The Fabricated "Predicate" to Spy on the Trump Campaign by Larry C Johnson

While Inspector General Michael Horowitz did a pretty fair job of documenting the crimes of the FBI in getting the green light from a Federal Judge to spy on Carter Page as an ostensible agent of the Russians, he utterly failed to investigate the cornerstone (aka the "predicate") for launching this whole sordid affair. That predicate?  George Papadopoulos, an obscure foreign policy advisor to the Trump Campaign, reportedly told  Australia's High Commissioner to the UK (and Clinton crony), Alexander Downer, that the Russian Government had dirt on Hillary Clinton. But Papadopoulos was simply passing on gossip he heard from Joseph Mifsud, an intelligence agent tied to British secret services, not the Russians.

In a competent world of law enforcement and intelligence officials, this kind of hearsay (I heard it through the grapevine) would not pass the laugh test. But not in the partisan world of the FBI. The FBI leadership, according to Inspector General Horowitz, unanimously agreed that the unsubstantiated hearsay justified launching a full scale counterintelligence investigation and spying on the Trump campaign. Michael Horowitz reports that:

. . . the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016, just days after its receipt of information from a Friendly Foreign Government (FFG) reporting that, in May 2016, during a meeting with the FFG, then Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos "suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs. Clinton (and President Obama)."

McCabe said the FBI viewed the FFG (aka Downer) information in the context of Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections in the years and months prior, as well as the FBI's ongoing investigation into the DNC hack by a Russian Intelligence Service (RIS). He also said that when the FBI received the FFG information it was a "tipping point" in terms of opening a counterintelligence investigation regarding Russia's attempts to influence and interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections because not only was there information that Russia was targeting U.S. political institutions, but now the FBI had received an allegation from a trusted partner that there had been some sort of contact between the Russians and the Trump campaign.

Here is Mueller's account of how the investigation started:

In late April 2016, Papadopoulos was told by London-based professor Joseph Mifsud, immediately after Mifsud 's return from a trip to Moscow, that the Russian government had obtained "dirt" on candidate Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.

It is critical to take note that George Papadopoulos did not solicit Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton. That offer came from Joseph Mifsud. Inspector General Horowitz makes little mention of Mifsud beyond noting that he lied to the FBI about his conversation with Papadopoulos. That incuriosity is troubling and inexcusable if one is serious about understanding the predicate for spying on the Trump campaign. Michael Horowitz took a pass.

Robert Mueller identifies Mifsud in the report as someone with close ties to Russia. Good old guilt by association without one shred of proof. Mueller's report describes Mifsud as:

. . . a Maltese national who worked as a professor at the London Academy of Diplomacy in London, England.  Although Mifsud worked out of London and was also affiliated with LCILP, the encounter in Rome was the first time that Papadopoulos met him. Mifsud maintained various Russian contacts while living in London, as described further below.

Joseph Mifsud was not and is not an agent of Russia. He was working for western intelligence. If you want to get the full picture of Mifsud's ties to British intelligence, the CIA and the FBI, I encourage you to read, The Death of Russiagate?, Mueller team tied to Mifsud network, a tangled web. This article provides actual evidence about the intelligence pedigree of Joseph Mifsud. Robert Mueller, by contrast, provides not one single piece of actual evidence. Mueller and his team of clown lawyers relied on innuendo and guilt by association. And Horowitz just ignores Mifsud, pretending he is irrelevant to the "predication."

The next critical event in the predication chain, according to both Mueller and Horowitz, was Papadopoulos speaking with Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer. Mueller reports:

One week later, on May 6, 2016, Papadopoulos suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to candidate Clinton.

The name of Alexander Downer does not appear in Mueller or Horowitz report. 

Why did "FFG" aka Alexander Downer, who reportedly heard about the Russian dirt on Hillary from the lips of a tipsy George Papadopoulos in early May, wait more than two months to tell the United States about it? Downer claims it was Wikileaks publication of the emails that was the last straw. However, it was not a secret of state on June 14, 2016 when Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post reported Crowdstrike, a private cyber security firm hired by the DNC, "discovered" that the Russians had hacked the DNC. Why did Downer not react to that news? And why did the FBI treat the supposed attack by Russia with such an incurious approach? They did not set up a task force. They did not subpoena the server nor press the NSA for corroborating evidence that would have exposed a Russian plot.

