The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago last summer might have been a plot to protect deep state intelligence officials, according to sources who spoke with a team of independent journalists this week.
On Wednesday, journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag published part 2 of an expose on the role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in orchestrating the years-long crusade to frame former President Donald Trump as a Russian plant. The article posted on Shellenberger’s Substack, Public, outlined how intelligence officials fretted over the presence of a classified “binder” in Trump’s possession that former CIA Director Gina Haspel had guarded for years.
“Transgressions range from Justice Department surveillance of domestic political targets without probable cause to the improper unmasking of a pre-election conversation between a Trump official and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to WMD-style manipulation of intelligence for public reports on alleged Russian ‘influence activities,'” Public reported.
One unnamed source cited as “knowledgeable about the case” called the binder “Trump’s insurance policy.” Trump was apparently “very concerned about having it and taking it with him because it was his road map” of the Russian collusion hoax.
“The ‘missing binder’ story has several variants,” Public reported. “Sources offer differing answers on the question of whether anything of consequence is missing. They give mixed accounts of Trump’s frantic last efforts to declassify Russia-related material. But nearly everyone Public and Racket spoke to agreed that the tale obscured a broader and more important story.”
On Tuesday, the Substack reporters revealed the CIA launched the Russiagate conspiracy with demands for allied nations who are members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance to spy on Trump and his campaign. Members of the global intelligence apparatus include the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In 2019, Democrats ostensibly impeached Trump over requesting that a foreign nation investigate domestic political opponents in the U.S. Trump now faces 40 criminal charges over allegations of mishandling classified documents after the FBI raid on his Florida residence. President Joe Biden escaped similar charges because prosecutors ruled the commander-in-chief too senile to face a jury trial.
“Multiple sources believe that Trump’s possession of the binder, or one of multiple binders, led the FBI to raid his home in Mar-a-Lago, which led to the prosecution of Trump by Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith,” reported Public. Haspel, who led the CIA under Trump, “repeatedly blocked attempts to declassify information about the Trump-Russia investigation” as far back as 2018.
Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley repeatedly requested the CIA’s Russiagate documents in 2020 but were stonewalled by Haspel, whose tenure ran from April 2018 to January 2021. It is unclear whether the records sought by lawmakers were the same as those reported by Public, though the material purportedly showed intelligence officials knew the allegations of Trump-Russia collusion were Russian disinformation. Neither Johnson nor Grassley’s office immediately responded to The Federalist’s inquiries Thursday.
[RELATED: Intel Sources: CIA Director Gina Haspel Banking On Trump Loss To Keep Russiagate Documents Hidden]
“The documents in question are said to contain information about the legal justification for those investigations, or more specifically, the lack of justification, among other things. Should more of that information be made public, it might implicate a long list of officials in serious abuses,” Public reported. “Questions like these may be answered if the 10-inch thick binder of sensitive documents about the origins of the Russia probe is made public. Fear for reputations and careers, not national security, is what has intelligence officials panicked.”
