In the Forum thread on FBI standard procedures for filtering materials obtained by search warrant, someone asked, “Who assigns the filter team?” It was a fair question, although at least two commenters blew it off with deflections.
Now we have a probable answer: The same FBI division that conducted the Crossfire Hurricane investigation conducted the Mar-a-Lago raid. They would be the “usual suspects” who assigned the filter team.
This — if true — is curious for a couple of reasons:
- Crossfire Hurricane turned out to be a clown show. Is the Mar-a-Lago raid its new act?
- The FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane group is currently being investigated by John Durham, who has been busy of late issuing subpoenas to find out what the group was doing during the Trump administration.
- Crossfire Hurricane documentation which the public hasn’t seen is thought to have been seized in the Mar-a-Lago raid.
While we wait for the truth, I’m wondering, “Is that an FBI filter team, or gefilte fish?”
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
“…s thought to have been seized in the Mar-a-Lago raid.”
By whom
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By me, primarily. I have written about that possibility in connection with the security classification of document taken in the raid. But I didn’t invent the suspicion:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=crossfire+hurricane+mar-a-lago&t=hq&ia=web
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“But I didn’t invent the suspicion.”
It seems Bannon did…in all caps. And the echo chamber took it from there.
If there were Crossfire papers there, I am sure we would have heard long before now if they vindicated Trump.
My thoughts are that Trump took what he wanted because he thought he could get away with it. He obviously was not too worried about our national security considering his history with classified material.
(He outed an Israeli operative to Russian intelligence at a reception. He published a secret spy satellite photo of a failed Iranian missile test. He wanted to publish the high rez one, but cooler heads degraded the image. He discussed secret info about a N. Korean missile test at his table in Mar a Lago surrounded by club members taking photos of him and Abe. Aides have spoken of his sloppy handling of papers, ripping up documents they had to tape together.)
He packed in a hurry because he was not conceding the election. Rather he was actively trying to overturn it illegally.
And perhaps he needed what he thought might be useful bargaining chips should he need them. Here or abroad.
That he refused to act in good faith once NARA asked, demanded, subpoenaed and even visited is unconscionable and illegal regardless of any reason or excuse.
Now he has communicated to Garland that he could reduce the “heat” in the country. Or, as posted the other day, he is offering to spare our store so “nothin’ bad should happen”.
How generous, just like the Mafia he associated with in NY.
IMO
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RE: “My thoughts are that Trump took what he wanted because he thought he could get away with it.”
My thoughts are that you have a very confused view of events. You spend more than 200 words to paint a purely speculative picture of events that isn’t even relevant to my post.
My post answers the question, “Who assigns the filter team?” I propose the answer: The same people who conducted the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
So far, no one has refuted the answer.
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You posted the link to a boat load of sites that say crossfire hurricane documents were in the files returned to the government.
And I laid out a scenario that makes sense to refute that.
You are assuming that the crossfire documents were in the files he stole. I say your speculation is wrong because it is based on nothing.
So filtering is moot.
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You counted my words? I’m flattered😇
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“So far, no one has refuted the answer.”
Maybe that is because – unlike you people – no honest person wants to pretend to know things they do not. I do not know how filter teams are appointed and neither do you.
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RE: “You are assuming that the crossfire documents were in the files he stole.”
No. I said, accurately, “Crossfire Hurricane documentation which the public hasn’t seen is thought to have been seized in the Mar-a-Lago raid.” You wanted to know, “By whom? [is it thought]” So I told you.
RE: “I say your speculation is wrong because it is based on nothing.”
Fair enough, but your speculations are based on nothing but your own imagination. I substantiated mine when asked.
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RE: ” I do not know how filter teams are appointed and neither do you.”
No, I don’t. That’s why I called my answer to the question about filter teams a “probable answer,” so that I wasn’t offering it as a known and documented fact. You have no reason to suggest I have been dishonest.
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You asked why no one was refuting your “probable answer” to who appointed the FBI filter team to process Trump’s stolen documents. I answered your question directly. Honest people would not bother to refute something you pulled out of your ass by pretending to know something they do not. That’s why.
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RE: “You asked why no one was refuting your “probable answer” to who appointed the FBI filter team to process Trump’s stolen documents.”
No I didn’t. I said no has refuted my answer. That includes you, as stated.
