The Duran discusses the Feb. 15th Racket News article by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag (full article only available to paid subscribers) as it relates to Hunter Biden's current Congressional testimony.

2:15

It's now clear that what Bill Barr and John Durham were doing by focusing on the FBI was protecting the CIA. Brennan, then head of the CIA, seems to have been deeply implicated in everything to do with the Russiagate affair. It's not just Taibbi et al., there are pieces of information coming from all kinds of different sources.

Brennan created Russiagate (they later point out that Clinton and Robbie Mook created it, Brennan stepped in to save the narrative because there was so much information pouring in that pointed in the opposite direction). Brennan said he had "sources" that weren't really sources and he was suppressing information that contradicted the thesis that the Clinton campaign wanted, that the Russians were backing Trump.

He was relying heavily on this supposed spy the CIA had in the Kremlin, Smolenkov, who it turns out wasn't nearly as high-powered as we were led to believe (more on Smolenkov in this 2019 article by Scott Ritter).

Brennan not only "found" the information but he suppressed everyone in the intelligence community, including the CIA, who were challenging the accuracy of his information. The CIA knew that the Russians believed Clinton, who was known to them, would work better with them than Trump, who they considered volatile and unpredictable. Brennan made sure this information was suppressed and kept away from the media.

11:20

Brennan was also leaning on the other Five Eyes intelligence agencies to help construct this case. Which brings up all kinds of complicated questions, especially about what was going on in London at that time. Remember the Trump aide, George Papadopoulos; we've never gotten to the bottom of that because Gina Haspell, CIA director during Trump's time, prevented any real investigation.

We still don't know the full story about Professor Mifsud, the mysterious professor who met Papadopoulos in a hotel in London [there's even questions about whether this person exists], the meeting between Papadopoulos and Downer, the Australian diplomat, in a wine bar in Kensington.

The reason we know what we do know is that before 2018 the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Devin Nunes at a time when the Republicans controlled the House, carried out its own investigations. They were able to build up quite a significant dossier and apparently they provided a report. But then the Democrats gained control of the House in the 2018 midterms and the new chair of that committee, Adam Schiff, made sure the investigation was stopped and all its findings kept under lock and key. I suspect that with Kevin McCarthy gone and with Mike Johnson now in charge, people in the House are now circulating the information.

14:05

Which brings us to what's happening today with Hunter Biden...he's a disastrous witness, he's essentially confirming all the facts but they really can't be refuted, i.e., that he worked for Burisma. But on the advice of his lawyers or political handlers, what he's alleging is Russiagate 3.0, that he was trying to save Ukraine from Russia and Russian disinformation; IOW, the Russians are the real bad guys.

It's a lawyer's ploy that no one takes seriously because its purpose is to take up time and give talking points to the media. The whole story about Wise prosecuting the longtime former FBI informant with Russian connections is a red herring to take attention from the real witnesses, Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer.