December 18, 2017

"I believe, just from examining the public sources, that the FBI offered Christopher Steele $50,000 if he could corroborate the dossier."

"He either couldn’t, didn’t, wouldn’t, and they didn’t pay him the money," said Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano.

67 comments:

Vance said...

Some posters here hardest hit that their dreams of Trump going down won't be fulfilled.

--Vance

Nonapod said...

Not saying this isn't possible, but didn't Napolitano get in trouble for claiming that British intelligence wiretapped Trump tower or something?

Bay Area Guy said...

The Trump dossier is a piece of crap. Here it is - totally unsourced . Even Buzzfeed, who first published it on Jan 10, 2017 (10 days before the inauguration) wrote: "The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors."

It looks like a rump faction of leftists in the FBI/DOJ (Strzok, McCabe, Yates, Lynch) used the dossier to get a FISA warrant, then tapped a few Trump campaign guys, had Samantha Power unmask them, and then had minions leak the contents to the NYTimes, sending embittered leftists into a tizzy.

If Trump hadn't won, none of this "insurance" woulda been found out.

narciso said...

Ghcq did and they used Matt taits capital services to run the operation. Of course there is the matter of who was steeles liaison i the bureau, that would be Gaeta. Their organized crime specialist who worked on the FIFA case.

Big Mike said...

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t use it, does it? Only that they didn’t pay for it. And that’s assuming that the story is true.

narciso said...

How do we know that,

Wince said...

Did the FBI or DOJ nevertheless source the uncorroborated dossier to apply for a FISA warrant?

Clinton Playbook: "If you drag a $50,000 through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."

Original Mike said...

Blogger Bay Area Guy said..."It looks like a rump faction of leftists in the FBI/DOJ (Strzok, McCabe, Yates, Lynch) used the dossier to get a FISA warrant, then tapped a few Trump campaign guys, had Samantha Power unmask them, and then had minions leak the contents to the NYTimes, sending embittered leftists into a tizzy."

Yep, that's what we need to find out.

Stephen said...

WaPo appears to have had this story almost 10 months ago on February 28! Where was Fox then?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-once-planned-to-pay-former-british-spy-who-authored-controversial-trump-dossier/2017/02/28/896ab470-facc-11e6-9845-576c69081518_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.29ef361ab574

Mike Sylwester said...

When Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert "The FBI White-Washer" Mueller to the Special Counsel job, both men were well informed about the dossier and about this FBI offer to pay for it. Both were informed also that the FBI used the dossier to get the FISA warrant to wiretap Trump's associates.

In the minds of Rosenstein and Mueller, the top goal of the Special Counsel was to cover up these FBI antics.

The FBI -- and therefore Rosenstein and Mueller -- knew also that the Russian-meddling yarn was a pretense 1) to wiretap Trump's associates and 2) to defame Trump personally.

Mueller has been going through motions pretending to investigate Russian meddling in the elections. In that regard, his problem is to explain away that the imaginary meddling was used by FBI officials to remove Trump from politics.

Back in the 1960s, the FBI leadership wanted to remove Martin Luther King from his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement. Then the FBI used whipped up similar hysteria that the Russians were meddling in American politics as an excuse to wiretap King and his associates. The wiretapping provided evidence that King was committing adultery, and the FBI leadership leaked that information to journalists who hated King.

The FBI leadership was using similar methods to try to remove Trump from politics. That is what Mueller has been trying to cover up, but he himself is trying in his own way to remove Trump from politics.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“WaPo appears to have had this story almost 10 months ago on February 28! Where was Fox then?”

Thanks for posting that link Stephen, I knew I’d read that story about the FBI not paying Steele a while ago. It’s interesting that these reports are being recirculated. The first time they were reported on, no one paid attention. Now Fox thinks they’re offering something new?

Ultimately, the FBI did not pay Steele. Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

At the time of the October agreement, FBI officials probing Russian activities, including possible contacts between Trump associates and Russian entities, were aware of the information that Steele had been gathering while working for a Washington research firm hired by supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to the people familiar with the agreement. The firm was due to stop paying Steele as Election Day approached, but Steele felt his work was not done, these people said.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Inga said..."I knew I’d read that story about the FBI not paying Steele a while ago."

We all see what you're doing there.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“We all see what you're doing there.”

What am I “doing”, enlighten me.

tim in vermont said...

used the dossier to get a FISA warrant, then tapped a few Trump campaign guys, had Samantha Power unmask them, and then had minions leak the contents to the NYTimes, sending embittered leftists into a tizzy.”

Samantha Powers told Congress that it was done in her name but it wasn’t her what did it. There is still plenty of chicken left on this bone.

Original Mike said...

"What am I “doing”, enlighten me."

As if you don't know.

Qwinn said...

