More details have become available about the actions of Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock who resigned yesterday. Byrne resigned for a number of reasons, not the least of which appears to be concerns for his personal safety after the “suicide” of Jeffrey Epstein.
In all Byrne gave four interviews regarding his involvement on behalf of the FBI in what he is calling “political espionage”. His story is consistent across all four interviews.
In 2015, Patrick Byrne was approached by FBI officials. They wanted him to cultivate a relationship with one Maria Butina, a Russian national who is an accused Russian agent. This had occurred after he had picked up the phone and reported a contact with Butina as he was required to do so by law. Why? Because Byrne has a low-level security clearance.
Byrne met with Butina regularly from September 2015 through March 2016. All of this was done after being encouraged to do so by the FBI. As he states, he was given “a green light” to go ahead. Byrne was encouraged to facilitate her contacts with different campaigns. Later on the focus was primarily the Trump campaign.
Patrick Byrne was important to Butina due to his role as the “Godfather” to the emerging crypto-currency and block-chain companies. Byrne is a libertarian who believes in small government. Butina wanted to introduce Byrne to her friends in Russia.
Byrne describes Butina as someone who might lead Russia someday and who was trying to be a back channel for peace. He also noted that she wanted to schmooze with politicians. This was so that, no matter who won in 2016, she would have a contact within the incoming administration.
Butina did make contact with a member of the Clinton campaign and checked that off her to-do list. Butina then continued to attempt to access the campaigns of Rubio, Cruz and Trump with Byrne’s help.
By January 2016 Byrne had serious reservations about the purpose behind all of this. He began to hypothesize that the FBI was deliberately trying to let this all happen. Byrne also became concerned that the operation was more about possible blackmail (referring to the FBI activities) than about law enforcement.
Byrne effectively ended his romantic relationship with Butina in early 2016 at the request of the FBI. Then, in June and July 2016, the FBI (Byrne refers to them as “the men in black”) asked him to re-engage with Butina. This came from his “handlers” (Men in Black) who told Byrne the orders came from Jim Comey. It was stated that this was of the highest importance to the US Government. He was to use his influence to target her to closer proximity with the Trump family and Trump campaign.
How does this fit in with what is currently known about the attempts to rig the 2016 election? As a Russian national with specific Russian interests, Maria Butina would be defined by the U.S. intelligence community as an ‘agent of a foreign power’. Butina would not enjoy the protections from warrantless surveillance that are supposed to apply to Americans. Unrestricted monitoring by the U.S. intelligence community would be entirely legal.
With the FBI telling Byrne where to send Butina, this would result in “infecting” that person visited. That is, conducting FISA-702(16)(17) database searches and surveillance on U.S. persons who would meet with Butina would be justifiable and legal. This could easily lead to FISA court warrants being approved.
FISA 702 (16)(17) queries were stratospheric during the November, 2015 through May, 2016 period. Per the FISA auditconducted by NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers, 85% of the search returns were unauthorized and unmasked.
Coincidence? It seems quite unlikely.
From Byrne’s descriptions, it would appear Ms. Butina was used by the FBI to “dirty-up” political targets, opening them up for surveillance. What Patrick Byrne is describing is an illicit and intentional use of an FBI counterintelligence operation to monitor political campaigns. This is the direct result of granting basically unlimited power to our intelligence agencies under the Patriot Act.
Ten days after Byrne met with the DOJ in April, Maria Butina, who had been in solitary isolation confinement, was moved to the nicest women’s federal penitentiary unit. Five days later US Attorney Durham was tasked by Bill Barr with his current assignment. It would appear that AG Barr finds Byrne to be credible.
Byrne explained his reasoning behind coming forward. He expressed his concerns that the country is being ripped apart by the things that were set in motion years ago. He felt it was his duty as a citizen to do so.
Some people, who do not want to believe this was undertaken by our government, are accusing him of ADHD. However, they do not realize that there is a lot that he can not speak of. So, he has to dance around these items while speaking. It is an ongoing investigation! He is telling us as much as he is able to tell us and he must (at this point) leave gaping holes for the good of the investigation!
All four interviews are available below. The Cuomo interview starts at round the 6:40 mark.
Cuomo
McCallum
Fox Business News 1
Fox Business News 2