Posted on 02/14/2020 9:21:55 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
A month before the 2016 presidential election, the FBI met Christopher Steele in Rome and apparently unlawfully shared with the foreign opposition researcher some of the bureaus most closely held secrets, according to unpublicized disclosures in the recent Justice Department Inspector General report on abuses of federal surveillance powers.
Whats more, Steele, the former British spy who compiled the dossier of conspiracy theories for the Hillary Clinton campaign, was promised $15,000 to attend the briefing by FBI agents eager to maintain his cooperation in their Trump-Russia collusion investigation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane.
That investigation was so closely guarded that only a handful of top officials and agents at the FBI were allowed to know about it.
The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz details how a team of FBI agents in early October 2016 shared with Steele extensive classified materials, just weeks before the bureau cut off ties with him for leaking his own research to the media. The secrets included foreign intelligence information still considered so sensitive that the IGs report refers to it even now only as coming from a Friendly Foreign Government. In fact, this is a reference to Australia. That countrys ambassador to Britain sent the United States a tip about loose talk by junior Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. The FBI has described that as the predicate for its Trump-Russia investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearinvestigations.com ...
Nonetheless, between 2014 and 2016, Steele collected $95,000 from the bureau for his work on the FIFA case and reports on corruption in Russia and Ukraine.
His paymaster was Gaeta, referred to in the Horowitz report as Handling Agent 1. So when Steele and Simpson decided to approach the FBI to promote a conspiracy theory about Trump and Russia, Gaeta was the natural contact. Steele met with Gaeta in London on July 5, 2016 and presented him with a tantalizing preview of the dossier. This first installment included the lurid pee tape story the salacious rumor that Trump had paid Russian prostitutes to urinate on a Moscow hotel bed the Obamas had slept on.
By September Steele had given the FBI the bulk of his Trump-Russia reports. That led to the meeting in Rome on October 3 between Steele and several agents from the Crossfire Hurricane team, as the IG report describes them: Case Agent 2, a Supervisory Intel Analyst, and an Acting Section Chief, together with Gaeta. . . .
The FBI had every reason to expect Steele to share information with Glenn Simpson, whose client was the Clinton campaign. Steele claims to have been candid with Gaeta about who was writing the checks for his Trump-Russia research. Steele took notes of the July 5 meeting he had with the handling agent. According to the Horowitz report, those notes state that Steele told Gaeta "Democratic Party associates" were funding his Fusion GPS work, that the "ultimate client" was the Clinton campaign, and that "the candidate," as the IG report puts it, was aware of Steele's reporting.
But by the fall, the Crossfire Hurricane team was so eager to lock in access to Steeles ongoing reporting that they were willing to offer the former spy inducements. Steele said the FBI didnt want him to share his election intelligence with other U.S. government agencies or with any of his private clients except for Fusion GPS. Gaeta said it was a reasonable request given that Steele "was now being offered compensation to go forward from the United States government" -- compensation such as the $15,000 he had been told he would be paid for attending the meeting in Rome. . .
Instead of recommending Case Agent 2 for any prosecution or punishment, the IG report offers possible explanations for the agents behavior. One is that the agent had been given significant latitude from his supervisors to frame his discussions with Steele. Another is that the Case Agent believed he had authorization to discuss classified information with Steele based on prior discussion with his supervisors. But the report suggests no effort by the IGs office to determine how and why the agent could have believed that. Another explanation offered is that a Counterintelligence Division Section Chief was present when Case Agent 2 made the disclosure, the Horowitz report states, and the CD Section Chief did not voice objection to it at the time or afterward.
The Inspector General's office treats the section chiefs presence as tacit permission for Case Agent 2 to disclose classified information. But this rationale also cuts the other way: If the disclosure of highly classified material was not just the careless act of a rogue agent, then was it FBI policy? If so, who made that decision?
An earlier footnote, number 252, states, FBI Security staff told us [the IGs office] that the Assistant Director for CD [Counterintelligence Division] can authorize the disclosure of classified information. Is there a record this authorization was granted? RealClearInvestigations provided written questions to the Inspector General's office. RCI asked whether the IG had identified any law, rule, or regulations giving the Asst. Director the power to authorize disclosure of classified material?
Office of the Inspector General spokesperson Stephanie M. Logan declined to comment. . .
p
Ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.