FBI March 2017 Talking Points and Steele Dossier
The Steele dossier was the basis for the FBI's investigation when Comey went public.
On the eve of Danchenko trial, Adam Goldman of the NYT re-upped the commonplace meme that it was "false" to claim that Steele dossier "was the basis for FBI's investigation":
But, as always, one has to watch the pea.
When Comey took the Crossfire Hurricane public in March 2017, the dossier constituted virtually all of the FBI's predicate and was still the primary predicate when Mueller took over the investigation. Without the dossier, Comey would not have had any basis for taking Crossfire Hurricane to congressional leaders and the public and there wouldn’t have been any validly predicated investigation at the time of Mueller’s appointment.
When Dana Boente, who, in March 2017, was the Acting Deputy Attorney General and the most senior Russiagate official following Sessions’ recusal, was asked by Senate Judiciary Committee staffers in late 2020 to assess the predicate without using Steele dossier “information”, Boente made the sensible observation that he’d have to “go back through the application and strike the references to the Steele materials”, adding that he’d “never done that to see”:
Until earlier this year, it was impossible for third parties to carry out the sensible analysis proposed by Boente, as FBI had, for years, concealed the documents that it had used to brief DOJ and congressional leadership. However, though little noticed at the time, one of the Sussmann exhibits - DX-563, archived by Ivan Pentchoukov here, contained an FBI Talking Points document from March 8, 2017, that had been submitted to and approved by DOJ for the FBI briefing to congressional leadership that Comey had eagerly undertook in March 2017.
Applying the methodology recommended by Boente, I've transcribed the March 8, 2017 Talking Points and struck through the sections dependent on the dossier. Readers are invited to read for themselves and assess whether the FBI without the Steele dossier (the collapse of which they concealed) had sufficient (or any) valid predication for their Crossfire Hurricane enterprise investigation of the Trump campaign. Or whether it was the “travesty” that Barr proclaimed after the Horowitz. And ask oneself once again why Durham charged the Steele Primary Sub-source who exposed the Steele dossier fantasy to the FBI and failed to carry out his assigned task of investigating the FBI “irregularities, misstatements [and] omissions that Barr had tasked Durham to investigate.
Talking Points re Crossfire Hurricane Cases
March 8, 2017
Introduction:
(U//FOUO) There has been an extraordinary amount of speculation regarding the FBI’s investigative efforts into potential ties between Russia and members of the Trump campaign. I’m here today to describe what the FBI is and is not doing with regard to these matters.
(U//FOUO) Hostile foreign governments deploy a wide range of foreign influence techniques. Foreign influence--also known as political influence--is defined as foreign-directed perception management or active measures operations intended to influence U.S. priority policies or policymakers in order to adversely affect national security. The FBI has always worked to disrupt foreign influence activities; this effort existed in the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential election and continues today. Of course the FBI’s work in this regard is not just focused on Russia.
(U//FOUO) Of primary concern to us are intelligence officers: those people trained to identify, recruit|, and direct people to do things like gain access to classified information and otherwise clandestinely act as their agents. In the years preceding the election. the FBI is aware of contact between Russian intelligence officers and Carter Page; however. we did not see contact between Russian intelligence officers and members of the Trump campaign or administration, either in the months preceding the election or afterwards.
(U//FOUO) A second category includes overt diplomats and government officials, people who, while not trained intelligence officers, still interact with U.S. government officials in many different contexts in order to pursue their nation’s policy objectives. This category includes people like Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak REDACTED.
(U//FOUO) A final group are personnel who function as co-optees, access agents or agents of influence, who are not employed by a foreign government, but nonetheless are used to advance governmental aims. For example, the FBI commonly encounters individuals who are Russian oligarchs or businessmen who may be motivated by a confluence of personal, business, and patriotic reasons. The FBI’s challenge and objective is to discern whether a particular action is motivated by the individual’s own interest, the foreign nation they are associated with, or some combination of both. As part of this current effort, the FBI is looking at these types of Russian actors and their efforts targeting individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign and administration, which I will describe next.
Predication:
(U//FOUO) On July 27, 2016, a friendly foreign government contacted the FBI to advise that in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, an individual identified at that time by then-Presidential Candidate Trump as an official foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign, told him/her that Papadopoulos was aware that, as described by the foreign government, “the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it [Russia] could assist [the campaign] with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs. Clinton (and President Obama)," This statement predicated the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE umbrella investigation.
(U//FOUO) Papadopoulos did not identify the campaign individual who purportedly received the suggestion from Russia, nor did he identify how or whether the Trump team reacted to the offer. In an effort to identify the potential recipient of the "suggestion," the FBI identified four individuals who it deemed more likely to have engaged in such contact with the Russians.
