Posted on 05/08/2019 6:14:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
Steele’s stunning pre-FISA confession: Informant needed to air Trump dirt before election
If ever there were an admission that taints the FBI’s secret warrant to surveil Donald Trump’s campaign, it sat buried for more than 2 1/2 years in the files of a high-ranking State Department official.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline.
And that confession occurred 10 days before the FBI used Steele’s now-discredited dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign’s ties to Russia.
Steele’s client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 election, Kavalec wrote in a typed summary of her meeting with Steele and Tatyana Duran, a colleague from Steele’s Orbis Security firm. The memos were unearthed a few days ago through open-records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United.
Kavalec’s notes do not appear to have been provided to the House Intelligence Committee during its Russia probe, according to former Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). “They tried to hide a lot of documents from us during our investigation, and it usually turns out there’s a reason for it,” Nunes told me. Senate and House Judiciary investigators told me they did not know about them, even though they investigated Steele’s behavior in 2017-18.
One member of Congress transmitted the memos this week to the Department of Justice’s inspector general, fearing its investigation of FISA abuses may not have had access to them.
Nonetheless, the FBI is doing its best to keep much of Kavalec’s information secret by retroactively claiming it is classified, even though it was originally marked unclassified in 2016.
The apparent effort to hide Kavalec’s notes from her contact with Steele has persisted for some time.
State officials acknowledged a year ago they received a copy of the Steele dossier in July 2016, and got a more detailed briefing in October 2016 and referred the information to the FBI.
But what was discussed was not revealed. Sources told me more than a year ago that Kavalec had the most important (and memorialized) interaction with Steele before the FISA warrant was issued, but FBI and State officials refused to discuss it, or even confirm it.
The encounter, and Kavalec’s memos, were forced into public view through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by Citizens United. Yet, all but a few lines have been redacted after the fact. Officials are citing as the reason national security, in the name of the FBI and a half-century-old intelligence law.
David Bossie, head of Citizens United and an informal Trump adviser, said the documents suggest there was an illegal effort to “frame” the future president with bogus Russia collusion allegations. “This new information proves why the attorney general must conduct a thorough investigation of the investigators,” he said.
Sources tell me there also are handwritten notes from the meeting, with information about Steele’s political ties, that have not been given to Congress. “There’s a connection to Hillary Clinton in the notes,” said one source who has seen them.
Perhaps those will come to light soon.
The mere three sentences that the FBI allowed State to release, unredacted, show that Kavalec sent an email two days after her encounter with Steele, alerting others.
“You may already have this information but wanted to pass it on just in case,” Kavalec wrote in the lone sentence the FBI and State released from that email. The names of the recipients, the subject line and the attachments are blacked out.
Interestingly, one legal justification cited for redacting the Oct. 13, 2016, email is the National Security Act of 1947, which can be used to shield communications involving the CIA or the White House National Security Council.
The three sentences visible in her memo show that U.S. officials had good reason to suspect Steele’s client and motive in alleging Trump-Russia collusion because they were election-related and facilitated by the Clinton-funded Fusion GPS founder, Glenn Simpson.
“Orbis undertook the investigation into the Russia/Trump connection at the behest of an institution he declined to identify that had been hacked,” Kavalec wrote.
At the time, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was the highest-profile victim of election-year hacking.
“The institution approached them based on the recommendation of Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch (specialists in economic crime, formerly of the WSJ) and is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” Kavalec wrote. “Orbis undertook the investigation in June of 2016.” Steele’s firm Orbis was a subcontractor to Fusion GPS, and WSJ refers to The Wall Street Journal.
Everything else in the memo was redacted. The FOIA notes contain this explanation for the redactions: “Classified by FBI on 4/25/2019 – Class: SECRET.”
In other words, the FBI under Director Christopher Wray classified the document as “secret” just a few days ago. To add injury to insult, the FBI added this hopeful note: “Declassify on 12/31/2041.” That would be 25 years after the 2016 election.
Despite the heavy redactions, Kavalec’s notes have momentous consequence.
For the first time, we have written proof the U.S. government knew well before the FBI secured the FISA warrant that Steele had a political motive and Election Day deadline to make his dossier public.
And we know that information was transmitted before the Carter Page FISA warrant to one or more people whose job is so sensitive that their identity had to be protected. That means there is little chance the FBI didn’t know about Steele’s political client, or the Election Day deadline, before requesting the FISA warrant.
Documents and testimony from Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, show he told the FBI in August 2016 that Steele was “desperate” to defeat Trump and his work had something to do with Clinton’s campaign.
Kavalec’s notes make clear the DNC was a likely client and the election was Steele’s deadline to smear Trump.
Likewise, there is little chance the FBI didn’t know that Steele, then a bureau informant, had broken protocol and gone to the State Department in an effort to make the Trump dirt public.
That makes the FBI’s failure to disclose to the FISA judges the information about Steele’s political bias and motive all the more stunning. And it makes the agents’ use of his unverified dossier to support the warrant all the more shameful.
Kavalec’s notes shed light on another mystery from the text messages between the FBI’s Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which first revealed the politically-biased nature of the Trump collusion probe.
Strzok, the lead FBI agent on the case, and Page, a lawyer working for the FBI deputy director, repeatedly messaged each other in October 2016 about efforts to pressure and speed the review of the FISA warrant.
For instance, on Oct. 11, 2016, Strzok texted Page that he was “fighting with Stu for this FISA,” an apparent reference to then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stu Evans in DOJ’s national security division.