It may have been reported in February, but I don't recall seeing it before today. I doubt it got much attention then.

tim in vermont said...

I think that Neitchze said that being certain of the truth was a bigger enemy to the truth than lies.

Like on Franken, the Democrats are going to leave the true believers twisting in the wind again when this is over.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

"What am I “doing”, enlighten me."

“As if you don't know.”

No, I don’t know, tell me what you think I’m “doing”.

Original Mike said...

"No, I don’t know, tell me what you think I’m “doing”."

Spinning.

"I knew I’d read that story about the FBI not paying Steele a while ago."

The FBI offers to pay Steele to corroborate the dossier but either can't or won't. And from this you claim the important news is The FBI did not pay Steele!.

Original Mike said...

The FBI offers to pay Steele to corroborate the dossier but [he] either can't or won't. And from this you claim the important news is The FBI did not pay Steele!.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Spinning”.

Ah, why didn’t you say so right away? The Fox news report is doing the spinning, not I. This article came out in February, no one here even paid attention. Now it’s got some significance? Steele didn’t get paid, because he no longer did the work. The “spin” is that he “couldn’t” find anything.

Martin said...

So the whole thing is based on unverified hearsay from a former British spook?

Figures.

I am no fan of Manafort or Flynn, but they need to find somebody (DNC?) to sue for a LOT of money. Even if they can't recover much, they can put a financial crimp in that corrupt hell-hole with alien on future revenue until they recover the award..

Mike Sylwester said...

narciso at 2:36 PM

Ghcq did and they used Matt taits capital services to run the operation. Of course there is the matter of who was steeles liaison i the bureau, that would be Gaeta. Their organized crime specialist who worked on the FIFA case.

Michael Gaeta was the FBI's liaison at the US Embassy in Rome when Christopher Steele was trying to peddle his dossiers in the summer of 2016. Gaeta and Steele knew each other from 2010, when they (and Fusion's owner Glenn Simpson) were doing research about organized crime in Russia and Ukraine.

The Guardian has reported that Gaeta and Steele met in Rome in June 2016 to discuss the dossier.

It seems to me that Steele was writing two dossiers, and the public still knows only about the dossier that has a counter-intelligence angle -- the dossier reporting that Russian Intelligence using a film of prostitutes pissing on Obama's bed in Trump's hotel room in order to blackmail Trump, and so forth.

I speculate that Steele was trying to write a second dossier -- still unknown to the public -- with an organized-crime angle. This would be about Trump and the Russian Mafia. This second dossier was the reason why Steele met with the FBI's organized-crime expert Gaeta in Rome. Steele wanted Gaeta to use FBI resources to help Steele improve that organized-crime dossier.

I provided more details about this in my comments to a post titled "The president’s lawyers are sleepwalking their client into the abyss. They are entirely unrealistic..." on December 9.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-presidents-lawyers-are-sleepwalking.html

Original Mike said...

"Steele didn’t get paid, because he no longer did the work."

What does this sentence mean?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement....

He was off the case, but probably not for the reasons that Fox is trying to spin. Possibly he couldn’t continue because his cover was blown and it was too risky. Anyone think of that?

gadfly said...

"Examining public sources" - yet another way to say whatever trips your trigger without proof. If Napolitano found information in "public sources" he is free to direct us to these sources - Don'cha think?

Original Mike said...

"Possibly he couldn’t continue because his cover was blown and it was too risky. Anyone think of that?"

LMFAO!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

And in the aftermath of the publication of these explosive findings—as nothing less than the legitimacy of the 2016 U.S. presidential election was impugned; as congressional hearings and F.B.I. investigations were announced; as a bombastic president-elect continued to let loose with indignant tirades about “fake news”; as internal-security agents of the F.S.B., the main Russian espionage agency, were said to have burst into a meeting of intelligence officers, placed a bag over the head of the deputy director of its cyber-activities, and marched him off; as the body of a politically well-connected former F.S.B. general was reportedly found in his black Lexus—Christopher Steele had gone to ground.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele

Darrell said...

Lefties love making up fairy tales.

Rabel said...

"The IC [Intelligence Community] has not made any judgment that the information in this document [the Steele dossier] is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions."

- James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, Jan.11, 2017.

Deputy AG Rosenstein was asked this week in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee if the dossier was used in the FISA warrant application. He refused to answer.

Somebody's dirty and lying about it.

AG Sessions really needs to go spend more time with his family.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Someone like me stays in the shadows,” Steele would say, as if apologizing for what he did next. It was an action that went against all his training, all his professional instincts. Spies, after all, keep secrets; they don’t disclose them. And now that the F.B.I. had apparently let him down, there was another restraint tugging on his resolve: he didn’t know whom he could trust.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele

Did he stop working with the FBI because he didn’t trust them? He said there was a lot more to discover.

