... and God Said "Stretch Out Your Hand Over Donald Trump So That FBI Locusts Swarm Over The Land And Devour Everything"

And thus Operation "Crossfire Hurricane" Came to Be

The plan over the next few weeks is to write a series of articles attempting to decipher some of the history and reasoning behind Crossfire Hurricane as reflected in the Durham Report. By popular vote on Twitter, this article focuses on the beginning — the events that launched the Javert-esque effort to land Donald Trump in the hoosegow after 35+ years of failed efforts by folks in New York.

Or — to phrase it differently — James Comey diving headfirst into a massive mountain of horseshit because he just knew there was a pony at the bottom.

If there is one key takeaway from the information Durham was able to collate all in one place it is that James Comey was personally pushing for the investigation to take place on an accelerated timeline knowing that he was in a race against the calendar as Election Day 2016 rapidly approached.

Comey assumed for himself the role of arbiter of the legal implications — or lack thereof thanks to him — for Hillary Clinton with respect to her violations of federal law regarding the handling classified information. I’m confident that had FBI come up with the information he expected to find before Election Day he would have done the same thing regarding Donald Trump — except for the part about exonerating Trump.

Based on Durham’s Report (and other information I’ve gleaned over the years), there are five main events that presaged Peter Strzok drafting on July 31 2016 the “Opening Electronic Communication” that made Crossfire Hurricane an official FBI “Full Investigation.” Strzok was not aware of all five events, but all contributed in some fashion to the information he did receive that was the basis for opening the investigation.

1. The alleged “hack” of DNC computers by Russian intelligence operatives in the spring of 2016 during the Democrat party primary campaign season.

2. The release of DNC email materials by Wikileaks on July 22, 2016, that revealed active efforts by the DNC to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

3. Comments by George Papadopolous in a casual meeting in May 2016 with Australian Government officials that were communicated by Australia to the FBI on July 26, 2016 after the publication of the DNC email materials.

4. General intelligence reporting on Russian disinformation campaigns being employed to influence voters in the upcoming election — pretty much “standard operating procedure” for the Russian intelligence services (and the CIA).

5. Trump’s public comment on July 27, 2016 that Russia should try to find the 30,000 emails Clinton had deleted from her server before turning it over to the FBI.