The Bonnie and Clyde of US politics - by Publius Tacitus

Appears that Clinton Campaign Colluded with Ukraine and McCain in Bid to Destroy Donald Trump.

When the story of foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election is finally told it will have little to do with Russia and a lot to do with how Democrats, some Republicans and critical parts of the intelligence and law enforcement community colluded in an effort to discredit Donald Trump and undermine his ability to function as President. What puzzles me is why the media is acting surprised with the latest news confirming that Hillary Clinton's campaign financed the infamous Trump Dossier. Thank you Captain Obvious. Who else would have commissioned such an effort once the Republican primary battle was settled?

Reporters from the Washington Post,  while not breaking new ground, provided clear documentary evidence to confirm the suspicion:

Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C., firm, to conduct the research. Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community.

Elias and his law firm, Seattle-based Perkins Coie, retained the firm in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’ research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’ research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.

Fusion GPS gave Steele’s reports and other research documents to Elias, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear how or how much of that information was shared with the campaign and DNC, and who in those organizations was aware of the roles of Fusion GPS and Steele.

Let me remind you of the basic facts about the Dossier--It consists of 13 separate reports. The first is dated 20 June 2016. That date is important because it shows that it took a little more than two months for Fusion GPS to generate its first report on Trump's alleged Russian activities. If Fusion GPS already had something in the can then I would expect them to have put something out in early May. Eleven more reports were generated between 26 July and 19 October 2016. That tracks with the letter from Perkins Coie that the engagement by the Clinton Campaign ended at the end of October.

But there is a big problem and unanswered question--The Dossier includes a final report that is dated 13 December 2016. Who paid for this? Was it John McCain?

McCain??!! Why do I bring him up. Do you recall the case of Aleksei Gubarev?

I wrote previously about Aleksej Gubarev, a Cypriot based chief executive of the network solutions firm XBT Holdings, who filed suit against Christopher Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, for defamation over their role in the publication of the Trump Dossier (which first  appeared in Buzzfeed).

Aleksej Gubarev, claims he and his companies were falsely linked in the dossier to the Russia-backed computer hacking of Democratic Party figures. Gubarev, 36, also is seeking unspecified damages from Buzzfeed and its top editor, Ben Smith, in a parallel lawsuit filed in Miami. 

 

Lawyers for Christopher Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence in the United Kingdom filed a response with the British court. Rowan Scarborough obtained a copy of the document and posted it on-line in April. The defense document is both illuminating and damning (I don't know how I missed this when it came out in April). This is a sworn legal document and it presents the following facts:

 

1. Orbis Business Intelligence was engaged by Fusion GPS sometime in early June 2016 to prepare a series of confidential memorandum based on intelligence concerning Russian efforts to influence the U.S. Presidential election process and links between Russia and Donald Trump (the first memo was dated 20 June 2016).

 

2. Fusion GPS is run by three former Wall Street Journal reporters: Glenn Simpson; Tom Catan; and Peter Fritsch. (According to the New York Times, Fusion GPS was originally hired by a Republican donor – who has not been publicly identified – to dig up dirt on Trump in 2015. After Trump won the nomination, the firm began working with Democrats and honed in on Trump's links to Russia.)

 

3. Senator John McCain, accompanied by David Kramer (a Senior Director at Senator McCain's Institute for International Leadership), met in London with an Associate of Orbis, former British Ambassador Sir Andrew Wood, to arrange a subsequent meeting with Christopher Steele in order to read the now infamous Steele Dossier. 

 

4. David Kramer and Christopher Steele met in Surrey on 28 November 2016, where Kramer was briefed on the contents of the memos.

 

5. Once Senator McCain and David Kramer returned to the United States, arrangements were made for Fusion GPS to provide Senator McCain hard copies of the memoranda.

 

6. After Donald Trump was elected, Christopher Steele prepared an additional memorandum (dated 13 December 2016) that made the following claims:

• Michael Cohen held a secret meeting in Prague, Czechoslovakia in August 2016 with Kremlin operatives.
• Cohen, allegedly accompanied by 3 colleagues (Not Further Identified), met with Oleg SOLODUKHIM to discuss on how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign and various contingencies for covering up these operations and Moscow's secret liaison with the Trump team more generally.
• In Prague, Cohen agreed (sic) contingency plans for various scenarios to protect the operation, but in particular what was to be done in the event that Hillary Clinton won the Presidency.
• Sergei Ivanov's associate claimed that payments to hackers had been made by both Trump's team and the Kremlin.

