First the JFK assassination files, now the Russiagate hoax materials: If you want to see what the U.S. intelligence community knew about sensitive stuff, President Donald Trump is certainly ensuring that you have access.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump signed an executive order that would bring about the “Immediate Declassification of Materials Related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation,” according to a White House memo.
The “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, of course, was the FBI’s investigation into links between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin, which were ultimately determined to be nonexistent.
The whole thing was kicked off by a debunked dossier produced by a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, then used to obtain warrants against members of Trump’s campaign.
The investigation grew and grew, until it collapsed under the weight of its own nothingness, with special counsel Robert Mueller’s anticlimactic testimony before Congress being the final dying gasp of it all.
Now, it’s time to see what was driving all this — and not just the unsubstantiated Steele dossier, which was funneled through BuzzFeed News just before Trump’s first inauguration, but all the rest of the details.
“You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see,” Trump told the media, according to Fox News.
“But this was total weaponization,” he continued. “It’s a disgrace.
“It should have never happened in this country. But now you’ll be able to see for yourselves. All declassified.”
Well, almost all, according to the memo, which was directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“Except as provided below, I have determined that all of the materials referenced in the Presidential Memorandum of January 19, 2021 (Declassification of Certain Materials Related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation), are no longer classified,” the memo said.
“I have further determined that the material proposed for redaction by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a cover letter dated January 17, 2021, remains classified.
“My decision to declassify the materials described above does not extend to materials that must be protected from disclosure pursuant to orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and does not require the disclosure of certain personally identifiable information or any other materials that must be protected from disclosure under applicable law.”
The materials will be available effective immediately, Trump’s memo said.
As Fox News’ report noted, what we’ll see will likely shed light on the problematic process that led to the investigation being commenced.
“The opening of the investigation came just days after a July 28 [2016] meeting during which then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed then-President Barack Obama on a purported proposal from one of Hillary Clinton’s campaign foreign policy advisors ‘to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service,’” Fox News noted.
“By January 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey had notified Trump of a dossier, known as the Steele dossier, that contained salacious and unverified allegations about Trump’s purported coordination with the Russian government, a key document prompting the opening of the probe.
“The dossier was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer, and commissioned by Fusion GPS. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign hired Fusion GPS during the 2016 election cycle.”
Comey was subsequently fired by Trump as head of the FBI and spent the rest of the first Trump administration as a media gadfly and a soi disant white knight errant, making the media rounds and musing on whether the so-called “pee tape” (IYKYK, if you don’t, just know that it doesn’t exist and it doesn’t merit googling) really existed.
“By February 2018, Kash Patel — then chief investigator for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and now the FBI Director — had uncovered widespread government surveillance abuses, including the improper surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page,” Fox News noted.
Both Nunes and Patel blew the whistle on the fact that the Steele dossier — which was basically unproved opposition research — “formed an essential part” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to surveil Page.
This, in other words, is ridiculously corrupt stuff — and it’s high time America saw it. The media may not like it, and you may not see too many stories about in the days to come. Rest assured, you’re going to see more about this once people start sifting through the info.
