The American people ABSOLUTELY have a “need to know”.

an important clarification. A few posts above I posted a report that Mark Meadows had said FBI agent Moffa had testified the FBI leaked stories then used them as separate stories for verification.

The FBI disputed that statement. New Mark Meadows statement:



So Meadows is saying Moffa testified the FBI uses media reports to corroborate analytic work,

and separately that the FBI leaks to the media.

Too bad Christopher Wray wasn't as quick to clarify that the FBI lied in the Carter Page FISA warrants that the Sep 2016 Yahoo News story was independent of Christopher Steele reports.


https://dailycaller.com/2018/0...tories-spy-warrants/

“Moffa’s admission that the FBI regularly uses media reports to corroborate their own work products is a huge admission given what we know about the FBI’s incredible culture of leaking for their own purposes. He never explicitly said: ‘we use our own leaks.’ Frankly, he doesn’t have to.”

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
The American people ABSOLUTELY have a “need to know”.

It is surprising that a man with your military background, familiarity with security clearances, would post something this silly.

You obviously recognize the real meanings of these terms as used in the classification program, and the limitations imposed.

We depend upon these limitations, especially the concept of “need to know.” Just because one has a highest level of clearance doesn’t entitle you to have access to any classified material you may wish to see. Some of the materials are limited so tightly that only the President and so-called “Gang of Eight” can access them. Those can be declassified, presumably by the classifying authority, and ultimately by the President.

Hopefully the President takes into consideration all of the ramifications involved before ordering declassification. This happened earlier this year in the frenzy over the dossier and the HSCI memos. In that case, it gave a splendid opportunity for the GDCs to show themselves to be utter fools. Maybe that’s what we are waiting for now.

And if you think everything they are hiding would actually affect national security you haven’t been paying attention.

bits and pieces have come out of the Bruce Ohr testimony

- Ohr briefed Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page on what he was doing w his interaction w Christopher Steele

- Ohr was not interviewed by Mueller. One report came out that Ohr has not been interviewed by Huber either

- Some reports that Ohr did not brief DoJ leaders about his interactions w Steele

- Lisa Page downplayed her communications w Ohr during her congressional testimony

- Ohr briefed the FBI that his wife worked for Fusion GPS on the dossier

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Former FBI general counsel Jim Baker is expected to be interviewed on Thursday, according to a GOP committee source.

just something to think about,

Marc Elias is the Perkins Coie lawyer who funded Fusion GPS to generate the Steele dossier




life is full of coincidences

If you wrote the events of the last two years as a script for a movie, you would be laughed out of the office of every executive producer you took it to.

Tucker Carlson had that helpless Democrat tool, Richard Goodstein on this evening, avoiding Carlson’s direct questions asking roughly, “What in the entire fuck is going on here, and do you really want Trump and future Presidents to spy on opposing party candidates for the office of President?”

Did I really hear Goodstein call Carter Page a “Russian spy?!?” Unbelievable. I am seriously struggling to deal with the deep corruption and the forces allied against this President. My country feels like Nicaragua or something

Rod Rosenstein has publicly testified to congress that he was unaware of Bruce Ohr's activities in the Russia investigation.

the deputy attorney general’s office “never involved” Ohr in the Russia investigation, and he was assigned “no role” in it, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recently told lawmakers.

But from Ohr's testimony yesterday, Rep Ratcliffe said:

"His testimony today was that he gave us a list of a half a dozen senior FBI and Department of Justice officials that he told of his involvement, his wife's involvement, all of the details of their interactions with Christopher Steele, with Glenn Simpson, with the payment."

"And these are names, Sean, that would be familiar to you."

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So who did Ohr name from the FBI and DoJ who knew what he was doing ?

(We heard from other reports some of those names were Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page)

Either people kept Rosenstein in the dark, or Rosenstein is in a lot of trouble.

