Former FBI attorney Lisa Page, in a bombshell revelation, says the agency could not prove collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign before Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.
Page told a closed-door joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in mid-July that investigators could not make the charge, according to a transcript of her deposition reviewed by Fox News.
'I think this represents that even as far as May 2017, we still couldn't answer the question,' Page said.
Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page walks to a closed-door meeting of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees in July
Page claims the FBI could not prove collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign before Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.
In May 2017, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump and his Republican allies are likely to use this revelation to boost their argument the president is a victim of a witch hunt and the investigation has been tainted by politics.
But her testimony refers to a point in the investigation from over a year ago and it's unclear where the probe stands now.
Mueller has been tight-fisted with his look into Russia election tampering and has given no interviews.
But, since his appointment, his team has secured cooperation and plea deals from Trump players former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort deputy Richard Gates and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.
The president has long and repeatedly argued there is no collusion and he is a victim of a witch hunt.
He made the same case in a tweet Sunday morning.
'The illegal Mueller Witch Hunt continues in search of a crime. There was never Collusion with Russia, except by the Clinton campaign, so the 17 Angry Democrats are looking at anything they can find. Very unfair and BAD for the country. ALSO, not allowed under the LAW!,' Trump wrote.
In his charge that Russia colluded with Clinton, Trump was likely referring to the unverified dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele that alleged Russia has blackmail information on Trump, which he has denied. The dossier was paid for by a law firm that was doing work by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
As for his 17 angry Dems charge, of the 17 members of Mueller's team, 13 are registered Democrats, according to reports. Mueller himself is a Republican who was appointed by the Republican deputy attorney general.
Trump and his legal team have argued collusion is not a crime although legal experts disagree on the term collusion and what it refers to.
The website Politifact called 'collusion' an 'imprecise term' and said the 'focus is on what the Trump campaign did and whether that was illegal, regardless whether the relevant statute contains the word 'collusion.''
Page made the revelation in response to a question from Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe , who wanted more information about a May 2017 text where Page and her then-lover FBI agent Peter Strzok discussed the merits of joining Mueller's team.
The House Judiciary and Oversight committees investigating the Justice Department's handling of the Russia investigation and the Hillary Clinton email probes.
'I cannot provide the specifics of a confidential interview,' Ratcliffe told Fox News when asked about the exchange. 'But I can say that Lisa Page left me with the impression, based on her own words, that the lead investigator of the Russian collusion case, Peter Strzok, had found no evidence of collusion after nearly a year.'
The day after Mueller's appointment to the Russia probe on May 17, Strzok and Page discussed whether Strzok should join his team.
Their May 18, 2017, text was highlighted by Inspector General Michael Horowitz in his report about the handling of the Clinton email probe by the FBI and the Justice Department, in which he found no political motivation.
'Who gives a f*ck, one more A(ssistant) D(irector)...(versus) (a)n investigation leading to impeachment?' Strzok texted on May 18, according to the Inspector General's report.
Strzok later writes: 'You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely I'd be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there's no big there there.'
The transcript shows Ratcliffe read the text exchange nearly verbatim to Page, and asked her to explain it, specifically if Strzok believed 'the odds were nothing and that he had a concern that there was no big there there regarding any collusion.'
The president has long and repeatedly argued there is no collusion and he is a victim of a witch hunt.
President Trump has denied collusion on multiple occassions
Lisa Page spent two days behind close doors in July with lawmakers investigating the Justice Department's handling of the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton email probe
Page said: 'No, I don't think so. I think it's a reflection of us still not knowing...It still existed in the scope of possibility that there would be literally nothing, probably not nothing nothing, as we probably knew more than that by that point. But in the scheme of the possible outcomes, the most serious one obviously being crimes serious enough to warrant impeachment; but on the other scale that, you know, maybe an unwitting person was, in fact, involved in the release of information, but it didn't ultimately touch any senior, you know, people in the administration or on the campaign. And so the text just sort of reflects that spectrum.'
She noted: 'I'm not supposed to talk about the sufficiency of evidence, so that's why I am weighing my words carefully.'
Page continued, according to Fox News: 'Investigations are fluid, right? And so at various times, leads are promising and leads fade away. And so I can't -- I can't answer more his sentiment with respect to this particular text, but certainly at this point the case had been ongoing. We didn't have an answer. That's obvious. And I think we all sort of went back and forth about like what -- what the answer was really going to be.'
Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, which led to Mueller's appointment as special counsel.