Instead, Comey's FBI was content to passively receive information provided by Crowdstrike rather than get access themselves. No answer to these questions is provided by either Michael Horowitz or Robert Mueller.

A careful reading of the Horowitz report reveals that Downer told his hearsay to Gina Haspel, the current Director of the CIA who was the CIA's Chief of Station in London at the time.

On July 26, 2016, 4 days after Wikileaks publicly released hacked emails from the DNC, the FFG official spoke with a U.S. government (USG) official in the European city about an "urgent matter" that required an in-person meeting. At the meeting, the FFG official informed the USG official of the meeting with Papadopoulos. . . .

On Jul 27 2016 the USG official called the FBI's Legal Attache (Legat) and in the European city to her office and provided them [BLACKED OUT MATERIAL] The Legat told us he was not provided any other
information about the meetings between the FFG and Papadopoulos.

Notwithstanding Horowitz's narrow, legalistic finding that the actual "predicate" to start spying on the Trump campaign was because of what Alexander Downer said about George Papadopoulos, the testimony of Andrew McCabe makes it clear that the an alleged Russian role in the DNC hack also weighed heavily in favor of spying on Trump. It is essential to note that the FBI had no independent proof or evidence that Russia was in anyway responsible for the missing DNC emails. The FBI based their conclusion entirely on the unsubstantiated claim by Crowdstrike that "the Russians" had hacked the DNC. It is worth recalling that FBI Director Jim Comey testified in the Spring of 2017, under oath, that the FBI never gained access to the DNC server and that the FBI relied on information provided by Crowdstrike.

With the Horowitz report in the public sphere we can now compare his account of the Papadopoulos affair with that present by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. You will see that the story is nonsense. It also is a contrived set up. Alexander Downer's decision to report his "concern" to the CIA's Gina Haspel was the fruit of a covert action carried out by U.S. and foreign intelligence services working in tandem to go after Trump. The so-called "predicate" for the FBI was a deliberate, carefully crafted fabrication.

It started with the deliberate targeting of George Papadopolous by Joseph Mifsud, an intelligence operative working for the Brits and the CIA, not the Russians. Mifsud was planting evidence by telling Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. The intent of this lure was to entice Papadopoulos to carry this offer back to the Trump campaign (which he did). But the Trump campaign did not bite. 

Despite the Trump campaign's refusal to take the Russian bait, having Alexander Downer report the rumor started by Mifsud as a "fact" of the intent of the Trump campaign to collude with the Russians became the raison d'être for getting The FBI. It is no mere coincidence that Gina Haspel, who was serving as the CIA Chief of Station in London at the Time, turned to The FBI to do its thing. 

What is shocking about the Horowitz conclusion justifying the predicate for spying on Donald Trump and his team is that neither Horowitz nor any other senior official at The FBI when these events unfolded was troubled by accepting as fact a third hand report that Russia had dirt on Hillary. What kind of dirt? No one among The FBI leadership asked that question according to Horowitz. The claim of "dirt" was accepted at face value. 

Having a foreign stooge like Alexander Downer carry the intel community's dirty water to the FBI provided a legalistic cover that the Bureau leadership could and did cite as a proper "legal" foundation for spying on the Trump campaign. The could safely claim that they did not know nothing about no spying while claiming to be just following the law. Welcome to the Washington Swamp's version of Kabuki theater. Sadly, Inspector General Horowitz played along with this charade.

Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Prosecutor John Durham have put the Washington Swamp on notice that the Horowitz fiction about The FBI predicate will not survive. Durham has collected evidence and testimony from the intelligence community side of the house, as well as overseas, that will expose the FBI, at a minimum, as unwitting dupes out-smarted by duplicitous intelligence operatives. The more likely scenario is that key FBI officials will be indicted for participating in an elaborate scheme that is nothing short of sedition. It is worth noting that it was the FBI's Comey and McCabe who were insisting that the discredited Steele Dossier be included in the equally suspect January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. That does not sound like a couple of rubes being dragged around by their nose to do something they otherwise would not. A more appropriate term is "conspirator."

 

 

 

 

Jul 13, 2018 - “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump

Comments

[akaPatience]

The IG report doesn't add up. It CAN'T add up, with so much omitted/ignored/overlooked, as outlined above.

There was never a "defensive briefing" either to alert Trump to possible Russian infiltration. IMO this is so telling.

