SPYGATE; SMOKING GUN

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

They picked a fight with the wrong guy. They played dirty in the wrong country. This just isn't America. Anyone that remembers the post-watergate GOP can predict the future of the post Russiagate Democratic Party...

[countrygirl2]

Say what you want Paul the guy is dirty.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

From NeverTrump Review of all places:

Spinning a Crossfire Hurricane: The Times on the FBI’s Trump Investigation

www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/crossfire-hurricane-new-york-times-report-buries-lede/

10 Key Takeaways From The New York Times’ Error-Ridden Defense Of FBI Spying On Trump Campaign

thefederalist.com/2018/05/17/10-key-takeaways-from-new-york-times-error-ridden-defense-of-fbi-spying-on-trump-campaign/

[djAdvocate]

May 17, 2018 18:10:07 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mueller has a lot of options besides indicting Trump. Here they are

Rudy Giuliani's assertion to CNN this week that President Donald Trump can't be indicted by the special counsel, and thus can't face a subpoena, banks on a series of internal Justice Department policies.

The question to this day is untested in the court system. Yet the step-by-step process Robert Mueller or any special counsel could follow for a President under investigation has several possible outcomes.

According to several legal experts, historical memos and court filings, this is how the Justice Department's decision-making on whether to indict a sitting president could play out:

Full article here: Mueller has a lot of options besides indicting Trump. Here they are

did they include punching him in the face?  that would be fun to see.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

This is a YUGE scandal.

There was broad surveillance of the Trump campaign. With no evidence of criminality, they used the lesser standard of 'counterintelligence' investigation.

And here's where they're screwed- remember that THERE WERE NO OFFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHANNELS USED TO START TRUMP INVESTIGATION

theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/05/12/hindsight-revelations-devin-nunes-april-22nd-there-were-no-official-intelligence-channels-used-to-start-trump-investigation/

Hindsight Revelations – Devin Nunes April 22nd: “There Were No Official Intelligence Channels Used To Start Trump Investigation”…

Posted on May 12, 2018 by sundance

Knowing what we know now – how Stefan Halper (a foreign policy expert and Cambridge professor with connections to the CIA and its British counterpart, MI6), randomly reached out to contact Trump low-level campaign aide George Papadopoulos; and how that contact was likely part of a coordinated effort by political operatives within the U.S intelligence apparatus to start the counterintelligence operation against Trump; this prior interview with Chairman Devin Nunes is well worth re-watching.

It's all starting to make sense now...

theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/05/11/the-insurance-policy-the-ec-the-2016-fbi-counterintel-operation-and-the-mysterious-informant-who-originated-brennans-ec/

The Insurance Policy, The “EC”, The 2016 FBI Counterintel Operation, and The Mysterious Informant Who Originated Brennan’s EC…

Posted on May 11, 2018 by sundance

•On July 31st, 2016 the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign. They did not inform congress until March 2017. •At the beginning of August (1st-3rd) 2016 FBI Agent Peter Strzok traveled to London, England for interviews with UK intelligence officials. •On August 15th, 2016 Peter Strzok sends a text message to DOJ Lawyer Lisa Page describing the “insurance policy“, needed in case Hillary Clinton were to lose the election.

Recently there has been a great deal of interest in the origination OF the 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation, and how the FISA court was later used to gain Title-1 surveillance warrant against U.S. person Carter Page; part of that operation.

Anatomy Of The Setup- 

Ingraham Segment: Stefan Halper “Agent Provocateur”….

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

And again, we can look here for the complete picture of what transpired....

theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/05/11/the-insurance-policy-the-ec-the-2016-fbi-counterintel-operation-and-the-mysterious-informant-who-originated-brennans-ec/

Stefan Halper posesses a very specific set of skills from all of his prior work within politics and the intelligence community. Halper was in contact with every official and entity in the set-up; and Halper was in the right places at the times when all of these set-up meetings and issues took place.

So, what did he do?

Simple, his job was to locate then dirty-up anyone he could convince: 1) to meet with him; 2) engage in his requests; and 3) engage contacts he set up. Halper was setting up a classic operation to use unknown “useful idiots” to give the appearance of Russian allies/actors.

Halper provided the underlying imaging, the optics needed for the “EC” referral; which Brennan then used to trigger James Comey; who originated the FBI Counterintelligence Operation.

The fraudulent origin, in combination with the October FISA warrant needed for surveillance gathering, would drive the insurance policy that Peter Strzok described to Lisa Page.