[Note--Michael Cohen denies he was ever in Prague.]

7. Christopher Steele passed a copy of the December memo to a senior UK Government national security official and to Fusion GPS (via encrypted email) with the instruction to give a hard copy to Senator McCain via David Kramer.

Here is the key takeaway. After the Clinton Campaign and the DNC ended their relationship with Fusion GPS, why did John McCain and his staffer enter the picture and start receiving derogatory information about Donald Trump? Was there any communication or coordination between John McCain and Hillary Clinton's people regarding the findings of Fusion GPS? Or was this a unilateral move by McCain?

The Washington Post reporters claim that, "After the election, the FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue gathering intelligence, but the bureau pulled out of the arrangement after Steele was publicly identified." Who told the FBI about the Fusion GPS effort and the Steele reports? Was it McCain? Was it the Clinton campaign? Was it someone connected with the CIA or the NSA? There are some significant unanswered questions.

This takes on greater importance once you comprehend how entangled Hillary Clinton was with foreign governments. The story about Hillary Clinton's role in helping approve the sale of U.S. uranium to a Russian company involves a lot of money flowing into Clinton coffers:

As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.

And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.

 The story does not stop there. There also is Ukraine. This story was first reported by Politico:

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia.

 Smearing Russia with disinformation appears to be at the heart of the story that alleges Putin ordered and directed the hacking of the DNC emails. It is no coincidence that the firm and person behind that story, CrowdStrike and Dmitri Alperovich respectively, don't like Putin and Russia. 

. . .the only evidence that a break-in even occurred comes from a private cyber-security firm, CrowdStrike Inc. of Irvine, California, that the DNC hired to look into the breach.

Since when do the cops rely on a private eye to look into a murder rather than performing an investigation of their own? CrowdStrike, moreover, turns out to be highly suspect. Not only is Dmitri Alperovich, its chief technical officer, a Russian émigré with a pronounced anti-Putin tilt, but he is also an associate of a virulently anti-Russian outfit known as the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank funded by the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukrainian World Congress, the U.S. State Department and a variety of other individuals and groups that have an interest in isolating or discrediting Russia.

The Atlantic Council puts out a stream of anti-Kremlin articles and reports with scary headlines like “Distract Deceive Destroy: Putin at War in Syria” and “Six Immediate Steps to Stop Putin’s Aggression.”

Since the Atlantic Council is also a long-time supporter of Hillary Clinton, this means that the Clinton campaign relied on a friendly anti-Putin cyber-sleuth to tell it what everyone involved wanted to hear, i.e. that the Kremlin was at the bottom of it all. If this strikes you as fishy, it should.

The peeling of the onion only has begun. Still to be exposed in greater detail are the activities of the CIA, under John Brennan, and the NSA, under Mike Rogers, in searching for and disseminating information that would damage Trump and prevent him from taking office. I am told by knowledgeable friends that there is plenty of fire behind this smoke.

While the mainstream media is trying desperately to ignore this story, the weight of evidence of foreign meddling aided and abetted by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats is growing. The effort to smear Trump is losing steam, which may be a partial explanation for the hysteria demonstrated by Senators Corker and Flake yesterday. They are throwing wild verbal punches with a clear air of desperation and fear. The truth is that as this investigation of Fusion GPS unfolds that mainstream establishment Republicans, like McCain, will have political blood on their hands. Not likely to be a pretty picture in Washington, D.C.

Comments

[ToivoS]

Bingo. The fact that the WaPo published the evidence that the Hillary campaign funded Steele to get the dossier tells me that the WaPo at least is finally ready to bury Hillary. Also of note is that the NY Times repeated the allegation a day later. There are some powerful forces working to neuter Hillary if she has any more ambitions to gain the presidency. Given her behavior on her latest book selling tour, I think she does have such ambitions.

[TV]

Quoting the WaPo as a credible source - for anything, besides a sports score?
LMAO

[Huckleberry]

It has always seemed to me that someone must have something on him, but what?

He should have been jailed for the Keating Scandal.

Thankfully he'll soon be under the ground in Arlington or wherever.

[Peter AU]

DH "Many of the most interesting sources of information produce some invaluable material, and some which is highly questionable: Helmer being a case in point."

I would agree with this. In some of his pieces I have read, he has come up with solid facts that I had not run onto elsewhere. However it becomes very tiring have to check every link, every assertion in a piece to see what is fact and what is fiction, and there are many of these type writers about.
If something is of interest to me, I will spend the time to wade through Helmer type articles and try and sort fact from fiction.

