Speculation based on facts
SES staff…Obama hired thousands before he left office. With those hires in the area's of government that could provide intel to him at his new home down the road, where he lived with Valerie Jarrett..She kept in touch with those operators and reported every move to Obama. Not to mention they also bugged the WH before POTUS Trump's inauguration.
'This system stinks': Schiff accuses Barr of politicizing DOJ on behalf of Trump after Manafort release
Rep. Adam Schiff blasted Attorney General William Barr, accusing him of politicizing the Justice Department for President Donald Trump's benefit following Paul Manafort's release from prison. "This system stinks," Schiff said Wednesday on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports. "People have lost confidence in [the Justice Department's] neutrality that justice is blind. Instead, they think justice bends to Donald Trump’s will. And that’s just a tremendous disservice and risk to the rule of law." Hours earlier, Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was released from the FCI Loretto prison, where there have been no reported COVID-19 cases, to home confinement over fears of contracting the coronavirus.
Manafort had been imprisoned since 2018 when he was accused of witness tampering while on bail awaiting trial on bank and tax fraud charges. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice related to his foreign lobbying work associated with Russian-linked clients in Ukraine. He retroactively registered himself under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2017. The 71-year-old will now serve the rest of his nearly seven-year sentence at his home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Manafort's lawyers argued their client's age and preexisting health conditions put him at a heightened risk for the coronavirus. But Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, wasn't buying that argument and said he believes Manafort's ties to Trump played a role in his release, citing two prisons in his Southern California district where several inmates have contracted the coronavirus. "I can bet you the families of those incarcerated in those two institutions are looking at the release of Paul Manafort today and saying, 'How come my family member is not being released to home custody?'," he said. "It must be because their names are not Paul Manafort, they’re not a friend of Donald Trump." Schiff blamed Barr's overseeing of the Justice Department, accusing him of being a friend to Trump's allies — especially after the department's recent motion to dismiss the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to federal law enforcement about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The California Democrat discredited Barr over a series of other decisions, including having the department step in to reduce the sentencing recommendation of GOP operative and Trump ally Roger Stone, who was found guilty of witness tampering and lying to members of Congress. "We can’t have confidence in this system when there are such naked acts of politicization, like Bill Barr intervening to dismiss the Flynn case, like Bill Barr intervening to reduce the sentence for Roger Stone, like Bill Barr intervening to mislead the country about the contents of the Mueller report before it came out and withholding that report for weeks so that he could create a false narrative," Schiff said. "The whole counter investigation Bill Barr is trying to lead; it just breeds disrespect for the Justice Department and questions about its neutrality."
Additionally, Schiff questioned why Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who was set to be released to house arrest over coronavirus fears, faced an unexplained delay in his release. Cohen is serving a three-year sentence on several charges, including campaign finance violations related to Trump's 2016 campaign. He remains on poor terms with Trump and is writing a tell-all book about their time together. "[Cohen's lawyer] also made a request to be released from custody," Schiff said. "He has not been released. And of course, that breeds just further skepticism. Why is Manafort, someone the president has praised, getting released when he had a far longer sentence to serve and Michael Cohen not being released when the president calls him a rat? Now, there could be legitimate reasons for this. Maybe there’s legitimate concern about Paul Manafort’s health. I really don’t know. Inmates tend to lie about their health all the time."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/this-system-stinks-schiff-accuses-barr-of-politicizing-doj-on-behalf-of-trump-after-manafort-release