Russiagate

So what should the Republican House or Senate do? Or what should the Trump administration and DOJ do?

There are two avenues at this point. First, they could order a mass declassification of documents. There is what is colloquially known as the “binder of documents” from 4 years ago and there are likely some very interesting documents.

The second avenue is to use subpoena power to go get answers. This is subject to the appetites of members of Congress or the Trump DOJ and quite honestly, I don’t see them doing it. The Republicans had the House 2 years ago and did nothing.

But maybe the appetite will build as documents are declassified and released. So let’s do an exercise on where they should start.

From a documents standpoint, I would say:

1. Netyksho grand jury files - We’ve long suspected that key answers to the DNC hack and attribution have been sequestered behind grand jury secrecy. We think those documents will link back to DARPA as a cutout for the same Clinton-connected cyber researchers associated with the Alfa Bank scandal.

2. Crowdstrike attribution reports - FOIA fights have ended at “trade secrets” exemptions that I suspect don’t have much merit. Trump could order the release of the reports with minimal redactions.

3. Mueller team files - We know most of their phones were wiped, but there should still be emails, notes, and other files (even beyond what US Attorney Jeff Jensen found). All of that could be released. I think this is also where Special Counsel Durham got hung up. Special Counsels investigating each other is a recipe for madness and further politicization of our system - but in this case, Mueller’s team deserved an investigation.

4. DARPA emails and files - Starting with Angelos Keromytis, Christopher Schneck and Tejas Patel, there is much to learn about Russiagate but also about their role in criminal investigations for the DOJ more broadly. I would also want to see the emails for Director Tompkins and the communications team who fielded some pointed inquiries from Senators Grassley and Johnson in the last few years.

5. DOJ/FBI emails and files - Outside of the Mueller team and beyond the DNC hack, there are still many questions that are open. Pientka, Auten, Elvis Chan, the list is long and if confidence is to be restored, all of it should be declassified and released.

6. Obama files - Here is where it gets interesting, because nobody has fought for Obama administration files yet. But we had President Biden waive executive privilege for President Trump, setting an insane precedent. In theory, President Trump can waive President Obama’s executive privilege and order the release of all of his files. On July 28, 2016 Obama was briefed on the alleged Clinton plan to tie Trump to Putin. There should be a number of files and briefing materials from that day, and quite obviously other key dates. Some of those may be considered CIA/ODNI files, it gets a little convoluted. What did Obama know and when did he know it?

7. NSA files - The NSA has a relationship with Rodney Joffe. Whether it ties into Russiagate or not, I would like to learn much more about that relationship and corporate entities like Packet Forensics, Appmosferic, Measurement Systems, Global Resource Systems, and Trustcor, along with Victor Oppleman, Raymond Saulino and their long-time corporate attorney.

If someone were to exercise subpoena power, there are dozens of people who could be subpoenaed for testimony and documents. They would also need to decide whether to grant immunity to people like Joffe.

Jared Novick might be a good person to start with, and then I would move on to Lisa Hook, Rory Yegerman, Tim Cody, Joe Pientka, Yacin Nadji, and continue down the list.

The DOD is set to release the Antonakakis/Dagon attribution report by next Friday, which should be interesting, even if we have to fight a few more redactions.