The piece DavidKNZ linked to, linking to NYT and Guardian for references to something Putin has said rather than linking directly to transcripts, to back up his assertions throws cold water on any of Helmers other assertions that are not backed up by linked facts.

Tidewater, I also read the Hemlmer piece on the Victorian corona when it came out. There again, some solid linked facts I had not run onto before, mixed liberally with fiction and fantasy.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Vance publicly stated that he resigned because military means were used to try to resolve a problem for which diplomacy was the solution.

[ToivoS]

I have to say that your comments are very reasonable when it comes to Helmer's credibility. I have read his stuff for a few years now. He has come up with some really interesting insights that, over time, have turned out to be spot on. Then he has written articles that made little sense at the time and made even less sense later on.

Overall my major complaint with him is that he not a very good writer. If someone wants to make a point it should be made in simple to understand sentences organized into coherent paragraphs. Often Helmer fails miserably in this regard. I think Habakkuk is right about Helmer having some direct access to Russian intelligence -- sometimes they give him solid information and then other times they give him deliberate disinformation.

[A.I.Schmelzer]

My own, rather jaded, view on the whole showergate thing is this:

You see, the Kremlin absolutly hates wasting time on idiots. As such, if you want to reach actual decision makers within the Kremlin, you have to navigate a pretty dense maze of professional bullshitters and suit bearing scam artists who will all gleefully misrepresent how much, if any, influence they have.

In return for acting as "door openers" these people will typically demand something in return etc.

So, this Steele guy send some intern or whatever to moscow to dig up stuff on Trump. After waving around some cash, some very helpfull scam artists immidiatly offer to sell Russia most closely guarded secrets.
To "investigate", these scam artists probably used a nose based mechanism to ingest white powderous substances, imbibed conspicious amounts of Vodka, and simultaneously bingewatched Southpark and House of Cards.
It is after all, well known that Toweli is a Russian mode of communication with sleeper agents hiding in plain sight....

Thinking of having done absolutely no wrong, and not honestly believing that those dumb foreigners were far to stupid to be MI6 agents or whatever, the scam artists then went on their merry way trying to scam each other.

A bit later they were probably quite shocked to discover that multiple major media outlets actually believed the whole thing, and that the "idiot they sold a bunch of bullshit for some serious money" was actually MI6 affiliated.

I would assume that trousers turned brown and hectic prostrations before some (very inwardly) chuckling FSB/SVR agents followed.

To be honest some telephone conversation like:
Scam artist:"Hej Grisha, there are some idiots with money who want information on Trump, is it ok if I sell them a bunch of dumb bullshit?"
Grisha from FSB:"Yeah sure, but send the bullshit to us first so we can check that nothing is accidentaly true."

Later:
Scam artist:"Hej Grisha, I got the stuff you send back, including the extra bullshit you added on top. May I have some of the stuff that whoever wrote this was smoking? I am kind of worried that this is over the top and may bust the sale?"
Grisha from FSB:"Not smoking, also, you can but then I could kompromatbust you for drug possesion. Sale should be ok, the guys you are selling to get paid better the more bullshitty it is anyway."

Is overall more likely.

[Walrus]

James Clapper is still treating the dossier like gold until proven otherwise (which is an obvious impossibility). He also said it doesn't matter who paid for it.

The 'golden showers" allegation tripped my BS detector at the time. It sounded to me like a clever Russian intelligence ploy. A hilarious falsehood that was dropped on Steele to indicate just how desperate he was to slander Trump. It was just prurient enough to be a bait. Allegations of Trump having underage sex, etc. would have potentially invited comparisons with Bill Clinton's alleged behaviour. The golden showers allegation on the other hand is the sort of thing for which there is no response.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-26/clapper-hillary-funding-trump-dossier-what-difference-does-it-make

[charly]

The deals were from 2009 to 2013. Today nuclear energy is an industry without a future (see Toshiba, solar power, tepco) but it wasn't in 2013. Still i think Obama can sell it as selling wordless mines.

[charly]

He is in Russians Orbit and not the American orbit like the UAE so he is obvious more vicious.

ps. Does it matter?

[Richardstevenhack]

To be more accurate, the FBI repeatedly asked to access the DNC servers but were refused by the DNC. What the FBI got was allegedly "certified true images" of the DNC server(s). Mandiant and FireEye also received those copies from CrowdStrike.

In other words, the only investigative body with any direct knowledge of the DNC servers remains CrowdStrike.

And they're thoroughly compromised.

