Thread by @Sadiso

The #DurhamReport THREAD 1/19
OPINION - Outsourcing the job
1.The Durham Report omits the origins of the Russia Collusion operation, despite foreign intelligence being the predicate for the FBI opening an investigation into the Americans in Trump’s orbit. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

2.The U.K.’s role. In the summer of 2016, Robert Hannigan, head of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Brennan regarding communications between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

3.Oddly, Hannigan bypassed his U.S. counterpart, NSA Director Mike Rogers.
Therefore, it’s entirely possible that Hannigan was responding to Brennan’s tasking, requesting signals intelligence (electronic surveillance) on members of the Trump campaign. Depending on how

4.the tasking was couched, Hannigan may have been unwitting of Brennan’s intentions to specifically target Trump.
A number of European countries also passed GCHQ electronic intelligence on Trump’s associates. The raw intelligence was uncorroborated and unverified and used in

5.the now debunked Steele Dossier
The British are our closest foreign allies. The U.S./U.K. cooperation is critical to our respective nation’s national security priorities. No U.S. intelligence or law enforcement activity takes place on British soil without the express approval

6.of the COS London. In fact, Senator Chuck Grassley’s declassification of some FBI texts, reveal travel and coordination plans involving the U.K., including during the transition period in late November 2016. There were attempts to protect the identities of foreigners used in..

7..the entrapment operation against some of Trump’s campaign officials. A few of the same Americans would later be prosecuted in the U.S.

8.Sen Rand Paul’s letter to DCIA Gina Haspel asked some pretty pointed questions regarding her knowledge of possible CIA involvement while Haspel was in the UK
"So I sent a letter to Gina Haspel asking her did the CIA eavesdrop on the Trump campaign when they were in England?"

9. “It is supposed to be illegal for the CIA to spy on Americans – so the question is did John Brennan ask the British intelligence to spy on Americans for him? Did he ask them to spy on President Trump’s campaign?”
#SenRandPaul via NBC News

10. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who believed that the CIA “stayed in its lane,” imposed limitations on special counsel John Durham by only allowing the investigation to “narrowly focus on the conduct of FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane” (CH) investigation.

11. In early 2017, Mike Pompeo, then DCIA, appointed Barr to the CIA’s advisory board.
In 2020, Haspel, who Pompeo picked to lead the CIA when he was named Secretary of State, refused Trump’s order to declassify documents related to the Russian collusion operation.

12. Italy’s role. Italy stepped in to play a significant role by providing the individuals and locales for the entrapment part of the Russia Collusion operation. For example, George Papadoupolous an American and foreign policy advisor to then candidate Trump,

13 ..was targeted by Joseph Mifsud a Maltese professor operating out of Link University in Rome. Mifsud gained some notoriety as he was apparently kidnapped by Italian Intelligence and subsequently just disappeared.
Conveniently, and perhaps intentionally, Mifsud – the central

14. actor in the Russia Collusion operation – was now out of reach of U.S. law enforcement officials like Barr and Durham, who traveled to Italy twice hoping to interview him. Secretary of State Pompeo and DCIA Haspel quickly followed up with their own trips to Rome.

15. Suddenly, all leads to Rome fizzled out.
Outsourcing the targeting of Americans - whether political candidates or rank and file government employees like myself - was indeed an effective and clever strategy on Brennan’s part.

16. Foreign intelligence officials who may have passed intelligence or provided logistical support to entrap or prosecute Americans, do not come under U.S. jurisdiction and therefore are under no obligation to testify, respond to FOIAs or subpoenas. Those officials cannot be

17. forced to produce a central figure in the Russia-Trump collusion debacle, e.g. Mifsud, for questioning or testimony.
Brennan used his credentials, which came with almost unlimited power and resources to reward or destroy, in order to serve his own political ambitions.17.

18. For years my job in Italy involved working closely with Italian intelligence and law enforcement utilizing the same tools - intelligence leads, entrapment, prosecution - in our fight against a common enemy to keep Italians safe from terrorism. The Italian..

19. ..government then turned around and used that same methodology against a few of us Americans selectively, to prosecute some while protecting others. Protecting foreign “bi-lateral relationships” became the go to excuse for not holding foreign officials accountable. END