And why withhold exculpatory evidence from the FISC judges and worse, MATERIALLY ALTER an email reporting that Carter Page was an IC asset, if not for nefarious purposes FFS?

More and more, I subscribe to the suspicion that Trump was already being spied upon before these pretexts were created, and that the Title 1 FISA warrants obtained were to provide cover for it (and more). Now that I think about it, it sounds an awful lot like an "insurance policy" to me. In Page/Stzok texts they both express alarm about the possibility of a President Trump at least as far back as March, 2016. It's hard to believe their alarm wasn't shared by others also in the top tier at the FBI who were banking on Clinton's victory.

[Factotum]

Prejudice - Orange Man Bad - was the predicate.

[Jack]

Larry,

I never vote for a candidate from the two parties for president. I don’t like Trump as a person. However, I like that he’s not started another war and that he’s taken on the Chinese Communists exploitation of our market and forcing decoupling and that he wants better relations with Russia and wants to dent illegal immigration. I don’t like his obsequiousness of the Al Sauds and the Israelis.

But...Spygate and the Russia hoax mindlessly parroted by the media and this sham impeachment is outrageous. It tears at my sense of what our constitutional republic ought to be. I will break my long held tradition and vote for him next year as a giant FU.

Having said that, for the life of me I can’t get his hires. Gina Haspel, John Bolton, Rosenstein, Wray, Pompeo. It’s like he went straight to the vipers den. I also can’t get why he’s not gone after the coup plotters hard and declassified it all.

What’s the pound of flesh that crooked Mitch is gonna demand? He says the impeachment trial will not have any witnesses. The House can make their case and Trump’s lawyers can rebut. Then the Senate will vote. What’s that about? The whole system is so damn crooked!

[Factotum]

April, 2016: Mifsud contacts Papadopolus -claims Russians have dirt on Clinton to help Trump
May 6, 2016: Downer-Papadopolus bar conversation - Russians have dirt on Clinton

June 14, 2016: WaPo reports CROWDSTRIKE concluded the Russians hacked DNC computers
July 22, 2016: Wikileaks publishes DNC computer files, embarrassing to Clinton

July 26, 2016: Downer reports to London FBI about Papadopolus conversation Downer (Final straw)

July 27, 2016: FBI agents contact London FBI office (Haspel)
July 31, 2016: FBI opens secret Crossfire Hurricane to investigate Trump-Russia links (FBI Final Straw)

[Factotum]

Democrats relentless politics of personal destruction do make it hard for Trump to hire or appoint. Few want to be under relentless Democrat attack, just to get a government job and probably career killer once the Democrats get done with them.

Democrats are going after Betty DeVos next - she dared to take on the powerful Democrat teachers unions. Have Betty's back - and don't blame Trump - he is heroically holding up and holding this country together, while the powerful Democrat public sector unions want to rip it apart - and devour the spoils for themselves.

[Jack]

Sorry. Don’t buy that excuse. There’s plenty of people who haven’t spent their lives in the DC Swamp who would take the job. But...neither is Trump a great person to work for. I wouldn’t want to work for a guy like him.

[Elmo Zoneball]

For your consideration:

I posit that the original plan was to bait PapaD with the "dirt on Hillary" dangle, PapaD relays the dangle to campaign officials, and if campaign officials told him to pursue the dirt, he'd go back to Mifsud and say: "my bosses want to hear more details on the Russian offer." Mifsud reports that to his handler, and the people scheming this set about to catch a high level Trump campaign official colluding with Russian government "to interfere in the election," which gets them a predicate for an FBI investigation and an ensuing FISA warrant to spy on the campaign.

When that failed to materialize after dangling the lure in front of PapaD, they had to improvise to get "the predicate" some other way. The claim that the Russians hacked the DNC emails, combined with the reiteration of "the dangle" by PapaD to Downer, was the other way.

The people running this scheme orchestrate the exfiltration of emails from the DNC, and blame it on the Russians. CrowdStrike, which had already been inside the DNC computer network for months related to the Bernie campaign improper access of Hillary data, was perfectly positioned to either plant malware that could plausibly be blamed on Russians, or serendipitously found such malware already residing on the DNC computer system, in latter part of April, 2016. This, along with doctoring server logs, completes the Russian attribution scam on the DNC network side by CrowdStrike.

