In an Amended Complaint filed by attorney Ty Clevenger on behalf of his client Ed Butowsky,

http://lawflog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019.07.15-Amended-complai...

Clevenger offers an intriguing narrative of the origins of Russiagate. The insights of former CIA agent Larry Johnson play a key role in this interpretation.

34. As indicated above, this case is the consequence of a conspiracy theory,

namely that President Trump “colluded” with the Russian government to swing the 2016

Presidential election in his favor. That conspiracy theory will hereinafter be referred to as

the “Russia Collusion Hoax” or just the “RCH.” Since the Plaintiff filed his ORIGINAL

COMPLAINT in this case on March 12, 2019, the RCH has unraveled even more, and the

public is just now beginning to understand the breadth and scope of the conspiracy to

overthrow a duly-elected President.

35. In 2015, the administration of President Barrack Obama began spying on

prominent Republican presidential candidates, as well as Democratic candidate Bernie

Sanders, in an effort to support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. At that time, the

Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) was headed by Director John Brennan, and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) was under the effective control of its deputy

director, Andrew McCabe. Mr. Brennan and Mr. McCabe are ruthless and unscrupulous

Democratic partisans, and they were determined to destroy any candidate who might

threaten the candidacy of Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Brennan even created a “working group”

within the CIA to sabotage Mrs. Clinton's political opponents, particularly Donald

Trump. The “working group” included Mr. McCabe and other FBI employees, as well as

employees from the National Security Agency (“NSA).

36. As of 2015, Mrs. Clinton's campaign was already dogged by revelations that

she had avoided using State Department email systems while she was U.S. Secretary of

State, and that she had instead used a private, insecure email server kept in her home.

Adding to Mrs. Clinton's political troubles, classified information was found on her

homemade server, and that called into question her competence to handle national

security matters. It also rendered her liable to federal criminal charges. By early 2016,

Mrs. Clinton was facing multiple investigations, including Congressional, administrative,

and criminal investigations, related to the private email server. Furthermore, the public

learned that Mrs. Clinton's attorneys had destroyed more than 30,000 of her emails even

those emails were subject to outstanding subpoenas. In other words, Mrs. Clinton's

lawyers had intentionally and systematically destroyed more than 30,000 pieces of

evidence. The ongoing investigations were a political albatross for Mrs. Clinton.

37. The FBI's criminal investigation of the Clinton email fiasco was known as

“Operation Mid-Year Exam” or “MYE,” and it was headed by Mr. McCabe and FBI

Director James Comey. Two of the most important players on the MYE team were FBI

agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the latter of whom was assigned to the FBI's Office of

General Cousel. Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were avid Hillary Clinton supporters and

partisan Democrats, and they were determined to protect Mrs. Clinton and undermine her

opponents at any cost.

38. As explained by retired Central Intelligence Agency analyst Larry C. Johnson,

the RCH began in earnest on May 4, 2016, when Ted Cruz dropped out of the

Presidential race. See Larry C. Johnson, “The Campaign to Paint Trump as a Russian

Stooge Started on May 4, 2016,” (https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

2019/05/the-campaign-to-paint-trump-as-a-russian-stooge-started-on-may-4-2016-bylarry-c-johnson.html). Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were under pressure from Mr. McCabe to finish MYE quickly –and whitewash Mrs. Clinton's crimes – in order to minimize the damage to her political candidacy. They were also directed to shift their attention to Mr. Trump. (The CIA “working group” identified above was launched in June of 2016, and the Plaintiff alleges on information and belief that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were assigned to it from the outset).

39. Also in early May of 2016, Mrs. Clinton launched an initiative to divert

attention from the mounting evidence that she was corrupt and incompetent. She retained

the law firm Perkins Coie, LLP to create a counter-narrative that her opponent, Donald

Trump, was not only corrupt, but treasonous. With Mrs. Clinton's approval, Perkins Coie

hired the left-wing “investigative” firm Fusion GPS, and Fusion GPS in turn hired former

British spy Christopher Steele to fabricate “evidence” that Mr. Trump had colluded with

the Russian government. Mr. Steele's fabricated report was then used by Obama

Administration officials to secure wiretapping warrants against members of the Trump

campaign.

40. While the Clinton campaign tasked Perkins Coie with hiring Fusion GPS and

Christopher Steele, the DNC set in motion the false narrative that the Russian

government had hacked its servers. The DNC's ultimate goal was to blame Mr. Trump for

colluding with the Russian government to hack its servers. According to an article in

Esquire magazine, DNC officials found out on May 5, 2016 that the DNC's servers had

been breached. According to the article, the servers had been breached by Russian

hackers, and the DNC asked an internet security company, CrowdStrike, Inc., to

investigate the breach. In reality, Perkins Coie had hired CrowdStrike on behalf of the

DNC, just like it hired Fusion GPS on behalf of the Clinton campaign, and it did so for

the purpose of creating a diversion. Contrary to the Esquire story, the DNC had

discovered prior to May 5, 2016 that one of its own employees had been leaking emails

(the DNC likely did not know the identity of the employee at that time, but they knew the

leak was internal). The DNC also knew that the emails would soon become public, and it

knew that the emails would be very damaging to Mrs. Clinton's political campaign.

41. Just as Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page realized on May 4, 2016 that they needed to

bury the MYE investigation into Mrs. Clinton quickly, the Clinton campaign and the

DNC recognized an opportunity to rewrite the narrative about the damaging emails that

would soon be released to the public. Rather than acknowledge that a DNC employee

was so appalled by the corruption he had witnessed inside the DNC and the Clinton

campaign that he leaked emails to Wikileaks, the DNC and Clinton campaign decided

they would instead blame the leaked emails on the Russian government, then blame Mr.

Trump for colluding with the Russian government.

42. The DNC employee responsible for the leaks was Seth Rich, and he was

assisted by his brother Aaron. Mr. Butowsky does not know exactly when the DNC

figured out that Mr. Rich was the source of the leak. On July 10, 2016, however, Mr.

Rich was fatally shot while walking home in Washington, D.C., and the murder has not

been solved. Mr. Butowsky does not know whether the murder is related to Mr. Rich's

role in leaking DNC emails.

43. Shortly after the murder, the interim DNC chair at the time, Donna Brazile,

reached out to Mr. McCabe and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for help in

dealing with the political consequences of the murder. Ms. Brazile knew suspicions

would soon arise, fairly or unfairly, that the murder was connected to the email leaks.

D.C. police allowed the FBI to unlock Seth Rich's electronic devices, and the FBI

obtained data showing that Mr. Rich had indeed provided the DNC emails to Wikileaks.

At Mr. McCabe's direction, however, that information was kept secret with orders that it

not be produced in response to any Freedom of Information Act request. For her part,

Ms. Bowser directed D.C. police not to pursue any investigative avenues that might

connect the murder to the email leaks. At her direction, local police blamed the murder

on a “botched robbery” even though Mr. Rich's watch, wallet, and other belongings were

not removed from his body.

44. On July 22, 2016, Wikileaks began publishing thousands of email that had

been downloaded from the DNC's servers by Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron. Those

emails showed how the campaign of Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton

had corruptly taken control of the DNC for the purpose of sabotaging her primary

opponent, Bernie Sanders. Per their game plan, the Clinton campaign and the DNC

immediately claimed that the emails had been obtained by hackers working for the

Russian government.