House Intelligence Committee Position Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., instructed “Sunday Early morning Futures” in an distinctive job interview that “we’ve now expanded our investigation, full-blown investigation, into the Brookings Institute.”
Archiv: Christopher Steele
The Secret Source Behind The Anti-Trump Dossier Is Finally Exposed
The fabulist behind the infamous and discredited anti-Trump dossier has finally been exposed. His name is Igor Danchenko.
He is not some mysterious Russian agent operating in the bowels of the Kremlin. Danchenko is a Ukrainian-born resident of the United States who worked as a senior research analyst for the Washington D.C. liberal think tank, Brookings Institution.
Making of a myth: Timeline of media’s role in selling ‚Trump-Russia collusion‘ tale
Nov. 18, 2016:
Trump announces Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his choice for National Security Adviser. Over the next few weeks, Flynn communicates with numerous international leaders.
Nov. 30 – Dec. 28, 2016:
Two dozen Obama administration officials make requests to unmask the name of National Security Adviser designee Flynn, who was „incidentally“ captured by intel surveillance. The officials include: U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan.
Jan. 5, 2017:
Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough requests Flynn unmasking.
Intelligence Community leadership, including FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, CIA Director Brennan and Director of National Intelligence Clapper, provides classified briefing to President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and National Security Adviser Susan Rice on alleged Russia hacking during 2016 campaign, according to notes later written by Rice.
After briefing, according to Rice’s notes, President Obama convenes Oval Office meeting with her, Comey, Biden, and Yates. The „Steele dossier“ is reportedly discussed. Also reportedly discussed: Flynn’s intercepted talks with Russia’s ambassador.
FBI director in ‚hot seat‘ as GOP demands reforms
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee with oversight of the FBI, noted that “we’ve got a problem at the FBI.”
“Clearly, we had some people, and maybe still have some people, that don’t understand the rule of law, and nothing’s been done,“ Kennedy said.
FBI Ignored Early Warnings that Debunked Anti-Trump Dossier was Russian Disinformation
WASHINGTON – The “central and essential” evidence used to justify invasive surveillance of an American citizen in the FBI’s probe into Russian interference was, itself, an example of Russian interference, according to once-secret footnotes declassified at the urging of two U.S. Senators. The footnotes, part of the Justice Department Inspector General’s postmortem of the FBI’s flawed operation to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page, were released just hours after Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) renewed their push for transparency. The senators expect a fuller declassification in the coming days.
(…)
“It’s ironic that the Russian collusion narrative was fatally flawed because of Russian disinformation. These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign – the Clinton campaign, not Trump’s.”
The IG report detailed how the FBI’s application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Page relied heavily on an unverified dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS, which was conducting opposition research for the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. According to Footnote 302, in October 2016, FBI investigators learned that one of Steele’s main sources was linked to the Russian Intelligence Service (RIS), and was rumored to be a former KGB/SVR officer. However, the FBI neglected to include this information in its application, which the FISA court approved that same month. Two months later, investigators learned that Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, told a Justice Department attorney that he assessed the same source “was a RIS officer who was central in connecting Trump to Russia.” In January, the FISA warrant was renewed.
Russian Disinformation Fed the FBI’s Trump Investigation
(10.04.2020)
Declassified footnotes to a Justice Department inspector general report show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation team investigating members of the Trump campaign received classified reports in 2017 identifying key pieces of the Steele dossier as products of a Russian disinformation campaign. This might be only the tip of the iceberg because other recently declassified information demonstrates that even more disinformation may have been planted in Christopher Steele’s reporting.
Es sind natürlich die U.S.-Geheimdienste, die Trump erpressen (wollen)
(11. Januar 2017)
So etwas ist noch nie passiert. Die gesamte Situation ist präzedenzlos.
Das angeblich belastende Material, wie beschrieben angeblich von irgendeinem britischen Agenten, etc, ist bereits gestern auf Buzzfeed veröffentlicht worden. Es ist dermaßen ekelhaft, dass es einem die Schuhe auszieht. Und es wird mir schlecht, wenn ich sehe wie die Leute auf Twitter darauf reagieren. Offensichtlich wurde diese Fälschung, die als solche u.a. von Gateway Pundit und Wikileaks identifiziert wurde, nur mit einem Ziel entworfen: Trump anzuschießen und zwar so, dass er nie wieder aufsteht.
