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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is Huge, Astonishing - Josh Marshall
By JOSH MARSHALL Published MAY 24, 2017 5:08 PM
Its so far in the weeds and doesnt directly implicate or exonerate Trump. So I suspect it may somehow not get the attention it deserves. But the new report from the Post that James Comeys decision to announce the Clinton no charges decision on his own in July 2016 may itself have been the product of a successful Russian disinformation campaign is simply remarkable.
For almost a year weve understood that the main reason James Comey chose to announce his recommendation not to bring charges against Hillary Clinton on his own was tied in significant part to that tarmac meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton. Early this month we learned that in a Russian hacked email cache the FBI had also found a letter that, while ambiguous, seemed to suggest that Lynch had agreed to go easy on Clinton. That too figured into Comeys decision. And the impact of the tarmac meeting may only have been so great because of the earlier email.
At least as I recall this new detail, the email was ambiguous but enough to make the FBI worry that if it subsequently came out in a Wikileaks email dump it could bring Lynchs independence into question.
Now this new story tells a very different story. The email appears to be much more specific, suggesting that Lynch had given her assurance that she wouldnt let the probe go too far. But thats not the big news: it now appears to be the consensus opinion in the FBI and intelligence community that the email is in fact fraudulent, presumably a fake document woven into a trove of genuine documents with the aim of having it be found by the FBI and trigger something just like what in fact happened. Notably, the apparently fraudulent email never appeared in any of the document dumps during the course of the election. It only seems to have dropped directly into the FBIs hands.
There is a lot here that is unclear, a lot left to supposition. But fraudulent documents get woven into caches of genuine documents for specific reasons, sometimes merely to sow confusion, more often to trigger specific actions. Remember, the Niger Uranium forgeries which played such a notorious role in the lead up to the Iraq War and controversies lasting long after it were in fact forgeries included in a batch of genuine documents. Some dissenting sources suggest that the phony email didnt play much role in Comeys decision. It only got pulled in as an ex-post facto explanation once Comeys decision-making came into question. (Even if true, that in itself would be a highly disturbing development.) Regardless, the idea that the FBI and James Comey himself could have been punked by such an operation and taken such consequential actions on the basis of it is simply astonishing.
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-huge-astonishing
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)and kept his mouth shut.
Like he did for Trump.
dalton99a
(81,392 posts)Cosmocat
(14,558 posts)It wasn't Comey's concern how any kind of wiki leaks e-mail would be spun or perceived.
And, it still does not explain his going out like he did a year ago and editorialize like he did over a big nothing burger investigation.
I just don't get how hard it is for people to understand. He might have some actual integrity that has been sucked out of existing republicans, but he was still a republican and he cut his teeth as a special prosecutor for the white water witch hunts ... Dude had that insane right wing Clinton derangement that left him completely irrational over her.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)that had to be corrected by the FBI the day he was fired!
And he still wouldn't say anything about Trump or anyone else related to Trump.
emulatorloo
(44,063 posts)"How a dubious Russian document influenced the FBIs handling of the Clinton probe"
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029110468
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,587 posts)ffr
(22,665 posts)FUCK THE FUCKING HELL! We're stuck in this parallel nightmare of a dream world because enough people want to believe she's something she is not.
Here we have the pOTUS divulging where our nuclear subs are, sharing international secrets with adversaries, and HRC got drilled into the ground by Fox and Friends (and anyone stupid enough to listen to them) all because she MIGHT have had government secrets on her private E-mail server, like what Colin Powell used when he was SoS.
Oh but now I get it. Not only are the Clintons on the enemy list of the KGOP, they're also on the enemy list of the Kremlin..."Clinton are both regarded as political enemies of the Kremlin.
The idea that Russians would tell a story in which the Clinton campaign, Soros and even an Obama administration official are connected that Russians might tell such a story, that is not at all surprising, said Matt Rojansky, a Russia expert and director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center. Because that is part of the Kremlin worldview. - WaPo
iluvtennis
(19,833 posts)LaydeeBug
(10,291 posts)BSdetect
(8,994 posts)How easy to dupe our IC people.
Now why can't we get rid of Putin so easily?
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)Huma Abedin's/Anthony Weiner's computers, too!
american_ideals
(613 posts)FBI NY Field office was leaking to Giuliani. That's enough to say the FBI put their finger on the scales.
And if you read Marshall's articles over last year, he thinks Trump and his employee Sater are deeply involved with Russian mob money, and that the NY Field office is somehow complicit - perhaps a Whitey Bulger setup where FBI NY FO overlooked Trump's crimes.
So there's lots to investigate about Giuliani, NY Field office, and Russian mob in NYC. Let's see what comes out.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)already. They'll call into question all FBI intelligence and say "How can we possibly trust the FBI on this matter when they got Clinton so wrong?"
This will also give them room to reopen the email matter.
It's a fishy leak.
american_ideals
(613 posts)People in the IC have been saying Russia is running an intelligence war on the US. It just hasn't been widely known. Now it's coming to light.
See Marshall's interview of the Yale historian on the Marshall podcast a few weeks ago. The Yale guy said Russia is weak and poor, except they have a very powerful and skilled intelligence service. And they are using that secret service to damage their rivals in the West and NATO. And have been doing so since they recruited Snowden to damage the NSA.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Not to mention that Comey has not said it did.
I don't see the connection, myself. That email would be a reason for Comey to recommend prosecution, NOT recommend complete exoneration, or to do a press conf. about it.
I'm going to wait & see what the FBI says about that.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Comey's press conf altered the election, because it forced him to issue another statement in Oct.
If Comey never held the press conf, HRC is probably still in office.
So yes. The email matters. A lot.
Edit: p.s. hi, and hope you don't mind I quoted you in the "Quit now" thread just recently.
TomSlick
(11,088 posts)Comey is a self-righteous rascal but he's no idiot. The fake intelligence was pretty obviously fake. I'll wait a couple of days to reach any conclusions.
Mme. Defarge
(8,012 posts)I think it is a stretch to assume Comey was "punked". If he wasn't sure one way or another, I think his peremptory action in July probably prevented more damage happening to HRC than had Justice made the announcement that there was no case against her, after which might follow an accusation of collusion between Justice and the Clinton campaign.
american_ideals
(613 posts)They have the info they need.
They talked to the parties that were allegedly recorded. And the parties don't know each other.
If the FBI didn't believe their statements, the FBI could look at their emails. But they didn't ask for the emails.
So Comey knows the doc is a fake and he got punked.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Schindler alleges FAR more intervention by the Russians than what Josh M is calling "Huge. Astonishing".
Start here:
https://20committee.com/
Schindler's ex-NSA and believes there is Cold War 2.0 going on right now, and Putin started it by intelligence operations -- intervening in our elections, using propaganda (RT, Sputnik, online), and by recruiting Snowden to hurt the US intelligence community.
american_ideals
(613 posts)Glad Marshall is coming around. He's heard the rumbling but he's been unwilling to say much, waiting for info to come out.
I agree with him that this is a huge story.
I think he's right that this is the tip of the iceberg - that we will learn much more about Russia's spy/propaganda attack on us. We will see.