More “Russia” Investigation Transcripts Released

WHO WILL COME UNDER THE MICROSCOPE?

by Sharon Rondeau

(May 20, 2019) — “Hannity” host Sean Hannity reported Monday night that transcripts from three former high-ranking FBI and DOJ officials were released earlier in the day by Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

The Washington Examiner reported that Collins released a total of nine transcripts Monday, with as many as “53” said to be intended for impending release as of late April.

Hannity said that at first glance, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s closed-door testimony contradicts that of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was referred for criminal investigation by the DOJ’s inspector general as well as fired from the agency early last year.

Hannity pointed out that a total of approximately 25 FBI and DOJ officials have either resigned, been demoted or fired since the “Russia” investigation, begun by the FBI in 2016, came to the fore of American politics amid Donald Trump’s inauguration and assembling of his administration.

For over two years, the probe clouded Trump’s presidency with the intelligence community’s claim that someone within the campaign “colluded” with Russians to win the election.  Last month, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released to Congress and the public, indicating that no evidence of “collusion” or “conspiracy” was uncovered between the campaign and the Kremlin after 22 months of investigation and over 500 interviews.

In breaking news Sunday, former Congressman and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy said that “exculpatory evidence” was withheld by the FBI and DOJ from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to obtain four surveillance warrants on Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page over the span of a year.

Despite having been described as an “agent of a foreign power” in the warrant applications, which were based on the “dossier” assembled by British citizen Christopher Steele, Page, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was never charged with a crime.

Fox News Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett told Hannity Monday night that the withholding of the exculpatory evidence on Page left “nobody on the other side” to advocate for Page’s constitutional rights.

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has said that he was also the subject of a FISA warrant which has not yet been declassified.  Papadopoulos was the first Trump campaign member to accept a “guilty” plea in connection with the Russia probe.  In his book, “Deep State Target,” Papadopoulos wrote that he strongly suspected that bizarre conversations about “Russia” sought out with him by individuals with whom he was not acquainted were being recorded, a claim confirmed by Gowdy on Sunday and Rep. Mark Meadows on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning.

Attorney General William Barr has pledged to discover the origins of the Russia investigation given that Mueller, who assumed the FBI’s probe after FBI Director James Comey was fired in May 2017, derailed the “collusion” theory in his report.

At the opening of the show, Hannity said that new developments in the “collusion” hoax are expected to emerge on a daily basis for an indefinite amount of time until Americans have the complete truth of the extent to which the Trump campaign was politically-targeted by the U.S. intelligence community.