23 Comments
User's avatar
EZ's avatar

Question for MW: the raid by FBI on Oleg Derapaska's home in DC today, executing a "court-ordered search -- is it likely Durham, or some unrelated case?

>> https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1450487348618223619 <<

Expand full comment
Mark Wauck's avatar

I'm pretty sure this isn't Durham. Like over 90% sure. However, the bigger question would be: Is it in some way related to Durham? I'd want to know whether Deripaska has been interviewed by Durham. Just for example. I say that simply because you just don't know anymore.

Expand full comment
Mark Wauck's avatar

BTW, nice article by Aaron Mate at RCI today. You won't learn anything really new, but it's thorough, well written, and has the perspective right, IMO.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

From Mate's article:

>> "In response to questions about CrowdStrike, an attorney for Sussmann told RealClearInvestigations: 'Mr. Sussmann is not answering questions at this time.'" <<

This jumped out at me -- it is customary for an attorney, given the opportunity to proclaim his client's innocence to a news media outlet, to pass up such an opportunity and just do a "no comment" response instead?

Am I jumping to a conclusion to note this sort of anodyne response is likely what an attorney would say if he's currently negotiating a plea deal for his client with prosecutors?

Expand full comment
Mark Wauck's avatar

If he's currently negotiating a plea deal for sure he would say, no comment.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

Stephen's McIntyre tweetstorm re: how preposterous the Steele Dossier is, and what a farce it is for Stephanopoulos to interview him now that we know there are no sources for the allegations:

>> Stephen McIntyre

the secret of how Stephanopoulos and other US media gaslight the Steele dossier fraud is by exclusively focusing on issues that cannot be resolved, rather than ones that can

>> ABC News

@ABC

The world’s most infamous spy is finally ready to talk—what will he say in his first TV interview ever?

The stunning new documentary event with @GStephanopoulos

—‘Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier’—premieres tomorrow only on @hulu

. https://abcn.ws/3j8IMQB <<

2/ this is also how US intel agencies failed in their obligation to validate WMD fabrications by Curveball. Steele and Danchenko are Curveball 2.0.

3/ Lindsay "Gonna" Graham played important role in diverting attention away from most important issues arising from Horowitz Report by making an issue of "bar talk", as opposed to elephant issue that Danchenko never met the supposed source for the most critical reports.

4/ in Steele dossier, Person 1 was supposedly source for pee tape story in Report 80 in June (Source D), for collusion story in Report 95 (~July 28) and for two followup reports, one attributed to information provided on Aug 9, 2016.

5/ yet we KNOW for sure that PSS=Danchenko never met Millian/Person 1 and, to 99.9% certainty, never even talked to Millian. We also know that Danchenko first tried to contact Millian by email on July 19 while Millian was in Asia and tried again by email in third week of August.

6/ Danchenko told the FBI that he received an anonymous call (date not specified but necessarily prior to July 26 since Danchenko went to NYC on July 26 supposedly subsequent to anonymous call.) Millian firmly in Asia at the time.

7/ so we KNOW to 99.9% certainty that Millian didnt make the anonymous call - if indeed there is such a call. FBI did exhaustive searches of all communications involving Roger Stone. so did they check for supposed anonymous call and conceal it? Or never bother checking?

8/ Steele has said that Danchenko told Steele that Danchenko and Person 1/Millian had met three times for dinner, at which the supposed information was passed.

9/ QUESTION 1: Mr Steele, in Report 80, you attributed pee tape story to Source D, who you identified as Millian. However, as of date of Report 80, Danchenko had never met or talked to Millian. Did you fabricate the attribution of pee tape story to Millian? Or did Danchenko?

10/ QUESTION 2. In Danchenko's FBI interview, he attributed pee tape story as a merely unconfirmed rumor told to him by Ivan Vorontsov and also that he had been unable to confirm rumor. Yet in dossier, this unconfirmed rumor is said to have been confirmed. Was it you or was it

11/ or was it Danchenko who embellished the unconfirmed rumor supposedly from Vorontsov into a confirmation from Source D, who you identified as Danchenko?

12/ QUESTION 3: Ivan Vorontsov recently stated in a sworn deposition that he was interviewed by FBI at US Embassy in Moscow in June 2016 about Danchenko. Did Vorontsov ever inform you or Danchenko about this interview?

13/ QUESTION 4: as of July 18, 2016, Danchenko was trying to initiate a meeting with Millian. Why would he be introducing himself to Millian on July 18, if he had previously provided pee tape information in June as you claimed in dossier?

14/ QUESTION 5/ Danchenko told FBI that he had only a single conversation with anonymous telephone call which he attributed to Millian and never met Millian. So how can Millian be a source for 4 reports ranging from before June 24 to August 9?

15/ There are SO many important questions that Steele could have been asked that the uninformed pandering of @GStephanopoulos is yet another embarrassing moment for US media.

16/ there is an important lesson and precedent from the WMD Commission inquiry into the intel agency validation failures regarding Curveball fabrications on a reconstituted WMD program in Iraq.

17/ It turned out that Curveball wasn't even in Iraq at the times he was when he was supposedly witnessing the reconstitution of Iraqi WMD program in non-existent mobile trailers. However, this was only determined AFTER US had invaded Iraq and failed to discover WMD.

