Despite the hysteria this article created today, it’s important to note that the events in question STILL did not precede the existence of the dossier, or more importantly, even the delivery of the dossier to the FBI, if you believe they didn’t know about it since it’s original conception. Therefore, the NYT attempt to claim that this new info somehow predates the dossier, is actually a failure.
Per the NYT article today:
“The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russia’s attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trump’s associates conspired.”
Now, compare that to Byron York’s article from last month, which has been considered the most complete piece regarding the dossier timeline:
“Steele told the left-leaning publication Mother Jones that he took the first part of his dossier to the FBI “near the start of July.”
James Comey, when he was FBI director, told members of the House Intelligence Committee the Trump-Russia investigation began “in late July.”
So the timeline is: The first dossier report was June 20, Steele approached the FBI near the start of July, and the FBI began its investigation in late July.”
My understanding is that Fusion GPS got the dossier got under way in April 2016.
Popodopolous had his drunken blab session with the Aussie in May 2016, but the incident was forgotten about until Wikileaks released the first batch of DNC emails on July 22, just before the DNC convention. So the earliest Aussie contact with US officials about the incident would have followed on that.
However, the WaPo had already reported on June 14, 2016 the story that “Russians” had hacked the DNC servers, that the DNC had discovered the activity in April, and had hired Crowdstrike, who determined that the hack had been the Russians doing.
This is where it gets real interesting: Remember, the VERY SAME FBI agents who are charged with exonerating Hillary in her home server email scandal, also somehow magically morphed into the lead investigators of the alleged Russian espionage. Here's a “what if”: What if those FBI guys, Strzok and the rest, heard from Clinton or her staff about the DNC “hack”? They certainly would be interested, since the question of whether Russians or others had gotten access to Clinton's basement server was part of their “investigation.” What if the FBI, the Clintons, and the DNC decided that they could come up with a plan that would link Trump to the phony Russian hack? Remember: Crowdstrike and Fusion GPS were both hired by the SAME Perkins Coie attorney within mere days of each other - are they not related? Is this not coordinated? And see how both hires allow the FBI to claim that they're somehow not directly involved.
This FISA warrant stuff that's going to come out next week is going to be explosive, but what I really want to see are the emails exchanged between FBI investigator Strzok and the Clinton people from April 2016.