I don't like Rosenstein, but it is possible the FBI didn't tell Rosenstein about Ohr, and the DoJ people that knew about Ohr and Steele were from the Obama administration (e.g. Sally Yates)

some good news here

https://saraacarter.com/breaki...o-question-his-wife/

1. Republicans plan to call Bruce Ohr's wife to testify. She should be forced to go on record for how much she wrote for the dossier.

2. Lawmakers are also seeking all communications – texts and emails – between Bruce Ohr and top officials at the FBI

3. Meadows, who has already spoken to Justice Department officials, said he expects that the DOJ will be cooperative following Ohr’s deposition Tuesday.

“Conversations with the Department of Justice following the Bruce Ohr interview have indicated a new willingness to be transparent in a couple of key areas,” Meadows added.

Rosenstein may be feeling quite uncomfortable. If Rosenstein feels the FBI set him up for the FISA warrant, he might have motivation to get the truth out

There haven't been any reports that FBI or DoJ lawyers advised Ohr not to answer questions

I think documents regarding US Law Enforcement and the CIA involved in a coup against any US President should be released no matter what is contained therein.
It doesn't get any more serious than this.

The attempted coup needs sunlight thrown on it.
The more the better.

President Trump, release the documents.

John Solomon has a new report.

warning: he does not identify his sources, but he has been one of the people breaking news that turns out to be true eventually

Solomon says he has documents about what Joseph Mifsud told the FBI about his meeting w Geo Papadopoulos back in Mar/Apr 2016.

The FBI interviewed Mifsud in Feb 2017. (Why would they wait so long ? The FBI said they opened the counterintelligence operation on 31 July 2016 based on what Mifsud said to Papadopoulos)

http://thehill.com/hilltv/risi...sia-and-papadopoulos

Documents I obtained from sources show Mifsud told the FBI in February 2017 that his contacts with Papadopoulos a year earlier, during the 2016 presidential campaign, were mostly innocuous. He made that point both in an FBI interview and a follow-up email to agents.

He described the contacts as an academic exercise in pursuit of peace, not a global plot to hijack the election. And he went out of his way to say there was no talk of sinister cybersecurity intentions such as a plot to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“I reaffirm that the content of our conversations was always on wide geo-strategic issues,” he wrote FBI agents on Feb. 11, in an email that was quickly sent to the very top of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Mifsud sent the email just hours after agents interviewed him.

He said the conversations mostly centered around “how the Trump then-campaign team looked to develop a conversation on Europe/UK … and with Russia” and “the fallout in policy in the deteriorating relationship between the major countries in the world today.”

Mifsud acknowledged he introduced Papadopoulos to a contact in Russia, whom he identified as Dr. Ivan N. Timofeev, who he described as “a director of a think tank in Moscow with strong links with a number of U.S. institutions.”

But, again, he stressed the contacts were mostly academic in nature.

“Dr. Timofeev and I have been collaborating for a number of years on a number of geo-strategic issues, mainly pertaining to publications/training for diplomats/international experts on energy security and their implications on international relations,” Mifsud told the FBI. “After speaking to both individuals, I put them in contact with each other.”

“The intent of that ‘bridging’ was specifically of a geo-political nature and not tied in any way or form to cybersecurity,” Mifsud insisted to the FBI. “It was to create a mutual understanding on world affairs and how we can contribute to peace and stability.”

The mere fact Mifsud felt compelled, after his FBI interview, to write a follow-up email — repeatedly insisting that his contacts with Papadopoulos were innocuous — is an indication he didn’t like the way the FBI portrayed events.

In fact, at one point in his email, he bold-faced a single sentence for emphasis: “Cybersecurity was never the direct object of any of our communications.”

Mifsud even told the FBI that, after his interview, he went back to his documents to make sure there wasn’t something more sinister: “The issues that you specifically asked me about in your questions this morning did not feature in any of our email conversations as far as I can see.”

The Mueller team’s indictment paints this very differently.

It claims Papadopoulos lied about when he started advising Trump’s campaign and when he learned from his contacts with Mifsud that Russia may have dirt on Clinton in the form of emails. Prosecutors also accused him of trying to leverage his contact with the Russians he met through Mifsud to get Trump to possibly visit Russia and Vladimir Putin during the election season.

having a foreigner tell you a foreign country may have dirt on a candidate is not a crime. And neither is trying to arrange for a presidential candidate to visit a foreign country.

If those were crimes, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee would have to be locked up for their efforts to pay British agent Christopher Steele to get dirt on Trump from Russian figures, including one former Russian intelligence operative, according to handwritten Justice Department notes.

And all the aides who held backdoor conversations with foreign leaders to arrange for Barack Obama’s pre-2008 election trip to Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe would have to go to jail, too.

Mueller’s prosecutors recently urged the court to send Papadopoulos to prison, saying his false statements “impeded the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”

More specifically, the prosecutors argued: “The defendant’s lies undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the Professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States.”

There’s just one problem with that argument.

The FBI had known for months — at least since July 2016, when an Australian diplomat reported it — that Papadopoulos boasted about the Russian dirt on Clinton. And agents knew before they interviewed Mifsud in February 2017 that Papadopoulos had gotten that information from the professor.

So the bureau had plenty of time to question Mifsud about the claims. Furthermore, it easily could have called the professor back and interviewed him anew, if it had doubts; after all, an Italian news outlet had no problem locating Mifsud and interviewing him last November.

Papadopoulos’ wife has suggested prosecutors took advantage of her husband to criminalize conduct that wasn’t criminal. It isn’t the first time we’ve heard that.

A few months after former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, we learned the agent who conducted that interview did not believe Flynn was deceptive.

Okay, so the agent who interviewed Flynn says he didn’t lie but prosecutors nonetheless charged him with lying. And the professor in direct contact with Papadopoulos says he wasn’t involved in some big cybersecurity scheme to hijack the election but, rather, wanted a more peaceful world.

It makes you wonder if what has gone on so far is not the pursuit of criminal conduct but, instead, is the criminalizing of perfectly normal political conduct .

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John Solomon was on Hannity tonight. He said he has a theory that the FBI opened the counterintelligence operation on 31 July 2016 based on the first reports from Christopher Steele. (Steele was in Wash DC on 30 July 2016)

When the Steele reports started falling apart, the FBI switched their story to say it was Papadopoulos/Mifsud that caused the counterintel op to be opened.

That makes a lot of sense.

With so much confusion, we need to see the 302 interview forms. It sure looks like there is massive FBI deceit involved in this case.

National security smokescreens be damned. This country is being torn apart and what more do we need to prove there is broad conspiracy to frame President Trump? Release the documents. The only national security issue will be that we can't trust the FBI for years until they cauterize the wound and clean out the rot.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
The American people ABSOLUTELY have a “need to know”.

I agree, this farce has gone on long enough.

Justice delayed is justice denied

There are standard financial disclosure forms that many govt employees need to fill out every year. These forms are reviewed to see if the employee has any conflicts of interest.

For the employee's spouse, the form requires the name of the spouse employer and the line of business.

On Bruce Ohr's 2016 form he added a new employer for his wife Nellie, but didn't provide the employer name. He just entered "cyberthreat analyst"

Now we know the employer was Fusion GPS.

Nellie Ohr is said to be a Russian expert and is fluent in Russian

When Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2017, there was this exchange:

Q: Do any Fusion employees or associates speak Russian?

Simpson: No. I'll qualify that. Depends on how you define associate. Edward (Baumgartner) isn't an employee of the company, but he speaks Russian. He's a subcontractor.

Q: Aside from Mr Baumgartner, do you have any other support from Russian-speaking individuals in reviewing the Russian documents?

A: Not in my company, at least not that I can recall.

