The identity of one of the key Spygate leakers inside the Department of Justice appears to have been revealed earlier this week, because of a surprise document dump.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), without any advance announcement, suddenly released a bombshell report on Oct. 15. In it, there is a new clue that hints at the identity of the person who executed a big leak of classified information that has led to a criminal investigation, a conviction, and possibly an upcoming exoneration.
Much groundwork was laid over the preceding months explaining the use of “strategic leaking” by top DOJ/FBI officials involved in the expansive Spygate scandal.
“A strategic leak is when a highly placed government official leaks classified or privileged information to the media to obtain a specific politicized outcome. During the course of the past 2 1/2 years, strategic leaking has been used to target, for instance, Gen. Michael Flynn and Trump campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.
“A lot of what is currently being referred to as ‘Spygate’ revolves around government officials using anonymous leaks to place these men under suspicion, so that the FBI and other federal agencies could then act to launch investigations, based on the media reports for which these selfsame officials were the anonymous sources.
“The circular nature of this activity is obvious, and it’s one of the reasons that Spygate is such a growing scandal, as more evidence of these kinds of leaks is made public.”
The general framework of how the strategic leaking was used to start investigations of selected targets has been known for some time. Who the targets were and what was leaked to place them under suspicion has long been a matter of public record.
It appears we are now at the point where the evidence can begin to be rolled out into the public arena.
That leak directly resulted in Flynn being investigated by the FBI and subsequently charged with perjury. Flynn pled guilty and is awaiting sentencing, which is currently scheduled for Nov. 28.
It now appears that the mysterious leaker was very likely to have been McCabe.
Ignatius’s column appeared in The Washington Post on Jan. 12, 2017. Page 7 of the FBI’s OPR report states that someone overheard a conversation in early February 2017, in which it was claimed that McCabe had made a recent unauthorized disclosure to the news media about Flynn and Trump. Then, in March 2017, this report was made to the OPR office and a decision to investigate the claim was approved.
This March 2017 report is being made five months after the leak McCabe made to The Wall Street Journal. So, it’s clear there are at least two separate leaks involved here and the leaks dealt with very different subjects. And this is the first public evidence directly tying McCabe to a leak about Flynn.
Who then did the FBI assign to investigate Flynn about those phone calls to the Russian ambassador? It was none other than former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, a name that should be well-known to those who follow all the twists and turns of this growing scandal.
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