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retrofade

Oh hey, look at that... the FBI had an investigation open on Page long before the Steele dossier was sent

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President Donald Trump and his allies have long insisted that what he calls the “fake dirty dossier” was wholly “responsible for starting the totally and discredited witch hunt” by special counsel Robert Mueller.

But, beginning in July 2016, that so-called “dossier” actually sat for several weeks inside an organized crime unit at the FBI’s New York field office, even as counterintelligence agents in Washington, D.C. – unaware of the new allegations – were already investigating Russian efforts to hijack American democracy.

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...the FBI already had an open counterintelligence case on Page when he became a volunteer on Trump’s foreign policy team in January 2016, according to sources familiar with the matter.

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...Carter Page showed up in Moscow. He was giving the commencement address at the New Economic School, tied to some of the Kremlin’s top officials, and the event was being broadcast live online.

“I am particularly grateful for my relationship with the faculty and staff at the New Economic School,” he said at the start of his remarks, insisting he was there “as a private citizen.”

The date was July 7, 2016. Page’s name wouldn’t first appear in the “dossier” for another two weeks.

The “dossier,” in fact, was not one single document but a series of 17 separate reports, compiled over six months by former British spy Christopher Steele.

Steele was working for someone he knew well in Washington, Glenn Simpson, whose firm, Fusion GPS, was hired by the DNC to conduct opposition research on Trump.

By mid-July 2016, Steele wanted to flag his findings to the U.S. government. He reached out to two old friends: Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS and who, like him, closely tracked organized crime, and Jonathan Winer, an aide to then-Secretary of State John Kerry who has since spoken publicly about his contact with Steele.

It’s unclear if Ohr relayed Steele’s reporting to anyone at the time – no public evidence suggests Ohr passed it on then. But the State Department’s response to Steele was blunt: If you’re so concerned, take it to the FBI.

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A few years earlier, Steele helped an FBI agent in Rome piece together a massive web of corruption within international soccer. The case against FIFA made international headlines.

Trying to take advantage of that relationship in July 2016, Steele sent the FBI agent in Rome the opposition research on Trump he generated working for Fusion GPS.

The Rome-based agent then forwarded the reports to an agent he worked with in the FBI’s New York field office – an agent with expertise in criminal organizations and organized crime, not counterintelligence, sources told ABC News.

That was “the wrong person” to send the reports to, according to one source briefed on the Russia probe.

Steele’s research sat for weeks in the FBI’s New York field office, hundreds of miles away from the agents in Washington scrutinizing ties between Trump’s associates and the Russian government, sources said.

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“Steele's reporting did not reach the counterintelligence team investigating Russia at FBI headquarters until mid-September 2016, more than seven weeks after the FBI opened its investigation, because the probe's existence was so closely held within the FBI,” the memo by House Democrats said.

“By then, the FBI had already opened sub-inquiries into [multiple] individuals linked to the Trump campaign,” including Carter Page,” the memo noted.

In particular, the FBI was also already taking a close look at Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

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In mid-September 2016, Peter Strzok, the now former FBI agent who was helping to lead the Russia probe, received an “initial batch” of Steele’s reports.

“The first time I am aware of the FBI having that information – the first time I saw it – was in mid-September,” he recently told lawmakers under oath.

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It’s unclear if at that time the FBI was already drafting the application it would file with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to secretly monitor Page’s communications. Two sources, however, said it takes “weeks” to put an application like that together.

On Oct. 21, 2016, the FBI and Justice Department formally filed their application with the court. It was more than 50 pages long.

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Around the same time, the FBI submitted another application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, asking a federal judge for permission to continue monitoring Carter Page’s communications. The application noted that the FBI had suspended its relationship with Steele, but said his information was still deemed “reliable as previous reporting from [him] has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings.”

The FBI’s latest submission was 66 pages long – nearly 16 pages longer than the initial application.

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In June 2017, a month after Mueller’s appointment, the FBI filed yet another application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to continue tracking Carter Page. The application was 77 pages long.