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The basis for this story is a lie – an obvious lie to any other than the willfully gulled.
The FBI had every reason to investigate Russian interference in our elections. That the Trump campaign got caught up in those investigations is because they colluded with Russia to achieve their shared goal – the victory of the Russian patsy Donald Trump. End of story.
You people can call the whole Russia-gate affair a “hoax” as you are told. Do it until you turn blue. It does not make it the truth.
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Disagreeing with your opinion is not a lie.
It is near certain Trump would have kept a copy of the declassified Crossfire Hurricane documents in his possession.
If those records disappear in the course of ‘filtering’ the records, that must be viewed as the true purpose of the raid.
Their absence would be just as damning as the records themselves.
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Calling the collusion of the Trump campaign with Russia a “hoax” is bald-faced LIE. It happened. It has been thoroughly documented in the Mueller report, in court, and elseware. Manafort has now admitted to parts of it.
As for what records Trump stole, who knows, you may be right. But the idea that the FBI thinks it can make them disappear by siezing the originals is obvious nonsense.
So, now, if it turns out that Trump did not steal Russia-gate records, their absence will prove that the FBI is corrupt. Yeah, sure.
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No, it is not certain at all. How do you know what he had?
If he did have them, why keep them in a closet particularly after year long efforts to get them back. Hubris? Why not leak them to the media to vindicate himself?
If anything, he might have taken them to prevent the outing of the investigation because he did collude. He was afraid of what was in there.
So I doubt that right wing conspiracy. More likely, it was a batch of serious secrets.
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RE: “If he did have them, why keep them in a closet particularly after year long efforts to get them back. Hubris? Why not leak them to the media to vindicate himself?”
Because of the ongoing Durham investigation, for one reason.
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And what does that have to do with it?
Why didn’t he just turn the documents over to Durham?
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RE: “And what does that have to do with it?”
Had Trump released Crossfire Hurricane documents prior to completion of the agency review he ordered, someone might have accused him of obstructing or compromising Durham’s work. That may, in fact, have been the “legitimate” reason for the raid, as far as DOJ was concerned. Perhaps the affidavit, when released next week, will shed some light on this issue.
RE: “Why didn’t he just turn the documents over to Durham?”
What would be the point? Durham already has them. There are lots of reasons Trump may have wanted his own copies.
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If Durham already has them what is the point of your post.
That the DOJ wants Trump’s copies?
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RE: “That the DOJ wants Trump’s copies?”
That’s what it looks like, circumstantially. More specifically, it appears to me that DOJ doesn’t want Trump to be able to make Crossfire Hurricane documents public or use them in any legal defense he might mount.
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Do you realize what you just said?
If the records were not shown to be in the stolen tranche recovered by the warrant, that is proof of their exonerating information.
Heads I win…
That is conspiracy 101.
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Nope,
The conspiracy is on the other foot.
A fake raid to hide evidence is the most reasonable explanation. What else would be worth the political risk?
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Conspiracy 201 already?
Why wait a 18 months if the “evidence” is damning.
It wasn’t a fake raid. It was a legal search warrant and Garland studied the ramifications for weeks according to the WSJ.
As I posted earlier, if the documents did have crossfire secrets, then Trump probably stole them to keep that quiet. That is the most reasonable explanation of the unknown speculation that the documents were even about the investigation.
We already know of some screwups by the FBI. people have been sentenced and fired for them.
Trump had a lot more to lose if the info were damning to him.
The “political risk” was the incitement to violence, a national security issue. Trump has “offered” to turn down the heat if…
Nice windows you have there…
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Trump would not have released the info while Durham is still investigating, and whatever copies he would have would be unredacted.
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“Trump would not have released the info while Durham is still investigating,”..
You make that statement forgetting that TFG believes the rules only apply to others and that if he wants to release them, he will. It is similar to the Search Warrant information that his lawyers had and could have released anytime after they were served.
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“A fake raid to hide evidence is the most reasonable explanation.”
That is simply demented. If there is evidence that would embarrass the FBI then, to a certainty, it would have been copied and secreted many times over. Your “most reasonable explanation borders on the bizarre.”
“What else would be worth the political risk?”
That you ask that is extremely revealing of what you people are really all about. The answer screams in the mind of an honest citizen immediately – to protect the nation and uphold the rule of law. DUH!
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“A fake raid to hide evidence is the most reasonable explanation.”
