Commentary: The FBI Copied Parts of the Debunked Steele Dossier Directly into Its Spy Requests

The FBI relied more extensively on Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier in their Russiagate investigation than has been revealed, inserting key parts from it into their applications for warrants to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign.

Agents did this without telling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the precise wording was plucked directly from a political rumor sheet paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign or providing judges with any independent corroboration of the explosive allegations.

Read More

Durham Shows Jurors Emails to Prove Danchencko Concealed, Lied to FBI About Steele Dossier Sources

In the opening of the second day of Special Counsel John Durham’s case against Russia intelligence expert Igor Danchencko, Durham walked jurors through a series of emails to bolster his case that Danchenko lied to the FBI about gathering information in the agency’s 2016 Russia collusion probe.

Danchenko faces five counts for allegedly lying to the FBI about his role in gathering information about then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump during his 2016 White House bid, as part of a federal investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Read More

John Durham Asks Federal Court to Issue 30 Subpoenas for Steele Dossier Source Igor Danchenko’s Trial

Special counsel John Durham on Tuesday asked a federal court to issue 30 subpoenas for testimony in the trial against Igor Danchenko, the primary source of the discredited Steele dossier.

The court filing asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to issue the subpoenas for an “appearance before said Court at Alexandria, Virginia,” starting on Oct. 11 “to testify on behalf of the United States.”

Read More

Durham Zeroes In on Clinton Campaign, Could Call Some Aides to Testify, Court Memo Reveals

Hillary Clinton’s team long fought to keep its ties to Christopher Steele’s dossier from public view, but Special Counsel John Durham is now making clear he has a strong interest in her campaign’s behavior during the Russia collusion probe. He is even suggesting some of her aides could be summoned as trial witnesses.

Durham’s earth-shaking revelation came inside a routine court filing this month in the case of Igor Y. Danchenko, a Russian analyst who was a primary source in 2016 for Steele’s now-infamous dossier. Danchenko has been charged with repeatedly lying to the FBI during the Russia collusion probe and has pleaded innocent.

Read More

Commentary: New Twists in Durham Probe Reveal FBI Danchenko Recordings and Suspicions of Fiona Hill Lies

The indictment of Igor Danchenko, the “primary sub-source” of Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier, reveals that the FBI electronically recorded several previously undisclosed interviews with the Brookings Institution researcher. Separately, it raises suspicions, according to congressional sources, that his Brookings superior Fiona Hill may have committed perjury when testifying about Steele during President Trump’s first impeachment.

The existence of electronic records of Danchenko speaking to the FBI far more extensively than previously known creates the possibility that much more will come out about the origins of the Steele dossier and the way the opposition research was weaponized. And those under scrutiny in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia affair will have to wonder whether information to which they previously attested jibes with the Danchenko recordings.

Read More

New Court Documents Detail Alleged Web of Lies Used to Fabricate Steele Dossier, Frame Trump

The indictment of Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the discredited Steele dossier, provides damning evidence alleging the Russian analyst repeatedly lied to the FBI. But it’s only part of a larger portrait emerging in federal court records chronicling how the U.S. government was bamboozled into investigating Donald Trump for Russia collusion by a circle of players connected to Hillary Clinton.

Just a few weeks before his arrest Thursday, Danchenko was served in late September with a federal subpoena in a separate civil case brought by executives connected to the Russia-based Alfa Bank. That case, like the indictment, has produced evidence Danchenko contrived the intelligence he provided to former MI6 agent Christopher Steele in 2016.

Read More

Russian Analyst, Primary Source for Steele Dossier Charged with Repeatedly Lying to FBI

Special Counsel John Durham on Thursday unsealed a federal grand jury indictment charging the primary source for the now-discredited Steele dossier with repeatedly lying to the FBI during the Russia collusion investigation that falsely tarred Donald Trump’s presidency.

The 39-page indictment alleges Russian analyst Igor Danchenko misled the FBI about his contacts with Russian government officials and a Democrat-connected public relations executive, falsehoods that materially affected the FBI’s investigation and its representations to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get warrants targeting Trump’s campaign and one of its advisers.

Read More

George Soros Teams Up with Billionaire Who Backed Liberal Disinformation Efforts to Fund Anti-Disinformation Media Venture

Liberal tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, a funder of numerous disinformation projects, is backing a new media venture launched Tuesday that seeks to combat disinformation, according to a report.

Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, joined ranks with financier George Soros to fund Good Information Inc., which will “fund and scale businesses that cut through eco chambers with fact-based information,” Axios reported.