A fourth – and final – application was filed three months later.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-dossier-stuck-york-trigger-russia-investigation-sources/story?id=57919471

 

So let's sum up here. An investigation was opened into Carter Page in January, 2016, shortly after Page joined the Trump campaign. In July, 2016, after the FBI had opened up their investigation into potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, Steele went to the Bruce Ohr and the State Department. Ohr didn't pass the information on, and State Department told him to take it to the FBI. So he reached out to a Rome-based FBI agent with whom he worked on the FIFA corruption scandal, who then sent it to the FBI's NY Field Office, who sat on it until mid-September, 2016. It wasn't until then that the information was eventually passed on to to the team that was working on the Trump Campaign/Russia investigation. Then, over a month later, the first FISA Application for Carter Page was applied for.

Also of note is the fact that by mid-September when the Steele dossier was given to the NY Field Office, the FBI team was also investigating multiple individuals linked to the Trump Campaign, including Paul Manafort. 

Now, I want to go back to the FBI's NY Field Office. What else did they sit on for weeks? Oh, right... the Weiner laptop.[1] Was it merely a coincidence that the FBI Field Office that has been nicknamed "Trumplandia" sat on two key pieces of evidence for weeks, One of which likely ended up having a direct impact on the election? It absolutely could only be that, but it does raise some serious questions. That is also the FBI Field Office whose agents that future almost Trump attorney Joe diGenova offered to represent in court pro bono if they released damaging information about Clinton.[2] It is also the same FBI Field Office that Rudy Giuliani had claimed on Fox News to have received information from who told him that there would be an "October surprise" for Clinton a mere 72 hours before it came out that Comey had re-opened the investigation.[3]

Days after diGenova offered to represent FBI agents, he gave an interview where he stated that he knew FBI Field Office agents had gone to Comey with the evidence that they had sat on for weeks, which then forced his hand in re-opening the investigation less than two weeks before the election, or they would leak it.[4] As it turns out, that information was leaked to the NY Times anyway, so Comey made the unprecedented announcement that it was released on October 28th, 2016, and the times ran with their report the very next day.[5] Why was Comey worried about a leak, well now we really get into it. The fake news website, True Pundit, ran with a fake story about Andrew McCabe was corrupt because of the $700k his wife's campaign had received --- which became a Trump talking point from then on --- and had lobbied against charging Clinton.[6] According to a FOIA request from Judicial Watch, McCabe warned Comey of a "heavyweight source"  they believed to be an active FBI agent unconnected to the Trump/Russia investigation.[7] Also in Giuliani's interview with Fox News, he bragged that he knew agents in the NYPD sex crimes unit that had been involved in the Weiner case and gave the laptop to the FBI, who threatened to go public or be accused of a coverup. 

So we have the NY Field Office sitting on evidence, diGenova claiming there would be leaks from FBI Agents from the NY Field Office, and Giuliani predicting an "October surprise" for Clinton. The FBI concluded that the information that had been leaked had come from a "heavyweight source" within the FBI, likely an active agent. What Field Office was said to be leaking information, right... the NY Field Office. 

Not only do we have proof that Carter Page was under investigation for 10 months prior to the FISA Application, we also have publicly sourced information that seems to point a pretty strong finger at "Trumplandia" sitting on evidence, threatening Comey, and leaking information to the press... all in an attempt to prevent Clinton from winning the election. I won't go into it in this post, but there's also a lot of information out there that there is a connection between all of this and the eventual release of the "Pizzagate" fake news conspiracy that multiple fake news websites, and eventually even Breitbart ran with via an Erik Prince interview, but had been spreading on Twitter, 4chan, and reddit for weeks leading up to the election, and within the same timeframe that Giuliani was talking about his "October surprise", and his NYPD contacts, and when diGenova was offering to represent FBI Agents. It would be re-tweeted by Trump himself, Flynn, Flynn Jr., Trump Jr., and many others within the Trump campaign orbit. You can read through it all in in the annotated link to the Rolling Stone investigation.[8]

Was there a "DEEP STATE" conspiracy within the FBI and DOJ to begin the so-called "witch hunt"? It sure doesn't look like it. Was the Trump Campaign/Russia investigation started because of the Steele dossier? No. Was there fishy stuff going on with the FBI's NY Field Office, Rudy Giuliani, and Joe diGenova? Possibly. Did the NY Field Office sit on evidence? It certainly looks that way. Will Trump and his allies continue to push this "witch hunt" false narrative despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary? Without a doubt. This ABC News article just further proves just how deep off the rails those conspiracies are. 

  1. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/fbi-ignored-anthony-weiners-laptop-and-it-may-have-cost-hillary-clinton-the-election.html
  2. https://www.lifezette.com/2016/10/former-u-s-attorney-fbi-director-comey-dirty-cop/
  3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/04/20/rudy-giulianis-pre-election-comments-on-fox-news-prompted-an-fbi-leak-investigation/?utm_term=.a975790aa88e
  4. http://www.wmal.com/2016/10/28/joe-digenova-on-the-fbi-reopening-the-investigation-into-hillary-clinton/
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/us/politics/comey-clinton-email-justice.html
  6. https://truepundit.com/fbi-director-lobbied-against-criminal-charges-for-hillary-after-clinton-insider-paid-his-wife-700k/
  7. http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/JW-v-DOJ-McCabe-2-production-01494.pdf
  8. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-125877/
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this is a bunch of jibber jabber.  Your conflating the Wiener laptop, Hillary's email investigation, Rudy Giuliani and Carter Page.  I don't think anyone has said this was one big conspiracy.  Comey should have been fired right away, but Trump  gave Comey a chance but he basically proved he did not belong leading the FBI.  The fact that guys like Comey, McCabe, Strzok and this Lisa Page had such high level positions in the FBI is probably the most disturbing part of this whole thing.  

The whole Carter Page thing has been debunked, he's about as much a spy as my Grandma.  The simple fact is they used this false, paid for Steele dossier as their primary document, they intentionally leaked out elements of that dossier and then used news articles from those leaks as supporting documents.  Strzok and Page both basically testified that there wasn't enough evidence to actually launch an investigation when the Mueller probe started.  

And, this Mueller probe has had nothing to do with anything involving Russia collusion.  The FBI should have probably gone after Manafort years ago, Trump's lawyer Cohen problems are felony charges of bank fraud and tax evasion.  The fact that he paid off Stormy Daniels is mostly just an embarrassment to Trump, and of course Trump's encounter with her was in 2006, none of that really has anything to do with the gov't or Russia or my taxes.  

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3 minutes ago, thelawlorfaithful said:

Lol is this what Q anon is like in reverse?

QAnon is based off of random anonymous nonsense posts from 4chan and 8chan. What I posted is publicly sourced information from a number of different outlets, which paints a picture of the exact opposite of what Trumpers are claiming. Hell, some of it is even from the Daily Caller. 

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12 minutes ago, pokerider said:

this is a bunch of jibber jabber.  Your conflating the Wiener laptop, Hillary's email investigation, Rudy Giuliani and Carter Page.  I don't think anyone has said this was one big conspiracy.  Comey should have been fired right away, but Trump  gave Comey a chance but he basically proved he did not belong leading the FBI.  The fact that guys like Comey, McCabe, Strzok and this Lisa Page had such high level positions in the FBI is probably the most disturbing part of this whole thing.  

The Weiner laptop was the very basis by which the Hillary email investigation was reopened, as such it is perfectly germane to everything that I posted. The fact that the NY FBI Field Office sat on both the laptop as well as the Steele dossier seems suspicious... but could very well be nothing but coincidence. On what basis should Comey have been fired "right away" in your mind? What does "right away" even entail? Do you mean that Trump should have just appointed his own FBI director instead of keeping Comey on? At that point, none of this stuff had even come out, and the main mark that would "tarnish" him was something that could very well have helped Trump win the election.

The fears of leaks from the NY Field Office were confirmed in the IG Report as well.

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So Comey reopened the investigation based on what was perceived to be threats from the NY Field office to leak it if he didn't. So even then, Comey didn't really have a choice but to do so. But I suppose you could make a case for not keeping him on after that. 

 

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The whole Carter Page thing has been debunked, he's about as much a spy as my Grandma.  The simple fact is they used this false, paid for Steele dossier as their primary document, they intentionally leaked out elements of that dossier and then used news articles from those leaks as supporting documents.  Strzok and Page both basically testified that there wasn't enough evidence to actually launch an investigation when the Mueller probe started.  

Please show me where anything related to Carter Page has been "debunked," because I haven't seen that. The simply fact is that the Steele dossier has been proven accurate in a number of instances, including some of the pieces that were used as part of the FISA application. It is a complete falsehood to claim that the FBI leaked anything in order to use the subsequent news articles as source material. 

Strzok said that there was no "proof" of anything when Mueller was brought on board, but they didn't claim that there wasn't enough evidence to launch an investigation... remember, as the ABC News article states, the investigation was launched in July, 2016... which was well before the Carter Page FISA application, and he along with others were being investigated by September, 2016.