Now the context of this questioning was asking Simpson about work he did for the Russian firm Prevezon where the Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya was representing Prevezon

( Natalya Veselnitskaya is the same Russian lawyer that met w Donald Trump Jr about supposedly dirt on Hillary Clinton. Small world)

https://dailycaller.com/2018/0...uce-ohr-dossier-fbi/

Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr told Congress earlier this week that he informed half a dozen FBI and Justice Department officials about his contacts with dossier author Christopher Steele and opposition researcher Glenn Simpson.

Sources familiar with Ohr’s testimony before the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Ohr informed Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page about his interactions with Steele and Simpson.

He also informed Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann about his dossier-related work.

Weissmann is now serving as right-hand man to Robert Mueller at the special counsel’s office.

Ohr testified that he informed his Justice Department peers, but not his superiors, about his contacts with Steele and Simpson. One of the superiors kept out of the loop was former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Ohr said he was demoted as assistant deputy attorney general in December because he failed to tell Yates and other top officials about his dossier interactions

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if Ohr's inputs from Steele got into the extensions to the Carter Page FISA warrant, that should make Weissmann dirty too.

FUBAR isn't strong enough

Email Logs Reveal Correspondence Between Clinton Associate, Fusion GPS, and Russians at Trump Tower Meeting

https://www.breitbart.com/big-...trump-tower-meeting/

NEW YORK — Attorney Edward Lieberman, whose late wife Evelyn served as Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, exchanged numerous emails with the co-founder of the controversial Fusion GPS firm and Russian participants in the infamous June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting, documentation provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows.

The correspondence, part of a series of exhibits provided to Senate investigators and reviewed by Breitbart News, took place in the weeks leading up to the Trump Tower meeting.

Earlier this week, Breitbart News cited witness testimony saying Lieberman was present at one and possibly two dinner meetings between the controversial Fusion GPS firm and key participants in the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting. Also, Lieberman met with one Russian participant the same day of the Trump Tower meeting, according to separate testimony.

Now the email logs provide a paper trail connection between Lieberman, Fusion GPS, and two of the Russian participants in the Trump Tower confab.

Besides working for Hillary Clinton while she was First Lady, Lieberman’s late wife, Evelyn, also served as Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, and famously transferred Monica Lewinsky out of the White House to the Defense Department.

Edward Lieberman himself has been described as working within the orbit of the Clintons. He previously served as legal counsel and advisor to the Albright Group LLC, which was founded by Madeleine K. Albright, who served as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State and who would later serve as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. Lieberman’s expertise, listed on his former Albright Group bio, includes “multi-billion dollar privatizations of oil and gas assets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia.”

The Russia collusion conspiracy was sparked by the dossier produced by Fusion GPS, which was paid for its anti-Trump work by Trump’s primary political opponents, namely Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkins Coie law firm.

As part of his interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee last August, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson produced documentation requested by Senate investigators, including “privilege logs” of the emails in question. The logs contained the names of the recipients of the emails as well as the dates and the subjects. The actual email texts were not provided by Simpson citing confidentiality due to “attorney work product.”

The testimony and exhibits were released in January, but most of the exhibits remain largely unreported by the news media. The documentation was given new scrutiny in light of this reporter’s recent articles on Lieberman’s ties to Trump Tower meeting participants.

Most of the email logs provided to the committee were sent between May 13, 2016, and May 20, 2016, ending just twenty days before the Trump Tower get-together. The email logs resume again in October 2016, with no logs provided for the key days before or after the Trump Tower meeting.

The logs show the emails in question were sent between Lieberman, Simpson, and Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, who was present at the Trump Tower presentation. Other emails were sent from Mark Cymrot, a lawyer at the U.S. law firm BakerHostetler, with Simpson, Lieberman, and Akhmetshin listed as the recipients.

Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired by BakerHostetler, which represented the Russian firm Prevezon, to do opposition work targeting British financier Bill Browder. It was Browder who did extensive investment work in Russia and who successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, the very topic of the Trump Tower meeting. Russian-linked Prevezon Holdings Ltd. had settled a case in the U.S. involving the purchase of real estate with allegedly laundered money, accusations that centered around the Magnitsky Act.

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who countered the Magnitsky Act, was an attorney for Prevezon and led the Trump Tower meeting along with Akhmetshin.

All participants at the Trump Tower meeting generally agree the confab, in which Veselnitskaya did most of the talking, focused largely on the Magnitsky Act as well as talk about a Russian tax evasion scheme and alleged connections to the Democratic National Committee. Donald Trump Jr. previously explained that he took the meeting thinking it was about “opposition research” on Hillary Clinton and was disappointed that it wasn’t.

The email logs show the emails included “Magnitsky Act” and “Browder” in the subjects. Those were also the subjects of the Trump Tower meeting.

Below are images of the email logs (highlight markers added):





During the testimony, the Senate asked Simpson why one of the emails were privileged, meaning why the actual email wasn’t provided. Simpson’s attorney, Josh Levy, responded thusly for the Fusion GPS co-founder: “This is a judgment that his lawyers made and any knowledge he would have about whether it was attorney work product or not likely would come from communications with counsel, which obviously are privileged.”

Simpson was also asked to explain Lieberman’s involvement in his work, ostensibly the work regarding Browder and the Magnitsky Act.

“Ed Lieberman is a lawyer in Washington who has a specialty in international tax who worked for BakerHostetler on some of the analysis of the alleged tax evasion by Hermitage Capital and William Browder,” Simpson stated.

Simpson related a personal relationship between Lieberman and Trump Tower participant Ahhmetshin. “And then subsequently also he knows Rinat (Akhmetshin) from I guess, I don’t know, college or something and subsequently the two of them were working on the—I don’t know what to call it, the congressional stuff.” Simpson explained he was referring to lobbying Congress.

Simpson’s testimony and the email logs make clear that Lieberman was player in the Prevezon case linked to the Magnitsky Act and involving the Trump Tower meeting’s Russian participants. Yet Simpson claimed that to this best of his knowledge Lieberman was not aware of the Fusion GPS “Trump research”—meaning the dossier—even though the very dossier alleged unsubstantiated collision between the Trump Campaign and Russia and despite the later relevance of the Trump Tower meeting to the Russia probe.

“To the best of your knowledge, was Ed Lieberman aware of your Trump research project?” Simpson was asked.

“Not to the best of my knowledge,” he replied.

Still, Senate testimony by Trump Tower participants reveals numerous meetings between Lieberman and those Russian participants, including a meeting on the very day of the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower confab.

In his testimony, Simpson described having several dinners with Russian lawyer and Trump Tower presenter Natalia Veselnitskaya. Simpson said that he had dinner with Veselnitskaya on June 8, 2016, in New York and two days later in Washington, DC. Simpson also recalled having a dinner with Veselnitskaya in “probably 2015.”

Simpson further testified that he saw Veselnitskaya the same day as the June 9 Trump Tower meeting while attending a court hearing in New York.

Although he says he saw the Russian attorney the day before the Trump Tower meeting, the same day as the meeting and the day after, he claimed that the two did not discuss the Trump Tower get together on any of those occasions.

In her own written response to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veselnitskaya denied meeting Simpson on June 8 or June 10. She also denied informing Simpson of the Trump Tower meeting.

Earlier this week, Breitbart News reported that Anatoli Samochornov, the Russian translator who was present at the Trump Tower meeting, testified that he was present at several dinners between Simpson and Veselnitskaya, including around the date of the Trump Tower meeting. Samochornov also places Lieberman at one and likely two of those dinner meetings.