Neither Carter Page nor George Papadopoulos would need to be an active participant in the scheme. They could be simply (UI) useful idiots. Hence:

[…] Papadopoulos questioned Halper’s motivation for contacting him, according to a source familiar with Papadopoulos’ thinking. That’s not just because of the randomness of the initial inquiry but because of questions Halper is said to have asked during their face-to-face meetings in London.

According to a source with knowledge of the meeting, Halper asked Papadopoulos: “George, you know about hacking the emails from Russia, right?” (more)

Some people have called Page and/or Papadopoulos “moles”, but that’s really not what it appears they were. The better description is “tools”. Once Stefan Halper dirtied them up, they gave the appearance of being involved in a vast Russian conspiracy.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

dailycaller.com/2018/03/25/george-papadopoulos-london-emails/

Two months before the 2016 election, George Papadopoulos received a strange request for a meeting in London, one of several the young Trump adviser would be offered — and he would accept — during the presidential campaign.

The meeting request, which has not been reported until now, came from Stefan Halper, a foreign policy expert and Cambridge professor with connections to the CIA and its British counterpart, MI6.

Halper’s September 2016 outreach to Papadopoulos wasn’t his only contact with Trump campaign members. The 73-year-old professor, a veteran of three Republican administrations, met with two other campaign advisers, The Daily Caller News Foundation learned.

This Halpert guy is fucked.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

www.themarketswork.com/2018/05/09/dearlove-connections-uk-intel-firm-hakluyt-alexander-downer-stefan-halper-papadopoulos/

Dearlove Connections – UK Intel Firm Hakluyt, Alexander Downer, Stefan Halper & Papadopoulos
May 9, 2018 by Jeff Carlson, CFA

This post owes a debt to three sources:

@mstrial and her March 18, 2018 Thread.
A March 25, 2018 article by the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross.
@johnwhuber for details added in his excellent May 8, 2018 Thread.
Note: For a detailed sequencing of events see, Ties That Bind – Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud & Alexander Downer (& Papadopoulos). Posts are complimentary.

We’ve been postulating that foreign intelligence – primarily from the UK – was used by CIA Director Brennan to initiate the FBI’s July 2016 Counterintelligence Investigation and push the Russia Narrative.

Thanks to the work cited above, some details regarding a very private UK Intelligence firm have surfaced.

Hakluyt is British strategic intelligence and advisory firm. It was founded by former MI6 members and retains close ties to UK Intelligence services.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

So, they weren't just spying on Trump- they were setting him up. Brennan used this Halpert fellow to "dirty up" Trump team useful idiots to use as a pretext for a counterintelligence operation to justify their spying...

You want to talk about scandal?

Nothing else is a scandal compared to this.

[djAdvocate]

really?  six posts? 

[ken a.k.a OMK]

Give him time. Another day of 13 opinion posts giving us the "real news" and telling us how to think. How did I ever make it through college before there was SCP? 

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

"If you strike at the king, you must kill him" - Emerson

The worst part of all of this is that they attacked Donald J. Trump, they have gone after his family, his friends, anyone remotely associated with him, they have tried to destroy his business- they tried to ruin him.

They took a shot and missed.

It's actually difficult to state, in ordinary circumstances, how fucked a person that screws with Trump is-- but Trump isn't just Trump.

Donald J. Trump is the President Of The United States Of America.

HE OWNS the government they tried to use against him.

They now have to try to re-build their forces from OUTSIDE the government.

Looking back Trump cut the head off the snake when he got rid of Comey.

In the meantime- quietly, meekly looking like he's doing nothing, Jeff Sessions and John Huber have been paralleling the IG investigation...

People are extremely fucked.

[midjd]

The President does not “own” the government. That’s one of the more frightening contentions I’ve seen here.

[thyme4change]

The best thing about our country is the periodic and peaceful transition of power. It makes us strong. If Trump fucks with that in 6 months or 2 years or 6 years, then he is the absolute worst.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 18, 2018 9:45:29 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

It's amazing the legal contortions and conspiracies one can create when one makes up facts and stories wholesale.  The crowning touch is the hyperbolic rhetoric.  BIGGER THAN WATERGATE!   Nice job CTH & Cronies.......

