Judicial Watch: State Department Handler for Steele Used Personal Email to Push Reports

Judicial Watch ^ | January 07, 2020 | Staff

[Red Badger]

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch and The Daily Caller News Foundation today released 11 pages of State Department documents revealing a discussion about the use of private email to transmit potentially sensitive information from Christopher Steele, the author of the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier.

Judicial Watch obtained the documents in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on April 25, 2018, on behalf of itself and the Daily Caller News Foundation against the State Department after it failed to respond to three separate FOIA requests (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:18-cv- 00968)). The lawsuit seeks:

All records of communications between State Department officials, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, on the one hand, and British National Christopher Steele and/or employees or contractors of Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, on the other hand.

All records and/or memoranda provided by Christopher Steele and/or his firm Orbis Business Intelligence or by others acting on Steele’s/Orbis’s behalf to State Department officials.

Any and all records in the custody of the State Department related to the provision of documents to British national Christopher Steele and/or his firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, or the receipt of documents from Steele or his firm. Time period is January 20, 2009 through the present.

All records created in 2016 by Jonathan M. Winer relating to research compiled by Christopher Steele.

On December 8, 2014, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Paul Jones suggests to Special Coordinator for Libya Jonathan Winer that he “flip” reports from Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, to a more secure email system, “given our ongoing concerns about security of opennet …”

Jones added, “We just want to be sure we don’t inadvertently undermine a very good source of info or worse.” Winer responds, “Flipping to the high side will result in delays whenever the reporting takes place and I am out of the office, which includes weekends plus when I am overseas…”

Then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland replies, “Let’s do high side.”

Winer replies that he would, “have [his assistant] Nina Miller send them to you on my behalf high side … I will send them to her from my non-State email account, not copying myself. She will then send them to us. You know who they are coming from, so even high side from here I will just refer to them as ‘O Reports,’ and strip out any other identifying information as to sourcing.”

On February 9, 2016, a heavily redacted email exchange with the subject, “Urgent — [redacted]” begins with an email from Justin Siberell, former-Principal Deputy Coordinator of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau to multiple senior State Department officials including Winer. In this exchange, Siberell mentions that they are “meeting later today with OSD/SOLIC [redacted].” OSD/SOLIC is the office run by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict.

Siberell notes that the “DOD will work on press guidance and a strategic messaging plan that will be cleared with/through State,” which implies that it is a matter of public relations concern.

Later in the redacted discussion, Winer changes the distribution list and writes, “For this group only – [redacted]”. Secretary John Kerry’s Chief of Staff Jonathan Finer responds, “As Jonathan predicted [redacted].”

One of the other recipients, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe, John Heffern, then forwards the entire exchange to two colleagues, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Europe, Conrad Tribble and then-Office Director for Western European Affairs, Robin Quinville saying, “Do not circulate widely.”

Tribble replies the next day asking Heffern and Quinville, “Anything further on this? No real action for EUR [State Department’s Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs] yet, but obviously of some concern.”

“The Obama State Department’s handling of the Steele dossier remains one of the great mysteries of the Russia probe. We still do not have all the answers about how the State Department used opposition research collected by a foreign spy regarding President Trump and his campaign. These documents, obtained through our lawsuit filed together with Judicial Watch, raises further questions about what exactly went on at Foggy Bottom,” said Neil Patel, publisher and CEO of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“No wonder Jonathan Winer, Steele’s ally at the State Department, refused to talk to the DOJ IG, he seems to have circumvented the rules in pushing Steele’s unreliable reports to his Obama State Department colleagues,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Our lawsuits have documented that the Obama-Kerry State Department was a hotbed of anti-Trump activity. AG Barr and US Attorney Durham would do well to focus like a laser on the State Department.”

Recently, Judicial Watch released 146 pages of documents revealing that Steele had an extensive and close working relationship dating back to May of 2014 with high-ranking Obama State Department officials including Winer and Nuland. Judicial Watch also uncovered documents showing that less than a month before the presidential inauguration Winer had a 10-minute phone call with Alexey Vladimirovich Skosyrev, the “political chief” at the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.

In July 2019, Judicial Watch released 84 pages of documents revealing an email exchange between Nuland and Winer, discussing a “face-to-face” meeting on a “Russian matter” in New York in September 2016.

In June 2019 Judicial Watch released 41 pages of documents from the State Department revealing that Winer played a key role in facilitating Steele’s access to other top government officials and prominent international business executives. Winer was even approached by a movie producer about making a movie about the Russiagate targeting of President Trump.

In May 2019, Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit produced information from the DOJ showing a conversation between former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Kathleen Kavalec and Bruce Ohr, discussing the targeting of Donald Trump with Steele dossier material. In discussing a meeting with the potential source for a Mother Jones article accusing the Trump campaign of taking money from a Russian-American oil magnate, as well as Steele’s connection to that source, Kavalec emails Ohr citing the accusatory Mother Jones article. Ohr says, “I really hope we can get something going here.”

Also, Judicial Watch obtained an email revealing that Nellie Ohr, wife of Bruce Ohr, informed him that she was deleting emails sent from his DOJ email account. The full email exchange is between Bruce Ohr, Lisa Holtyn, Nellie Ohr, and Stefan Bress, a first secretary at the German Embassy, and is part of 339 pages of heavily redacted records from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In March 2019, Judicial Watch uncovered emails from Bruce Ohr showing that he remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant. The records show that Ohr served as a go-between for Steele by passing along information to “his colleagues” on matters relating to Steele’s activities. Ohr also set up meetings with Steele, regularly talked to him on the telephone and provided him assistance in dealing with situations Steele was confronting with the media.

