May 15, 2020
For years it has been evident that the Trump-Russian collusion claims were a political ploy to bring down Trump’s presidency. The declassification and public release of various documents have provided further evidence of the deception and corruption among officials at the highest levels in the Obama administration, the media, and Democratic lawmakers.
Newly Released Transcripts
Due to the actions of Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Adam Schiff was forced to release 57 transcripts of interviews conducted during its investigation into Russian meddling, and collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The probe started in January 2017 and concluded in March 2018 under the then-Chair Republican Devin Nunes.
Grenell recently announced that 53 of the 57 transcripts were declassified, and have been ready to be released to the public since last year. Schiff refused to release them until Grenell offered an ultimatum-either the House releases the transcripts or they would be released by Grenell’s office. Schiff relented.
It is now clear why Schiff was reluctant. For years Schiff was seen on a multitude of media outlets claiming, not only that he believed Trump colluded with Russia, but that it was a fact, and he saw the evidence. As the chair of the House Intelligence committee, these words held sway.
Over the years Schiff has claimed that there was-
“damning evidence of collusion with Russia.” And that he had seen “More than circumstantial” evidence of collusion.
The 57 transcripts revealed that not one Obama official had seen, or was even aware of hearsay evidence of Trump-Russian collusion.
On Fox News’ Sean Hannity Former Congressman and federal prosecutor, Trey Gowdy recounted questioning the officials:
“ I asked every one of them. Even if its hearsay, even if its something you heard that you’d didn’t believe. Even if it’s inadmissible in court, tell me everything you’ve ever heard about Trump, his campaign, or even the groupies and the hangers-on in his campaign, and there was nothing..”
For years Adam Schiff, along with a complicit media lied to the American people. Unbelievably, he has even claimed that the released transcripts prove there was collusion. Even Schiff doesn’t believe his lies, or he would have released the transcripts last year when they were first declassified.
Unmasking List
Acting DNI Grenell has also released the list of Obama officials who have requested the “unmasking” of the identity of Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn. When American citizens, not under surveillance are caught incidentally on a wiretap with foreign nationals their identities are covered. From the time Trump appointed Flynn as his NSA in November 2016 through January 2017 more than three dozen Obama officials made more than 40 unmasking requests of Flynn’s name.
The list included officials who had no reason to be spying on the incoming administration. Such as the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power who made seven requests. According to transcripts of her congressional testimony, Power denied ever making the requests: “ I have no recollection of making a request related to General Flynn.” It’s hard to believe that Yates forgot about seven unmasking requests.
Interestingly, many of the requests were made before the now-infamous call on December 29, 2016, between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. What were Obama officials fishing for during the transition period between administrations? Were they unmasking in an attempt to find disparaging information to tarnish or harm the new administration?
In March 2017 a top Obama official Evelyn Farkas, actually admitted on an appearance on MSNBC that she and her colleagues were desperately attempting to get as much information as they could on Trump’s team in the waning days of the Obama administration.
“I was urging my former colleagues and frankly, speaking, the people on the Hill…get as much information as you can,” Farkas added that she was fearful that “if [Trump staffers] found out how we knew what we knew about their…the Trump staff dealing with Russians- that they would try to compromise those sources…”
Among those who requested the unmasking of Flynn’s calls are, U.S. ambassadors, numerous treasury officials, and many others whose positions had no relation to national intelligence. The list also included Barrack Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough and then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Relevant timeline
Biden’s request was made on January 12, the same day the Washington Post published information about Flynn’s call with Kislayk. Undeniably, someone from the Obama administration leaked the call to the WAPO to harm Flynn and propagate the Russian collusion narrative. Was it Biden? What legitimate reason could Biden have had to make an unmasking request just eight days before Trump’s inauguration?
McDonough’s request was made on January 5, 2017. This is the same day that, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and acting Attorney General Sally Yates met at the Oval Office to brief President Obama on the Intelligence community’s assessment on Russian meddling. Vice President Biden and National Security Adviser Susan Rice were also in attendance.
New documents uncovered through the actions of Attorney General Barr have shed more light on this meeting. According to Yates’ recounting, she was surprised to learn that Obama already knew about Flynn’s call with Kislyak, especially since she only learned of the call during the meeting. Why was Obama more knowledgeable about a counterintelligence/criminal investigation than the acting Attorney General?
On January 6th, the day after the Obama briefing, Clapper, Brennan, and Comey met with Trump, ostensibly to give the president-elect a similar briefing. However, Comey also informed Trump about the salacious and now-debunked information in the Steele dossier. Comey never mentioned that the dossier was completely unverified or that it is opposition research funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
Just four days after the Trump briefing CNN reported on the dossier writing that, “classified documents presented last week to Trump and President Obama” alleged ties between Donald Trump and Russia. Evidentially, the January 6th briefing with Trump was designed to give the dossier credibility, which enabled it to get out into the public. Undoubtedly, an Obama official leaked the briefing to CNN. The odds that Obama was unaware of these machinations- zero.
Obama and those within his administration never expected Trump to win the presidency. But rather than allow for the peaceful transfer of power, the Obama administration spent the transition months attempting to further the Trump-Russian collusion narrative; and desperately searching for intelligence to harm the incoming administration.
The duplicity which occurred during the Obama administration needs to be exposed, and the guilty held to account. Thanks to the actions of AG Barr and Acting DNI Grenell, justice may finally occur.