[Richardstevenhack]

And the Russiagate fallout continues...

Full on censorship! Twitter removes all RT and Sputnik ads from platform
http://theduran.com/full-censoring-begins-twitter-removes-all-rt-and-sputnik-ads-from-platform/

People who think this sort of thing is just "good business" for these de facto Internet oligarchies just don't get it. They were created so they could do what the intelligence services could not legally do themselves: control the information available to the US electorate.

As for the "Ukrainian connection" briefly referenced in Tacitus post, check out the following links It appears that this is now finally heating up and being looked at.

Exclusive: Suspected Russian hack of DNC widens — includes personal email of staffer researching Manafort
https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-hacked-emails-of-dnc-oppo-researcher-point-to-russians-and-wider-penetration-154121061.html

16 people who shaped the 2016 election: Alexandra Chalupa (Video)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/16-people-who-shaped-the-2016-election-alexandra-chalupa-171541199.html

Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446

Report: $412,000 DNC insider, Ukraine officials spread dirt on Trump
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-412000-dnc-insider-ukraine-officials-spread-dirt-on-trump/article/2611650

Watchdog files complaint alleging DNC worked with Ukraine
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/345892-watchdog-files-fec-complaint-of-dnc-work-with-ukraine

Russia Hacking the Election the Inside Story
https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=Russian-Hacking-the-Electi-by-George-Eliason-Coup_Euromaidan_Russian-Influence_Ukraine-161219-878.html#comment635302

Why Crowdstrike’s Russian Hacking Story Fell Apart- Say Hello to Fancy Bear
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/01/crowdstrikes-russian-hacking-story-fell-apart-say-hello-fancy-bear-2.html

Former DNC Official Partnered With Convicted Bomb Maker To Investigate Trump
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/21/former-dnc-official-partnered-with-convicted-bomb-maker-to-investigate-trump/

Everybody Is Forgetting That Clinton Allies Did The Same Thing As Don Jr.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/10/everybody-is-forgetting-that-clinton-allies-did-the-same-thing-as-don-jr/

The Anonymous Blacklist Promoted by the Washington Post Has Apparent Ties to Ukrainian Fascism and CIA Spying
https://www.alternet.org/media/anonymous-blacklist-promoted-washington-post-has-shocking-roots-ukrainian-fascism-eugenics-and

Trump’s not alone: Congress digging into DNC-Ukraine connection
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-s-not-alone-congress-digging-into-dnc-ukraine-connection.html

I've said all along that if anyone hacked the DNC, it was a "false flag" hack conducted by Ukrainian hackers connected to Chalupa in an effort to distract the public from the fact that there was a DNC leak. CrowdStrike was brought in to "certify" the alleged "hack."

And then we're off the Russiagate races...

[Peter in Toronto]

I always assumed he was deeply entrenched in the invisible state security web because his dad was a high ranking Navy man - one of the oldest defense institutions in the USA, and probably politically the most powerful and elaborate.

Influence seems to run down family lines.

McCain has also had a very "irregular" marital history. He dumped his sweetheart for a woman from a more distinguished family.

[kooshy]

This I could foresee a few years back to happen, the system, borg and the western MSM, can't stand a chance with free access to alternative media including this blog which we all use to inform each other of the various events that the borg, and media try to brush away. Somehow free press will not fit well with the country of "free democracy". Those who have been following the rapid development of free access Internet news, social media news do notice how harder and difficult has become for MSM to compete with alternative news sites, and cross their message to public, especially to the younger educated crowd.
IMO, both the Government and the MSM will welcome if RT and many many others, including this site can be banned altogether.

[kooshy]

that beast may only go away with a cross or wooden stick

[Richardstevenhack]

RT coverage of the Twitter ban of RT, including a discussion with former MI-5 operative Annie Machon, and also with RT's Social Media executive explaining how the RT organization had a "great relationship" with Twitter...up until now...

Twitter bans all RT advertising, citing ‘election interference’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gkqy-llIVo

As revealed by the interview, prior to the 2016 election, Twitter actually offered RT an expensive ad package to enable RT to expand its election coverage and gain new viewers on the platform.

If this isn't a clear example of the government browbeating a corporation to do what it wants, I don't know what is.

[blue peacock]

David Habakkuk

Your timeline shows how questionable the contents of Steele's dossier are and highlights the murky nature of the involvement of the US and British intelligence in this sordid affair.

The question of when the FBI got involved with Steele and his "dossier" would be very interesting? Apparently they may have even funded him. And of course the timeline of the FISA application and the issuance of warrants to intercept the communications of Trump campaign officials. Followed by when Susan Rice who had the participants in those intercepts unmasked.