Read More

Commentary: The Left Destroys Everything It Touches

What was the purpose for the insane opposition of the Left between 2017 and 2021? To usher in a planned nihilism, an incompetent chaos, a honed anarchy to wreck the country in less than a year?

No sooner had Donald Trump entered office than scores of House Democrats filed motions for impeachment, apparently for thought crimes that he might, some day, in theory, could possibly commit.

Read More

Lawyer Linked to Steele Dossier is Working for House Dems to Overturn Results of Iowa Election

House Democrats have hired Marc Elias, the elections lawyer linked to the infamous Steele dossier, to help in their bid to overturn the results of an Iowa House race won by a Republican incumbent.

According to Politico, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is paying Elias to represent the campaign of Rita Hart, a Democrat who lost by six votes to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Marks.

Hart has appealed to Congress to adjudicate the outcome of the election after state officials declared Miller-Marks the winner. Hart claims that Iowa officials failed to count 22 ballots that would have swayed the election in her favor.

Read More

John Durham Sought Christopher Steele’s Notes from a Meeting with The FBI in Which an Agent Said the Ex-Spy ‘Wasn’t Truthful’

John Durham, the U.S. attorney investigating aspects of the Trump-Russia probe, has sought notes that former British spy Christopher Steele took during his interviews in 2016 with the FBI regarding a since-debunked dossier he penned that accused the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russian government.

An FBI agent who took part in one of the interviews with Steele told Justice Department investigators that the ex-spy “clearly … wasn’t truthful” regarding his contacts with members of the media.

Read More

Trump Working on Declassification of Intel Documents From Hospital, Chief of Staff Says

President Donald Trump is working to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation while he recovers from coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his chief of staff said Monday.

“This morning we’ve already had a couple of discussions on items that he wants to get done,” Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

Read More

FBI Investigated Steele Dossier Source as a Possible Russian Spy Years Before Trump Probe

The FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation on the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, and considered obtaining a warrant to wiretap him in 2010, according to a document released Thursday.

The FBI was also aware of the information about the source, identified elsewhere as Igor Danchenko, by December 2016, according to the document.

Read More

Lindsey Graham: Memo Shows FBI Lied to Senate About Dossier Source

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday released an FBI memo from 2018 that he says shows investigators lied to the Senate about statements that the primary source for the Steele dossier told the FBI regarding the salacious document.

“This document clearly shows that the FBI was continuing to mislead regarding the reliability of the Steele dossier,” Graham said in a statement announcing the release of an eight-page briefing document that the FBI provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2018.

Read More

FBI Refuses to Disclose Records on Source Who Undermined Steele Dossier

The FBI is refusing to release documents related to the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, saying in response to a public records request that the information is classified and risks identifying a confidential FBI source.

The source, whose identity remains a mystery, holds key information that could shed light on apparent inaccuracies in Steele’s dossier, which the FBI cited extensively in applications for surveillance orders against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Read More

Declassified Intelligence Report Shows FBI Withheld Key Details About Steele Dossier

FBI officials left key details about former British spy Christopher Steele and his infamous dossier out of a newly declassified Intelligence Community Assessment regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The two-page document, which Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified this week, describes Steele’s allegations about possible links between the Trump campaign and Russian government. It says that an FBI source — Steele — had provided information thought to be credible regarding Russia’s goals in meddling in the election.

Read More

FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Michael Flynn

An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

Read More

AG Barr: Mueller ‘Ignored’ Evidence of Russian Disinformation in Steele Dossier

Attorney General William Barr said in an interview aired Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigators “ignored” evidence of possible Russian disinformation in the Steele dossier.

“I think that’s one of the most troubling aspects of this whole thing,” Barr told CBS News when asked about the possibility that the Kremlin fed disinformation to Christopher Steele, a former British spy who investigated the Trump campaign.

Read More

Report: British Intelligence Questioned Christopher Steele’s Judgment In Assessment Given To FBI

British intelligence told the FBI that dossier author Christopher Steele sometimes showed questionable judgment regarding investigative targets, according to a report that could preview some of the findings in a highly anticipated Justice Department watchdog report of FBI surveillance against the Trump campaign.

