If You Inspect The FISA Applications Closely, More Mysteries Arise About Joseph Mifsud


What began as a deep-dive into the Trump Tower meeting unearthed yet further proof of the DOJ and FBI’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Federalist
Margot Cleveland

When CNN reported late Thursday that the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, intended to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Donald Trump knew in advance of his son’s June 2016 meeting with Russians who promised “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, the summer-time Trump Tower confab from two years ago re-entered the limelight.

A quick retweet of the story by Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, pushing what I knew was a false narrative, sent me tumbling down the rabbit hole known presidentially as Spygate. What began as a deep-dive into the Trump Tower meeting unearthed yet further proof of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to surveil former Trump advisor Carter Page and revealed additional evidence implicating the State Department in targeting Trump.

Some Strange Coincidences Among Trump Tower Players

In early June 2016, Rob Goldstone, a publicist Donald Trump Jr. knew from his father’s time with the Miss Universe pageant in Russia in 2013, contacted the younger Trump with news that a “crown prosecutor” for Russia had offered “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.” Goldstone’s reach-out culminated in the brief June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower.

In addition to Goldstone and Trump Jr., Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law), and then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort attended the meeting. Goldstone brought four Russians: Russian-American lobbyist Rinait Akhmetshin; a Russian real-estate developer, Ike Kaveladze; lawyer and former Russian prosecutor Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had promised the dirt on Hillary; and Veselnitskaya’s interpreter, Anatoli Samochornov.

After news of the meeting broke in July 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings to investigate whether there was any evidence of collusion to interfere in the presidential election between the Trump campaign and the Russian attendees. The testimony established that the only incriminating evidence Veselnitskaya offered consisted of information indicating donors illegally contributed to Clinton. It showed the promise of “dirt” was merely a pretext to provide Veselnitskaya access to Trump Jr. so she could lobby against the Magnitsky Act—a law establishing sanctions against Russian human rights abusers—and to discuss Russian adoptions.

While the hearing uncovered zero evidence of collusion with Russia, the attendees’ testimony and Veselnitskaya’s written statement revealed two strange coincidences that, considered in light of other evidence implicating Obama administration officials and career DOJ and FBI employees in spying on the Trump campaign, proved suspcious.

All These People Sure Get Together a Lot

First, the evening before the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya and Samochornov had dinner with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. The evening after the Trump Tower meeting, they again dined together. Since Fusion GPS procured the anti-Trump Steele dossier for Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, then shared the salicious and unverified hit piece with the FBI, which used the information to obtain a FISA court order to spy on Page, the Trump Tower meeting appeared yet another set-up by either the Democratic campaign or the Democrats running the DOJ and FBI.

Simpson, however, testified that the dinner meetings stemmed from Fusion GPS’s separate work for Veselnitskaya related to her representation of a Russian company called Prevezon. The DOJ had instituted a civil forfeiture case against Prevezon in New York City, and Veselnitskaya hired an American law firm to defend her clients, which in turn hired Fusion GPS. In researching the players involved in the DOJ’s case against Prevezon, Fusion GPS discovered what appeared to be “financial misconduct by major contributors to the Clinton Global Initiative, a project of the Clinton Foundation.” Veselnitskaya sought to shop this information to Trump Jr.

Further, the same day as the Trump Tower meeting, Veselnitskaya attended a court hearing in the Prevezon case. Simpson testified that he did not know of the Trump Tower meeting and averred that he never discussed Fusion GPS’s separate work investigating Trump. Samochornov confirmed that the dinner meetings related to the Prevezon case and that no mention was made of the Trump Tower meeting or the separate investigation into Trump. Veselnitskaya’s statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee told a similar story.

Given Fusion GPS’s role in procuring the Steele dossier, the revelation that the Trump Tower attendees were connected to Fusion led some to posit that the meeting was a set-up. However, while the timing and overlap of characters seems highly suspicious, I agree with Andrew McCarthy, who convincingly analyzed the connections in much greater detail here, that “[i]n the end, it all seems like sound and fury signifying nothing.”

