Solomon: Durham, Barr Concentrating on Months before Official Launch of Russia Probe

“MANUFACTURED FROM THE BEGINNING”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 18, 2019) — In the final segment of today’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” investigative journalist and Vice President of Video for The Hill John Solomon said that his sources say that Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham have focused their probe of the “Russia” investigators on the several months preceding the date the FBI has given for its opening of a counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign.

The FBI claims its investigation began on July 31, 2016, but Solomon identified the time frame currently under scrutiny as “March to July” that year.  Both Solomon and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes say that the Trump campaign was under some type of investigation much earlier than the FBI claims.

In May, Barr’s office announced that it had tasked Durham, who is the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut and has experience prosecuting members of the U.S. intelligence community, to launch a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation given that no evidence of a conspiracy between Trump aides and Russia, reportedly the premise for the FBI’s counterintelligence operation, was found by the 22-month Special Counsel’s investigation.

Bartiromo recounted that in 2016, the mysterious Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud met with then-Trump campaign volunteer adviser George Papadopoulos to “drop a bomb,” specifically making the allegation that “Russians” possessed “dirt” on Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

In 2017, Papadopoulos was arrested at Dulles International Airport, then prosecuted for allegedly lying to the FBI about the timing of his two 2016 meetings with Mifsud.  In recent months both former and current lawmakers have stated that “exculpatory evidence” found in transcripts from the conversations exists and should be declassified for public consumption.

Also in May, President Trump gave Barr the authority to declassify documents from the Russia investigation, although to date, no such documents have been released to the public’s knowledge.  Last week, Judicial Watch obtained and released the “302s,” or FBI interview summaries, with DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who Solomon spoke about at the outset of his interview.

Between Papadopoulos and Mifsud show that Papadopoulos was aghast at the idea that year were to have engaged in a conspiracy with the Russians, it would have amounted to “treason.”

In October 2017, Papadopoulos accepted a plea deal with the Justice Department, eventually spending 12 days in federal prison, paying a $9,500 fine, and performing 200 hours of community service.  As a result of the plea agreement, he is considered a convicted felon.

Solomon then broke news by stating that he recently interviewed Stephan Roh, Mifsud’s attorney, who, Solomon said, “his client was being directed and long worked with Western intelligence, and he was being directed specifically — he was asked to connect George Papadopoulos to Russia…If that’s the case, that means that the flat point that started the whole investigation was, in fact, manufactured from the beginning.”

Two congressional committees are attempting to obtain documentation from Roh, Solomon said.

When Bartiromo asked, “Who do you think is the mastermind?” Solomon responded, “I think the CIA — we have to take a closer at them…”