Trumps Reaktion ist, nun ja, fast etwas verwirrt. Im Laufe des heutigen Tages hielt er seine Pressekonferenz als gewählter Präsident ab. Allen Anwesenden war, nach meinem Eindruck, eine Art Schock über die Situation ins Gesicht geschrieben. Selbst der bemühte, ab und an aufbrandende Beifall änderte nichts an der gespenstischen Situation.
Während der Pressekonferenz übernahm Trump einerseits zum ersten Mal die Position der C.I.A. und äußerte hastig zwischen zwei Sätzen zur Frage, wer verantwortlich sei für den angeblichen Hack gegen die Parteizentrale der „Demokraten“ („Democratic National Committee“, D.N.C.),
„Ich glaube, es war Russland“ („I believe, it was Russia“)
Gegen Mittag hatte Trump andererseits zu dem veröffentlichten „belastenden Material“ getwittert:
„(Die) Geheimdienste hätten niemals erlauben sollen, dass diese Fake News an die Öffentlichkeit ´geleaked´ werden. Ein letzter Schuss gegen mich. Leben wir in Nazi-Deutschland?“
Oleg Deripaska Says He Hired Christopher Steele To Work On Research Project
(July 2, 2019)
Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska said he previously employed Christopher Steele, the author of the Trump dossier.
Deripaska said he hired Steele through his attorneys in London to work on an unspecific legal proceeding.
Steele investigated the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.
Footnotes in watchdog report indicate FBI knew of risk of Russian disinformation in Steele dossier
(10.04.2020)
Footnote 350 in the IG report addresses the FBI’s knowledge of Russian contacts with Steele and the potential for disinformation. Steele had „frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarchs, we identified reporting the Crossfire Hurricane team received from (redacted) indicating the potential for Russian disinformation influencing Steele’s election reporting.“
The footnote also indicates that warnings to the FBI’s Russia probe became more pronounced over time.
4 takeaways from the brutal new report on FBI surveillance
(31.03.2020)
The FBI’s surveillance of Americans including former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page isn’t exactly the issue du jour amid a global pandemic. But on Tuesday, a brutal inspector general’s report suggested that this will be something that the bureau and Congress will have to reckon with in the near future.
Nunes: Democrats have put people in ‚tremendous danger‘
(15.12.2019)
California Congressman Devin Nunes, Republican ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee demands Schiff to call on IG Horowitz to testify before House Intelligence Committee.
FISA court slams FBI over surveillance applications, in rare public order
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has dealt with some of the most sensitive matters of national security: terror threats and espionage. Its work, for the most part, cannot be examined by the American public, by order of Congress and the president. Its work has been mostly secret, its structure largely one-sided.
„The most unusual thing is that there is a body of law that the court has created, but as a practitioner that is part of that law, we have between zero and some very limited knowledge of what that law is,“ Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department prosecutor and current private attorney in the consumer and computer-privacy field, told Fox News. „But, it’s the fact that there is a secret law and a secret body of law that makes it the most vexing.“
So, if Comey & the top people in the FBI were dirty cops and cheated on the FISA Court, wouldn’t all of these phony cases have to be overturned or dismissed? They went after me with the Fake Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary & the DNC, which they illegally presented to FISA…
(today)
….They want to Impeach me (I’m not worried!), and yet they were all breaking the law in so many ways. How can they do that and yet impeach a very successful (Economy Plus) President of the United States, who has done nothing wrong? These people are Crazy!
10,120 replies 12,033 retweets 44,359 likes
Es sind natürlich die U.S.-Geheimdienste, die Trump erpressen (wollen)
(11.01.2017)
So etwas ist noch nie passiert. Die gesamte Situation ist präzedenzlos.
Das angeblich belastende Material, wie beschrieben angeblich von irgendeinem britischen Agenten, etc, ist bereits gestern auf Buzzfeed veröffentlicht worden. Es ist dermaßen ekelhaft, dass es einem die Schuhe auszieht. Und es wird mir schlecht, wenn ich sehe wie die Leute auf Twitter darauf reagieren. Offensichtlich wurde diese Fälschung, die als solche u.a. von Gateway Pundit und Wikileaks identifiziert wurde, nur mit einem Ziel entworfen: Trump anzuschießen und zwar so, dass er nie wieder aufsteht.
Trumps Reaktion ist, nun ja, fast etwas verwirrt. Im Laufe des heutigen Tages hielt er seine Pressekonferenz als gewählter Präsident ab. Allen Anwesenden war, nach meinem Eindruck, eine Art Schock über die Situation ins Gesicht geschrieben. Selbst der bemühte, ab und an aufbrandende Beifall änderte nichts an der gespenstischen Situation.