That Wasn’t the Only Weird Coincidence

Yet a second strange coincidence stems from the Trump Tower meeting—this one involving Veslnitskaya’s interpreter, Samochornov. Samochornov testifed that he had worked for years as a contractor for Meridian International, and during that time he served as an interpreter for then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton on one occasion. Two or three times, Samochornov interpreted for then-secretary of state John Kerry. He also interpreted former president Barack Obama’s United Nations summits and then-vice president Joe Biden’s United Nations’ speech.

Additionally, an archieved FBI press release from 2010 identified Samochornov as the program officer of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The event promoted in the press release? Then-acting FBI special agent in charge Lauren C. Anderson’s “summary of the international scope of the FBI under circumstances relating to counterterrorism and criminal cases and the collaboration between various countries’ national intelligence services, based on her own extensive background and international cases she investigated.”

The press released added that Anderson told the guests of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership program how teamwork between the United States and our European allies allows the FBI to fight international crime globally. After new sources identified Samochornov as the Russian interpreter, outlets also began reporting that his wife works for the State Department, in the Office of International Visitors.

These coincidences, coupled with Rep. Devin Nunes’ (CA-R) complaint earlier this month that the DOJ is still withholding from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), “critical documents detailing the FBI’s use of informants to spy on the Trump campaign prior to the official launch of the Russia collusion investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane,” heightened my suspicion.

But then I read the transcript of Samochornov’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His frank, open responses to the committee’s questions, including a detailed explanation of his work as an interpreter for Veslnitskaya, rings true. Samochornov testified under oath that he did not discuss the Trump Tower meeting with anyone, which would preclude him from being a snitch.

Of course, he could be lying, but I seriously doubt it. Instead, it seems that Veslnitskaya, Hillary, Kerry, Obama, Biden, and the Department of State all used Samochornov for a simple reason: Samochornov “is the best interpreter in New York, hands down.”

The Mysterious Joseph Mifsud Resurfaces

But while Samochornov’s involvement seems innocent enough, the sojourn into his history snagged another thread: In reading the old FBI press release, the aforementioned “United States Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program,” struck a chord of familiarity. Sure enough, the program is run by the State Department’s Office of International Visitors, which sponsors the Global Ties national conference. The February 8, 2017, Global Ties conference in Washington DC featured Joseph Mifsud as a speaker.


Mifsud was the Maltese professor connected to the London Centre of International Law, where former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos served a short stint in the spring of 2016. In April of that year, upon returning from a trip to Russia, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary.

The FBI later claimed that it launched Crossfire Hurricane in July 2016, after learning that Papadopoulos had repeated Mifsud’s claim to an Australia diplomat in London over drinks. Mifsud denied Papadopoulos’ version of the events and claimed that he told the FBI as much during a February 2017 interview with federal agents while in DC for the conference.

The State Department’s involvement with the Global Ties conference merited only passing mention two months ago, but since then we have learned of extensive connections between the State Deparment and the launch of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign, which The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross detailed recently here.

In light of those revelations and the FBI’s past collegial relationship with the State Department’s Office of International Vistors, the invitiation to Mifsud to speak at the Global Ties’ conference appears to have been either to provide cover for Mifsud to speak to the FBI, in which case he would be a plant, or a set-up to give the FBI access to the supposed Russian spy. But why then did the FBI release Mifsud and allow him to leave the country?

Let’s Review the Carter Page FISA Applications to See

The recently released Page FISA applications might provide a hint, I thought, so I pulled the sections discussing Papadopoulos from the four applications to compare. A spare line, unblacken, or even the addition of several redacted paragraphs might give some insight.

The important comparision would be between the second application filed in January 2017 (by mid-January, because the October 21, 2016, surveillance order expired in 90 days) and the FISA application filed in April 2017, because three significant events occurred during that time.

First, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos on January 27, 2017. Second, the FBI reportedly interviewed Mifsud in early-to-mid February, 2017 in Washington DC, when Mifsud spoke at the Global Ties conference. Third, the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos again on February 16, 2017. The April 2017 application should have included details from these interviews, especially details from its interview of Mifsud whom, after all, supposedly provided the information that launched Crossfire Hurriance.

