The Corrupt Russia Probe

Fresh proof, and lots of it, just landed that the entire Russiagate probe was a political hit on Team Trump — unprecedented abuse of Justice Department powers by Obama-era officials that continued under special counsel Robert Mueller.

Start with this: The main “subsource” for Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier (which served as vital “evidence” to justify the investigations) had years earlier been tagged as a possible “national-security threat” and Kremlin asset.

And top FBI leaders knew that by December 2016 — yet kept the damning info from the courts as they used the dossier to get warrants to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page.

That’s right: The probe of Trump’s supposed Russian ties depended on gossip from a likely Russian asset.

Meanwhile, text messages just released in the Mike Flynn case show that some of the agents working on that Crossfire Hurricane investigation believed it was a political hit. Many of them even bought special insurance for fear they’d face abuse-of-power charges.

A Sept. 17 interview of FBI agent William J. Barnett as part of the Justice Department review of the Flynn case is mind-blowing. Barnett, who moved from Crossfire Hurricane

to Mueller’s team, thought the probe was “problematic and could result in an inspector general investigation.”

The probe, directed by Andrew McCabe, then James Comey’s No. 2, was “opaque” and had “little detail concerning specific evidence of criminal events,” he said. It seemed to be “supposition on supposition,” with no clarity even on what higher-ups wanted to “look for or at.”

It got worse on Mueller’s team, where he saw a total “get Trump” attitude: “Incidents involving Trump were taken in the most negative manner, or in some cases misinterpreted.” Top lawyers assumed there was “something criminal there” and competed to see who’d find it first.

Then there are the text messages amongst FBI employees, like the Jan. 5, 2017, post that Trump “was right” in suggesting Comey & Co. delayed briefing him on Russian meddling in the 2016 election because they needed time “to build a case.”

Even back in 2016, FBI employees knew they could get into trouble. In a text message, one said that “if this thing ever gets FOIA’d, there are going to be some tough questions asked.”

Thank goodness Attorney General Bill Barr has appointed John Durham and his team to ask them.