As a preliminary, I want to address what is a recurring issue. What exactly was Ohr's role in serving as a conduit of information between Fusion GPS/Orbis (Glenn Simpson/Christopher Steele) and the FBI?
Ohr himself clearly viewed himself as an asset (informant) of some sort for the FBI. For example, he refers to himself as having an FBI "handler" and he acknowledges that he knew he was going against DoJ policy in not informing his superiors of the role he was playing. At the same time, he also knew that the FBI had direct contact with Steele at times, and we know that Steele was an established FBI asset. Two assets, one handling or, at least, servicing the other? Why? To complicate matters, Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, clearly knew that he was passing material to the FBI through Steele and even, at times, through his good friend Ohr. Yet Simpson didn't want to meet with the FBI and the FBI seemed to prefer using Ohr as a go between with Steele.
Simpson's motives for maintaining a distance from the FBI are clear enough. Simpson would naturally want to avoid any risk of being identified as an FBI asset, if his role should become public (as it has). Moreover, he would also want to maintain control over what material that he held was passed to the FBI. The FBI would also probably prefer not to be linked to Simpson, who was known to be an extreme Democrat partisan as well as unscrupulous in his business. The FBI, on the other hand, would also want to avoid linkage to Steele in this matter, since Steele was a known former MI6 operative linking the Intel Community with political operatives--on both sides of the Atlantic. Ohr, who had legitimate professional reasons to go to FBIHQ, served well as a cutout to avoid accidental sightings of the FBI with Steele or Simpson and to afford the FBI some measure of deniability regarding the sourcing of the materials they were using.
On the other hand, Ohr's explanation for why he claims he didn't inform his superiors--that he wanted the matter to be handled by "career officials" rather than political appointees--doesn't ring true, as the questioning Representatives made clear by pointing out that Ohr, a DoJ official, several times interjected himself into the chain of custody of collected evidence--a no-no. Presumably, from the FBI's and Simpson's point of view, that would be Ohr's personal problem. Interestingly, however, while Ohr claims to have wanted to keep DoJ political appointees in the dark, Lisa Page made it quite clear in her testimony that the FBI had no such qualms:
Page: “I do know that at least John Carlin, for example, who is a political appointee, was kept abreast of the sort of investigative activity that was going on. And the only reason I know this is because when there was conflicts between us and DOJ, John might call over to—John Carlin might call over to Andy McCabe, and sort of make his team’s pitch, and then Andy would, you know, sort of the back-and-forth would go on. So it is clear that John had, was getting some sort of briefing, but he was not, it was, it never occurred by the FBI, which is, in my view, atypical.”
In response to a question asking who was McCabe’s direct counterpart at the DOJ on the investigation, Page responded, “it would have been John. It was either John Carlin or George Toscas who would have, who would have reached out to Mr. McCabe.”
Hmmm. Carlin was being briefed on what investigation the FBI was conducting, but the briefing didn't come from the FBI? "Atypical?" Yeah. I'd really like to know how that worked!
And, from my perspective, I think that in the ordinary course of things, for the FBI to use Ohr in the way they did, they should have first sought the permission of DoJ, and then--in the unlikely event that permission was granted--should have gone through the whole procedure of opening Ohr as an asset.
Next, we need to be clear that Ohr was well acquainted with both Simpson and Steele before any of this began.
Ohr had known Steele since 2007. Ohr also had known Simpson for many years. In fact, Simpson, Ohr, and Nellie Ohr had collaborated on a report back in 2010.
Ohr's wife, Nellie, began working for Fusion GPS in late 2015. Ohr acknowledged that he knew that Steele was also working for Fusion GPS and that Fusion GPS was tied to the Hillary Clinton campaign. He had full knowledge of these ties no later than 8/22/16, but almost certainly much earlier, as we will see.
The best way to proceed is probably by following a timeline. Let's look at the FBI's dealings with Steele chronologically, to the extent that we are able.