Not really. It is a lot of things. Reasonable is not one of them. Unless you are taken in by the Cultism of Trump and believe, deep down in your Libertarian soul, that TFG can do no wrong and the entire world is out to get him.
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Certainly Trump can do wrong, but I see no evidence in this case that he has, and an FBI that flaunts the Constitution concerns me a lot more than anything Trump might do,
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“It is near certain Trump would have kept a copy of the declassified Crossfire Hurricane documents in his possession.”
Then it is also “near certain” he would have released them to indict the integrity of the investigation and vindicate himself, if such vindication was shown in those papers. He’s been out of office for over 2 -1/2 years. Why would he keep them under wraps?
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To avoid compromising Durham.
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RE: “The basis for this story is a lie”
What lie is that? The story reports that the FBI Counterintelligence Division was responsible for both Crossfire Hurricane and the Mar-a-Lago raid. Is that a lie?
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What lie is that?
That Trump collusion with Russia was a “hoax” manufactured by the FBI. A damnable lie that has already gotten one poor sucker killed.
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RE: “That Trump collusion with Russia was a ‘hoax’ manufactured by the FBI.”
So what? That wasn’t the basis for the story. Besides, whether Crossfire Hurricane produced a hoax doesn’t matter. Crossfire Hurricane documentation that may have been seized could be embarrassing to the FBI for any number of reasons.
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“That wasn’t the basis for the story.”
Of course it is. Without the phony underlying narrative that the FBI is a corrupt partisan organization ready to fabricate evidence against Trump there is no story. It is not in the least noteworthy in the really world that the branch charged with securing national security is brought in to cases involving national security
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RE: “It is not in the least noteworthy in the really world that the branch charged with securing national security is brought in to cases involving national security”
Well, as American Thinker points out, there is no record that the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division has been doing much national security work for several years. The only prominent work it has been doing involves investigating Trump.
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“. . . there is no record that the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division has been doing much national security work for several years.”
That’s what they want you to think.
If Trump gets tangled up with them it is for a simple reason – he is a national security nightmare.
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“…there is no record that the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division has been doing much national security work for several years.”
And they or you know this how? Is there a press release listing counterintelligence investigations in progress?
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RE: “That’s what they want you to think.”
It is a substantiated assertion:
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/major-cases
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So how is your link substantiate anything? The latest investigation listed was 2002. Before that it goes back to the 50’s. It is just a listing of major cases in the past as a “here is what we do” site.
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RE: “The latest investigation listed was 2002.”
Exactly. As stated, the web site substantiates the assertion that there have been no major counterintelligence cases for 20 years. The only known major case that the public knows about is Crossfire Hurricane, and it isn’t listed.
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So you think the site is an official listing of all cases? I think it is just a list of some high profile successes on cases that are closed.
Crossfire is still being investigated.
I would hardly think that site is useful for verified all cases.
But it fits the conspiracy.
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“…could be embarrassing to the FBI for any number of reasons.”
Or more than embarrassing for Trump. And that may be why he absconded with them.
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Absconded?
That’s spin, not fact. Trump was authorized — by the Constitution, in fact — to give himself all the Crossfire Hurricane documentation he wished before leaving office. Once he left office he no longer had authority to make any such material public.
But assuming he retained, say, the Crossfire Hurricane binder the FBI gave him, he may have believed he needed it for legal reasons, which would mean the materials in his possession were covered by attorney/client privilege.
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Now in all this debate, who has verified that crossfire documents were even in Mar a Lago?
Unless I missed something, which I am certainly capable of, no one other than Trump and the DOJ know what the documents were. Nuclear secrets was speculation. So is crossfire.
The only thing that was officially released was that some were TS/SCI, TS, and Confidential.
Who said they were crossfire documents?
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“Absconded” is the right word. It took NARA a few months to find out that TS documents might be missing. It turned out it was correct.
An honest president would have done what Obama did. Let NARA take possession of the presidential papers, documents, etc. then allow access by Trump as needed or requested for personal copies or an eventual library.
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RE: “Who said they were crossfire documents?”
Not me. I said, “Crossfire Hurricane documentation which the public hasn’t seen is thought to have been seized in the Mar-a-Lago raid.”
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Thought by whom?
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Those who don’t think, but claim to when they are fed fertilizer and told it is fresh veggies.
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