Jack - Bad News for Conspiracy Theories

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

This week: Mike Pompeo is called to testify in a Spanish Court; an unavoidable outcome for the oranges of the Trump Russia probe; some news about a right-wing Flynn unmasking conspiracy theory that has been totally debunked by a report that Jason Leopold was able to obtain through a FOIA request; plus some Sabotage and the Fantasy Indictment League.Follow AG on Twitter:Dr. Allison Gill https://twitter.com/allisongillhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://twitter.com/dailybeanspodWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?https://dailybeans.supercast.tech/Orhttps://patreon.com/thedailybeansHow We Win Fundswingleft.org/fundraise/howwewin

They might be giants that have been on the road for too long. Too long. And they might be giants aren't even sorry. Not even sorry. And audiences like the shows too much. Too much. And now they might be giants that are playing their breakthrough album, all of it.

And they still have time for other songs. They're fooling around. Who can stop? They might be giants and their liberal rocket gender. Who? No one. This happens to pay for what with somebody else's money. Hey, all.

This is Glenn Kirschner, and you're listening to Mueller She Wrote. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities.

I have been called a surrogate at a time, a two in that campaign. And I didn't have, not have, communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for? I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find

the 30,000 emails that are missing. So it is political. You're a communist. No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession, I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Muller She Wrote. I'm your host, A.G.

Alison Gill. And we have a big show for you today, including a pretty great fantasy indictment league. A really good bit of sabotage. We have some news on Mike Pompeo. We have an unavoidable outcome for the oranges of the Trump Russia probe. And some news about a right-wing Mike Flynn unmasking conspiracy theory that has now been totally debunked by a report that Jason Leopold from Buzzfeed was able to obtain through a FOIA request. Very cool stuff. We have a lot to get to, so let's jump in with just the facts.

All right, first up, as I promised from Jason Leopold at Buzzfeed News, a Justice Department probe found that members of the Obama administration did not seek to reveal the identity of Michael Flynn for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons. That is from a newly disclosed report. The document details the results of a months-long investigation into the so-called unmasking of Mike Flynn, who we know briefly served as a national security adviser to then President Donald Trump before he was fired in February of 2017, in the wake of the revelation that he had lied about phone conversations he held with Russia's ambassador, Kislyak.

So that was fun. Republicans later accused officials in the Obama administration of using their positions to reveal anonymized names in classified documents known in the intelligence community as unmasking. And they did that according to Republicans and far right wing people. They did that in order to target individuals in Trump's orbit. In May 2020, Trump's attorney general Bill Barr ordered an investigation into the practice of unmasking. That review conducted by John Bash at the time US attorney for the Western District of Texas, he was finished with that report the following September, September 2020, without

finding any evidence of wrongdoing. of course Barnover released that report. Although Bash's conclusions, including his decision not to prosecute anyone, were first reported in late 2020, the report itself did not previously get out to the public. The 52-page document, which has been classified top secret, was obtained by BuzzFeed News in response to a FOIA request lawsuit and has been shared here for the first time in its entirety. This is from BuzzFeed News in response to a FOIA request lawsuit, and has been shared here for the first time in its entirety. This is from BuzzFeed news, and Jason Leopold. The probe was one of several ordered by Barr, scrutinizing the oranges of the federal investigations into Trump Russia. On Tuesday, as we know, federal grand jury acquitted a Democratic lawyer who'd been charged

with lying to the FBI in one of those probes. That was the one overseen by special prosecutor appointed by Bill Barr, John Durham, who should have never been appointed special counsel because, according to the rules, special counsels have to be appointed from outside the government. And as we know, Durham was working for the government when he was appointed. Now, in his case, in this investigation, Bash employed a team of two prosecutors, three FBI agents and one FBI analyst to review unmasking requests made by the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the FBI, between March 1, 2016 and January 31, 2017,

and to conduct interviews with 20 government employees involved in intelligence briefings. So he examined whether anyone in the Obama administration had improper motives when seeking to reveal the true identities of US citizens, including Mike Flynn, whose names were not disclosed in classified intelligence reports. Now, Bash, who left the Justice Department