We know that over the years from at least 2009 the FBI had been in periodic contact with Steele, beginning with the FIFA case. Our first publicly documented contact with Steele in this Russia Hoax occurred when the FBI's Michael Gaeta (working for the FBI's Rome Legat office) traveled to London on July 5, 2016, and obtained the first two Steele reports that later featured in Steele's "dossier." We don't know to whom Gaeta sent that reporting, but given that the Trump campaign was the subject of the "reports" it should have gone pretty much straight to the top of the FBI chain of command--at least to the Deputy Director, Andy McCabe, if not to Comey himself. The next FBI contact with Steele came later that same month, July 2016.
To my mind, the most plausible supposition is that the FBI, which we know had for months been targeting advisers to the Trump campaign (Carter Page, Papadopoulos, etc.) was now prepared for further communications from Steele. It seems likely that Gaeta would have asked Steele--whom he had known and worked with for years and apparently trusted--to keep in touch with future developments. Given that Gaeta had traveled from Rome to London to meet Steele, the FBI's interest should have been obvious. Also, given that Gaeta had to get approval for the trip from Rome (remember, the FBI has a large Legat office in London that could have met with Steele) from Victoria Nuland at the State Department, Gaeta must have had a fairly good idea as to the topic he'd be discussing with Steele in order to justify the trip. For what it's worth, however, the WaPo has provided Steele's version of events.
Following Steele's July 5 meeting with Gaeta ...
"Later that month, Steele reached out to a State Department contact in Washington, according to Nuland, who said officials decided his allegations were best left to the FBI.
In late July, Steele told friends he was rattled when WikiLeaks released thousands of internal Democratic National Committee emails on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, material that U.S. law enforcement officials said was hacked by Russia. Then Trump — who had repeatedly praised Putin on the campaign trail — publicly called on Russia to hack and release a cache of missing Clinton emails. [This is, of course, a false characterization of what Trump said.]
Steele, who had researched Russian attempts to interfere in European elections for another client, began to fear that the Americans were not taking the Kremlin’s efforts seriously enough, associates said.
In the early fall, he and Burrows [Chris Burrows, another "former" MI6 operative, and Steele's partner at Orbis Business Intelligence] turned to Dearlove, their former MI6 boss, for advice. Sitting in winged chairs at the Garrick Club, one of London’s most venerable private establishments, under oil paintings of famed British playwrights, the two men shared their worries about what was happening in the United States. They asked for his guidance about how to handle their obligations to their client and the public, Dearlove recalled. [God, is that priceless or what? Sitting in winged chairs under oil paintings of famed playwrights discussing their obligations to the public--I mean to say! How much more high minded does it get? You'd almost think Steele was volunteering his services to Fusion GPS!]
Dearlove said their situation reminded him of a predicament he had faced years earlier, when he was chief of station for British intelligence in Washington and alerted U.S. authorities to British information that a vice presidential hopeful had once been in communication with the Kremlin.
He said he advised Steele and Burrows to work discreetly with a top British government official to pass along information to the FBI." [So Steele had multiple masters: the FBI, the British government, his client--even, God help them, the public! It seems terribly promiscuous, but one assumes that that came naturally to Steele.]
Did Dearlove know that the FBI was already conducting sting operations on British soil against advisers to the Trump campaign? Did he know who that the "top British government official" he named was already coordinating that activity with the FBI? I sure wouldn't bet against it. This is the British government cooperating with the FBI in attempting to entrap members of a presidential campaign, and to disseminate disinformation regarding that candidate both to the media as well as to the FBI for "investigative" use. Charming.
On July 30, 2016, Bruce and Nellie Ohr met with Steele and an associate of Steele’s for breakfast. (The Steele associate was unknown to Ohr, but was probably Chris Burrows.) The whole point of the July 30, 2016, meeting was Steele's claim that his "sources" were telling him that the Russians "had Donald Trump over a barrel” and that, as the dossier puts it, there was "a well developed conspiracy of co-operation" between Trump and the Russians that was managed by Paul Manafort, Trump's then campaign manager. Manafort's contact with the Russians was said to be Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, who was claimed to have traveled to Moscow to meet "clandestinely" with top Russian movers and shakers with ready access to Vladimir Putin.
