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Washington Post Goaded Into Deleting Objective Criticism of Garland’s DOJ

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The notoriously left-leaning Washington Post tweeted out an article on Wednesday criticizing Attorney General Merrick Garland’s politicization of the Justice Department. The publication later decided to delete the article after significant backlash from the left. 

The headline read ‘Garland vowed to depoliticize Justice.  Then the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago.’ 

The Washington Post has since deleted the tweet promoting the story as the headline sparked outrage on Twitter, which prompted the Jeff Bezos-owned publication to re-post it using a different headline.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1557380936009916417?s=20&t=u8l0qmYRrwI5pDQ0znWA_A

“No, he’s in the middle of unraveling a crime spree committed by the former president of the United States. There…fixed it for you,” one Twitter user wrote.

“This is so embarrassing I worry for the future of journalism,” another Twitter commenter said of the original headline.

The Washington Post promptly reworded the headline.

The article was posted in response to the Monday night raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.  President Trump’s son Eric Trump believes that the FBI violated due process rights by conducting the raid without giving Trump’s lawyers a copy of the search warrant, only allowing them to view the document from ten feet away.

The Washington Post’s now-deleted article came as notable individuals from both sides of the political aisle chimed in on the dangers of a weaponized Justice System and the precedent that this might set. 

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has come to the defense of former President Donald Trump after the FBI raided his Florida Mar-a-Lago home.

“The raid of MAL [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves… Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”

Rand Paul chimed in as well, saying:

“The @FBI raid on President Trump was approved by Director Wray, who also claimed that the illegal FISA warrants used to spy on Trump were constitutional. Today’s raid is outrageous and unjust, but predictable.”

Republican candidate for Arizona Governor, Kari Lake wonders whether or not this establishes a precedent, that if “Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama should be nervous if Trump ever makes it back into the White House.”

Kari Lake on the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
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Several left-of-center types displayed concern over the raid as well. Attorney Alan Dershowitz noted that the raid seemed to be “misconduct.”

“The raid is supposed to be a last resort. But this administration has used the weaponization of the justice system against its political enemies…This is improper, and this is misconduct.”

Andrew Yang also offered an unpopular perspective among those on the left.

 

Whistleblowers Claim FBI, DOJ are Downplaying Negative Hunter Biden Information

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has claimed that “highly credible” whistleblowers are relaying information to him in regards to the FBI and Department of Justice actively trying to downplay the outpouring of negative press towards Hunter Biden.

The ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, through letters reviewed by CBS, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray claiming that several sources within the FBI have given him evidence of attempts by the Bureau and Department of Justice to downplay, and even outright dismiss, bad press related to the first son. 

According to Grassley:

“The information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI’s receipt and use of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI’s false portrayal of acquired evidence as disinformation. The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter,”

“First, it’s been alleged that the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s criminal financial and related activity… It is further alleged that in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by an FBI Headquarters (“FBI HQ”) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”

The Iowan senator’s letter also claims that “an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed” by a senior FBI agent at the bureau’s Washington Field office just one month prior to the 2020 election.

“The allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation,”

In the CBS report, it was noted that “more than 150 financial transactions involving either Hunter or James Biden’s global business affairs were flagged as concerning by U.S. banks for further review.”

In another letter, this one dated May 31st, Grassley’s accuses one Timothy Thibault, the senior FBI officer at the Washington field office, of potentially violating federal laws, regulations, and Bureau guidelines.

“Whistleblowers have reported to me, that although the FBI and Justice Department maintain policies dictating specific standards requiring substantial factual predication to initiate an investigation, Thibault and other Justice Department and FBI employees failed to comply with these requirements,”

 

“In light of these allegations, I remain very concerned that political bias by a select group of Justice Department and FBI officials has infected the Justice Department’s and FBI’s usual process and procedure to open and pursue high-profile and politically charged investigations,” 

Grassley alleges that Garland and Wray have “systemic and existential problems within” their respective agencies”, and has requested records from the FBI and DOJ with a deadline of August 8th. 

This all comes on the heels of reports that Hunter Biden could be facing potential criminal charges for not registering as a foreign agent while doing business deals abroad. Biden’s now infamous laptop has exposed multiple foreign business schemes the then-Vice President’s son tried to shepherd. Last week The New York Post revealed dozens of sit-downs between Hunter and Joe Biden that were frequently scheduled just days after Hunter visited with foreign officials.

