FBIs Strzok Faults Hearing as Victory Notch in Putins Belt - Bloomberg
So he makes the fundamental point that I still haven't seen a non-tin-foil-hate answer to:
Strzok said he was one of a handful of people who knew the details of Russian election interference and its possible connections with members of the Trump campaign. This information had the potential to derail, and quite possibly, defeat Mr. Trump. But the thought of exposing that information never crossed my mind."
Seems that those connections and Trump's guilt in the matter should be shown if that's the defense he wants to use. Otherwise, it's the *exact* unsubstantiated attack against Trump that he's being accused of and reads much like "we'll stop him" by cobbling together an "insurance plan".
Those texts are damning. Quadrupling down on the "insurance plan", while likely his only play, won't garner much trust with anyone besides the tin foil hat wearing Never-Trumpers.
Here's how it appears to me... They cobbled together unsubstantiated accusations against Trump's campaign members to two-hop illegal surveillance the Republican Presidential candidate--strictly as an insurance policy, as they felt it impossible for Hillary to lose. They would not publish this, as they were breaking FISA law.
They leaked unsubstantiated attacks on Trump, paid for by Hillary, to both hurt Trump and also to use in the effort to illegally get the FISA warrants.
Trump won, so the insurance policy was cashed in. The FBI, other 3-letter agencies, MSM and entrenched political machine ratcheted together to try try to bring him down.
In no way did they see the need, benefit or suicidal desire to tip the hand that they were illegally spying on the Republican candidate during the election.