Note in this that Nellie--who has refused to testify--would have told Bruce that Steele was working with her for Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS, and that Fusion GPS was connected to the Clinton campaign. Also note that on July 31, 2016, the very next day after the breakfast meeting, Crossfire Hurricane was opened by Peter Strzok. It seems beyond doubt that this material was crucial to the opening, that it was the predication without which the opening would not have happened. This raises a timeline problem. If Ohr met Steele on July 30, and Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane the very next day, July 31, that means either 1) the FBI already had that information independently of Ohr, probably straight from Steele (and they instructed Steele to go through Ohr as a cover of some sort) or 2) Ohr is mistaken in saying that he didn't meet with the FBI to inform them of Steele's material until "early August."
One way or another, that's what happened. Shortly after the breakfast meeting, Ohr says that--all unprompted and on his own and without informing Acting AG Sally Yates--he set up a meeting with Andy McCabe to discuss Steele's material. Also present in McCabe's office for the meeting was Lisa Page (counsel to McCabe), who was well known to Ohr because she had worked directly under him for five or six years at DoJ. But something else happened at this meeting, says Ohr, beyond passing along Steele's reporting. According to Ohr, he told McCabe and Page all about Steele's employment (and his wife, Nellie's) with Fusion GPS, which was "doing research on Donald Trump." He also told them that Steele was totally "biased" against Trump and seemed "desperate" to prevent Trump's election. Perhaps, given Steele's contacts with that "high British government official," that reflected not only Steele's personal bias but also the British government's official bias.
Nobody in that room could have been so stupid as to fail to understand that Fusion GPS was doing oppo research for the Clinton campaign, so that, in effect, anything the "biased" and "desperate" Steele said should be regarded as coming from the Clinton campaign. And this was known months before Steele's dossier material was used for the FISA application on Carter Page--material that McCabe himself testified was "crucial" to that application. It's worth looking at the full exchange between Ohr and the questioning Representative:
Q: “So the record is clear, what the Department of Justice and the FBI was aware of prior to the first FISA application was your relationship with Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson, your wife’s relationship with Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson, Mr. Steele’s bias against Donald Trump, Mr. Simpson’s bias against Donald Trump, your wife’s compensation for work for Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS, correct?”
Ohr: “Right. So just, again, to reiterate, when I spoke with the FBI, I told them my wife was working for Fusion GPS. I told them Fusion GPS was doing research on Donald Trump. You know, I don’t know if I used the term opposition research, but certainly that was my—what I tried to convey to them. I told them this is the information I had gotten from Chris Steele. At some point, and I don’t remember exactly when, I don’t think it was the first conversation, I told them that Chris Steele was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected.”
Q: “So in August of 2016, you tell Andy McCabe that you’re concerned because your wife works for Fusion GPS and that’s where you’re getting the information?”
Ohr: “I wanted Mr. McCabe to know ... I wanted the FBI to be aware of any possible bias—”
Q: “So you believe there was the possibility of bias?”
Ohr: “Yes.”
At the highest echelons of the FBI the attitude seems to have been, it was all grist for the mill.
In the meantime, Steele had taken Dearlove's advice to heart and had been very busy. According to Carlson,
"Steele also met with various media sources in the United States during two separate visits in September and October of 2016, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Yahoo News, and CNN, according to UK court documents. Separately, Steele talked with Mother Jones reporter David Corn via Skype."
Steele also met with an old friend at the State Department, Jonathan Winer, to share his reporting. As it happened, Winer was a close friend of two notorious--no other word will suffice--Clinton operatives and slime merchants: Cody Shearer and Sidney "Sid Vicious" Blumenthal. We are fortunate in that Winer later wrote an op-ed for The Hill in which he told all the world the "truth" of what happened:
"Winer states that Steele first approached him in September of 2016 with the dossier about Trump. Winer distilled the dossier into a two-page summary that he shared with former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who notified then-Secretary of State John Kerry.
