoc, “Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator confirms Susan Rice ordered him to ‘stand down’ on Russian meddling” (Washington Examiner, June 20, 2018).

  8. “Transcript: Obama’s end-of-year news conference on Syria, Russian hacking and more” (Washington Post, Dec. 16, 2016).

  9. See, e.g., Andrew C. McCarthy, “The Transies and the Treaty” (National Review, Dec. 16, 2010); John Bolton, “New Start is Unilateral Disarmament” (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 8, 2010); James Jay Carafano, “Why New START Is a Non-Starter” (Daily Signal, Nov. 23, 2010);

  10. Redacted Caption (U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, April 26, 2017), Memorandum and Order, pp. 19-20.

  11. HPSCI Report on Russian Active Measures, pp. 54-55.

  12. Jessie Hellmann, “Trump: ‘I don’t want to hurt the Clintons’ over private email server” (The Hill, Nov. 22, 2016).

  13. See Andrew C. McCarthy, Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment (Encounter Books, 2014).

  14. House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, p. 38.

  15. President Barack Obama, Executive Order 13757 of December 28, 2016, Federal Register, Vol. 82, No. 1 (Jan. 3, 2017).

  16. Ibid., Sec. 1(a)(2)(E); see also, e.g., Missy Ryan, Ellen Nakashima, Karen DeYoung, “Obama administration announces measures to punish Russia for 2016 election interference” (Washington Post, Dec. 29, 2016).

  17. DAG Yates was already effectively running the Justice Department, though she would not formally become acting-AG until Loretta Lynch left office upon President Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

  18. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “Background to ‘Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections’: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution” (Jan. 6, 2017).

  19. It has now been widely reported that Brennan wanted Steele’s farfetched allegations incorporated but was shot down because they could not be corroborated. By 2019, especially after the Mueller report found no Trump–Russia conspiracy, the dossier stood in such disrepute that Brennan was posing as a longtime skeptic and claiming that it had been Comey, not he, who tried to force official ICA reliance on Steele. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Was Brennan’s ‘Intelligence Bombshell” the Steele Dossier?” (National Review, May 29, 2019).

  20. Isikoff and Corn, Russian Roulette, supra; Michael Isikoff, “Top FBI officials were ‘quite worried’ Comey would appear to be blackmailing Trump” (Yahoo News, May 15, 2019); Byron York, “New Revelations shed light on Comey, Trump, and that ‘loyalty’ demand” (Washington Examiner, April 20, 2018).

  21. James Comey, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Statement for the Record (June 8, 2017); Comey Memo to File, “My notes from private session with [President-elect] on 1/6/17”.

  22. Mollie Hemingway, “Comey’s Memos Indicate Dossier Briefing of Trump Was a Setup” (Federalist, April 20, 2018).

  23. Asked, “Did you confirm or corroborate the contents of the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,” Clapper responded: “Well, by the time of that, they already knew about it. By the time it was—it was after—I don’t know exactly the sequence there, but it was pretty close to when we briefed it and when it was out all over the place.” The reference to “when we briefed it” clearly refers to the briefings of Obama and Trump. Clapper later told The Washington Post that the first time he “had any interaction with Jake Tapper was on May 14 [of 2017].” Notwithstanding the Post’s game effort, that does not square with his House testimony. (House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, p. 107: “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,’ and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists abut the same topic. Clapper’s discussion with Tapper took place in early January 2017, around the time [intelligence officials] briefed President Obama and President-elect Trump, on ‘the Christopher Steele information,’ a two-page summary of which was ‘enclosed in’ the highly classified version of the ICA.”) Conveniently, Clapper does not mention the leak to Tapper or CNN’s January 10 report that the intelligence chiefs had briefed Trump on the dossier in his memoir, instead claiming he first heard the dossier was leaked when he learned that BuzzFeed had published it—which, of course, happened after the CNN report. Clapper, Facts and Fear
s, supra, p. 379; Glenn Kessler, “The Unsupported claim that James Clapper tipped Jake Tapper about the dossier” (Washington Post, May 3, 2018); Madeline Osburn, “4 Different Lies James Clapper Told About Lying to Congress” (Federalist, March 6, 2019).

  24. Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wisc.) Letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray (May 21, 2018) (including snippets from McCabe’s emails). Besides DAG Yates, McCabe’s email to the Justice Department was also directed to then-Principal Deputy General Matthew Axelrod.

  25. Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper, and Carl Bernstein, “Intel chiefs presented Trump with Claims of Russian efforts to compromise him” (CNN, Jan. 10, 2017—updated Jan. 12, 2018); Ken Bensinger, Miriam Elder, and Mark Schoofs, “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties to Russia” (BuzzFeed, Jan. 10, 2017); Chuck Ross, “Emails: Jake Tapper Tore Into ‘Irresponsible’ BuzzFeed Editor for Publishing the Steele Dossier” (Daily Caller, Feb. 8, 2019).

  26. Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner, “Ex-officials actually use security clearances to get rich” (New York Post, Aug. 22, 2018).

  27. This description is taken from Kramer’s deposition testimony in a libel suit arising out of BuzzFeed’s publication of the dossier. Gubarev v. BuzzFeed, No. 17 Civ. 60426 (S.D.N.Y. 2017), Deposition of David Kramer (Dec. 13, 2017). U.S. First Amendment jurisprudence makes libel a very difficult claim to prove against journalists, and the suit, as expected, was tossed out by a federal judge in December 2018. See Josh Gerstein, “Libel suit against BuzzFeed thrown out” (Dec. 19, 2018). For more on Kramer and his interactions with Steele, through Sir Andrew Wood, see 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); see also Victor Morton, “John McCain reportedly defends giving Trump dossier to James Comey in new Book” (Washington Times, May 9, 2018); Jerry Dunleavy and Daniel Chaitin, “John McCain associate behind dossier leak urged BuzzFeed to retract its story: ‘You are gonna get people killed!’” (Washington Examiner, March 14, 2019). For more on the McCain Foundation, see, e.g., Bill Allison, “McCain-Linked Nonprofit Received $1 Million from Saudi Arabia” (Bloomberg, March 31, 2016); Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “John McCain’s claim he has ‘nothing to do with’ the McCain Institute” (Washington Post, April 8, 2016) (rating the claim “Two Pinocchios” because the senator was better understood as having misspoken then misled).

  28. Kramer did not reveal the names when he was deposed.

  29. Ayesha Rascoe, “Trump accuses U.S. spy agencies of Nazi practices over ‘phony’ Russia dossier” (Reuters, Jan. 11, 2017).

  CHAPTER 17

  1. Compare Notes of Comey Communications with Trump, e.g. Feb. 8, 2017, Comey conversation with then-chief of staff Reince Priebus (“I repeated what I had told the President about not wanting to create a narrative that we were investigating him.”)

  2. P.L. 94-503, § 203; 90 Stat. 2407, 2427 (1976).

  3. See, e.g., Vivian S. Chu and Henry B. Hogue, “FBI Director: Appointment and Tenure” (Congressional Research Service, Feb. 19, 2014); Andrew C. McCarthy, “On the Limits of Loyalty” (National Review, May 13, 2017).

  4. Comey Senate Intelligence Committee Testimony (June 8, 2017), supra (questioning by Senator Angus King (Ind., Maine).

  5. Flynn supported Agent Robyn Gritz, a supervisor in the counterintelligence agent who implicated McCabe in the retaliation aspect of the case. Flynn wrote a letter commending Gritz on Defense Department stationary and offered to testify on her behalf. Daniel John Sobieski, “Could Flynn’s Unmasking be Mc-Cabe’s Revenge?” (American Thinker, June 30, 2017) (unidentified FBI witnesses are said to have heard McCabe disparage Flynn before and during the time he emerged as a figure in the Trump–Russia probe) (excerpting Circa report, no longer available, by Sara A. Carter and John Solomon); Paul Mirengoff, “Report: Top FBI Official Had It In For Flynn” (Powerline, June 27, 2017).

  6. Kristen Welker, Dafna Linzer, and Ken Dilanian, “Obama Warned Trump Against Hiring Mike Flynn, Say Officials” (NBC News, May 8, 2017).

  7. United States v. Michael Flynn, No. 17 Cr. 232 (RC) (District of Columbia, 2017), Statement of the Offense, pp. 4-5 (Dec. 1, 2017); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Outrageous Redactions to the Russia Report” (National Review, May 7, 2018).

  8. Flynn Statement of the Offense, supra, pp. 2-3.

  9. As noted, infra, Flynn was also the subject of a counterintelligence investigation in 2016, but there is no public indication that he was under targeted FISA surveillance, something that, one assumes, would have been disclosed in his false-statements prosecution if it had happened.

  10. Peter Baker, Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman, Adam Goldman, and Julie Hirschfield Davis, “Flynn’s Downfall Sprang From ‘Eroding Level of Trust’” (New York Times, Feb. 14, 2017).