(U//FOUO) The below summaries provide a snapshot as of this moment of the current status of the still ongoing investigations.
Crossfire Hurricane Cases:
(U//FOUO) George Papadopoulos (Crossfire Typhoon): - in mid-March 2016, George Papadopoulos was identified by then-Presidential Candidate Trump as an official foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign.
(U//FOUO) The FBI interviewed Papadopoulos on multiple occasions in late January and early February 2017. Papadopoulos admitted to receiving information in early 2016 from a UK-based think tank director with professed connections to the Government of Russia. According to Papadopoulos, the think tank director stated Russia possessed "dirt on [Clinton]" in the form of "thousands" of emails. Papadopoulos also admitted to contact with the same friendly foreign government that provided the FBI with the predicating information. However, Papadopoulos has not confirmed the information reported by the friendly foreign government source regarding Papadopoulos’s knowledge of contact between the Trump team and the Russians.
(U//FOUO) Since his last interview in mid-February, Papadopoulos has refused to meet with the FBI.
(U//FOUO) Carter Page(Crossfire Dragon) - In mid-March 2016, Carter Page was identified by Trump as an official foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign. Page also has a long history of ties to the Russian Federation, including business relationships, financial investments, travel, and direct contact with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) intelligence officers, and had been an FBI CI subject prior to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
(U//FOUO) In reports prepared by CROWN. a former FBI CHS, Page was reported to have had "secret meetings" in early July 2016 with a named individual in Russia’s Presidential Administration during which they discussed Russia’s release of damaging information on Hillary Clinton in exchange for alterations to the GOP platform regarding U.S. policy towards Ukraine. (This statement has not yet been corroborated). The reports prepared by CROWN further indicated that Paul Manafort was reported to have initially "managed" the relationship between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign, using Carter Page as an intermediary. In the wake of increased media scrutiny over his dealings with Russia, Page’s role in the campaign was publicly disavowed in late September 2016, and after that time there appears to be minimal contact between Page and members of the Trump campaign and administration.
(U//FOUO) FISA coverage of Page was authorized on October 21, 2016, and renewed in mid-January 2017. No drafts of the FISA applications were "denied" by the Court.
(U//FOUO) Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (Crossfire Fury) - Paul Manafort was the campaign chairman and chief strategist for then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump between May and August 2016. Manafort has long standing ties to current and former members of the pro-Russian political faction in Ukraine, including ties with former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, and has conducted business deals with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.
In reports prepared by CROWN, a former FBI CHS, Manafort was reported to have initially "managed" the relationship between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign, using Carter Page as an intermediary. (This statement has not yet been corroborated). In the wake of increased media scrutiny over his dealings with Russia and Ukraine in mid-August 2016, Manafort was initially demoted within the Trump campaign and subsequently resigned.
(U//FOUO) Michael Flynn (Crossfire Razor) - Retired Lieutenant General and former DIA Director Michael T. Flynn was a foreign policy advisor to then-Presidential Candidate Trump since late 2015. Flynn has a history of ties to the Russian Federation, including professional relationships, travel, and direct contact with staff at the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C.
(U//FOUO) Flynn engaged in a series of telephone calls with Russian Ambassador Kislyak in late December 2016, including discussions about a UN vote on Israeli settlements and discussions regarding the U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats and facility closures.
These calls were collected via traditional FBI XXX coverage of the Russian Embassy in Washington. D.C.
This collection did not involve Section 702.
The FBI routinely monitors foreign establishments to understand their clandestine intelligence activities here in the U.S. Importantly, while this activity targets the foreign power, m pursuit of its counterintelligence mission, the FBI monitors this collection in an effort to discover U.S. persons who may be targeted by the foreign power, or engaged in clandestine intelligence gathering on behalf of a foreign power.
(U//FOUO) Flynn was interviewed by the FBI on January 24, 2017.
Potential Questions and Answers re Crossfire Hurricane Cases - March 8, 2017
(U//FOUO) If asked about POTUS Tweets
(U//FOUO) To date, the FBI has not conducted electronic surveillance targeting Candidate Trump or President Trump, his "server" or any member of his administration, now, or during the campaign. Media reports indicating otherwise are inaccurate.
(U//FOUO) Additionally, no draft FISA applications regarding these areas were presented to the FISA Court and withdrawn. That reporting is also inaccurate.