Later that month, Winer said he met with Blumenthal, who he described as “an old friend.” They discussed the Steele report and Blumenthal showed Winer “notes” put together by another longtime Clinton operative, Cody Shearer, that “echoed” the claims made in the Steele dossier.
“What struck me was how some of the material echoed Steele’s but appeared to involve different sources,” Winer writes.
Winer also says that he then shared the information from the Clinton operatives with Steele “to ask for his professional reaction.”
“He said that it was similar but separate from the information he had gathered from his sources,” Winer said."
Which sounds for all the world like an attempt to establish mutually supporting "sources" for the "similar" disinformation, not that different from the FBI citing Michael Issikoff's article, sourced from the dossier, to support the dossier. Steele, of course, passed this "second dossier" on to the FBI, which was clearly totally in bed at this point with oppo researchers for the Clinton campaign.
To continue with Ohr ...
Ohr had also been busy in the weeks following the July 30 meeting. He had, for example, met with Glenn Simpson himself on August 22, 2016. Which was perfectly logical:
"... I knew that Chris Steele was working for Glenn Simpson, and that Glenn might have additional information that Chris either didn’t have or was not authorized to prevent [present], give me, or whatever."
One wonders where Ohr found time to do his actual work at DoJ. Later in December, 2016, Simpson gave Ohr a memory stick and asked him to give it to the FBI. Ohr passed it along to Joe Pientka.
When Ohr met Steele again in either late September or early October, 2016 he did so in company with quite a group: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from the FBI, and three DOJ career officials from the criminal division, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, and Andrew Weissman--currently Robert Mueller's deputy. Note that while Crossfire Hurricane was a CI case and Strzok was second in charge of Counterintelligence at the FBI, the DoJ officials were all from the Criminal Division. For prosecutors to meet with an asset at this early stage strongly suggests they were planning strategy. But this also probably means that they were planning for the FISA application, given that the application was submitted on October 21, 2016, immediately after Steele's October 20 report--the report in which Michael Cohen's famous trip to Prague for a "clandestine" meet superseded the clandestine Moscow meet of Carter Page, who was no longer with the Trump campaign. Which leads to the supposition that this meeting with Steele was to tell him, inter alia, that more detailed information was needed for the FISA application--which Steele duly provided, in the form of the now famous Cohen-Prague miscue.
All in all, it's an interesting picture: three officials from DoJ's Criminal Division meeting with the second in command of the FBI's CI division (accompanied by the Deputy Director's counsel) to plan for a FISA on--in effect--a candidate for the presidency. Coaching the asset on what was now needed for the FISA to go through, which would be typical Weissman tactics. And all this without informing the Acting AG, Sally Yates. Or so they say.
Steele was "terminated" as an asset by the FBI on 11/1/16, but that appears to have been merely a cover, in case Steele became publicly known through his contacts with US media organizations. The continual leaks to the media had increased the possibility of someone connecting Steele to the FBI increasingly possible. In fact, however, Ohr--the FBI's cutout to Steele--continued meeting with Steele and relating what Steele said to the FBI. If further proof were needed, Strzok and Page actually met with Ohr on November 21, 2016, to inform him that his "FBI handler" would henceforth be Joe Pientka (who, with Strzok, interviewed Michael Flynn).
It's clear that Ohr was continuing to service Steele as an FBI asset and, in fact, Pientka simply passed Ohr's Steele material right on to Strzok. For practical purposes, Steele remained an FBI asset--as, it seems, did Ohr, even if he wasn't "on the books." Also notably, Pientka wrote up his interviews with Ohr on FD-302s, the form which is used to record information that may later be used in a prosecution. Clearly, the FBI was pointing towards prosecution, and not merely CI collection.