  11. Not even Christopher Steele has accused Flynn of involvement in Russia’s hacking of Democratic email accounts, although there have been efforts to tie him to an effort by a now-deceased Republican activist to locate tens of thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server—suspected of being hacked but never proved to be. Director Comey was prepared to close the counterintelligence investigation of Flynn in late 2016, so it is unlikely to have been part of the Trump–Russia investigation, which continued well into 2017. In 2015, Flynn, who had started his own security company, took a trip to Moscow, where he was paid $45,000 to speak at a gala for RT, a regime-controlled news outlet—not exactly chump change, though not nearly as much the $500,000 Bill Clinton got for his speech to a regime-connected financial institution. At the gala’s head table, Flynn sat next to Vladimir Putin (also seated at the same table were Jill Stein, then the U.S. Green Party presidential candidate, and other dignitaries). Flynn disclosed his 2015 trip to the Defense Department; he and his son, who worked at his company, met with Kislyak before he flew to Moscow. Flynn made other unsavory professional choices after leaving military service, including work for the repressive Islamist regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. In fact, some of Flynn’s business associates have been charged with illegally lobbying on Turkey’s behalf (an investigation in which Flynn has cooperated with prosecutors). On the other side of the coin, Flynn also co-wrote with historian (and close friend of mine) Michael Ledeen a bestselling book, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War against Radical Islam and Its Allies (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), which argues that Putin’s regime is at the core of a global, anti-American alliance with Iran, and that it would bolster U.S. interests to attempt to pry Russia out of that relationship. See House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, pp. 52-54; Robert Windrem, “Senate Russia investigators are still interested in Jill Stein” (NBC News, Dec. 19, 2017) (report with accompanying photograph of those seated at head table); Rebecca Kheel, “Turkey and Michael Flynn: Five things to know” (The Hill, Dec. 17, 2018); McCarthy, “Outrageous Redactions to the Russia Report,” supra; McCarthy, “Intramural GOP Strife Over Russia? Not So Fast …” (National Review, January 3, 2017); McCarthy, “Collusion as Farce: The Hunt for Hillary’s Hackers” (American Greatness, July 6, 2017).

  12. David Ignatius, “Why did Obama dawdle on Russia’s hacking?” (Jan. 12, 2017).

  13. The Logan Act is codified at Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 953.

  14. Dan McLaughlin, “Repeal the Logan Act” (National Review, May 5, 2018); compare Director Comey’s rationalization for recommending against the indictment of Hillary Clinton: even though her actions fell within the ambit of the applicable statute, he was unable to find a case the Justice Department had prosecuted on similar facts.

  15. Sally Yates and James Clapper, Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony (May 8, 2017) (questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, N.C.)).

  16. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Of Course There Is Such a Thing as a ‘Perjury Trap’” (National Review, Aug. 11, 2018); McCarthy, “Flynn: Fact, and Narrative” (National Review, Dec. 19, 2018).

  17. Jonathan Turley, “No glory in James Comey getting away with hi
s abuse of FBI power” (The Hill, Dec. 15, 2018).

  18. Evan Perez, “Flynn changed story to FBI, no charges expected” (Feb. 17, 2017).

  19. House Intelligence Committee Report, supra, p. 54, n.97 (citing Comey testimony on March 2, 2017); Byron York, “Comey told lawmakers FBI agents saw ‘no physical indications of deception’ in Michael Flynn” (Washington Examiner, May 4, 2018).

  CHAPTER 18

  1. Comey House testimony (March 20, 2017), supra.

  2. Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contact With Russian Intelligence” (New York Times, Feb. 14, 2017).

  3. John Solomon, “Intelligence chairman accuses Obama aides of hundreds of unmasking requests” (The Hill, July 27, 2017).

  4. Andrew C. McCarthy, “On Susan Rice, the Issue Is Abuse of Power, Not Criminality” (National Review, April 5, 2017).

  5. Manu Raju, “Exclusive: Rice told House investigators why she unmasked senior Trump officials” (CNN, updated Sept. 18, 2017); David French, “Did Susan Rice Lie, Again?” (National Review, Sept. 14, 2017); Andrew C. McCarthy, “Did the DOJ Misuse the Steele Dossier—to Spy on the Trump Campaign?” (National Review, Dec. 9, 2017); Claudia Rosett and George Russell, “Obama ambassador’s testimony on intelligence unmasking raises new questions” (Fox News, Oct. 20, 2017).

  6. Morning Joe, Evelyn Farkas Interview (MSNBC, March 2, 2017) (video); Alex Diaz, “Who is Obama administration official who spilled beans?” (Fox News, March 29, 2017).

  7. Sessions recused himself from the Russia counterintelligence investigation based on a regulation that applies to criminal investigations. He should have acknowledged the potential for conflicts related to the Trump campaign (of which he was a top surrogate) and announced that he would recuse himself if individual criminal investigations arose out of the campaign. He could then have recused himself from, for example, the Flynn false-statements investigation, and even the Manafort/Gates investigation (Trump campaign officials whose crimes were unrelated to the campaign), without recusing himself from the overarching Russia intelligence probe. By doing the latter, and doing it in such sweeping language, he set himself up for such claims as that he should not weigh in on the removal of the FBI director and the appointment of the director’s replacement—even though an attorney general who cannot supervise the FBI cannot truly function as attorney general. In fact, Sessions conflict was not as serious as that of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who never recused himself (and who never faced media–Democrat pressure to do so because he appointed Special Counsel Mueller against Trump’s wishes and was seen as supportive of the Trump–Russia investigation). See Andrew C. McCarthy, “Attorney General Sessions’s Recusal Was Unnecessary—The regulation he cited applies to a different type of investigation” (National Review, June 13, 2017); McCarthy, “Rod Rosenstein’s Subpoena Threat: He’s Conflicted and He’s Acting Like It” (National Review, June 13, 2018).