Documents Show Senior Kerry Aide Used Private Email to Send Steele Reports to State Department Colleagues

epoch times ^ | 1/8/2020 | mark tapscott

[bitt]

WASHINGTON—Eleven pages of State Department documents released on Jan. 7 in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch show that Jonathan Winer, an assistant to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, used his private email address to convey information he received from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to top U.S. diplomatic officials.

“I will send them to her [his assistant, Nina Miller] from my non-State email account, not copying myself,” Winer said in response to a December 2014 email from Paul Jones, principal deputy assistant secretary for European Affairs.

Jones wanted Winer to use the State Department’s secure email system, known informally as the “high side,” to transmit reports from Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

“Given our ongoing concerns about security of open net, [then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland] and I wonder if it would be possible for you to flip Orbis reports to this system before sending them to us. Understand that’s yet another step in the process for you. We just want to be sure we don’t inadvertently undermine a very good source of info or worse.”

Winer, who was then-special coordinator for Libya under Kerry, continued in his response, telling Jones “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.”

[piasa]

There were some interesting people meeting in the Obama White House in December 2014 at the same time this Steele stuff was being compiled.

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Anti-Israel PLO Ally Hosted for Meeting At White House
Washington Free Beacon ^ | 4/22/15 | Adam Kredo
Posted on 4/22/2015, 8:50:10 AM by markomalley

An anti-Israel activist who served as an expert witness on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in a recent terrorism trial was hosted for a meeting with senior White House officials, according to visitor logs released by the Obama administration and media reports.

Michael Sfard, an anti-Israel activist who has reportedly been paid by the PLO to serve as an expert witness in terrorism trials against it, met in December 2014 with a senior White House National Security Council (NSC) member for a meeting about the Middle East, according to the logs and reports.

Sfard, a lawyer, serves as the legal council for the left-wing Israeli group Yesh Din, which advocates lawfare, or the practice of trying Israeli officials for so-called war crimes when they travel abroad. Critics have dubbed the lawfare movement anti-Israel in nature.....

[piasa]

2009 : (Jonathan Winer and Christpher Steele meet and become friends) As Winer tells it, he and Steele were old pals. They “met and became friends” in 2009, when both were in the business of selling “business intelligence,” much of it involving Russia.

2013 (Jonathan Winer goes back to work at the State Dept -— see Obama-Biden Admin, John Kerry) Winer went back to work at State in 2013, after his old Capitol Hill boss, John Kerry, had become secretary of State. But he didn’t lose track of his friend Steele—not at all. He shared, and shared, and shared Steele’s corporate intelligence work with the State Department’s Russia desk. “Over the next two years (2013-2015), I shared more than 100 of Steele’s reports with the Russia experts at the State Department, who continued to find them useful.”

[piasa]

December 2014 : (Paul Jones emails Jonathan Winer) “I will send them to her [his assistant, Nina Miller] from my non-State email account, not copying myself,” Winer said in response to a December 2014 email from Paul Jones, principal deputy assistant secretary for European Affairs.
Jones wanted Winer to use the State Department’s secure email system, known informally as the “high side,” to transmit reports from Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.
“Given our ongoing concerns about security of open net, [then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland] and I wonder if it would be possible for you to flip Orbis reports to this system before sending them to us. Understand that’s yet another step in the process for you. We just want to be sure we don’t inadvertently undermine a very good source of info or worse.”
Winer, who was then-special coordinator for Libya under Kerry, continued in his response, telling Jones “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.” -— Epoch Times

[piasa]

December 2014 : (Washington DC : The White House : Meeting of US officials with terrorist tied Michael Sfard, others )
An anti-Israel activist who served as an expert witness on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in a recent terrorism trial was hosted for a meeting with senior White House officials, according to visitor logs released by the Obama administration and media reports.
Michael Sfard, an anti-Israel activist who has reportedly been paid by the PLO to serve as an expert witness in terrorism trials against it, met in December 2014 with a senior White House National Security Council (NSC) member for a meeting about the Middle East, according to the logs and reports.
Sfard, a lawyer, serves as the legal council for the left-wing Israeli group Yesh Din, which advocates lawfare, or the practice of trying Israeli officials for so-called war crimes when they travel abroad. Critics have dubbed the lawfare movement anti-Israel in nature......—— —— Anti-Israel PLO Ally Hosted for Meeting At White House, Washington Free Beacon ^ | 4/22/15 | Adam Kredo

[Fedora]

Kerry has long-standing ties to Iran (such as Hassan Nemazee) that fit Sfard’s agenda.