Meanwhile, somebody calling themselves Guccifer 2.0 is given a number of Podesta emails and attachments, which are dutifully uploaded to the web in early June, but not before several attachment get hamfisted meta-data editting and massaging, to embed painfully obvious "Russian fingerprints" all over the documents, and contacts numerous media outlets to call attention to the uploads. Within a few days, the Russian metadata is noticed, and publicly reported, and, along with the WP news story quoting CrowdStrike's Russian email hacking attribution, the Russian attribution for the exfiltration of DNC emails to wikileaks is complete. This gave the FBI the cover they so desperately needed to NOT bothering to subpoena the DNC servers and give them an independent forensic anal probing.

Note that Guccifer 2.0 is critical to establishing the predication for the future FBI investigation of the Trump campaign regarding suspicions it is colluding with the Russians who are "interfering with the 2016 election," specifically putting the final metadata touches on the "Potemkin Village" fake Russian attribution for the email "hacking," bolstering the CrowdStrike attribution report, and giving the FBI the excuse it needed to not examine the DNC servers.

And all of this is part of something that screams "Plan B" to provide a predicate for the FBI to open a CI investigation, and use it spy on Trump campaign people via a very intrusive and very secret FISA warrant. Plan B was necessitated when the dangle to PapaD failed to elicit follow-up by Trump campaign people to try to contact Russians about "Hillary dirt" they might have. So instead, PapaD's casual throw-away regurgitation of the dangle about Russian dirt on Hillary blabbed to the Australian Ambassador to Britain in early May is then used after the wikileaks emails are released in July to become McCabe's "tipping point" to open the CH investigation, and start lining up FISA warrants for Carter Page, which was clearly a set-up in itself.

This is how you can tell Guccifer 2.0 was part of the conspiracy, and not some boastful Russian intel weenie.

[Factotum]

We don't want any more swamp dwellers. Show me any POTUS boss who was easy to work for - Valerie Jarrett herself was called the NightStalker, and the real pants in the Obama WH. Time to move more of the federal agencies out of DC. And groom a far less swampy farm club.

[Factotum]

Less than five days elapsed before the full powers of the US government were unleashed against the Trump campaign, based upon an uncorroborated bar conversation: July 26- Downer/FBI meet; July 31- FBI Crossfire Hurricane begins.

Does that pass the FBI due diligence test for an investigation at this level of gravitas?

Or does this pass an FBI pre-emptive rush to judgement due to prior FBI prejudice Orange Man Bad, with nary a worry there would be top level FBI leadership (aka Comey) opposition or concerns?

[Dan]

I think you left out one important date:

July 30, 2016. (A Saturday by the way) Ohrs meet with christopher Steele, who provides them with a few initial reports of what would eventually become the dossier

Then July 31, (a Sunday) the investigation is opened

There is also some mystery about the dates and timing of downer’s info getting to the us. This guardian piece says the FBI agents summariized their findings on August 2.

After tense deliberations between Washington and Canberra, top Australian officials broke with diplomatic protocol and allowed the ambassador, Alexander Downer, to sit for an FBI interview to describe his meeting with the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos,” the paper reports.
'It was a bad idea': music publicist was unlikely fixer of Trump Tower meeting
“The agents summarised their highly unusual interview and sent word to Washington on Aug 2, 2016, two days after the investigation was opened. Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago Thursday, became the special counsel investigation.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/17/alexander-downers-secret-meeting-with-fbi-led-to-trump-russia-inquiry-report

I don’t have a lot of expertise on this element so maybe I’m missing something there.

I always thought the weekend nature of this last part was revealing.

[Diana C]

I am a retired public school teacher, and I absolutely detest the NEA. It's done more to dumb down our public schools than any other group. I would also blame the colleges and universities that push out graduates with teaching credentials. Rarely now do they expect that teachers know anything about the content hey should be teaching, only that they are aware of the psycho-babble and untested theories put out by the "education" departments.

When I began teaching in the early 70's, we looked to our content association. For me at the time it was the National Council of Teachers of English. We didn't yet have an NEA.

That changed pretty quickly however. Soon it was all about the NEA.

Think of the fact that Bill Ayers is or was (not sure if he has retired yet) a well-respected professor of "Education."

I keep saying it: If you are the parent of a school-age child, find a charter school, private school, or a good home-school program instead.

One of my best friends who taught with me at the community college and college level, adopted a Chinese baby girl when the Chinese had their "one child" policy.