One last closing note. As usual, I'm disappointed that nobody asked Page or Ohr about the famous Trump Tower meeting between the top levels of the Trump campaign and the Russian lawyer, Veselnitskaya. I continue to believe that that was a pivotal event for understanding the campaign against Trump and, as I've noted previously, Robert Mueller appears to agree. The convergence of issues and persons at that meeting creates, for me, a presumption that the FBI would have been either behind the meeting or aware of it at a very early date. The connection of the Russian participants to Glenn Simpson and others in the Clinton camp has been well documented. Simpson's denials of knowledge are, for my money, simply non-credible. And now the connections between Simpson and Steele to the FBI are increasingly well documented. This is an aspect of the Russia Hoax that begs for further investigation.
UPDATE: I pointed out, a few paragraphs above, that Andrew Weissman was present at a meeting with Ohr, Steele, Strzok, Page and other DoJ attorneys and that that meeting had the appearance--based on surrounding events, of a strategy session to coach Steele on what new "information" was needed for the FISA application against Carter Page:
When Ohr met Steele again in either late September or early October, 2016 he did so in company with quite a group: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from the FBI, and three DOJ career officials from the criminal division, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, and Andrew Weissman--currently Robert Mueller's deputy. ... this also probably means that they were planning for the FISA application, given that the application was submitted on October 21, 2016, immediately after Steele's October 20 report--the report in which Michael Cohen's famous trip to Prague for a "clandestine" meet superseded the clandestine Moscow meet of Carter Page, who was no longer with the Trump campaign. Which leads to the supposition that this meeting with Steele was to tell him, inter alia, that more detailed information was needed for the FISA application--which Steele duly provided, in the form of the now famous Cohen-Prague miscue.
All in all, it's an interesting picture: three officials from DoJ's Criminal Division meeting with the second in command of the FBI's CI division (accompanied by the Deputy Director's counsel) to plan for a FISA on--in effect--a candidate for the presidency. Coaching the asset on what was now needed for the FISA to go through, which would be typical Weissman tactics. And all this without informing the Acting AG, Sally Yates. Or so they say.
Robert Barnes, drawing on John Solomon's article, has picked up on this FISA aspect and specifically uses the words "lying to FISA courts" and applies them to Andrew Weissman, Mueller's deputy, as I should have done:

Robert Barnes
@Barnes_Law
One of the key people implicated in DOJ lying to FISA courts is none other than Mueller's top man, #Weissmann.
Mr. Wauck,
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion, is Joe Pientka a bad actor or is not enough information known about him to make such a judgement? I notice that he has never been made available to the Senate Judiciary Committee, per Chuck Grassley's request.
Joe, what I've read is that Pientka wanted to talk to the committees but Rosenstein wouldn't allow him to. His name comes up mostly with regard to Flynn, of course. It's not clear from Ohr's testimony how much he would be able to tell re the larger Russia Hoax. I've heard that there are a number of agents who have spoken to Congressional investigators. As you can tell from Ohr's testimony, those investigators may have followed out leads that we're not aware of. For example, the business about Carlin knowing about FBI investigative activity but not, according to Lisa Page, from being briefed by the FBI. Hopefully with the new faces coming in at DoJ both OIG and internal FBI investigators will be given a freer hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights.
ReplyDeleteI suggest a practical consideration in this situation. Simpson and Steele had to satisfy their client -- Perkins Coie -- who was paying for two services:
1) Write a dossier
2) Use the dossier to make a political impact
Steele provided an initial dossier to FBI official Michael Gaeta on July 5, 2016. Immediately Simpson would have reported to Perkins Coie that Steele had done so. The the month of July goes by and -- as far as Perkins Coie knows -- nothing happens.
Perkins Coie might have read the initial dossier during July and been dissatisfied with its quality. Perkins Coie might have learned through knowledgeable Democrats that the dossier was not causing anything to happen within the FBI.