Read More

House Republicans Want Nellie Ohr’s Oppo Research of Trump’s Family: Report

by Chuck Ross   House Republicans are reportedly seeking documents from former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr related to her research into President Donald Trump’s family, including his wife and children. During a congressional interview Oct. 19, 2018, Ohr said while she worked for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele…

Read More

Barr: ‘Very Unusual’ for FBI to Rely on Steele Dossier Given ‘Clear Mistakes’

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr said in an interview that aired Friday that he is investigating what role the Steele dossier played in the Russia probe, and that the salacious document had “a number of clear mistakes.” “It’s a very unusual situation to have opposition research like…

Read More

Commentary: Did Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the Clinton Campaign, and the DNC Make Up the Russia Collusion Hoax?

by Robert Romano   “This is probably done in conjunction with Fusion GPS that was making this stuff up, they conveniently were able to get this into the FBI, willing takers at the FBI, and this was all to dirty up the Trump campaign. I mean, I have to say,…

Read More

Analysis: The Steele Dossier and the ‘Raw Intelligence’ Canard

by Chuck Ross   Defenders of the FBI’s activities during the 2016 campaign have adopted a familiar refrain over the past 28 months to describe the Steele dossier, that infamous document that served as a road map for the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.…

Read More

Commentary: Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes Claims Obama Knew Nothing About the FBI Investigation and Spying on Trump in 2016

by Robert Romano   “We learned about it when it was in the report that was appended to the report to Congress at the end of the administration.” That was former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes speaking to PJ Media’s Nicholas Ballasy on April 25 at Georgetown University promoting…

Read More

Commentary: Senator John McCain’s Key Role in Fueling the Post-Election Trump-Russia Hysteria

by Julie Kelly   In his 2018 book, The Restless Wave, the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wondered aloud why he was sought out and given the infamous Steele dossier shortly after the 2016 presidential election. After suggesting that anyone who questioned his role in handling the political document was indulging in “conspiracy…

Read More

Christopher Steele’s Deposition Shows How Little Research He Did on Dossier Target

by Chuck Ross   Christopher Steele acknowledged in a July 2018 court deposition that he relied on a “random” article posted to a CNN website as part of his research for his infamous dossier. In the July 13, 2018, deposition, Steele was asked about the research he did into Aleksej…

Read More

Andrew McCabe Defends FBI’s Use Of Steele Dossier, Confidential Informant In Trump-Russia Probe

by Chuck Ross   Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is defending the FBI’s reliance on the Steele dossier as well as the bureau’s use of a confidential informant to make contact with the Trump campaign as part of an investigation into possible collusion with Russia. In an interview as…

Read More

Emails: Jake Tapper Tore Into ‘Irresponsible’ BuzzFeed Editor for Publishing the ‘Steele Dossier’

by Chuck Ross   After BuzzFeed published the infamous Steele dossier, CNN anchor Jake Tapper lit into BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith for the decision, calling it “irresponsible” and “uncollegial,” according to emails released Friday. “I think your move makes the story less serious and credible[.] I think you damaged its…

Read More

Commentary: James and the Giant Impeachment

by Julie Kelly   For those concerned that former FBI Director James Comey is suffering from early dementia, have no fear: His memory returned with a vengeance during a Sunday night interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. On Friday, under questioning by House Judiciary Committee members, Comey answered, “I don’t…

Read More

Commentary: The Incorrigible Mr. Comey

by Julie Kelly   As I wrote last week, the Republican Congress largely has failed to hold accountable the masterminds behind the biggest political scandal in U.S. history: The unprecedented weaponization of our law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to spy on a presidential campaign and sabotage an incoming administration. The…

Read More

A Senate Democrat Reportedly Outsourced Parts of the Trump-Russia Probe to Operative Linked to Soros, Fusion GPS

by Chuck Ross   A Democratic senator outsourced parts of the investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion to a former Senate staffer with links to George Soros and Fusion GPS, according to a New Yorker report. The New Yorker reports the unidentified senator contacted Daniel Jones, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, around…

Read More

Trump Dossier Research Chief Glenn Simpson Declines US Congress Interview Request

Reuters   The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday subpoenaed a U.S. research firm founder to give a deposition on his hiring of a former British spy to compile a dossier on alleged links between U.S. President Donald Trump’s associates and Russia. Representative Bob Goodlatte, a…

Read More

Nellie Ohr To Testify Before Congress About Work For Fusion GPS

by Chuck Ross   Congress will interview Nellie Ohr, the wife of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, later this week, Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Sunday. Ratcliffe said Sunday that Ohr is expected to appear for a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform…

Read More

Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will NOT Present ‘Collusion’ Evidence at Manafort Trial

Paul Manafort

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller said in a court filing Friday that his prosecutors will not present evidence regarding Trump campaign collusion with Russia at an upcoming trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. “The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument…

Read More