That girl is now only 16 and is entering the local community college. Each time she was required to go into a public school to take state-mandated tests, she scored in the 98th percentile. She and her home-school friends took physical education in the local recreation district, music with the local symphony, band, and choir, and art with the local arts district.

This is common for homes-schooled students.

My cousin did the same for her two children, but she did it for religious reasons. Still, she followed a national program for home schooling. They earned their HS diplomas and went straight into programs for earning a certificate for specific work. One was trained to work as a dental hygienist and the other to do HVAC work. They are doing well now supporting themselves.

None of these children I have mentioned are for socialism, communism, radical feminism, or any of the other "isms" of the current progressives.

[akaPatience]

What I saw and heard of Horowitz's testimony today before the US Senate Judiciary Committee was also damning. I especially like that he said no one from the FBI who touched the FISA process was vindicated by his investigation. I hope the sanctimonious James Comey was watching.

I noticed yesterday that Christopher Steele's attorneys went public, stating Steele has recordings of his "Primary Sub Source" who was interviewed for the IG investigation and who was dismissive of Steele's work.

Why aren't we being told the identity of or at least more info about Steele's "Primary Sub Source"? Since the FISA warrant applications were based on the Steele dossier, this is key.

PLUS, it seems even more suspicious to me that Steele even HAD a "Primary Sub Source". Couldn't that make his dossier even less reliable if he had fewer rather than more sources?

[Factotum]

WHO tried to bait Papadopolus with the claim of dirt on Hilary? WHO initiated this daisy chain.

[Factotum]

Very interesting, Elmo. This could explain the very curious treatment of the very word Crowdstrike and why the Democrats went apoplectic when Trump raised the topic of Crowdstrike again in his Ukraine phone call.

Yet went out of the way to not even mention is, other than refer obliquely to Crowdstrike as some over-wrought, thoroughly debunked, right wing nut case conspiracy theory.

LJ has been ahead of the game with the DNC break-in from the very beginning and the bogus Crowdstrike "conclusions" that now two federal agencies have passed off as fact - but with still absolutely no supporting evidence.

Mifsud was never mentioned again for years and claimed even to be dead. Crowdstrike was struck from any further discussions, including attacks on anyone who dared bring them up .....the dogs that did not bark .....

And now Debbie Wasserpoodle, the center of the Crowdstrike DNC computer fiasco, is out braying in the wind again, in full throated attack.

None of this is passing a smell test to those of us out west - out of the DC bubble.

[Factotum]

Where is Julian Assange in all of this?

Would he have anything of value to offer at this point. Besides some slim chance of the actual truth of who in fact handed him these DNC files - but without being tainted by the prospect plea bargaining? And he is now painted in the media as a deranged, sick old man who would be just offering the ravings of a madman. How convenient.

[Factotum]

DOJ now says it can't respond to a Jusicial Watch FOIA request pertaining to the Democrat-serving Pakistani computer experts, the Awan brothers and assorted family members. Debbie Wasserpoodle ran protection for her House computer buddies. But their House employment was finally terminated in Feb 2017, and they were allowed to leave the country, with bundles of cash.

DOJ now claims Ca "technical difficulties" prevent document production to Judicial Watch. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/deep-state-doj-tells-judicial-watch-it-cant-produce-documents-on-imran-awan-due-to-technical-difficulties/

Is there any connection between the DNC leaks, Crowdstrike and the Pakistani Awan brothers? Can anyone in the high tech media world help the DOJ get beyond their "technical difficulties" in this legally requested document production?

[English Outsider]

Mr Johnson - apologies for the two comments up above, the first being merely a brief note that somehow escaped on to the Colonel's site. Do please delete them if you can.

The video of the Senate Judiciary hearing is extraordinary. Here are people, including Horowitz, discussing a major disaster and making no bones about it. The brief section from around 5.57.00 speaks for itself -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11511&v=bi8V-9EQfec&feature=emb_logo

Horowitz throughout is careful to stick to his brief and not allow himself to be drawn on issues outside it. All he insists on is that the "opening" of the case shows no bias. When it comes to how the renewals were done he characterises that as "murky". He will not allow Senators to state or imply that the lack of bias for the opening demonstrates lack of bias for the renewals. As a whole he is saying that the case was handled astoundingly badly but he refuses to say whether that is incompetence or intention.