Darrell said...

When the body of a politically well-connected former F.S.B. general was reportedly found in his black Lexus—Christopher Steele started carrying three guns and a bottle of seltzer water. Shit just got real.

Big Mike said...

@Rabel, the two testimonies do seem inconsistent, do they not? But one of those two men is on record as having admitted to lying to Congress, is he not?

Original Mike said...

"He said there was a lot more to discover."

Of course he did.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

One of the reasons his dossier was taken seriously in Washington in 2016 was Steele’s reputation in the US for producing reliable reports on Russia, according to Harding’s book.

Between 2014 and 2016, he authored more than a hundred reports on Russia and Ukraine, which were commissioned by private clients but shared widely within the state department and passed across the desks of the secretary of state, John Kerry, and the assistant secretary Victoria Nuland, who led the US response to the annexation of Crimea and the covert invasion of eastern Ukraine.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/15/christopher-steele-trump-russia-dossier-accurate

If the Dossier was used to obtain a FISA warrant, it wasn’t based on nonsense.

Michael K said...

Hope springs eternal in creep-Inga's heart.

Now we see better why Trump is going to let this run.

Mueller is doing a better job of exonerating Trump than Fox News could ever do.

Now that Fox has hired the idiot Obama girl Marie Harf, I have no interest in anything there except Tucker.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Hope springs eternal in creep-Inga's heart.
Mueller is doing a better job of exonerating Trump than Fox News could ever do.”

Delusion springs eternal in Michael K’s creepy brain.

Matt Sablan said...

The dossier has multiple incorrect facts in it. It is not a document that should have been used to get a warrant and if it was and the fact it was flawed was withheld the warrant should be challenged just as you would a warrant gotten by an officer lying to the court.

Darrell said...

If the Dossier was used to obtain a FISA warrant, it wasn’t based on nonsense.

No. 4Chan trolling. The private clients should ask for their money back. And maybe kick the shit out of him for good measure.

Sam L. said...

FBI: Not trustworthy.

Matt Sablan said...

May be Steele's known KGB sources met Trump's mystery sources and decided to stop spying on the guy they were colluding with so Steele had no more sources. Imagine how embarrassing that KGB status meeting was. Wait Piotyr you're spying for Trump? I just told this other guy all about your work. Woops!

Darrell said...

FISA warrant usually authorize chain warrants. Everybody that called into Trump tower could have been affected--hundreds of Trump employees worldwide.. And everyone they spoke with. They all should sue the government and the Democratic Party for $millions.

Original Mike said...

"May be Steele's known KGB sources met Trump's mystery sources and decided to stop spying on the guy they were colluding with so Steele had no more sources. Imagine how embarrassing that KGB status meeting was. Wait Piotyr you're spying for Trump? I just told this other guy all about your work. Woops!"

I bet Steele went to ground because he got word that Trump asked Putin to stick a bag over his head and stick him in a Lexus.

narciso said...

And putins former propaganda chief lesin got the colonel plum treatment in a dc hotel. A year before the election

Drago said...

"Between 2014 and 2016, he authored more than a hundred reports on Russia and Ukraine, which were commissioned by private clients but shared widely within the state department and passed across the desks of the secretary of state, John Kerry, and the assistant secretary Victoria Nuland, who led the US response to the annexation of Crimea and the covert invasion of eastern Ukraine."

LOL

If you throw cash around to "sources" in foreign nations, you'll be surprised at just how "creative" they can be in always giving you more of what you ask for as long as the gravy train rolls on.

Go ahead, give it a try yourself. Contact any Russian official and tell them you'll kick $10k their way if they can come up with some "interesting" tidbits about someone you are interested in.

I guarantee they'll always come up with something!! Better yet, they'll guarantee that there's lots more where that came from!!

I'll bet Hillary's and the dems cash paid for quite a few parties in Moscow where Steele's "sources" enjoyed themselves immensely!

Hey, you want salacious?! I'll give you salacious!!

narciso said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/us/mikhail-lesins-strange-death-in-us-follows-a-fall-from-russias-elite.html

narciso said...

Graham greenest our man in havana is typical of the genre

1775OGG said...

Under Dir. Mueller, the FBI really did fail to track down the origins of those anthrax letter's that hit several government offices. that shows his ability to direct the FBI to do actual accomplish very little in terms of investigative efforts.

Not certain Mueller's SP team will accomplish much either. Flynn's current predicament is on a par with Libby's conviction; an SP's success?

narciso said...

Where Alec Guinness the vacuum cleaner salesman, makes up lists of sources as well as supposed nuclear design diagrams

narciso said...

Yes the first one, hstfull was because of kristifs recycling rumors the secinf fellow ivins shot himself in 2008, the culprit is still out there.

dreams said...