But the page-plus summary of Papadopoulos’ role in the Trump campaign and his supposed nexus to “coordinated efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election” remained unchanged. (Compare pages 93-94 with pages 191-192 of the released FISA applications available here.) The only apparent change in that section came in the concluding paragraph, detailing Page’s “established relationships with Russian Government officials,” with a slight addition to the footnote. (See page 192 of the FISA Application file.)

Of particular note, the footnote included a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request exemption notation, b7D-1, which allows the government to withhold information that “could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source.”

These facts indicate that the DOJ did not inform the FISA court of the FBI interviews with Papadopoulos and Mifsud. But it should have, especially if Mifsud denied Papadopoulos’ claim that the Maltese professor had bragged that the Russians had dirt on Hillary. Or was Mifsud an FBI informant or an asset of a foreign government, and was that instead what the DOJ told the FISA court?

It’s time for the FBI to come clean: Who was Mifsud, and what was his role in the launch of Crossfire Hurricane? And did the State Department assist the FBI in handling Mifsud? Congress and the president supposedly hold power over these agencies. They, and we, need the answers.

Link

this is confusing

The Senate Intel Comm has concluded that the Russians tried to help elect Donald Trump.

The House Intel Comm disagreed that there was positive bias towards Donald Trump.


Not sure of the complete context, but DEM Mark Warner said

“This is one where ‎there is no Democratic or Republican ‎answer since clearly the goal of our ‎adversaries was not to favor one party ‎over the other. It was to wreak havoc and ‎split divisions.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, seems to have strayed from the Democrats’ talking point, reinforced by Obama-era intelligence agencies, that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election specifically to ensure that Donald Trump was victorious.

Warner made those brief closing remarks at the end of Wednesday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing on “foreign influence on social media” that focused significantly on the 2016 election.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-...dnt-favor-any-party/

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
this is confusing

The Senate Intel Comm has concluded that the Russians tried to help elect Donald Trump.

The House Intel Comm disagreed that there was positive bias towards Donald Trump.


Not sure of the complete context, but DEM Mark Warner said

“This is one where ‎there is no Democratic or Republican ‎answer since clearly the goal of our ‎adversaries was not to favor one party ‎over the other. It was to wreak havoc and ‎split divisions.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, seems to have strayed from the Democrats’ talking point, reinforced by Obama-era intelligence agencies, that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election specifically to ensure that Donald Trump was victorious.

Warner made those brief closing remarks at the end of Wednesday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing on “foreign influence on social media” that focused significantly on the 2016 election.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-...dnt-favor-any-party/

Anyone who thinks that Russia tried to elect Trump either believes that Putin and his regime have super powers or is deluded.
Why should anyone think that the Russians thought Trump had a chance when all of the "best" american minds KNEW that Hillary would win? Does Russia have better polling? Does Russia have a better idea of what Americans think?
It is obvious that they sought to sow discontent, and mistrust of the process and government. Of course that is now the job of the MSM so they really have nothing to do anymore.

this is a wild one. Very hard to interpret .

important edit This release was in response to a Judicial Watch FOIA

Judicial Watch says that on 2 Feb 2016 Steele "was admonished for unknown reasons"

Judicial Watch does not seem to be interpreting the 2 Feb 2016 document as Steele being given direction by the FBI

We will need to get that EC on p71 more fully explained



The FBI just today released 71 pages about "Records Between FBI and Christopher Steele"

The 71 pages are almost completely redacted.

https://vault.fbi.gov/records-...e-part-01-of-01/view

But on p71 (last page) it says there was an FBI admonishment filed under a Electronic Communication and dated 02/02/2016.

?? Feb 2016 ?




CHS AGG = Confidential Human Source Attorney General Guidelines


when a confidential informant is registered, the case agent must review with the CI, in the presence of another agent, written instructions or admonishments detailing the constraints under which the CI is to operate.

The Guidelines require that the content and meaning of the instructions must be clearly conveyed, but as of May 2002, they no longer require that the instructions be read verbatim. After the instructions are given, the case agent must obtain the CI's acknowledgement of the CI's receipt and understanding of the instructions and must document that the instructions were reviewed with the CI and that the CI acknowledged his or her understanding of them.
CI Guidelines § II.C.

