(Almost) Breaking News: Recently disclosed DOJ documents reveal that members of the Mueller team wiped their phones clean of any and all data prior to submitting them to the IG for his investigation. In total, there were 31 phones that were wiped clean (27 phones plus mobile phones that had been reassigned).
None of these phones were set to have their data backed up, so it is believed that the information cannot be recovered from a cloud or a backup server.
ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean claimed to have had their phones wiped “by accident.”
Yes, ALL of the people whose phones were wiped clean just “coincidentally” wiped them clean after they learned that the IG was going to conduct an investigation into the roots of “Crossfire Hurricane” (the counterintelligence investigation of the alleged “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia). But they also wiped their phones clean before their phones were turned in to the Inspector General.
Additionally, ALL of the phones that were wiped clean were wiped clean by the same methods: most entered the wrong password into their phones ten times. These were iPhones, which do not allow you to enter wrong passwords ten times in one sitting. You can do it a few times, and after that, you get locked out for a period of time (i.e. 45 minutes, then an hour the next time, etc.) In the interim, you get warning notifications that someone is trying to enter the wrong passcode into your phone in case it is being hacked. You always have the option of contacting your IT guy for help, but oddly, not one of the individuals in this narrative did so.
Lisa Page and her lover Peter Strzok also had no information on their phones by the time their phones got to the IG’s office. Lisa Page’s phone was somehow lost by the Special Counsel’s Office. Though it was eventually found, by the time it was received by the IG’s office, it had been reset to “factory settings” with no information on it.
Peter Strzok turned in his phone to the Special Counsel’s Records Officer, who reported that there were “no substantive texts, notes or reminders” on the phone. The Special Records Officer claimed that she “can’t remember if there were no texts on the device or if they were just innocuous,” but she thinks it was the latter. Strzok’s phone was also reset to factory settings before it was submitted to the IG.
Even the higher-ups on the Mueller team “accidentally” wiped their phones clean. This includes the slimy prosecutor Andrew Weissman, who was Mueller’s deputy, known for his aggressive prosecutions, lack of integrity, and partisanship, as well as other top prosecutors on the case who were involved with actions like indicting Trump associates for process crimes. According to the Special Counsel’s Office records, the phone of James Quarles, Assistant Special Assistant Counsel, “wiped itself clean” without any help from him. Additionally, it appears that Andrew Weissman and some of the other top prosecutors put their phones on airplane mode prior to entering the wrong passwords ten times, so that the data would not be backed up in a cloud or elsewhere automatically. Weissman had two cell phones wiped clean with incorrect passwords.
Some coincidence, huh? No Russian collusion, Mueller team prosecutions for process crimes that would never have occurred but for the investigation, and now those same prosecutors and other members of the Mueller team “accidentally” deleted the information on their phones during the same time period using the same methods. The phones still work. They aren’t broken. They just have no data.
Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is demanding answers. He is requesting that DOJ provide the committee with all records pertaining to the cell phones, the deletion of data, and attempts to recover it. He also sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr inquiring whether DOJ is going to investigate potential violations of the law, due to the fact that it seems incredulous that the mass phone wiping was accidental. Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, a government watch-dog organization which obtained the federal records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is calling for a criminal investigation into what he refers to as the “pandemic of wiped phones.” The focus will be on the state of mind of those who wiped their phones clean, to determine whether they did so intentionally in violation of the law.
In my view, the Mueller team members who wiped their phones clean of data belong in jail. I don’t say these things hastily or take these matters lightly. I give people every benefit of the doubt, even when they don’t deserve it. But it is clear that it is statistically not feasible to have this all be “an accident” as claimed. This was obviously intentional.
It’s important to understand that even if evidence was destroyed pertaining to the illicit origins of the “Russian collusion” investigation, the mere destruction of the evidence constitutes a potential crime. Arguably, Mueller team members violated the federal records act by destroying federal records. They have destroyed evidence in the course of an investigation, and they have obstructed justice. The people they indicted during the course of their hefty taxpayer-funded witch hunt, went to jail for lesser crimes than these. They should be called in front of a grand jury and if they lie, then perjury charges should be slapped on them as well.
Often, people complain that nobody on the “other side” ever goes to jail or they ask, “Why aren’t people prosecuted?” My answer is that it’s usually because the wheels of justice turn slowly. In this case, I have to admit, I am getting fed up. Time will tell if Attorney General Bill Barr has the gumption to do the right thing, even when it will be politically unpopular and he will be accused of being “Trump’s personal attorney.”
Now, why do I say this is “almost breaking news?” This information broke last Friday in a press release issued by Judicial Watch. As a survivor of the terrorist attacks in New York City, I understand quite well that Friday was September 11th. However, did you hear anything about this on the Sunday shows? Of course not. Real crimes ostensibly committed by partisan hacks trying to steal an election do not make the news these days. Instead, Chuck Todd and his pals were too busy pontificating about the admittedly fake news of Bob Woodward’s accusations against Trump, which Woodward now admits “might not have been correct.” Yet, the accusations were treated as though they were both accurate and important, when they were neither.
All of this raises the question of why Chuck Todd’s show, which has only one host, is referred to as “the press.” Years ago, Meet the Press had a panel of press representatives. But now, the state of the media is so pathetic that if you meet Chuck Todd, you have indeed met the press.
The Mueller team’s en masse disinfecting of phones should have been breaking news headlines. Instead, the Sunday shows and much of the establishment media have failed to mention it at all. And the reason for that is, of course, obvious.
Deborah Weiss is an attorney and regular contributor to FrontPage Magazine.
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