[Red Badger]

More info and video here:

https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/tom-fitton-john-kerry-dirty-in-spygate/

[Red Badger]

https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1214144466895945729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214219939659309057&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.citizenfreepress.com%2Fbreaking%2Ftom-fitton-john-kerry-dirty-in-spygate%2F

[laconic]

Victor Hanson has an excellent column on this bipartisan skullduggery and malfeasance today. He notes that John Mccain wrote a last book in which he bragged of his role in promoting the crap Steele dossier, full of slanderous lies and wrote that anyone questioning his motives “can go to Hell”. I suspect you’ll be there to welcome them, John.

[ptsal]

POST 3- Is there a link to the book by McCain?

[lodi90]

AG Barr and US Attorney Durham would do well to focus like a laser on the State Department.”

---

I much rather Barr and Durham “focus like a laser” on the ongoing CIA backed coup against POTUS. The hear and now is far more important than whatever Team Obama did during election season because it effects Trump’s ability to govern.

[Don Corleone]

There has to be mountains of illegality there.

[Blurb2350]

Speaking of the State Dept., I happen just now to be reading M. Stanton Evans's Blacklisted by History, about the vicious shredding of Sen. Joe McCarthy's reputation right up to this day. Even before WWII the State Dept. was always keen to cover up Communist penetration of their dept.; the diplomatic corps was shot through with fellow travelers.

[Red Badger]

THEY NEVER THOUGHT SHE WOULD LOSE.......................................

[Red Badger]

All the way back to Woodrow Wilson...........................

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Corruption equals government.

[Mouton]

The face of our true enemy is not yet revealed. IMO, Obama was a stooge. His whole life is a political scam and he was placed there to keep the tentacles of the power behind the throne in tact. He personally did not have the power to dethrone the Clinton Crime Family. The CCF was as big a threat to the true enemy not for altruistic reasons but because they became money gluttons so could not be trusted. So, who is? Soros, perhaps. The world wide commie movement, perhaps. From what we have seen so far, any attempt to get beyond the first layer is being stymied by those in both parties acting in concert with entrenched government officials and the media. Who has the power to do that?? Where is the center of the Trump investigation genesis? CIA, the closest government entity to whom or what is the true enemy.

[laconic]

McCain’s last book was apparently entitled “The Restless Wave” which may deal with his Navy career or it may deal with water swirling down his toilet for all I know. This quote apparently appears in this book which was published in the Spring of 2018. The only thing I am certain of is that I will never read it.

[Red Badger]

The ‘One World’ types..............................

[Yo-Yo]

https://www.amazon.com/Restless-Wave-Causes-Fights-Appreciations/dp/1501178008/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

[ptsal]

Post 11- thanks
For the deep divers...StartPage search >“can go to Hell”, McCain, "The Restless Wave"<

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/05/16/5-takeaways-sen-john-mccains-new-memoir-restless-wave/600666002/

McCain also gives his most complete version of his role in intrigue surrounding a dossier of salacious research and raw intelligence on Trump and his connections with the Russians.

McCain previously acknowledged getting a copy of the dossier, which was authored by Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 officer, and giving it to the FBI, which already was aware of the material.

"I had an obligation to bring to the attention of appropriate officials unproven accusations I could not assess myself, and which, were any of them true, would create a vulnerability to the designs of a hostile foreign power," McCain writes in the book. "I discharged that obligation, and I would do it again. Anyone who doesn't like it can go to hell."

.

Thanks again for the post.

[Liz]

Obama's Secy of State John Kerry at Daughter's Marriage to Iranian;
Best Man Mahdi Zarif, is son of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif,
Zarif was Iran’s chief negotiator in official nuclear talks with Obama;

$150 Billion tax dollars in Cash for Iran in Nuclear Deal
IWB ^ | IWB / FR Posted on 1/7/2020 by davikkm

RE: Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry.

In 2009, Kerry’s younger daughter from his first marriage, Dr. Vanessa Bradford Kerry, married Iranian-American physician, Dr. Brian (Behrooz) Vala Nahid. The Best Man at their wedding, Mahdi Zarif, was the son of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, who acted as Iran’s chief negotiator in official nuclear talks with the US. In other words, Javad Zarif was John Kerry’s counterpart in official Iran nuclear deal negotiations, the same negotiations that eventually ended up with Iran being given 150 Billion in cash with literally no SIGNED agreement and, thus, no strings attached. Ah, but it gets better… (Excerpt) Read more at investmentwatchblog.com ...

[Liz]

Obama's Secy of State John Kerry at Daughter's Marriage to Iranian;
Best Man Mahdi Zarif, is son of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif,
Zarif was Iran’s chief negotiator in official nuclear talks with Obama;

$150 Billion tax dollars in Cash for Iran in Nuclear Deal
IWB ^ | IWB / FR Posted on 1/7/2020 by davikkm

RE: Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry.

In 2009, Kerry’s younger daughter from his first marriage, Dr. Vanessa Bradford Kerry, married Iranian-American physician, Dr. Brian (Behrooz) Vala Nahid. The Best Man at their wedding, Mahdi Zarif, was the son of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, who acted as Iran’s chief negotiator in official nuclear talks with the US. In other words, Javad Zarif was John Kerry’s counterpart in official Iran nuclear deal negotiations, the same negotiations that eventually ended up with Iran being given 150 Billion in cash with literally no SIGNED agreement and, thus, no strings attached. Ah, but it gets better… (Excerpt) Read more at investmentwatchblog.com ...

[ptsal]

Thanks... I forgot about searching Amazon.

I will have to go back to retraining camp. :)