On page 2 of these 71 pages, it says this:




above says the CHS is being "closed" on 1 Nov 2016


???? Reluctant to even type this. But does this say the FBI had Steele as a CHS from Feb 2016 to November 2016 ??

adding: we need to understand the language more completely


(I will use "strike through" on that if it turns out not to be true)

Who released this ? (obviously someone at FBI)

Why have everything redacted, except the first and last page ?

I'm getting nervous. No one is reporting this.

judicial Watch is discussing this

https://www.judicialwatch.org/...bi-payments-in-2016/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

From NBC:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/c...uthor-steele-n897506

about the 71 page release of FBI records on Christopher Steele

"The records also indicate that in February 2016 the FBI “admonished” Steele.

A federal law enforcement official explains that an admonishment is typically given when a person begins a stint as a confidential informant and annually thereafter.

It is a briefing on the rules of being an informant to ensure the source complies with guidelines set by the Attorney General, and usually not criticism of the source ."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That is consistent with the language in the 2005 Office of the Inspector General report on "The FBI's Compliance with the Attorney General's Investigative Guidelines"

https://oig.justice.gov/special/0509/chapter3.htm

just gets worse and worse

a story by Byron York, who has been pretty reliable

https://www.washingtonexaminer...n?platform=hootsuite

Sen Grassley has seen a lot of material that is still classified

He has seen FBI 302 reports on their conversations w Bruce Ohr (that document inputs from C Steele)

He has seen 63 pages of unclassified notes and emails from Bruce Ohr.

Grassley is saying the classified 302s document the unclassified 63 pages of notes. He is trying to get the FBI to unclassify the 302s.

Here is the kicker. The FBI said they severed their relationship w Steele on 1 Nov 2016.

But the 302s w Bruce Ohr are dated:

Nov. 22, 2016
Dec. 5;
Dec. 12;
Dec. 20;
Jan. 23, 2017;
Jan. 25;
Jan. 27;
Feb. 6;
Feb. 14;
May 8;
May 12;
and May 15 2017

Remember the Dan Jones guy got $50 mil after the election to continue the Fusion GPS work.

President Trump was inaugurated 20 Jan 2017.

4 mos later the FBI is still getting Steele inputs from Bruce Ohr.

"CHS is being closed" 1 Nov 2016

How much of the Ohr stuff got into the 4 FISA warrants ?

How much got handed off to Mueller ?

Several bloggers have picked up on the fact that the 2 Feb 2016 FBI "admonishment" to C Steele can mean the FBI was detailing the constraints of the CHS assignment.

With Steele being an FBI CHS from Feb 2016 to Nov 2016, several possibilities open up.

The book "Russian Roulette" says that Steele briefed FBI agent Michael Gaeta on 5 July 2016 in London. Steele knew Gaeta from his former FBI work on the FIFA soccer scandal.

In the recently released 71 pages of FBI/Steele records, it mentions the FBI "handling agent". Could that handling agent have been Gaeta ?

Glenn Simpson testified after Steele came up w his first explosive report (in about 2 weeks), Steele wanted to immediately go to the FBI. Steele told Simpson that he knew "who to call".

It has been a mystery why Simpson testified that the FBI never talked to him.

If Steele already was an FBI source, he may have not even specifically identified Simpson when he first reported to the FBI.

In the FBI 71 page release, there are multiple redacted sheets of requests for payment and receipts for payment. But even the dates are redacted.

We don't know if these FBI payments to Steele are for the earlier FIFA soccer work or for the time period Feb to Nov 2016.

A lot more to learn. It is all there. But redacted.

summary of the current "big picture"

In Feb 2016 Steele was an FBI confidential human source (CHS)

Late May/early Jun 2016 Steele is hired by Fusion GPS to get dirt on Trump. Fusion is funded for this by the Clinton campaign and DNC (thru Perkins Coie law firm)

20 jun 2016 Steele delivers first report.