"Now that Fox has hired the idiot Obama girl Marie Harf,"

It's amazing to me how many people can advance so high in their careers, apparently due to the lack of any self-awareness of their stupidity. And apparently there are also a lot people who are just poor judges of character.

Mike Sylwester said...

I think that Robert "The FBI White-Washer" Mueller is trying to remove Trump from the Presidency by obtaining and the leaking Trump's tax documents.

The only "investigating" Mueller is doing is investigating justifications for obtaining Trump's tax documents from the IRS.

When Mueller was FBI Director and the FBI was leaking that Steven Hatfill was the anthrax culprit, the most prominent recipient of the FBI leaks was Nicholas Kristoff.

More recently, Kristoff has been begging publicly for government employees to leak Trump's tax documents to himself.

When Mueller obtains the tax documents, he will leak them again to a journalist he has trusted in the past.

Mueller understands that the Russian-meddling yarn will not work to remove Trump from the Presidency. In Mueller's mind, leaking Trump's tax documents is the best way to proceed in the current situation.

narciso said...

There was a 5 million dollar payout to hatfill and an apology from kristof.

Mueller played a similar role as comedy, in the brouhaha over terrorist surveillance that

Unknown said...

"Now that Fox has hired the idiot Obama girl Marie Harf, I have no interest in anything there except Tucker."

I dunno, Gutfeld's analysis is both spot-on and hilarious, and Kimberly G, yum! Wait, am I allowed to say that?

narciso said...

Well gutfrld is tolerable in small dose, he was better on redeye, as for guilfoyle

n.n said...

So, Democrats spied on the Republican Party, and Obama, colluding with the press, post-coup Kiev, and other foreign assets, executed a coverup of their activities under the color of law, in order to influence the election, presumably with the intent to disenfranchise Americans a la "immigration reform", DREAM immigrants, and Planned Parenthood.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Now that Fox has hired the idiot Obama girl Marie Harf, I have no interest in anything there except Tucker.

I’ve just given up on Fox altogether. Picture is on without sound and I listen to the radio. If I hear Tucker is good I retrieve it but am rarely impressed lately. The news happens too fast for “news” to keep up.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left's plan was to de-fang Trump's DOJ and then go after Trump on fake-crimes created as insurance polices by the very bureau investigating him.

Mueller should be told to go pound sand, but the tax payer funded charade must continue or Botox Nancy and her gang of fools will start yelling "Obstruction of justice" again.

Ken B said...

Merry Christmas

Inga & Stephen: Why do you say that? It's been said before. It's not like there is ever anything important that people don’t notice in one context — like say before anyone heard of Strzok or knew he used it to try to get a warrant — that might interest them in another. Like the Trump pussy tape was years old. So cut it with the Christmas. Once and done!

Ken B said...

Michael K
Long ago when Trump tweeted about being bugged I warned friends who hate him to tread warily, that he knows more than they do. They didn’t listen. Trump knows more about the Russia situation than anyone here, like Inga for instance, and I think he knows — KNOWS — one particular thing: he did not collude. And if that is what he knows then of course he wants to let Mueller run.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Inga thinks the dossier is accurate.

Deep thoughts from the wish-fact hive mind.

FullMoon said...

gadfly said...

"Examining public sources" - yet another way to say whatever trips your trigger without proof. If Napolitano found information in "public sources" he is free to direct us to these sources - Don'cha think?
12/18/17, 3:56 PM


It was in the Washington Post earlier this year. Pretty sure that is a public source.

Gk1 said...

Its funny to me how all my lefty friends on facebook got the memo out that trump was going to fire Mueller any minute now. Its like they sense they lost the narrative and need to keep their base agitated since the last few weeks have been terrible for Mueller and the "investigation". In a few weeks they will try a new angle, asking Mueller to open up investigations on Trump's behavior on "the Apprentice" set.

Yancey Ward said...

"It looks like a rump faction of leftists in the FBI/DOJ (Strzok, McCabe, Yates, Lynch) used the dossier to get a FISA warrant"

With the discovery of the Ohr connection to FusionGPS, I think another theory needs to be considered seriously- that a cabal in the FBI/DOJ created the dossier, and used Steele as a front. GPS then sends the dossier back with the FBI/DOJ fingerprints removed.

Ken B said...

Yancey
Nah. Easier to just hire GPSF, on the tacit understanding the dossier doesn’t have to hold up, it just needs to sensational. Less work, less risk, and you get to feel more like a boss than a worker bee.

Jersey Fled said...

These discussions are a lot more readable if you type "inga" in the search in page function of your browser and skip any post that comes up highlited.

Tim said...

Just yesterday Ohr got lost on his way to testify to the Senate. How can a regular guy like me get a "no thanks , I won't show" card?