in October of 2020, found no wrongdoing, no such activity at all. Quote, my review is uncovered no evidence that senior executive branch officials sought the disclosure of the identities of US individuals in disseminated intelligence reports for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons during the 2016 presidential election period or the ensuing presidential transition period. That's what the report says. This was never released. Leopold had to go get it with a FOIA request. A central focus of the investigation was the leak showing that Flynn had been in communications

with then Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak prior to Trump's inauguration and whether Flynn's involvement was revealed through the unmasking request from a federal government official. That was the right wing thing, right? The deep state at the CIA and the NSA and the FBI, they unmasked Flynn's name and that's how it even got out that he was talking to Kisleyak. And that's why there was this unfounded investigation, blah, blah. But Bash's review of unmasked intelligence reports about the calls found that the FBI did not, in fact, disseminate any that contained Flynn's information, and that a single unmasked report that did contain Flynn's information did not describe the cause between him and Kissley

Ak. Quote for that reason, the public disclosure of the communications could not have resulted from an unmasking request. Sorry. Intriguingly, the prosecutor did find that the FBI shared transcripts of the relevant communications outside the bureau without masking Flynn's name, but notes that he did not investigate those incidents any further because evaluating that dissemination and determining how the information was provided to the media is beyond the scope of this review.

Bash's report contains no information about who shared those transcripts and who received them. Although Bash writes that he had not found a justification to conduct a criminal investigation into anyone who was involved in the unmasking process, he says he was troubled by how easy it is for political appointees of the incumbent administration to obtain non-public information about individuals associated with a presidential campaign or a transition team. Quote there exists a significant potential for misuse of such information, misuse that could be difficult to detect.

Although we didn't find any here. His report recommends that the intelligence community should consider implementing certain prophylactic safeguards for unmasking requests that relate to presidential campaigns or transitions, including a more demanding, substantive standard for granting those requests, which, you know, this didn't happen here, but just in case in the future. Special notification requirements, perhaps, and a centralized approval process for the future. And yes, you heard that right. Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI in the first trial of special counsel John Durham's

more than three-year investigation into the oranges of the Trump Russia investigation. The verdict is a major defeat for Durham and his Justice Department prosecutors who spent as I said over three years looking for wrongdoing in the Trump Russia probe only to come up with a single one thousand and one charge that they lost in court over. He claimed Susman lied during a 2016 meeting with Jim Baker, in which he passed a tip to the FBI about Donald Trump and Russia. That was the Alpha Bank server communicating with the Trump Tower server. And as Charlie Savage writes, for the times,

some of the most explosive Durham filings themselves have proved to be misleading or tangential to the case. The indictment of Mr. Susman selectively quoted from emails among the researchers who developed the AlphaBank suspicions, fostering an impression that they did not believe their own analysis. But the full emails include passages in which the researchers expressed enthusiastic belief in their final handiwork. Just let those out. Moreover, the material seemed extraneous to a mere false statement indictment, because

Susman was not part of those conversations anyway, indeed the judge ruled nearly all the evidence inadmissible at the trial. In a pre-trial filing in February, prosecutors added a few ambiguous sentences about separate concerns the researchers developed, regarding data, suggesting the Russian smartphones had been connected to sensitive networks, including Trump Tower in the White House. guarding data, suggesting the Russian smartphones had been connected to sensitive networks, including Trump Tower in the White House. Signalling those out, conservative news media erupted in a führer, inaccurately informing

readers that Durham had evidence that the Clinton campaign paid to spy on the network of the Trump White House, even though there was no Clinton campaign when the Trump White House was happening. Durham's filing and not actually said that, the campaign did not pay the cybersecurity researchers, and the White House network data they had sifted through for signs of possible Russian infiltration came from Barack Obama's presidency. Durham disavowed responsibility for misinterpreted facts. Whatever his motives, Charlie Savage writes, Durham's investigation is demonstrably functioned

as a kind of fun house mirror image of aspects of the work of Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation. He's just trying to be a Bob. All right, and get this. This story, I didn't even know what to make of the headline when I read it, but Donald Trump's former secretary of state Mike Pompeo has been ordered to appear in a Spanish court to explain a possible U.S. government plot to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