It would seem that not even the FBI and the DOJ can make this information go away, try as they might. 

Steve Bannon to Testify Before the J6 Committee This Week

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The Jan. 6th committee is set to resume hearings this Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday’s hearing will specifically focus on “extremist groups” and their activities leading up to the event at the capitol.

Committee member Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, told CNN:

“We are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these groups and those who were trying – in government circles – to overturn the election,”

The goal is to “connect the dots” between these civilian “extremist groups” and those in Trump’s circle (Bannon) who questioned the integrity of the election, something a large percent of the country is also questioning.

The committee hopes to demonstrate a clear link between Bannon and others from the Trump administration and such groups, particularly the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. 

Former Proud Boys spokesperson Jason Van Tatenhove is expected to testify, as he claims to have knowledge of the inner workings of the organization.

Most notable will be the testimony of former Whitehouse Strategist Steven K. Bannon, who notified the committee that he was willing to testify after President Trump waived executive privilege.

Bannon had previously refused to comply with committee subpoenas and was last year charged with two counts of contempt of Congress.

Bannon’s attorney Robert Costello said in a letter to the committee: 

“President Trump has decided that it would be in the best interests of the American people to waive executive privilege for Stephen K. Bannon, to allow Mr. Bannon to comply with the subpoena issued by your Committee,”

Bannon’s testimony is yet to be scheduled. The Justice Department lawyers who are litigating Bannon’s contempt of Congress charges seem to be skeptical of Bannon’s Motives. 

DOJ lawyers said in a court filing:

“His continued failure to comply with the subpoena’s document demand while claiming he now will testify suggests his actions are little more than an attempt to change the optics of his contempt,”

Bannon had previously argued that he did not have to comply with subpoenas after Trump invoked executive privilege, but federal prosecutors say that because Bannon was a private citizen at the time of the capitol riot, such privilege did not apply.

Kash Patel Suggests Durham Trials Should Take Place Outside Compromised DC

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Ryan DeLarme
June 3rd, 2022

Former White House national security official and children’s book author Kash Patel has suggested that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) move its Russia hoax trials outside of the D.C. area to ensure an untainted jury and judge. This statement comes in the wake of Michael Sussmann’s acquittal on Tuesday.

Related: Michael Sussmann Found “Not Guilty”

For those who are still unfamiliar, Sussman was the former Hillary Clinton Campaign lawyer that the DOJ prosecuted on charges of lying to the FBI as part of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the “Russia collusion” hoax. 

Sussman was a key player in promoting the “Russia collusion” hoax.

Patel is intimately tied to the case and was even brought up during the trial, his now 4-year-old interview with Sussmann was used as evidence from when he assisted then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) investigate the “Russia collusion” hoax while Nunes served on the House Intelligence Committee.

The former prosecutor said that after Sussmann’s acquittal, his faith in the Justice Department was “completely gone.” 

“I was the last man who had any faith in D.C. and the Department of Justice. It is now completely gone,” Patel said in a statement obtained by Breitbart News.

Patel has condemned the jury pool as being “tainted” and politically motivated. He has also called out the federal court system for allowing three pro-Hillary Clinton Democrat donors to serve on the jury.

He has also called on the DOJ to remove the hoax cases from D.C.’s jurisdiction.

“The DOJ needs to move these cases out of D.C. as it is 100% impossible to have a fair trial in the city. I am appalled at this verdict and appalled at our justice system,” 

The former prosecutor was recently interviewed by John Bachman of Newsmax, where he predicted that we will see two more indictments before the Igor Danchenko trial this October. When asked who he thought these indictments would include, Patel said: 

“I think it’s going to be an FBI agent who lied, and admitted it, if not one or two more. And I think that Fusion GPS is most certainly part of this conspiracy because they are all over the dossier…”

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Patel also claimed that the FBI itself is under investigation for lying, and withholding evidence of innocence in regard to the Trump/Russia collusion smear.

Techno Fog Coverage of The Sussmann Trial: Fingers Pointed at FBI Leadership

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Excerpt from Techno Fog’s SubStack report from Monday evening:

It was a long day of travel but we’re back at it on the Sussmann trial.

This morning started with testimony from Bill Priestap, who in September 2016 was the FBI’s Assistant Director of Counterintelligence. His testimony was expected, even before the witness lists were put out. Back in January, we observed that Priestap had testified before a grand jury. In fact, Priestap himself stated today that he testified before the grand jury in June 2021.

A little bit of background on Priestap before we begin. Priestap approved the opening of Crossfire Hurricane and decided against defensive briefings being provided to the Trump Campaign. He was Peter Strzok’s supervisor and also approved the use of all the confidential human sources used against the Trump campaign (Stefan Halper, et al.).

Last week, former FBI general counsel James Baker testified that he spoke with Priestap about his meeting with Sussmann and “repeated to Mr. Priestap that Michael had said that he was not there on behalf of a particular client, that he was there as a citizen, as a – essentially as a human source of information, confidential source.”

At trial today, Priestap was presented with notes he took after that meeting with Baker. Those notes reflected that conversation with Baker, stating Sussmann “said not doing this for any client.” Priestap also said that the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization investigation ultimately fell under his control. Getting to the issue of materiality, Priestap was then asked about why the motivations of sources matter to the FBI:

Q: Based on your experience, if Mr. Sussmann had brought these allegations to the FBI on behalf of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, would that have mattered to the FBI?

Priestap: Again, the – somebody – anybody bringing information to the FBI, we’re interested – the FBI is interested in knowing the motivation of the person providing the information.

On cross examination, Priestap admitted he couldn’t recall the meeting with Baker or why he wrote in his notes that Sussmann wasn’t there on behalf of a client. After approximately 6 years, his memory was fuzzy:

Q: Do you remember anything more about why you wrote that down?

Priestap: I do not.

Q: You don’t remember anything about the context in which that was said to you?

Priestap: I do not.

To summarize the defense theory of this case, it’s that Sussmann was there to help the FBI and that he supposedly acted against his clients’ interest by stopping a New York Times article on the Alfa Bank allegations from being published. On that topic, Priestap discussed how the FBI might ask a newspaper to not run a story:

Q: As a general matter, if the FBI knew that a newspaper story was coming out about a threat from a nation state, are there ever occasions in which you would, at the FBI, want to ask a newspaper to hold off on running that story?

Priestap: Yes.

Q: Okay. And that’s because there are situations in which the FBI would want to have the chance to investigate before a story came out, right?

Priestap: Yes. If the FBI thought, let’s just say, that publicly revealing a certain matter could potentially negatively impact not just things the FBI was doing but potentially negatively impact the country, we’d want to have a conversation about it.

Then there’s this blockbuster of a comment. Counsel for Sussmann presented Priestap with messages from the FBI’s internal messaging system, in which Priestap discussed how the FBI’s leadership – Comey, McCabe, et al. – were excited about pursuing the Alfa Bank/Trump allegations:

The influence that FBI leadership (Comey and McCabe) had on the investigations related to the Trump/Russia accusations is notable – but not an exception. This is the first time we heard that the Alfa Bank hoax was pushed by FBI leadership. However, this fits their broader pattern. Recall the statement of FBI agent William Barnett. He was part of the FBI’s investigation of General Flynn and decided it should be closed down. The FBI’s senior officials, who ran the investigation from the “top down,” called the shots.

Testimony from FBI Agent Ryan Gaynor

Back in 2016, Agent Gaynor was the FBI’s counterintelligence division’s unit chief in Washington, DC. He learned of the Alfa Bank allegations on September 23, 2016 during a briefing led by the FBI’s Chicago field office. Agent Gaynor reported to Supervisor Special Agent Joe Pientka (who, along with Strzok, interviewed General Flynn) and volunteered to help work on the case.

This is how he described some of the steps the FBI took in its Alfa Bank investigation:

As to the accuracy of the information and accusations provided by Sussmann? One investigating agent found it to be BS:

In fact, the Chicago Office itself was curious about the source of Sussmann’s data. Agent Curtis Heide e-mailed:

Their supervisor in Chicago agreed:

Whether or not the Chicago team would have access to the source of the Alfa Bank data was discussed – but not approved by – FBI headquarters.

Then there’s the issue of another confidential human source (CHS). The Chicago Field Office was informed that the Alfa Bank allegations had been provided to various media outlets. This source “was not Mr. Sussmann.”

End excerpt.

Click here to read Techno Fog’s full report on the Sussmann trial.