Während der Pressekonferenz übernahm Trump einerseits zum ersten Mal die Position der C.I.A. und äußerte hastig zwischen zwei Sätzen zur Frage, wer verantwortlich sei für den angeblichen Hack gegen die Parteizentrale der „Demokraten“ („Democratic National Committee“, D.N.C.),
„Ich glaube, es war Russland“ („I believe, it was Russia“)
Gegen Mittag hatte Trump andererseits zu dem veröffentlichten „belastenden Material“ getwittert:
„(Die) Geheimdienste hätten niemals erlauben sollen, dass diese Fake News an die Öffentlichkeit ´geleaked´ werden. Ein letzter Schuss gegen mich. Leben wir in Nazi-Deutschland?“
Surveillance court demands answers from FBI for errors, omissions in Trump campaign investigation
(today)
The inspector general concluded that central to the FBI’s court applications for surveillance of Page were a set of allegations provided by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The Steele dossier, as it came to be known, contained allegations against Trump, Page and other Trump associates, and those allegations have been the subject of intense political fighting since they became public in early 2017.
FBI seeks interview with whistleblower who triggered impeachment inquiry
(20.11.2019)
The FBI is seeking an interview with a CIA whistleblower whose complaint led to an impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump abused his office in his dealings with the Ukrainian president, according to three people familiar with the matter.
William Barr discussed FBI Russia inquiry with UK intelligence
(01.10.2019)
The US attorney general met UK intelligence agencies in the summer to discuss Britain potentially cooperating with Donald Trump’s administration on an inquiry examining the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion with Russia, according to sources.
William Barr met British intelligence officials in London on 29 July at a meeting attended by intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes group.
“Someone should call Obama up. The Obama Administration spied on a rival presidential campaign using Federal Agencies. I mean, that seems like a headline to me?” @TuckerCarlson It will all start coming out, and the Witch Hunt will end. Presidential Harassment!
Phil Mudd: „Clock Ticking“ For Democrats Before Barr Finds Out How Trump Probe Started
(04.06.2019)
Retired CIA operative and CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd talks about British national Christopher Steele, author of the infamous Steele dossier, deciding to talk with U.S. officials about his part in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Mudd predicts things are going to get „ugly“ when Attorney General Bill Barr concludes how the probe was initiated which will give the Trump White House „ammo.“
AG William Barr Doesn’t Want The Government Spying On The President But Thinks It’s OK If It Spies On Everyone Else
Let me restate that: William Barr is opposed to certain, very narrow subsets of domestic surveillance. Specifically, Barr doesn’t think the government should have spied on Trump and his campaign staff, if that’s what actually happened, which Barr doesn’t actually seem to know.
But if you’re literally anyone else, domestic surveillance is just another name for national security, whether you’re a random Verizon customer or one of the world’s most useful websites.
The Wikimedia Foundation sued the federal government over domestic surveillance back in 2015. The suit lives on four years later …
Report: Christopher Steele agrees to be questioned by US officials over his relationship with FBI
A source close to Steele told The Times he will meet with investigators in London in the coming weeks. Republicans have long alleged it was Steele’s dossier that improperly led to an FBI inquiry, which ultimately morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump and campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
Golden showers dossier author Christopher Steele WILL speak to U.S. authorities investigating how claims Trump colluded with Russia began
– The former British intelligence officer authored what became known as the golden showers dossier
– Congressional investigators sought to interview him without success
– He will meet with unidentified U.S. investigators, a source close to him told the Times of London
– Attorney General Bill Barr ordered a new investigation of the origins of the Russia probe
– The Mueller report did not confirm salacious claims from the dossier
– The report did include a footnote about a Georgian businessman who told Michael Cohen he had ’stopped flow‘ of ’some tapes‘
House Intelligence chair to spy agencies: Tell us what Barr asks for
„This approach threatens national security by subverting longstanding rules and practices that obligate you and other heads of [intelligence community] agencies to safeguard sources and methods and prevent the politicization of intelligence and law enforcement,“ Schiff wrote in the letter to Coats, which was also sent to the heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI.
Barr Doubts Intelligence Accounts of Trump-Russia Probe’s Origin
Attorney General William Barr said he’s not satisfied so far with official accounts justifying the counterintelligence investigation into whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was involved in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“These counterintelligence activities that were directed at the Trump campaign, were not done in the normal course and not through the normal procedures as a far as I can tell,” Barr told “CBS This Morning” in an interview broadcast Friday.