Samochornov described those present at “the first meeting”—ostensibly referring to an initial meeting in October 2015. From the context of his testimony, he also could have been referring to the “first meeting” in June 2016. He described those present at the “first meeting” as including himself, Simpson, Veselnitskaya, Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Lieberman.

Samochornov described another meeting with Fusion GPS after the Trump Tower confab, which he says took place in Washington, DC, likely on the “12th or the 13th” of June, stressing he could not recall the exact date. Simpson said that the meeting in question took place on June 10.

“I also believe Mr. Lieberman” was present at that meeting, Samochornov testified, referring to the meeting after the Trump Tower episode. This possibly places Lieberman at another meeting between Fusion GPS and Trump Tower participants.

Later in the testimony, Samochornov was asked to clarify whether Lieberman was present at the Washington, DC meeting following the Trump Tower presentation. Samochornov replied, “I think so. Yes.”

Efforts to reach Lieberman for comment were not successful.

Lieberman’s alleged association with the Trump Tower fiasco was previously spotlighted in testimony by Akhmetshin, as first reported by Breitbart News. Akhmetshin describes meeting with Lieberman two times the same day as the Trump Tower meeting.

The New York Times previously reported that Lieberman in 1998 arranged for Akhmetshin’s position at “an organization pushing what he described as a pro-democracy agenda for Kazakhstan.” Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says he met Akhmetshin through Lieberman.

In his Senate testimony, Akhmetshin described taking an Acela train to New York the day of the Trump Tower meeting and says that Lieberman “may” have been with him on the train.

Akhmetshin says his dealings with Lieberman in New York that day were “personal” and centered on a scholarship program that he claims Lieberman started. “And he was in New York that day to discuss arrangements with Metropolitan Museum with kind of taking care of that scholarship award,” Akhmetshin stated.

Akhmetshin says that while he was in New York, he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, who told him about the scheduled meeting that day at Trump Tower, but she didn’t say anything about him attending.

He claims that after he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, she called him and asked him to attend the Trump Tower meeting, but she didn’t suggest any role he would play at the meeting or why he should attend.

After the meeting at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin says he went to dinner and a play with Lieberman, and the subject of the meeting that same day did not come up in his conversations with Lieberman at dinner or during the play. Akhmetshin also stated in the testimony that he was not asked to keep the meeting confidential.

In other words, Akhmetshin is claiming that he attended a meeting at the campaign headquarters of Clinton’s presidential challenger with that challenger’s son and other top Trump staffers, and that same night Akhmetshin did not mention the meeting to his friend Lieberman, a reported Clinton associate.

He also said he had drinks that same night with another “friend,” but could not remember who that friend was.

Later in the testimony, when Akhmetshin described disclosing another matter to journalist friends, he was questioned about his claim that he didn’t tell Lieberman that same night about the Trump Jr. meeting, yet he seemingly evidenced a lack of discretion with reporters.

During further questioning in Senate testimony, Akhmetshin admitted to possibly telling Lieberman about the Trump Tower meeting, but says he may have told him on another day and not the same day as the meeting.

Akhmetshin also detailed knowing Hillary Clinton since the late 1990s and last seeing her at Evelyn Lieberman’s 2015 funeral. In the same testimony, Akhmetshin says he “knew” some of the people who worked on Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Samochornov, the translator, also has links to Clinton. Samochornov testified that he was previously an interpreter for Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

Samochornov also said that he held a “public trust” clearance from the U.S. government. The clearance provides a level of screening for individuals who do government work described as sensitive, but whose positions do not require a security clearance. He also said that he translated meetings with Fusion GPS.

Interesting reading on the interconnections of Comey to Clinton to everyone.

https://www.armstrongeconomics...-behind-the-curtain/

There is an interesting piece running around the internet that someone has put together. Other than Lisa H. Barsoomian, the connections are true. Indeed, the characters in the play are all incredibly connected and it certainly appears that there is a deep and dark conspiracy against Trump. But this is not against Trump simply because they do not like him personally. This is about removing an outsider from Washington. These are just the tip of the iceberg.