 

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And, this Mueller probe has had nothing to do with anything involving Russia collusion.  The FBI should have probably gone after Manafort years ago, Trump's lawyer Cohen problems are felony charges of bank fraud and tax evasion.  The fact that he paid off Stormy Daniels is mostly just an embarrassment to Trump, and of course Trump's encounter with her was in 2006, none of that really has anything to do with the gov't or Russia or my taxes.  

How does the Mueller probe have "nothing to do with anything involving Russia collusion" in your mind? The initial investigation was started on the very basis of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller was brought onboard to continue the work of that investigation after Trump fired Comey because of the investigation. Cohen was investigated and charged by the Southern District of New York, not by Mueller, so everything related to what he was charged with is a red herring. So you're right, it has nothing to do with Trump or Russia, but nobody ever claimed that it was. 

 

 

 

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18 minutes ago, modestobulldog said:

Keep it up retro, the primary purpose of the mwcboard including this forum is entertainment, and you are one of the top contributors. 

I do what I can to at least start threads that bring about discussion. People can call me crazy or whatever else, but at least it tends to help stimulate some interesting conversations. 

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13 minutes ago, toonkee said:

I appreciate the time and work, Retro, but no one will have the proof they need until the entire FISA application(s) are declassified, un-redacted and released.

The main issue with un-redacting the entire thing would be if it endangered sources or methods, which seems to be the main issue that the FBI and DOJ have. If they can redact that stuff, and leave all of the rest in, then I completely agree.

The main purpose of this thread was only tangentially related to the memo itself. It was to show that the investigation was already well underway before the team that was assigned to the investigation ever even saw the Steele Dossier. Then I thought it fairly relevant to discuss the goings on with the NY Field Office, because they seem to continually pop up right in the middle of all of this, and were well known to be anti-Hillary and pro-Trump. It has come out that they apparently sat on two separate pieces of potential evidence. By sitting on one for as long as they did, they forced the reopening of the Hillary email investigation. By sitting on the other, they withheld potentially damaging information to Trump to the point where no action could be taken on it until after the election. Again, it could certainly only be mere coincidence, but they just keep popping up... and the Giuliani/diGenova stuff still reeks to high heaven. 

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22 minutes ago, retrofade said:

The main issue with un-redacting the entire thing would be if it endangered sources or methods, which seems to be the main issue that the FBI and DOJ have. If they can redact that stuff, and leave all of the rest in, then I completely agree.

At this point, the concerns of abuse of power supersede any concerns of sources or methods. Let the unredacting begin.

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19 minutes ago, modestobulldog said:

At this point, the concerns of abuse of power supersede any concerns of sources or methods. Let the unredacting begin.

What if those sources would be placed directly in harm if their names were to be disclosed?

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47 minutes ago, retrofade said:

The Weiner laptop was the very basis by which the Hillary email investigation was reopened, as such it is perfectly germane to everything that I posted. The fact that the NY FBI Field Office sat on both the laptop as well as the Steele dossier seems suspicious... but could very well be nothing but coincidence. On what basis should Comey have been fired "right away" in your mind? What does "right away" even entail? Do you mean that Trump should have just appointed his own FBI director instead of keeping Comey on? At that point, none of this stuff had even come out, and the main mark that would "tarnish" him was something that could very well have helped Trump win the election.

The New York Office did not sit on the laptop. Strzok and Midyear team ignored it.

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It was the New York Office, specifically the poor guy Strzok was aiming to pin it all on, who got the ball rolling again once he realized what was up.

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The fears of leaks from the NY Field Office were confirmed in the IG Report as well.

HB7nfF9.png

So Comey reopened the investigation based on what was perceived to be threats from the NY Field office to leak it if he didn't. So even then, Comey didn't really have a choice but to do so. But I suppose you could make a case for not keeping him on after that. 

Not why Comey did it.

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We’re all sitting in the dugout. Thinking we should pitch. How you gonna throw a shutout when all you do is bitch.

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4 minutes ago, retrofade said:

The IG Report Disagrees with that assessment. 

 

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Negative ghost rider. The IG, which was operating on a bar so low as to allow almost any behavior to be beyond suspicion, found these excuses to be ass-covering bullshit.

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We’re all sitting in the dugout. Thinking we should pitch. How you gonna throw a shutout when all you do is bitch.

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