Barr has not received ’satisfactory‘ answers from intelligence community in Russia probe origins review
Last month, Barr announced he had assembled a team to review the FBI’s original Russia probe which was opened in the summer of 2016. Barr appointed U.S. Attorney from Connecticut John Durham to lead the investigation which will focus on the use of FBI informants as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.
But Barr, in an interview with CBS News that aired Friday, said he has more questions than answers at this point in the probe.
US intelligence partners wary of Barr’s Russia review
Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr’s politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began.
President Donald Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe.
Trump moves to escalate investigation of intel agencies
The move marked an escalation in Trump’s efforts to „investigate the investigators,“ as he continues to try to undermine the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe amid mounting Democratic calls to bring impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Trump gives Barr power to declassify intelligence related to Russia probe
President Trump has granted Attorney General William P. Barr “full and complete authority” to declassify government secrets, issuing a memorandum late Thursday that orders U.S. intelligence agencies to cooperate promptly with Barr’s audit of the investigation into Russia’s election interference in 2016.
BREAKING: Trump Approves Declassification of Documents Related to 2016 Election Spying
The declassification of documents applies to the Department of State, Treasury, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, CIA and the Director of National Intelligence.
British spy chiefs were briefed about dossier on Trump’s ties to Russia that contained lewd allegations about the President and prostitutes – months before he even knew it existed
Mr Steele first approached British intelligence at the £1.7million home of Sir Charles Farr, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, in Wimbledon, south-west London.
Mr Farr, who died in February at 59, was one of Mrs May’s top counter-terrorism advisors at the Home Office.
After leading MI6’s Russia desk, Mr Steele set up a private firm, and was hired by Fusion GPS, a US research company being paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Theresa May’s spy chiefs were briefed on explosive Chistopher Steele dossier before Donald Trump
Theresa May’s spy chiefs were secretly briefed on an explosive dossier of claims about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia before the US president was made aware of its existence, The Telegraph can reveal.
The heads of MI5 and MI6 and one of Mrs May’s most trusted security advisers were told about former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s memos on the Trump campaign in the weeks after his November 2016 election victory.
Lol WTF?? ThinkProgress is making up its own list of groups and people Mueller didn’t ID, but who they’ve decided are Russian assets? This has become absolutely fucking surreal.
Mueller reported Trump did not collude with Russia to influence our elections. Now we must put aside partisan interests, move forward, and work to unite our country to deal with the serious challenges we face.
It is being reported that Leakin‘ James Comey was told by Department of Justice attorneys not to answer the most important questions. Total bias and corruption at the highest levels of previous Administration. Force him to answer the questions under oath!
INTERVIEW OF: JAMES COMEY
EXECUTIVE SESSION
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,
JOINT WITH THE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND OVERSIGHT,
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
INTERVIEW OF: JAMES COMEY
Friday, December 7, 2018
Washington, D.C.
The interview in the above matter was held in Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, commencing at 10:12 a.m.
Russia Investigation: Donald Trump Warned by British MI6 That Declassifying Documents Would Undermine Intelligence
(29.11.2018) British intelligence agency MI6 is secretly pressuring President Donald Trump to avoid publishing classified information related to the Russia investigation and a surveillance warrant for his former campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, according to reports.
Comey’s confession: dossier not verified before, or after, FISA warrant
He didn’t seem to know that his own FBI was using No. 4 Justice Department official Bruce Ohr as a conduit to keep collecting intelligence from Christopher Steele after the British intel operative was fired by the bureau for leaking and lying. In fact, Comey didn’t seem to remember knowing that Steele had been terminated, according to sources in the room.
“His memory was so bad I feared he might not remember how to get out of the room after the interview,” one lawmaker quipped.
US-Kongress befragt erneut Ex-FBI-Direktor Comey
Der US-Kongress hat am Freitag erneut den früheren FBI-Direktor James Comey befragt.
Bruce Ohr (a former associate deputy attorney general) says Christopher Steele (former British intelligence officer with MI6) told him Russian intel believed they had Trump ‚over a barrel‘
(31.8.2018)
Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump.
(1.9.2018) The timeline sketched out by Mr. Ohr shows contacts stretching back to when Mr. Ohr first met Mr. Steele in 2007. It also shows what officials said was the first date on which the two discussed cultivating Mr. Deripaska: a meeting in Washington on Nov. 21, 2014, roughly seven months before Mr. Trump announced that he was running for president. (…)
Mr. Steele served as an intermediary between the Americans and the Russian oligarchs they were seeking to cultivate. He had first met Mr. Ohr years earlier while still serving at MI6, Britain’s foreign spy agency, where he oversaw Russia operations.