5 Jul 2016 Steele briefs FBI in London.

Sep 2016 Steele briefs multiple news media.

21 Oct 2016, FBI gets FISA warrant against Carter Page using the Steele dossier.

Late OCt 2016 Steele gives the dossier info to Mother Jones. They publish it.

FBI closes CHS relation w Steele because Steele talked to Mother Jones. (FBI apparently doesn't realize that Steele has been briefing news media for weeks prior to Mother Jones)

After the election, money ceases from Clinton campaign to fund the dossier.

A former aide to Diane Feinstein, one Dan Jones, sets up a company and gets $50 mil from "donors" to continue funding Fusion GPS and Steele.


Bruce Ohr (DoJ) begins to act as a conduit from Steele to the FBI. This continues from Nov 2016 to May 2017.

The Ohr to FBI information transfer didn't end until right after Comey was fired.


Sen Grassley is trying to get the details (of what Ohr provided to the FBI) out to the public.

Where's Brennen and the Langley Working Group in this timeframe?

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:

Anyone who thinks that Russia tried to elect Trump either believes that Putin and his regime have super powers or is deluded.

They would also have to think that Putin is as stupid as Joe Biden. Why would he want Trump, whose policies make Putin's life more difficult, when Putin could have a President he could own in Hillary Clinton?

This entire ruse is so stupid and illogical, I am amazed the American people continue to let this go on.



.

So, with the new Bruce Ohr revelations, we now know that top officials at the DOJ and FBI, along with Hillary Clinton, colluded with Brit Christopher Steele and Russians to fabricate a yarn that tried to make it appear that Trump colluded with the Russians.

Who's Mueller going after again?


.

for a week or so, Devin Nunes has been saying that Bruce Ohr (DoJ) will be shown to have been a much bigger player in the FBI/DoJ conspiracy to frame President Trump.

Here is the first example of that from John Soloman

http://thehill.com/hilltv/risi...on-trump-russia-case

Hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails and memos provide the clearest evidence yet that a research firm, hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to find dirt on and defeat Donald Trump, worked early and often with the FBI, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official and the intelligence community during the 2016 presidential election and the early days of Trump's presidency.

a close review of these new documents shows just how closely Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who reported to Obama-era Deputy AG Sally Yates, maintained contact with Fusion — and, in particular, its primary source, former British spy Christopher Steele — before, during and after the election.

Yates was fired by President Trump over an unrelated political dispute. Ohr was demoted recently.

Ohr’s own notes, emails and text messages show he communicated extensively with Steele and with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Those documents have been turned over in recent weeks to investigative bodies in Congress and the DOJ, but not reviewed outside the investigative ranks until now.

They show Ohr had contact with Steele in the days just before the FBI opened its Trump-Russia probe in summer 2016, and then engaged Steele as a “confidential human source” (CHS) assisting in that probe.

B = Bruce Ohr, SY = Sally Yates

“B, doubtless a sad and crazy day for you re- SY,” Steele texted Ohr on Jan. 31, 2017, referencing President Trump’s firing of Sally Yates for insubordination.

Steele's FBI relationship had been terminated about three months earlier. The bureau concluded on Nov. 1, 2016, that he leaked information to the news media and was “not suitable for use” as a confidential source, memos show.

The FBI specifically instructed Steele that he could no longer “operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI,” those memos show.

Yet, Steele asked Ohr in the Jan. 31 text exchange if he could continue to help feed information to the FBI: “ Just want to check you are OK, still in the situ and able to help locally as discussed, along with your Bureau colleagues.”

“I’m still here and able to help as discussed,” Ohr texted back. “I’ll let you know if that changes.”

Steele replied:

"If you end up out though, I really need another (bureau?) contact point/number who is briefed. We can’t allow our guy to be forced to go back home. It would be disastrous.”

Investigators are trying to determine who Steele was referring to.

why doesn't someone ask Bruce Ohr ?

FBI officials now admit they continued to receive information from Steele through Ohr, identifying more than a half-dozen times its agents interviewed Ohr in late 2016 and 2017, to learn what Steele was saying.