A meticulous man who has established the facts as accurately as possible, will have nothing to say to speculation, but who is adamant that something has gone seriously wrong and that further action needs to be taken. Having read accounts of the Horowitz report I watched expecting a whitewash with maybe a scapegoat or two - and found myself witnessing a demolition job.

[Rich]

Please, someone fit Admiral Rogers of the NSA sprint to Trump Tower into this timeline. I'm curious why there is no mention of his action in all these reports

[Elmo Zoneball]

PapaD claims it was Mifsud.

[Jack]

Larry

Horowitz testimony today was devastating to law enforcement in both the Obama and Trump administration.

They falsified, omitted exculpatory information and hoodwinked the FISC. They knew the Steele dossier was a work of fiction yet used it as the primary evidence to obtain the most intrusive surveillance of an American citizen and a presidential campaign. Furthermore the entire Mueller investigation was based on a falsity that the leadership of law enforcement in two administrations had full knowledge. This rogue operation to take down a presidential campaign and a duly elected president based on known false information should be outrageous to every American.

The reality is that the real interference in an election was by an incumbent administration using the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus against the campaign of an opposition candidate. Then to make it even worse the law enforcement apparatus of the incoming administration continued with the falsely predicated investigation to stymie and even oust the new President.

People like you and Col.Lang and those outside the mainstream media who saw through the smokescreen are vindicated. The media personalities that pushed the Russia hoax with hysterics and denied the use of the Steele work of fiction to obtain warrants and denigrated folks like Rep. Devin Nunes should be shunned. After the Iraq WMD hoax perpertrated by a Republican administration and amplified by the same media, it should be clear that any American that wants to know the truth needs to go to sites like SST and not the NY Times or CNN.

The question that really needs to be asked is what did Obama know and when?

[PavewayIV]

Larry - Can't argue with your solid argument and I agree, but what about the possibility that Horwitz is just sandbagging the Democrats and Barr/Durham? By sidestepping around the predicate, he gives Democrats a little victory to crow about.

Sure the predicate is significant, but he just spelled out in detail the specific indictable offenses by the three main players to Barr/Durham. No motivation or bias arguments needed in the indictments. No idea if this makes sense, but what if Horowitz's intent was to avoid a full, prolonged Barr/Durham investigation first and frontrun it with what should be immediate indictments?

Indicting for unquestionable crimes first forces disclosure of more information that would help cement the predicate and (most important in my book) will force the three to roll on their bosses. You can read in to Horowitz's findings that they were part of this, but he doesn't have anything solid on them. Instead, he gives us the only three people who can and probably will finger them.

Can the DoJ drag their feet and ignore the 'in your face' crimes Horowitz details? Nothing to stop them from doing a full investigation on the other issues afterwards. I'm suspicious about any DoJ investigation. Seems like an opportunity for more mischief, obfuscation and delay.

[Factotum]

Did anyone initially gave the green light to Mifsud to plant this info on Papadopolus. Or was it just a random encounter? That led to another just totally random Papadopolus encounter with Downer.

That led to Downer two months, all the sudden, putting the FBI finger on Papadopolus. Amazing set of such random encounters leading to the attempted over throw of an elected US president.

Makes one want to pull the covers over their head, stay in bed and close their mouth with duct tape lest one say the wrong thing to the wrong person randomly out there in the big bad world.

[Elmo Zoneball]

Mid November 2016.

[Jack]

“FISA report shows Steele dossier built on lies&rumor Graham/Grassley crim referral of Steele Jan 2018 looks like tip of iceberg compared 2details exposed by IG re politically motivated Steele dossier. FBI fed FISA court a bunch of hogwash knowing Steele dossier had NO credibility” - Chuck Grassley

https://twitter.com/chuckgrassley/status/1204732076739694594

Yup. So this begs the question is this SOP at DOJ? How many other warrants are based on false evidence? Can the DOJ investigate themselves? Shouldn’t the hammer come down on these gross abusers of the rule of law? I mean serious (10-20 yr) jail time.

The other question is what kind of court is FISC? Don’t they verify the evidence provided? What’s the point in having judicial review if they’re just a rubberstamp?

[David Habakkuk]

All,

Has anyone seen an iota of evidence that Steele actually had a ‘Primary Sub-Source’, that could be relied upon to survive critical examination, had Horowitz approached questioning both the FBI people and Steele in a manner that might be deemed appropriate with people under suspicion of having colluded in a seditious conspiracy?