What Bruce Ohr Told Congress
(30.8.2018) To believe most media descriptions of Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, he is a nonentity, unworthy of the attention President Trump has given him. This is remarkable, given that Mr. Ohr spent Tuesday confirming for Congress its worst suspicions about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s abuse of its surveillance and sourcing rules.
British Ex-Spy Lobbied for Russian Oligarch While Writing Anti-Trump Dossier
(12.8.2018) The communications raise further questions about Steele’s objectivity as an intelligence source, and about Ohr’s motives for maintaining contact with a foreign ex-spy about a Russian billionaire, despite being assigned to a wholly unrelated line of work at the DOJ. Congressional investigators expect Ohr to appear for a closed-door interview on Aug. 28.
Emails show 2016 links among Steele, Ohr, Simpson — with Russian oligarch in background
(8.8.2018) Emails in 2016 between former British spy Christopher Steele and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr suggest Steele was deeply concerned about the legal status of a Putin-linked Russian oligarch, and at times seemed to be advocating on the oligarch’s behalf, in the same time period Steele worked on collecting the Russia-related allegations against Donald Trump that came to be known as the Trump dossier. The emails show Steele and Ohr were in frequent contact, that they intermingled talk about Steele’s research and the oligarch’s affairs, and that Glenn Simpson, head of the dirt-digging group Fusion GPS that hired Steele to compile the dossier, was also part of the ongoing conversation.
Report: Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele Helped Try and Turn an Oligarch Into an Informant
(1.9.2018) Bruce Ohr, a Department of Justice official who has become a frequent target of Trump’s ire at the ongoing investigation into his links to Russia and whether they helped influence the election, and Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence operative who compiled a dossier of reporting on Russian influence on Trump, were both involved in the effort, the New York Times reported.
Embracing Conspiracy Theory, Trump Escalates Attack on Bruce Ohr
(17.8.2018) President Trump threatened on Friday to quickly revoke the security clearance of Bruce Ohr, a little-known Justice Department official, for the first time seeking to apply his power to cut access to sensitive information to a midlevel government worker rather than a prominent former national security official.
Departing the White House for a fund-raiser, the president told reporters that Mr. Ohr was “a disgrace” and said incorrectly that Mr. Ohr played a part in starting the investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to Trump associates.
DOJ’s Bruce Ohr kept Mueller deputy ‚in the loop‘ about anti-Trump dossier, sources say
(30.8.2018) The sources said Ohr’s outreach about the dossier – as well as its author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele; the opposition research firm behind it, Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS; and his wife Nellie Ohr’s work for Fusion – occurred before and after the FBI fired Steele as a source over his media contacts. Ohr’s network of contacts on the dossier included: former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI lawyer Lisa Page; former deputy director Andrew McCabe; Weissmann and at least one other DOJ official; and a current FBI agent who worked with Strzok on the Russia case.
FBI tried to flip Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska to get potentially damaging information on Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin, claims new report
– FBI and the United States Justice reportedly tried to flip Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska but he told them they had their story wrong
– Sources say in September 2016 Deripaska labeled investigators‘ claims about Paul Manafort’s links to Russian government as ‚preposterous‘
– However the New York Times reports the investigation involving Deripaska began before Donald Trump announced he was going for the presidency
– Justice Department official, Bruce G. Ohr worked with former British spy Christopher Steele to get six rich Russians to talk
– Trump has used leaked documents as evidence they were plotting against him to form a dossier in the Robert Mueller-led investigation and called Ohr ‚a joke‘
Could the FBI and MI6 Have Planted a British Mole in Trump Campaign?
The entire allegation of collusion with Russia may have been dreamed up by MI6. Consider (reprinted from „Rogue Spooks“):
1: It was Government Communications Headquarters — Britain’s NSA — that first warned the U.S. that the Russians had hacked the Democratic Party’s computers. Back in September 2015, long before the FBI and CIA knew anything about it or showed any interest in it, GCHQ was waving warning flags about Russian hacking. For a long time, the U.S. did nothing about it.
2: During the campaign and even after, both MI6 and GCHQ routinely passed along classified intelligence information to the U.S. intelligence community about Trump’s associates.
3: It was Christopher Steele, an ex-MI6 spy, who says he wrote the dossier that contained all the unsubstantiated and unreliable but nevertheless explosive material about Donald Trump. Was Steele only a former MI6 agent? Bear in mind what the Russian embassy said: „MI6 officers are never ex.“