That's ABC Spain reporting citing legal sources close to the case. Yahoo News broke it broke this story of the alleged 2017 plot last September, reporting that Trump's then CIA director Pompeo wanted revenge after WikiLeaks published a massive trove of sensitive CIA hacking tools. They were seeing blood and ex-Trump national security official told Yahoo. Separately, Spain's national court has been probing a Spanish security firm that may have spied on a sange for the CIA while providing security for the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. National High Court judge Santiago Pedraz agreed to summon Pompeo and former U.S. counterintelligence official William Evenina as witnesses to explain whether the plot

was drawn up. At all, right? Did you have a plot to kidnap and assassinate Joluna Saj, they must appear in June and contest a 5V of video conference. Pompeo has not yet commented on this ruling. Alright, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back with sabotage. Stay with us. Hi everybody, it's A.G. from The Daily Beans. Hey, this is Kimberly Johnson, host of the Start Me Up podcast.

Hi, it's Angela from the Final Word and it is the week podcast. Hi, this is Jody Hamilton of the From the Bunker Podcast. Hi, it's Mariah. And Steve from How We Win. And we are joining forces to support the how we win fund. The midterms are coming in the best way. We can fight back against the Republicans as to support Democrats in key battleground states.

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So go to swingleft.org slash fundraise slash how we win. To donate what you can, share this with your friends and family and let's show the GOP that the grass roots persistence is here to stay. This is how We Win. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Welcome back. It's time for sabotage. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OK, this is fun. This is Breaking News as a Friday, June 3rd, several close allies of Steve Bannon have been subpoenaed to testify before a New York State grand jury investigating his fundraising for

a private border wall effort called we build the wall, and that's according to people familiar with the investigation talking to CNN. The subpoenas were sent to several witnesses in recent weeks requiring them to appear and provide testimony for the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation. Among those who received subpoenas are people in Bannon's immediate circle, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. The subpoenas are the clearest indication that the Manhattan DA's criminal investigation into Bannon's fundraising efforts is intensifying and could lead to possible charges against a former president Donald Trump's one-time advisor. The District Attorney's Office launched a criminal investigation into Bannon's We Build

the Wall crowd fundraising activities early last year after Trump pardoned Bannon on federal fraud charges relating to the same alleged scheme. Presidential partners do not apply to state investigations. Bannon is also facing federal contempt of Congress charges for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House Committee investigating January 6th, who has pleaded not guilty. When asked about the grand jury, subpoenas, Bannon's attorney Robert Costello told CNN, I am unaware of these matters. You're kind of a shitty lawyer. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York previously charged banning and three others. This was federal.

Three others and banning. Remember when they arrested him? The boat cops, the co- the post office police got him on the boat on the yacht. It was glow with a like a yacht funded by Guo Wangwei, who's tied with Jolo, you know, that whole situation. But anyway, that was the Southern District of New York. They alleged that Bannon and his three friends defrauded donors in the border wall effort, they raised more than $25 million and spent it on themselves. And Bannon was charged with diverting more than a million bucks to pay a co-conspirator

and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. Prosecutors alleged that the donors, including some in New York, were falsely told that the money contributed would go toward the construction of a wall on the southern border. Manhattan prosecutors subpoenaed bank records and quietly worked on the investigation over the past year. This is now we're back in Manhattan, DA's office. We're out of the federal. So they subpoenaed bank records have been working for over a year while they were also investigating Trump and the Trump organization and his real estate business.

But the district attorney's office has deferred a charging decision on Bannon until federal prosecutors conclude their case against the three of his co-defendants who are not pardoned. That's according to sources. So he's waiting for the federal Southern District of New York case on the three remaining guys in the border wall, effort, Kolfage and Baudelotto pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kolfage also pled guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of wire fraud in connection with filing a false tax return. Tim Shea, the fourth man charged in the fundraising effort, is on trial and federal court. An attorney for Kolfage declined to comment on whether his client had been subpoenaed as part of the state-level probe.

Attorneys for a bold alado and shey did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Manhattan prosecutors are expected to make a charging decision after that trial concludes, and the grand jury subpoenas are an indication they're moving closer to that decision. Since Bannon was charged, but the federal case was never brought to a conclusion, lawyers familiar with the issue say he would not have double jeopardy grounds to challenge any possible state charges. He also cannot be pardoned by a president for state charges, and I seriously doubt a New York governor will pardon him.

