In explosive revelations that have become public knowledge earlier this month, it has emerged that former FBI Director James Comey yielded to pressure from a ranking Democrat Senator and shut down a potential deal with Wikileaks.
The deal, which would have protected the intelligence community in the United States for years to come, included Julian Assange’s offer to provide some information related to the hacking of the DNC servers in 2016. Because this information would have likely indicated that Russia was not responsible for meddling in the Presidential election, powerful interests in Washington made sure that the deal fell apart in order to keep the current ‘Russia-gate’ narrative going.
Former FBI Director James Comey wasn’t the only one who was working on the deal with the WikiLeaks’ founder. Democrat Senator Mark Warner and Department of Justice Official Bruce Ohr were also involved in the negotiations. David Laufman, who was at the time headed up the DOJ’s counterintelligence and export controls section, was picked to lead the negotiations. The deal would have allowed Julian Assange to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has been holed up for the last six years. In return, Julian Assange agreed to consider redacting some of the information published on the Wikileaks website. He would have also provided information and evidence regarding the DNC hacking so law enforcement officials in the United States would at least know who wasn’t responsible for the act.
At the same time Julian Assange’s attorney got in touch with Senator Mark Warner, who is currently vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to ask if the Senator was interested in contacting Mr. Assange to find out further information about the DNC hacking. However, just a few days later, David Laufman told Mr. Waldman that he had been told by both the senator and FBI chief James Comey to stand down and end discussions with Assange. Both Mr. Waldman and Mr. Laufman were not only shocked by the news, but committed to try to find a way to continue negotiating.
Discussions went on for some time; however, the fact that not everyone involved in the negotiations were negotiating in good faith caused Mr. Assange to lose any trust he had in the integrity of the U.S. government. In March and early April of 2017, Assange released files on WikiLeaks that exposed specifics information regarding how CIA malware was used in cyberattacks. The release was considered to be the most damaging disclosure up until that point in time, and it clearly showed how intelligence agencies could not only hack into computers, but also disguise who committed the crime. The disclosure also made it clear that the CIA had been using these new tools for cyberattacks since 2016. Furthermore, the leaks showed that the US government could use Samsung’s Smart TVs to spy on people. Over 8,700 were released at this point in time alone.
The reaction from the United States government was one of intense fury. Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and current Secretary of State, publicly declared WikiLeaks a hostile intelligence service. Negotiations totally broke down, leaving Assange trapped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK and ensuring that the United States now has no way to limit damaging information released on WikiLeaks both now and in the future. At the same time, the disruption in negotiations has also ensured that there is no way for intelligence agents to discover what Julian Assange may be able to tell them about the 2016 DNC hack that Democrats keep blaming on Russia and the Trump campaign. Without this information, the DNC has been able to perpetuate the theory that the only reason President Trump won his election was that the Russians helped him to do so.
While it is almost to be expected that partisan politicians will act in the best interests of their own party, the Director of the FBI is supposed to be above political games, acting solely in the best interests of the United States. The fact that Comey put a political party above the good of the country will have dire negative impacts on U.S. interests not just now but also in the future.
~ Patriotic Freedom Fighter
