🚨🚨
Canary in coal mine dead.

Looks like profound corruption in Barr-Durham probe—attempted October surprise.

Top Durham aide, Nora Dannehy resigns partly because “team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done”!
courant.com/news/connectic…
2. @jgeltzer and I wrote this piece in anticipation.

How to prepare the public for Barr’s likely misuse of the #DurhamReport to affect the election.

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
3. I wrote this article on the DOJ “60 Day Rule.”

Now note: the article has statements by former prosecutors who served in US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut—the office from which Nora Dannehy just resigned—about adherence to the Rule.

justsecurity.org/72243/bill-bar…
4. Important note:

Nora Dannehy resignation not only raises specter that DOJ employees are being pressured to violate a Department policy or rule.

It also raises the specter of criminal Hatch Act violations if Durham investigation/report is being used to help Trump’s campaign.
5. A standing memo in the Justice Dept—issued by Bush's Attorney General Mukasey in 2008 and reaffirmed since—warns of this kind of Hatch Act violation:

"The Act also prohibits us from using our authority for the purpose of affecting election results"

justice.gov/sites/default/…
6.

Reality check 1: Bill Barr's Justice Department will most likely not enforce the Hatch Act against employees who violate it in effort to use #DurhamReport to affect the election

Reality check 2: Bill Barr is not likely to be Attorney General on January 21, 2021.

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More from @rgoodlaw

31 Aug
<thread>

I just published.👇

Two episodes in 1992 presidential campaign show Bill Barr is flat wrong in saying how the “60-Day Rule” applies to Durham investigation and October surprises.

And Barr knows it.

He was deeply involved in both 1992 cases.

justsecurity.org/72243/bill-bar…
2. Barr recently said DOJ rule means deferring until after election only cases in which the candidate is a target, and that Biden is not a target of Durham probe.

But that's the diametric opposite of what Barr said in a deposition under oath in 1995 (Whitewater investigation).
3. In Oval Office meeting with President Bush, Nov. 4, 1992:

Barr stated without question that the independent counsel had just violated 60-Day Rule by issuing an indictment, in which Bush was merely referenced in the document in passing.

via @realBobWoodward 1999 book:
Read 5 tweets
24 Aug
I just published with @AshaRangappa_:

"Manafort’s Reward"

Senator #RonJohnson's staff started work with Russian disinformation operative even BEFORE Trump's call with Ukraine President.

It worked in accord with Manafort's and Giuliani's plan.

justsecurity.org/72148/manafort…
2. Johnson told WaPo (@eliseviebeck @DDaltonBennett): “no recollection of the president mentioning Rudy Giuliani” at May 23 Oval Office meeting.

Others in meeting who testified Trump said to work or talk with Giuliani:

Sondland
Taylor
Volker
Morrison

Johnson somehow forgot.
3. We write: "Giuliani, picked up the torch on the Ukraine election interference idea ... Over months Giuliani “'consulted several times with Manafort through the federal prisoner’s lawyer.'"

Quoting scoop by @jdawsey1 @thamburger @PaulSonne @PostRoz

washingtonpost.com/world/national…
Read 8 tweets
19 Aug
<thread>

Significant moment in #Clinesmith hearing.

Judge: Do you agree when you added Carter was "not a source" "you knew such a statement was not in fact true"?

Clinesmith: "At the time I BELIEVED THAT THE INFORMATION I WAS PROVIDING IN THE EMAIL WAS ACCURATE ..."
2. Clinesmith in full:

"At the time I BELIEVED THAT THE INFORMATION I WAS PROVIDING IN THE EMAIL WAS ACCURATE but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not originally there and that I inserted that information."
3. Upshot: It furthers the point that the the offense, and facts to which just Clinesmith agreed, are NOT about his knowingly and falsely saying Page was not a CIA source, and that Page was one.

Durham's case is oddly reduced down to Clinesmith altering the email document.
Read 4 tweets
18 Aug
<thread>

Senate Intelligence Committee #SSCI report undercuts #RonJohnson investigation.

Broadly, it shows how Russian agents spread disinformation re Ukraine interference in 2016 election, which Johnson-Grassley have lapped up and relied on.

One specific example stands out…
2.

Bipartisan Senate Intelligence report highlights Russian intelligence officer behind scenes of a Financial Times article alleging Ukraine interference.

Johnson-Grassley letter to Barr specifically relied on that Financial Times article.

Report (left)👇and letter (right)👇 ImageImage
3. For more on Johnson and Grassley's receiving and using Russian disinformation, @AshaRangappa_ (former FBI counterintelligence agent) and I recently wrote:

"How Sen. Ron Johnson’s Investigation Became an Enabler of Russian Disinformation: Part I"
justsecurity.org/71947/how-sen-…
Read 4 tweets
17 Aug
<thread>

@JonathanTurley has a seriously flawed blog post trying to criticize @AWeissmann_ and me.

Turley badly misrepresents what we said, what Justice Dept charged, and more…

This is a pattern for Turley (see final tweet in this thread for that pattern)…
2. On left:

Turley falsely claims op-ed calls on DOJ lawyers "to undermine" Durham investigation

On right:

Our op-ed: DOJ lawyers should refuse IMPROPER requests if VIOLATE oath to Constitution and policy on actions that interfere in election; plus Durham CAN indict after 11/3
3. On left:

Turley: FBI lawyer charged for falsely stating Carter Page was not a CIA source to court, when Page was a source.

On right:

The charge: Knowingly altering a document to FBI supervisor by adding words (charge never mentions Page's status or whether lawyer knew it).
Read 6 tweets
13 Aug
Must Read

"I left government service after more than a decade because I lost faith in the courage of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to refuse unlawful orders from the President."

By @kyle_a_murphy

justsecurity.org/72008/i-resign…
"I have seen up close the president’s disdain for democratic values, and recent events should be put in the context of a continuous slide toward authoritarianism...."
"I briefed President Donald Trump before several introductory calls to foreign heads of state, and as is customary, I listened in and prepared the official transcripts."
Read 6 tweets

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