And with that, it is time to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate. I'm going to be a candidate.

Hey, everybody, give yourself five points. If you had Pete Navarro on your fantasy team this week, the Trump advisor was arrested today, Friday, on two counts of contempt of Congress. He was arrested, getting on a plane, attempting to travel to Tennessee, apparently, and he was arraigned in federal court where he ran his mouth. His indictment was filed under seal until he could be arrested to prevent him from fleeing or destroying evidence, but the feds did not seek pretrial attention for Navarro.

The conditions of his release are standard for a contempt charge. No international travel, no guns, don't break the law, no drugs. Navarro still took umbridge and he had to be told to shut up twice by the judge because he would not stop running his mouth. The judge also raised the possibility the Department of Justice could charge him further. The judge also warned Navarro that every time he speaks, he could be putting himself at risk, probably anticipating any upcoming media appearances, like his recent two stints on the Ari Melbershow where he admitted to participating in the coup. And Ari Melber was like, you know, you have the right to remain silent.

And you're, you know, he was like, you're arguing these contempt charges, you wouldn't show up and talk to the committee, but you're sitting here telling me everything. And on television, you, you realize that you, you're waving your executive privilege, any claim you have to it, but he just wouldn't shut up. He just would not stop talking. And even though Navarro is representing himself, pro say, he complained to the court, the Department of Justice didn't even contact a lawyer about arresting him. They just picked him up at the airport. That's unconstitutional.

I'm being mistreated, violist and heritinous system, I'm being repressed. He faces two contempt counts, one for his failure to produce papers, one for his failure to produce testimony, and there's a mandatory 30 day prison sentence for each of those counts. So he faces minimum 60 days in prison if he's convicted. With a maximum of a year, two years, one for one year for each count, they could be served

concurrently. That's true. He could get found guilty on both charges, 30 days, 30 days, and they might instead of having him serve those 30 day sentences consecutively, they might have him serve them concurrently, but I'm not sure how that works with minimums. I'll have to ask a lawyer. But he also faces a maximum fine of $200,000. The house had voted in April to refer Navarro to the Justice Department for not complying

with the select committees February 9 9th subpoena. Navarro claimed he was unable to cooperate because former Trump asserted executive privilege in the matter. The committee had countered those arguments by citing that many of the topics it wanted to discuss he had already written about in his book. Given all that info, I'm going to keep banning my team in the DA's office in Manhattan. Gates, Matt Gates, an L.A. key down in Florida. Along, I'm going to add a random Florida Republican to my list. So maybe a ghost candidate, some straw candidate, some scheme, some sort of campaign finance violation.

I'm going to add Rudy. I'm going to have a he's been on my team forever. It's got to be. It's been over a year since he was rated. Come on guys. Scavino. Dan Scavino. I think he might, we might see a contempt

of Congress indictment for Dan. I think superseding Trump organization for falsifying those documents. Those financial statements could happen from the Manhattan DA's office. Um, with Victoria Toansing, she was rated, her phones were taken along with Rudy's back in April of last year. Uh, I'm going to add a proud boy's seditious conspiracy superseding indictment.

And you know what, Jeffrey Clark. Jeffrey Clark for contempt. And that's my draft. Um, thank you very much for listening to Muller Shear Road. Also out today a new episode of the MSW book club I am covering allow me to retort by Ellie Mastal. I'll be back tomorrow in the beans Oh, and and I'm doing I'm doing quick quick hit videos on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. You can check those out too Just breaking down You know complex legal documents and stuff like that.

And thanks to MidasTouch for that, they are an MSW media partner and I appreciate them very much. So until tomorrow when I'm back on the beans please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, vote blue over Q. I've been AG and this this is Mollershi Road. MUSIC Mollershi Road is written and produced by Allison Gil in partnership with MSW Media. Sound Design and Engineering, or by Molly Hockey, Jesse Egan is our copywriter and our art and web designer by Joe El Reader at Moxie Design Studios. Mollershi Road is a proud member of MSW Media, a group of creator-owned podcasts focused on news, justice, and politics. For more information, visit MSW Media dot com.

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