That continued reliance on Steele after his termination is certain to raise interest in Congress about whether the FBI broke its own rules.

But the memos also raise questions about Ohr’s and the Justice Department’s roles in the origins of building a counterintelligence case against the Republican presidential nominee, based heavily on opposition research funded by his rival's campaign, the DNC, and the DNC’s main law firm, Perkins Coie.

Some of the more tantalizing Ohr contacts occurred in the days when Steele made his first contacts with the FBI in summer 2016 about the Russia matter.

Steele wrote Ohr on July 1, 2016:

“There is something separate I wanted to discuss with you informally and separately. It concerns our favourite (sic) business tycoon!”

1 July 2016.

That overture came just four days before Steele walked into the FBI office in Rome with still-unproven allegations that Trump had an improper relationship with Russia, including possible efforts to hijack the presidential election.

other reports are that Steele met the FBI in London on 5 July 2016

Ohr scheduled a call with Steele over Skype a few days later. But then the two men met in Washington on July 30, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel.

Ohr brought his wife, Nellie, who was working at Fusion GPS on the Trump-Russia research project.

“Great to see you and Nellie this morning Bruce,” Steele wrote shortly after their breakfast meeting. “Let’s keep in touch on the substantive issues/s (sic). Glenn is happy to speak to you on this if it would help.”

That meeting occurred exactly one day before FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok formally opened an investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, into whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Moscow to steal the election.

At the time, the case was based mostly on an Australian diplomat’s tip that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos appeared to know in advance that the Russians possessed information involving Hillary Clinton before hacked documents were released on WikiLeaks.

Calendar notations and handwritten notes indicate Ohr followed up on Steele’s offer and met with Simpson on Aug. 22, 2016. Ohr’s notes indicate Simpson identified several “possible intermediaries” between the Trump campaign and Russia.

One was identified as a “longtime associate of Trump” who “put together several real estate deals for Russian investigators to purchase Trump properties.” Another was a Russian apparently tied to Carter Page, Ohr’s note of his Simpson contact indicated.

Steele offered Ohr many other theories over their contacts, including a now widely discredited one that the Russian Alfa Bank had a computer server “as a link” to the Trump campaign, Ohr’s notes show.

Though much of Steele’s information remained uncorroborated, the FBI nonetheless took the extraordinary step in October 2016 of seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance warrant to monitor Carter Page during the final days of the election, based mostly on Steele’s dossier. The warrant was renewed at least three times, but Page was never charged.

Ohr’s connections to Steele are significant because at least one of the FISA warrants was approved by Ohr’s boss, Yates.

By early November 2016, Steele was terminated for unauthorized media contacts — and the FBI was turning to Ohr as a back channel to Steele.

Ohr’s notes suggest he met Nov. 21, 2016, with FBI officials that included Strzok, then-FBI attorney Lisa Page and another agent. Strzok and Page have become the poster children for Republicans who believe the FBI abused its authority by investigating Trump on flimsy evidence. FBI records confirm an interview with Ohr around that time.

Ohr’s notes from that meeting indicate that FBI officials told him they “may go back to Chris” — an apparent reference to Steele — just 20 days after dismissing him.

In all, Ohr’s notes, emails and texts identify more than 60 contacts with Steele and/or Simpson, some dating to 2002 in London. But the vast majority occurred during the 2016-2017 timeframe that gave birth to one of the most controversial counterintelligence probes in American history.

Most importantly, the new memos make clear that Ohr, a man whose name was barely uttered during the first 18 months of the scandal, may have played a critical role in stitching together a Democratic opposition research project and the top echelons of the FBI and DOJ.

Representatives for the Justice Department and FBI did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment. A message left on the cell phone for Bruce and Nellie Ohr, seeking comment, was not returned.

****************************

meanwhile Robert Mueller prosecutes people for things completely unrelated to election interference, and FBI Dir Wray continues to worry about FBI morale.

"We can’t allow our guy to be forced to go back home" Wild Ass Guess: might this be FBI agent Michael Gaeta who was stationed in Rome, Italy ?

'We’re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it’s possible implications for us, our operations and our sources.'

