Russia investigation origins counter-narrative
Trump in particular has attacked not only the origins but the conclusions of the investigation, and ordered a review of the Mueller report,[6][7][8] which was conducted by attorney general William Barr[9][10] – alleging there was a "deep state plot" to undermine him.These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General's recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony."[33][34][35] In a subsequent analysis of 25 unrelated FISA warrant requests, Horowitz found a pattern of similar errors that suggested systemic sloppiness by the FBI, rather than an effort to single out Page.[10] Republican Party leaders suggested that Robert Mueller's inquiry stemmed from a plot by members of the Obama Administration and career intelligence officials—an alleged "deep state"—to undermine Trump.[8][7] In response, Democrats and some former law enforcement officials expressed concern that Attorney General William Barr was "using the justice department to chase unsubstantiated conspiracy theories" that could cast doubt on the Mueller report's findings.Assange had been in court fighting extradition to the United States on charges of computer intrusion as WikiLeaks had posted sensitive documents provided by whistleblower Chelsea Manning."[67][68][69] White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham stated that Assange's claims were "a complete fabrication and a lie" and added that "the president barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he's an ex-congressman."[82] Hannity had asserted that the investigation arose from an elaborate, corrupt scheme involving Hillary Clinton; the Steele dossier, which he asserts is completely false although parts of it have been reported as verified;[83] former DOJ officials James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, and others; and a wiretap on former Trump aide Carter Page that Hannity asserted was obtained by misrepresentations to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, characterizing the wiretap as an abuse of power that is "far bigger than Watergate" and "the weaponizing of those powerful tools of intelligence and the shredding of our Fourth Amendment, constitutional rights.[89][90][91][92] DOJ investigators, led by Durham, planned to interview senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers to determine how they concluded in 2016 that Russian president Vladimir Putin had personally authorized election interference to benefit candidate Trump.[98][99] One British official with knowledge of Barr's requests observed, "it is like nothing we have come across before, they are basically asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job on their own intelligence services."[100] Barr sought information that Joseph Mifsud was a Western intelligence operative charged with entrapping Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos in order to establish a false predicate for the FBI to open an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[45][108] On October 24, 2019, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that Durham's inquiry had been elevated to a criminal investigation, raising concerns of politicization of the Justice Department to pursue political enemies of the President.[45][114] The Times reported on November 22 that the Justice Department inspector general had made a criminal referral to Durham regarding Kevin Clinesmith, a low-level FBI attorney assigned to the Mueller probe who had resigned in February 2018.Clinesmith was accused of altering an email during the process of renewing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretap warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page."[117] On December 9, 2019, Justice Department inspector general Michael E. Horowitz testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI had an "authorized purpose" when it initiated its investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, into the Trump campaign.Wray said the bureau accepts the findings and plans to make a host of changes, including to how they gather and submit information for surveillance applications.[2] The New York Times reported in December 2019 that Durham was examining the role of former CIA director John Brennan in assessing Russian interference in 2016, requesting emails, call logs and other documents.The Hartford Courant reported that unnamed colleagues of Nora Dannehy, Durham's top aide in the investigation who quietly resigned on September 10, had said she was concerned about pressure from Barr to deliver results before the election.John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence and a Trump loyalist, released declassified Russian disinformation about Hillary Clinton to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham."[138][139][140] Sussmann, who focuses on privacy and cybersecurity law, approached Baker to discuss what he claimed to be suspicious communications between computer servers at the Russian Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization.Perkins Coie represented the Clinton presidential campaign, and one of its partners, Marc Elias, commissioned Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump, which led to the production of the controversial Steele dossier.During the trial, it was revealed by Robby Mook that, even though campaign members "weren't totally confident" in the veracity of the information, in light of Trump's favorable actions toward Russian interests, leaking the suspicions of a secret backchannel to the press seemed to be justified, and Hillary Clinton agreed with that decision."[146] Following Sussman's acquittal, Charlie Savage wrote in The New York Times that "Mr. Barr's mandate to Mr. Durham appears to have been to investigate a series of conspiracy theories.[154][155][156] In an order at the beginning of October 2022, the court "excluded from the trial large amounts of information that Mr. Durham had wanted to showcase" as not being evidence for the charges of making false statements.
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