(U//FOUO) Alfa Bank: In fall 2016, the FBI received an allegation that Alfa Bank, a Russian bank with close ties to the Kremlin, was covertly communicating with the Trump campaign. In assessing this allegation, the FBI determined that a U.S.-based server, which housed an email domain previously used to send advertising emails on behalf of President Trump’s hotel business, was trying to communicate with the bank’s server.
(U//FOUO) A U.S.-based company administered the email domain and the related hotel business marketing campaign, and a separate U.S.-based company ran a U.S.-based server that housed it. The administering company indicated the email domain had been discontinued by Trump’s hotel business. Ultimately, the FBI (and two private computer security companies) found no evidence of emails sent between the bank and the candidate’s discontinued business domain.
(U//FOUO) And contrary to press reports, no FISA surveillance was used to investigate the Alfa Bank allegation regarding the server, and no draft applications were presented to the FISC.
(U//FOUO) If asked about CROWN/Steele:
(
U//FOUO) CROWN, a former FBI CHS, is a former friendly foreign intelligence service employee who has reported for about three years, and some of whose reporting has been corroborated. CROWN has been previously compensated by the FBI, however, the information regarding Russian activities directed at the Trump campaign was collected by CROWN on behalf of private clients.(U//FOUO) The FBI did not pay CROWN for the information on Russia’s activities relating to Trump and the Trump campaign. The FBI only paid for CROWN’s travel arrangements to meet with us.Independent of his pre-existing source relationship to the FBI, CROWN was retained by an individual who been hired, first by a Republican primary challenger to Trump (identity unknown to the FBI), and later by an entity related to the Democratic Party (identity also unknown to the FBI). Following his collection and production of information to his client(s), CROWN approached and voluntarily provided the FBI with the information he had collected, based on his stated patriotic concern about the nature of the information.
(U//FOUO) After receiving the information, the FBI met with CROWN and told him that while the allegations in the reports were significant, the FBI needed evidence to support the allegations made in the reporting. The FBI stated that depending on the nature of such evidence, the FBI might be willing to pay for such material.(U//FOUO) CROWN maintains a network of sub-sources, who, in many cases, utilize their own sub-sources. CROWN’s reporting in this matter is derived primarily from a Russian-based source, who uses a network of sub-sources. The FBI has no control over the Russian-based sub-source or any of the sub-sources used by the Russian-based subsource.
Redlines re Crossfire Hurricane Cases - March 7, 2017
Discussion of the identity of the foreign nation providing the predicating information.
Discussion related to the FBI’s input into the AG’s recusal decision, on deliberative process grounds.
Discussion of whether any US Attorney’s office has been assigned to any case, as well as detail regarding future investigative strategy or prosecutive discussion.
SOME COMMENTS
Without the Steele dossier material (struck through above), there is not enough left to justify either the Carter Page FISA (about which there has been considerable discussion) or the Crossfire Hurricane umbrella investigation of the Trump campaign.
The information in the FBI Points is fraught with errors and fraudulent misrepresentations:
Steele’s Primary Sub-source was not “Russian-based”; he was resident in northern Virginia. It was untrue that “the FBI has no control over the Russian-based sub-source”. The FBI had entered first into a proffer agreement and, in March 2017, granted Confidential Human Source status to Danchenko, who was thus subject to FBI tasking.
it was deceptive to say that the “FBI only paid for CROWN’s travel arrangements to meet with us”. It had entered into an agreement in early October 2016 to pay Steele for information on Trump campaign; it only cancelled payments because Steele went public in an interview with Mother Jones in late October.
During October, Steele was working under an agreement with FBI and accepted tasking from the FBI. Steele provided multiple reports to FBI in October, several of which were exclusive to FBI (and not provided to Fusion GPS.)
In the paragraph below regarding Flynn, the Talking Points uncharacteristically told the truth. Flynn was accused of talking to Kislyak about sanctions and then subsequently pled guilty that he had lied to the FBI by denying that he had talked about U.S. sanctions. In a contemporary interview in Feb 2017 with Daily Caller (shortly after his resignation), Flynn acknowledged that he had talked about expulsion of diplomats and facility closures, but denied that he had talked about sanctions, which were itemized in the December 29 Obama administration executive orders as a distinct active measure against Russian intelligence services and their leaders. The transcript (provided much later) supported Flynn’s original position; the 302 (in all versions) showed that the FBI had not even asked Flynn about sanctions - only about expulsions. The March 8 Talking Points were highly exculpatory to Flynn and ought to have been provided to him on multiple occasions.
And, absent the Steele dossier fraud, what was the predicate for a counter-intelligence investigation of Manafort (who had long-standing close relationships with the US State Department in Ukraine)? Or Flynn for that matter?
