Did Someone Coordinate Stories Among FBI Sources?
Chuck Ross at the Dailer Caller has a very interesting story today: Dossier Author Told John McCain Aide Of Unfounded Michael Flynn Affair Rumor . The real interest in the article is summarized by Ross himself in a tweet :
Christopher Steele told an aide to John McCain [David Kramer] that he believed Michael Flynn had an affair with a Russian woman in the U.K.
An FBI informant provided a similar allegation to Crossfire Hurricane investigators. They also appeared in the media.
The Steele angle is one revelation from Kramer's just released transcript of his House testimony:
Christopher Steele told a longtime aide to John McCain in 2016 that he believed Michael Flynn was having an extramarital affair with a Russian woman, showing for the first time that the former British spy peddled an unsubstantiated rumor that later appeared in the media and made its way to the FBI.
Steele shared the allegation with David Kramer, a longtime associate of McCain’s, according to a transcript of Kramer’s House Intelligence Committee testimony released Thursday.
Kramer met with Steele in London in November 2016 at McCain’s direction to discuss Steele’s work on the Trump dossier. Kramer later gave the salacious document to a reporter from BuzzFeed News.
The other source came to our attention just recently when we examined the now notorious "closing memo/EC " that the elusive Joe Pientka wrote on the Flynn case on January 4, 2017--the one that the "7th Floor" at FBIHQ told Peter Strzok to have Pientka put a hold on.
That memo describes the various investigative steps that the FBI's Washington Field Office (WFO) took in the hoax investigation of Flynn--all of which resulted in "no derogatory information." One which is described at great length--the supposed interaction between Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova--is the same incident that Steele described to McCain's aide Kramer. That section is introduced in this way:
The CH [Crossfire Hurricane] investigative team also addressed this investigation through CHS reporting CROSSFIRE RAZOR for any derogatory or lead information. As such CH contacted an established FBI CHS to query about CR.
An "established source" is typically one of long standing who is considered to have a high level of access and to be highly reliable. Such a source is typically also handled at a fairly high level. It is generally believed that the CHS in question here is Stefan Halper, the corpulent crackhead who was paid so extravagantly by James Baker of Office of Net Assessment (ONA). It is also now believed that neither Steele nor Halper were at the Flynn event in Cambridge.
The interesting question here is--given that Steele and Halper were peddling the same false story--who put them up to it? Were Steele and Halper coordinating with each other, or did some sly intel operative--whether UK or US, FBI or CIA--feed the story to both Steele and Halper so that each source would appear to be "corroborating" the same false story, thus giving it more weight?
While this may seem a small matter, it is colorful corroboration for the existence of an overall Russia Hoax conspiracy that was directed at a high level, and with no regard for truth. To destroy Flynn and, hopefully, Trump as well.