As we now shift from the “witch hunt” against Trump to ‘investigating the investigators’ who spied on him – remember this; Donald Trump was supposed to lose the 2016 election by almost all accounts. And had Hillary won, as expected, none of this would have seen the light of day.
We wouldn’t know that a hyper-partisan FBI had spied on the Trump campaign, as Attorney General William Barr put it during his April 10 Congressional testimony.
We wouldn’t know that a Clinton-linked operative, Joseph Mifsud, seeded Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos with the rumor that Russia had ‘Dirt’ on Hillary Clinton – which would later be coaxed out of Papadopoulos by a Clinton-linked Australian ambassador, Alexander Downer, and that this apparent ‘setup’ would be the genesis of the FBI’s “operation crossfire hurricane” operation against the Trump campaign.
We wouldn’t know about the role of Fusion GPS – the opposition research firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to commission the Steele dossier. Fusion is also linked to the infamous Trump Tower meeting, and hired Nellie Ohr – the CIA-linked wife of the DOJ’s then-#4 employee, Bruce Ohr. Nellie fed her husband Bruce intelligence she had gathered against Trump while working for Fusion, according to transcripts of her closed-door Congressional testimony.
And if not for reporting by the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross and others, we wouldn’t know that the FBI sent a longtime spook, Stefan Halper, to infiltrate and spy on the Trump campaign – after the Obama DOJ paid him over $400,000 right before the 2016 US election (out of more than $1 million he received while Obama was president).
According to the New York Times, the tables are turning, starting with the Steele Dossier.
Now the dossier — financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and compiled by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele — is likely to face new, possibly harsh scrutiny from multiple inquiries. –NYT
While Congressional Republicans have vowed to investigate, the DOJ’s Inspector General is considering whether the FBI improperly relied on the dossier when they used it to apply for a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The IG also wants to know about Steele’s sources and whether the FBI disclosed any doubts as to the veracity of the dossier.
Attorney General Barr, meanwhile, said he will review the FBI’s conduct in the Russia investigation after saying the agency spied on the Trump campaign.
Doubts over the dossier
The FBI’s scramble to vet the dossier’s claims are well known. According to an April, 2017 NYT report, the FBI agreed to pay Steele $50,000 for “solid corroboration” of his claims. Steele was apparently unable to produce satisfactory evidence – and was ultimately not paid for his efforts:
Mr. Steele met his F.B.I. contact in Rome in early October, bringing a stack of new intelligence reports. One, dated Sept. 14, said that Mr. Putin was facing “fallout” over his apparent involvement in the D.N.C. hack and was receiving “conflicting advice” on what to do.
The agent said that if Mr. Steele could get solid corroboration of his reports, the F.B.I. would pay him $50,000for his efforts, according to two people familiar with the offer. Ultimately, he was not paid. –NYT
Still, the FBI used the dossier to obtain the FISA warrant on Page – while the document itself was heavily shopped around to various media outlets. The late Sen. John McCain provided a copy to Former FBI Director James Comey, who already had a version, and briefed President Trump on the salacious document. Comey’s briefing to Trump was then used by CNN and BuzzFeed to justify reporting on and publishing the dossier following the election.
Let’s not forget that in October, 2016, both Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta promoted the conspiracy theory that a secret Russian server was communicating with Trump Tower.
As part of acts of good faith, wouldn’t it be nice if the WaPo, NYTimes, Buzzfeed, Mother Jones and CNN offered up whoever it was (plural) who was in “deep state” and illegally “leaked” misinformation to them?
Seems only right they should do this.
Afterall, they was used by these creeps.
Boy, once again the maxim of to know what the Democrats are doing just see what they are accusing the opposition of…
If anyone would know about secret servers, it would be Hillary. So, tell us… what OF that secret server?
Is that how the Russians help the person they want to be in the White House?
Oh, they all have an excuse for why they had false information. However, they have NO excuse for not making any effort to VERIFY the information before they used it to try and undercut a Presidential candidate and then a legal sitting President.
And SOME people (you know who you are) believe that because the dossier mentions a place called “Russia” and there actually IS a place called Russia, then “parts of the dossier is verified”. It was all shit and the parts that the CIA and FBI DIDN’T already know was shit they were afraid to ask a single question about for fear of finding out it was shit. That is the work of the deep state.
@Deplorable Me:
good points.
I recall the standards the OLD WaPo had in Watergate days:
EVERYTHING had to have TWO or more verifiable sources.
And so-called “facts” had to be run down and verified by the reporters themselves.
If those standards had still been held to, we would never even have heard of a “Russian dossier.”
And the slime job in that dossier would have remained in darkness.
@Nan G: Back then, the story was the goal. Now, promoting their ideology is the goal. That was before the media turned into Democrat propaganda.
The media itself needs to be investigated and charges brought for bribery of federal agents as revealed in an AG investigation.
Freedom of the press does not cover them for these crimes.
@kitt: The market should take care of the the media’s lying, but the media will be in full defense mode trying to keep its blatant and widespread lying from being known to its followers. The best we can hope for is that slowly, a few liberals will finally realize how they are being lied to and whipped into a frenzy in order to benefit the liberals in Washington. Maybe they will finally find insult in that and turn away from MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. When enough have sought honest reporting, these outlets will be forced (once Soros’ support is exhausted) to revert to honest (or more honest) reportage.
Maybe.
@Deplorable Me: Soros isnt using his own money, he is a master at getting grants from the US Government, through multiple if not hundreds front groups
Only in the Twilight Zone.
(By the way, unless you’re paying homage to Oestara, “Easter worshipers” are Christian, by definition. Dollars to donuts, this will turn out to be the work of an ISIS affiliate.)
@Greg:
So are the Tamil Tigers an “affiliate” of ISIS?
Why do you radical left wingers find it so difficult to state the truth; that these Christians were slaughtered by Muslims?
@retire05: The body count has gone up 290 http://www.stphiliptheapostleparish.org/controlled-explosion-near-st-anthonys-church-as-sri-lanka-remains-on-high-alert/
This is not radical Islam its normal Islam.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980202000942
@kitt:
I’ve had a lot of Muslim students over the years, and I’ve known their Muslim parents. I’ve never heard of a single one being involved in any kind of violence, intrigue, or, in fact, any other problems at all.
@Michael:
Do you really think they would tell you if they were?
I can’t believe that you are allowed any where near a class room. Apparently Loonafornia has very low standards.
@retire05:
The Tamil Tigers have serious issues not with the Christian minority, but with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. I’m not sure what would motivate them to carry out a coordinated attack against Christian churches.
@retire05:
It would have appeared in the news, Professor.
@Greg:
So, why not just call them Christians? Are they afraid to offend the murderers?
That was the ISIS that Obama nurtured and grew. This is more of HIS legacy.
@Deplorable Me:
Likely because that phrase gives more information than just saying “Christians.”
@Michael: No, they just let it happen without condemning it. What is the difference if one fails to condemn evil actions and actually performing that actions? Failing to condemn is the same as supporting evil action. Ask the parents of your students why those killing “Easter Worshipers” did what they did.
@Michael: Do you consider sending funds to the Moslem Brotherhood and CAIR not supporting violence?
@Michael:
Wait… what? If ONLY Christians celebrate Easter, how does calling them “Easter worshipers” offer more information? No, LIKELY because liberals do not want to acknowledge that Muslims make it a point to kill Christians. It’s called “propaganda”.