18/ Curveball's absence from Iraq in this period (he was in Germany as I recall) was determined by routine due diligence on travel records - at least some of which would have been in Europe.

19/ However, intel agencies informed WMD Commission that their mission was to investigate Curveball's stories ("raw intelligence" as it were), rather than validate Curveball himself. WMD Commission sharply criticized such strategy, strongly stating that validation was essential

20/ however, Comey's FBI repeated and exacerbated ALL the defects and deficiencies of WMD intel failure in their handling of Curveball 2.0 (Danchenko) in Russiagate hoax. They neglected to validate Danchenko, instead chasing every unprovable fantasy, just like Curveball 1 and WMD

21/ to continue the comparison, @GStephanopoulos' continued effort to posit some reality to the fabrications of Curveball 2.0 (Danchenko/Steele) is equivalent of a major reporter giving softballs to Cheney in 2008 about possibility of finding WMD after all.

22/ maybe @GStephanopoulos can follow up his obsequious interview of Christopher Steele with a fawning interview with OJ Simpson about OJ's continuing search for the real killer. It's that level of ludicrous.

Expand full comment
Mark Wauck's avatar

It's all true, but honestly I think the overwhelming majority of people are totally beyond the "dossier" by now.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

SWC on Marc Elias:

>> https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1449465039614738438 <<

He's reached his end-of-shelf-life date.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

>>"Jones' testimony was given in a John Doe lawsuit filed by Alfa Bank seeking to determine who spread the allegations about the Russian bank to the news media and U.S. authorities.

While most federal agencies have strongly dismissed the Alfa Bank server theory, Jones said he still believes the information he provided the Senate in his final report in October 2018 is true and accurate.

"I have not changed my assessment," he said of his final report. "... I haven't changed my opinion. <<

well, well.... Here's Dan Jones "rehabilitating" the Alfa Bank Backchannel Hoax -- he still believes it's real.

This is the attempt to set up a defense by claiming they *really really* thought it was true, and still do; ergo they could not have had criminal intent when they presented this fabricated crap.

Expand full comment
Mark Wauck's avatar

The problem is, Durham has the emails.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

Yes! I was thinking this may seem like a swell defense tactic, but if Durham has PROOF they either faked the DNS data, faked their interpretation, or knew that someone else fabricated it, it won't work as a defense.

It still serves the interim purpose of swaying public opinion against Durham's work, in the hope they can get enough support for the AG to shut down Durham's investigation before he can prosecute these people.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

1. If Durham is headed where he seems to be headed with his investigation, McCabe will need every penny of additional pension benefits to pay his attorney's fees to try to stay out of jail.

2. In isolation, this incident doesn't portend too much, but when viewed in parallel with other things that are starting to pop (Steele interview by Stephanopoulos on TV in a few days, as one example) and I get the feeling there is a wholesale movement being initiated to rehabilitate the Dossier and the charges of Russia Collusion before Durham can bring further charges.

3. Such an endeavor serves multiple purposes, not the least of which is to publicly notify co-conspirators as to what defense Steele intends to use, this coordinating stories with other co-conspirators. Secondly, it allows conspirators to say: "See, it still *might* be true; and we still believe it's true -- thus it was reasonable for us to believe it was true at the time; no criminal intent...."

3. If successful, it creates a public atmosphere which when a few fake polls are added that pretend to show a majority of the public is sick of Durham, the AG has political cover to shut Durham down, or Biden can pardon everyone without being ridden out of Washington on a rail, covered in tar and feathers.

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

>> https://twitter.com/David_Sheets/status/1448924916703629317 <<

CBS claiming DOJ "cleared" McCabe.

I told you this is a ":rehab" project ...

Expand full comment
Brad Crawford's avatar

This is pure speculation and probably just crazy talk, but it’s almost like you’ve seen how they work so many times that recognizing the pattern has become easy for you.

(But seriously, anyone betting against your take on this is betting way against the odds.)

Expand full comment
EZ's avatar

When you've been to enough rodeos, one recognizes that the calf lassooing the cowboy and tying him up is not part of a normal rodeo show, especially when the clowns doing it are not doing it for the sake of humor.

Expand full comment
Mike Sylwester's avatar

My new blog article:

Steele's Dossier Report About Alfa Bank -- Part 2

http://people-who-did-not-see.blogspot.com/2021/10/steeles-dossier-report-about-alfa-bank.html

Expand full comment
DJL's avatar

Morale must be soaring in the DOJ inspector general's office after all the man-hours dedicated to investigating McCabe's malfeasance then see this happen. Do all the rank and file FBI agents also get a pass from now on as well, such as the undercover instigator in the MI governor abduction case? This example of institutional rot is just another exhibit of why a complete overhaul, if not disbandment, must be undertaken should Trump return to the WH. Although I've yet to see a statement from him, he undoubtedly takes this personally.

Expand full comment
AmericanCardigan's avatar

@DJL; that was my thinking too. An Obama appointed FBI inspector general who came to the conclusion that he gave false leads/testimony. Shameful.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Oct 15, 2021
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Chuck's avatar

Even if he gets a deal, he still needs to get time, and in a real prison. No special treatment, unless it's J6 treatment. I am so sick of the two-tiered justice system!

-Chuck

Expand full comment