Federalist
AUGUST 8, 2018 By Juliana Knot

Text messages released to Congress show that dossier compiler Christopher Steele was “concerned” about Sen. Chuck Grassley’s letter regarding the document, The Daily Caller News Foundation reports.

“Would it be possible to speak later today please? We’re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it’s possible implications for us, our operations and our sources. We need some reassurances,” Steele wrote in a March 7, 2017 text message to Bruce Ohr, who was the deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice at the time.

It’s not clear how Ohr replied to Steele’s concerns. At the time, Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele. Ohr was demoted in December 2017 for his contact with Steele and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Steele is a former British spy.

The DOJ recently provided these texts and other documents to several congressional committees, looking into the government’s involvement in the dossier.

The “Grassley letter” is likely referencing the March 6, 2017, letter that Grassley sent to the DOJ, requesting more information about the dossier and intelligence community’s relationship with Steele.

The dossier was unverified opposition research that the DOJ used for their FISA warrant on Donald Trump associate Carter Page. The claims in the dossier of Russian dirt on Trump have not been corroborated.

Grassley expressed concern that the Obama administration was using FBI and CIA as political pawns, the letter says.

The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends. It is additionally troubling that the FBI reportedly agreed to such an arrangement given that, in January of 2017, then-Director Clapper issued a statement stating that “the IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions.”
Grassley then went on to ask 12 questions about the FBI’s relationship to Steele and the dossier, as well as for communication between the government and Fusion GPS.

The DOJ stonewalled Congress before releasing any information. Grassley wrote another letter to the DOJ on May 2, 2017, demanding documents he had asked for two months earlier. Various Republicans have complained about the lack of cooperation from intelligence agencies.

The FBI cut ties with Steele in November 2016, after it learned he leaked word of the investigation to the press. We now know Steele leaked to Yahoo News and Mother Jones that he was working with the intelligence community to find dirt on Trump. Recent reporting in The Hill shows that Ohr maintained contact with Steele long after the FBI cut ties.

Link

This is a bit of a tangent, but do we have anything concrete on why Steele contacted the news media? I can imagine a couple of different reasons why that happened, but I'm kinda curious as to whose initiative that was.

quote:

do we have anything concrete on why Steele contacted the news media?

I won’t claim “concrete”, but

#1
Devin Nunes reported from FBI interview information: Bruce Ohr told the FBI that in Sep 2016, Christopher Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president”

#2
Steele was paid to get opposition research on Donald Trump. It wouldn’t be “proper” for Clinton to acknowledge she funded a foreign private investigator to get unverified dirt on Donald Trump from Kremlin sources who were unidentified and who talked to other unidentified Russians to report to Steele.

So the “dirt” had to look like it was “western intelligence”. That is how it was sold to the media in Sep 2016. Likely that Glenn Simpson arranged all the Steele meetings w various media reporters. Planting news stories is Fusion GPS’ business.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
This is a bit of a tangent, but do we have anything concrete on why Steele contacted the news media? I can imagine a couple of different reasons why that happened, but I'm kinda curious as to whose initiative that was.

I found this in the transcript of the Senate interview of Simpson, a reference to an Exhibit which is basically a reply to the complaint in the suit in Queens Bench between Gubarev and Webzilla v. ornis and Steele.

quote:

Save that it is admitted that the Second Defendant gave off the record briefings to a small number of journalists about the pre-election memoranda in late summer/autumn 2016, sub~paragraph 8.2.6 is denied.

Second Defendant is Steele.

Looking for further details.

From a JALLEN post a few above:

Steele wrote to Bruce Ohr on 7 Mar 2017:

quote:

We’re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it’s possible implications for us, our operations and our sources. We need some reassurances,”

The Grassley ltr of 6 Mar 2017 requested Comey provide some answers about the dossier. Keep in mind this is 2 months after the dossier was released by Buzzfeed.

From the Grassley ltr:







above are the Grassley questions to Comey that made Steele nervous

Grassley knew, or suspected, a lot very early.