The FBI similarly deceived its audience when it said that “Papadopoulos has not confirmed the information reported by the friendly foreign government source regarding Papadopoulos’s knowledge of contact between the Trump team and the Russians [in respect to the supposed Russian offer of help].” Papadopoulos did not merely “not confirm” - he denied.
The FBI also concealed a fundamental chronological impossibility arising from their original false speculation that Mifsud or Papadopoulos were referring in late April or early May 2016 to the hack of DNC emails (as opposed to the ~30,000 Hillary Clinton emails that had been deleted, but which remained in controversy.) By March 2017, the FBI knew or ought to have known that the DNC emails had been hacked on May 23 and May 25, 2016 - a month after Mifsud’s breakfast with Papadopoulos. An alternative explanation that “collapsed” whatever shabby predicate was left after the collapse of the Steele dossier.
The over-emphasis on issues pertaining to the Carter Page FISA application has had the pernicious effect of being a sort of gaslighting distraction from the predicat of the much more impactful Crossfire Hurricane enterprise investigation itself - even though many/most of the defects are common to both operations.
For Mifsud to be referring to the May DNC hack in April would indeed be a chronological impossibility if it was a hack. But it would not be for planners of a hoax. The Manafort angle, which is highly intertwined with the Russia hoax, started in prior to March 2016.
Oleg Deripaska hired Steele in March 2016 to investigate Manafort. Steele's US agent, Igor Danchenko, told the FBI (according to the Horowitz report) that Steele had originally assigned him to investigate Manafort, who was also the first target of Nelly Ohr's research for Fusion GPS. This was not coincidental as Steele hired Glenn Simpson on behalf of Deripaska before Simpson hired Steele on behalf of Clinton. Coincidentally, (or not), Bruce Ohr met with Steele and Deripaska in January 2016, according to Ohr's own memo. They all shared communication through DC lawyer, Adam Waldman.
Clinton clearly had foreknowledge of the DNC hack since the FBI was aware of the Russian malware on the DNC server since summer of 2015 when they were tipped off by Dutch intelligence that they had witnessed the Russian SVR break into the DNC server. We know now that Clinton's lawyers were closely working with the FBI and later made up the bulk of the Mueller investigative team. There is zero chance that the FBI forgot to tell them the Russians were on their server.
If Clinton had knowledge of the Russia malware on the DNC server she had to have had intentionally left it unmolested for a year, including through her Hillary For America hack of John Podesta's emails in March of 2016. How else could it have remained there while having the same Hillary For America IT people and cyber security firm sit on their hands and not run any anti-virus on the DNC network? Their IT contractors, as well as the DNC's, were MIS Inc, a small Chicago IT clan loyal to the Obama camp since his 2008 campaign. The two Clinton operations also used the same lawyers, Perkins Coie, and the same cyber security firm, Crowdstrike.
When Dmitri Alperovitch of Crowdstrike was called in by Perkins Coie to look at the DNC server on May 1, 2016, he acted shocked to find Russians on the server. The DNC's emails got exfiltrated 21 days later on May 21st, under his supervision. So, he could not be eliminated as being involved in that exfiltration in a criminal science perspective. Yet the FBI were willing to completely rely on Crowdstrike's analysis and control of physical evidence for their crime investigation, breaking all policy and precedent of allowing the supposed victims to investigate their own cases.
Knowing what we know now about the FBI should make this a very clear story of the largest political op, "dirty trick," in American History.
Steve, I don't understand your minimization of the importance of the Steele Dossier and the 4 FISAs that were based on it. (Pt. No. 7 above) 2,600 subpoenas were issued in the Mueller "investigation" and at the very least a substantial portion of these were the product of the Dossier and the fraudulent FISA.
The FBI and Mueller were able to gather huge amounts of information based on the FISAs. Carter Page was an unpaid adviser to an informal committee that met infrequently. He never even met the 2 Russians he was supposed to have conspired with and never had even heard of one. Paragraph 2 of the first FISA alleged that he was an agent of a foreign power, when he had in fact worked with the CIA for 5 years and was viewed as a positive contact.
It took massive lying and fraud, all easily understood to do this. The fact that the FISAs could come out of the FBI and AG's office is irrefutable evidence of their massive corruption and of an attempted intelligence agency coup. Everyone can understand this without much explanation. It is something that can resonate with a substantial proportion of the public.
Other misdeeds by the intelligence community, require delving into the details and keeping the dates correct, which is not something that 95% of the public will do. (Such as the facts surrounding the claimed call that Danchenko claimed that Sergei Millian made)