Much of the "desperation" that Steele felt during his entire adventure was that his dossier was not going to satisfy his paying clients -- Simpson, Perkins Coie and the DNC -- because his dossier was not causing anyone in the Obama Administration to take any action against Donald Trump.
Steele was obsessed with two concerns:
1) Trump might win the Presidential election
2) Steele's paying clients might not use him again in the future
In this regard Steele's second, future-income concern coincided with the Ohrs' own future-income concern. Nellie Ohr too was paid by Simpson, Perkins Coie and the DNC. If the current product does not satisfy the paying customers, then there might not be future contracts.
It seems to me that a significant reason why Bruce Ohr involved himself personally in these shenanigans was that he was trying to help his wife's career. Ohr was trying to cause the FBI to do something significant with the dossier. He was also placing himself into a position from which he could inform and assure Perkins Coie that the dossier indeed was causing the FBI to act.
Because Steele's dossier continued to be unsatisfactory, Nellie (and perhaps Bruce Ohr) too became involved in trying to improve its writing style and factual content.
Following up my previous comment, I speculate also that Bruce Ohr might have recommended to Perkins Coie that Glenn Simpson's company be hired to research Donald Trump's relationships to Russians -- in particular to Russians in organized crime.
ReplyDeletePerkins Coie itself did not have the expertise to select the best research contractor in this field, but Ohr did have such expertise.
If Simpson got the contract from Perkins Coie because of Bruce Ohr's recommendation, then Simpson's decision to hire Nellie Ohr was perhaps a kickback to Bruce Ohr.
Subsequently, however, Perkins Coie might have been dismayed by the dossier's low quality and lack of effectiveness. Perkins Coie was paying a lot of money, which seemed to be swirling down a toilet.
Bruce Ohr himself might have been looking forward to a post-retirement career as a consultant to companies like Perkins Coie, and so he felt compelled to try to justify his recommendation to Perkins Coie that Simpson's company could do the job well in the end.
I agree, Mike. There can't be much doubt that the bigger the role and the bigger the impact the dossier had in the real world of the 2016 campaign and US politics generally, the higher Steele's stock would rise. That in turn would cause his services to be more sought after in the future--with an effect also on the fees he could charge for his services.
ReplyDeleteMike, re the hiring of Nellie, I didn't include this in my summary, but it appears the Committee members may have been thinking along the same lines that you suggest. Here's the relevant exchange:
ReplyDeleteQ: “Why do you think they picked your wife? There’s probably lots of Russian experts in the Washington, D.C., area.”
Ohr: “You know, I think—first of all, I don’t think that there are that many people that do Russia research that are available to do these kinds of contracts. So I think, you know, they have talked over the years from time to time. So I don’t know why he picked her, but they were certainly acquainted and knew of each other.”
Apparently the Committee didn't pursue this line of questioning, but it was clearly on their minds.
Another factor here, of course, is that Simpson is the world's biggest expert on Paul Manafort, so once Manafort came on board the Trump campaign the choice of Simpson, at least, would be a natural.
It's important to understand that Perkins Coie wanted Fusion GPS to provide two services:
ReplyDelete1) Assemble information about Trump and Russians
2) Use that information to cause trouble for Trump
In other words, Perkins Coie itself did not intend to use the information to cause trouble for Trump. Perkins Coie intended to keep its own hands clean. Causing the trouble was a major part of what Fusion GPS was being paid to do.
I suppose further that the DNC and Clinton likewise wanted to keep their own hands clean. If GPS Fusion eventually did cause trouble for Trump, then the DNC and Clinton might pile on, but the public appearance had to be that DNC and Clinton themselves were rather distant from the nitty-gritty.
If that indeed was the situation, then it was up to Fusion GPS itself to cause trouble for Trump. Furthermore, Fusion GPS would have to satisfy Perkins Coie that Fusion GPS was causing the trouble. Perkins Coie had to perceive that the money it spent on Fusion GPS was money that was well spent.