In Watergate, political operatives broke in to the opposition party offices and attempted to plant bugs. They got caught because they were dumbasses and left tape on the doors so they could get back in later. Nixon was unaware this was happening. His mistake was that he tried to cover it up out of loyalty when he found out- that was the crime. The impeachable offense. He should have been impeached if he didn't resign- and it's good he resigned. And no, Gerald Ford should not have pardoned him-- which is why he lost to Carter. At some point, Americans looked at what transpired and wisely concluded they wanted no part of it.

Here, we have a sitting President that conspired along with his party's replacement candidate to not only illegally and improperly clear her of any wrong doing, but actually used the CIA and FBI to run an op on the opposition candidate's campaign. They sent an agent provocateur into the campaign to dirty up any useful idiot they could find-- by feeding them information, and then later prompting them to repeat it-- this was done for the purpose of justifying a counterintelligence operation- in other words, they used a spy to elicit the flimsiest of reasons to justify their spying. 

Then, laundering money from Hillary Clinton's campaign through a law firm, they paid a foreign agent (former MI6 agent Christopher Steele) to produce a phony intelligence document. It's been called "political opposition research" but that's not what it was. Compiled mainly by Russian agents, Steele massaged what was essentially a counterfeit intelligence document. This document was used to deceive the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court to obtain and renew FISA warrants to facilitate further spying on the Trump campaign. 

Mind you Halpert was an agent. They were running an op. He is not and never was an "informant". 

Then, having failed to prevent Trump's election, they concocted a phony Russian collusion scheme all based on information and resources they themselves put in play using Halpert (and probably at least two others). James Comey then stole classified government property and leaked it to his pal who leaked it to the NYT (the medias role as propagandists-- what did the media know, and when did they know it?-- is astonishing) FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF PROMPTING THE APPOINTMENT OF A SPECIAL COUNSEL. Jeff Sessions then uses the flimsiest of reasons to "recuse himself"-- remember, this is all predicated on planted information, and directed intel by Brennan and Comey-- so that Rosenstein would be in a position to violate the SC statute and illegally appoint Mueller-- and we now know the whole purpose of Mueller is to COVER UP THE CRIME. 

Now that it's all come to light-- and been revealed for the coup I always said it was-- you should all buckle up for the humiliation of your lives. It's as over as it gets. Now, to see who goes to federal prision.

This is a major fucking deal-- and we'd all better hope and pray that the American people, who are finally now going to see it all unravel before their eyes, will decide the same way they did in 1976-- ENOUGH! And have no part of the party of treason.

[swamp]

May 18, 2018 9:54:21 GMT -5 midjd said:

The President does not “own” the government. That’s one of the more frightening contentions I’ve seen here.

I think someone needs a primer on the three branches of government.  

We can start with Schoolhouse rock.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 18, 2018 9:59:14 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The best thing about our country is the periodic and peaceful transition of power. It makes us strong. If Trump fucks with that in 6 months or 2 years or 6 years, then he is the absolute worst.

You're blind to the fact that the Democratic Party is now the party of treason. They got caught. This is no longer "theory"- conspiracy or otherwise. It's an established fact. They are the worst.

Trump is arguably entitled to a third term as his first term will have effectively been stolen by traitors.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 18, 2018 9:54:21 GMT -5 midjd said:

The President does not “own” the government. That’s one of the more frightening contentions I’ve seen here.

Stop wasting time feigning ignorance. The point is obvious, clear, and it stands: Donald J. Trump is the POTUS. He controls the executive. The CIA, FBI and other agencies that Obama directed to be used against him have been purged, are being purged, and those career bureaucrats are now facing prosecution.

[midjd]

May 18, 2018 10:07:26 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

May 18, 2018 9:54:21 GMT -5 midjd said:

The President does not “own” the government. That’s one of the more frightening contentions I’ve seen here.

Stop wasting time feigning ignorance. The point is obvious, clear, and it stands: Donald J. Trump is the POTUS. He controls the executive. The CIA, FBI and other agencies that Obama directed to be used against him have been purged, are being purged, and those career bureaucrats are now facing prosecution.

That might be your point, but it's not what you said. 

You are correct that the POTUS controls the Executive Branch operations -- within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution and the limits put in place by the House, Senate, and SCOTUS. 

That is not "ownership," nor is it without checks on power.

[djAdvocate]

we'll see who gets pwned.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

The founding fathers made sure we'd have a president and not a king. 

[thyme4change]

May 18, 2018 10:05:08 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

May 18, 2018 9:59:14 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The best thing about our country is the periodic and peaceful transition of power. It makes us strong. If Trump fucks with that in 6 months or 2 years or 6 years, then he is the absolute worst.

