The FBI Lied & Nobody Paid

The FBI knew the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was utter bunk even as it suggested otherwise to Congress and the courts early in 2017. Evidence revealed by special counsel John Durham proves it beyond dispute.

At RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry lays out the case: Declassified for Durham’s probe, a March 2017 memo prepared by Lisa Page for FBI head James Comey’s meeting with the “Gang of Eight” (the House and Senate leaders who oversee the most classified stuff) was a total cook-up job.

It advised Comey to present accusations that Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort and adviser Carter Page were working with the Kremlin as coming from a confidential Russia-based source with real intel-community chops. In fact, the root source was US-based Igor Danchenko’s utterly speculative gossip with an ex-girlfriend and a Democratic Party hack — and the FBI knew it since January 2017, when it interviewed Danchenko.

Comey hid all this during his meetings, and after. And the public only learned it years later, once the Durham probe began.

The meeting where Comey served up these nonsense stories prompted both House and Senate Intelligence committees to open probes. But that was hardly the only poisoned fruit.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, counterintelligence officer Peter Strzok, analyst Brian Auten and Justice attorney Kevin Clinesmith pretended the Danchenko “intel” was credible to get the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court’s OK for wiretaps on Carter Page and to dupe the Justice Department to keep granting approval for Trump campaign surveillance.

It was a political hit job, by top members of the chief US law-enforcement agency, against a candidate-and-then-president they opposed. For all the justified anger at Trump over the Jan. 6 riot, this methodical and effective deception plot looks far more like an attempted coup. Yet, other than losing their jobs, the plotters have paid no real price.

Most media have no interest in sharing the truth. They won Pulitzers and endless clicks from hyping Russiagate, kneecapping a president they despised. So it’s up to Durham to keep exposing this vast abuse of power for nakedly personal partisan ends.

Until the plotters are held accountable, there actually is good reason to worry about the future of democracy in America.