The original scheme was that Fusion GPS would provide the FBI with a dossier that would cause the FBI to investigate Trump's relationships with Russian evil-doers, and then the existence of that investigation would be leaked to the press. The FBI investigation might even result in some indictments before the 2016 election.
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How, though, would Fusion GPS know what the FBI was doing with the dossier? After all, Fusion GPS had to convince Perkins Coie that the money was well spent.
Another consideration was the Election Day was a deadline for the trouble to be caused to Trump. The money spent by Perkins Coie was largely wasted if the trouble for Trump was not caused significantly before Election Day.
In this situation, Bruce Ohr perhaps played a key role. Ohr was in a position to inform Fusion GPS and also Perkins Coie whether the FBI was doing anything significant with the dossier.
=====
This situation might explain why Simpson and Steele insisted on communicating with the FBI through Ohr. As long as Ohr remained involved in these communications, Ohr was in a position where he might inform himself subtly about what the FBI was doing with the dossier.
Once it seemed that Andrew McCabe was about to become the acting FBI Director, Ohr could remove himself from these communications -- where he was not supposed to be -- and Steele could communicate directly with the FBI. While McCabe was the acting Director, there should be no doubt that the dossier was being used to cause trouble for Trump. Ohr no longer had to assure Perkins Coie that its money had been well spent. McCabe was about to use the dossier to cause much trouble for Trump.
Therefore, Ohr could untangle himself now from Fusion GPS.
Mike:
ReplyDeleteHow, though, would Fusion GPS know what the FBI was doing with the dossier? After all, Fusion GPS had to convince Perkins Coie that the money was well spent.
Another consideration was the Election Day was a deadline for the trouble to be caused to Trump. The money spent by Perkins Coie was largely wasted if the trouble for Trump was not caused significantly before Election Day.
Actually, in addition to Ohr's contacts with Simpson (a good friend), Steele himself could have played a role in awareness of the FBI's activity--recall the September meeting that included Steele, Ohr, Strzok, Page and the three DoJ CrimDiv lawyers. I'm pretty sure that left no one in any doubt that they were going for FISA. Nor would I discount the role that Page--who worked for years at DoJ directly under Ohr--may have played. Anything that Page told Ohr may well have gone straight back to Simpson. Ohr, of course, downplayed his knowledge of what was going on, but I'm skeptical of that part of his narrative.
Re the Election Day deadline, remember that the money Perkins Coie spent wasn't their own money--that was campaign money being laundered through Perkins Coie to hide the role that Fusion GPS was playing. True, losing the election was tough, but that couldn't be laid totally at the door of Fusion GPS--I suspect far more blame was directed at Comey. The dossier was used in typical Fusion GPS fashion through the leaks to the media, and they had their effect. The existence of the FISA after the election probably was chalked up as a plus to Fusion GPS, as well.
Another indication that there were no regrets about the money funneled to Fusion GPS is that after the election Daniel Jones (former Feinstein staffer, ex-FBI) collected $50 MILLION dollars and gave it to Fusion GPS to continue its anti-Trump efforts.
Epoch Times has just released another story based on a leak of the Papadopoulos testimony to Congress.
ReplyDeleteI read the entire story, and it pretty much tells the same story GP told Dan Bongino as I remember that interview. However, there does seem to be more detail about the reasons why GP thought he was being set up with the trip to Israel and the payment of $10,000 Tawil made to GP during the that trip- he ties it back to the questions he was asked in the two FBI interviews in January and February of 2017. He also reveals that the FBI wanted him to wear a wire in London when Mifsud reached out again. His testimony left me with the impression that the wire wasn't to catch Mifsud, but was instead designed to get a recording GP with Mifsud discussing Clinton e-mails- much like Stephan Halper seemed to try to do in 2016.
Yancey, I'm planning on working my way through the GP think this evening. I'm not surprised to hear that it's mostly the same as Bongino's very good interview. Like you, I'm interested in the Israel trip and regard it as a clear setup.
ReplyDelete