Kash Patel's Taint - emptywheel

"On September 12, FBI agents working on the Director's Task Force were prepping for EDVA's September 16 interview with Dan Richman, then led by Erik Siebert. They were searching the full Cellebrite extraction from Richman's phone, and stumbled on communications Richman conducted using a pseudonym. They didn't use those communications for the Richman interview, almost certainly because that interview would have been focused on actual suspected crimes rather than the fever dreams of conspiracists."

"But after that interview led prosecutors to conclude there was no crime that could be charged, Trump removed Siebert, leading Pam Bondi to appoint overt partisan Maggie Cleary, on September 20 (Cleary becomes important for the follow-up). But that wasn't good enough. Then Trump publicly demanded Bondi install Lindsey Halligan, which Bondi did on September 22. That week, Cleary reportedly heeded prosecutors' view the case could not - should not - be charged."

"Both arise out of the way that Lindsey Halligan was prepped not by prosecutors, but by FBI agents working on the "Director's Task Force" we know to be led by Jack Eckenrode, the guy who chased Russian disinformation for years based off Kash Patel's misleading packaging of classified documents back in 2020. This post will argue that likely all of them, possibly up to and including Kash himself, have tainted themselves by snooping in Jim Comey's privileged communications. A follow-up will lay out the increasing evidence that Jim Comey's grand jury presentment is a crime scene."

FBI agents on the Director's Task Force conducted searches of a full Cellebrite extraction from Dan Richman's phone and discovered pseudonymous communications. Prosecutors concluded the Richman interview produced no chargeable crime, and leadership changes followed, including removal of the EDVA lead and appointment of Maggie Cleary. Pam Bondi installed Lindsey Halligan after public pressure, and Halligan prepared with Task Force FBI agents rather than prosecutors. DOJ declined to provide Halligan outside assistance, leaving FBI agents to handle her preparation. Evidence indicates those agents, and possibly Kash Patel, accessed privileged communications belonging to Jim Comey, potentially tainting the prosecution and undermining related conspiracy claims.

Read at emptywheel