The New Yorker has revealed part of the conspiracy has been highlighted by a memo which has surfaced from an Obama aid who set up a war room to undermine Trump and his foreign policy. They are managing much of the media. A new report from The New Yorker reveals some details of a “conspiracy memo” that has been circulating behind the curtain for the past year. What seems to be operating is a massive campaign to actually disrupt the Trump Administration and prevent it from actually managing anything. This is far worse than pretend Russian hacking. This is a real covert ops to prevent the opposition from doing anything and this undermines the government – not just Trump. This is very strange and may be one reason in the years ahead we face a civil war.

WSJ's Kim Strassel reports more about Bruce Ohr testimony

https://www.wsj.com/articles/w...ns=prod/accounts-wsj

highlights:

Bruce Ohr told the FBI that Steele had a credibility problem.

He warned the FBI of Steele's passion against Donald Trump and what Steele's motives were.

Ohr told the FBI this before the original FISA warrant against Carter Page on 21 Oct 2016

Ohr told the FBI that his wife was working for Fusion GPS and contributing to the dossier project

So what did Nellie Ohr "contribute" ?

The wife of a high level obama DoJ official contributed to the dossier

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This whole thing has been a set up and a frame of Donald Trump by Hillary Clinton funded fabricated lies

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just a reminder from a previous post: the Perkins Coie lawyer who funded Fusion GPS for the dossier, is also "Counsel to Senator Mark Warner"

The formal Papadopoulos defense sentencing recommendation is out. (from Papadopoulos defense attorneys). He will not withdraw his guilty plea.

https://www.documentcloud.org/...sentencing-memo.html

A few important highlights (from the defense viewpoint):

Be very careful when the FBI wants you to sit for an interview The FBI showed up unexpectedly at Papadopoulos' mother's home in Chicago on 27 Jan 2017.

They asked him to come to their office and answer a "couple questions" about a guy he might know.

The agents lied and told Papadopoulos it was just about Sergei Millian.

Papadopoulos went without a lawyer.

"Papad" voiced concern that he was in discussions about getting a position in the Trump administration and he knew Millian was being talked about in the Steele dossier.

Papad said the last thing he wanted was something like this to cast the administration in a bad light. The agents assured him his cooperation would remain confidential

"Less than 20 minutes into the interview, the agents dropped the Millian inquiry" and turned to Russian influence in the Presidential campaign.

Papad told the agents he had no knowledge of anyone in the campaign colluding w the Russians.

He told the agents the topic caught him off guard.

Papad answered questions about Prof Mifsud, Olga, Carter Page, Sergei Millian, and the "Trump dossier".

The agents asked if he would cooperate and contact people they had discussed. He agreed to cooperate.

Papad told the agents he had no knowledge of meetings between Russian govt officials and people working on the campaign.

He wanted to distance himself from the investigation so as not to jeopardize his chances of getting an administration position.

He told the agents he didn't want to jeopardize his career. (remember this is 27 Jan 2017, the dossier had just come out from Buzzfeed)

Papad lied about when he talked to Mifsud (he said it was before he was part of the campaign). He also lied about the extent of some of his conversations.

The FBI would later interview Mifsud in Feb 2017.

Papad denied ever providing the Mifsud info about Clinton "dirt" to the campaign.

After Papadopoulos was arrested in July 2017, he told the FBI he had told the Greek Foreign Minister that the Russians had dirt on Clinton in late May 2016.

So the CIA may have gotten inputs from Australia and Greece.

Papadopoulos agreed to 3 govt requests for sentencing delays as a "courtesy" to the govt.

By admitting he lied to the FBI, Papadopoulos
will have a federal felony conviction on his record. The defense asked that Papadopoulos be given probation and that the probation end immediately at sentencing.