A few days later, on Oct. 14, Strzok emailed Page he needed some “hurry the F up pressure” to get the FISA approved.
If the evidence is good and the FISA request solid, why did the FBI need to apply pressure?
The real reason may be the FBI was trying to keep a lid on the political origins, motives and Election Day deadline of its star informant Steele.
And that would be the ultimate abuse of the FBI’s FISA powers.
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in drug experiments, and numerous cases of political corruption. He serves as an investigative columnist and executive vice president for video at The Hill.
Steele’s client [Hillary] “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 election, Kavalec [Deputy Assistant Secretary of State] wrote in a typed summary of her meeting with Steele and Tatyana Duran, a colleague from Steele’s Orbis Security firm.
This will all be interesting footnotes to trivia unless someone starts effing going to jail.
What this shows is that the Obama Administration WAS ACTIVELY INVOLVED in the HOAX FROM THE BEGINNING............No wonder it was kept hidden......................
Let’s remember.....we, the people, have skin in this game. US intel was misappropriated and used by Democrats to attack and undermine a presidential candidate.
And when Trump was elected, they were so cocksure of themseles, they continued their attacks on a sitting president.
They even thought they could stop Trump’s inauguration.
Govt Intel is not a political tool......it is intended to protect the safety and security of Americans.
The final Mueller report is more than an exoneration of Trump. It’s a searing indictment of Obama’s FBI.......
and a reminder that we, the people, not only need to know ....we demand to know....the sordid details behind this unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate.
As Rep. Jim Jordan (Repub-OH) said, text messages between Page and Strzok, reveal FBI views of Trump that were more
than just biased, they actually show “animus” toward the president.
The attack on Trump was not individuals acting alone. The sinister plot was orchestrated by a sitting president with plenty to hide.
The Halfrican desperately needed Hillary to win......to sweep the wrongdoing under the rug. US intel was used for sinister purposes.
Time for a reckoning for Obama-era government officials who, with malice aforethought, deliberately undermined
the safety and security of Americans w/ what they knew was a wild goose chase. They knew it was bogus because
they masterminded the plot from the getgo:
<><>former FBI Director James Comey,
<><>former CIA Director John Brennan,
<><> former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper,
<><>former Attorney General Loretta Lynch,
<><> Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates,
<><>former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe,
<><>former FBI agent Peter Strzok,
<><> former FBI lawyer Lisa Page,
<><>Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr,
<><> mastermind of the plot, Barack Obama,
<><> Obama’s security advisor Susan Rice.
Citizenfreepress.com
Bob Woodward tells an interesting story about the dossier… John Brennan exposed…
WOODWARD: “What I found out recently is really quite surprising, is that the dossier (really a lot of garbage—
Mueller found out too,) is that early in the plot to build the intel community assessment on Russian
interference, in an early draft, they actually put the dossier on page two in kind of a breakout box,”
Woodward said in a panel moderated by host Chris Wallace.
“I think it was the CIA pushing this,” he added. “Real intel experts looked at this and said no, this is not intel,
this is garbage and they took it out. But in this process the idea that they would include something like that
in one of the great stellar intelligence assessments (as Mueller also found out) is highly questionable.
Needs to be investigated.”
<><> the CIA pushed for the dossier’s inclusion in the plot to build the intel assessment WRT Russian interference
<><> the intel assessment comes nearly a month after Sen Rand Paul, R-Ky weighed in,
<><> Rand was told ex-CIA Director John Brennan “insisted” the dossier be included in the report.
Bttt
When are they going to subpoena Kavalec to testify before Congress?
Why was the State Dept interviewing Steele? Has been the State Dept now become an investigative agency?
Bttt.
5.56mm
The whole Obama-Jarrett Administration was up to his EARS in this scandal...............
“When are they going to subpoena Kavalec to testify before Congress?”
Just add it to the list of: when is something going to be done about these traitors?
Don’t need to. She wrote it all down...................
Exactly. Not one person has been arrested. We have 100,000 illegals a month pouring in, a coup that as of this moment has NOT failed. Fully 1/3 of this country are dangerously delusional retards. This isn’t a country it’s a smoldering dumpster fire.
>>> “Declassify on 12/31/2041.” <<<
Top FBI officials including Wray are still protecting Hillary and Hussein.
Nonetheless, the FBI is doing its best to keep much of Kavalec’s information secret by retroactively claiming it is classified, even though it was originally marked unclassified in 2016.
The worlds most elite law enforcement entity, circling the wagons to protect itself from any criminal wrongdoing. Anyone associated with this should be prosecuted for Perjury, Conspiracy, Subornation of Perjury, Violation of Oath of Office.
Amazing that the foremost agency(in their feeble minds) are not about investigating anything to find the truth. They’re about covering up their crimes to protect their leadership, clinton, the previous occupant of the White House, comey, clapper, brennan, et al. While Rosenstein, Strzok, McCabe, Page, etc were willing accomplices, very willing, they were all just useful idiots in an attempt to get away with this. Had she won, they all would have been rewarded.
Now, unless the folks at the FBI & DOJ have some texts, recorded calls, recorded conversations, emails, etc., they may all be on the hook for this and the aforementioned folks will be sipping martini’s at the Edgartown Yacht Club, when it’s all said and done.
ping
This should be declassified today.
-------------
Seriously insulting and Chris Wray needs to be fired. The coverup is still very much alive in the ranks of those "good and honorable" FIBs.
Do we know why Steel had an irrational hatred of Trump? Is it strictly ideological? Did Trump steal his girlfriend for a long weekend back in 1982?
The president can declassify.
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