While The FBI Was Investigating A Hoax…
The FBI has dedicated an untold number of resources to an investigation based on the infamous, 35-page largely discredited anti-Trump dossier alleging unsubstantiated collusion with Russia and claiming without any evidence that Donald Trump engaged in sordid acts.
Yet that same dossier-obsessed FBI is now facing scrutiny for allegedly taking few actions after the agency was alerted to a YouTube comment last fall bearing the name of the future Florida school mass shooter and declaring, “Im going to be a professional school shooter.”
The FBI’s probe of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign reportedly centered on the dossier despite the bureau being fully aware that the questionable document was produced by the controversial Fusion GPS opposition political research outfit and was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The Guardian recently reported that the FBI has been utilizing a second dossier in its investigation of unsubstantiated claims of collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign, this one authored by Cody Shearer, a shadowy former tabloid journalist who has long been closely associated with various Clinton scandals. National Review previously dubbed Shearer a “Creepy Clinton Confidante” and “the Strangest Character in Hillary’s Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.”
A four-page House Intelligence Committee memo alleging abuse of surveillance authority detailed the centrality of the dossier in the FBI’s probe, which has not produced any evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Rob Lasky, the FBI special agent in charge in Miami, told The New York Times that the bureau was reviewing what steps were taken after the FBI received the tip bearing the Florida shooter’s name with a message about contemplating perpetrating mass shootings.
“There was no particular information about the particular time, location, or further identifiers about the person who posted the comment,” Lasky said. “No additional information was found to positively identify the person who posted this comment. There was no connection found to South Florida.”
It was unclear which “further identifiers” would be required given that the YouTube user’s name might actually be the real name of the Florida school shooter.
Running Cruz’s name through law enforcement databases might have turned up a positive ID. According to reports, Broward County police were called to the killer’s home at least 39 times over a seven-year period. Cross-referencing the YouTube user’s name on other social media accounts would have found similarly disturbing patterns, including other threats made under his name.
What The Indictment Says, And Doesn’t Say
Far from building the case for collusion, the indictment of Russian nationals and entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections documents a narrative that is far different from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign knowingly conspiring with Russia.
The indictment was announced Friday by the Justice Department’s special counsel. The 37-page indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities charges that the Russians stole the identities of U.S. persons to deceptively “communicate with unwitting members, volunteers, and supporters of the Trump campaign involved in local community outreach.”
Specifically, the Russian nationals allegedly impersonated American grassroots activists to distribute pro-Trump material and communicate with “Trump campaign staff” involved in local community outreach for “Florida Goes Trump” grassroots rallies.
The indictment does not once mention the word “collusion.” The indictment, reviewed in full by this reporter, cites only two instances of the Russians communicating directly with members of the Trump campaign, and both cases involved impersonating Americans. The Russians allegedly utilized a fake Gmail account impersonating an American to contact two Trump campaign workers involved in the campaign’s Florida operations.
In other words, the cited instances of alleged communication with Russian agents consisted of Russians pretending to be Americans interested in helping locally, a far cry from the wild claims that the Trump campaign willingly worked with Russia to steal an election.
The Indictment Of… The Obama Administration?
The indictment of Russian nationals and entities for alleged attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election represents a major intelligence failure on the part of the Obama administration, which was warned about the purported Russian threat since at least 2014.
According to numerous mainstream news media reports citing U.S. officials, the Obama administration did not take sufficient action to contend with the alleged Russian threat. Some former Obama administration officials described the White House as being reluctant to contend with Russia’s alleged domestic disruption plots.
The indictment claims that in or around May 2014 – prior to Trump’s June 16, 2015 speech announcing his candidacy and still during the Obama administration – the Russian strategy included interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with the stated goal of “spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.” The attempts actually began with intelligence collection in 2013. Almost the entire nearly three-year scheme took place under the Obama administration.
An extensive Politico article from last August was titled, “Obama team was warned in 2014 about Russian interference.” Politico cited numerous officials expressing the view that the Obama administration did not do enough to contend with Russia’s alleged domestic plans.
A former senior Obama administration official put the matter bluntly, telling the Washington Post that “I feel like we sort of choked,” referring to the Obama administration’s response to alleged Russian meddling. The official referred to that period as “the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend.”
Following the Mueller indictments, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said his committee repeatedly warned the U.S. government about Russian meddling attempts, but the Obama administration “failed to act on the committee’s warnings.”