The defense argued that Papadopoulos has been under supervision of Pretrial Services ever since July 2017.

more detail at the link

One of the monster stories that most Americans have no knowledge of -

how effectively Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS has been in planting false stories all over newspapers, news magazines, media such as CNN and Yahoo News.

An example here. highlights from

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a...ion-smear-1535757026

WSJ Anatomy of a Fusion Smear

13 Mar 2018
Democrats from House Intel Comm (Adam Schiff) issue an interim report. They claim that lawyer Cleta Mitchell was "involved in or has knowledge of" the Kremlin working w the Trump campaign including the NRA.

15 Mar 2018
A McClatchy article by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon

"Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about group’s Russia ties"

"Congressional investigators are examining information that an ex-National Rifle Association board member who had done legal work for the group had concerns about its ties to Russia and its possible involvement in channeling Russian funds into the 2016 elections to help Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the matter say."

"The sources declined to detail the specific nature of the information prompting investigators’ interest in Mitchell, a prominent gun rights champion, election law specialist and veteran conservative operative."

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Cleta Mitchell says none of this is true. She hadn’t done legal work for the NRA in at least a decade, had zero contact with it in 2016, and had spoken to no one about its actions. She says she told this to McClatchy, which published the story anyway.

Mr. Schiff’s team in May sent her a letter demanding testimony and documents

She received similar demands from Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, who wanted Ms. Mitchell to turn over records related to “the transfer of money, or anything of value” between her and several Russians

Ms. Mitchell in May responded that she had no information related to any of those Russians and accused the committee of being duped by “Glenn Simpson & Co.,” she heard nothing more.

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how did this get started ?

From newly released Bruce Ohr notes:

In handwritten notes dated Dec. 10, 2016 , Ohr writes about a discussion w Glenn Simpson

“A Russian senator (& mobster) . . . may have been involved in funneling Russian money to the NRA to use in the campaign. An NRA lawyer named Cleta Mitchell found out about the money pipeline and was very upset, but the election was over.”

A spokesman for Adam Schiff says the “Minority did not speak with Mr. Simpson or Fusion GPS about this,” though he declined to disclose who named Ms. Mitchell

Did you ever read something over and over and never really comprehend it ?


That just happened to me. I’ve seen a diagram at Conservative Treehouse dozens of times. It shows that in 2010, Nellie Ohr worked for the CIA.

But the problem was it showed an attendance list at a 2010 conference where Nellie Ohr is identified as “Researcher, Open Source Works”

A post at themarketswork cited that attendance list, and said “ Nellie Ohr’s biography lists her as working for Open Source Works, which is part of the CIA.”

Also attending the 2010 conference were Bruce Ohr and Glenn Simpson.


From

https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2011/12/cia_osw/

“Open Source Works, which is the CIA’s in-house open source analysis component, is devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open source information. Oddly, however, the directive that established Open Source Works is classified, as is the charter of the organization. In fact, CIA says the very existence of any such records is a classified fact.”

“Thus, according to a November 2010 CIA report, Open Source Works “was charged by the [CIA] Director for Intelligence with drawing on language-trained analysts to mine open-source information for new or alternative insights on intelligence issues. Open Source Works’ products, based only on open source information, do not represent the coordinated views of the Central Intelligence Agency.””

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A wiki page identifies Open Source Works as part of the National Open Source Enterprise.

and

"As of December 2016 , Open Source Enterprise operates a facility at Caversham Park alongside the UK's equivalent open-source intelligence service, BBC Monitoring. In an information-sharing collaboration at Caversham, BBC Monitoring handles media from 25% of the world while Open Source handles the remaining 75%."

So the U.S. Open Source intel is tightly coupled w the U.K. open source intel

What does Fusion GPS do?

Glenn Simpson: “So, generally speaking, we just do an open-ended look at everything we can find”

It is not clear how long Nellie Ohr worked for Open Source Works. But she sure had a good resume to work for Fusion GPS.