John Solomon has released more of the communications between Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele

http://thehill.com/hilltv/risi...to-fbi-mueller-probe

note that Ohr and Steele were communicating all the way to 27 Nov 2017

On 6 Aug 2017 Steele writes about "reengaging" with the bureau and Mueller.

Steele is trying to get Ohr to help w that reengagement.

Bruce Ohr was demoted at DoJ on 7 Dec 2017









from the Solomon article:

Spokesmen for Rosenstein and Mueller declined to tell me Wednesday if their bosses knew about Steele’s overture or if Steele provided further assistance to the Russia probe after Mueller took over.

Yet, in a private letter to Congress, shown to me, Rosenstein declared he was unaware of Ohr’s activities with Steele . Ohr was “not assigned to the Russia investigation and he was not in the chain of command,” Rosenstein wrote. “Any involvement Mr. Ohr had in this matter was without my knowledge.”

Sarah Carter
Link

A law enforcement sensitive document written by senior Justice Department official, Bruce Ohr, is raising serious concerns amongst congressional investigators regarding testimony provided to Congress on the involvement of FBI special agents in the probe into the Trump campaign and its alleged Russian ties.

Nov. 21, 2016, the handwritten document lists former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, his paramour FBI Attorney Lisa Page and Special Agent Joe Pientka (who along with Strzok interviewed former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn).

The more we learn about this, the more it seems like Bruce Ohr was a really key figure…
Strzok, who was the lead investigator in the FBI’s investigation into Trump, was removed last August from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after the DOJ’s Inspector General discovered a barrage of anti-Trump text messages between him and Page. Page, who was working as the general counsel for now fired Deputy Attorney General Andrew McCabe, is no longer with the FBI.

Page’s name on Ohr’s notes raises a number of questions, particularly since she would not have normally been involved in national security investigations, a congressional investigator said. It also raises a number of questions regarding McCabe’s possible involvement and whether was he authorizing any meetings or communications with Ohr in regard to the Trump investigation, the investigators noted.

Ohr was demoted twice by the Justice Department for his failure to disclose that his wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for the now-embattled research firm Fusion GPS, which produced the infamous anti-Trump dossier. The new document is only one in a series of notes commemorating his communications with dossier author, Christopher Steele, which have been obtained by the congressional oversight committees investigating the FBI’s handling of the Trump Russia investigation.

Another congressional investigator told SaraACarter.com that the notes written by Ohr raise “concerns of previously undisclosed communications with the FBI and Ohr and how extensive these communications were. It also raises concerns about testimony given by Lisa Page, who downplayed her interactions with Ohr in her (July 13) testimony to Congress.”

The notes at the bottom of the memo state, in sloppy writing, “no prosecution yet, pushing ahead on M case,” in reference to Paul Manafort, who is now facing years old charges on financial crimes and money laundering, according to congressional investigators.

Ohr also stated, “may go back to Chris,” in reference to Christopher Steele.

“The more we learn about this, the more it seems like Bruce Ohr was a really key figure in this circle comprising those both outside and inside the government who were colluding with each other to manufacture the Trump-Russia investigation,” said a third congressional staffer involved in the Russia investigations.

Separate Documents Reveal FBI’s Backchannel Investigation Conducted by Ohr

In a separate, but related matter, a slew of documents and emails obtained by congressional investigators also shows that the FBI failed to disclose to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that it had a backchannel investigation with senior Obama Justice Department officials that continued to use and obtain information from Steele.

Steele was a central figure in the separate investigation being conducted by Ohr and Fusion GPS. According to the documents, Ohr and his wife were working closely with Steele and channeling information to the FBI.

The new onslaught of documents obtained by the oversight committees seems to show a pattern, considering the FBI also failed to disclose important information in its FISC warrant application to spy on short-term Trump campaign volunteer, Carter Page.

On Monday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes revealed that Obama’s FBI failed to include “exculpatory evidence” in its FISA application against Page. If proven true, this violation has enormous implications, according to a congressional source with knowledge of the investigation.

“Ohr was basically allowing himself to be run as a source so the FBI could communicate with Steele even after they fired him,” said another congressional source who maintains that the exculpatory evidence should have been included in the application and the court should have been aware.