I believe the FBI, CIA, NSA are prohibited from interfering in domestic political affairs. Did President Obama order these agencies to take down Trump or did Clapper, Brennan & Rogers do this on their own accord? These are important questions that get to the heart of our constitutional republic.

[blue peacock]

Isn't it interesting that no reporter is asking Clapper when he received the dossier, who provided it to him and what role he played in obtaining it and how he was able to verify the veracity of the allegations in particular the "golden showers"? And if he can confirm that the DNI was able to corroborate the allegations?

It would speak loudly if he attempts to prevaricate.

[JamesT]

kooshy

I think the founding fathers did an admirable job of putting free speach guarantees into the US constitution that will protect sites like this one. Facebook and Twitter are however a different matter - those corporations can muzzle free speech as much as they like.

It would be interesting if the Russian or Chinese competitors to Facebook took off in the US as a reaction to Silicon Valley censorship. Much of the youtube channels I watch have been "de-monitized".

[blue peacock]

The UraniumOne and Clinton Foundation nexus in this April 2015 story reported by Pravda on Hudson.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html

[Pacifica Advocate]

@Eric:

I'm not defending the Clintons profiting off of this deal. I find it reprehensible on their part.

What I am offering up, however, is a simple explanation as to why the Uranium One purchase may well have been in the overall best interest of the US. That the Clintons personally profited off of it is something I think should be investigated. The sale, however, makes sense to me: the Uranium in the US and Canada still cannot be taken out of the country, and the Uranium in Kazakhstan may be shared by the US and Russia. The end result makes sense, from a geopolitical view.

When you say that "...it seems to me that Uranium One had the Kazakhstan uranium tied up," I can only politely remind you that the Russian army is currently in Syria, directly opposing the US, Turkish, and Israeli militaries and the combined alliance of US/Saudi/Turkish/British/Israeli governments by force of arms.

Uranium One is a company. Russia is a country, and a powerful one at that. When push comes to shove, companies lose to countries.

Additionally, I would politely suggest that you are ignoring that the Uranium One deal was initially set up by Pres. Clinton himself, doubtlessly so that he and the people he represented could profit off of it. Profit off of it they did; but the idea that the bossman in Kazakhstan would, once a better offer came along, be loyal to a deal like seems rather naive, in my opinion.

@James T:

>>>How do you know that the leader of Kazakhstan is a vicious strongman...

Because I read, often and in big lots.

>>>...(more vicious I take it than, say, the leader of UAE)?

Do you really think this kind of straw-man argumentation makes any kind of meaningful point? I was not talking about the UAE, nor comparing Kazakhstan's bossman to anyone in particular. I was simply pointing out that he's proven, over the years, to do whatever he thinks is to his and his junta's advantage, no matter how brutal and vicious. In that context, it is as I said above: were he to believe that the benefits of breaking a business agreement with Bill Clinton and some Canadian corporation outweighed the penalties, it really isn't hard to believe that he'd just summarily break the agreement.

[Pacifica Advocate]

@Eric Newhill and @JamesT and @charly should take note of this fact.

[LeaNder]

David, I am not fully concentrated, somewhat my standard setting.

The next document in the sequence, which is listed as 2016/086, introduces the claims about Russian hacking. Almost incredibly, it is dated 26 July 2015 – which is clearly a misprint for 2016.

Could it be earlier 'research' was recycled in this context?

[Pacifica Advocate]

Wow.

Are you seriously attempting to argue that Sec. Clinton is "anti-establishment" in some way--or that she is somehow out-of-step with "The Establishment"?

And if "this story"--by which I presume you mean the story highlighted by PT, above--is "milked," then how exactly does that indict the Russians in any conceivable way?

It seems rather obvious to me that the only person whom this can hurt is Ms. Clinton herself. It also seems to me that she is about as Teflon as Pres. Raygun was--which is not an admirable quality, in my opinion. A sense of personal shame is something I admire in public servants. Sadly, it seems to be rather lacking amongst most.

[Eric Newhill]

PA,
You're suggesting that Russia was threatening to invade a sovereign country if Uranium One wasn't approved?!!?

Some people on this thread are saying that uranium has little value these days and you're at the other end of the spectrum saying is worth going to war over (in the Russian perspective).

It's far outside my area of expertise and even beyond my dilettante interests. I have no idea of the value of uranium other than the Russians were recently interested enough in it to buy up control of Uranium One.