You're blind to the fact that the Democratic Party is now the party of treason. They got caught. This is no longer "theory"- conspiracy or otherwise. It's an established fact. They are the worst.

Trump is arguably entitled to a third term as his first term will have effectively been stolen by traitors.

I'm sure if that is all true, it will all come out and they will be punished.

[swamp]

May 18, 2018 10:05:08 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

May 18, 2018 9:59:14 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The best thing about our country is the periodic and peaceful transition of power. It makes us strong. If Trump fucks with that in 6 months or 2 years or 6 years, then he is the absolute worst.

You're blind to the fact that the Democratic Party is now the party of treason. They got caught. This is no longer "theory"- conspiracy or otherwise. It's an established fact. They are the worst.

Trump is arguably entitled to a third term as his first term will have effectively been stolen by traitors.

You can argue anything you want.  And you'd be wrong.   Two terms, per amendment 22 of the constitution.

Surely you are not recommending violating the constitution? 

[midjd]

But MOOOOOOMMMMM, they violated it first! 

[swamp]

May 18, 2018 10:51:55 GMT -5 midjd said:

But MOOOOOOMMMMM, they violated it first! 

They KNEW Obama was going to stay another term, so they wanted Bush to stay on.  Now Trump needs to stay another term because Obama was mean to him.  IT'S NOT FAIR!!!! 

[Virgil Showlion]

This thread is surreal.

How can two groups of people look at the very same set of facts and both be so divided on their interpretation?

Don't answer, please. It's a rhetorical question. I don't want to give either side another excuse to lob grenades.

AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP: FWIW, I agree with you (and have for some time) that there were serious abuses of power by the DoJ and FBI. As I've said in the past, I don't expect many heads will roll since these individuals were using the monstrous yet legal surveillance apparatus established over the past decades. The laws clearly permit surveillance based on flimsy, sometimes retroactively-engineered pretexts. I wouldn't be surprised if staging and entrapment are also legal provided an operation is deemed necessary for the public good by the presiding director. You're arguing from a position of "the surveillance and skullduggery taking place here is worse than Watergate," and at this point I'm inclined to agree, but you can't discount the fact that protections against state abuse of surveillance in 2018 aren't what they were in the 1970's.

I'm still firmly in Camp "Rest of YMAM" when it comes to the total political fallout of the scandal: prosecutions, if any, will be few and far between. I stand by my earlier prediction that the carnage will be limited to a few lower-level individuals. Not because I deny significant wrongdoing took place, but because of the laxity of law and a lack of will to prosecute. Your speculation about Pres. Trump mounting foes' heads about the ramparts like a spurned king of old is pure fantasy.

@restofymam: It would shock me if Mr. Cohen didn't have a mountain of dirt on Pres. Trump. I nevertheless don't approve of the feds and New York state digging through it on a fishing expedition. Mr. Mueller's spinning off investigations in a furious hunt for wrongdoing is as egregious an abuse of federal power as the surveillance that got Mr. Comey et al. into hot water. Again: permitted by law, but the lines the US government is permitted to cross curdle my blood. I can only hope my own government isn't as savage.

Like most of you, I consider Pres. Trump crooked, guilty of conflicts of interest and outright graft. It's hard to separate fact from fiction with the Fourth Estate falling apart like a cheap bag of garbage, but I've seen enough smoke to convince me there are several fires. Anything he did prior to 2016 is presently beyond my concern, but if something turns up in Mr. Cohen's records proving quid pro quo and corruption during the campaign and presidency, Pres. Trump will find no advocate in me. This in spite of my disapproval of how the dirt was obtained.

As for the outcome, I think you'll gain a new appreciation for the right's frustration with the Clintons. A tremendous amount damning circumstantial evidence will come to light, but nothing so airtight that it can't be concealed, obfuscated, or lawyered away to avoid prosecution. Pres. Trump will serve his complete first term, and may well win a second if the federal Democrats don't get their act together. While Paul may be living in Fairyland when he says Pres. Trump is a man of impeccable morals, you're on your way to joining him there if you sincerely believe he won't make it to the end of his term.

[swamp]

I think he will make the end of his term. I also think he is a dirtball. 

[Pants]

I think I agree with Virgil. 

Someone hold me, I'm scared.

[swamp]

May 18, 2018 11:09:43 GMT -5 Pants said:

I think I agree with Virgil. 

Someone hold me, I'm scared.