ROBERT MUELLER'S PROBE SO FAR: EIGHT CONVICTIONS - INCLUDING THREE TOP TRUMP AIDES, A JAILED ATTORNEY AND 25 RUSSIANS ACCUSED
GUILTY: MICHAEL FLYNN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017. Awaiting sentence
Flynn was President Trump's former National Security Advisor and Robert Mueller's most senior scalp to date. He previously served when he was a three star general as President Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency but was fired.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his conversations with a Russian ambassador in December 2016. He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY: MICHAEL COHEN
Pleaded guilty to eight counts including fraud and two campaign finance violations in August 2018. Awaiting sentence
Cohen was Trump's longtime personal attorney, starting working for him and the Trump Organization in 2007. He is the longest-serving member of Trump's inner circle to be implicated by Mueller. Cohen professed unswerving devotion to Trump - and organized payments to silence two women who alleged they had sex with the-then candidate: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.He admitted that payments to both women were felony campaign finance violations - and admitted that he acted at the 'direction' of 'Candidate-1': Donald Trump.
He also admitted tax fraud by lying about his income from loans he made, money from taxi medallions he owned, and other sources of income, at a cost to the Treasury of $1.3 million.
GUILTY: PAUL MANAFORT
Found guilty of eight charges of bank and tax fraud in August 2018. Pleaded guilty to two charges Awaiting sentence and second trial
Manafort worked for Trump's campaign from March 2016 and chaired it from June to August 2016, overseeing Trump being adopted as Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He is the most senior campaign official to be implicated by Mueller. Manafort was one of Washington D.C.'s longest-term and most influential lobbyists but in 2015, his money dried up and the next year he turned to Trump for help, offering to be his campaign chairman for free - in the hope of making more money afterwards. But Mueller unwound his previous finances and discovered years of tax and bank fraud as he coined in cash from pro-Russia political parties and oligarchs in Ukraine.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud but was convicted of eight counts. The jury was deadlocked on the other 10 charges. A second trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent is due in September.
GUILTY: RICK GATES
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Gates was Manafort's former deputy at political consulting firm DMP International. He admitted to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government on financial activity, and to lying to investigators about a meeting Manafort had with a member of congress in 2013. As a result of his guilty plea and promise of cooperation, prosecutors vacated charges against Gates on bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, filing false tax returns, helping prepare false tax filings, and falsely amending tax returns.
GUILTY: GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in October 2017. Awaiting sentence
Papadopoulos was a member of Donald Trump's campaign foreign policy advisory committee. He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about his contacts with London professor Josef Mifsud and Ivan Timofeev, the director of a Russian government-funded think tank.
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY: RICHARD PINEDO
Pleaded guilty to identity fraud in February 2018. Awaiting sentence
Pinedo is a 28-year-old computer specialist from Santa Paula, California. He admitted to selling bank account numbers to Russian nationals over the internet that he had obtained using stolen identities.
He has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.
GUILTY AND JAILED: ALEX VAN DER ZWAAN
Pleaded guilty to making false statements in February 2018. He served a 30-day prison sentence earlier this year and was deported to the Netherlands upon his release.
Van der Zwaan is a Dutch attorney for Skadden Arps who worked on a Ukrainian political analysis report for Paul Manafort in 2012.
He admitted to lying to special counsel investigators about when he last spoke with Rick Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik.
GUILTY: W. SAMUEL PATTEN
Pleaded guilty in August 2018 to failing to register as a lobbyist while doing work for a Ukrainian political party. Awaiting sentence.
Patten, a long-time D.C. lobbyist was a business partner of Paul Manafort. He pleaded guilty to admitting to arranging an illegal $50,000 donation to Trump's inauguration.
He arranged for an American 'straw donor' to pay $50,000 to the inaugural committee, knowing that it was actually for a Ukrainian businessman.
Neither the American or the Ukrainian have been named.
CHARGED: KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK
Indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Kilimnik is a former employee of Manafort's political consulting firm and helped him with lobbying work in Ukraine. He is accused of witness tampering, after he allegedly contacted individuals who had worked with Manafort to remind them that Manafort only performed lobbying work for them outside of the U.S.
He has been linked to Russian intelligence and is currently thought to be in Russia - effectively beyond the reach of extradition by Mueller's team.
INDICTED: THE RUSSIANS
Twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian entities have been indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Two of these Russian nationals were also indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 were indicted for conspiracy to launder money. Fifteen of them were also indicted for identity fraud.
Vladimir Putin has ridiculed the charges. Russia effectively bars extradition of its nationals. The only prospect Mueller has of bringing any in front of a U.S. jury is if Interpol has their names on an international stop list - which is not made public - and they set foot in a territory which extradites to the U.S.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/16/lisa-page-testimony-collusion-between-trump-and-russia-unproven-by-time-of-mueller-appointment/
Main photo article Former FBI attorney Lisa Page, in a bombshell revelation, says the agency could not prove collusion between Russia and Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign before Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.
Page told a closed-door joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/16/15/5041D9B300000578-0-image-a-20_1537107567202.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий